Star.
London, England, 1830-08-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

Ttute—A question of some commercial as well as political in.
teat, is likely to arise out of the late aggressions on British ship-
ping committed off Terceira by Miguel's blockading squadron. It
will not surprise any one acquainted with the character of the pre-
sent Government of Portugal to learn, that the legal proceedings at
Lisbon which have followed the captures, have been as irregular,
and contrary to the ordinary practice and constitution of the courts
appointed to decide on such matters, as the outrage has been at va.
riance with and unauthorized by the law of nations. The frigates
which have been despatched to the Tagus may perhaps find means
to obtain redress in a national point of view for the last-named
wrong, but the irregularities of the subsequent condemnation by the
Admiralty Ceurt in Lisbon, would seem, when the award had once
been made, to be beyond all remedy for the parties immediately in.
Masted. A case has however occurred, which affords an opportunity
for judicial relief, by the law courts of this country, against the in.
justice committed, or alleged :to have been committe by those of
Nrtugal. One of the earliest condemnations at Lisbon of ves-
sels detained by the Portuguese squadron off Terceira, was that
of the Briton. The party to whom she has been awarded under
that condemnation, has, as it appears by letters received
yesterday from Lisbon, fitted her out under a new name,
the Valente, and she has actually been chartered on a voyage to
Hull, for which port she sailed on the 26th ult. As soon as the fact
became known, the original owners of the vessel determined on mak.
ing some effort for the recovery of their property, and orders have
been sent, we understand, to Hull to detain the vessel as soon as
she arrives, on the ground that the condemnation at Lisbon has
been illegal, even according to the constitution of the Portuguese
courts, and independently of the right of detention by the blockad-
ing squadron off Terceira. We are not aware of the exact mode in
which the question will be raised for the interference and judgment
of our law courts, but it is expected that means will be found in
one shape or other to try the point, which will of course be one of
great interest and importance to the whole commercial world.

HERALD—Convinced, as we are, that the people of this country,
and of every free State, should regard the establishment of a truly
constitutional monarchy in France as an additional security to their
own liberties, we cannot but participate in the feelings of admiration
and sympathy which the heroic and temperate patriotism of the in.
habitants of Paris has so generally inspired. At the same time we
feel it our duty to put the people of England upon their guard against
the machinations of dangerous and designing men, who take advan.
Cage of the present crisis to give utterance, at public meetings, to
sentiments of the most extravagant and violent description. Such
men are not the friends of liberty, but its worst enemies.—
They are the emissaries of evil for purposes which those who
recollect former times of political excitement and trouble,
will easily imagine. One of those persons said at a pub.
lic meeting, the other day, that " England wanted just
such a revolution as had taken place in France." Whether this
person had a licence in his pocket for uttering such seditious lan-
guage we neither know nor care ; hut it is certainly a sort of lan-
guage that such persons as Castles and Oliver formerly indulged
in, and ought to cause the expulsion of the individual using it front
all decent society. The revolution in France has been produced
by a tyrannical subversion of the constitutional system. which
the dethroned King had sworn to uphold, and which he dared
most basely to destroy. Such a revolution was but the reaction
of the public will upon despotic violence. The ordinances of
Charles X. doomed the national liberties to extinction;—they were
restored with a promptitude and energy becoming a great and gene-
rous people, resolved on possessing a constitutional monarchy, or
perishing with the inestimable rights which arbitrary power had
so daringly assailed. Tne people of England enjoy those liber-
ties which France has just rescued from a tyrant's grasp at
the price of so much blood. They have not only a constitutional
monarchy, but have the satisfaction of seeing the throne filled by a
sovereign whose disposition and manners are eminently calculated to
obtain him the affection and respect of all classes of his subjects. It
is true, his continuance in office of the present Incompetent and un.
successful Ministry checks, in some measure, the full expression of
that popularity to which his conduct, since his accession, in all other
respects so justly entitles him. But that the King should, for a
time, place his confidence in a ministry in which the peopie has no
confidence, is a state of things, though much to be regrotteditZemin-
compatible with the enjoyment of a large_dree of publicr
The persecu dons of the press, and the wfttdred mismanagement of OUT
foreign relations, under the present government, not to roestlen the fal.
sifications of their pledgee of retrenchment and economy, and the din.

