Star.
London, England, 1825-04-11 00:00:00

GHENT, APRIL 7.

While the English Government is departing from
the system of commercial prohibition and intolerance
which it has hitherto followed, and when all other
Governments are applauding its liberal views, and will
probably lose no time in following its example, the
French Ministry alone perseveringly continues, in its
system of commercial duties, the same retrograde
course as in all its other conceptions. It is well
known that M. de Villele has succeeded in acquit.
leg, in the Chamber of Deputies,
.such a prepon-
derating infinence, that the Committees appointed
the projects of law, are no more than the
411,40 Selma of the Ministry. It is to this very evident
gladdeelt4i the Members of that Chamber that we
mamoteswishat*npirit which is manifested in the report
-11014103.15.01110. the new law proposed fee the du-
. 41464 e observe that certain concessions
avs4,o, t or the Netherlands pay
*arm, and in Mder to obtain As re.

~ .1 k. )11111111

/vocation of the measures of reprisal taken by our Sow&
reign; but it is also evident that these concession* are
so Illusory that it is highly probable our Ministry will
not be caeght by them, especially as the interest of our
linen manufacturers does not oblige them to desist from
requiring what is • just, since England has opened its
numerous 'markets to this important branch of our na-
tional industry. It is evident that the present conduct
of grant*, with respect to foreign manufactures, tends to
nothing less than to insulate itself completely, and to
piece it really in the situation in which Napoleon de-
signed to place England by his Continental System.

We have received the French Papers of Friday and
Saturday. Their contents are of little importance.
An article in the Quatidienne talks of a quadruple alli-
ance of the four great Powers of the Continent, with
views inimical to England, and when obstacle: would
be raised to the inuoduction of our manufactures,
which would be favourable to French commerce..
This is one of the absurd and clumsy fabrications in
which the French journalists occasionally indulge, and
which have their origin in entry against this country.

New York Papers to the sth March, and Boston Pa-
pers one day later, have reached us. One of them states
that the Mexican Congress had passed a decree imposing
an additional duty of three per cent. on foreign mer-
chandise sent into the interior, to enable the respective
States to defray the expense of their local government,
and contribute their quota of direct contributions to the
general Government. These Papers contain intelligence
from St. Thomas's, confirming the account of the de-
structive fire which took place at that town in February
last. About four or five hundred houses and 100 stores
bad been destroyed in the west part of the town; some
accounts state the number of buildings destroyed at
twelve or thirteen hundred.

We have received the Madrid Gazelles of the 26th
and 27th ult. They contains letter from the late Vice-
roy of Peru, dated the 18th of October, and therefore
nearly two months antiertor to his defeat and capture,
in which he returns thanks for the favours bestowed
upon him and the Army by FERDINAND, and promises
to exert himself to the utmost to bring the war to a
successful termination. That he seems to have kept his
promise must be allowed, for he mustered and brought
superior forces against the Colombians and their Allies ;
but his exertions, as we have already seen, entirely
failed, and the triumph of the Independents has been
complete. These Gazettes also publish fresh:reports of
BOLIVAR'S repulses I We know no good purpose this
system of delusion can answer, since Spain has not the
means of sending out a new army to South America,
were troops ready to undert-tke nigh a forlorn hope.

We have received Barbadoes Papers to the ISth of
February. D'Eovuze, who was convicted of the mur-
der of his wife, had been executed. Sir HENRY WA RDE
had left the Island on a tour of inspection of the garri•
sons in the Leeward Islands, and J. B. SKEET. Esq. had
been sworn into the administration of Government
doling his absence. On the 16th of February arrived
at Barbadoes his Majesty's ship Eocata, 26 days from
Plymouth, last from Madeira, having on board two
Commissioners and two King's Messengers, destined
for South America.

Demerara Papers and Letters have been received to
the 26th of February. The latter state, that the Co-
lony still suffered severely from excessive drought.—
Such a succession of sultry weather had not been expe-
rienced for 20 years: the crops were absolutely burnt up.
A Royal Order in Council, was promulgated on the

17th of February, by his MAJESTY'S command, tem•
porarily providing, that the Acts already promulgated
of the Lieutenant-Governor and Court of Policy, shall
have the validity of Laws till the 51st December, 1826'
—subject, however, to repeal by his MAJESTY, before
that period; that Acts to be passed, be approved by his
MAJESTY; and signified by the Secretary of State, be.
fore operation, unless of great urgency and importance ;
and, finally, that nothing shall extend to authorise the
enactment of any Statute, Act, Law, or Ordinance, which
may be repugnant to the laws of England I

In the Sraa of Wednesday last, we alluded to an
official note published in the Monileur of the preceding
Saturday, relative to claims preferred against England,
by certain inhabitants or proprietors of St. Domingo,
for indemnification for loss of property, which k is al•
leged they suffered by, and during the occupation of
part of that island by the British troops between the
years 1793 and 1798. It is to be hoped, however, that
the British Government, taught by past experience,
will act with extreme scrupulousness, before they listen
to any real or pretended claim of that nature. When
St. Domingo was partly occupied by the British troops,
the French Negroes were, and had been in a state
of open insurrection against their own proprietors,

fur causes best known to the latter. How, tblia,could
the right of property be established under *uch a
state of things? And under what pee mild Great
Britain be called upon for the restitution of property
which had no existence?

The loud demands for indemnification set np by the
St. Domingo Proprietors, at that time, were so incessant
and exorbitant, that Government was induced to grant
pensions to a number of persona who had no solid claim
to anything, and with the view of investigating, and
reducing, if possible, their demands for reparation
within moderate bounds, they sent out a very able and
active Officer, the late Lieutenant-General Sir JAM=
Smoot, who rendered essential service in detecting
many glaring abuses and &ramie: practised by the
artful French Colonists upon British generosity. The
death of that lamented Officer, vflry soon niter his return
to Britain, seems to have been favourable to the sinister

Iv' of 'these claiinitits. A reference, however, tot
ricers * living, who served in3t. Domingo at the
t in question, as well as a mina,: exatnination of the
ninsactions and documents of that period, ivOuldthrow
some light upon the nature of the claims ; and spew
hoiv far Great Britain can in justice be called upon to
make any, and what, satisfaction for such demands.