Star.
London, England, 1830-03-11 00:00:00

POLITICAL ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.
' SlR—Though lam aware that the dictum of one of
the greatest philosophers that ever irradiated tho annals

of our history, offers small encouragement certainly to one
who would save his country, and teaches me that I must

class myself among those who have " given hostages to

Fortune"—and that, noither in affections nor in means,

practicable for me " to marry or endow the public :"

still, the love which I bear my country is at least equal
in its intensity to the sense which impels me, on other

grounds, to an anxious consideration of the coming
times. And how pregnant with danger does not the
womb of futurity appear ? Whether the evil be des-

tined to descend upon us in dismemberment and disor-
ganisation ; and society—torn with a sudden disruption
is doomed to the consequent horrors of revolutionary
phrenzy : or whether the not less to be abhorred confir-
mation of a still more appalling alternative—l mean, the
establishment of a purely military despotism—await us,
Ido not take upon me to pronounce. But demand of
me to which of these two dreaded evils I would give the

preference—which of the two I would regard, in its ulterior

effects, as least detrimental to the best interests of my na-
tive land—give me, will I fearlessly say, the former. Aye,
let me, if needs must be—if our oppressors will goad us
deeper than we can bear the goad—let me see Revo-

ration : it were better to sustain a shock even so terrible

as that, than submit to the iron rule and rapacity of un-
constitutional power. Political renovation, at any rate,

would be the handmaid of the former : a renovation, no

doubt accompanied by many hard knocks, and ugly de-
facements—but still, a renovation: whereas the con-
verse of the picture presents nothing but the blackness
of despair—a gasping country blotted out from the map
of freedom, and plunged without hope of extrication into
the gehenna of obliterated kingdoms.
Breathes there, then, the man—not the dupe nor slave
of corruption—who can hesitate between the two alter-
natives, or persuade himself that much longer any third
choice will remain for him to follow ? Alas—if such
there be—for his folly : alas, for his fortunes—alas, for
all that he values, and holds dear and sacred ! The truly
wise are now yielding fast to the irresistible conviction,
that things cannot continue as they are: they know that
the abuses of an oligarchal faction have reached their
acme, and they feel the consequent, self-imposed neces-
sity, of active and instant counteraction. Too long have
the PEOPLE been offended—too long have our
misguided Rulers driven back the humours from the
surface, and made our wounds bleed inwardly—too
long have they refused liberty for the evaporation of
our griefs and discontentments, and thus are they

alone responsible for the consequences of that canker in
the State, which their treatment alone has generated,
Behold the PEOPLE, then, at length exasperated into a
saving attitude—see them uniting, and ranging them-
selves together in a common cause—now admire their
struggles, now applaud their resuscitative throes. A
despotism has brought them to their present state of
destitution : generous and confiding—only to be scan-
dalously abused—their helplessness held out impunity to
oppression, and the chains of their thraldom had been
well nigh rivetted by blind submission. But their
UN lox s have already secured their deliverance, and in
the principle of the Roman fasces have they found their

power.
I said, Sir, that it was a despotism which had so
reduced the People ; but hear, now, what kind of
despotism it has been : for it did not come upon them—
as ordinary tyrannies do—by the downright and violent
establishment of naked military rule. No, Sir : but it

sprang from the most abominable depravation and abuse
of events and materials, calculated to produce far other
results than those which we now deplore—from the un-
natural perversion of those very forms and elements, out
of which the People sanguinely expected that a bulwark
would be created, unassailable by the forces of corrup-
tion—a protecting rampart, which should guarantee to
them their independence, their rights, their fortunes,
their chartered liberties. It was a despotism, the more
to be detested and repudiated, by reason of its bastard and
monstrous origin : a despotism, in fine, which in one word
I shall characterise, as the despotism of the People over
themselves ! And does this definition of mine—think
You, Sir—demand a more unequivocal elucidation ? Do
the so called Representatives of the People, so truly,
and fully, and faithfully represent their feelings., and
wishes, and interests, as to stand shielded from the
sting that this description carries, and not feel that they
are justly pointed at in this character of Dzszor ? If
they deny it, shall not the world scout the denial—if
they seek to palliate, will it not reject indignantly the
palliation?
It is there, then—and there alone—that we must
probe for the seat of the disease ; for the root, and home
—as it were—of the lurking political gangrene. Deny
it who may, discord and faction are about to be rife in the
land, and disaffection to rear openly and boldly her un-
vizored front. All reverence for Government is fast disap-
pearing—all constitutional attachments are fading fast, be-