appointment of ,he public hope as to their promised reforms in the
administration of justice, justify the public dislike which has been
so strongly manifested towards them at the recent elections; but,
thank GOD, we have still a Constitution which will outlive their
power. We despair not of the country ; it has inherent energies which
will yet restore it, without any intemperate exertion, to its place
among the nations. There are, indeed, reforms wanted, both in the ad-
ministration of our laws, and in some of the practice of our Constitu-
tion : but these reforms can and will be quietly effected ; though the
violent language to which we have alluded seems, if not spoken in
utter foolishness, to be thrown out with the view of deterring persons
of property and rank in this country from indulging in any sympathy
with the devoted and gallant nation that has just emancipated itself
from the chains which a datk and sullen despotism had prepared,
lest, by giving way to a generous impulse, they should encourage
revolutionary projects, which have for their object the destruction
of property, the subversion of order and the levelling of all dis-
tinction& The French themselves, in this, the eventful moment of':
their splendid triumph, know that the English are a free people,
and respect them as such. They know that what they have ob- '
tained by a revolution has long been the birth-right and Inheritance
of Englishmen—a system of rational freedom, which, in spite of
imperfections, diffuses many blessings under a monarchy limited
by law, and a prerogative controlled by the Constitution.

Porr.—There are certain persons who are employed in a conti-
nual attempt to make curious discoveries, and we certainly must, in
fairness, congratulate them upon their success in this respect ; for
they discover secrets which no one else ever thought of, and which,
but for their penetration, would doubtless have remained in perpe-
tual obscurity. Thus, within the last few days, these persons have
found out that the Duke of Wellington's Administration cannot, by
any stretch of human probability, last much longer--and why ? Not
because its members have acted ignorantly, nor because any
new and ruinous line of policy has been entered upon, but
simply because Ministers have not gained any accession of
" thick and thin supporters" by the dissolution of Parliament.
They require no such support; they address themselves to the in-
dependent and unbiassed judgment of Parliament. In reference to
this subject, it has been somewhat triumphantly given out that many
of the new Members are staunch advocates for inquiry and retrench-
ment; but what of that ? Are not his Majesty's Ministers staunch
advocates for inquiry 9 and have they ever ci,jected to any species
of retrenclisitetd, provided it could be effected without injury to the
public service? If the oppositiooists triumph in the return of econo-
mists, under the supposition that Government is hostile to economy,
they ate arguing upon a ground completely erroneous and untenable.
His Majesty's Ministers are anxious, and they have:given a solensn
plelge to the country.to do every thing with the view of alleviating the
public burthens—to institute a strict inquiry into the state of the na-
tional expenditure—and to suffer no personal considerations to stand
in the way of salutary retrenchment. Such being the case, there-
fore, the Duke of Wellington and his colleagues have every
reason to rejoice at the return of staunch advocates of refrendutieni,
since it is from such men that they requite and expect support in
their future proceedings.

Cintowicr.i..—The Duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel generally
take to themselves the praise of yielding a very reluctant acqui-
escence to the corrupt system which, in the existing order of things,
they admit to be necessary for the conduct of Government; but, if
we mistake not, the transactions of the present election, if fully
disclosed, would show that the system, with all its corruption, has
been pursued in no slugglish or indifferent temper ; and that if, as
the best informed persons predict, (and the Table of Returns which
we published on Saturday appears to justify such predictions) the
result of the appeal to the people is far from being favouta.
ble to Ministers, the adverse event has been owing to no
extraordinary chariness in the employment of the means in their
hands. The efforts made to exclude the Messrs. Grant are al.
ready known to the public. Ere Lord Jersey's accession to office
was announced, his son had gone down to Rochester as the Govern-
ment Candidate; and ere Mr. North had taken his seat on the Bench
of the Iri,h Court of Admiralty, he became Mr. Maurice O'Con-
nel's antagonist at Drogheda. That Cambridge University was not
contested ; that Air. Hume was not opposed in Middlesex ; that Mr.
Briscoe has succeeded in Surrey; that Mr. Huskiness has been
returned for Liverpool ; that Sir Thomas Gooch has been ousted ;
that the Duke of Rutland's nominee is worsted in Cambridge
County • that two Whigs have been returned for Norfolk; and
that, finally, the Metropolitan Members, both for London
and Westminster, are unchanged, is no fault, though it be the
fortune of the Duke of Wellington's Government.

