Star.
London, England, 1830-07-02 00:00:00

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

DESTRUCTION OF SINGAPORE BY FIRE!
Singapore, Feb. 13.

We regret much to have to announce the total destruction by fire
of a great portion of our town, on the night of Sunday last the 7th
inst. Itcomrnenced between eight and nine, and raged with great vio-
lence till three in the morning, during which time it reduced to ashes
not less than 140 houses. Many of them, being situated in
Market-street, and occupied by our principal native shopkeepers,
contained much valuable property, of which but little was
saved. The flames spread with such rapidity, it was thought
that *Commercial-square (where our premises are,) u well as
most of the European establishments on our side of the river, would
go; but the wind happened most providentially to shift a little,
turned the !lames in another direction, and our house and Godwin's,
as well as your goods therein, thank GOD, remained uninjured.--
Since the calamitous event we, as well as almost all the European
gentlemen in the place, have been kept at it night and day, first in
: watching and extinguishing the fire, and afterwards in searching for
stolen property (of which a large quantity has been found); so that
all business for the last week has been at a stand.—No estimate
the loss has yet been made. Some suppose it from 400,0001. to
500,0001. sterling. We do not think it so much, but we make no
doubt the antount is such that it will take Singapore some time to
recover. The principal sufferers, it is expected, provided the Euro-
pean houses continue to support them, and grant some indulgence
in liquidation of their debts, will ultimately pay the whole. We
sincerely trust it may be so.

