Star.
London, England, 1831-08-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THIS DArs JOURNALS.

TlMES.—After the decided manner in which the press
of England declared itself on the strange phraseology of
Marshal Soult in the Chamber of Deputies,—after the strong
remonstrances of the English Government, supported by the
sympathy of the English people,—after the tendered gua-
rantee of the Conference of London to the good faith of the
Dutch Court,—aud after the expression of alarm by the Bel-
gians themselves at the presence of a foreign force, calculated
to endanger that independence which it came to protect,—
the French Ministry, however desirous of acquiring popu-
larity with the movement party,, could not withdraw from
its engagement, or refuse an wider for the immediate
recall of its troops. Their continuid stay, when the object
of the expedition was accomplished, was a question of peace
or war, as well as a question of perfidy or good faith. The
French Cabinet Las, therefore, consented to withdraw the
chief portion of its army within its own frontier. But by the
arrangement, of which this evacuation forms the chief part,
it is stipulated that a small corps is still to remain at the
request of King Leopold till his own rimy is recog-
nized ! This is the portion of the arrangement res.
petting which Lord Grey last night declined to give the re-
quired information. It is likewise unhappily a part of the
arrangement which the English public cannot approve, and
with which the English Government ought not to rest saris.
fled. The new King of Belgium does not require th
assistance of French bayonets to protect him against the
disaffection of his own subjects ; and tie good faith of 1101-
' land, or the fear of a second repalsb, huffichmtly pro-
tect him against a second Dutch i nvasion. His Majesty is
popular, and he is therefore safe. Ile must reorganize his
army, but he must not employ French drill serfeants or
French officers for that purpose. If he really requires an
auxiliary force, let him recruit his bodyguard in Switzer.
! land, and not accept of it from Marshal Soult. He can
' never be free from intrigues, disturbances, perplexities, or
dangers—he can never be really independent—he can never
call himself master at home—his country an never enjoy
I that neutrality and secu It, which the great powers of Europe
have decreed that it shall possess, so long as there is a sin-
' gle foreign soldier on guard, or a single foreign flag waving,
in Belgium.

POgT.—French papers of the 24th inst. have come to
hand. Their contents serve most amply to bear us out in
all that we have said of the intentions of the French Go-
vernment in regard to Belgium. So far from the forces of
France bcing about to evacuate that country, the Constitu.
tionnet informs us, that " the French army will occupy the
most important fortresses, at least till France shall have
been repaid for the expenses attending the putting her army
of fifty thousand men on the war establishment ;" and as
that wretched country is utterly incapable of an.
severing a demand of so great amount, its occupancy by
the French may be considered as little short of permanency.
The idea of Holland being called upon to bear any portion
of that indemnity is absurdity in the extreme, and has never
been broached by the Ministry of France. Such a proceed•
ing would indeed he an outrage upon every principle of na-
tional policy and the law of Nations. A' Prussian Amy
of 24,000 men is said to have crossed the Rhine, hut the
object of this movement is not mentioned. Some distur-
bances have taken place at Marseilles and other towns is
the South of France, originating to the manifestations of
Royal Legitimacy, uow so generally prevalent in that part
of the country.
HERA I.D.—A gyeat deal has been recently said, but, as
it appears to us, with very little reason, against the foreign
policy of our government and the conduct of France as re-
gards England. A Morning Paper has designated the
French as having acted treacherously and insolently (with
respect to the Belgic affair, we presume), and asserts that
the French army sent it:to Belgium " was not called for by
the Prince, for whose alleged support it was put in motion."
How any writer could dare to mike such an assertion—an
assertion so notoriously false--we cannot imagine. The
King of the Belgians did call, as all the world knows, for the
assistance the French troops, and it is now quite evi-
dent that if he had not called for such assistance, or if it
had been refused him, the Dutch at this niontem would
have born quietly in possession of his kinemn. Nor dice
it appear to us that the French have violated :my promise
in Dot having withdrawn their troops earlier. The news,
however, on this subject, renders any farther remarks
upon this part of our Contemporary's Article superfluous.
