Star.
London, England, 1831-07-30 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria,
attended by Lady Catherine Jenkinson, Baroness Lelia.;
and Sir John Conroy, left Kensington Palace yesterday for
North Castle, in the Isle of Wight.
The French and Dutch Ambassadors had long
interviews, yesterday, with Viscount Palmerston at the
Foreign Office.
Lord Ponsonby transacted business yesterday at
the Office of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Viscount Palmerston bad an interview with Earl
Grey yesterday at the Treasury.
Sir James Graham visited Lord Altborp yester-
day at the Treasury.
IMPORTANT Naw REVENUL REG LATIONS
The Irish Stamp Office is to be removed forthwith
to the Custom-House. It is intended to remove
thither as many of the government departments,
dispersed through Dublin, except the Post-Office,
as can be accommodated, and the Stamp Office, be-
ing a revenue department, its officers are to move
first, as the present government are anxious to get the
revenue departments into as close contact as pos-
sible, without delay, very important alterations
in the system of management being in con-
templation. It is thought that the present
boards will be got rid of, and that in lieu of
them, there will be one board of practical men,
acquainted with the commercial and financial
interests of the three countries. This board will
manage all the revenue departments, except the
Post Office ; and the enormous expenditure occa-
sioned by separate departments will be avoided. '
Instead of there being three or four collectors of
revenue in every large town, there will be but
one collector and one establishment of revenue
officers. All the working officers of the several
departments will thus be combined ; all the rest will
be dispensed with ; and one system of collecting re-
venue, and of granting bounties and drawbacks,
will pervade the United Kingdom—Dublin Morn-
ing Register.
The new pier and stairs to Hungerford Market
are proceeding with rapidity.

SECOND EDITION.

STAR OFFICE, SEVEN o'CLocK.

A rumour was prevalent to-day, that there will
be another and immediate dissolution of Parliament.
The factious opposition of the Boroughmongers
certainly justifies such a proceeding; and there
is good authority for believing, that it is by
no means necessary to bring even that part
of the Reform Bill, already settled in the Com-
mons, before the Lords, to legalize the dis-
franchisement of the Boroughs in schedule A, or
the new Constitution of the Boroughs in schedule B.
The concurrence of the Lords in certain measures
maturely and deliberately settled by the Commons,
is now found to be a matter of courtesy—not of
Law ; and adissolution,afterthepreliminary clauses
of the Bill have passed the present Committee,
would at once uproot the influence of the Borough
faction, and give to the popular interests the rower
of returning a new and reformed Parliament, in
which the further details of the bill, and other ne
cessary provisions, would be debated, and, if found
expedient, adopted, without the perpetual and har-
ragging obstacles which the routed faction seem de
tennined recklessly to throw in the way ofthe public
business of the country. Nothing as to the cer-
tainty of a dissolution, however, or as to the tine
it may take place, has transpired at the latest post-
hour ; but as the affair has assumed an imposing
and credible appearance, we deem it proper to lay
this account of it before our readers.

In our preceding columns will -Lie found the rea-
sons for an emly meeting of Parliament this after-
noon. Both Houses—particularly the Commons
—were crowded to excess ; and an unusual appea-
rance of seriousness:and solemnity seemed to per-
vade the proceedings. At two o'clock the LORD
CHANCELLOR, the Earl of SHAFTESBURY,
and the Duke of RICHMOND took their
seats as his Mai sszv's Commissioners, when
The Royal Assent was given to the Abolition of
Oaths before the Lord Steward's Bill ; the Reduc-
tion of Salary of the Master of the Mint's Bill—
the Customs and Excise Abolition Oath Bill—Wi-
dows of Writers to the Signet of Scotland's Bill ;
Bolton and Leigh Railway Bill ; Southampton
Pier Bill; Ferrybridge Commons Inclosure Bill;
and upwards of fifty other public and private Bills.
The Queen'. Dowry Bill was then real a third time
and passed. Mr. Beaus'. and others brought up
five private bills, which were read a first time.
Viscount DUNCANNON brought up the Dean Fo-
rests' Bill, and General Steam Navigation and
Corporations' Bill. Mr. DUNDAS brought up the
Edinburgh Improvement Bill. Lord ANNANDALE
having made good his claim to the Peerage, took
the oaths and his seat. The House then adjourned
to Tuesday.

