Star.
London, England, 1830-08-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

Cpl noxicLE —The account of arevoltaion ..t lit ussol-, to It hi :. a •
yesterday alluded, is confirmed. lint, num mane cannot be said to hat
taken Europe by surprise; for it is well known that the Belgians hue;
always disliked the government ist.posed on them in 1813, alai that 1,
a considerable period the strongest irritation has prevailed. The Fret:, .
revolution may have emboldened the people of Brussels, and accelerated
the movement; but no one can `.cave :itterttitAl :n the recent hittury of the
Netherlands without being satisfied t i...t the prevailing discontent wculd,
ere long, lead to serious events. tl. de Potter some time ago In;..
dressed a letter to the King o the Netherlands, in which he
predicted what has now taken p!ace. In the Courrire des Puy,
Bus there is a second letter from M. de Potter to the King of tie
Netherlands, of which the following is an extract :
" I repeat, Sire, the Van 31ast.ea ministry is as odious to the Bel.
glans as the Pclignac ministry was to the French ; the doctrines of the
Royal Message of December the 11th are as subversive of our fund a.
mental law as the Ordonnances of July 23th were of the Charter ; the
Dutch oppression Is as insupportable to us as the preponderance of the
priests and nobles is to our neighbours; the Paternal Government is
as impossible in Belgium as the Absolute Government in France ; the
love of liberty is as great, as ardent, and as powerful, at Brussel.,
Liege, Mons Bruges, and Ghent, as it is at Paris."
The political fabric reared by the enemies of the nations, on the eve .
throw of Napoleon, is thus fast crumbling to pieces. Is theme ama t,
with the spirit of a man, throughout Europe, who does not wish that it
should so crumble to pieces ? The people, their interests, their feefingg,
their habits, were all sacrificed, without scruple or compunction, to th •
plan for strengthening the great military monarchies, as Lord Castle-
reagh termed them ; that is, Europe was so parcelled out, that the grea
despotisms were enabled to retain r urope in a state of subjection, by tit •
ease with which they could aid each otter in crushing all attempts a:
internal improvement in any country. Belgium was violemly torn front
France—ltaly was consigned to Austri t—blaws was forcibly united tam
Piedmont—and a number of other forcible dismemberments and uniols
were then consummated. Whenever, however, violence is done to th,
nations, as In the so-called settlement of Europe, there is always
a danger of violent termination to the scheme. A Government vnat
imposed on the greatest and most intelligent of the Europes.' nation.,
hostile to all improvement, either at home or abroad. The Allis
had of course a deep interest in upholding this government, die exist. n :e
of which was essential to their scheme, and they accordingly guaranteed
to the elder branch of the hated Bourbons the possession of the throe...
of France. But the French having thrown off the inctanbrance, an;
vindicated their rights to self-government, the system of the allies i.
undermined. She has weakened the enemies of the nations, and in et
same proportion strengthened the nations themselves. They have, to t.
her bright example to teach them the grand secret of their own p.m ez.
Ids impossible, that under such crcunistances, the nations siffetin
under injustice should not teel impelled to follow the example. Wha
might have been imprudent a few nantlis ago, may now be a matter
easy execution.

HERALD.— A small portion of the Ptess of this country makes wa
upon the French people and their patriot King. What is wanted in tea.
suning is made up in abuse—in proportion to the dearth of legitimat •
mattn rof accusation is the abundance of scurrilous invective. Th •
heroic people of Paris are assailed by a bitterness only to be etitnele
by its injustice, because they did not tamely submit to the utter rubve7.
lion of tit. ir liberties, and resign themselves in patient degradation its
priestly tyranny and regal oppression. It scents as if some write
wished to make the French sensible that they had eternally di -
graced themselves by missing the fi:iest opportunity possible of su
passing, in servile submission, the subjects of that Homan Entine :r
who delegated his power to tie fawning and crud Sejanus, or art hi
who invested a nobler animal with the functions of a great Id t-
gistzate, and made his horse a Consul. l ht.he were gloriutt. tin:e .
nu doubt; and if Charles, and his ghostly adviser., had sue •
ceded in their plans for the regeneration of the absolute dynasty, tit •
world might have seen such times again. A Tabruios or a Caligult—
the most perfect models of pure absolutism—cannot exist where 0..
people arc wayward and perverse enough to reiain any sense of the
dignity of human nature. France, unmindful of the lessons of con-
tented debasement which the degenerate Romans gave the world after
the overthrow of the Commonwealth, prefers a moderate, oval
enlightened Sovereign to an ignorant and morose tyrant alt
prefers a Trajan to a Domitian—a Louis Philippe, who rt-
presents the national will, to a Charles X. who trampled it in the
dust. 111-judging people ! why do ye not abjure the heresy of a free
Constitution, and return to the chains and degradation of an orthodox
tyranny ! The rights of Kings we respect ; but like our forefathers
when they expelled the sullen and priest-ridden tyrant James H, we
think them only of value when they are combined and interwoven with
the rights of the people. The French may answer their virulent ca.
lumniators in this country by opening that page of English histnry
which records the proc•.•cdin4s of the Convention Parliament. They
may answer the vilihera of the charter by pointing to the Bill of Rights.
The means by which our anca snag obtained the one, the French de-
ft:riled the other. The treasonable conspiracy in both instances against
the nation was punished by the forfeiture of the crown.

