Star.
London, England, 1831-06-28 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.

Sir,,--Four Bath readers are much greti!3cd at
the energy with which you demand from Ninis
ters, inquiry and redress, or pr,:vion:= altentieti
and soothing explanation, if redre-s prac-
ticable, before appeals are made to brute
the sword of the law, or the executio;:er. This
coarse, as you properly remark. is the essence of
public justice; and there must be some mistake,
or some bad passions interposing between the Cs.
binet and the people, or the several special com-
missions would hare been CoM M ISS io.Ns or
e ntY,nnd these would have preceded commissions
for transpottation and extermination.
I confess, however, that we have been a little
alarmed by the late speech of Earl Grey in reply
to the Earl of Winchilsea. The latter. is
cordance with his known principles, advise.; the
strong hand of power to be directed against all dis-
content and ultra opinions wherever displayed ; an.;
the Minister, as though it weir to assure the sap
Fort of Lord Winchilsea, according to the news-
papers, promises to obey his suggestions, quotes
cases of past prosecution as meritorious, and state,
for the satisfaction of all such as prefer a strong to
a reasonable display of power, that as often a! any
one is found offending, and a prospect of success
appears, the vigour of the law shall be employetl.
New, Sir, this is alarming., not because I would
not trust the principles of Lord Grey, or of Lord
Winchilsea, taken separately, fur in either there
may be justice and Fberality, but there is glu,t
danger if Lord Grey is to carry into execution
construction of LordWinchilsea's wishes, for whi-li
it is extremely probable Lord W. himself woull
not in all cases incur the mural or legal respell-
sibility.
It would, in a word, be the very wcrst form of
administration for the peliey of a Government to
be influenced by others, who merely tibet, and are
irresponsible. It would be an irrational system of
immediate Government by no one—for if the Mi-
nister does wrong, and quotes.the abettor, the lat-
ter may and would deny the application of his own
principle in the particular instance, whatever may
be the sufferings of others. One might in all such
cases doubt whether the nominal Minister is Mi
nister de facto, or the abettor ; for if the Minister
yields to the abettor to obtain his influence on other
points, it might be inferred that the abettor was
really the Minister, and therefore the public would
be between two fires.

If Lord Winchilsea, with all his sincerity, were
proposed as Minister, he would certainly not be
popular; but Lord Grey is popular—ought Lord
Grey then to be governed by the instigations of a
Peer, who entertains on most questions such oppo-
site principles to those which render himself popu-
lar ?

I should think the less of this parliamentary col-
loquy, if the practices suggested by bold ‘Vinctil-
sea, did not too often surprise the public ; for in
the same length of time, we never witnessed greater
activity of unbending legal prosecution than under
this liberal Whig Administration !
Bath, June 25.

CA TO.