There is no doubt that orders have been given for the with.
drawal of die French army from Belgium. With regard to
the Belgic affair, therefore, we see no reason to accuse
France of a want of good faith. much I. sa ought site to be
charged with pursuing " a sordid, selfish, and grasping
policy, which exhibits her before all mankind as at once
the meanest and most.atrocious of criminals." Nor der we
see any justice in the accusation brought against our GJeern?,
oeted, on the score of their foreign
.policy, at least so tar as
BelgiuM is concerned. Indeed we have no hesitation its
saying that, aecoeding to all appearance, they ate likely
to bring us nut of this 'affair in a much better manner
Thad sit* egiterally expected. But our contemporary brings
a Aeriersoltayge against France for the course that %helms
,nurbmid with revect to Perused.. For our t' We do not
bellivethet a slogle mania to be Lased in the Unite t • King.
dons, out dt the ranks of the advocates of tyranny, weo does
not think that Dm Miguel richly deserves all that he has
obtained at the Mends of France. It is not true that France

'‘. I.RICE SEVENP;;NCII.

seized all the men-of-wee in the service of Portugal, and i
made prize of them, epee full satisfaction 11,,r1 been ensued
for whatever injuries her Government complaint(' of. She
seized them, we allow, after full satisfaction had been pro.
mised ; but a promise front Don Miguel, without a gua-
rantee for its fulfilment, would be of li'tle value, and there-
fore we say that she is perfectly right in retaining then- I
But, be this as it may, we shall rejoice if the fall of the
atrocious tyrant Miguel can be purchased even at the ex- I
pense of the fleet of Portugal, and we suspect that every
geneine hater of despotism is of the same opinion. Our I
contemporary lauds the Duke of IVellington, and abuses -
the present Mitiistey, upon the supposition that his Grace
would have taken part with Dort 3liguel, and not left. the;
" Minister" to fight his own battles. Now, in our humble
opinion, the praise bestowed in this installer open the Dake ;
is not very desirable, and re are quite Kure that the cen-
sure reflects credit rather than disgrace upon the Cabinet of
Earl Grey. An English Ministry have nothing to dread
from not having abetted the cause of a tyrant bite Don ,
Miguel ; a contrary line of conduct would have inevitably
,sehjected them to the loss of the contklenre of the pcoele of
England.
TlMES.—There are complaints, we observe, in the;
French journals, that the views of France in respect to 8.1.
gium are misrepresented on this side of the water, and sus-
picions thrown out by us calculated to embmil the two na-
tions.
We are induced, by the repetition of these
complaints in the Jonrrrat dcs Debate, to ray something in
the most friendly spirit on this very delicate affair.
First of all, we know very well, and so does France,
that she would like to have the Belgic provinces; and
that this wish is felt equally by Royalist and Repub-
lican, by the friends of Louis Philippe and the partisans of
Charles the Tenth. Then we know also, and so does site,
that she possesses a certain herd of furious partisans in
Belgium, chiefly in Brussels, who, though France herself
might reject the acquisition of Belgium by dishonourable
means, would have no objection to give it her by any means
whatever; setting honour and good faith at defiance ; and
that those partisans have been labouring incessantly fur that
purpose ever since the general peace and, further,:
though the motives of France might be proper and humane
on advancing into Belgium to repel the Dutch, yet we could
not but observe that the measure was eagerly adeptee, and
Thal before the other Great Powers could be consulted upon
the precise measure, though the principle of putting a atop
to effusion of blood might have been acknowledged gene-
rally. These, with many other minor circumstances, are
the facts from which suspicions have sprung—facts resulting,
we allow, more horn the situation of France and the general
feeling of the people, than from the conduct of her govern-
ment. It has been her misfortune—chary, no doubt, as she
is of her honour—to be placed in a situation liable to suepi.
cien ; but we will observe, that the suspicions of others will
not justify her in the execution of those projects which are
imputed to her. She has it in her power to wipe away the
suspicions, to dispel the cloud, wherewith rho complains
that malevolence has for a while shrouded her fair fame and
honourable character for just dealing. Let her withdraw
from Belgium as promptly as she entered that country, note
that her work of humanity is finished, and then what becomes
of the insinuations of her enemies ? They fall upon the heads
of their authors, and she emerges with yet greater brightness
from ,the temporary obscurity under which she laboured.