Meas.—The following account of the plan, given in December last
to M. de Polignac by Ouvrard, for the changing the law of elections.
and reducing the government of France to an almost absolute monarchy,
ts curious and may be relied on. The Chamber of Deputies was to be
dissolved : and if the new one provtel ultra.liberal, as it was expected to
do, the meeting was to be deferred till the end of the month of October.
which would bring it to within a few weeks of the expiration of the
time for which the direct taxes had been voted by the former Chant.
ber. The budget, including the expense of the Algerine expect!.
tion, was then to be immediately brought forward, and if accept..e.
the Chamber was to be allowed to continue to sit for a sew
months, and then to be dissolved; and as the taxes in France
are voted for two years, and the initiative vested in the King by
the Charter, prevent* any projects inimical to the Governruen.
being even brought forward, it was intended to take advan-
tage of the time gained, and of any popularity which the success of
the Algerine expedition might have acquired, fur the Government to
affect the great object. If, however, and which was much more pro.
bable, the budget was refused, the Chamber was to be dissolved, and
the King placed in the position which Ouvrard argues would have al-
lowed him lawfully to exert the authority given him by the 14th article
of the Charter; for, by the refusal of the budget, the payment of the
interest of the debt, of the army, navy, and civil employes, would
have been stopped, and the march of the Government ar-
rested ; whilst, on the other hand, it would have been impossibl
to convoke a Chamber legally constituted according to the Chanel.
as by the cessation of the directltaxes, which by that time would
have taken place, there would ''have existed neither electors nor
persons capable of being elected, the former paying 200 f. and use latter
I,ooof. of direct taxes, which, of course, they could ton do, alien sue'
contributions had ceased to exist. In this situation of affairs, the King.
with the chatter in his hand, was to have declared himself in the posi-
tion contemplated by the 14th article of it, which gives him the power
to provide by ordinance for the execution of the laws; and, as the exe-
cution of the law of elections had been rendered impossible by the a t
of the Chamber itself, he was by ordinance to have called a meeting et
the four hundred and sixty-two persons, les pies costri'mables, in the
departments, and jointly with them and the Peers to have framed a new.
and, of course, ultra-royalist one. This project was shallow and imprac-
ticable, but,on the factor it, anti an abstract proposition, sufficiently plau-
sible. Ouvrard did not contemplate that the executionof itwould go quietly
down, but he conceived that-1, as it was the Chamber that 'true.,
the first blow.-2, as there would have been no necessity for any act of
overt aggression (as in the case of destroying the presses of the journals).
and, 3, as it was certainly within the meaning, perhaps a little etretclett.
of the Charter, it would at least bear arguing on, and have. occasioned .1
difference of opinion in the country, in which case he concluded .t.t
success would attend, as it generally does, those who have the rower in
their hands. The Prince de POLIGNAC accepted this projr..ct, r:d in.
tended to act on it, till the news of the fall of Algiets, on the Gilt of
July, turned his head, and induced him to taw the fatal step he has
done. Ouvrard began every letter to him on the subject, and there
are 60 of them, with `, Cclui des dens parties que sorters de to legal'e
el de la charge,scra perdu," and concluded with an expression to dt
same effect.