Star.
London, England, 1831-05-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNAL&

TI MEB.-7he Colagrut.—Tha French journals, which seem ,„
practise successfully the motto of Cold Bacon—•• cut viam inveniam
aut &clam' (we shall either find news or 'yak/ them)— have got hold of
• 'stay of tut approaching European Consress. Thu splendid nay.lty
has become the subject of warm fasputation, and will be kept in toe
air, like a shuttle-cock, by the dexterity of the contending parties,
till the public get tired of the sport, or some fresh vagary conics to
occupy its attention. Congresses in time of peace, and without
any new territorial interests to arrange, are now out of fashion ;
and, as Napoleon slid of :* a title of 111 a gnie, in Aloliere's cometlict
have been rendered • too ridiculous' to be revived. We s7tal: hence.
forward, most probahly. see pleoiy of conferences and proascols, but we
shall hear no more coi*:. general congress till after a general war, Irian
we mail have cot qoesti Ciispose of, crowns to dtstribi,te, or limits
to side. The last of the stock, which proclaimed its piiiiciples and
issued Its awards fern Verona, has been buried in the grave of die Holy
Allituice ; and elvilizatioa would be for ever disgriteei, if It again permit.
ted such a pretended amphycikmic council--at tile bead of adds
was the most bar:sawn* power of Europe—to dictate constitutions or
systems of government to .ire rest, and to exerci..• it• high police over
more enlightened stairs. W o ay, iherefore. take it for „,noted that
that will he no question of political prindplcs or systems of govern.
mein at any flits re Congress. Indeed, in the preset hist:met, ,
Congress settle these points would be much more idicutous titan the
Council of Trent, in its endeavour to draw up a aced for CAlwijes
and ;Protestants. The ,ler: (shit of the soverei. yof ;•.e
uould be pre• died by the French rereads:mire at its first meet.
Mg, would so COlllOll,lll die diviae.right portion of i a menibets, as to
bleak up the conference. If, then, negociations for die settlement of
p• in aof polities] dectrine tire not of the question, what material inter.
rests %mild the Congress hove to be srmaged, that cannot be ar.
ranged through medium of a sepe.,.te despatch, a Government
couria, anu a common anthastatlo: ? '1 here has. happily, been of late
no "war in which our considerable number of the great Pnwett
are interested, and no conquest has been made which any of them dis.
puts. Ali:iers is so aCuir which may be safely left to be settled
beta een England and France; the B.lgic question has been dispoied
cf by the confetenees of London, as far us it can be disposed of
abort of war ; and the independence of Poland am be ci well sot
cordially" .he undaunted bravery of its inkrbitants, and the
energetic remonstrunces of die civilized powers of Etna e. separately,
as It the latter, met at Congress, were to red a round-robin to the
leinperor Nicholas front Aix.la-Chapelle, or same central town in Ger.
many cv France. 13tit the 41111: rumour which given ON the European
Con ore's, likewise informs its of us prestim:d ohject.—it is, to vote a
general disarming of the great Powet s. and a return ton general peace
establishment. Of all chimeras in tine world, this is the least likely to
be realized at the present moment, or through the labours of such a
meeting.

