Star.
London, England, 1831-01-25 00:00:00

The freedom of the City
seated to Lord Sidmouth.

Norwich was last week pre-

A vessel has arrived from Terceira with the Marquis of
Palmells, it is said, on board.
Yesterday the despatches were closed at the East India
House and delivered to the pursers of the following ships,
vis. Thames, Captain James Keith Forbes, Bengal and
China ; General Kyd, Captain Alexander Nairne, I. He-
lena, Bombay, and China.
It is not the intention of the Admiralty to appoint, in
future, Admiralty Midshipmen or Admiralty Clerks to his
Majesty's ships, but those at present holding appoint-
ments will not be deprived of them until their present
ships shall be paid off, and hereafter they will be in-
cluded in the complement.
An order has been issued by the Lords Commissioners of
the Admiralty to discontinue citogether the serving of beer
to thu Nary, nor 169 wine to issued, except in particular
' CJSC4. The men ate to have an additional •tl.e•Alr.ce rf

NMoNMOPI

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.
NOT 1.
......=ll
AV. Ae National elf Priddy.
PARIS.

SAN. 21.—There is nothing talked of in the salons but the
new cods relative to theatricals, and which was presented to
the Chamber of Deputies by M. Montana. On the one
hand, those who are indifferent on the subject amuse them.
selves at the academic* ronuuttic flourishes thrown into this
expose of law ; and on the other, the poor authors, actors,
actresses, and managers of theatres have been reduced to
dreadful state of alarm at the sight of so formidable an array
of fines, notices, and imprisonments which fill up the minis-
terial project. As to our opinion, without approving of the
whole of this complicated tissue of proceedings and useless
regulations, we, however, are glad to discern in the present
project a liberal intention, and a decided improvement, in
avoiding any thing like preventive measures. Besides, the
intervention of a jury will counteract any improper effect which
this new penal enactment might create.

F ram the Cotirrier Promote tif Saturday.
HANOVER, JANUARY IS.
" PROCLA RATION .

" WILLIAM IV, &C.

" The inhabitants of our city of Gottingen, which has
been loaded with favours by us, and our predecessors in the
Government, having been so ungrateful as to revolt against
the lawful order of things, and having under a specious
pretext, formed, of their own authority, a self-named Coun-
cil—at the same time creating, without permission, a burgher
guard—such disturbances being inconsistent with that tran-
quillity necessary for the pursuit of studies, we order that
the course of our Universities shall be closed until Easter ;
and we direct all Professors to discontinue their functions
from the present moment.
" We also order all the Hanoverian subjects studying at
the present period in Gottingen to return home immediately,
and all those who shall disobey this injunction shall be inca-
pacitated from ever entering into the service of the State.
At the same time, we call on all strangers pursuing their
studies at Gottingen to leave that city without delay. The
discontinuance of the course rendering their stay completely
unnecessary, we shall consider their remaining after tbie no-
ties, or entering into the Burgher Guards, as a participation
bt the rebellion of the town's people and inhabitants of Got-

tingen. - -
" The Academical Senate of our University of George
Augustus will intimate to all students the contents of the
present proclamation, and will see that it is carried into
execution.

" ADOLPHUS FREDERIC. Governor-OtOstil;
and the Privy Councillors of thc % nglo-Hanoverian Cabin:.
" Haltom, Jan. 12."

FIVIII Ow Manger dies Ckstabres of Saturday.
PARIS.

22.—One of the children born in the commune of
Pellerin, and registered at the Mayor's office, was taken
yesterday to M. Mouchet to be baptised. Philippe was one
of the Christian names given to this child.
The vicar refused in positive terms to baptise the child
under the name of Philippe. The entreaties of the god-
father and godmother had no effect upon M. Mouchet. "It
is all the same," said one of the child's relations, in an an-
gry tone, " he was baptized at the mayor's, and that will do
as well "

A complaint was, however, made to the mayor, who trans-
mitted an account of the matter to the sub-prefect of Paint-
boenf—we shall soon see what may be the result.
Napoleon has had, still has, and will always have admirers
in Europe ; but it could never have been imagined that he
would have had admirers in China. However, we have been
informed by an English Missionary at Java, that in the vil-
lage of Buitensorg, near Batavia, where there is a colony of
2,000 Chinese, he observed a portrait of Napoleon in a gilt
frame, before which some of the Chinas burned incense,
offering up prayers and singing hymns night and morn-
ing, in honour of that great man.

