Star.
London, England, 1830-02-03 00:00:00

MR. O IVEN.

CO THE LITERARY MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH
POPULATION.
The great object of your ambition is to acquire know-
!edge : but, while you are ignorant of the laws of your
antlire, what knowledge can you be supposed to attain,
apable of being applied to any useful or important
pirposes?
It has been said, that knowledge is power ; and it
inay be added, with equal truth, that kuowledgn is hap-
piness. You wish for both; but panes. neither, except-1
ing to a very limited extent.
The reason is obvious: the knowledge you have ob-
tained bas been that of lifeless or inferior objects; your
acquaintance with these has been limited, and the facts
you have discovered have been united to errors of such
magnitude, as to depreciate, and to render useless or in-
jurious, much of the knowledge which has been acquired,
and upon which, therefore, you set a most erroneous
estimate.

How little real benefit or happiness do the public de-
rive, from all your literary pursuits, and from all the es-
tablishments for the acquisition of learning, when com-
pared with the time therein consumed, and with the ex-
penditure, national and individual, which they involve !
It is sufficient, however, that the inutility of such pursuits
has, at length, become obvious ; and that a different di-
rection is about to be given to mental investigation, by
means of which man will obtain a knowledge of its own
nature ; and thus be enabled to make a right, and there-
fore beneficent use, of all the less useful or unimportant
knowledge now in his possession, or which be may here-
after acquire.
For the errors of the pest, no one, who has, by ac-
quiring a knowledge of the laws of human nature, been
rendered rational, will ever consider you as blameable.
'these errors have been the necessary, the unavoidable
results of the unfavourable and vicious circumstances in
which all have been trained, and under which you have
hitherto been compelled to live. In giving a new
direction to the pursuits of many of your number ;
and in re-modeling, and thus rendering efficient for
the prosecution of future important designs, the
greater proportion of your establishments, your beet
interests would be consulted ; for by this proceeding,
the greatest amount of real happiness would be afforded
and permanently secured to all. If it be a truth (and
such all known facts prove it to be) that man never
possessed the power of feeling and of thinking as he
pleases ; but that he feels and thinks in obedience to the
laws of his nature, then do your theological studies,
your law investigations, your moral systems, and your
theories of government, rest upon an error which is-inde-
fensible, and which can no longer be upheld in opposi-
tion to public opinion.
By this single, simple, and now almost the best ascer-
tained and most obvious of all abstract truths, it being in
the power of every one to demonstrate it for himself,
your learned treatises on divinity, law, morals, and go-
vernment, are rendered, not only of no avail, but are
proved to be a positive evil to the world, in consequence
of their filling the mind with confused and fanciful
images and notions, which perplex, confound, and ulti-
mately destroy all the rational faculties which belong to
human nature.

The training which man has thus received through
past ages, has made him a weak, imbecile, and miser-
able animal, instead of a superior, intelligent, and ra-
tional being ; a character which each individual is des-
tined to acquire, as soon as society shall obtain a know-
ledge of human nature, and shall live under circum-
stances in unison with its laws.

In the promotion of this great change, all the powers
of your mind may, most advantageously for yourselves
and others, now be called into requisition. A new reli-
gion, a new code of laws, a new moral system, a new
theory of government, and a new science of education,
will shortly be found indispensable.
Rmional books of instruction for the rising generation,
and a 'complete collection of the most useful real objects,
or the best representations of these, with correct explana-
tions of each, will also be immediately required.
The history of past ages too, in order to, answer any
useful purpose, must be entirely re-written.
But in assisting to render perfect the science of the
formation of human character, by a full development ot
the influence of circumstances in producing vice or virtue,

misery or happiness, among the human race, your services
will be found the most important.
The change, then, which, in consequence of a know-
ledge of the laws of human nature being obtained, is now
about to become general, will be highly favourable to the
advancement of your future views and proceedings.
Every thing must, of necessity, assume a new cha-
racter; but the whole arrangement of circumstances pro-
posed being in strict accordance with nature, the ebony.
must unavoidably produce universal satisfaction and
happiness.

ROBERT OWEN.

M, BeUord.aquare, February 1, 1830.

SA LONICA, DEc. 25.—This winter is exceedingly ri-
gorous; the Vardar is frozen in all the upper part of its
course ; the mountains as well as the plains are covered
with snow in Macedonia. The flocks are perishing in
their folds, where they are frequently attacked by nu-
merous bands of wolves. It is said that the Danube is
entirely frozen : nobody remembers having experienced
such insensity of told. The lakes are like a huge mass
of crystal, and are surrounded with swans and other birds
unknown to this country. Numbers of wild geese and
(icks cover the islands of the Egean Sea; it is not un-
likely that it will even spread into Egypt.
EXTENSION 07 THE NEW POLICE TO THE EASTERN
DISTRICTS.—Notices have been received in the greater
number of the parishes constituting the wide and extensive
jurisdiction of the Tower Hamlets, of the intention of the
executive office of Police, the Secretary for the Home
Department, and his coadjutors, the Commissioners, of
introducing forthwith, and extending the benefits of
the new Metropolitan Police, and placing it in substi-
tution of the old parochial officers and watch, hich ex-
perience has proved, from its clashing, and siffereuce in
its controul, to be both inoperative and ineffective. The

announcement under the statute has been officially made,
and bills have been posted on the church-doors, commu-
nicating to the inhabitants that the change was about to
take place, and notifying to them that on the 9th instant
they would be no longer under the protection of the old
watch, but that the future protection of their lives and
properties would be entrusted to the vigilance and pro-
tection of the New Police. Bodies of the new force,
under the conduct of Herring, the Superintendent, were
yeatetiay• inspecting the district, preparatory to•their
entering, on teem duty, and taking possession of it on
Tuesday next.