Star.
London, England, 1831-06-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The Paris papers for some days past contain
;idle important and striking addresses to the Electoral Col-
,eges by candidates for the approaching Chamber. Among
.lie rest, we find one from General Lafayette, which may be
egarded not only as the expression of his individual opinion,
Jilt as the manifesto of his political party. The old General
'las been the type of revolutionary patriots for the last forty
;ears. He has never deserted the banner which he at first
siscd. He and his party are quite decided that
here shall be no privilege bu: that of Majesty—nothing
iereditary but the Crown. They all pronounce against
he transmissible honours of the Peerage, pledge them-
elves to exert all their might to abolish such distinctions,
:nd consider the revolution of July as incomplete, while what
;:cry regard as a monument of feudal barbarism or legislative
.bsurdity is allowed to remain. In looking at the numerous
ist of candidates who have already declared against the here-
Thary nature of the upper Chamber,—in reading the ad-
lresses of the most popular men in France, intended and cal-
:ulated to impress the electoral colleges with these ideas—in
observing the very general demand of pledges hostile
tiom the deputies on that subject—in seing that the
Bar of Paris, with M. klauguin at its head, have, after
a solemn deliberation, pronounced by a great majo-
rity the same opinion as the Republican electors,—and in
counting the very small number of votes which have dared
to acquit the peerage,—we are led to believe that the doom
of this institution is already sealed. The approaching
Chamber of Deputies will most likely again resolve itself
into a constituent assembly, as it did last year when it
made the charter, and will vote the abolition of the here.
ditary honours of the whole peerage by the same autho-
rity as it voted the expulsion of all the peers made in
the late reign. It cannot be denied that this measure
(which we are sorry, in the present state of popular feel.
ing in France, to consider inevitable) is of a revolutionary
character, and must lead to some important results ; but a
little reflection or explanation will show that it is of far lets
moment than a similar change would be in this country, or
than a person acquainted only with English institutions
would suppose. In France there is no great landed aristo-
cracy—no dornini terra fartidiati—combining extensive
possessions, ancient descent, and great local influence,
with the power and privilege of hereditary legislation.
In England the aristocratic order exists independent
of its legislative privileges, and the English nobility
would still be powerful by their immense estates, though
they were never to meet or deliberate in their house
at iVestrninstrr. Political power is only added to a
body,—the growth of ages,—who would enjoy great
influence and consideration though Parliament were abo-
lished to-morrow. While in France, on the other hand,
the Peers are nothing out of the Palace of the Luxembourg,
—they are nothing in fortuue,--nothing in the saloons,--no-
thing in public pageants,—nothing even at Court The
French never object to personal honours or distinctions, how.
ever high, which are the rewards of merit, or the remunera-
tion of services. The are ready to pay homage to the baton of a
31arshal of France, and delight to see the cross of the Legion
of Honour on the breast of an eminent member of the
Institute; but they object to those distinctions which
come by birth, which appear an exclusive privilege—exalt-
ing the parties to a rank which they never merited, and as-
signing them the performance of duties which they are una-
ble to discharge. A body of senators, elected for life from
among the persons most eminent for talents, eloquence, poll.
tical capacity, and administrative experience, would, we are
persuaded, have more influence among our neighbours,
than such a hereditary Chamber of Peers as that against
the existence of which the French liberal party now pro-
test.

POST.—The Ministers have contrived to elude the Wow
which would probably have deprived them at once of the
power they are incapable of wielding, by cautiously divest.
iug the King's Speech of every feature that might by possi-
bility have furnished occasion or opportunity for moving in
either House an Amendment to the usual Address, in
verbal echo of the sentiments contained in the Royal
Speech. The language in which the forthcoming pro-
ject of Reform is described, or in which, to speak more
accurately, the subject of Reform is recommended
to the attention of the legislature by his Majesty, is precisely
such as the most moderate Reformer would have wished to
re.echo—precisely such as the least rash even of the conser.
radix party, who admits the expediency of entertaining the
subject at all, would have desired to employ. The truth is,
that in order to avoid certain defeat in at least one House of
Parliament on the very first day of the session, his Majesty's
ministers have thought It expedient to knock under to their
opponents. The aspect of the House of Lords on Tuesday
was such as must have convinced every spectator that the
opposition constituted a very decided majority, and that mi-
nisters were already condemned to a very signal discomfiture
had they not averted it in the only possible way ; to wit,
by the adoption of the language and sentiments of a large di.
dision of their adversaries.

