Star.
London, England, 1831-03-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS.

Meas.—Sir Charles Wetherell surprised the house to which he
belongs last night, by an insinuation that the members of munici-
pal bodies in Scotland might not petition for an extension of the
elective franchise, because they had sworn to maintain the rights of
their several corporations ! Plain common sense revolts at the quibble !
Sir Charles Wetherell is a man catching $ lion in a cobweb I By
the way, is he quite sure that he ever sat in the chair of the God-
dess of Reason, It must have been some other chair.
Csaowier.r..—The opponents of Reform, who calculate upon the
co-operation of those whose personal interests may be affected by the
proposed measure, will find, if we be not much mistaken, that they
reckon without their host. Several of the principal Borough Propri-
etors in the Upper House, the Dukes of Norfolk, Bedford, Devon.
shire, the Marquisses of Lansdown and Cleveland, Earls Grosvenor,
Thanet, fices have already evinced their resolution to be guided solely
by considerations of public advantage, tranquillity, and happiness. In
the House of Commons there are parallel eases of magnanimity and
patriotism. Not to mention the names,there is the eameof Mr. Buller,the
representative for West Loe, who has written one of the best pamphlets
iecrisis has produced in favour of reform. There are, to be sure, in.
stances of • contrary disposition ' • Mr. 'Villiers Stuart, the former
popular candidate for Waterford, and both the Representatives for the
county of Down, of whom one (Lord Castlereagh) is loud in his declara-
tions of hostility to the plan of Ministers. But he is very similarly
circumstanced to the persons we some days since noticed as having
the strongest personal inducements to oppose Reform. This young
Lordling was lately a I.ord of the Admiralty, with a house, and a
thousand pounds per annum to keep It—no contemptible addition to
his allowance, whatever it be. But it is clear enough that no reformed
Parliament would tolerate the purchase of such services as he is capable
of rendering at so high a price. He, therefore, and all like him, have
the deepest possible interest in resisting the proposed salutary change—
and they may be assured, the country will estimate their opinions and
votes at the proper value.

Tutus.—An Essex county meeting is a proceeding very far from
devoid of interest. We have heard that a measure hostile to reform is
in contemplation in this county, and in the strength of that information
we do most earnestly recommend to the friends of the great measure to
congregate in such numbers, and to evince then such temper, mixed
with seal and resolution, as may show to their adversaries themselves,
that their plottings against reform are futile and absurd. What would
the enemies of reform have ? Rotten boroughs still ? The thing is im-
possible. They are destroyed now already. Ruinous expenses at elec-
tions ? We should have thought Essex had had enough of these already.
They prevent the people, too, from having the object of their choice. They
prevent honourable men of moderate fortune, whatever their talents or ca-
pacity may be, from offering themselves as candidates. They prevent even
the aristocracy—that body in which the only opponents of the present
measure are to be found...from coming forward to serve their friends,
their neighbours, and their country, and leave the field clear for
strangers and adventurers. The bill, therefore, must pass, unless
reason and common sense, as well as a just estimate of public rights,
be lost in England. We now find out, however, the kind of opposition
which is to be got up to the approaching reform meeting at Chelmsford.
There is advertised a future meeting at no fixed time, though the second
reading of the Reform Bill takes place on Monday next. And this
second meeting is to consist of the nobility, gentry, and clergy only !
Where are they to meet? In a milliner's shop. the counter perfumed
with bergamot, and each one wearing kid gloves? Dear Jemmy Jes.
%omits ! Nobles, gentlemen, and clergymen, of that soft county of
Essex ! We hope no rain will fall as you go to and fto, and are not
under shelter !

CHRONICLE.—Can there be a better proof of the necessity for a
reform, which shall rescue the property and population of the country
from a certain number of families who make the wealth and Industry of
the nation subservient to their separate interests, than the spectacle which
has been afforded us at a conjuncture like the present? Here we
have the whole trading world petitioning for the measure which Lord
Brougham has proposed (alluding to the Bankrupt Reform Bill). There
is not a merchant, a banker, or vender in the city, whose name is
worth any thing, who has not expressed himself in favour of the
measure. Yet with a measure fot reform introduced by the Go-
vernment, founded on the necessity for administering the af-
fairs of the country, without regard to any other consider.
ation than the public interests—with the eyes of the public, in
consequence, critically turned to the conduct of the Oligarchy, who may
be said to have every motive for hypocrisy, at least as a substitute for
the virtue which they cannot be expected to have—the nation has been
outraged by the degrading spectacle of a body of Peers, in.
different to the wants of the people, and alive only to selfish interests,
clinging to these seventy places, like so many hungry wolves
clinging to their prey. They know that there is not one good reason for
the retaining the commissionerships, but they view them as so many good
livings which their sons, brothers, and young nephews, are to hold.
Let us benefit the higher ranks in spite of themselves ; let us with.
draw from them the means by which they may be induced to de
price themselves of the respect of an enlightened nation ; let us se-
cure our pockets from their fingers, and compel them to provide for
their dependents out of their own estates There are many honour- I
able men among them, who, like Lord Suffield, are anxious to be
freed flan the obloquy the selfish conduct of • part of the body
throws on the whole. Thew are not times in which a nation will
patiently tolerate such base abuses of power to the furtherance of
base and selfish ends.
Pose.—As we predicted with regard to the affairs of Belgium, so it
has precisely turned out. The Regent, encouraged by circumstances to
disregard all that has been done in London, has been induced boldly and
unegnivocally to reject the Protocols; and as if similar considerations
influenced the conduct of the French Government, this same Regent,
In a Proclamation issued by him to the inhabitants of Luxemburg, un-
reservedly states, that the Protocols are considered by a " Great Power"
(meaning of course France) to be only proposals, and that the
Belgians, regardless of all Treaties, will finish the revolution in spite
of the Protocol.; of London." We never for a moment doubted that
the unwise and ruinous course pursued by the present precious Mi.
Many of Britain would be taken advantage of by our natural enemies,
whose real aim and object, whatever may be their specious professions,
ore nothing short of the infliction of a deadly wound, at the first con-
venient opportunity, upon the hitherto transcendent gtratneas of their
successful rivals in councils as well as in arms; alas I the unex-
ampled imbecility and fatal error of our existing Ministry offer to them
the most alluring temptations for daring enterprise in this regard. We
think that the outrageous Belgians, regardless even as they may be of
solemn treaties, of which they do not pretend to plead would
not have dared to proclaim, through their Regent, reprehensible
sentiments as they have now ventured to broach, did they not coosder
themselves countenanced in their unprinciped views by the insidious
Councils of France And to this complexion of affairs are we at last
brought by the lamentable incapacity and egregious errors, as well as
regards our internal as our external policy, by the most weak and dan-
gerous Administration that has ever presided over the affairs of Britain.

The Thames tunnel' is, it seems, not abandoned. As a
show it yielded £1,400 last year. A Committee has been
appointed to discover ways and means.
We were sorry the vestries' bill was postponed on Thurs-
day. We regard select vestries as emblems of the corrupt
House of Commons, and really wonder such arbitrary jobbing
institutions have been borne with so long.
Four hundred acres of marsh land, near Tilbury Fort. let
on a 19 years lease at 4001. clear, were sold at the Mart on
Tuesday for 5,640 guineas.