Star.
London, England, 1830-12-02 00:00:00

Sl'lltll' OF TILE JOUIIIVALS.

Cu &owlet E.—We quest ion whether it might not be the better policy
to take it for granted that I:urope can never know peace so long as a large
portion of it is subject to itr,eponsible governments, and whether it
would not he well, once for all. to make one grand effort to secure the
nations ag,ainet the constant recurrence of calamities almost inseparable
from governments which have hardly one feeling in common v.i:h t!,_
people under them. IVere Europe under constitutional governments.
the peace of the nations would be assured ; because nations can never
have an interest in war, and because the consent of the people
would be necessaty before it. could in uny case he declared.—
All plots and conspiracies ate, in a great measure, ittipossiblc.,
where the government can only gs on nand in hand with the
people. But Europe, crtr since the first partition of Poland,
has been familiarized with great military movements, directed by the
caprice of despotic Governments. At this present moment the ;topic
of Europe generally, and more especially the people of that great per.
don of it which may be described as the heart, hate shown that they
are ripe and teady for an cffott to secure their liberties against the ca.
prices of their Government. We are assured that attachment to the
person of the King of Prussia, who is very much loved by his subjects, I,
is the sole cause of the tranquillity of the north of Germany ; but that
the least imprudent movement on the part of that Monarch would dis- '
solve the spell by which the people are bound to him. The threat of
the late Mr. Canning is much more applicable to the times in
which we live, than to those when he uttered it. If lie feared
" that the next war which should be kindled in Europe would
be a war not so much of armies as of opinions," that " it was
the contemplation of the new power in any future war wnich excited
his most anxious apprehension," and that " the consequence of letting
loose the passions, at present chained and confined, would be to pro-
duce a scene of desolation which no man can contemplate without
horror," we now know that, on the first entrance of an armed French
force into Germany, the population of the greatest part of that im.
mense country would avail themselves of the opportunity to shake off
the little petty oppressors who now harass their industry and waste
their resources. There is hardly a State in Germany in which the
people are not at issue with their Government on account of taxation.
The Germans say, why are we to be eternally cursed with such a
number of Courts ? The splendour of a Court may suit very well
the meridian of Paris and London, but it becomes a nuisance in a little
dominion of a few miles square. The French would be hailed as de-
liverers, sad receive the right hand of fellowship wherever they appeared.
From the Rhine to the Dnieper the population everywhere requires
only the signal. Since war is so great an evil, that although we foresee
it cannot long be avoided, and that the French would derive great
advantages front giving the signal for insurrection throughout the
Continent, we would put off the evil day to the very last. From the
very nature of things, there must be strong hatred between France and
the kingdoms of the Continent. The example of France shakes the
authority of the monarchs, and they cannot see without alarm the
existence of a great power in their neighbourhood in which the demo.
cratic principle unquestionably preponderates. They fear France, and
they fear their own subjects. Prussia, however, having most to ap.
prebend from war, will probably act with the greatest prudence; and
if Prussia only remain ttanquil, the other two Powers cannot move.
TtatEs.—The French journalists act from the grossest delusion or
the most flagrant perversity, when they attempt to inculcate on their
readers that the arrayf of Holy Alliance force is directed against the
recent changes in France. France may ultimately have to sustain the
shock, but it is only in advancing her shield over her neighbour that
the blow will fall upon her. The immediate object of the attack (if
any attack is to be made) will of course be Belgium • and the justi.
Station of the violence will be, not that Belgium has adopted a part!.
cular government,or rejected a particular dynasty, but that it has broken
solemn treaties, on the observance of which the security of the present
European system depcnds.The time is gone by for waging a war of opi.
nion with the declaration of Laybach inscribed on the standards
of invasion ; but the faith of treaties, which settle the international re.
lations of states, may still be enforced by arms, and their violation at
least may furnish the pretext for attack. The new Belgic state insists
upon uniting to itself the province of Luxembourg, a Grand Duchy of
the Germanic Confederation, in opposition to the solemn protest of the
King of Hollond, acting in the name and as a member of the Germanic
Diet. It has, moreover, committed the unpardonable and enormous
offence of showing the treaties of Vienna to be waste paper, while Russia
has no more title to Poland, Austria to the Lornbardo.Venetian
kingdom, and Prussia to Saxony and the Rhenish provinces, than
this same despised, violated, and mutilated set of doctiments.
If these powers, therefore, send their armies to the Rhine, it
will be under the pretext of restoring or maintaining the old re-
lations of States as settled by die treaties to which the Emperor
Nicholas alluded in his letter to the King of France; and the collision
for which France is said to be preparing must occur In the execution of
her purpose to protect her Belgic neighbours from foreign aggression.—
As won as a Prussian cannon is heard on the Belgic frontier, the new
state will demand succours from France ; and as the cause and the in-
terests of the two revolutions will be confounded in popular estimation,
the Governnic..t of the latter will tied it impossible to decline a contest
which will be artfully represented as its own. Such must necessarily
be the course of events should the spirit of the Holy Alliance un.
happily stimulate the Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia
to preserve, by an aprtal to arms, the antiquated relies of
obsolete engagements. Whatever may occur, England is fortunately
secure from any necessity of entering the field at the beginning of the
contest, and can only be compelled to mix in it, during its progress, by
such ambitious and dishonest pretensions on the part of our French
neighbours as would make all Eutope our allies. She has tacitly re-
nounced the treaties, and formally protested against the principles on
which the aggressors act ; and if the French Government is faithful to
its deelaradmis and proteseions,—of which we see no reason to doubt,—
her peace will be preserved amid surrounding war.