Her course is clear, if honour be her aim, and the success
certain.

CHRONI CI.E. —To the promptitude of the French, I
Europe is indebted for the preservation of peace ; fur it is
hardly necessary to observe, that if a few days only had been
suffered to pees before taking the determination to trend
troops to Belgium, the Dutch might have established them-
selves in that country. Itby this means they could have re-
established the Kingdom cf the Netherlands, other coon.
tries would have had nothing to say ; but the Belgians
would never have reconciled themselves to a Govern.
ment founded on their conquest by a people they so much
hate. The, Dutch invasion then, if as successful as the
King of Holland could hove wished, would have been only
the commencement of a warfare into which ether stat..s might
have been drawn. The king of Holland, as Mr. Hume ob.
served, may be a very good King for the Dutch, but it is quite
clear that his virtues are not appreciated by the Belgians; and
it is well that the French have shown him, in eeo
convincing a manner, that he has nothing to huge
from the indulgence of his military propensities. We
entertain a very high respect for the Dutch, to whom as a peo-
ple, European civilization is perhaps more indebted than
to any other. Of all the Tectonic faces, too, they most re-
semble ourselves, buts in the qualteies of body and mind ;
and a similarity of character fortis a natural bond of at.
tachment between the two nations But it is nut necessary
to confound the Dutch with their ambitious monarch. It
may be galling to the King to return to the rank of Stub-
holder ; but the Dutch will be much happier by themselves
than, united to the Belgians. The less, too, they told to
their debt by military expeditions beyond their means, the
more will they consult their future happiness.
POST.—That part of Clause 21 conferring the right of
voting on tenants paying 101. a year rent, in weekly pay-
ments, was discussed last nigh( in Committee, and finally
carried, against an amendment moved by Mr. Campbell, by
a majority of ($B. The history of this portion of Clause
21 affixes an indelible stigma on the Reform Bill, and dis-
grace on its authors. In the bill as laid before the pre.
sent parliament a proviso was introduce, wi.h the
utmost deliberation and perfect knowledge of its
effect. limi ing the right of voting to tenants paying
' their rents not more frequently titan once in every
half year. The fraud, however, being discovered, at the
Birmingham Political Union having taken up the subject,
the Miristry, fearful of losing their main support, via, the
force of the mob, pleaded first inadvertence, then iyno-
! runty, as an apology (both of which pleas have proved to
be false), and not only hastened to wilhdraw the obnoxious
provision, but ultimately rushed into the opposite extreme
of letting in thousands of voters in such a condition of
life that they cannot be trusted by their landlords to the
amount of two pounds ten shillings ! A great deal
was said last night about the intelligence and le.
apectability of this class of men, but what opinion
was entertained of their intelligence and fitness to vote alien
a provision was deliberately introduced into the second
bill for the express purpose of excluding them ? If there
were wanted any other proof that the opinion of ministers
respecting them is still what it was (though they have
not scrupled to sacrifice character and conscience to hoe
of place), it would be timid in the astounding Let no.
ticed last night by Mr. Croker, that alter Lind Grey, in
consequence of the protest of the Birmingham Union, had
withdrawn the half.yearly tent proviso, the very same
clause was introduced in' v the Scotch Reform Jill to come-
terbalance the concession made to the Radicals of this port
of the United Kingdom !