Teen Galisnsani's Momper.
The proceedings of the extraordinary Assizes for the De-
partment of the Maine and Loire, which have been occupied
for the greater part of a month with the trials of the incen-
diaries that have for so long a time spread conflagration and
terror through the country, terminated on Tuesday, when
the following sentences were pronounced :—The girl Cholot,
aged 19, to Death—(she has presented a petition to the
king for grace) ; Louis Duces, alias Camber, alias Gauthier,
aged 40, to hard labour for life, with the pillory and brand-
ing ; Louis Noel, aged 45, to six years hard labour, the pil-
lory, and branding ; Louis Bonniere, aged 14, to 10 years'
imprisonment ; Alex. Ferrien, aged 12, to 10 years imprison-
ment ; Charles Buet, aged 29, to six years' solitary confine-
ment ; the girl Boucher, aged 14, to five years' solitary con-
finement. The whole of the last named will undergo the
pillory. The convicts are further condemned to pay the costs
of the prosecution, and to remain for the rest of their lives
under the surveillance of the police. Seven men and two
women were acquitted. It Is expected hat the convicts will
make some discoveries.
The Corsica Journal contradicts the rumours of disturb-
ances having broken out in that island.

. minute. We ought to remember at once the difficulty and the va-
lue of a first step towards amendment. It must inevitably lead to more ;
sad, as the harbinger of more, be it welcomed.

HERALD.—Having taken an earnest and anxious part in recom-
mending that the lives of the remaining men left for execution under
the Special Commissions should be spared, we feel a corresponding
satisfaction at finding that both Lush and Withers, whole awful doom
had been pronouncedat Salisbury, under the tragical circumstance,
have been reprieved, and that respites have been forwarded to Aylesbury
in stay of the execution of Blisszard and Sarney, with a view to a cam.
mutation of punishment. This is a circumstance gratifying to huma-
nity, and will make a more salutary and moral impression on the classes
of distressed labourers and artisans, who engaged in the late
disturbances, than could have been produced by the effusion of
blood. Government deserve credit for at length attending to
the voice of public opinion on this subject, and advising the sovereign
to interpose the noblest attribute of the prerogative between so many
victims and the uplifted axe of the stern law. Of the convict Holder s,
we have heard nothing, but presume that be will not nose be made a so-
litary exception to the lanky of the Crown. The taking of a single life
in consequence of the late disturbances is to be regretted. The laws
that confound the offences of rioters and machine-breaker with the guilt
of the deliberate murderer are not to be justified on any sound principle
of justice, policy, or morals. It is time for legislators to teach
the people that life is too sacred to be made a mere political
sacrifice for offences that imply no heinous depravity of heart—too
noble a gift of the Creator to be set at no higher value than
the price of a rsg.grinding machine or a spinning-jenny I It is time
to humanise the law of a country which has had the benefit of the
civilizing Influence of the Gospel for at least twelve hundred years !
While sciencc--while literature—while the arts that gam and em-
bellish life have advanced td a high degree of excellence, have our moral
faculties been asleep, that justice even in the nineteenth century,
appear in unnatural alliance with the principles of barbarism ? How long
shall England possess the disgraceful distinction of having a collection of
criminal laws more sanguinary than those of any.other country in Europe,
with the exception perhaps of Turkey, where life has no more value,
than the wantonness and caprice of a benighted despotism chooses to
assign to it, and where the tyrant's will is law ? Until the Legislature
interposes to reform effectually the criminal laws of England, we hope
they will be, for the future, so administered as to make their practice
mote consistent with the principles of Christian civilisation, and pre-
pare the mind for that judicious and enlightened change which public
opinion demands and expects.

