Star.
London, England, 1830-09-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

TimEs.—With the approach of the period at which Parliament Is
summoned to meet, the discussion of popular or of pirty grievances be..
comes, according to immemorial usage, more aedve. We had be.
lieved, we might say hoped, that the New Police would by this time
have worked its way into public favour, and been recognised universally
for what it really is--an important and valuable improvement upon the
former system of " ancient, reverend," and most inefficient watchmen.
The new police are, however, after an interval of some months, charged
(on what authority is another question) with curious and manifold of.
fences—in their composition, in their discipline, in the expense attend-
ing them, and, last of all, in their unconstitutional relation to the exe-
cutive Government. They are said to be Irishmen--which, of course,
it is affirmed, is out of character, for keepers of the peace. Irishmen, after
they have been some time caught, and broken into regulations of any kind
arc found to be full as zealous, orderly, and trustworthy in the fulfil-
ment of an active duty, as any other subjects of the realm. There are
no more exemplary soldiers, nor more faithful servants, than the Irish;
ne: more indefatigable labourers, nor better tempered or more resolute
men. But, in fact, the police might almost as well be called English
or Scotch, as natives of Ireland, the proportion being probably about
equal in all three nations; though if Irishmen, with good characters, can
be had on easier terms than English or Scotch, we presume that no very
grave objection ought to be made to their employment. Again, they
are said to be for the most part old soldiers, and as such not fit fee the
exercise of any civil authority ; in our mind, on the connary, if the
common run of " peace officers" could be imbued with a little of the
temper and courtesy with which military men are habituated to dia.
charge coercive offices, the interests of justice, and the feelings of
individuals, might be not the worse consulted. But the stern
discipline of the police, and their subjection to the Crown,
are incompatible with our notions of a civil power and with
the constitutional independence of our municipal and parochial authori-
ties ! We really see nothing in that form under whic the principle of
subordination seems to act upon the minds of policemen, as now dist&
;Alfred and instructed, which ought to alarm the most squeamish wore
shipper of Alfred the Great and his times for the llberdes of the people
of England. if it be required that we should go back to the "ancient
and venerable" examples of by-gone generations, we shall undoubtedly
have little to fear from the discipline of those very constitutional Deg.
berries, whatever reason they may give us, as they have already given
ourselves and our forefathers, for lamenting alike their ignorance and
insolence in the commission of wrong, and the partiality or negligence
of the local authorities by which they had been appointed, and under
which they had acted when redress was sought for their offences. Se
far as we can recollect, not a week ever passed during the sovereignty
of the parish watchmen in which it was not made • reproach to the
Government that it left the public safety in the hands of such see.
turn, whose miserable pay (about 10s. 6d. a week) excluded ell
classes of decent people from their body, and forced pedals
to beat up for midnight guardians of our lives from ameeg the
very dregs of the community. For the expense attending this useful
body of men' let it be remembered that those who now pay their mo-
ney, pay for being actually watched over ; whereas formerly they paid,
and received nothing in return butailouble chance of mischief from a
collusion between watchman and thief. lf, however, the increase of
parish rate for policemen bears harder on individuals than it ought, the
press and the courts of law are open, and at least as certainly as under
the old system redress may be sought and hoped for. But the most
absurd of all the attacks on the police is that of their being a military
body. A military force supposes military weapons of some sort—the
police have neither swords nor pistols to defend themselves ; and recent
circumstances suffice to prove, that for the preservation of their own
lives, to say nothing of the public, the bits of stick with which they
are at present provided, are any thirg but an adequate protection. We
have ourselves seen nothing of the police but exemplary courtesy, for..
beanuice, and propriety, great readiness to act, and, when the occasion
calls for it, to forbear from acting. Overpaid, at a guinea per week
each, no rational can consider them. We do not say that, under
pretence of pro ing that moderate sum, great parochial extortion and
iniquity may not be practised, but the extortion may be punished also,
and in the mean time the public safety is, generally speaking, secured.

Cnaoxict.z.—lt has been said of the Duke of Wellington, that he
is exceedingly patient of criticism on his performances in a department
in which he is undoubtedly a great master. In the third volume of
the 6, Life of Sir Thomas Munro," just published, General Wellesley
is very sharply handled by that elear-headtd individual, for the un.
skilful manner in which he fought the battle of Asraye • but we never
heard that the sharpness of this censure produced any coolness between
the two friends. Sir Thomas tells him, that he could hardly have ex-
pected to defeat the enemy with less than half the loss he actually suf-
tired ; that after breaking their enemy, his cavalry, when entire, was
not sufficiently strong to pursue any distance, without which he could
not have done so much execution among them as to counterbalance his
own loss; and that there was a possibility of his being repulsed ; in
which case the great superiority of the enemy's cavalry, with some de-1
gree of spirit which they would have derived horn success, might have
rendered a retreat impossible. The blunder committed was in ef-
fecting, with a certain loss, what might have been obtained with-
out any risk. Colonel Napier, also, in his admirable "
of the Peninsular War," while he does justice to his rat qui-
!ides, does not scruple to point out very frankly the-mistakes Into which,
he fell--eonse of them by no means trivial ones. But we have never
understood that the Duke took these strictures amiss. But. reedy le
submit his military conduct to criticism in politics, in which one wadi
suppose he might be a little more suspicious of his MOW, he will net
Nook an contradiction. This is the rock on which qfts. lies.
vii the formidable array of names said to he hula to Aid-
nistration, r '—ithstantling the somewhat ostentation eilllllllolllB
held their sodium hie Ms—
himself, end to Mllllollllia
, ground. Billheallis line
which requires ezpaiense
• debating. lionisiserll2:
not likely Who
demanding Awe GOMM
seem to haves lempisiss
from such one by ado.'
Mr. Huskies., fat in-
that all bir eye:inn

