Star.
London, England, 1830-03-30 00:00:00

now Lord MALMISBURT—aye, even Lord MALMES-
uu T—acknowledges that " The march of intellect, out
of doors, had made the people competent to understand
and discuss all matters •of State, and Government, and
among them the Corn Laws."—We must notice, paren-
thetically, a similar tribute paid to the intelligence of the
people, by Mr. C. GRANT, in the debate on the Ordnance
Estimates, in the House of Commons. " There never was
a period," be said, " in which that House had been so
narrowly watched. Such was the march of intellect and
intelligence that, in a short time after their decisions, all
they did was canvassed all over the country, not only
by the enlightened classes, but by the labouring
classes."—The Resolutions proposed by . Lorin Kiw•
were negatived, it is true, without a division ;—but
the advocates of the present system may rest satisfied
that " the Question will never be et rest, while the Corn
Laws are in force :"—and on turning from the discussion
in the House of Lords to the proceedings in the " lower
House," we find Sir FRANCIS BuRDLTT giving
notice of his intention to bring forward a motion
for the repeal of these laws, soon after Easter. In
doing so, he declared " that not only for the general
prosperity of the country, but for the particular advan-
tage of its land owners, these laws ought to cease."
There is an unworthy selfishness at the bottom of all the
Hon. Baronet's recent efforts for " the country's good,"
which he cannot disguise, or conceal ; and which has de-
stroyed his popularity and marred his usefulness :—but
whatever his motive may be, he speaks truly, when he
says " The Corn Laws are a real bar to the prosperity of
the country."

Elated as we were by the success of Sir ROBERT
HERON'S attack on the Pension and Superannuation
System, we did not suffer our exultation in the country's
triumph to betray us into any very sanguine anticipations
as to the result of that motion which Sir JAMES GSA-
RAM, last night, declared be 4' felt to be demanded of
him in times like the present, as a public duty ;" and
1" feeling it to be a public duty, he would fearlessly dis-
charge it." And he did so; by moving, in the Commit-
tee of Supply on the Ordnance Estimates, an amendment
to the effect that " the Office of Lieutenant-General of
the Ordnance be abolished." When" we admit that we
did not entertain any very sanguine expectations of the
favourable result of such a motion ; we must add , that our
misgivings arose from the consideration of influential mo-
tives totally apart from, and even opposed to, the merits
and the justice of the case. If we doubted the issue of
the struggle, we had no doubt whatever of the propriety
of the measure ;—if we were hopeless of its success, we
were not the less deeply impressed with the necessity that
called for such an act of retrenchment at the present mo-
ment, nor with the conviction that, even if the distresses of
the country did not, in the words of Sir JAMES GRAIIAN,
" cry aloud for the reduction of all public establishments,
with a view to the removal of public burthens," the re-
commendation of the FINANCE COMMITTEE should have
rendered the abolition of such an office imperative on a
Government, pledged, as our Government stands, to a
solemn engagement " that every possible saving should
be effected, without detriment to the public service."
The unqualified recommendation of the Committee was
given under circumstances that entitled it, in this
particular instance, to the cheerful, or, at least, the
unhesitating, concurrence of the Ministry ; for it was.
the result of a patient investigation of the details and
duties of the Ordnance Establishment; and it was

conscientiously and deliberately founded upon grounds
which the Committee held to be sufficient to warrant
them in rejecting even the opinion of the Duke of WEL.
LINGTON—who, after stating that " he considered the
office of Lieutenant-General essential to the well-being of '
the Army," admitted that " the Lieutenant-General,
having important duties to perform, he did not mean to
say that the Master-General could not perform these
duties ; for in point of fact he had done so, in the absence
of the Lieutenant-General." To be sure his Grace

added that " the Lieutenant-General had a great deal
to do ;—he had to inspect the troops at Woolwich, and to
examine the men that were to be discharged : he had a
great deal to do that could not otherwise be done."
And yet, it appears, that the holder of this indispensable
office, who has a great deal to do that cannot otherwise
be done, has been occasionally absent, not only from
the Board, bet from England; and that his duties have
been quite as satisfactorily and as conveniently performed
whilst he was in Portugal, as if they had essentially con-
stituted a portion of the Master-General's functions. Nay
further, the Committee arrived at the knowledge of facts
still more important, and still more conclusive, in enabling
them to form a just estimate of the Master-General's ser-
vices, and of the manner in which they were performed;
for it was stated in evidence before them, that" when Lord
CHATHAM-..0f course no one can possibly mistake the
Lord CHATHAM here referred to—was at Walcheren, and
when Lord CORN W ALLIS filled the office of Lord Lieute-
nant of Ireland, the duties of their situations at the Ord-
nance were efficiently discharged in their absence." So
much for " the groat deal" that the Premier tells us " could
not otherwise be done !" And now we are in the fifteenth
year of peace, we find a far more expensive establish-
ment than ever, maintained at the Ordnance for the per-
formance of duties that were suffered, in the time of the
most momentous war in which England was ever yet en-
gaged, to devolve upon the inferior officers of the depart-
ment. With these facts before us, we might perhaps
have very pardonably indulged in the hope of seeing
Ministers obliterate the disgrace of Friday night's defeat,
by the voluntarily concession of so trifling a boon to the
public as the salary of the Lieutenant-General :—but we
recollected in whose peculiar patronage the office lay;
and we knew that it was little less than what Mr. Gotrz.-
' Dunn would call " a misprision ef treason" to calculate
upon the surrender of any of the privileges or prerogatives
of onr. Military Premier. The speech of Mr. Pus. is es
extraordinary a poodolgotion of parliamentary doctrine
as we have read fir many a day. Sir Janos GIIIANAN'S
_ esotidn Wm lest by aujerity of seventy-six. •