Star.
London, England, 1830-12-07 00:00:00

SPIRI 1' OF TILE JOURNALS.

CHRONICLE or YESTERDAY.—Lord Brougham's Local Courts
Bill is generally well received by the Bar, a circumstance which tells
very much in favour of the liberality of the profession. There are,
however, strong Interests opposed to it; and we should only be deluding
our readers were we to lead them to believe that this grand, we should
say paramount, object of Local Courts can be obtained without a se-
vere ►truggle. The opponents are neither few nor unimportant from
station. All sorts of obstacles will be thrown in the way of the measure ; all
sorniof objections will be taken to it both in principle and detail. Except
public opinion be pronounced in such a manner as to unnerve the in-
terested, we should be in Edam) for the ultimate success of the Bill.
Where the object to be effected is merely the public good, and the in.
tercets struck at by a measure are strong, compared with the interest of
the public Individually, there can be little doubt as to the side on which
the combatants will exert themselves most keenly. The circumstances
of the present day proclaim loudly the danger of having a great part of
the population below the level of the law.

Tints of yesterday.—Let the rich be taught that Providence will
not suffer them to oppress their fellow-creatures with impunity. Here
are tens of thousands of Englishmen, industrious, ktnd-hearted, but
broken-hearted beings, exasperated into madness by insufficient food
and clothing—by utter want of necessaries for themselves and their un-
fortunate families. There is no complaint any where that they will
not work, or that having undertaken to labour for pay, they break
their contract. The complaint is on their side, that they cannot get
such wages fee their work as will keep them above starvation. Of the
specific causes to which this dreadful state of the peasantry or England
ought to be attributed, we have heard many alleged ; but no single
cause will suffice. The tithe is, we fear, ill constituted or administered,
and ought to be in some way commuted ; but tithe Is not enough, nor
is the enclosure of commons from the poor enough. But we apprehend
that tithes, and enclosures, and enormous tents, and corn laws, and
grinding taxes, and the general tendency of men who derive power from
property to shove off a part of their own burdens upon the shoulders of
the poor, who have neither property nor power and display no strength,
but in the extremity of wretehedness--we believe that all theme things
together have conspired to break down the poor.

Pose.—The opinion begins verygenerally to prevail, that the re-
sent Lord Chancellor, notwithstanding his great and versatile talents,
will prove neither a very discreet and useful servant of the Crown, nor
a very agreeable colleague to the other members of his Majesty's Go-
vernment. As to the merit and practical efficacy of his great measure
of Law Reform, the establishment of Local Courts, great doubts are en-
tertained by persons who have the best opportunities of forming a judg.
man of the disposition and character of the English people. It Is
apprehended by the great majority of such persons, that the high
respect and veneration with which the public have been so long
accustomed to regard the exalted offices of the twelve Judges of Eng.
land, will prove an insurmountable impediment to the beneficial intro-
duction of any inferior jurisdiction ; that a very large proportion of the
litigants who are defeated before the local tribunal will remain dissatis-
fied with its decision, until that decision be confirmed and ratified by the
authority upon which the confidence of the country habitually reposes;
that appeals will be multiplied without end—and that thus the evils of
expense and delay in the administration of final and satisfactory justice
will, upon the whole, be increased rather than diminished, should the
Legislature adopt the project of the noble and learned Lord.

enanwlcss.—We are glad to perceive that ministers are warmly
seconded everywhere on the subject of Parliamentary Reform. Meet.'
Lags are everywhere announced, and some of great importance have al-
ready takenplace Whatever niay be the feeling of the possessors of

Borough in England on this question, the Municipal Autho-
rities of are now manifesting a willingness to divest themselves
of their authority in favour of their fellow-eitisens. The Magistrates
and Council or the City of Gliuww, assembled in Council on the 3d
instant, passed a series of admirable Resoludons, condemnatory of the
existing state of the franchise, and recommending an improve-
ment of the elective system. " The members for burghs, they
say, are chosen by the Magistrates and Connell, who, in general,
nominate their own successors, and form only a small part
of the community;" and they observe further, "that 'his Majesty's
Ministers having announced themselves favourable to an improvement
of the elective system, this Corporation now deem it their duty thus
' publicly to come forward with a coincident expression of sentiment." A
meeting of Dumfries, attended by the Magistrates, and almost every
inhabitant of respectability, hu also paned a series of resolutions in
favour of Reform. A meeting of the inhabitants of the Burgh of Dum-
barton, called by the Provost on the Ist December, passed a series of
strong Resolutions. It became Glasgow, • city containing a popula-
tion of upwards of 200,000, to set the example to the other towns of
Scotland.

livrant.o.—A correspondent has asked, whether the gentleman who
has for for some years held the office of whipper-in, under two or three
successive Administrations, retains it; or whether the new ministers
mean to abolish it altogether! This inquiry rests on the assumption of
tha office being itself one of profit, which is not the case. It has been
generally confided to some person who, like its late possessor, enjoys a
solid reeard In some other shape. His duty, like that of his prototype
in a fox-chase, is to keep the pack together ; to bring all stray members
of it up ; and, as a test of his own adroitness, he is not unfrequently
appointed" teller." The late whipper-in enjoyed the lucrative post ofTrea-
surer of the Ordnance, which, for his sake, was, some years ago, made
a patent office. Mr. Holmes, however, with great seeming self-denial
and consistency, on the retirement of the late Ministers, threw up his
patent, declaring (as the story goes) that he would rather break stones
upon the road than serve under the present men. So far so good ;
but then the chroniclers go on to say that, in return for this instance of
self-devotion, the Duke of Wellington secured to the late Treasurer of
the Ordnance, for the life of his son, a pension of 5001. per annum,whielt
there are some doubts whether the new Ministers will feel themselves
bound to confirm.

Cnnottcxe—lt will be seen by our Report of the proceedings last
night, on the third reading of the Regency Bill in the House of Lords,
that there Is little ground for raking a question with respect to the de-
volution of the Crown, in the event of the King's dying, leaving his con-
sort erseeirde. Upon this delicate subject the first doubt was started on
the present occasion by a lay Peer, Lord Harrowby, who did not find
the late Chancellor prepared to express at the moment any definite
opinion on this great point of Constitutional law ; while in the
Lower House of Parliament the Law Officers of the Crown, al-
though both of them men well veered in the ordinary details of
their profession, were very much Ann in their opinions. Lord Lynd-
hurst's further ingniry seems to have quieted his mind, in the penuasioa
that the Law regulating the devolution of the Crown does not differ
from that which governs the descent of real property ; and which
rule is this, that in the event of a party last seised dying, leaving a wife
enceinte, the heir presumptive succeeds to the estate ; but that on the
birth of a posthumous heir apparent, the estate is divested out of the
heir presumptive, and shifts to and vests in the heir apparent. Lord
Brougham cited an early precedent, which fully establishes this
doctrine. It is taken from the History of Brittany when
that Duchy was a fief of the King of England as Duke
of Notmandy. Geoffry, the son of Henry 11. was Duke of Britany, and
died A.D. 1186, leaving a daughter Elinor him surviving, and his wife
Constance pregnant. Henry of England and Philip Augustus of
Prance both laid claim to the wardship of Elinor, alike acknowledging
her title as Heir Presumptive. No sooner, however, did Constance, the
widow, give birth to the boy (the unhappy victim of King John) Arthur,
than both monarchs concurred in admitting his superior title, which was
recognised by the States of Brittany, and he was ed instead of
Elinor, his elder born sister. Here the Ducal tlrsermv:ilatil7vlested and di-
vested precisely according to the tule of the English common law- The
details will be best found in Daru's " Histoire de Bretagne."