Star.
London, England, 1830-06-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP ME JOURNALS.

CHRONICLE.--Hume, in his " Essay on the Balance of Power,"
alluding to the mischievous meddling disposition which so long
characterised the Government of this country, observes that our
Allies " always reckon upon our force as upon their own ; and, ex-
pecting to carry on war at our expense, refuse all reasonable terms
of accommodation ; " that " we are such true combatants that,
when once Engaged, we lose all concern for ourselves and our pos.
mit), and consider only how we may best annoy the enemy. To
mortgage our revenues at so deep a rate, in wars where we were only
accessaries, was surely the most fatal delusion that a nation, who had
any pretension to politics and prudence, has ever yet been guilty
of ; " that the " remedy of funding, if it be a remedy, and not
rsther a poison, ought in all reason to be reserved to the last ex-
tremity ; and no evil, but the greatest and most urgent, should ever
induce us to embrace so dangerous an expedient." He adds, that
our excesses " may, perhaps, in time become still more prejudicial
another way, by begetting, as is usual, the opposite extreme, and
rendering us totally careless and supine with regard to the fate of
Europe ; " and that " the Athenians, from the most bustling, in.
triguing, warlike people of Greece, finding their error in thrusting
themselves into every quarrel, abandoned all attention to foreign
affairs ; and in no contest even took party on either side, except by
heir flatteries and complaisance to the victor." • • • • •
The people certainly care very little about Greece, and, therefore,
Lord Aberdeen and Prism.: Metternich might perhaps have reduced
still more the limits of that country with impunity, as far as public
opinion in England is concerned. It is a great consolation to a
Minister to know, that provided he keeps at home the noiseless
tenor of his way, in his foreign policy he may lend himself to as
much injustice as he has a mind for, without danger. In the case
of Greece, it is clear that England had no interest in curtailing its
limits; but then, as Austria has some purpose to serve, why may
sot Lord Aberdeen serve Austria when he can do it on such safe
terms ? The Examiner says the talk in parliament " is a mere
waste of time and opportunities fur more profitable exertions." Pro-
fitable to whom ? To politicians in parlianient foreign affairs are a
safe ground. Not so domestic affairs. A party falls to pieces the
moment you leave the field of foreign politics. Hence the great use
of a war to politicians. So long as the war lasts, it furnishes matter
to an opposition which can be wrought without much danger of
disagreement. But with peace comes the necessity of discussing
domestic affairs ; and here every step leads to disagreement. There
was, indeed, one great domestic question which did as well as war
for holding panics together—the Catholic question ; but that quit-
Lion is no more. It was one of the most beautiful abstractions
which could possibly be devised for a politician ; fur no one interest
could be said to be affected by the carrying of the measure. It is
needless to say that there is hardly another question of which the
same thing may be practicable. Touch on reform, for instance, and
you will find yourself deserted. Propose any measure of efficacious
retrenchment, and in ordinary cases you will have at most a
couple of dozen votes. Mr. Herries and Mr. Goulbutn have both
told the House this Session, that they were defeated in their mea-
sures of economy by a coalition of both sides. If the higher regions
were safe, the Duke of Wellington might set a hundred Terceiras
and a hundred Greeces at defiance. But when the danger is in these
regions, a question respecting Greece will do as well as another for
a trial of strength. Any stick will do to beat a dog with. The
public may not care about Greece, but the public does not keep in
or turn out a Minister. And if the disposition to look out for a
pretext should exist, though the public do not take a deep interest
in the affairs of Greece, most assuredly the conduct of Lord Aber.
deen would not give to the Ministry the support of public opinion.
Politicians do not, as we have said, possess now the advantage their
predecessors possessed, of having a public interested in foreign af-
fairs to sympathise with them. They have the fight now nearly all
to themselves when they quit this kingdom. But there are weighty
reasons for steering as clear of domestic interests as possible in poli-
tical warfare. There is a fable of a bear who was in alliance with
man, and to drive away a fly threw a stone at the fly which broke
the man's skull. Our parties are too cunning to recur to a popular
alliance which may, like that of the bear, be somewhat unmanageable.
