Star.
London, England, 1830-05-04 00:00:00

to spread Instruction, the most usual information on public economy '
and the sciences of a practical utility ; to procure for the lower
classes an enlightened education. simple and within their reach, and
for those whom an already acquired education has rendered capable
of a more extensive developemem of intelligence, the means of ar-
riving at it, and making others to participate in it. It will labour
to rally all the individual or partial efforts which are lost from want
of connection ; and finally, to discover and propagate the general
principles most conformable with sound reason. It will form special
committees, charged with different labours, conformable with the
object it proposes, and will distribute, wherever they are wanted, the
books which it may judge most useful."

The machinery for carrying this purpose into effect, is!
upon a most extensive scale. The Society will consist
of an indefinite number of Members, placed under the
influence and action of a Central Committee, consisting
of 21 Members, with a President. The seat of the So-
ciety and Central Committee is Paris, and in every dis-
trict producing 15 Members they are to form a corres-
ponding Committee. Thus, while the Central Committee
is seated at Paris, its ramifications, in the form of local
Committees, are intended to be spread over all France.—
In the statutes, rules, and regulations, for the formation
and management of these Committees, central and
local, which are very numerous, minute, and precise,
it is provided, that any person signing the regula-
tions
is to be considered a member of the Society,
and that the lowest annual subscription to be paid by
each member is twelve francs. The members of whom
the Central Committee is composed, are all literary
or professional men. In the list of names we find Count
ALEXANDER DE LA BORDE, Deputy of the Seine, Ho-,
norary President ; D e MoNCEY, formerly Captain of
Cavalry,President ; the Marquis Gi ETON DELA Roc HE-
FOUCAULD, Deputy ; and several others, with the ad-
dition of men of letters. Among the first subscribers to
the statutes are that veteran patriot—that patriarchal
champion of liberty—the celebrated General LA FA v ETTE,
and several members of the Chamber of Deputies. It is
further proposed to establish secondary schools for pri-
mary instruction in the departments, chief places, and
communes. The march of intellect in England, par-
ticularly " the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Know-
ledge," appears to have suggested this plan in France.
" There are" says the preface to the plan, " governments
to watch over the safety, the glory, and the prosperity of
nations and every religion has chiefs for its preservation
and propagation, but the interests common to all nations
and all religions, those of entire humanity, are not con-
fided to the special care of any body : civilization is in
a measure abandoned, and makes its way only with dif-
ficulty through the interests, whether well or ill under-
stood, af temporal or spiritual governments." To cure
this defect—to supply this deficiency—is the motive as-
' signed for the establishment of this Society, which, from
its great extent, designates itself " the Universal So-
ciety of Civilization."

RUM v. BRITISH SPIRITS. —A controversy has
arisen between the West Indian and the British spirit
manufacturers—the champion of the former being Mr.
JOHN IN was, of Mildred-court, arrayed against the
united body of the home distillers. We have read a
letter addressed to Mr. Got/Lewitt by Mr. liras, and
at once perceived—without a perusal of the reply which
we this day publish—that, unfortunately for the cause
of his constituents, Mr. I. placed himself on untenable
ground. We are saved the trouble of much refutation,
by referring to the exposure of Mr. INNES'S fallacies by
the distillers. Although we know it, yet the public may
not be aware of tlio fact, that the cause of the West India
planters and dealers, whether concerned in rum, sugar,
cotton, molasses, or other commodities, has long been a
hobby with Mr. Ix'. ES : he is bound up in the system :
and being, moreover, bred in a highland county of Scot-
land, he may personally have an aversion to an overdose
of his native beverage, except it be of the genuine qua-
lity. These circumstances combined may, probably, have
operated on him while penning the espousal of the rum
question. Be that as it may, we cannot perceive that
the production and consumption of an inferior article of
foreign produce—such as he describes—should receive a
greater, or so great, a measure of encouragement from

Government, than the manufacture of our own country,
of acknowledged superiority, the produce of our own
lands, and the manufacture of our own tradesmen. Mr.
GouLavaar, and Mr. INNEs too, have found—or will
soon find—that the expression of public opinion on the
subject, and the reasons assigned for that expression, will
outweigh any argument adduced by him in his pamphlet.
The measure advocated by Ma. INN ES would, in fact, be
a premium and bribe to Lord Goal:examen arch-enemy
" the giant smuggler,"—a downright loss of public re-
venue—a cruel, discouraging enactment towards the in-
dustrious grower of barley, and the enterprising manu-
facturer of British spirits : in short, we agree with the
Times of this morning on this important subject. That
oracle speaketh thus :—" Any increase of the existing
duty on gin, without a corresponding increase on rum,
would amount to a transference of the business of dis-
tilling from this country to the West Indian islands."—
_ _

I•or these, and other reasons whizh we may probably give
in detail on a future occasion, it is very desirable that
the Chancellor of the Exchequer should rather listen to
the well-meant and seldom-erring voice of the English,
Irish and Scottish public, than to the individual ex parte
statements of any man—interested or not—on a subject
involving the interests of a vast body of our commercial