THE EMPEROR OF BRAZIL AND RlB FAMILY.
—This personage, who, it is understood, has ob-
tained permission to reside in this country in a
private capacity, is in his 33d year, having been
born October 12, 1798. His ex-Alajt sty is the
eldest son and second child of de late King
of the United Kingdom of Porta gal, Brazil,
and Algarve, and nephew to King berdinand of
Spain, whose sister, the Infanta Charlotte Joa-
quima, was united to King John in 1790.
Durirg the lifetime of the late King of Portu-
gal, Don Pedro was styled Prince of Brazil and
Alcantara. At the ape cf 19 his ex-Majesty foi
ed a matrimonial alliance with the Areltdt:cliet:s
Leopoldina Caroline, second daughter of the
Emperor of Austria, and sister to the Empress
Maria Louisa, Grand Duchess of Parma. By the
Empress, who died December 11, 1826, Don Pe-
dro has issue five childten, viz. Donna Maria
da Gloria, born April 4, 1819, " Queen of Por-
tugal," and Prince-s of IL iri ;2. Donna Jan-
born March 1, 1821 ; :3. Dr n Paulo, born
IFebruary 17, 1823 ; 4. Doane Frances Caro-
line, born August 2, 1824 ; .5. Dcn ['edit), horn
December 2, 1825. The ex-Emperor untried
secondly, August 2, 1829, the Prince:: Amelia
Eugenia, daughter of Eugene Beal.hainois,
Mike of Leuelitenberg, and late N'ice:oy of
Italy, and niece to the King of BaraTit. Don
Pedro was c.owncd Constitutional EnTs and
DA-ender of the Empire of Brazil, December
I, 1822 ; consequently, his reign has :..tm:ewhat
exceeded eight years. The renowned DUII NI iguel,
the de facto Sovereign of Portugal, is three
yea-s the junior of the expatriated Einvmor, who
has also th:ea surviving sisters, viz. the Infanta
Maria Thertsn (widow of Don Pedro of Spain),
and the Infantas Isabeja and Ma. is Anne. The
Emperor, it appears, travels um7er the title of the
Duke of Braganza, one of his hereditary honours,
and a dia:by in Portugal.
Among the many beetficial establishments to
which the New Beer Act has opened a door to the
temperately disposed, we find one on a scale of
comfort combined with neatness, seldom to be
found among the usual places of resort of the even-
ing lounger, in the—talutation Coffee House and
Shrubbery in Newgete Street. A visit to thisplace
will be 141 id too justify this well-merited notice ;
and n sta., t peerwerance in his present attentions
to the cpnafortauf his visits re, will doubtless secure
to the eutesiiisiyg propiier, that patronage and
encouragenadF-without v high even the Ptis in
urbe would tweets 'illy fall to the ground.

R:
~,
-'~

.•'+1;1

E

ltra:).TarT

LITERATURE.
THI: AGE IWITEPTI LES.

i

earth was peopled by oviparous quadrupeds of a
e.e.• Appalling magnitude. and reptiles were the " Lords of
P. Creation. bcfere the existence of' the human race."—
Neorta'' s Age of Reptiles.
"flicrt once was a tin.e, as Geologists say,
Thar teptiles Wore o'er our Planet had sway,
And the " Lords of f7reation" were all creeping things,
Some c-awling to ear.!l(l),and some soaring with wings! (2)
These monster• go greatly polluted the air,
That nothing but reptiles inhabited there,
Till grand repetition destroyed the whole race,
And refined earth and air, and then man took their place.
so Cavier bath talteht. and by 31antell more lately
1. seem. (if he do nut exaggerate greatly)
That their sic: was appalling, and far surpass'd rill
The monsters who've liv'd since the time of the fall !
Nos.• I cannot hut think, and, perhaps, so will yon,
Tllzt these Sores 11 shrewd had a moral in view,
And that by ti:e reptiles they meant to sketch out
Tl:e .1111i.lkfi•rmers row rut to the rout.
For:have not those Seaf.ttion• ers, evil betide 'cm,
Like reptiles corrupted whete'cr came beside 'em
The y were " Loris of Creation," and all hut their order
Were slaves—see the fits of the Duke of the Border
Their gents and species reed not be made out.
Vet some few I will venture to tell you about :
The Duke of
And the Megafosaurng (3) skews him to a T
For no monster so truly voracious is known.
Since he claims as his right " to devour all his own."
The cold Salamander (4), as sleek as an eel,
Will image exactly the fam'el Sir
Who fancying he ne'er will be hurt by the fire,
Cares not though the glory of Britain expire!
By the grand Rerolution NEFOITIU is intended,
And the Empire of Reptiles for ever is ended ;
For although Toads and Vipers will still much abound,
The Chief Monsters no longer encumber the ground
Our political atmosphere healthy will be
And England once more be the Isle of the Free!
Lewes.. June 22.
(1) The enormous extinct Crocodiles, &c.
(2) Plcsodactyles, an extinct kind of Flying Reptile.
(3) The Mctalosaurus is an enormous extinct carnivorous
reptile, some (0 feet long, whose remains ate found above
the Coal strata.

(4) The remains of this creature were supposed by Schein.
zcr and others, to be those of a Man, but Cuvier has de-
cided that the original was a hideous reptile.—Vide Osse-
men Fossiies.