HEIIALD.—Sir Robert Peel's remark, that "twenty such Mem-
ben as 31r. Hume in the House of Commons would put a stop to
business altogether," was very complimentary to that gentleman—
fur stronger testimony than this could not be borne to his steady
and indefatigable zeal in watching over the Interests of his constitu-
ents and the public. We wish there were many other of our repre-
sentatives who deserved to be comprehended along with the Hon.
Membet for Aberdeen in this sentence of Ministerial reprobation.
Then that sort of business which Ministers are most anxious
to hurry through the House, namely, the votes of money to Go.
vernment, under the heads of supplies, estimates, &c. would
certainly be stopped, unless they were reduced to a scale
more consatent than they now are with the resources of the country,
and the professions of retrenchment and economy, of which Minis.
ten were so liberal when they first assumed the administration of
affairs. There is indeed another hon. member, whose exertions
of late in die same useful line of arresting the progress of pro.
fuse expenditure which has long distinguished Mr. Hume, enti-
tle,' him to a large share of Ministerial obloquy and public ap-
probation. We allude to Sir James Graham, whose exposure of
the "consular jobs" will not be easily forgiven by the official con.
semen of the public taxes, nor, we trust, be soon forgotten by the
tax-paying people, whose burdens he so industriously labours to re-
lieve. The smallness of the majority which Ministers were enabled
to muster, with all their efforts, on Friday night, when the " con-
sular charges" came under discussion, ought to make them ashamed
of persisting with a vote which many of those who usually di-
vide with them had not sufficient disregard fur their own con-
science: or for public opinion to support. On such a question a
majority of only 23 looks more like a defeat than a victory. Ministers
should have understood it as such, and have immediately reduced the
vote demanded for the consular charges, which was 87,970 L to the
amount of the proposed amendment, which still left them the very
liberal sum of 79,9701. No person could have the least
doubt that the latter sum would have been amply sufficient
for all 3.. t and reasonable purposes, and fur supporting the
Jgnity and efficiency of our consular appointments, though it would
certainly be too little to supply the prodigal and reckless expendi-
ture, of which the Honourable Baronet who moved the amendment
furnished some striking instances to the House. Let us take one or
two of these iutances, to show what has been the nature of the eco-
nomy practisei in the Foreign Department, of which Lord Aberdeen
has the supeentendence. The lion. Baronet stated, if rightly
tenoned, that hk. Rickets, who was Consul at Rome, went out in
1825 ; and duties; the first year be received 3,5a31. In 1826 he re-
ceived, including glary, house rent, and a few other items, 3.7631.
In 1827, being on the voyage home, he received 2,8121. During
the years 1828 and 15129 he remained at home receiving his full
stilary—so that for five years of service, two of which were spent at
home, lie received 13,60&. of the public money ! it is true, as the
honourable baronet observel, the present ministers were not in -office
when this appointment took place ; but they were in office during
the you; 1828 and 1829, whies were the years in which 31r. Rickets
received his full salary as Consticat Rome while he remained in Eng-
land. Nobody can blame Mr. rickets for this—he could not be
expected to refuse what was so bountifully allowed to him—but the
system, and the Ministers who support it, after making the loudest
professions of retrenchment and economy, deserve the severest
reprobation of a country which the& conduct has so bitterly
disappointed. The case of Mr. Nugent, the Consul to
was another instance. He also went out in 1825.
He received during the first year 3,0501. The second year he re-
ceived the same amount, having remained the whole of that year at
Ills post. In 1927 he received 2,5001. In June 1828 he returned
to England, receiving during half that year his full salary for doing
nothing; and during the whole of 1829—during what Sir James
Graham sarcastically called " the golden reign of Lord Aberdeen,
t he conseientious economist"—lie still continued to receive his full
salary. Such are the proofs which, in this department, Ministers
Nye given of their determination to redeem their pledge of cutting
down all unnecessary expenditure, and lightening the burden or
Minding taxation, which presses the industry of the people to the
t.trth ! If any of the majority on this occasion represent open and
pp] RIS places, we hope their constituents will not forget their
conduct when they come, at no distant day, to give an account of
tLe:r stewardship.
