Star.
London, England, 1831-09-23 00:00:00

their tactics new that they hare en longer pledged
Members and mock Delegates to deal with ! They
Lave become all at once languid, irresolute, and
tardy, and so much so indeed as if they were
ennvirced that the first division will he fatal to
their hill and their power.
(711 RON I Cl.l,..—The Reform Bill was last night
hrenght en from the Cnnimens to the House of
Lo•ds. In e‘peceitien of this event, the Lords as-
9.•!:blefl early in numbers on bath sides of the
Tlonse, awl several Ladies were present. The Bill
was read a first time without any observation ; and
the second remlin - was fixed for Monday week.
It had been stated "retry confidently that the Bill
would he flerc,-..- attacked in its first stage, and this
may ANN-mot for the :lint throng, both of Peers
and strangers. The Lords, however, are not such
terrible Draweansirs, as some would hare us be-
lieve they are. If the people do their duty, we will
answer for it the Lords will do theirs. The bravest
general that ever lived, would not think of
making head against a hostile army with his staff
alone. The mast staunch of those who believe that
the goodness of a Constitution is in the ratio of the
amount of taxation which is placed at the uncon-
trouled disposal of a favoured few, whatever aver-
sion they may have to any restraint being imposed
on their access to the pockets of the people, must
still have their misgivings when they see a whole
nation art need against them, with petitions in one
band, and the other significantly pointed to their
closed pockets. We wish to impute madness to
no class of our countrymen. We readily admit,
that if we were Lords, rich in ancient blood,
but poor if. purse, uvo might have our doubts
as to the propriety of abandoning the means of
feeding liberally on the people ; but still, when we
easy the people determined to bold nut, we should
abandon our doubts. The majority of the House of
Peers have a good deal at stake, and though the
people have also much to lose, the losses of the
people would be hut a poor compensation to the
Peers for their own calamity. There may be '
few hot-benched, reckless men among the Peers, as
there are in all assemblies, but the majority will
naturally be guided by a sense of their interests ;
and it never surely can be their interests to involve
the country in confusion. The story of the dog in
the fade, is peculiarly apposite. By snatching
at the shadow he lost the substance. By seeking
more than the it own, they may come to have
loss than their own. No man in the country
has the smallest disposition to question
their leg:Mt:rite privileges, but who shall
say what may happen, if, not content with their
legitimate privileges, they seek to encroach on the
privileges of the people ? They who set an exam-
ple of disregarding the principles of justice, can
hardly be astonished if others follow their example.
Vigorous demonstrations throughout the country,
as this crisis, may operate ns a salutary medicine
to their Lordship.; and as the. people seem in-
stinctively aware of this, they are outrunning ex-
pectation. Men of property are but too well aware
of the dii:::culties with which the middle classes, in
particular, throughout the country, have been long
struggling, and that it would not require a vast deal
of rhetoric to persuade men, already impatient
tinder stifferines, to have recourse to mea-
sures of a very efficacious nature. They
see that the time for trifling is past—that no
class of men can now be suffered to indulge in
caprices, from which such serious consequences
may result ; and hence, with heart and soul, all
classes, rich and poor, now pull together. The
meeting this day of the merchants, bankers, and
traders of the metrepolis—men to whom peace and
order are of the first importance, and who know
well what would be the consequence of the slightest
diminution of confidence—will show the peers, in
a • ay not to be misunderstood, that the wealth as
well as industry of the nation is bent on reform. Earl
Grey, from his announcing a wish to consult the
convenience of the house in fixing on a distant day
for the second reading, if there were no discussion
on the first, would seem to have been aware that
no attempt would be made to throw out the bill in
the outset. After the second reading, we presume
that the bill Brill proceed without delay.
HiRALL—This last popular ferment in Paris,
in its origin, progress, and decline, assimilates
very much to those others which have preceded it
upon the trials of the Ex-Ministers in February
last, and more lately in July. In all these cases
the elements appear to have been prepared in some
revolutionary club-houses, the explosions were
concerted to take place in the streets, and the ef-
fects were intended to be produced in the Hall of
the Legislature. We are now arrived at the last
stage of this last caseate, when the flame of
discord had reached the Chamber of Deputies.
Towards the close of the sitting of Monday, and
after M. Beienger had concluded his interesting
report upon the Peerage, M. Mauguin rose to ask
some questions of the Minister respecting the foreign
policy of France, pursuant to a notice which he
had given on Saturday. He began by dis-
claiming that his object then was to incite the Go-
set anent to a war, for at that moment he conei-
deter! war timid _be useless, sleet: France had
not an ally left on whose behalf to fight. His
avowed purpose was to arraign the ministry for I
their conduct in reducing France to the degraded I
state in which it was, and Poland to its present I
ruin. M. Mauguin then, in an eloquent but violent
tirade, proceeded to incriminate all the measures
of the present ministry abroad. He contended that
they might have assisted the Poles, at least by sea,
as, in the infancy of the insurrection, the latter
poseessi d sea-ports ; he censured them for the little
',reception a hich they took spinet Carlist move-
ments at hence, particularly in the south, though it
eas plain that Lyons, which aas the hot-bed of Carl-
ism, might receive assistance in a few hours from
an artily of 200,000 Austrians from Italy. He anim•
adverted generally upon their neglect of the army,
even tinder the present critical circumstances et
France, and especially condemned them for re-
calling the Count Guilleminot from Constantinople,
alien. he eulogised as a good Frenchman, and one
se ho had done his best to give France an ally against
Russia in the person of the Grand Seignior. M.
bellotisini met this stormy attack upon his mea-
cures with a firmness which showed that he was
net dizeosed to shrink from any part of the respon-
sibility attached to them. Ile asserted, in the out-
set, that the pacific track which he had followed
at as not only the suggestion of his own judgment,
Loa the most approved policy for France, after the
weel mature deliberation. Very soon after the ra-
sa hen in, the general question of war or peace had
I ten discussed, but decided in favour of the latter.
lice Minister then proceeded to demonstrate that