Star.
London, England, 1830-07-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

T 1 strs.—A thousand questions are asked, and the keenest cu.
riosity evinced, with respect to the state of France I The questions
can only be answered, or the curiosity satisfied, by the narration of
events as they occur ; for we will really cot take upon us to pro-
phesy what will be the result of the late extra constitutional attack
open the chartered rights of the people. We will not even attempt
to predict one hour what may happen the next, for popular move•
molts are more uncertain than the changes of the wind ; and
where bloodshed is hazarded, we at least sball be cautious of
saying any thing calculated to produce excitement on either
side. We will not urge others on to dangers in which we cannot
participate. We are friends to liberty ; and if we were to be
asked how liberty was to be secured in France without insurrection
and revolt,'"we could hardly say ; but in this country the tribunals
and juries would afford the next civil resource. If the same or
similar remedies exist in France ; let those who think the late or.
dinance of the King illegal bring the matter to a trial, either by
refusing the taxes, and obliging the Court to sue for them, or by
commencing process against those who have broken up the print-
ing-presses. If juries, chosen from the people, decide in favour
of the Court in these cases. there is an end of the matter for the
present, and the French people cannot have liberty, and the
charter, because they are unworthy of them. But if, as it is
more natural to expect, juries decide in favour of the subject, then
the King must either dismiss his present Ministers, and recall his
late edict, and give back the charter pure and unsophisticated,
or he must shut up the courts of law ; and this last step would
of course dissolve all allegiance, and be the signal for a civil
war,—if the French have any eivil.war blood in them. Reasoning
and legitimate resources would be at as end, and brutal force would
take their place. If, as it is stated, a protest has been signed by a
great number of the Peers in France. against the obnoxious edict,
this measure may have great effect upon the Royal mind, and the
minds of his Majesty's ministers. For our own parts we think that
the objection taken to the edict has great force,—that in annulling a
Parliament which has never sat for the dispatch of business,—in die.
solving a legislative body which has never been assembled, it fires a
shot into a vacant space,—it does nothing ; and that the deputies
chosen must at least meet once before they can be dismissed. But sup-
pose the new little departmental Parliament, chosen, according to the
rules prescribed in the Royal edict, were, when assembled, to lean
to the popular side, where would the King then be? And if it were to
lean to the King's aide, where would the little Parliament itself be?
• Does his Majesty expect to govern France by means of an oligarchy
of 258 members ? if so, he would soon find himself the slave of
that oligarchy, instead of the ruler of the nation. He would not
dare to bestow a place or confer an honour, except on its members
or their connexions. Ile had better at once throw himself upon the
affections of his people, than enter upon such a course, even it he
could run it with success.

