Star.
London, England, 1831-02-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

Hattar.n.--.lllbiisteis havlnitilthemselves to introduce a Re.
form measure, shortly, have undertaken a task which could not hare
been much looser delayed without manifest danger to the best interests
of the country. But a general plan of reform, with a view to improve
the principle of represestadon, is quite a distinct question from an in.
quiry into the corrupt delinquency of any particular borough, with
a view to its disfionchimment. The public will expect too much if
they imagine that any plan of reform devised by any ministry can put
an end altogether to corrupt practices.
Cneoxicz.z.—We have mote than once said, that the Theory of
the English Constitution laid down by popular English writers is
false, for such a monster could not exist for • month. England is not
a Constitutional Monarchy, but an Aristocratical Republic, with a
hereditary President, under the title of King. That there is a popular
infusion in the ruling body does not alter its character; for the Arista
cracy have a majority; and, in all cases in which the Order has a
common interest, it commands a majority. The King can only act
with the Aristocracy ; so that be Is not a distinct and separate power, but
a pert necessary to the completion of the political machine. All the
Constitutional Monarchies have been attempts to construct a system,
in which Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy, should balance each
other, and they have merged either into Monarchy or Democracy.
That this ascendancy is to the people a most expensive machinery, is a
point as to which there can be little question; the weight of the but.
dens pressing on the country Is • proof against which there is nothing
to be said. Ever since the Revolution of 1688, which terminated the
warfare between the King and the Aristocracy, the Government has
been carried on upon the principle of cramming the possessors of Par-
liamentary interest. Occasions for war have been sought, public opl.
Dion hu been corrupted at the fountain-head by interested parties, civil
and military establishments have been increased to meet the wants
of the governing few, and thus a National Debt has been created,
the magnitude of which, while it presses severely on the people,
threatens at the same time to destroy the aristocracy, by limiting their
power to obtain the means of corruption on which their ascendancy rests;
for the power of the aristocracy under the English Constitution Is in
very few cases quite dined, but rests on the &Son of popular suffrage.
, The patron even of a close borough, share of a firm, with all
' the members of which he is obliged to according to their influence,
the good things obtained by his parliamentary interest. The collection
of the revenue, the government offices, the navy, the higher stations In
the army, the colonies, the church, all must be open to the members of
the various corporations, because the condition of obedience to the will
of the patron is access to the public money in one way or other.
PUT.—Well—Ministers have had time to digest their plans; they
have had rope, and room, and verge enough ; they have been judged, not
by their characters, but by their measures; and the country is now be.
ginning to reap the fruits by which they are known. What has been
the consequence ? Act after set, speech after speech, night after night
they expose themselves more and more to public obloquy ; Civil List,
Pensions, %rills, Budget, and Belgic Non-intervention, art all stand.
ing monuments of folly and disgrace. The Journals which eulogised
their integrity sneer loudly at their lack of understanding.
Tuess.—Len any man look over the report of last night's proceedings
in the House of Commons, and ask himself whether, taking into ac.
count what he must recollect to have occurred within the last ten years
in Ireland, whether any, the moat hapless and degraded state of bums.
nity known to exist on earth, contains a parallel degree of suffering to
that which was brought before parliament by Mr. Dominick Browne,
and borne out in its most dreadful circumstances by Mr. Stanley, Mi.
sister for Ireland. But what shall we lay to the statement—the official
statement—of the Irish Secretary,that out of a landlord-rental in two ba-
reales of 14,0001. per annum, the donations afforded to the starving
poor were just 1001? One hundred pounds ! one fortieth fractional part
of those fruits of their toil wrung from the poor unhappy creatures, and
exported from the country which produced it, to pamper the heartless
appetites of some far-distant voluptuary, who would have dared to
wonder, we suppose, had the miserable population, so outraged by his
inhumanity, preferred the rights of nature to those of law, and broken
eat into wild insurrection ! What a brand of infamy is inflicted by the
ststement of Mr. Etrawr.zw, that, in the wretched district alluded to,
46 the Local Subscriptions were next to nothing, and the rents were at
the very highest I" What a picture of Irish landlords ! and yet evi-
dently not over-coloured, for Sir R. Pint, who is well-acquainted,
admitted its accuracy !