Star.
London, England, 1831-03-16 00:00:00

DIPLOMATIC PENSIONS.

Mr. 0 ISBORNE moved for a return of dates of all diplomatic and
consular pensions. whether included or not in the return of civil and
military offices ; the date of appointments and length of service of the
several persons receiving such pensions. The honourable member called
the attention of the house to the law on the subject, and to the enor.
mous amount of diplomatic pensions.
Lord ALTHORP did not rise to oppose the motion, but merely to
observe, that pensions to retired ambassadors were necessary to secure
able diplomatic agents. As to what should be the amount of those pen.
sions, that was a different question.
Mr. HUME would ask the late Chancellor of the Exchequer whe-
ther, during his administration, the regulations of the committee of
1428, that these pensions should not exceed 40,0001. per annum, had
been attended to /

_ .
GOULBURN said, that as far as he could recollect, the regu-
lations were uniformly adhered to.
Mr. LEN NARD doubted whether the regulations had been adhered
to by the late Government.
Motion agreed to.
Mr. GRATTAN moved for a copy of the memorial presented to
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, on the subject of the union of
Wicklow.

Mr. SHAW defended the conduct of Archbishop Magee.
Mr. C. W. WYNN thought no individual ought to hold so many
separate profits ; such proceedings were calculated not to increase the
re,peutability of the church.
Mr. O'CONNELL condemned these unions ; they were a scandal to
:he church establishment.
Mr. GOULBURN contended that there were circumstances in this
case which would justify this union, and that would be seen by the
production of documents.

31r. LEFROY, senior, said he should not oppose the motion, but
th was sorry it was made the medium, on various occasions, of clamour
4gainat the church.

31r. HUAI E lamented that such language was, adopted, and ob-
served that it was extraordinary to hear a learned gentleman so
'peak. Was it to be endured that the church of Ireland was to be
eo defended ; was it not a tissue of abuses from first to last? There
was scrambling every where ; " money, money, money," was the uni-
versal cry of the clergy in Ireland. But for them, and the animosities
they created, there would be no want of such an army as was now ob.
liged to be kept up there. That church must be reformed ' • its abuses
must be cut down, for Irishmen would be less than men if they were
katisfied with such things.
6. H ICE said the clergy did not deserve such a sweeping an-
"ore ; there were belonging to the church many excellent men ; at the
time he approved of the motion. He was a church reformer, and
a determined enemy to the union of parishes.
Motion agreed to.
Mr. C. V. WYNN moved for a Select Committee, to consider
l'ow far it may be expedient to relax the exercise of the privileges
this House, respecting the imposition of pecuniary penalties for
31r. H. HUGHES thought the object of the right hon. gentleman
was not sufficiently explained.
Mr. SPRING RICE said he could not well conceive any motion more
After some conversation between Mr. Huxx and Mr. WYNN, the
notion was agreed to.
'file report on the customs duty act was brought up and agreed to ;
-nil a bill ordered to be brought in.
The Canada Lands bill passed through a Committee, and was ordered
I) be read a third time tamorrow, as was also the Canada Lands
Ii
bill.

LONDON.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16.

By the Hamburgh Mails, we have received a Proclama-
tion to the Luxembourgers, from the REGENT and Govern-
ment of Belgium, written in a tone of valourous indepen-
dence, which we deem highly creditable to the political
virtue of the newly-elected Chief. It is the fashion of the
day to decry the Belgian Patriots. We have never done
so ; nor have we seen any point iu their conduct, which
merited the contemptuous tone used towards them by some
of the English Journals. Perhaps, never in the annals of
the world, has a Revolutionary Government, unfriended by
all around it, and with engines at work to destroy unanimity,
and produce disgraceful anarchy, conducted itself with
greater moderation, yet praiseworthy pertinacity to its prin-
cipal object. The Belgian revolution, up this date, we be-
lieve, is guiltless of civil murder—we moan guiltless of
executing men in cold blood for differences of political senti-
ment;—and that we think is speaking volumes in their
praise—at which, what are called regular governments might
blush.

With respect to the line of policy they pursue, it is un-
doubtedly most inconvenient to those Powers, who have
bound themselves to criminal contracts ; those Powers who,
with self-assumed authority, cut and parcelled out to each
other, the land of Europe geopraphically, without reference
to the volition of the people upon the land. This
was a criminal contract ; and only could last
as long as might could pass for right. Why are the
people of Luxembourg to belong to any government, but
those they may now deem most conducive to their interest ?
Is it not evident, that if Belgium is to be an independent
State, that the interests of the Luxembourgers are to form a part
of that State, rather than continue hanging on, by virtue of
some obsolete treaty—a kind of anomalous adjunct to an un-
wieldy heterogeneous empire ? The principles of the Holy
Alliance—the web woven by the METTERNICHS and CAS-
TLEREAOHS of Europe, are in fact obsolete, and the sooner
enlightened Governments, liberate themselves from the
mischievous superstitions of the Bond—the sooner will their
energies be efficiently devoted for the peace and happiness of
mankind.