Hanar.n.—Oreat misconception appears to prevail in the public
mind as to the legal nature of the charge under which Mr. O'Connell
and others have been arrested and held to bail. The gist of the alleged
offence is stated in the Dublin Papers to consist in conspiring to
evade the lord Lieutenant's proclamations," and several LondonJour.
nals have commented upon ft as if the information were laid under
the Act which gives the I.ord Lieutenant's proclamations the force of
law. Now, if we understand the ease at all, no violation of the provi-
sions of that Act, which is the 10th George IV. has been committed,
nor is any such offence charged against Mr. O'Connell, nor indeed any
offence, under any Statute whatever, but a misdemeanour, cognisable
by the common law only, as is the case with most conspiracies.
A conspiracy to evade the Lord Lieutenant's proclamation must be •
conspiracy to effect either a lawful or an to lawful purpose. If an un-
lawful purpose, then that purpose, if carried into effect, must be Itself
indictable. Yet, who ever beard of any person being indicted fot an
evasion of the law, or an evasion of any particular Statute, or of any
proclamation ? We doubt that a conspiracy to obstruct such
proclamations can come under the cognizance of the common law,
for this latter law is founded on ancient immemorial usage, and the Lord
Lieutenant's proclamation are unconstitutional novelties, of which the
common law knew nothing. Much more do we doubt that a con-
spiracy to evade those proclamations can be so Indicted ; and the
Statute itself has made no provision against such a conspiracy, which,
if it means any thing, means a preconcerted determination to abstain
from doing any thing that may be a violation of the law ; and It is
only a direct violation that the law can reach, for there is no principle
of British jurisprudence more settled than that a penal law cannot be
extended by implication to punish any act not defined or expressed in
the Statute itself. So fir for this question as a matter of law. Of the
policy of Lord Anglesey's proceedings we have spoken before. We
say that his proceedings are calculated to disgust men of conadtotional
principles, and will go farther towards effecting a Repeal of the Union
than any influence which Mr. O'Connell could have possibly brought
to bear upon the subject.

CODBETT'S Itruisrsit,...-.Now,—Kh Ministers, if you be con-
vinced, as I hope you are, that thefires have been set by the labourers
without instigation from any body; that the means of terror or of pu-
nishment are not calculated to put an end to the fires ; and that the
fires, unless effectually put a stop to, may become far more extensive
than they have hitherto ban; if you be convinced of these truths, as
I hope you are, it only remains for me to Mat eon to you what I
deem the proper and effectual means of putting aMy to these fires ;
and these means arc as follows: 1. To issue a pardoning
all the offenders of every description, whether tried se siot,upes unseeing
into sureties to keep the peace for a year, and bash thins who
have already been seat away, and including ebbs= pardea ea the
like terms. Oh ! gentlemen, think et[ the
with which you would thus fill all the bosoms in all the in
these beautiful counties And think of the gratitude with yes
would fill those bosoms towards yourselves • and. above MI digs,
think of the blessings which, coming from the hearts of fathers and
mothers and children and brothers and sisters, you would brio: down
upon the head of your royal master.-2. To repeal Sturges Bourne's
two bills, and thereby restore to the rate-payers their rights, restore
the power of the native overseers, and restore to the justices of the
peace their former power of ordering relief, without which the indigent
pco.,r can have no sure protection.-5. To pass an act, making it a nth-
demeanour punishable with heavy fine and imprtsooment for any over-
seer or other person in parochial authority to subject the indigent poor
to work like beasts of burden, to put them' up at suction, or otherwise
wantonly to degrade them, taking as the preamble of the bill that text
of holy writ which says, Oppress not the poor because he he poor !"
4. To repeal all the acts which have been passed relative to the game
since the late King George the Third mounted the throne. and parti.
vitally that act which punishes poaching with transportation, which
act has filled the county gaols with prisoners, which has trebled the
county rates, which has thrown a burden on all the people in order to
preserve the sports of the rich, which has filled the breasts of all the
villagers of England with vindictive feelings, which has been the cause
of endless affrays between poachers and keepers, and which in conjunc-
tion withLd./Gleaborougles act has brought scores of men to the gallows.
5. To pass an act to repeal and uttarly abolish Ellenborough's act,
which, by making it a capital felony to strike a man with a heavy in-
strument without killing him, or to use deadly weapons in your own
defence against a gamekeeper, though without killing him, puts the
striker in the one case and the defender in the other, upon a level with
the wilful, premeditating, cool, and cruel murderer, tends to confound
all notions of discrithination in crime; tends to harden men's hearts,
and weaken in them every sense of justice and humanity. Now, gen-
tlemen, these are, in soy firm conviction. the only effectual means of
putting a stop to the fires which now terrify and disgrace this once
great and happy England. That they are easy of execution, and speedy
and quiet, you know well; fur you know that they all may be
accomplished in about forty-eight hours after the meeting of
Parliament; and you know that the proclamation may be
issued to-morrow, and that is the great thing of a 11...-
1 propose to you nothing new, be it observed; not only nothing revolu-
tionary but nothing new do I propose ; nothing but a return, in four
apparently unimportant particulars, to the long-established laws of the
land ; nothing do I propose touching the property of any body of per-
sons ; nothing to meddle with any institution of the country, even so
far u to correct its acknowledged abuses ; but I simply propose an act
of graciousness and lgoodneas which would reflect eternal honour on
yourselves and on the king, the love of whose people to Min it is your
first duty to preserve; and I propose to you the repeal of four acts
which you yourselves, upon reflection, must lament to see in the statute.
book. And gentlemen, if you believe that these measures would extin-
guish the fires, you will sot, I am lute, suffer false peke to restrain
you from the performance of a duty eo sacred. There is no remedy but
that which goes to the root of the evil. That root is In the hearts if
the people : you must extract the root or tear out the heart, or the evil
tut remain.