HERALD —We do not remember such an instance of political
self.condemnation as the friends of the Ministry seem inclined to
exhibit at the ensuing General Election. At not one single place,
as yet, where popular feeling can show itself, has a single candidate
started avowedly as a Ministerial man ; while, in places where the
popularity of the government might be put most unequivocally to
the test, all is silent as the grave. In Middlesex, the metropolitan
county, where votes are more equally distributed between men of
all descriptions than in any other—if we except, perhaps, the
counties of York and Lancaster—Mr. Hume, the most indefa-
tigable opponent of Government, is, it seems, to be allowed
quietly to walk over the course; while in Westminster, com-
prising that part of the metropolis in which the very seat
of Government, with all its influence, is placed, the old
Members are to remain unmolested, though it is quite
notorious that so weak is their personal hold upon the great body
of their constituents, that almost a breath of opposition could
shake them. These must be very mortifying circumstances, cape.
chilly to a man of high spirit like the Duke of Wellington ; and
will not his Grace atop to ask why these things are so?—why
he, who was the most popular man in the country, and who
has acquired, in one capacity, the strongest claims to its lasting
gratitude and applause, should, as a Minister of State, sink so
comparatively low in public estimation ? The answer, if his
Grace does honestly ask the question, may be mortifying, but
it must be useful. His Grace has taken a false estimate of the
situation of the country, and, setting out on false premises, his
means and his conclusions have been alike erroneous. We
do not say that the Duke of Wellington's errors have been
all of his own creating; on the contrary, we ate free to confess
that he found much of the mischief ready prepared to his
hand. His foreign situation was the work of Mr. Canning—his
free-trade errors those of Mr. Huskisson—and those of currency the
mistakes of a band of political theorists, of whom his colleague, Sir
Robert Peel, was, unfortunately, the organ. But, when the uke
of Wellington found himself involved in the blundering imbecilities
of the convention of Cintra, he soon had the manliness and good
sense to emancipate himself from a contamination equally injurious
to his own good name, and to the interests and destinies of his coun-
try. And why has he not displayed the same courage and foresight
in his civil, as he exhibited on all occasions in his military ca..
-pacify ? Does lie think that nations can be governed with the
same facility that armies are commanded; or that a mere name
supremely eminent in a military point of view as his own is,
can supply the want of that knowledge which is alone the sure sup-
port to real and useful power in civil affairs ? But the Duke of
Wellington is, we conceive, by far too sensible a man not, sooner
or later, to see his errors ; and we know nothing more likely at once
to sting his just pride, and awaken his recollection, than the galling
tact, that while professing to appeal to the people in the election of
a new parliament, in no place where that appeal can be really made,
and fairly put to the test, is there a candidate with boldness enough
to come forward and manfully call for the people's suffrages on the
ground of being the friend and supporter of the ministry. We
speak of the failings of the Duke as a statesman more " in sorrow
than in anger." The sycophants who, for their own selfish pur-
poses, applaud his errors, and cheer him on in measures subversive
of the welfare of the country, are the worst enemies of his fame...—
We have always done justice to his merits; but if we were to sacri•
lice truth to flattery, or to allow our reason to be dazzled by the
splendour of his former exploits, when it is our duty to form a cor-
rect estimate of his present measures, we would be justly reckoned
among those who sacrifice the interests of a country to the fascina-
tion of a name.

CH eon ICLE.—The Kings of Europe ought not to deceive them.
selves. They can in no other way prove their not participating in
the measures of the French Government, than in distinctly con.
laming the departure from truth and principle of the French King.
The people have seen so math of perfidy in the revolutions of Spain,
Portogal,and Italy,that thejwill believe this a part of a common sys.
m, if they have not distinct evidence to the contrary. They will be-
lieVe in a conspiracy of Kings against nations, in a separate morality
for Kings, and that no arrangement, no contract, can be safely
.mtcred into with them. nitre is already but too strong an incli-
• nation to believe that the Holy Alliance was at the bottom of the
counter-revolutionary movements in the Peninsula and Italy. The
mere disavowal of all participation in the proceedings of the French
Government will not. therefore, be sufficient. The people must be
taught to believe that the other Kings of Europe are as hostile to
the measures as they are themselves. We repeat it, that thepresetst
is the cause of crowned Nails. With the present diffusion of Intel.
ligence, and the present distribution of property in Europe, it is quite
impossible, that any goverament can long maintain its ground, if the
a ill of the people he not deemed the guide of those who rule. It is
the interest of Kings to identify themselves as much as possible with
the people,to cause themselves to be viewed as firstmagistrates,and not
As owners of the country. For their common interest, theyought to
separate themselves from the French King. If they do not accom-
tnotlatc themselves to the spirit of the age, the age will sooner or
later trample them in nu dust. Every prudent king ought, there.
tore, to consider the cause of Kings as inseparable front the good
will of the people. The people have everywhere their eyes on the
lioverittnentA. Every step is of importance. Let it not be
forgotten that a victory over the people is never final, and
that the conspiracy of ail the Sovereigns of Europe would
be insufficient to extinguish in the people the love for in-
dependence. which grows with the growth of nations in indus.
try and civilization. The only effect of such a conspiracy would be
the lesson, that king. are to be considered as beasts of prey, which
every matt ought to devour. On the other hand, every man would
be taught to believe, that as kings can keep no faith with the people.
the people can keep no faith with kings. We must do the people of
this country, of all parties, the justice to say that there was yesterday
but one loud condemnation of the course pursued by the French Go-
vernment. We do not think so ill of the blinlatry as to believe
that they do not share the common feeling of abhorrence. Nay,
a!latever the other Sovereigns of Europe may think of the working
,it the French Constinition, it would require good evidence to in-
duce us to believe that they sat.ction the daring steps of the Frail+
Government. They dare not, they will not so far insult the nations
entnittitted to their care, as to countenance the Immoral conduct of
she French Government.