BRUSSELS.
PROCLAMATION or THE RZORNT OT lIRLOII/M.
" Inhabitants of the Province of Luxembourg—
“ Fellow Citisens—l have sworn to maintain the independence and
integrity of the Belgian territory.
" I shall be faithful to my oath.
" Do not suffer yourselves to be seduced by promises, or terrified by
threats.

" The Congress has protested spinet the sets of the Congress at
London, which a great power itself considers only as proposals. The
nation which has bees able to vanquish the Dutch armies will maintain
the protest of its representatives. We began our revolution in spite of
the treaties of 1815; we will finish it in spite of the protocols of
London.

" Luxemhurghers, you have been for these three centuries Belgians
like us, and you have shown yourselves worthy of that name. Ever
since the reign of Philip the Good, your efforts, like ours, have had for
their object a common nationality.
" In 1816, you had, for the first time, chosen connection with Ger.
many ; but you have continued a time under the same institutions as
the rest of Belgium. In the Grand Duchy, as well as in the other
Belgic provinces, King William has broken the social compact which
united him to the Belgians, and has released them from their engage.
ments, by violating his own.
" War has decided between him and us : the legitimate authority, is
that which the national will has founded.

" You are not strangers to our combats and our victories—you have
spontaneously associated yourselves with the Belgic revolution, and the
names of your volunteers are inscribed in the history of our days.
" You already enjoy, as far as circumstances will permit, the benefits
of the revolution.

" The most odious taxes are abolished.—you have yourselves renewed
your communal authorities, and your *fairs are administered by men
of your own choosing.
" Your Deputies have concurred in giving to Belgium the Constitu-
tion which governs it.
" You have not forgotten the vexations of which you have been for
fifteen years the victims. Fear the return of the Dutch system of
taxation which has ruined your manufactures and your agriculture.
The men who speak to you of legal order, and who excite among you
civil war, are the agents, the accomplices, of the overthrown Go-
vernment ; they have lived by all the abuses, and they regret them.
Reduced to itself, separated from Belgium, France and Prussia
hemmed in on all sides by lines of custom-houses, your province, by
constituting itself span, would be the most wretched country on earth.
Luxemburghers remain united and firm. In the name of Belgium,
accept the assurance, that your brethren will never abandon you.
The Regent of Belgium.
E. L. SURLIT ox CHOKIIR.
By the Regent.
(Then follow the Signatures of all the Ministers.)
BRUSSEL/ PAPERII, MARCH 13.

It will be seen that the new French Ministry is at last
officially announced. There can be no doubt that M. C.
PERRIER and his colleagues are able and faithfully inclined
men ; but there can be no doubt, that so were their immediate
predecessors, and so were these designated the Doctrinaires.
The difficulties in French Government are not in the faults
of the Ministers, but in the restless, unemployed, and easily

excited population they have to govern. The sober-minded
politicians in France are honestly reluctant to commence
a new career of war, and uncertain glory or disaster. The
inclination of the young—the unemployed—the e,:citable
and we fear we may add, the majority of France, are adverse
to such tame doctrines. It is impossible to predict iu what
way the new Ministry may lean. '1 he passage we extract
below from Le Messager des Chandires considers C.
PERRIER not enthusiastically peaceful ; and the passage
from Le National, we apprehend, expresses the truth
of the future. The improvement in the French funds is
considered a pacific symptom. We shall be surprised if C.
PERRIER's Ministry sanction Austrian intervention, which
is the trying point at present.

Accounts from Warsaw come down to the 4th. The
General SitRZTNECKI was active in organizing the troops ;
and recruits pour in from the provinces, with all the weapons
which patriotism could supply. The Polish army in fact
consists of 60,000 men, besides a roserve at Czertochau,
daily increasing,--and such men must be an overmatch for
twice or thrice the number of their barbarian enemies. A
Russian corps d'armt'e remains near Pratm, and one
Cossacks have approached its walls ; but offensive operations
on their part have ceased. In truth we expect to hear that
SKRZYN ECK I Will attack and disperse this remnant of the
discomfited Russians ; and already a party of Poles have
crossed at Pulawa, higher up the Vistula, and surprized a
body of Russians, takinq nitarly 200 prisoners.
In the meantime the Royal Prussian Gazette has, with
breathless haste, published the Russian accounts of the bat-
tles of the 18th and 25th ; of course claiming victory, but
admitting a loss of 2,000 men in the first, and of 4,500 in
the second, and assigning greater loss to the Poles ! ,1t
Hamburgh the loss of the Russians is stated at 15,000,
and that of the Poles from sto 6,000. To baffle its own
Polish subjects, the Berlin Gazette then publishes notices,
to disarm any bands of dispersed Polish troops, which may
seek an asylum in Prussia; and states that troops arc as-
sembled on the Oder to intercept the remains of any Polish
army, which may attempt to open a passage to Bohemia,
Saxony, or France. It gives, however, no caution in re-
gard to Russian corps for the present aspect of affairs. We
think it far more likely, that bands of Russians will re-
quire the hospitality of the Prussian Government.
Any person who consults the maps will observe that the
proposed march of DIEBITSCH to Plock, is intercepted by
the Narew and Bug ; and by the swamps and marshes
which characterize the Banks of the Vistula ; while the
thaws of Spring will render the whole country a quag-
mire, by which it is characterized in this season by all
travellers. How few of 50,000 men will therefore reach
Plock, after a devious march of 100 miles through such
a track. It may be that some corps may endeavour to reach
Plock ; but we consider the announcement as a feint to dis-
guise the havoc which the season, famine, and the sword
have made in the Russian regiments.
The posture of affairs between Belgium and Holland, is
far from being auspicious. The protocols of the mediators
have thrown down the apple of discord ; and left the Bel-
gians to open the Scheldt, and possess themselves of Mae-
stricht and the citadel of Antwerp, only by force of arms.
From Italy, there is nothing in our Morning Papers, but
statements which the STAR published a week ago.
In part of our impression yesterday, we gave a copy of
the REFORM BILL, as relating to England, which we re-
publish to-day, for such of our 'readers as were yesterday
supplied with the early impressions of our paper. As a
piece of legal literature, it is equal to any production in our
Statute Book ; while in spirit and principle, it is a master-
piece
of Legislation. In its present form, verbatim et lite-
ratim, it constitutes a geometrical sphere ; and the smallest
part taken away or added, would destroy the symmetry and
harmony of the whole.
We make this observation at this time, for the purpose cf
warning the public against the meddling and tampering of
Committees ; fur it' the Fscrion cannot reject the whole
Bill, they will assail points, and weary the friends of the
measure into concessions. The object of that FACTION
will be to destroy or neutralize that which, as it now stands,
will in future be our GREAT CHARTER OF LIBERTIES.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FAA N CE.