' CHRONICLE.—The 191. qualification is, of coarse, a
very different qualification in different places. I places
where there are not more than 300 electors, it will its general
be twice as high in reality as in the great and topuloua
towns. But then the greater value in the small towns adds
to the difficulty of bribery, allele bribery in the great towns
is impracticable from the inability of the candidate to buy so
great a number of voter,. The ten Firmed resit qua.
lification having been disposed of by to majority of three,
bundled and fifty-three to ten, diffcuttirs were started • with
respect to the times of payment, of rent. 11r. J. Campbell ob.
jetted strongly to giving the franchise to weekly teoants, he de-
elated
" that it would give* landlords—nut aristocratical'
landlords, but of a notda, ;lower and more objectionable,
class--an extremely Isoltroper Mower. They would, if their
tenants were disposed not to secede to their wishes, have
the power of deriving then of the franchise in some cows'
between the day of proclamation and the day of election.—
In such a place as Southwark, a man who had 500 weepy
tenants might absolutely turn the election. The only.ner,
•eleily to his mind for this was, to prevent all personi lark,
voting who paid rent more ftequently than four .titteo..ol,
year. This was even allowing a latitude; tin.
lte tepid
state upon the authority of the n:ost celebrated conveyancers,
that there was not a lama fide ye arty tenant in England

HERALD.—It is with equal pain wad atoolishe em we
tind that the kw of forip ry ie, once mare, abode to he pet
it, eanguinary ocelot. That law, as to as humeri lifse is eon.
.erred, has been in abeyance ever Mace the memorable de-
cision of the House of Conitnone. in the month of Jun( le-t
year, against the punishment of detail for the off nee of
orgery. It is now, however, it would seem, abort to be
revived in practice, end ies revival celebrated within a
few days, by the sacrifice of two human victims to that
paper-Moloch, whose appetite for blood has, for nary ream.
past, excited ao much 4:f pithl.c tirsi wit and abl:citteec...
The tat) criminals who are the fire• appointed to the
under Sir Robert attended" 'a w of forgery, are
Calvert and Col ice, who had been tonvicted of (urging
bank notes, at Lancaster, during the Spring Assizes of the
.present year. They had been reepited during severed numbs
or rather, we believe, :heir sentences had been feersei ; bet
at the recent Assizes Mr. Baron Vaughen bad them paced
at the bar, and gave them judgment to die ".vending to
law," entreating them, at the same cote, nut to delude
them cite. by entertaining any hopes or mercy. When we
consider that the first instance of cmytg g Sir Loh -rt
Peel's Forgery Bill into executi in net ors under
' Administration, every :Itember of wineii hati oppose.i
,hat B 11, upon the grounds, whice the ablest &no- e
them so eloquently urged. of its being etiushy cryel
n principle, and pernicious to the interests of end. It in its
eperation, we may wad say that the ree iv I of the sangui.
nary practice of this law, under such ateltWes. t xcitre our
astonishment. But however politicians may tete, tteeir (mi-
nions or conduct with their changes of position, their re-
corded sentimentechange riot. The present Lord tharceller
we need scarcely remind our readers, distinguished 'newel'
greatly last year in the debates upon the forgery bill. lie
exposed the barbarity and the folly of the punishment a
death with indignat t eloquence and uncompromising hoe.
rility. Atter showing that it is the certainty, and taut
the severity, of punishment, that deters men from crime.
and having stated that of 217 persons convicted of forgery
in seven years only 24 were capitally punished, while of
99 convicted of murder in the same tame Sit were executed,
he went on to say—" We are told that practical men wise
the punishment of death to be retained, but they ha...
come forward by the ,cure-' by the but dred— I may
say, by the tliouund—and your table groans under their
petitions, denying the imputation, not upon their feel-
ings, but upon their good sense. There petitions agsMat
the punishment of death fur forgery proceed from
those to whom paper credit is the breath of their
nostrils—from those who are ruined if forgery goes
unpunished, and who &elate it must generally go un-
punished as long as death is inflicted for its comma
sion." Again, on the third reading of the bill, Mr.