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

Mits.—The intentions of the Ministers concerning the busi.
neu in Parliament were explained on Wednesday to both Houses.
It is the intention of the Ministers to pus the beer bill and spirit
duties bill; to drop the stamp consolidation bill, and the ecw
equity judge bill ; to abandon Mr. Goulburn's graduated scale
of sugar duties, and to pass instead, an act to reduce the duty
on West India sugar three shillings, and that on East India
Fve shillings per cwt. Having done this, there is to be a tem.
pantry vote on the account of the civil list. The bill for the
incorporation of Wales with the English circuits, the Ministen
trust will pass. The bill for ascertaining and fixing the incomes
of the patent offices connected with the administration of justice,
Sir R. Peel also hopes to get through the two houses. All the other
bills which have been introduced by Ministers or other Members,
are postponed till the meeting of another Parliament. The reason
given by the Ministers for not bringing forward the questions on
the Civil List and the Regency, is the inconvenience of pro.
pounding topics which will require so much discussion at this sea.
son of the year, and with an imminent dissolution in prospect.—
On the question of the Civil List, Sir R. Peel alleged, that the Ci.
vil List admitted of so much improvement, that it would be impos.
ethic for the Government to prepare a well-digested plan before the
time for the dissolution arrived. We confess we did not see any
great difficulty in the case of the Regency, till we read some of the
speeches of the Opposition Members. We considered, and still
consider, the case a straight...forward one ; but if so many points as
arc raised by several Speakers in both Houses are to be debated,
Ministers must have seen no hope of a termination of the discussion
within any reasonable or definite time.
Cuaoriter.E..—The demise of the " Birmingham Free School
Bill" was erroneously presumed. It appears to have been a
case of suspended animation and premature interment. The
" Governors,' notwithstanding the decision of the Lords' Com-
mittee, in the polite intimation conveyed by the original adjourn.
went of a fortnight, proceeded with their obnoxious measure,
on the expiration of their period of penance. In the mean.
while, a Public Town's Meeting was held, on Tuesday
se'onight, when a respectable and numerous .Committee were
invested with plenary powets to negociate and agree on Tea.
sensible terms of arrangement. Two Meetings of the Go-
vernors and this Local Committee were subsequently held, with no
successful result. It was expected that the Bill would then be
withdrawn, in deference to the opinion of the majority of theinhabl-
tants, but the Governors appeared at the Lads' Committee on:Mosi.
day, and succeeded in passing the Bill through that ordeal on the
following day. This impolitic perseverance was perfectly consistent
with the spirit which concocted a bill of odious sectarian proscrip-
tion, and which introduced it into Parliament without deigning to
afford even the shadow of previous notice to the large and populous
town beneficially interested in the Trust. But we would not now
ungraciously allude to the past; we would only hold up the result
as a wholesome and salutary experience for the guidance of the Go.
Vernon in future. When a local bill of such incomparable im-
portance is opposed by intelligent and opulent parties in &populous
commercial town, it is not so adroitly managed as a frimdly suit in
Chancery, or a report from the snug recess of a master's office pro
forma confirmed before an equity judge, on the consent briefs
counsel, handed to the registrar by the common solicitor. We
would now, however, express our hope, that all unworthy feel.
ings of triumph or disappointment will give place to an
honest and dispassionate desire .in all parties to secure next
Session an extended appropriation of the revenues of this munifi-
cent institution for Public Education. The Governors, in some
the provisions of the Bill, have manifested a liberal spirit to pro.
vide for a popular system of commercial education and instruction
in the Arts and Sciences. We hope that they will now com-
municate to the town the reasons and grounds on which they
differ from the inhabitants who have opposed their measure.--
We viewed this local contest as one of national importance. The
decayed state of the Endowed Grammar Schools of England, exposed
in the valuable Reports of the Chalky Commissioners, ex-
cites increasing attention. We hear of many instances in
which inquiry is proceeding, and when. the light must break
Into dark places. This is not the age in which the subtle and legal
constructions of ancient charters, defined by Courts of Chancery,
will limit the improvement of such useful institutions for public
education. When close bodies of o' Governors," self-elected. ap.
ply to parliament to increase their own powers, they must expect
parties beneficially interested to try to extend their interests. The
exigencies of the present times, not the departed and limited objects
of by-gone days, must be considered and provided for in these local
bills. The division on the third reading of the bill was—Contents
16, Non-contents 22; Tellers, Lords Shaftesbury and Radnor. -
Ilenssu.—One of the most striking faults of the Duke of We
lington's administration, next to comprising so many inefficient
persons in their respective departments, has been an extraordinary
ignorance of the real state of the country, accompanied, as is too often
the case on such occasions, by an unwillingness to be informed. Foe
a Statesman to put one leg of his compass upon Downing-street,
and, inscribing a small circle, say. " this is my world—by this test
1 will judge of the country—within this limit none shall enter,"
would be as absurd as for a General to expect to draw his sup.
plies from within his own camp, or to expect to learn, from
within its limits only, the state of the country he has to pass
through, or the movements and forces of the enemy. -Yet
this, or something very much resembling it, has for a long
time been the apparent condition of the Administration. While the
distress of the country has been such, that every man out of doors
knew and felt its extent and pressure in his own person, the Prime,
Minister spoke of it as partial ; and now that actual starvation has
been for a considerable time staring a great part of the population
of Ireland in the face, till they are at length urged by hunger
to acts of criminal desperation, all that the Prime Minister kneels
or has heard upon the subject is, that "in some parts of Ire-
- land provisions have risen in price." If knowledge be power,
surely there never were a set of men so little ambillotis of pos-
sessing it as our present rulers ; and the maxim that " ig-
norance is bliss" seems with them to be a much more ac-
ceptable and convenient dogma. 1t was the peculiar characteristic
of Mr. Pitt's Administration that be was himself the real head of
every department, knowing every thing, and therefore raiding over
every thing. Hut talents of so high an order as his are not now to
be met with; and the country, knowing this, would be contented if
only moderate knowledge, and competent industry and zeal, were
brought to bear upon each department. In more than one of these,
however, it cannot be denied that the present Government
has exhibited a lamentable insufficiency ; insomuch so as to
have become in one deparunent the ridicule of other Go-
vernments, and in some matters of domestic legislation, little
less at home. Yet some of these persons have the vanity to
think themselves the very Solomon' of their generation, and that the
ignorance is on the side of those who judge of their actions, not on
their own. If we mistake not, they are about to receive a lesson
which, we trust, will not be lost upon them. The period of age.
trend election is one in which the government is put upon its trial by
the people, and when a license to speak plain truths is admitted on
the one side' and exercised on the other. Though we trust that the
elections will every whae be peaceably conducted, yet we trust
the people will seize the opportunity, wherever it presents it.
self, of telling both the Government and their Representatives how
far they are satisfied with the past, as well as what they expect for
the future. The former must new be prepared to receive its know.
ledge from a wider circle than the mere coterie of official men and
their interested hangers-on ; and:the result,we hope, will be, not the
election of a mare compliant Parliament, but the awakening of the
Government to a due sense of the wants and situation of the country.