Tiatra.— The French elective chamber is composed of 430 mem-
hers, returned by bodies or assemblies of electors, who vote in col.
ages of :arrondissement or department. Every Frenchman in the
apt iseot of civil and political rights, paying 300 francs a-year
(121 sterling) in direct taxes, and having attained the 30th year of
:Its age. a entitled to vote in one of these collegtas ; or, in other words,
has tt voice in the election of a representative to an assembly which
disposes of his own and the national purse. The direct taxes
nine!' ore thus made the basis of the electoral qualification,
are 01 Nor kinds, namely, the tax upon land, the tax upon
persulial property, upon doors and windows, and upon patentee
ur lictuccs to exercise trades and professions. Of these lazes
the tint is the most important, amounting at the last general
election (in 1827) to 154,051,889 franca (or more than 6,000,0001.
!tellfea), while the whole of the direct i nposts was calculated at
4311,802,199 francs, or less than 14,000,0001. The tax on patentes
for the %Hole kingdom did not amount to 1,000,0001. sterling, while
tlist raised on doors and windows is not more than 12,811,000
francs, (sit about 500,0001.) Thus, with the exception of a tax
27,1G55a48 francs (or about 1,100,0002) on personal pro-
perty, the whole of the electoral qualification for all the depart-
rnents of the kingdom is founded on the possession of landed estates.
But though every Frenchman who pays 121. to the state in direct
taxes is entitled to be an elector, all electors have not the same
Power in sending deputies to the popular chamber. The 121. qua-
lification is the minimum, and entitles its possessor to a vote in the
college, of arrondissement. But in France there are two kinds of
electoral assemblies—those called district orarrondissement colleges,
and those called colleges of department, orgreatercolleges; the former
amounting to2sB,and the latter to 172. In the former all persona have
vote whose contributions amount to the mons above specified; to

the latter, only thefourth pert of the electors whom the highest eon.
tributions. The latter, in respect to their fortune, have a double vote;
they can vote in their arrondissement, and they have an additional vote
in their departmental college. Thus suppose, as in Paris, that the
number of electors amounts to 10,000 the whole body have votes in
the district, arrondissement, or minor colkles, and 2,500, (or one•
fourth,) who pay the highest rate of tams, vote likewise for addi-
tional members in the greater colleges, or colleges of department.
The number of deputies returned by this aristocratic body of electors
is 172, or two members for each of the 86 departments into which
the country is divided. In order to enable the privileged voter to avail
himself of his double advantage, a certain interval is always allowed
between the two kinds of election. Thus, in the present year, the
general election for the arrondissements begins on the 23d instant,
while the departmental colleges are convoked on the 3d of July. or
ten days later. Such a system of elections, or rat r.er such a divi-
sion of the electoral bedy into separate classes of elector, with se.
parate privileges, would appear arbitrary, capricious, r ar.ificial, if
we did not explain the occasion of its occurrence and the motives of
its enactment. Anterior to the year 1820 the French had onli one
class of electors and one kind of electoral college. The representa-
tion then consisted of two hundred and fifty-eight members, elected
by all the persons who paid 300 francs (or 121.) in direct taxes.
In the spring of that year (the alarming period in which the Duke
of Berry was murdered,) the Ministry and the Court conceived that
the Chamber of Deputies was too democratic in its tendency, and de.
sided that a new infusion of the aristocratic spir't Cs neeesary, by
raising the qualification of the elector. The ebarer stood in the
way of altering the electoral census of the existie.g number of mem- ;
hers; but like Pelee in the Tale of Mc . vb, the Ali: !stets of
Louis XVIII. if they could not find permission to ettanz,e the ob-
noxious articles of his political grant, tolidem uertiv or lotident
literie, they discovered that an addition was no change, and
therefore grafted on the existing Chamber to delegates more fur
every department, to be returned by a fourth part ot• the wealthier
electors. Thus were 172 members added to the popular branch of the
legislature by a single act, and a double vote credited in favour of
wealth and fortune. The whole number of electors whose names
appeared iu the official list of 1827 at the general election
was 1i3,336 ; the whole number who actually voted did not
amount to 17,000. Neatly 20,000 of these possessed, of course,
the right of the double suffrage, and elected 172 members, besides
sharing in the return of the other deputies. Thus a small body of
20,000 men, possessed of the highest fortunes in the country,.—a
body not amounting to the number entitled to vote at Covent-
garden hustings,—return 172 deputies by their exclusive ballot, j
independent of their influence on the r:turas of the arrondis.einent 1
colleges.