of Parties.—The people may at this moment
be said to he divided into Ihreelelasses—the advocates of things as they
are—of things as they owls! of toing, es he ought nog to
be. By he feat we mean those who, benefit.in.; by the Ittorough sys•
temp. natural], enough wish for ha continuonce—the secund, those who
are anxious to see its abuses remedied by means of a timely and salts.
tary ..efonn—and .he third, those inconsiderate mid wicked persons who
look to a subversion of existing institutions as a blessing, from which
they. in the scramble, may obtain some undefinable and uncertain
good. The second class is that to which all rational and independent
persons will naturally attach themselves. The chance of the first is
entirely gone by. It is against unconwionsly aiding the views of the
third that we would anxiously caution all honest men of all persuasions.
There never was a dine when the old rule, that •'the middle course is
the safest," came so forcibly home to the breasts of all reasonable people;
or, ith other words. when it was so essential that the honest refcrmcr
should have defined views upon the subject, in the accomplishment of
nhich he should firmly tletantine uel.bcr on the one hand to relax, or,
on the other, to exceed. All this is the more necessary at a time
when, triumphant vs the anise of reform is, it is, nevertheless, we
have no doubt, deprived of the support of many of those who would be
among its meet valuable and influential adherents by an apprehension,
common to many such persons, rhea there is a party (that third class
which we have alretuiy designated) whose aim it is to take advantage of
the door of reform being opened, to enter and never to close the
doors till the whole intcrrot of the constitutional edifice has been glutted
and destroyed. Now, however numerous such persons may be (and it Is
evidently more safe to over-rate than under-value their strength,) they
bear no sort of comparison, either in numberor importance, to those whose
wishes for reform are prompted by a sense of its overwhelming necessity,
and are bounded by those limits and land-marks which the tomditution of
their country has so clearly defined. When, therefore, we see the state
of exasperation to which men's minds are endeavoured to be brought
when a calm sad sound jndgment is most of all called for—when we
see the wretched attempts which are made to induce the people, as it
were, " to run a muck" at all who may not happen to agree with them
—we cannot but condemn those who have recourse to such expedients
as the most bitter enemies to the true cause of reform, the ranks of whose
most ;ormidable opponents are increased by the pretended seal of its
indiscreet or insincere and designing friends.
POST.—Thu Club.—The Pitt Clubs have formerly done the
State good service. They were formed originally out of respect to Mr.
Pitt ; they afterwards became the rallying points for the preservation of
our laws,our liberties, and our religion. through the different counties
in England. Let them he reorganized through the country—let
every man who has heart and sense enough to value our preset
valuable institutions, and who at the same time has sagacity
enotniCa to foresee the imminent danger they are now in, come forward
and unite himself to one of these clubs—let .he hietropolitan weeds.
on the 28th he the signal for their revival througli the land—let every
man who has virtue and courage enough in these times to he a reel
patriot, exert himself in promoting the reconstructic, of these dubs.
The crisis at which the meeting in London will be held is an awful
one. Let the fundhohler, tila clergyman. the peer. he member of the
House of Commons, the inercham, the agriculi prim, the colonial pro.
prietor—let every man who has reflection enough to see that the prin.
eiple on which all property is held is gone for ever, if the whole bill
passes, step forth and join these clubs—let the meeting in London core
vey to England this important fact, that, stilled as the voice of the
opponents of the bill has been by outrage, falsehood, and mkrepresen-
mien at the elections, there is a conservative principle still alive in
London, which, through good report and evil report, remains steady
to the laws, the liberties, and, the religion, In which they have bees

bred up ! _
HRRALD--Crucky of Parisla.offierrs..—Withoat alluding to any
particular instance, we arc persuaded that our readers cannot have ob-
served without pain the numerous occasions we have lately hid to re.
cord instances of deplorable want, in some followed by actual death,
occurring through the neglect or coldhearted indifference of parish. 111.
cers. Clow much these melancholy instances of human suffering wool/
be increased, were. it not foe the active agency of private benevolent,
we need hardly point out; but that such instances should exist at al'e
and that more especially in an enlightened and refined metropolis, is
n scandal both upon the law and its organs, which persons in authority
ought to adopt decisive measures to put an end to. The evil, we M.
lieve, is in a great measure owing to the mal-administrat'oo of the
Poor Laws under Air. Sturges Bow ne's Act, and to the irresmmthie
power which too many local Acts assign to Parochial Boar 4 am.
posed of persons who, however respectable themselves, too often
transfer their authority to cold and ignorant agents, who are
not unfrequently considered most lit for their office in properties
u they are exempt from the troublesome and expensive feelings of ha-
manity. But, whatever may be the Cause, the effect wares us too
forcibly and too frequently in the face, not to all at once both for
strong animadversion and a speedy remedy. If coroners and their judo
sometimes did their duty with a little more earnestness, their verdicts
might infuse some degree of fear and caution into persons who at pre-
sent seem hardened in brutality by too great a chance of ham:aping aet
only with impunity, but often almost without obeervasion. The public
at large, however, it is quite clear, are no parties to the fault, nor MS-
ferent listeners to the cues which come before them, as may be seen by
the promptness with which individual charity steps in to heal the
wounds which the official want of it has inflicted ; and we only hope
that, if such cases occur again, persons in authority, taking the tom
from public feeling, will make some rigid examples of those by whose
wilfulness or negligence such scenes of human suffering have been pro.
duced or aggravated.

A letter from Aran in Switzerland, of May 7, says that the
new constitution has been accepted. Not only two-thirds of
the districts, but the same proportion of the whole population
voted in its favour. In some districts there was scarcely
single dissentient vote. We also learn from Berne that that
city, which has been hitherto governed by the Council of
Two Hundred, who were also Members of the Grand
Council of the Canton, is about to receive a municipal
organization. There is to be formed for this purpose a
Constituent Assembly of 61 Members, 41 of whom will be
named by the 13 tribes or abbeys of the town, and 20 by
the Council of Two Hundred.
The Courrier of Greece has the followings—" During
the violent struggle between the Albanese and the t-oops
of the Grand Vizier, the frontiers were occupied by Greek
battalions. The Grand Vizier requested the Greek Govern-
ment not to receive on its territory the Albanese pursued by
him ; upon which the government sent orders to the civil and
military governors to comply with the request of the Turks,
and to keep on friendly terms. By the aid ofFrench physicians
attached to the expedition ; vaccination has been introduced
into Greece. Upon the Turkish Government baring ria
the free exportation of cattle from the Continent to Ter.
the Greek Government likewise permits similar exports.