Ilsuai.o.—lf the great military preparations of the Holy Alliance
do not mean war, those despots have certainly a very warlike way of
showing their intention to remain at peace ! The rulers of Russia,
Prussia, and Austria, have been for some time past most actively oe-
.cupied in raising armies and making other hostile demonstiations. It
is true, the (Iceman Paptrs, which dare nut publish anything dig.
agreeable to the authorities, which allow them to exist only on suffer-
ance, and r, quire that the only " light" which shall emanate from the
Press upon political matters shall be " darici.eis visible," would have
us believe that these warlike preparations are only precautions against
contingencies, which do rot indicate a design to go to war. They mix up
these statements with a liberal propert:on of flattery to the Russian A uto-
ctst, whose elevated and benevolent character, they tell us, is generally
acknowlcdged, and add, that he understands what the times require,
and appreciates the blessings of peace. They told us the same when
he was making preparations for the overthrow of the Turkit.b empire.
Yet the same Journals cannot so completely suppress the truth as not to
allow some obscure intimations of a gloomier description to pits.
For instance, they tell us that " the accounts of the vigorous and exten-
sive armaments, and the movenients of troops in Russia, make a great
impression at Berlin, and that the public look with confidence on
these armaments as an increase of the resources which justice and the
good cause may immediately command in case an intervention by anns
should be required; but this case itself, even with a guarantee of the
successful issue, fills people's minds with apprehensions, since at first
great convulsions and extraordinary saclike, must inevitably ensue as
soon as the word war is decidedly pronounced." litre we
have a little truth used as a cover to a great deal of deception. No
doubt, as soon as the tocsin of war is sounded, and those armed legisla-
tors, the Scythian hordes and the Don Cossacks, pour forth from the
desert towards the fertile plains of western Europe, to dictate to free-
men what form of government they shall be pennitssd to live under,
great convulsions, and extraordinary sacrifices, most mese I And all
this to support • good cause fornath I The cams, rather, of that
selfish ambitios,equally ferocious and tearful, whisk trembles and files to
aim whenever the spirit of keel= Elm se weilleeeme the condition
ot 'mankind in the remotest men et Ettsops l Tice " Holy Al-
Hamm" app pate the blesolmoi et peace In she sem nest that the
Miami Mstaiau illfollbll OS the term was imdisossad by some
seldom podium s@ et the well, who inkallunita by the simple
of lalkolisem faciant et roan vacant.'
I. one bops still toe the poise of Europe, aid that is, that the
=in our Engin policy, which the change in our Cabinet has pro.
may make the Holy Alliance °insides sum ss as hopeless, be-

UMW 01:1411' DefaOlio4ll project can Lay,. .!-elesa.:en either of j;l:gliai
troops or money. The pr.•.ent klinistry, if they act with the !4 ell t and
grod sense for which the e-,untry is willing to give them cretit.o...; leave
no fair effor: untried to pie serve the peace of Europe. If even war should
ariee, they will do all that i, consis.ent the character and L.mour
England to save us from any participation. But,if driven by an insupera‘i!e
necessity to the sad alternative of arming the nation in defence of its ex-
istence. or in drfcrce of those interest, without which its existence cou:d
rot be worth preserving, they will, we trust, take that side which eeime
the feelings and sympathies of the English people, aml a,sik France in
a struggle which would he a war of opinion—a war of constitutional
against despotic principles—a wee of intelligence against barbarism—
of mind and law, and justice. against ignorance, four, and eppressien,
and which we believe would only terminate ie the estahlishn.ent of
representative systems upon the ruins of every despotism in Europe.

Pose.—lt is in the very nature of things that the attitude of mutual
menace or defiance assumed by great and powerful States towards each
other should increase on all e•id,:s 'lie feelings of teciprocal jealtm.y or
ill-will l.y which it has been occasioned; and it cannot fail to be tecol.
leeted. that in fact hostile demonstweeions so general anti extensive a♦
those of which we daily he:ire inteliWence have usually b:es
at no distant period by actual hosttliq. Yet in the actual situation
of the several European G-,vernmentie, and in the relations
which connect rhem with each other, there is much that
encourages us to cherish the Lope of prolonged and uninter •
ruined peace. The expediency of avoidiug war, with a view to the
interest of each separate State, appears to us to be so evident and
so strong, that we think a pseifie policy is likely to predominate for a
considerable period in the Councils of the 31onarelts, notwithstanding
the. grounds and inducement. which rec'nt occurrences may have ar.
forded to some of them for !waffle interr.:lltion. We rest the gondol,
solely u; oa considerations of convenience, for the right of interference
in the affairs of the Netherlands, :herald the interests of Enrolee seem
to require such interference on the lint of the Great Powers, is, we
think, unquestionable. The question. then. is not whether the right ex-
ists, but whether it be convenient or a leamageous to exercise it. An•l
this question we s•i!I think it probal4.2 that the Powers chiefly !roe.
rested will, by th.ir cm.tlort, ass or in the negative. Ihe late
administration of Great Britain had, ;.s sea know, decided against inter.
Terence in the afibirs of the Netherlands, unless an appeal to the national
honour, and the faith of treaties, rendered forbearance impossible: tIL
present administration is resolved not to interfere, whatever may become
of national honour or the faith of treaties. Thus at any rate it seems
certain that for the present at least Great Britain will remain at peace.
France, bound by the same obligation as Great Britain to the ode?:
powers of Europe, will not interfere, unless it be to protect tho Belgiau
revolutionists, and to maintain the effects of the revolntion for mess
purposes, it' necessary, she will interfere in defiance of the treaties to
which she is a party. This with the present French government is
not a matter of choice; it is an indispensible condition of its own
existence.