Star.
London, England, 1830-12-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THB JOURNAL&

CHIONICLI.—Every reflecting Reformer wishes to see a high pro.
perty qualification substituted to the present miserable borough system.
The example of Liverpool shows that there can be no secuting against
corruption in Borough Elections. The qualification ought to be uni-
form throuhout the country ; and Districts substituted for Counties
and Borough%. What we dread is a system which allows the extremes
of wealth and poverty to come into contact. Such is our present sys-
tem ; and with such a system corruption is inevitable. We wish to see
property protected, and to property alone would we trust the defence of
property.

Texas.—The distressing trials at Winchester are still in
and very numerous capital convictions have taken place, alrhporglittshge
pain with which one reads of such prosecutions, for offences arising from
such melancholy causes, is alleviated by the obvious and praiseworthy
lenity with which the poor culprits have in every instance been treated
by the learned judges who tried them. One circumstance apparent on
the face of these proceedings is to us inexpresibly humiliating,—we
mean the ignorance and intellectual degrndation of the peasants, who
throughout these southern counties have first been starved into disc
content, and then entrapped, by reason of their very stupidity,
into criminal and brutal courses u the means of relief from suf.
feting. What, indeed, but blindness the moat barbarous, set.
ed upon by selfish and practised cunning, could induce a mul.
rude, whose chief affliction was the insufficiency of their wages
compared as
with the price of bread, on the one hand to dtstroy machinery,
the sole use and purpose of which was to lower the coat of manufactured
corn, and on the other to lay waste the earn itself on whit ir the machinery
operated ; thus, by the Fame system of self ruinous outrage, diminishing
the amount of :he raw material, and augmenting that of the labour em.
ployed in fitting it fur consumption ? We are tempted to ask, in what
savage cemmunity have ste h wretched men been born? Under
what government have they lived, that It allows their na.
tural wants to be so cruelly disregarded ? Who is guilty
of the heinous Clime of so neglecting their general, sad espe-
cially their moral instruction, as to have looked on whilst the whole
agricultural inhabitants of this (self-called) humane and enlightened
country, grew up in utter callousness to the difference between right and
wrong,—of utter incapacity to release themselves by means becoming
any reasonable creatures from a condition of prostrate pauperism, the
exisance of which, almost incredible anywhere, ought to be considered
monstrous in England. foremost of nations in industry, wealth, and
knowledge? We do affirm that the actions of this pitiable race of men,
as a commentary on the treatment experienced by them at the hands of
the upper and middling classes—the gentlemen, the clergy (who ought
to teach and comfort them, and the farmers, who ought to pay and feed
them)-are disgraceful to the British name. The present population
must be provided for in body and spirit, on more liberal and Christian
principles, or the whole mass of labourers will start into legions of ban.
ditti—banditti less criminal than those who have tnade them so—than
those who, by a just but fearful retribution, will soon become their
victims.

PosT..—lt being evident almost to demonstration that such, and so
formidable, and so progressive is the character of the disease which
preys upon the prosperity and happiness of Ireland, and threatens her
existence, it Is truly melancholy to reflect upon the nature of the reme.
dies which our State physicians in their wisdom have thought proper to
administer. They have, at a cost to the people of England of 40001. a
year, withdrawn from the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland a person
who possessed, in as high a degree as it is possible fur any man to
possess, the united confidence and esteem of both the Ca-
tholic and the Protestant portions of the community, in order to bestow
this high and influential office upon an individual who, whether justly
or unjustly, is in fact the object of extreme dislike to bah; and have
given to the latter, suspected and hated though he be, equally by Pro.
testant and Catholic, a large share in the general government of the
country, extensive powers of nomination to offices in the Church as well
as the State, together with a controul all but absolute over the entire
Alagistracy. This is the first ingredient in the mixture by which agi.
tation is to be allayed. Such is the deplorable and wretched cam.
meneement of his Majesty's present Ministers with respect to the affairs
of Ireland, which we are to cousider as the symptoms of that prudence
and energy with which they are prepared to encounter the difficulties
and dangers visible in the state of that country, and to subdue them.

A guard of Royal Marines, under the command of Captain
Humphrey Moore, has been embarked on board the ship
Eliza, now lying at Spithead. This ship is to receive on
board all rioters who may be sentenced to be transported at
the present Speoial Assizes, without their being allowed to
associate with the felons now in the hulks. The ship is
destined for Sydney.
THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS AND THE BARON Ha m-
BOLDT.—The Emperor Nicholas has lately made a present
to the celebrated traveller Humboldt of a magnificent vase.
It was hewn from a block of Siberian marble, of nearly 20
cubic feet in size, is in the ancient style, and richly orna-
mented. The name of the species of quartz of which it is
formed, and which is peculiar to Siberia, is awe:shwas. In
colour and general appearance it bears a resemblance to the
onyx, but with that peculiar interchange of hue found in
the opal. It is the admiration of all who have seen it.—
Spectator.