ANECDOTES OF POLAND.
(From Flachcr's History of Po'and.)
THE SECOND PARTITION.

Early in 1793, the Prussian troops entered Great
Poland. The confederates, whose commissioners
now sat at Gredno, in vain remonstrated with the
Russian minister ; their only answer was, that he
was ignorant of the designs of Frederick William,
hut they must take cam not to incense that prince
by imprudent hostilities, without having previously
consulted the court of Russia. The confederates,
at least all those who were not mere creatures of
Catharine, now began to repent their rashness, and
they issued a protestation on the 3d of February,
against the Prussian invasion, wound up with these
words : " We will preserve our republic whole, or
none of us will survive our disaster."
On the 25th of March, Frederick issued a ma-
nifesto, stating openly his intention of seizing
Great Poland, and assigning as motives for this
treachery and disregard of Ida forme' treaties, that
the principles of jacobinism were gaining ground
fast in that country ; " that the spirit of French
democracy, and the principles of that atrocious
sect, which seeks to make proselytes on all sides,
begin to take deep root in Poland, so that the ma-
nreuvres of the
.jacobin emissaries are powerfully
supported there, and that there are already formed
there several revolutionary clubs, which make an
open profession of their sentiments. He admits
that he had previously concerted this invasion with
the Courts of Vienna and Petersburg ; that ho in-
tends to incorporate several districts of Great Po-
land, and the towns of Thorn and Dantzig with
his states, promising, at the same time, to maintain
all the inhabitants in their possessions, privileges,
and rights, secular and ecclesiastic.
The empress ordered her minister, Sievers, to
concert with tne envoy of Prussia, Bucholz, the
partition of the kingdom, and on the 9th of April,
they laid Lefote the commissioners of the confe-
derates at Grodno, a declaration, involving the
destiny of Poland. A fter having formerly stated that
they only came as allies of the majority of the na-
tion, they now complain that " the spirit of faction
and discontent has spread to such a great extent,
that those who give themselves the trouble of fo-
menting it, and tendering it general, having failed
in their intrigues with foreign courts to attach sus-
picion to the designs of Russia, have directed all
their efforts to fascinate the eyes of the people, al-
ways easy to seduce. They have succeeded so far
that this same people, after being frustrated in
their criminai designs, have become the sharers in
the hatred and enmity which they have vowed
against the empire of Russia. NVithout mention-
ing here several facts generally known, and which
prove the hostile inclinations of the greatest part of
the Poles, it will suffice to say that they have abus-
ed the principles of humanity and moderation which
directed the generals and officers of the army of
her Majesty, the Empress, in their operations and
in their conduct, according to the Empress's orders
given them in this particular; so that they had
risen against them in every way, ill treating them,
turning them into ridicule, and the boldest among
them have even dared to speak of the Sicilian
Vespers, threatening them with the same fate."—
They state that they have the consent of Austria
to limit the extent of Poland, and invite the Poles
to a diet, to co-operate with them in making this
arrangement.

Russian despotism, which at home knew no
other law but • to say to this man go, and he goeth,
and to another come, anti he cometh,' was not
mollified by migrating a few miles further to the
u est ; and on the 22d of September, Sievers sent
another declaration to the diet to insist on the im-
mediate ratification of the treaty, aid finished this
note by announcing his intention, that, to prevent
all disorder, he should order tuo battalions of gre-
nadiers, with four pieces of artillery, to surround
the castle where the diet was held. No strangers
except the Russian otlicers, who were strictly
charged to prevent the deputies even from moving
from their seats, were to be admitted. At the
same time, said Sievers, he insured the deputies a
perform freedom of debate I. Even then the diet
would not submit without reservation to the de-
mands of Russia. Surrounded as they were with
the sworn slaves of Catharine, some few members
still raised their voices against this prostitution of
the forms of liberty.
At three in the morning the' general rose to call
in a detach/Lent of.stfidiers, when a traitorous
deputy in the Russian interest proposed that
-^e should be considered as a consent to the
and accordingly the marshal of the diet,
;i, who was oithe same party, put the flues-
he treaty should Le signed without reserve-,

tion ? Tbis was three times repeated without an-
swer, and he declared that it hid received the sanc-
tion of the diet, and accordingly it was signed on
the sth of September.
The diet performed their last sad, and unwilling
office on the 23d of November. They pulled down
the beautiful structure of the constitution they had
so proudly erected, and Poland, at least the remains
of it. relapsed into the former absurd node of legis-
lation.

