Star.
London, England, 1831-07-15 00:00:00

LONDON.

FRIDAY, JULY 15.

The Polish News of to-day is very satisfactory.

The French is contradictory ; but the fall of 2
per Cent. in the French Funds on Tuesday,
proves that the Ministry aro not so strong, as
they have purposely given out during the elec-
tions, with a design to influence them.
In Belgium all is harmonious : but the Dutch
are now dissatisfied, and any trifling incident may
disturb the existing arrangements. There is no
doubt that Ceylon, the Cape, and Demerara, were
abandoned in exchange for Belgium, and hence
the heartburning of the Court of the Hague.
The legitimate Atlantic kingdom of Portugal in
the Azores continues to extend its domination in
the islands ; and Don Pen no evinces a very pro-
per interest in behalf of his daughter.
At length our differences are settled with the
KING of ASIIANTEC, and we may continue to
send other thousands to fructify that coast with
their bodies and bones.

With Russia intercourse is, for the present, in-
tercepted.

The firmness of Lord ALTHORP the other night
proves that there is virtue in the Winos. " I
doubt the relevency of the fact," cries an absolute
perfectionist, " it was personal pride, the obstinacy
of weakness."

In this way the best intentions are capable of
being perverted ; and if you remind our per-
fectionist that within twelve months he and
BROUGHAM, and DENMAN, were of one party,
h.; then solves the difficulty by alleging that they
are in office and thereby changed, and for changing
deserve to be !

However, as this has been a common charge
against all patriots who enter office, is human na-
ture so universally wicked and faithless, or is
there not something in office, and in holding
office, which for the time obstructs the free exer-
tion of an honest man's principles, who may there-
fore be the same in office, and out of office ?

There are three motives for a man's going into
office—personal interest and aggrandisement—a
desire to do all the good which his personal influ-
ence permits—or an intimate connection with other
men, who are going into office.

The first sinks principles—but the second sug-
gests the pre-existence of a system which limits
his poweramand the third, renders him the pa-
tient of all the shades of opinion entertained by his
Colleagues. Here then, in the two last are the
operative causes which render the measures of a
government different from that of the princi-
ples of the individuals that compose it. In en-
tering on the duties of his office, a man is met
by usages, precedents and practices, by maxims,
prejudices, and predelictions, established for ages,
dovetailed into a system, and supported by all
the complex machinery of his department. In
a single week, he finds that he is not a free
agent—he exerts a will, and he opens a hornet's
nest—he is resolute, and he is stung on all sides—
an alarm is sounded, on which other authorities,
interfere—conformity then ensues, or he is no
longer a man in office. He, however, lingers in
it ; for, besides the hope which he indulges of
being yet able to do some good, many reasons
may be imagined, in addition to the third rea-
son, for his continuing in office, though he firhi
himself unable to carry into practice many of his
maiden principles.
Then conies the third reason—a necess.lry asso-
ciation with a body of politicians who, though they
agree on some three or four fundamental points,
differ in various degrees and numbers in a hundred
others. Harmony then demands mutual conces-
sion, and it is necessary to keep jarring points out
of sight, for the sake of agreeing on the funda-
mentals.

Nor in a mixed government in which some
branches are stable, like the Court, or its emana-
tion, the House of Peers, is it possible, for the
temporary and new-born power of a Cabinet itself,
to have its ow n way, and at the same time these
permanent influences are meddling and crossing
every individual purpose.
We thus discover why liberal men out of office,
do not and cannot appear so, while in office--that
if they would do as their old friends wish, and as
their principles dictate, they cease to be men in
office. It explains why under a liberal Adininis.
tration so few liberal things are done, and so many
left undone ; and why Government, whoever may
be the particular men in branches of it, is inevitably
a-raw-head-and-bloody bones to the people.
This is an explanation why the Whigs do not
satisfy ; and the less because so much more is ex-
pected than a mixed system of established, perma-
nent, and temporary powers permits to be per-
formed, and, of a sudden, by authorities which are,
only temporary. Neiertheless, the people and the
free press ought to remind honest men in office of
their principles, lest they should slide into the
vicious system, and forget them ; and it is, there-
fore, our duty—every time they yield to circum-