Yesterday the most remarkable glut of Dutch plaice ever
I%itnessed in any market was seen at Billinsgate. Crowded
a 4 the market was with dealers, the salesmen could not get
purchasers for hundreds of bushels of the plaice, and great
quantities were sold for a penny a dozen, although each
weighed upon an average 31b. One salesman, after a fruitless
endeavour to sell nearly a hundred bushels of Dutch plaice,
went to Mr. Go!thump, the clerk of the market, and request-
ed that he would dispose of them as he pleased. The sales-
man had offered them at the rate of 50 for 4d. and as he
could not procure that wretched trifle for them, be would
aot trouble hi.: self about them any more. Mr. Goldham
l‘ent to the Lord Mayor to learn what he should do
ith the fish, and his lordship immediately ordered him
divide them amongst the poor. It is remarkable,
!at, notwithstanding this glut of fish, which has existed
a full week, the price of fish all over the town is
• high as usual. It is peculiarly desirable that
poor should be aware of the enormous quantities of
vellent plaice in the market ; for it has been some time
ea,e that Billingsgate-market has been able to supply
;as fur large families at the rate of a halfpenny or a
' !my a family. This extraordinary glut has arisen in a
i.leasure from the check upon Billingsgate thieves.

STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
MANUFACTURES-PAPER CURRENCY-FOREIGN
MARKETS-THE WOOL TRAWL

In consequence of our invitations, we have been favoured
with the following most intelligent letter, from a well-known
and most respectable manufacturer, in one of the most po-
pulous districts of the clothing and blaiiket manufacturers, of
the West Riding. The extensive and rapidly-increasing
sale of the STAB, in all the manufactories of the kingdom,
enables us to promise our Readers a series of similar commu-
nications from other districts, of course far superior in
value and interest to the subdued and qualified reports of local
Editors, on such subjects :

Near Halifax, Jan. 20, 1831.

Every thing progresses from worse to worse. If there be
trade there is no profit, and he is deemed a very clever fel-
lOw who can make common interest on his capital.
The operatives in this neighbourhood have been much
better off than their employers, there having yet been no
diminution in wages ; but the time is fast approaching when
they will be in a like state with their agricultural brethren ;
and if they be, then comes an accumulation of difficulties.

The masses of men which Yorkshire and Lancashire can
produce, will be of a different complexion from the
petty mobs of the farming districts of the south. For in-
stance, I was one of the chief supporters of -, during
the late Yorkshire election, and when he visited this place,
although the neighbourhood had only three hours notice of
his intention, yet be bad an audience of 20,000 persons
assembled in the yard of a manufacturer's premises ! ! !
I have long foreseen the calamities we are now experiencing;
but until the change in our monetary system, I did not ex-
' pest them to their present extent in my time, but I fear now
I shall see them horribly increased, if the Government does
not interpose, and retrace its steps. In my opinion, neither
Cobbett, nor Attwood, nor reform, can save us alone. We
are too far gone, and require part of each, to be combined
with some bold and stupendous stroke of a new and novel
policy, on the part of the present or some other Ministry.
We have now to lift up the great bulk of the population
from pauperism and degradation, which must be done, and
INSTANTLY, or anarchy will speedily overtake us, and ten
days of it will ruin the country for twenty years to come.
There is, however, a specific remedy, and in our posses-
sion, too, which could be instantly applied, and cannot fail
in its effect. My plan would be to borrow from 50 to 100
millions on the poor rates, in order to build cottages on the
sides of turnpike roads, and then to colonise on portions of
the best land, say from one to. five acres to each
family, according to its number, and want of employ-
ment, so that when their labour is not required by the
large farmers, every individual may be fully and profitably
employed. Fix a rent of average value of the land in the
parish, which the peasant farmers will soon be able to pay,
and one half of the amount of the present poor rate will be
more than sufficient to pay the interest of the loan, which
together with the cottage rents, would probably repay it in
twenty years.