The allied powers did not forget " to reduce the
republic of Poland into narrower limits ;" Catha-
rine advanced her frontier into the middle of Li-
thuania and Volhynia, and Frederick William had
the remaining portion of Great Poland, and part of
Little Poland, for his share of the spoil. The
limits, however, it must be remembered, were not
definitively marked out ; military possession was
the only tenure, and the Poles found that Empresses
and Kings set at nought the denunciation, " Cursed
is he who removetli his neighbour's landmark."
The remaining portion of the kingdom was in-
sured to Stanislas, to be governed by the old laws,
but he was not allowed to reign alone even over this
narrow domain. The Russian ambassador was ab-
solute master at Warsaw, and Russian troops were
the garrison.

STATE OF FRANCE.
From Cabal's Regiskr.

The French people are bent upon being neither
cajoled nor sold by Louis Philippe. They tell
him to his face, that he has not fulfilled their ex-
pectations, and they complain of his abandonment
of the Belgians, the Poles and the Italians. In
the midst of this general discontent with him, the
veteran Lafayette has written and published a let-
ter, in which he clearly states that this Bourbon
Philippe has deceived him ; that ho has broken
the pledges made at the Hotel de Vile, before the
office of King was offered him ; and, though the,
general does not actually say that he ought to be
ankinged, he evidently means it.
The French complain that their burdens are not
lightened ; they complain, as I said before, of the,
base abandonment of the cause of freedom in Bel-,
glum, Italy, and Poland; they complain that the
creatures of Charles are still kept in power; but
they cnmplain, above all things, of the existence of
an hereditary peerage. Their elections are com-
ing on ; and they are preparing to pledge their
representatives to the passing of a law for abolish-
ing this peerage ; this thing, which in France
means a band of legislators maintained out of the
taxes, with pensions as well as titles descending
from father to son ; fellows who, generally speak-
ing, have no estates of their own, and whose in-
terest dictates to them to be incessantly robbing
the people. It is an oligarchy of the worst pos-
sible description ; nor is the other house much
better. Every thing says that there must be ano-
ther revolution, sweeping away this peerage, sub-
stituting an elective senate in its stead, and very
greatly indeed, extending the suffrage at elections.
It is impossible that the present order of things
can remain. Lafayette says that he told Louis-
Philippe that an lie;eJitary peerage was a thing
unsuited to France; and that the government
she wanted was one like that of the United
States of America. To be sure : a Govern-
ment chosen by the people : a Government
having the interest of the people at heart: a go-
vernment just and efficient, and at the same time
cheap ; a government that knows nothing, and
never did know any thing, of state prosecutions;
a government which has existed forty years with-
out one single state prosecution for speaking, or
writing, or publishing; a government that exacts
no tax upon paper, and puts no stamp upon print ;
a government that asserts its rights against all the
nat;ons in the world with the utmost rigour and
with the completest effect ; a government that
does not cost so much in a whole year as the go-
vernment of Louis-Philippe costs in one single
week ; a government whose chief magistrate does
not receive so much in one year as it costs the
French people to maintain the gamekeepers of
Louis-Philippe. That is what the French people
want ; and that is what Lafayette knows they'
want ; and that is what Lafayette knows they
will have.