The following is the list of the new French Ministry,
officially announced in the Moniteur of Monday :
1. U. Casimir-Petier, Secretary of State for the Interior, and Pre-
sident of the Council of Ministers. _ .

2. Baron Louis, to be Minister of Finance, in the room of M.
Laffitte whose resignation is accepted.
S. A 7. Barthe, to be Keeper of the Seals, Blinister of Justice, and
President of the Council of State._

4. Count de Montalivet, to be blinister of Public Instruttion and
Ecclesiastical Affairs, in the room of 11. Barthe.i
A Count d'Argout, to be Minister of Commerce and Public Works.
8. Vice-Admiral de Rigny, to be Minister of Marine, in the room of
Count d'Argout.
M. Sebastiani and Marshal Soult continue to hold their places.
The Messayer des Chanibres of Tuesday says—As for the question
of peace or war, though M. C. Perier has hitherto been a declared par.
tisan of peace, nothing authorizes us to believe that he is disposed to
sacrifice the national dignity to it.
At the commencement of the revolution in July liar was not believed
to be necessary: afterwards people thought it inevitable, but would have
us wait for it in our own frontier; now they formally require it. This
article concludes as follows Opinion feels that war or peace no
longer depends on us ; that the anti-constitutional Cabinets arc obliged
by the insurrection of the people to draw the sword against them,—
that is to say, against ourselves in the persons of those people whose
fate is united to ours. Hence the incontestable tendency of p ople's
minds towards war, which has gained over the coolest head., and at the
head of which the Government must soon place itself to have peace
at home."

se Nalionui of Monday speaks thus t—" After some reflections on
the conduct of the Government, in the choice of the Ministers, before
the ordinances were published, it adds in a postcricpt—• We have not
to wait till to.morrow ; a second edition of the Mouiteur appeals this
evening at 9 o'clock, and gives the Ministry of re .action in its irrevoca-
ble composition The Royalty of July has reached its Ath of August.
It engages in a desperate combat against the principle by virtue of which
it exists. It has made its choice for peace, at whatever price—it is
going to promise it to the country. It cannot keep what it will pro-
mise; the force of circumstances will be more powerful than it; war
will come ; and if, to be in a condition to resist Europe, France is obliged
to begin by vanquishing its government, we know not what to expect,
we dare not ask ourselves what we should .' foresee
It results from the enquiries that we have made, that Marshal
Maison, Ambassador from France at Vienna, has not arrived at Paris ;
that no person, either in the government or in his own family, knows
any thing of his return, and, In short, that at the moment of our writing
the news is not true.
POLAND AND RUSSIA.
The Kuryer Polski has the following remarks;
" Instead of actively assisting our cause, the French divert them-
selves, under the pretext of serving the Poles t they give balls, con-
certs, plays, and collect charitable contributions as for beggars. In this
mannerthey have got together some thousand francs. They may give

them, If they like, to some town in France that has suffered fro:r fire
We, Poles, are ready to contribute an equal share."
The St. Petersburgh papers contain the Russian account of the bat.
tic fought on the 18th near Alilosna, which is described as a brilliant
victory, and in which the Russians are represented to li.ire 2,0iAl
men, while the loss of the Poles moat have been considerably gt.ra.er.
Thsise papers also speak now, for the first time. of an insurrection whit Is
broke out last autumn among the mountaineers of the Cattiasus,
hearing of the French revolution. The insurrection, se art• tali,. a,.
quickly sopproled by Generals Pirikratjew ant! Emmanuel in a ma.. 1.,
glorious to the Russian arms.