Star.
London, England, 1830-10-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

Catosici.z.—We learn from a gentleman of honour and veracity,
arrived from Belgium, that the Provisional Government maintained its
popularity, and that the Belgian army was daily receiving reinforcements,
and completing its organisation. The amount of armed force at the
command of the Provisional Government had already attained to nearly
eighty thousand men, completely equipped, and nothing less than the
conquest of all the Belgian towns would satisfy the demands of these
patriots. Throughout Belgium good order and tranquillity prevailed.
Neither arms nor provisions were wanting. So much for the misrepre-
sentations of the present state of Belgium and Brussels, put forth,
with " vain" design, in the Government Newspapers. The enthu-
siasm said to prevail in Holland for the Royal cause is much exag-
gerated.

Cniontcx.r.—Our belief in the preservation of peace rests on the
inability of the powers of the Continent to go to war. Those mote
immediately concerned may bear no good will to the new order of things
in France, and under any other circumstances than the present would
have entered Belgium, but they dread their own subjects more than the
danger from the new order of things. While, however, we rely on
the embarrassments of the Powers, and the pacific disposition of the
Duke of Wellington (who is known to have made strong repre-
sentations to the French Government against the allowing Frenchmen
to take part in the affairs of Belgium), we cannot shut our ears to
the language of individuals connected with the foreign em.
busies here. They urge that these Governments are beset with
dangers, and that the example of successful resistance is producing
effects which win drive them to desperate courses. They urge, too, that
Russia is like the devil at the ear of a sinner, constantly tempting them
to accept her aid. The Russian Government is under a sort of neces-
sity of making war. The army cannot be with safety left in peace ;
and the Russian landholders are notoriously disaffected. On the other
hand, the Germans would to a man rise, were the Russians to attempt to
cross their own frontiers. However, the principal difficulty is to come.
We shall soon see how Austria conductshaself in her trials. I t cannot have
escaped the most obtuse observer, that much of the present embarrassment
in the political world arises from the mixing up family affairs with matters
of government. For instance, the connection of the Stadtholder with
Prussia led to the invasion of Holland, under the countenance of Eng.
land, at the commencement of the French Revolution. At this time,
the connection of the Prince of Orange with Russia is also a source of
alarm. Thus the nations of Europe are considered as so many family
estates. Well might Jefferson exclaim, on the invasion of Holland by
Prussia, that this system of a separate Royal carte, of which the families
marry only into each other, is pregnant with dreadful evils !'think
only ors whole Continent being involved in war on account of a single
famill I

-lf this be the age of intellect, it is also the age of
quackery. We have all sorts of new and strange projects devised and
submitted for public encouragement daily, upon the most generous,
noble, and disinterested principles, the beginning, middle, and end of,
which are explained by the one word, subscription. Among the most
recent of the ingenious contrivances, which me to afford John Bull the
pleasure of patriotically getting rid of some of his superfluous cash, is
the design of erecting a " national monument" to Shakspeare. Now if
ever there existed a writer, whose " name should be his monument
alone," it is the Bard of Avon, whose works are as imperishable as the lan-
guage which they enrich and adorn. Well might he have exclaimed at the
close of his immortal labours, like the Roman poet, but with a more jus-
tified confidence in the eternity of his own fame Bugg ma.
sueseshias sera perennius I But there are, among the great and alio.
eat classes of this country, many who would readily subscribe to raise
• statue to a celebrated poet or artist when dead, who would not be
equally generous to promote his interests when living. This is the
country, be it remembered, in which Dryden, who certainly next after
Shakspeare and Milton, was the greatest and most original poet th.tt
England has produced, died in a state of abject poverty ; the country in
which Otway and Butler—the one never surpassed in pathos, the other
never rivalled in humour—perished of absolute want. Even the Scotch,
who are now so enthusiastic in paying posthumous honours to the indig-
nant shade of the inspired and neglected Burns, allowed that ex-
quisite master of the Dale reed to accept the unpoetic livery of
an exciseman, or starve. In short, the spirit that stimu-
lates men to ite a display of their veneration tor departed genius,
while they are negligent of living merit, is not a generous sympathy for
mental worth, but an ostentatious affectation of patronage, which vanity
alone inspires. Of this vanity there are always cunning and needy pro. '
jeetora ready to take advantage, who convert it into the prolific source of
" jobs." We admire not the " liberality" of the post marten peeress
of genius, as they may be called. They deny the means of living to
those to whom they afterwards erect a tomb. They are literally of that
elms who " are asked for bread., and give a stone l' They would not put
oot a hand to assist the noblest nature that was ever born to extend and
adorn the empire of literature or the arts, while it struggled for a great
renown with adverse fortune and the ills of life—but when its glo-
rious agonies have terminated, when it has reached the heights
of its intellectual ambition, and achieved immortal fame, then
they come forward to obtrude their assistance where it is
no longer required. Talk, indeed, of a subsaiption for a national mo-
nument to Shakspeare_a poet whose fame, pursuing its own career,
without any aid but what was derived horn its own intrinsic excel-
lence, has become so resplendent and universal, that we might almost
with as much reason talk of raising a monument to the sun ! a monu-
ment connected with the fine arts is said to be wanted, we deny it. One
of the noblest monuments of that kind ever raised to the memory of a
poet was the splendid work known by the name of " Boydell's
Steak-
speare." That was not, however, the work of a little junta propping
their spurious generosity upon a public subscription. It emanated from
the energies and resources of the truly pauiotic and public-spirited in-
dividual by whom it was devised and executed. To accomplish that
work, he.called upon the talents of such artists as Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Nortbcote, Fusel', &c. What sort of patronage did the public give it ?
Until this as be satisfactorily answered, it woold be better to be silent
another " national monument to Shakspeare."

Ttrocs.—The pamphlet published a few web ago, and entitled,
" What has the Duke of Wellington pined by the Dissolution r
made, as is recollected, and as the author intended, a noise is the poli-
tkal world. Prom the resolute,—ney, Germ party spirit in which it
was campseed, and the acute and sarcastic power exhibited is every pep
of it, there was little probability that the Foramens et ministers would
take altogether without resistance the chastisemeat inflicted on them by
the anther. An answer to that pamphlet, ort what is meant for as
answer, hes accordingly been pat faith within the last two days.—
But, in the pod faith of critic, we are compelled to acknowledge
that the writer has demonstrated awes mol dun wham in " lvy.
kg himself alongside" an antagonist so far above nis match
Some facts in unyokes of a few of these which wore thrown our by the
Whig adversary, are, perhaps, well headedt bat whatever light they I
may let in span the composition of the House of Commons, as to