It is a common opinion in England that Philippe
will come and juin his relations in this country.
I do nut believe that ; I think America would be
his choice ; and it is very curious that some of
the French papers have said that he has sent a'
great sum of money to be deposited in the United
States ! I cannot know, to be sure, that Philippe
has sent a large sum of money to America; but
this I know, that he had eighty thousand pounds
in the English funds last winter; that I stated this
fact in the Register ; that it was contradicted in
the Morning Herald ; but that no name appeared
to the contradiction, and I now again re-assert the
fact to hare been true ; and I dare say he has the
sum there at this moment. I was told the fact by
a banker, and a Man, I am sure, who would not
tell me a falsehood.

It would be an absurdity quite monstrous to
think of an hereditary King when the other two
bodies were elective. The President might be
elected for life ; for a longer term than four years;
but to have him hereditary would be an absurdity
to excite laughter throughout the whole world. As
to the question whether it would be prudent in the
French to abolish the title of King ; and, in short,
make a Republican Government, like that of the
United States, there can be no doubt of the ad-
vantages cf it to France. It is one thing to destroy
a kingly government and an aristocracy, and
another thing to avoid making a kingly government
and an aristocracy, when they do not exist. On 30th
of July last neither of them existed in France : the
legitimate King and his legitimate successors were
gone : their otlice and rights were abolished ; their
ersons were banished for ever ; and France, as
to affairs of government, was a piece of blank pa-
per whereon to write down that sort of government
which the people would choose to have. They
were all ready and eager to write down " a Re-
public, with a President, a Senate, and a House of
Representatives, all chosen periodically by the peo-
ple." But the French people were tricked out of
this : they were cheated into a new King and a
new dynasty, to neither of whom however did they
ever give their assent. Both were made by two
assemblies, one of which is now dissolved, and for
the other of which they call aloud for the abolition.
France is still a sheet of blank paper whereon to
write the name and description of its government ;
and when all the circumstances are taken into view,
where is the man of common justice or common
humanity who can wish that nation, at this time,

to be any other than a republic ? What are her
evils now ? What ate the scourges which she has
to endure ? Distress in trade and agriculture ;
penury and anxiety in the middle class ; want of
employment, and misery amongst the working
class ! These arise from the weight of taxation,
that arises from the enormousness of the debt and
the hidieous pensions and extravagances springing
out of the Bourbon Government. She is agitated
with apprehensions and alarms ; and why ? Be-
cause there is a pretender to the throne safely kept
in England ; she fears intrigues in the courts of
the despots ; and why ? Because even her new
dynasty is connected by blood or marriage with
those despots ; because there is a natural and strong
feeling between it and all them. Then Louis-Phi-
lippe has the better part of a dozen children,who will
become married, first or last, in the families of other
kings and emperors ; these will bring crowds of in-
triguing foreigners to plot against the liberties of
France. Every marriage of this sort is a new bat-
tery of hostility to the freedom of the French, at
the same time that it brings upon the French na-
tion a new expense in an additional burden of taxes.
As Paine said, republics do not marry ; and this is
a great recommendation to them.

If, indeed, the old royal government of France
were still in existence; if there were a nobility of
ancient standing; if that nobility had 'estates in
the country, and the people had been in the settled
habit for ages and ages to pay willing respect to
them ; then it would be another matter ; then,
without some unbearable provocation ; without
some open and flagrant act of tyranny and of trea-
chery, like those which the French people had to
avenge in 1789 ; then it would require long deli-
beration before any sensible and good man would
propose to demolish that species of Govern-
ment, and erect a Republic in its stead ; but
having no such sort of Government in France;
having gotten rid of all those who had any preten-
sions of right to the throne, why create another
race, and give it such pretensions ? Wretched,
indeed, are the reasons which have been offered for'
this strange, and foolish, and inconsistent step. The
main alleged reason was, that if this step were not
taken, all the powers of Europe would be in array
in hostility against France. As to England, which,
in point of power, is more than one half of all Eu-
rope excepting Fiance, she would not, and she
could not have stirred ; and, indeed, ninety-nine
hundredths of the people wish to see France with
a cheap exemplary Government; and the powers,
as they are called, could they have been more hos-
tile to France than they are now ? The truth is,
they possess not the means of doing her injury :
with a republican Government she is more than a
match for the whole of them : this they know well,
and therefore it is that they are so anxious to keep
Louis-Philippe upon the throne. He is the night-
mare on the breast of this mighty and valiant giant.

