Star.
London, England, 1830-09-11 00:00:00

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"King, in his very first ordinanc..s, promises a mitigation of the taus.
Just the same ix it in Belgium. The people there demand a repeal of
taxes. But what Is the cause of the taxes ? In France the debt is
great ; and how did it come ? It was contracted, principally, to pay
the Allies for forciny the Bourbons bock on France; to pay the
ancient noblesse for coming back ; to pay, in fact, for treasons
coonsittled against the people of France ' • and this debt was ex-
pected to bind the monied people to the Bourbons so firmly as to
enable the Government to set all discontents at defiance for the future.
In Belgium the debt, which is very great in proportion to the
resources of the country, was a present made to the poor Bel.
gians, along with their new King ! They bad no debt before;
when under the French they had no debt : but their former so-
vereign, the Emperor of Germany, having contracted a debt with
the Jews, the new Kinf was to have Belgium upon condition of slaking
the Belgians pay the interest of this debt ! And thus these fortunate
people got a ligitionate sovereign and a national debt at one and the
same time, both a present front the generous allied sovereigns ! The
people of Belgium complain of many things, and I dare say, very
usd ; but the SOOT is the taxes, which are perfectly enormous.
ell, now, Mon. Prince de Waterloo, what redress are they to have?
It is said that the Belgian King will take ooncessio IW. What conces-
sions ? Will he take qf the taus II That is what the people want ;
and if he do that, how is he to pay the interest of the debt 1 They do
not ask him to cease to pay the interest of the debt ; they only est him to
cease to take from than the means of paying iti Voila tout I That's all :
and that is not much ! So that, one of two things must happen to his
Belgic Majesty : he must refuse to make concessions, or must have a
national bankruptcy; and in either of which cases, I would not give
muck for his Majesty's crown. What, however, is the interesting
point here ? It is this (and I beseech the French to look well to it),
that a national debt cannot long exist, to any considerable amount, in
any country where the people choose those who make the laws. 1 be-
seech the excellent man who is now the chief magistrate in France, and
1 beseech the French legislators, to consider seriously that propo-
sition, and to be prepared for the consequences which will
naturally result from the experimental establishment of its
truth. A people who have no voice in the making of the
laws ;will submit for ages to pay the interest of a national debt :
they will submit to it, as they do to every other oppression, until they
can get rid of it by force: but if they have a voice in the making of the
laws, they will not long submit to it. In the meanwhile, let us see wise.
ther the principles which I have here maintained, wilt not be acted
upon in Prance; and this is a great matter for us, in this country, to
consider. To the objections against national debts generally, there is
this peculiar to that of !crane; namely—that no one can possibly pretend
that it was contracted for the bendfit of the people of Franca. The
comparatively small part that existed before the restoration of the
Bourbons, was contracted without any assent on the part of
the people, and for purposes hostile to them. All that has been
contracted since, has, in Jact, been forced upon France, either by
foreign bayonets actually at the breasts of the people; or by foreign
bayonets, held in readiness to be sent against them. And, as to the
uses, to which the main part of the borrowed money has been applied,
they have all been uses, so fir from being beneficial to Francs, that they
have been so many modes of shaping indignities and punishments in.
flicted upon her. This being clearly understood by the French people ;
and they do understand it clearly ; this peculiarly provoking circum-
stance being added to the weight of the odiousness and crying injustice
of calling upon the children for payment of the debts of tine fathers,
who is to believe, that that people, undisciplined to grinding taxation ;
full of just notions of political right; knowing their own strength,
and having so recently tried it with success; a people, in short, dis-
tinctlyclaiming the sovereignty as inherent in themselves; who is to
believe that such a people, being the makers, in fact, of the laws,
will long continue to make laws to compel themselves and their chil-
dren to pay about 11,000,0001. or 275,000,000 francs a year, in order,
first, to fulfil the wishes of the Allied Powers, who forced back the
Bourbons upon them, took away their frontier towns, imposed
a tribute upon them, and sacked their museums ; and, nest,
to make themselves unable to go to war even for self-
defence I Who is to believe this of such • people so situated ?
I remember well, that, in 1815, our press teemed with exhortations to
the Bourbons to make a considerable national debt as the means of emir-
ing to themselves the support of the rich people, and also as the means
of securing the peace of Europe ; that is, the despotism of Europe.—
And, certainly, this was the way to go to work ; but this work could
succeed only so long as the people were not fairly and fatly repre-
sented. France has not yet arrived at this identified state ; but, in
time, she would arrive at it ; and, in the meanwhile, she must, if
she adhere to this benumbing curse, remain inactive at the best. It is
this debt and all its deadening ligatures, that now withhold her from
that RHINE which is her natural boundary, whence the people are
stretching their arms to her for help and protection, and to aid whom,
and again to plant her standard on its banks, she is called by the voice
of honour, of humanity, and of just resentment combined. This 1 know
well, that, before long, she will listen to the former ; that, in spite of
debt and paper.money, to the RHINE she nal go; and, In my next
letter, I will endeavour to show, that to the RHINE she ought to go,
not only for her own honour, but for the good of all Europe, England
not excepted.