(now Lord) Brougham said, in reference ro the small ma.
jority of placemen by whom the'second reading had bean
carried—" Would nut the punishneurat, if continued, be
censidered to be branded by the rote of the COMPIIOII2 of
F:nyland 1 If the principle were unpopular already—if
metes feelings rebelled already again'. it—what would be
those feelings. that unpopularity, when the sentiments be.
came settled, and fixed, and rooted in their 'triode by the set.
tette: of the unbiassed wisdom, the calm deliberatedecisiom, of
that house ?" During the same debates Sir James Mackin.
nosh eloquently and truly argued that the abolition or the
capital punishment would be in truth " unly a return
to the state of the law as it existed previously to the reign
of George 11. a period When the alteration. in the hew of
forgery spread over Europe as idea of the sanguinary lend
inhuman spirit of our laws, and made the inhabitants of ti:e
different States believe that Englishmen valued not lite, ime
the blood of man, when they came in competition with their
pelf or selfish interests. No law 14 this kind existed to die
other great commercial States of Europe. It did not exist in
France, or Holland, or Prussia ; it was not, in fect,the taw of
any country front Hamburg to Caidis ; from the northern to
'the southern pole of the coinmercialworid. It is this. barbarous
law that the petitioners now prayed the House to repeal.'
Nor should on this occasion the able and unanswerable pin.
test entered on the Journals of the linase of Peers, agathat
the punishment of death fur forgery. by Lord Holland be
forgotten. It would be difficult to find a document m 're tu
the purpose in point of argtynesit, and drawn up with mole
force and felicity of exp.esision.
" Because if justice enjoins the inew.i:y 'at irroportioning
the punishment to the moral :sa:pi.ude of an curette; mu- .
dence no less requires that the COM sIUP hr pro.
duced by such punishment should Out eveed the italitenetion
generally excited by the perpeiretan taf ,lie crime ; and that
the penalty should be regulated by th..!,,SIC of 1.11.,11,:, opinion
at the time, mid in the country where stab law u. ettacted or
allowed' to continue; but, in dos insulter, .be frequt ney of
pardon, the numerous petitions of the people, and the mate
of the Commons house of Parliament, sufficiemly attest
that the punishment by death of crinima.e coiirieted of
forgery is uGhoret sit to the spirit of the aye. cont. day to Vie
judyment of the public, and rea.ttiny to the Jetlistys 9/ the
community." 1 his protest was eigued not oay sty Lead
Holland, but by the Duke of Richmond a .d Luau Durham,
members of' the present Ministry. Suii, then, ate ase of
Iforycry be carried into.tflect, tar the preroya.tve nJ surrey,
which is also part of the law of Faigiesiu, be .11tiorai to cur.
tect the sanguinary errors of inner lawe.

Y

:1., tqb So
Lijo ity 'of
hlr em we
to he wit
Iffy is con.
eirable de-
f Jun( Is-t
or nee of
boot to he
within a
its ,o that
nary rear.'
•
to
TrEcrY, are
of forging 1;
;ire' of ,
'r4l
rer.4l ; bnt
•
lem paced
eroding to I !
In tLiude
Whin 11C
it 1.44 D -rt
U ider a I
A opprisr.i
?At a.rrp..-'
creel
et. It in ire
;I,
be mogul.
acial our
ere rur'i• ; .
their re- •
tharcelb.r II
' 1
bill. lie 4 ,
,ightlient
rising
and not
[tint Crime,
of torgcr v
while of • t•
e cleaned,
men
they hiss! j ;
ed— I may
Linda their
their feel-
ens against
,
ct.i.d fret
of their
rgery guts
dly go uti-
.Dl comma—
. e bill, Alt.
small ma.
•
g had Aran
Wawa, be
orwiworta
already—if
at would he
Ilium, be.
by the se n.
ideetanoi, of
tee Alscl...n.
itioa or the .
ly a MM U
to the reign
the low of
uinary and
;1
itants of ti:e 1;1
not lite, t.or
3 with their
hated in the
DOt altiSt itl •
et,the wir of
northern to
is barbarous
to repeal.**
fierable pi o•
ere, agatt,st
Holland be
rut m 're to
p with mote .„
bfeaetr.,
• e"
roportioning
rieune; pent. •
to' be pro.
muii,nsiton
e; and than
1ilt: opinion