Star.
London, England, 1830-08-21 00:00:00

were used, to keep 'he people from committing outrages, and to
constrain them within the bounds of moderation. It is equally er-
roneous to suppose that the moderation they have displayed was
produced by a fear of interference and attacks from foreign powers.
Whoever hu been, for the last ten years or more, conversant with
the habits, dispositions, spirit, and intention of the French people,
must be convinced that they are now even more remote, and
more averse from a spirit of revolution, than they had ever been
before the year 1789. But they have since acquired, and
now possess, that which they had never acquired or possessed
before, that is, a habit of thinking and judging for themselves
—the cant of which habit, and the prostration of mind produced
by long continued despotic sway, made them, In spite of their great
local and eminent advantages, much inferior to their neighbours of
the Continent, and especially to the English. The people of
France had acquired this habit of thinking and judging for
themselves, from a greater dissemination of elementary instruction
and general knowlege, which their experience and sufferings have
matured, and which it will not be contended they have wanted
for the last forty years. It is superfluous and idle to seek for
the causes of the recent display of ►moderation in any other mo-
tive than genuine common sense, and a return to good feelings.
The French are a well-informed people. They are fully and
suitably impressed with a conviction of the misfortunes entailed
on their country by the excesses and cruelties committed by the
former generation ; and, grown wiser by experience, they find mo-
deration to be the best guide of their public conduct, and they put-
' sue it. There is no supernatural agency in this, no hidden cause—no
preconcerted check or precaution ; it is only the result of common
I sense; but then it is the common sense of a reflecting people, who
have found out that reason, justice, and moderation, are the safest
guides and the best policy, and who are anxious to obliterate the re-
collection of their predecessors having acted upon &different system.
If any doubt were left on our minds as to the correctness of this rea-
soning, we need only look at the event which has excited our admits-
tion. It is well ascertained that no preconcerted agency of any sort was
employed during the last four days in which the last revolution was
effected ; but we find that, firm, determined, and courageous as the
people were, yet they unanimously allowed themselves to be guided
by forbearance and moderation ; nor is it to be doubted that,
but for the recollection of excesses committed on former occasions,
they would have been less so on the present. A happy, very happy
change, when a people can so uniformly and so steadily take a prac-
tical lesson from past errrors. Where mobs thus demean themselves,
and achieve such deeds, what may not the collective wisdom and
courage of the most enlightened and best part of the nation do? The
spontaneous and unanimous conduct of the Parisians in the late in-
surrection bas perhaps no parallel in modern history. It becomes
useless to attempt a refutation of the opinion that the moderation
displayed by the Parisian people was produced by the fear of attack
from foreign powers. The display of such courage is no symptom
of fear in the men who can thus coolly and deliberately leave their
workshops, run to the scene of danger, and lay down their lives
in defence of their rights and liberties, and hurl from his throne a
despot. Such men will not fear foreign tyrants. But there is ano-
ther and a greater error well worth refuting, because its adoption in
this country might not only be productive of injurious conse-
quences here, but might lead to a similarly unjust feeling in France,
where, at present, I am confident no such opinion is entertained.
I do not allude to the aspersion thrown upon the Duke of Or.
leans' character and principles. Such calumnies which, I have
no doubt, are not believed, even by those who have cast them;
and, consequently, need no refutation ; but I allude to the
want of confidence expressed by some, as to the future con.
duct of that Prince. If such an erroneous opinion exist, it
is much to be deplored. I have good reason to believe he is fully
entitled to the utmost confidence, judging from the whole tenor
of his public opinion, life, and the universal opinion entertained of
him by the French people. It is highly important, at the present
moment, that the confidence, to which he has so just a claim, should
be frankly given him : it is so important, and so necessary, for this
country, for France and Europe, he should receive, from all foreign
powers, at the present time. As it was my lot to become acquainted
with this Prince and his two brothers, in the United States of Ame-
rica, and to witness, for a long time, his patriotic, uniform, and
consistent conduct and deportment, at a time when, I am quite confi-
dent, he did not expect to reap the fruits of such consistency of chant.
ter, I may, in a future communication, furnish you with a few facts
and observations, calculated, I am persuaded, to establish the princi-
pal traits of his character and views, as well as the true grounds-on
which to rest our hopes of his future administration.