An influenza prevails at this time to a very con-
siderable extent in most parts of the metropolis.
In some instances it has proved fatal to people of
advanced age ; but, generally speaking, it is of
short duration, and has been found to yield to
very simple remedies.
New REPIt ESENTATIV Ef1....011 Friday even-
ing a Meeting of the inhabitants of the parishes of
Mary-la•bonne, Pancras, and Paddington, was
held at the Bazaar Coffee-house, Great Castle-
street, Oxford-market, for the purpose of taking
measures to secure the return of two fit and proper
Representatives after the Reform Bill shall be
passed.—Mr. Craddock was called to the Chair,
and briefly explained the object of the Meeting.—
Mr. Drake addressed the Meeting, and said, lie
thought Colonel Jones was in every way qualified
to be their Representative in Parliament, and
moved—" That it is the opinion of this meeting
that Colonel Jones, by his inflexible integrity
and indefatigable exertions in the cause of Reform,
both political and parochial, has proved himself
to be a fit and proper person to represent this
district in Parliament." Colonel Jones said, if he
had consulted his own feelings he should wish this
resolution to be withdrawn for the present. If,
however, he should be returned for the district, he
should feel himself bound to receive instructions
from his constituents, and would at all times con-
sult with them on the general good. The resolu-
tion was passed unanimously. Mr. Wallace pro-
posed Major H. Revell. 'I he Major addressed the
meeting, and pledged himself, should he be elected,
to consult the wishes of the great body of his con-
stituents. Another gentleman proposed Mr. Sa-
vage, and, on a show of hands, the chairman
declared the number of hands for each gentleman
equal. A vote of thanks was passed to the chair-
man, and the meeting adjourned till the reform bill
shall have passed.
Sw I N DLI N G.—Michael Shillito and George Os-
borne Tennant were charged at the Thames Police-
office with having been engaged in an extensive
system of swindling, by means of fictitious bills.
Mr. Thomas Masterman, proprietor of the Ratcliff
Brewery, stated, that about a month back a man
named King, the principal of the gang, called at
his counting-house, accompanied by Shillito, and
said he wanted to ship a quantity of beer for France.
They proposed giving him their joint acceptances,
but he declined dealing with them unless for cash.
After a great deal of unsuccessful stratagem, King
introduced the prisoner Tennant as captain of a
Yarmouth trader, who, representing himself as
a relation of the Duke of Leeds, and au inti-
mate acquaintance of Sir Robert Peel, suc-
ceeded in swindling him out of twelve dozen
of bottled stout, for which he gave him a bill drawn
upon Samuel Knight, of Newhall-street, Birming-
ham, which turned out to be fictitious, on being
presented at Roberts and Co.'s, bankers, where it
was made payable. While endeavouring to per-
petrate a similar fraud on another brewer in Rat-
cliff, he was taken into custody. The stout was
delivered for " the Captain" at Hay's Wharf,
Tooley-street, whence he and his companions con-
veyed it to the house of a publican named Gray,
in Blackman-street, Borough, to whom they sold
it. Mr. R. Parsons, of Wood-street, Cheapside,
whom King defrauded, by means of fictitious bills,
of goods to the amount of 301. and several other
" victimized " tradesmen appeared against the
prisoners ; and the celebrated King, whose real
name is George Sheen, it further appeared, had
been imprisoned twice for fraud ; and recently
swindled Captain Farrier, of Clarence-terrace, out
of two t;gers, value 1001. which, at the time were
in the Zoological tiardens, giving him a fictitious
bill for the amount. The fellow subsequently sold
the tigers for 801. He is yet at large. Shillito
and Tennant are committed for trial.

4/1
10
• i
•

bmiteotllioene,s
•
lion, if tl