In the House of Commons, the SPEAKER, took
the Chair, at a Quarter before 2 o'Clock, when after
some immaterial preliminary proceedings—among
which was the presentation of a petition from
a place in the County of Chester by Mr. HvNT
fora repeal of the Corn Laws,
A message arrived from the Lords, summoning the
House to attend, to hear the royal assent given to
the various Bills which we have enumerated above.
A long discussion took place whether the House
should go into the Reform Committee—a
measure, as usual, keenly contested by the
Boroughmongers ; but it was ultimately resolved
to proceed, and the first question was, that NI alines-
bury should stand part of Schedule B. After a
few words from Mr. BARING, the question was
agreed to. The Borough of Marlborough was
next similarly disposed of, after the usual opposition
by Mr.ESTCOURT, Mr. W. BANKES, and Sir C.
WETHERELL. The Borough of Great Marlow,
and Oakbampton were then plated in schedule B, as
was likewise that of Ryegate. The house was
proeeeding in this manner at the latest post hour.

Serious apprehensions appear to be entertained
in certain quarters lest the conduct of Prussia,
with regard to Poland, should lead to a declara-
tion of war on the part of France against the
former power. Our apprehensions, however, are
the very reverse. Wo fear that France will not
declare war against Prussia : but, at the same
time, we must say that, if the French government
do not take some effectual steps to enforce the
neutrality of that nation, they will prove them-
selves the veriest poltroons that ever were placed
at the head of a great people. The same remarks
will apply, though not, perhaps, with equal force,
to our Cabinet, should they quietly suffer the ag-
gressions of Prussia against Poland.
Dr. BADLY, of Chelmsford, died on Monday,
aged eighty-eight, having practised medicine for
fifty years there ; during which time he contrived,
by industry and frugality, to lay up a very com-
fortable maintenance. He has left a very singular
provision in his will—that he is to be buried by
torchlight at midnight on Monday next.
A correspondent asks whether we know any
thing of a French expedition going to Oporto, as
it is rumoured in Paris that it is intended to revive
an old plan, and root up all the vineyards in the
Douro. We acknowledge that we have no infor-
mation upon this subject ; but it would doubtless
meet Mr. Poulett Thompson's ideas ; as then, un-
der the new regulations, we should be obliged to
drink claret instead of port. The idea of rooting
up the vineyards of the Douro originated with
Count Subterra (Pamplona), the agent and tool of
the French, and it forms a leading feature in his
memorable manifesto, which nearly raised the
northern provinces of Portugal against the French.
—Post.

There has been invented at Boston, in America,
a machine for sweeping streets by horse power ;
one man and a horse are sufficient, with this ma-
chine, to sweep all the streets in a city in a com-
paratively short time.

