Star.
London, England, 1831-04-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT CF THE JCURNALS'.

Tratzs.--Lord John Rusell has announced it as the intention of
His MAJESTY'S Ministers to propose a considerable departure from
the scheme of reform which has been submitted to the House of Com.
mons. To the plan, as first stated, the nation has, we may well say
unanimously, given its entire, and cordial, and moat grateful assent.
On it the hopes of the country have rested, and because of that noble
prospectus of our future representative system, and for the sake of it
alone, the confidence of the people of England has been repotted in
I Lord GREY'S administration with a breadth and fulness of ge.
nerosity which no other Government within memory has ever
enjoyed. From the beginning the independent press has called
for the bill—and nothing but the bill. The people of England have
joined us in calling upon those Members of Parliament on whom, as
its delegates, the nation bad any claims, to pass the bill, presented
by Lord John Russell. At small matters or detail, incol, ing only
such modifications of the original arrangement% as local convenicice,
and still less at such as particular equity might require, we should
have no thought of murmuring. Nevertheless, with a view to the
firm support and continuation of that national reliance on the
consistency of his Majesty's Ministers, deprived of which they
never be z,ble to any Reorm whatever in the face
of the great borough cerjederacy,—or, indeed, to retain office
at ull,—we think it right to express our regret t any symp-
toms of yielding on a point of certainly no mean importance. If we
rightly understacd Lord John Russell, the Cabinet are content to
surrender the point of reducing the number of the members of the house,
"if there should turn out to be a strong feeling upon it in the house."
Why, of course there will and must be a strong feeling. Of course every
unit by which the muster roll of the house may be augmented affords one
additional chance of being again returned, to every indivilual at present a
sitting member. It is but candid ta declare ai once, that if Lord Grey's
Cabinet falter but for 6:lc moment i t their allegiance to " the bill" of
Reform, we would not gyaranice their power for a second moment,
not the redouptioa of their charnet.r by the Whig party in an hun.
dud years to come. But we readily allow dint they bare not furnished
sufficient cause Mr such an appreheit,ion.
Poste—lt is with heartfelt satisfaction we refer our readers to the
proeeLtlings of the House of Commons last night by which It will be
seen that the monstrous project if Revolution, insultingly mia.called
Reform, is likely to full to pieces in the hands of i s framers.—
Already have the (Inns of the fri<nds of the Constitution
so far prevail tl, that the intended abandonment of some
of the principal provi ,i.ms of the measure was unequivo-
cally proclaimed in the course ttf the evening by Lord
John Russell; and having thus palpeoly shaken the odious fabric of
Revolution, we have rely steadily to petserere in the stntggle
ell:dually to domn7.sh in To what, it will naturally be asked, arc
we huLbtell these pnonisinet prospects to our long revered and
happy Coasti; 0 tion ? Primarily, e r iii fsarL sal,* answer, to the
effect of tie ex..rti ins of the friends of good order in the State ; and
s,co,tlarily, In the tears, not to the justice of the ministry. These imbes
silt insa le; :itent-elves totterini in their situations ; they saw that the
toad s rn • :.eol real feeling of the people were tivo‘e to their ruinous
projects ; tit.. it aas impossible. to carry the revolutionary measure:
that even a dismi.ttion or Parliament would nut scree their unhal-
lowed porposes ;—and therefore, miler than fall sacrifices to their'
fearful tlssi,ms, tied re-I.m the places they so unworthily fill, they,
in the OW spirit of have determined to abandon the'
princip :1 parts of the atterious plan, by which they hcci solemnly
decided to abide, and to a:and or fall nith its fate.

Hcast.D.--lire do 'init.! tont, It tit; _vent of the success of the Re-
form Bill, the good se..se and independent spirit of the people of this
country will ton tolerate the dictation of such things as self-constituted
societies, to select tend rccu motvd candidates for titeir adoption. Thls
would be only to excliati 4e the. domioation of ,he boroughinongers for
another sort of doutioetion, pretty nearly as injurious to the freeduin of
elec.ioti. Nothing, indeed, ran be oso absurd, or es,raragant. not to,
be made a subject of " suMeription" now-a-slays ; but it would surpass,
all ordinary bounds of the rt..iculous in conduct, if the peopl' were
to take ezeessive trouble to get rid of the venal influence
of one set of per ens merely to place themselves under that
of others. If Periiato.mary Candidate Societies" should suc-
c,ed In the metropolis, we should soon . npect to see, in every town
having ,be right of returning represenanive . a register-office for candi-
dates of end where t eery body of electors may be suited, according to
their taste., Iv-Lb candidates, and, perhaps, on a. comparatively " cheap
and terms as families are supplied by other r,„-ister.oilices with
Wigan* of servant*. To be sure, in this way, one of the great ohjec-
dons to reform will be removed—we mean that which an -es out of the
apprehension that the colonial, commercial, and some other in-
terests, will rot he sufficiently represented in a Parliament de-
pending solely upon popular representation, and admitting no
persons through the wickets of close boroughs, which hitherto
aflordet;, by means of a golden icy, such a convenient mode of access to
East or West Indttut I:spirants to Paliamentary lionnurs. Much op.
prehension has indeed been entertained and exptessed lest such persons,
and others, whose money may be their only merit, shall never be able
to make good their appro:.eh to the green morocco seats of St. Stephen's
Chapel through the broad gateway of popular suffrage; but, by making
a bargain with a " Parliamentary candt,tate office," and having their
names duly registered, they luny find their way into the Senate with es
much facility as if the close boroughs, and their scales and weights for
estimating the pecuniary merits of candidates, had not been swept away.