in the affairs of this Empire had not given ban mum political k..ow-
icdpi than bis Grace pissessid ; enl :f his Grace lard heti) wise, t,
stead of quarrelling with that Satestnau fur his watt of docility, he
would himself have been guided by his counsels. The Duke
must renounce the expectation of implicit obedience from a
Cabinet, or he must renounce the expectation of remaining
Minister ; for it is almost impossible that in a country like
this be should find combined the self-denial which this defe-
rence implies, and the power of influencing the deliberations of
Parliament. His Grace may have good intentions ; but to
' give effect to his intentions he must be able to move the ma.
chlnery of our Constitution, such as it is. Let him distrust those who
would persuade him of his omniscience, and cease to believe that there
is a Ministerial any more than a Royal road to all science. His po-
litical reputation rests chiefly on his concessions to the Dissenters and
to the Catholics. The qualities displayed in carrying the Catholic ques.
tion were akin to those which enable a man to gain victories iu the field
—a correct estimate of the respective forces, and coolness and fl-inness
in the hour of triaL But the complicated affairs of a great nation can-
not be all presented before the mind with the simplicity of the argu.
meats for and against Catholic emancipation. Time and application
can alone give proficiency in the conducting of them. Of this truth his
Grace would seem, however, oot to be aware. He must, however, re.
concile himself to the bitter truth, that he is not an admirable Crich-
ton, and that mere plain sense will not allow a man to decide ar.ca.
Medea on the most complicated political questions.

POST.--The rapid decline of public credit in France, so dishonours.
ble to the character of the Revolution, and so dangerous to those who
by its means have placed themselves at the head of-affairs, has impelled
the latter to the madness of attempting to bolster up the price of the
national securities, by appropriating to that purpose a large sum out of
the public revenue, already notoriously deficient for the ordinary and
necessary purposes of the State. The project is futile as it is prodigal.
The price of the national securities, notwithstanding the utmost efforts
of this nature, must speedily regain and constantly cleave to that point
which will indicate truly, from time to time, the degree of confidence that
the capitalists of Europe are prepared to bestow upon the Government
of France, actual or prospective. This results from a law
so absolute and so clear, that no Government can for more
than a moment counteract its operation, unless indeed it possessed the
means of repurchasing the whole public debt dream, and no Govern.
meat would attempt to counteract it but one regardless and hopeless of
the future, and rendered desperate by the overwhelming difficulties of
the present. The consequence of this futile and senseless attempt to
increase a deficit already large in the means of the French Govern-
ment to defray its needful expenditure do not require to be painted
out. And bow is the deficiency to be made good ? By an Increase
of taxation, upon a nation which as the first fruits of ha revolution
expects and demands that a large proportion of the existing taxes
shall be remitted--upon a people which, as its coup d' waits in the
exercise of that sovereignty which the glorious Revolution has placed
in its baud, refuses to pay the present amount of taxation, consigns
to the flames the Offices and the Records of the Excise, and from
time to time, as a more explicit manifestation of its sovereign
will and pleasure, puts a Revenue Officer to death Y Thbs
mode of repairing the dilapidated finances 'pf Prince will, we
suppose scarcely be attempted. Can the deficiency then be
made ;mod by a reduction of the national expenditure ? The
sovereign people will probably be of opinion that it can. The Revo-
lutionary Government, by its organs of the press, has already pro-
claimed its opinion that it cannot, and iudeed that very little reduction,
if any, can be effected in the disbursements of the state for the next
year. Hence of necessity a conflict, in which, as a matter of course,
the sovereign people will prevail. Reductions will be made, sufficient
probably to destroy the efficiency of the various departments of the
public service, but certainly inadequate to redeem the Government from
its fiscal embarrassments; for it is obvious that there is no limit to the
extent of those embarrassments in a nation whose Government is
provisional, whose subjects claim and exercise a disorganising
sovereignty, among whom the destruction of public and pri.
rate credit, the necessary and progressive decay of commerce,
the extinction of enterprise, the decline of industry, and
the gradual cessation of all kinds of healthy activity and enjoy-
ment, must impair, in a ratio accelerated front day to day, the
sources of the public income. And as a last resource, then, shall
the Revolutionary Government of France, in its actual condition, and
in that of the country over which it holds a sway so imperfect and
maszious, attempt to meet its financial difficulties by means of a
loan ? To this measure we are aware, indeed, of but one objectioo,
but it is one of no trifling importance when the subject is the ex-
• •,acry of borrowing money. We do not exactly know where the
lenders are to be found. We trust our own countrymen, who have
suffered pretty severely already by their loans to the Casique of ,
Poyais, to the regenerated States of South America, and to other
new or revolutionary Governments, are effectually cured of this kind
of folly; and that they will, for the future, carefully lock up their
iron chests, and button up their pockets, the moment they hear any
mention of a foreign loan, more particularly if the borrrower should
appear in so suspicious a character as that of a revolutionized and
regenerated State.

great Aristocratic families which withheld their
vere be able to form a correct estimate of himsell
uue nature of his situation, he might stand his g
Parliament is a popular assembly, to manage wt
of busineekeharacter, talents, and the power of di
seas this experience, character, and talents, are 111
of their advanteges; and therefore the Duke,in de
en implicit deference to his own views, does not e
that implicit deference can only be obtained fr
fling them that be is entitled to it. The late 1
stance, could not have been brought to suppose