Star.
London, England, 1830-02-13 00:00:00

STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

From the Morning Herald.
The distress of the country increases; while the
" wisdom" of Parliament ranges over the globe to find
subjects of debate, and topics of political sympathy, and
excitement, the industrious population at home languish
under the pressure of calamity that ought to forestall
and engross the attention of our Representatives and
the anxiety of our Rulers. In the mean time accounts
of the difficulties and embarrassments which beset din
country pour in upon us from all sides, nor have we
space for the insertion of one half of them. We are not
exclisionista in charity, but we do not admire that
erratic benevolence which circumnavigates the world to
find out materiel for the exercise of the generous feel-'
ings of our nature,while our countrymen perish around
us, and cry for our protection in vain. There are jour-
nals that have affected the tone of philanthropy by
expatiating upon the miseries of Spanish and Portuguese
refugees, and at the same time sneer at and taunt the
sufferings of Englishmen. There are also Senators
whose hearts seem to embrace in their expansive sym-
pathies the afflicted and oppressed of every clime and
region but their own. It matters not to them how
many degrees of latitude the objects of their generous
care are removed from their immediate inspection
—the farther the better ; but to misery at borne, how-
ever poignant and general, they are cold and insen-
sible. Sir ROBERT WILSON exhausts his sympathies
on the republicans of Mexico—Mr. Fowell Buxton sighs
over the black population of the West Indies ; one
takes the rocks and patriots of Terceira under his pro-
tection ; another searches for objects of compassion on
the pestilential shores of Africa. Alas ! all this time
the people of England, are in a situation to give full
employment to all the benevolence and active humanity
which distinguish the " collective wisdom" of the
nation. We should have thought the first and impe-
rative duty of Parliament when they were, after too
much delay, called together, was to inquire into, and re-
lieve, the distresses of the country. No—it could not
be; for it was discovered within the walls of Parlia-
ment that the distress was only partial, and confined to
some districts though every body outside those walls
imagined that it was general. This is the first great
discovery which has resulted from the assembling of
the " Great Council." What others will follow it is
not easy to anticipate. Mr. Hume and Mr. Robhouee
with other equally celebrated advocates of the , popular
cause, have assisted Ministers in making this discovery,
and, no doubt, the public will evince their grateful
sense of the patriotic sagacity which they have displayed.
We presume the laurels of their civil triumphs will not
be the less flourishing for putting forth their spring
verdure under the genial influence of Ministerial sun-
shine. Certainly the Duke of Wellington owes much
to the twenty-seven " champions of liberty," who, by
rallying round his banners in the hour of need, saved
him from one of the most sudden and signal defeats
which the wilful obstinacy of a Minister ever provoked.
Perhaps, however, it would have been both more manly
and more dignified in his Grace not to have risked gush
a crisis at the outset of the Parliamen " •
especially as it could have been avoided by
making the King's Speech the vehicle of tindibeelnik
as to the distresses of the country and the sabbs.
the people ; truth, which is the best subedit'', for elo-
quence, or its most enduring ornament. But all Ulm'
English feeling has not perished from the House of CAN
wins. There is yet within its walls, we trust, Mott.
preserve the vitality of Its representation. As as
stance refreshing to the mind amid more than artliaary
complaisance to power and desertion of theap-
pears the steady, vigorous, uncompromising andust, ofi
the Marquis of Blandford. He was at his post WWl*
subject more important thee the •ceasideratioa of -due