HERALD.—If the Peers of Great Britain believed the
Reform Bill to be that dangerous and dreadful thing which
some of the professed organs of aristocratic sentiments in the
Peess describe it to be—if their Lordships thought that this
bill, if once admitted among the statutes of the realm,would
have the effect intended to be produced by the revolutionary
gunpowder which Guy Fawkes deposited in the vaults of the
Parliament-house, and would blow up the Monarchy, and
Scatter the House of Lords to the winds, whenever the hand
of Democracy applied the match—it is not possible they could
have exhausted their energies and wasted the greater part of
their time, on the night of the opening of the new Parlia-
ment, in a discussion upon a point of order. There are per-
sons who might inferfrom this proceeding, indeed, that some
of their Lordships were more anxious to find a Parliamen-
tary method of " killing time" than of saving what some
writers call the " expiring Constitution." We were indeed
glad to find, after hearing the " din of battle bray," as
we did in those Journals which had long preluded
with brazen trumpets, the approaching conflict be-
tween the Lords and the Country upon the Reform Bill, that
so innocent a subject of discussion as a point of technical
form bad been the principal cause of disagreement between
the anti-reformers and their antagonists in the House of
Peers. This most strongly proves that the sentiments of
the majority of the House, touching the Reform Bill, have
been moat grossly misrepresented. Surely, if they believed
that all the glorious institutions of our ancestors were to be
levelled with the dust—if they thought that the Throne was
on the edge of a precipice, and the Constitution in danger—
we think too highly of their patriotism to suppose they would
have acted like those theologians of Antioch, whose minds
were as minute as their dispositions were pugnacious, and
who doomed themselves to a ludicrous celebrity by fiercely
discussing shadowy distinctions while the battering rants of
the enemy shook their walls.

HERALD.—The Papers announce officially the death of
the Commander.in-Chief of the Russian forces in Poland—
the General Diebitsch Sabalkansky. The event occurred on
the 10th instant, at the head-quarters at Kleinewo, near Pul-
tusk, and about 30 miles North of Warsaw. The Field-
Marshal is stated to have fallen a victim to the cholera
morbus ; but, from the manner in which his demise is an-
nounced, it is not impossible that his fate had been hastened
by disappointed ambition and a broken spirit, if not acrt:rttlz
precipitated by his own hand, as was at first re
It is singular, however, that he was the only Wirt-
dual at head-quarters who was thus visited by the plague.
The late Generalissimo was a man unfitted by bodily in.
firmity and sluggish habits for discharging the duties of an
efficient head of an army opposing so active and indefatigable
an enemy as the Poles. He was never capable, we are told,
of appearing on horseback through the campaign, and was
oblig to be carried, even to the field of battle, in an easy
carriage, and in this unmilitary position was seen at the first
attack upon Prags. There are instances of some of the most
renowned generals directing the shock of armies from a litter
upon the ground; but the Russian General did not pos-
sess the commanding talent which could indemnify for the
want of personal activity. Count Diebitsch had already lost
every thing but his life in the campaign. Little seems to be
known of Diebitsch before the Turkish campaign. He was
by birth a German, and after trying his fortune in several
services, entered that of Russia. He was employed by Alex-
ander, but was never a favourite with him. He served
against Napoleon in his invasion of Russia, and in the sub-
sequent campaign of the Allies in France ; and is said to
have made souse suggestions as to the plan of operations
which determined the armies to march directly upon
Paris. His successes on the comet of the Black Sea can
never be seriously mentioned by any military judge as
a test of merit, for against the Poles he has shown the
greaten incapacity. The brief notice which we
have received of his death, natures to praise him fur his

humanity—a volunteer offering to his memory, perhaps of
private friendship, but a hazardous experiment upon the
credulity of the civilized world. Diebitsch was the unrea-
soning tool of s tyrant in the most unholy of causes, and his
associates a pack of savages but one degree removed from
cannibals. History, perhaps, will deduce his character
more from the evidences which the wasted fields and slaugh-
tered population of Poland furnish, than from the matter-
of-course eulogy of an official document, or the warmer
pa-
negyric of a professional partisan. The late Commander.
in chief is succeeded by General Toll, another German,
and who is said to be a man of enterprise and skill. But
we trust the triumph of the Poles is already secure.