Star.
London, England, 1830-09-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

TimEs.—We have always exposed the absurdity of imagining that
the danger incurred by the Government of Ferdinand, from thereturning
refugees, was to be measured by their muster-roll, as the rank and
file of an army, though even in that respect they are extremely
strong. It is not as an army, however, drawn up in brigades or di-
visions, and marching in columns acmes the Pyrenees, that the for-
midable character of this dlite of the Spanish nation is to be esti-
mated. They arc, about two-thirds, experienced officers of the
line. Many of them have already found their way into Spain,
and as the veteran troops recollect them as their commanders with reve-
rence, their office is undoubtedly that of assembling and regulating
military bodies, not acting (themselves) as privates in the ranks of any
given corps. If the accounts which have reached us from men of high
distinction be not altogether incorrect; the spirit which pervades and
animates the whole kingdom is one which Ferdinand will be unable to
resist much longer than his congenial cousin at the Tuileries withstood
the three days' tempest. Except the Bishops, the other high church
dignitaries, and the Monks, there is not in Spain one steady friend to
the Csmarilla. A little patience will won make known the result.

Trints..—One of the chid topics of interest in the French mess of
Wednesday, which arrived last night, is the funeral commemoration an
the Place de Greve the preceding day, of four subaltern officers who
were executed on that place for a conspiracy. to overthrow the Govern.
ment of the Bourbons in 1822. A private letter, which we published on
Thursday, gave an account of this expiatory ceremony, and of the parties
by whom it was conducted. It wouldappear from the journals that its
announcement had occasioned more alarm than its occurrence jus-
tified. The inhabitants of the streets in the neighbourhood of
the place chosen for the ceremony, were apprehensive of
a tumult front the greatness of the crowd, and political persons at a
distance were not less apprehensive of the principles likely to be incul.
cated in the expiatory harangues or party banners of the dubs convoked
to celebrate the virtues of " the martyrs of liberty." The Journal des
Debate was the organ foe expressing both kinds of alarm--publishing
two articles of its own, and a letter of the inhabitants to the Prefect,
against the proposed exhibition. Neither the remonstrance of the
journalist, however, nor the representation of the inhabitants, pre.
vented the meeting of the clubs—the display of banners—the pomp
of a scanty procession, or the delivery of a revolutionary harangue ;
but here the matter ended, and the alarmists have no doubt wondered at
their own fears. The journal which first sounded the tocsin tells us
that there were not more than 1,500 persons present, the members of
the clubs and the spectators included ; that the labourers did not leave
their work, and that those who saw the procession pass did not seem to
know'what was its object. If this, therefore, could be considered in any
way as a general muster of the republican party in Paris, their numbers
arc easily counted, and their influence ascertained.

Mass.—An Irishman, who labours for half an Englishman's
wages, is a species of economical machine, which works equally well
with its English neighbour, and at a smaller cost. 'The question is,
ought the English labourer to be suffered to burn the farm-yard of
every gentlemen who prefers employing an Irishman at Is. to an
Englishman at Ss. per diem ? The Kentish coach passenger de-
clares that such a retribution is no more than just ; at the
same time be must allow that it is at variance with principle,
and in practice is somewhat inconvenient. If the plan succeeds,
by frightening gentlemen into an exclusion ef every individual
from the labour market who is not in a manner adscriptut
pkba, a rigorous monopoly is at once established for the be.
nefit of the neighbouring peasant, who in process of time, like other
monopolists, becomes insolent and rapacious, and turns out for higher
wages. The Scottish and English part of the Glasgow and Manchester
working manufacturers would be well enough pleased to expel every
Irishman from among them, and to have the labour-market of those
two great towns to themselves. They have, indeed, very often struck
weak for higher wages; and when the demand was unreasonable, the
masters have been enabled to refuse it, by calling in strangers—lrish-
men if you will—at lower wages, to take upon them the rejected
orders. If Irishmen had been prohibited from such walks of industry,
the mulcts might still have been at the beck of the aforesaid spinning
and weaving monopolists, to accept whatever work, and pay whatever
wages, that merciful multitude might prescribe to them. If the Kentish
peasant is to purge the soil from all but native inhabitants of the county,
by fire, the next demand will be from each Kentish district, parish, or
village that certain gentlemen shall not look for labourers from any
but the one specific spot. Thus will the servant be set above
his master, a complete monopoly be fixed upon the neck of
the land-owner, and the wages of labour raised so high, and the
quantity or quality of his work so reduced, that the manufac-
ture of wheat and various other productions of a cultivated soil
must be at length abandoned. When accounts reach this country of
the bunting of stack-yards at of human habitations in Ireland, all the
world is justly stricken with abhorrence of the wretches who commit
such crimes. Yet the Irish incendiary is, in one respect, precisely on a
par with the Kentish. He wants to turn out the tenant of a farm which
he had once held himself: the law is expensive and precarious, so be
administers bis own law, and after his own:fashion.

CIIROVICLIt.--A report Of the proceedings of an Annual Dinner
given by the High Bailiff of Birmingham appears in another column.
A useful conclusion may be drawn from the demonstration of public
opinion manifested on such occasion, and the country will perhaps not
again look forward to civic feasts for political refreshment, or insight into
a King's Speech. Some Members of the Government, the Duke of
Wellington and Sir R. Peel, have been making certain " Royal Visi-
tations" in the great Manufacturing Districts. A Public Dinner was
given to the Duke of Wellington in Manchester, to which Sir Robert
Peel was significantly wa-inviteL The only political allusion at that
dinner was an harangue by Lard Wilton, to which no one am.
descended a reply ; the Duke was a passive auditor. In Liverpool, a
melancholy and unfortunate event precluded • series of intended public
entertainments. where it was probable that Mr. Brougham and Sir
James Graham would have tenderly broached a few popular topics,
but which would, nee have been received by his Majesty's
Ministers with a d silence. Birmhigliam was the mat stagein
the Ministerial progress. T'he Bake Wellingtem and his Right /len.
Colleague were invited to dinner of the High Banff; a periodical public