vague and illusory statements in the Royal Speech was
to be entered upon. Yes—when the order of the day for
the House going into a Committee of Supply was read on
Tuesday night, the Marquis of Blandford was prepared
to perform his duty to his country, although the Whig
benches were nearly deserted, and the Treasury did not
think it necessary to retain their forces in the field. It was
the custom of our ancestors, previously to voting supplies,
to demand a redress of grievances. This custom had be-
come nearly obsolete—the courtesy of modern days had
superseded the stern virtue of antiquity. It was perhaps
the barbarism of our forefathers that made them exercise
a jealous vigilance over the public purse, and refuse the
voting supplies'opon either the solicitations or threats of a
Minister until grievances were redressed. In their simpli-
city they believed that the power of the purse con-
ferred all other power, and therefore they were rude
and unaccommodating enough to refuse to fill the
coffers of Government until they vindicated the rights
of the people. In modern times this vantage ground
of the public cause has been generally surrendered
without a struggle, in consequence of some courteous
" arrangement" in accordance with the temper of an
age of polished innovation. The Marquis of BLAND-
FORD, who, as a Member of the House of Commons, ap-
ppm to be more conversant with the ancient history of
Parliament than its modem code of manners, remained,
as we have stated, at his post, to move an amendment
on the House going into a Committee of Supply. In
doing so, he used the old-fashioned but very expres-
sive language, that "he felt himself called upon in
duty to oppose in Entine the granting of one shilling
of supply to his Majesty." Why ? His reasons were
—" the distresses of the country were so great--the
cries of the people for relief so loud, and the promises
of his Majesty's Ministers so unsatisfactory." This
language was certainly more energetic than polite; and,
in a spirit equally congenial with the character of our
ancient "gothic" institutions, he moved, as an amend-
ment, " that this house will not vote any supply or es-
timate until the grievances of the people be taken into
consideration, and relief for their distress be granted."
A proposition so contrary to modern practice, and built
on such obsolete precedents—precedents only to be
found in the " old almanack" of history, and not at all
admitted among the " rules and regulations" of the re-
fined patriotism of modern days, absolutely astonished
the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He gave utterance to
that astonishment by saying " he did not come to the
house prepared for• any such amendment as the present.
The noble lord had certainly adopted a novel course
towards the house, and one which was not likely to
produce a very favourable effect on the public gene-
rally." Now, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer
called this a novel course, he must have meant it
as such, in the sense in which it has been said
that " all novelty is but oblivion "—for it was so
ancient, and so long disused, that it had pretty well
gone out of Parliamentary remembrance, and, like a
revived old fashion in dress, retuined upon us with
all the freshness and originality of invention. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer had, however, a more
secure protection than in the " novelty" of the practice
against the constitutional rudeness of such a proceeding.
What was that ? the paucity of numbers in the House!
Will it be believed hereafter, that, at such a crisis
as this—a crisis of unexampled national suffering and
calamity the desertion of their posts by the repre-
sentatives of the people was the best security of the
Minister ? The Chancellor of the Exchequer met the
amendment, when argument was wanting—when appeals
to polite usages and complaisant customs failed—by de-
claring that no division could take place, as there were
not sufficient Members to constitute a Home. Yet there
were enough to make a Committee of Supply, and to
vote away the money of the people ; and often have
millions been voted, and the most important business of
the country transacted, by as small a number as were
then present. The reply of the Marquis of Blandford
to the observations of the Minister of France deserves
to be remembered, and, at the next general elec-
tion, it ought to be recalled to the particular atten-
tion of every Member of Parliament by his constituents.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER had alluded to
an arrangement respecting an amendment which the
Ministers had received notice would be moved in the
Committee of Supply on Friday. "lam no
party," said the Noble Marquis, " to any arrange-
ment of business for Friday.' If Hon. Gentlemen are
not in their places it is their fault, not mine. Here I
am, and here I am determined to remain, and do my
duty." This was an answer worthy of the spirit of the
best days of the English House of Commons—those
days associated with the proudest recollections—when
stern, unyielding, • and intrepid public integrity, laid
the foundation of that national grandeur and prosperity
which the courteous and suppliant patriotism of later
times had not the virtue to preserve—those days when
the dread of being supposed to " embarrass the measures
of Government" did not shake from its firm purpose the
honest resolution of the Representatives of the people!

CITY, Tw E
WAILS ARRIVED AND DUE Tit

,Lvic o'CLocx.
IS MORNING.

A. b. A. D. A. D.
1. Dab1in......... 0 0 France . 0 0 Lisboa ..... .. 0
I Waterford ..... 0 0 Flanders 0 0 Jamaica 0
O Guerra. & Jersey 0 0 Holland 0 0 Sweden I
O Leeward Islands 0 0 Hamburgb .... 3 ILa Guayra
Our arrivals this morning are very few, and of no importance
Consols opened at the same price they kit off yesterday, 92i to 1;
for the Amount ; and for Money, V2j ; with very little doing at
meat.
The Foreign Market is also in a:state of inactivity, and the prices
much the same as yesterday.
HALF-PAST ONE O'CLOCK.
Commis have continued during the whole of the morning at 104
fee the Account, alternately buyers and sellers, with little doing ;
and far Money 92. t1L.....6.............„
NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

Dui, Pas. 8.-2=71 the John, Donseembe,
and Guardian, Dawson, from India. Arrived from London, the
Robert, Bteriker, for the West Indies.
Poems:wry, Fn. Ig.—plod' B.—Arrived the Josephine,
Pdildenhawsen, from Rio Janeiro.
Fll3. 11.—Arrived the Lima, from Buenos
Ayres ; Geo. Brock, Herbert, and Scotia, Curdy, from Paraiba ;
Pantaloon, Miller, from Demerara; Catherine, &ephsesoo, and
Colombia, Potter, from Charkeston • Olive Branch, ing, and
Georgia, Nauman, from Savannah; ;sod Concordia, frost
Virgiela.
PLyworen Fan. 11.—Wind a—Arrived the Neptune, Bar-
clay, from Terceln.
Fautount, Pea. 11.—Wind 8.
Cwt, 12.—Arrived the atyandeur' front Malaga.
Denim, Fes. 10.—Arrived the Mary Clarke, ButtershaU,
front Demerara • Dublin Packet, from New Took; and
Sonterset. Pensaa, front Messkia.

;W PAI

LN6DOM MA'

DA'

Thar;Was an abundant supply of Am mast at tbla market to-
day, and the market was very respectably attended.
Boar—Flnest Roman parts. M. and lit per lb. Ditto
Bei/bs6 aid. Eva gvantletof oath, 441. and did. Rooligitarez
Yd. Ramp of Met, 4d. Winans blirson—Lsg, gfid.
6d. Saddle, dd. 81toaldm, 5141,. Neck. Breast„ 4d. Vias.-1
Leg, 71d. Lain, 71d. Breast, 7141. aMelder, gia, pass—,
411th. to lid.
NBWOATB AND LBADEWBALL—THIS DAY.
Byte Camme.-i-Per acme el Albs.
beet lid to Se Ad gg w r 64
Mass sew se Si 1 Pet 'cm,. se od wed