CHIONICLE—The Courier's Express from Dover, announcing
the apprehension of Prince Polignac, proves to have been erroneous;
while our statement that he lay hid in London has been confirmed
by a report that he has just left town for Walmer Castle, on a visit
to the Duke of Wellington. With reference to this report we must
say, that making every allowance for the demands of private friend-
ship, it is not to be endured that a man guilty of the wont tresses._
treason against the people—shall be harboured in the official red.
dence of the First Minister of England. Let those who make light
of the traitor's guilt learn from M. Manignac, and the Due
de Finjames, the respectable Royalist Minister of Louis Minh.,
and the son of the last of the Capets, how to speak of him, " Imbe-
cile, infamous, and perfidious," are the terms which they, with all
the leanings of their minds in favour of the late Dynasty, apply to
its counsellors. In its treatment of the Monarch himself, the
French nation sufficiently testifies its magnanimity and elemmey ;
but justice must have her dues ; and if the counsellors of Charles
the Tenth escape the punishment of their crimes, the responsibility
of the ministers of a limited monarchy becomes a jest; nor can the
great principle which provides for the inviolability of the royal person
itself be maintained, except by the vindication, in the persons of
Ministers, of the eternal and immutable rights of the people. Ab•
solve the Blinisten, and you condemn the King himself. There is
no alternative. We, inde.W, are far from coveting the odious office
of whetting the resentments of the French people ; but we must be.
ware lest the sentiment of the public mind in England be misun-
derstood ; and we do not suffer, therefore, any weak feeling of hu.
manity to prevent our declaring that the people of England are well
content that Prince Polignac and his associates shall meet that doom
they have so richly merited.

TO THE GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE OF FRANCA

At this moment you require the aid of every friend to the im-
provement of the human race.
I hasten to present to you such views of your present most he.
portant position as my past experience enables me to offer. If my
views be useful for your present position, it is well ; but if they
are too far advanced for the existing confused state of public opinion,
I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that they will be adopted at
no very distant period.
You have done wisely in securing a regular government with.
out loss of time, that you may obtain leisure and calmness to
perfect the good work which you have so well commenced.
The public of France, and the existing state of Europe, require
great judgment and decision in your proceedings; and, above all,
that you should not be led astray by old and now obsolete terms.
Let me, therefore, recommend, that you disregard all mere names of
party, and look only to principles and to practice. It is evident
that you have the elements of four parties among you. The sup-
porters of the late government—those. who desire a new sovereign
in the late line of succession, in the of the Duke of Bour.
deaux—those who are the friends oerginlip the First and an he-
reditary monarchy in his family—and, lastly, the republican party.
I 'The executive is, for the moment, happily put under the direction
of the person the best calculated, by education and situation, to wield
it the most advantageously for the nation, while it is considering
what permanent improvements can be now benebcially effected.
Let Philip the First,and the Charter, amended, be now supposted
by the people, to afford time to consider well what ought to be dens
under the new and extraordinary erairbkh has opened upon France.
I know the time has not yet arrived when the public mind of
Europe can bear the full light of truth, without the admixture of a
certain portion of error descending to us from our ancestors.
But having nothing to hope, or to fear, from Prince or people of
any country, and being actuated solely with a desire to effect a be-
neficial change, in the shortest period, in the condition of the popu-
lation of all countries, I will endeavour, in a few words, to explain
what changes are wanted in all governments, and what are the real
obstacles to their attainment.

All people require Institutions to give the best character that can
be formed to the whole population ; secondly, to direct the skill,
pital, and industry of the country; to secure the greatest polity
independence practicable to every individual ; and, laady. r silo
the whole population, so far as it is practicable, in good and kistl
feeling for each other.
These are the legitimate objects for the attainment of the people
of every country, and their governments ought now to be
modified, in order to secure these blessings to mankind; far each
of them is procurable in a very high degree of perfection.
You have now a fair opportunity of forming your Institutions Is
effect these three objects. There would be, indeed, very little MA.,
culty in obtaining thaw happy results for society, were it so fix do
formidable obstacles which the ignorance, from inexperience of magi
forefathers, has placed in our way. bet us not, however, in am&
damning these erroneous Institutions, founded on the ignliose
preceding ages, create any hostile or unpleasant feelings towards the
ind ividusls now living,who have been educated to support themeless&
iodate; for as all men are the creatures of their education,whisis they
did not direct, and of their peculiar organisation, which they did set
form--ennt can never Monne objects of anget,but of pity, to endued
bike.
I in my next letter, to explain what the loathed's& are
prevent the formation of a superior character among the pus.
pier which keep them generally in poverty, and which crews dia.
stiestg them.