Adopt this plan, and it will abolish work-houses, and ad-
vance and elevate the present degraded state and character
of the peasantry, rendering them again consumers of the
produce of the shuttle and the flail, which atpresent they are
not, nor ever can be, but by the adoption of this very mea-
sure combined with reform, retrenchment, and a return to
the paper money system, under certain regulations.
It was the paper money which created every thing which
we have now, more than we had forty years ago
all the mills and machinery—the warehouses—the ships--
the dwelling-houses —the useful and ornamental furniture—
the public buildings—the roads and canals, with all the vast
improvements at home and abroad, and, most important of all,
the increase of population, and of human intellect, which
has produced each a general refinement, that when compared
with the state of forty years ago, it makes that period ab-
solutely barbarous.
Sir,—We can no more do without paper-money than the
water-wheel which has been at work for the last forty years,
with a full supply of water, can now perform as much work,
when one half the water has been taken away.
Without paper-money we must go back to the state we
were in forty years ago, when this town and others in this
neighbourhood, had not more than one-fifth of the po-
pulation they now have. This cannot be; the people
will live, and endeavour to live as well as they can ;
and nothing can prevent them, even if it comes to the
levelling of all ranks and distinctions, leaving every one to
earn his own bread by the sweat of his brow ; which will in-
evitably be the case, if the remedies within our present con-
troul be not soon applied.

That distress exists, is now universally admitted—we
have plenty of proofs of it in all sorts of ways ; but I
will mention one, arising out of the state of one of the
branches of our local manufactures. For instance, we say
that in the empire we have five and a half millions of families,
which, if but tolerably well off, would consume annually one
blanket each, of the weight of four and a half pounds—not
very large at that— which, at the present price, will cost
6s. 9d. and requires 61b. of wool to make it, at 9d. per lb. or
125,500 packs,lof 2401b5. each. Now it may be proved, that
there is not machinery in this trade, in the empire, capable
of working up more than about 80,000 packs, and that this
machinery, from want of demand, during the past five years,
has not been employed more than about three parts of the re-
gular working hours of eleven per day on the average, and
that at least one half of the produce is for export demand.
From this you will see, that our own population is of
little or no use, as customers or consumers of the manufac-
tures of the country, and of course will become less and
less so.

During the late great depression of the price of wool, li
we experienced a large demand for export, but not for,
home consumption ; so that foreigners could afford to pur-
chase, when our own population could not: a proof 01'1
which we had during the whole of the year 1829, and up to
the Midsummer of last year, when wool was about half its
present price ; and if our home consumers could not then
afford to purchase, it is fair to conclude that they cannot,

now, because they are in a worse situation, and less
able now.

We also expect that the present comparative high price,
will curtail the late foreign demand for goods composed of
English wool ; and, at the presetit moment, we experience
this; some houses in this vicinity—which are the largest
consumers, not having orders on their books to the amount
of 2001. Of course they would be at a dead stand, if they
bad not had laid in a large stock, when wool was lower;
which they are now sparingly giving out to their work-
men, on speculation for a foreign demand next summer.
Thus the foreigners have run away with all the cheap
goods ; and the stock of wool is so reduced, that some are
of opinion that if the consumption should be equal to what
it has been, that there is not in the country enough to sup-
ply it until the next shear time in June and July.
The Americans, French, and Germans are now also be-
come large buyers of English wool, even at the present prices;
which it appears they can manufacture cheaper than we can ;
so that by and bye we shall see our whole produce carried
into other countries to be manufactured, in order to prevent
which, I apprehend it will be necessary to return to the
prohibitory system of non-exportation.
But all this must be prevented by getting the people into
profitable employment.
I have stated that 125,500 packs of wool, for blankets
only, ought to be required for home demand ; which is about
one fourth part of the produce of the empire ; and if I extend
the calculation in the same way to flannels, worsted stuffs,
common clothing, and all the endless varieties of goods
fabricated from English wool, and which this country would
require, while in a flourishing state, we should have to
import at least 150,000 packs of wool to supply the de-
mand, besides all the fine wool for clothing of the upper
classes as neither you nor I wear any home grown wool,
but in flannel or hosiery.
The same reasoning will apply to the cotton and silk ma-1
nufactures, &c.

The blanket trade, however, is the best proof of the po-
verty, because next to food, this article is the most essential,
and we find that the five millions and a half families do
not, high and low, rich and poor, consume more than 20d. in
wool annually ! !!
The main point is, whether we could, or could not, get
on without any export. I think we could, if all the popu-
lation get into employment at good wages; but with free
trade to both the Indies, in addition, we could defy the
world—nay, we could even pay the present taxes; but I
would likewise have reform, and also the bated and abused
paper-money system, which has given us all we now enjoy,
more than we had fifty years ago. • • •