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS-
HERALD.—The Archbishop of Canterbury's Bill for
confirming and perpetuating the augmentations made by
ecclesiastical persons to small vicarages and curacies—in
short, for improving the condition of the inferior clergy—will
be hailed with satisfaction by every well wisher of the esta-
blishment. Though thsre are many parts of out Church
government which require, and will, no doubt, experience
revision in the reforming spirit of these times, there is
no part of it respecting which the demand for alteration
was so pressing, as that which relates to the almost
destitute condition of the possessors of small curacies and
livings. We are glad to find not only that this subject has
been taken up, but that it has been taker: up in the proper
quarter—by the church itself. It is of great importance to
know that those who fill the highest stations, and exercise
the greatest influence, in the establishment are anxious to
meet improvement half way, instead of taking measures to
oppose an unavailing resistance to the wishes of the people ;
for it is by giving up what is bad that we shall best preserve
what is worth preserving in church as well as in state. The
outrageous contrast observable in the provision for the higher
and the lower clergy was always one of the great blots upon
the system. By adding to the comforts of that respectable
class of men, who are entitled, by the natute of their office
and the extent of their education, to the respect of the cont.
munity, we shall have done something towards the removal
of so great an evil. We shall not only have begun improve.
ment but begun it at that end which, on the score of huma-
nity, was entitled to the first attention. But lest we should
appear to exaggerate what is proposed to be effected by the
measure, we wish to be understood as estimating its chief
value from its principles, which is that of reform.
POST.—The Whig Radicals, seeing that the moment of
popular delusion has paned, and that the people, so artfully
and unnaturally excited in favour of revolution, under the
specious guise of reform, are daily more and more returning
to their senses, begin to despair of being able to carry their
atrocious project. They have therefore resolved upon a new
desperate expedient, every way worthy of their cause, and in
perfectly due keeping with their obvious designs. The de.
bates in parliament upon the revolutionary bill have served so
completely to undeceive the public upon this most momentous
of all questions, that the revolutionists, in their ca.
geraess to destroy the Constitution, do not hesitate to re-
sort to the most unconstitutional means to accomplish their
purpose, and they have accordingly determined to petition
parliament to stifle all further discussion upon the subject,
and to adopt every means of coming to an immediate deci-
sion upon the question. Such is the evident purport of a
requisition addressed to the Lord Mayor by the city radicals,
to convene a common hall, to express the sense entertained
by the livery of London of the delays in passing the reform
bill, and of the vexatious and prolonged opposition raised
against it." This of itself affords a tolerable specimen of
the kind of freedom of discussion and justice of decision to
be expected from the proposed revolutionary system ; and we
hope and trust that such additional exposition of the deep-
laid plans of our reformers will serve still further to expose
their iniquity to public view, and show the necessity of In-
creased exertion on the part of the friends of the Constitu-
tion to counteract such infamous designs.
TlMES.—There are 40 boroughs in schedule B. Sir
Robert Peel had made a motion the previous evening, on the
success of which he pledged himself should depend the
fate of all the remaining boroughs. He moved that, in-
stead of one member, each borough in schedule B. should
have two, giving It clearly to be understood, that if he
should be beaten on that point, he would offer no trouble
in the case of individual boroughs. What has happened
since ? Why, that there is scarcely a borough yet named
in the list which has not brought up two or three
orators, on the most stale and frivolous pretences (with
one or two exceptions) for inducing Parliament to do
that very thing seriatim, which, on Sir Robert Peel's
motion, it had within 40 hours refused to do in the
bulk,—namely, expunge the name of this and that specific
nuisance from the schetkle, by perpetuating its Iwo repre-
sentatives. The Opposition evidently take for their fa-
vourite watch-words—delay, and the chapter of accidents.
They are besides, we grieve to admit, entitled to the praise
of perfect union—of admirable discipline—of alertness, dili-
gence, pertinacity, and boldness, in their general conduct
of the war. The habit of service and the consequent
promptness of obedience goes for much, and, however
lamentable, it is curious at least to find the volunteer camp
of Sir Robert Peel more adroit in manceuvre and more re-
solute in battle than that of the regular and royal force
opposed to it. There Is no parallel for such subordina.
Lion in circumstances thus untoward, butsthat which Milton
has described so powerfully in the first book of Me great
poem, where the defeated snaty of a certain chief are pic-
tured as maintaining, in the depths of irretrievable ruin,
that same spirit of combined though desperate action which
had encouraged him and them to the prosecution of their
bad enterprise. For these qualities then, the borough.
mongers are far more conspicuous than their oppo.
nents. But what of that? How often have we been forced
to remind the minister that he has all England at his
back ! And how deplorable will it be if the people of
England, instead of being content to follow the King's
Minister, shall find themselves compelled to take the
advance of him ! There was nothing more true than the
statement which we gave a few weeks ago of the perfect
organization which reigned, and still rusts, throughout
what may be justly called the insurgent force of the borough
mongers. The head-quarters may have been transferred
from Buckingham-house Pall-mall, and the oligarch stan.
dard painted on sonic leis elevated station, but the cote-
mittee still exists and nets. The morning plot is developed
by the evening's execution ; the 14 members of the corn.
mince, with Sir It. Peel for the chairman, the 14 squads of
nightly combatants, each instructed by its own drill-serjeant
from the committee, who is responsible for the muster, and
for the manouvres of his men ; all these preparatives be-
speak an organization as complete as that of our old friends
the United Irishmen, and for a purpose almost as praise-
worthy as theirs. To the committee belongs the
task of fixing on topics for the night's perfor.
liance,—what point of the bill shall be carped at, and by
whom,—when matters shall be pushed to a division, on what
pound, and so forth. We wish it could be confidently
added, that the Government were equally well equipped, in
any thing but numbers, for the contest. It must, however,
be confessed that Lord Althorp's unfortunate, though pos-
sibly very amiable, habit of suffering the shrewd old hands
on the opposite bench to seraphim by extolling his lordship's
candour, his good temper, his liberality, fee. &e. appears
more than once to have distracted his lordship's attention
from the one thing needful—“ the bill, and nothing but the
bill." The country witnesses with contempt these combings.
down across the table : should it find them invariably fol.
lowed by a grant of somejurther delay, contempt would be
swallowed up in indignation.