Star.
London, England, 1819-05-01 00:00:00

TRAVELLERS IN FRANCE.

By letters from Calais we are informed, that a
question respecting' fees on Passports, lately excited
much interest there. It is a maxim in the policy of
the French Government, and Which cannot be too
highly applauded, that visitors and traveller's should
be exposed to the !east possible expense; and the spe-
cial orders given to the Police, to afford them every
protection from insult and imposition, are nor only
worthy the age in which we live, but form a model
for the Governments of all other civilized countries.
So attentive is that Government in this particular,
that, on ending some time since, that the Police had,
in sorneplaces, been in the habit of demanding a fee
for affixing their visa to the Passports of British sub..
jects, issued positive instructions, that for such an
object, nothing whatever should in future be exacted.
This practice of the Government being, notoriously
known, much surprize was excited by a Notice, with-
out signature, being stuck up in different parts of
Calais, of which the following is a copy :
Nonca.—By Order, from the first LT of February next, In-
clusive all Passports of British Sutiects coming from or going to,
England, must be brought-to the Office of his .. nude Ma-
jesty's Consul, to have his visa affixed to them.
This notice having no face of Authority, some of
our Countrymen disregarded it ; but it was found
that by an order of the Government it is necessary
that all such should present themselves to the British
Consul; and that. Police Officers had been stationed
at the Gate of Calais and on board the Packets •to
stop any Englishmen whose passports might not
have the Consul's visa affixed. So far all was well,
but it was found that for this visa a fee of three
francs must be paid : and the question then aroseL-
By what authority and for whose use was this fee
exacted ?—A fee of no small magnitude if it be re-
collected that the number of English Travellers
passing through Calais in a year is from forty to
sixty thousand.
The Editor of the Pas de Calais, an English News-
paper, printed at Calais, having insetted an article
respecting this subject, his Paper was stopped at the
Post Office, by order of the Cominissary-General of
Police, who acts as Censor ana the article was stip-.
pressed. He thonght it his duty to bring the whole
question before the Minister of the Interior, and at
the same time applied to our Ambassador, Sir CHAO.
'STUART; and the result has been, that the exaction
has, order, ceased to exist.
I • •

We notice with pleasure that Mr. Owes rr proceeds
with his canvass for the Borough of Lanark, &c. &c.
We heartily wish him success ; for, we do not recol-
lect noticing any declaration of principles so fair,
sound, and candid, as that contained in Mk advertise-
ment to the Electors, which we have to-day repeated,
and which cannot fail to be read with interest.
We have to correct a material error which crept
into our Parliamentary Report of yesterday. The
Petition presented by the Hon. Colonel O'NEIL from
19,000 inhabitants of the County of Antrim, was not
as there stated, fn favorer of but against the conces-
sion of the Catholic Claims. •
The Bill introduced by Mr. KENNEDY, Member
for the Ayrshire Boroughs, to regulate the Relief
granted to the Poor of Scotland, proposes• to recog-
nize what has been hitherto a matter of legal dispute,
that the power of administering and providing funds
for the relief of the poor is exclusively vested in the
Heritors and Kirk Session of landward Parishes, in
the Kirk Sessions, Magistvates of Barghs, and others
within Burghs, and in the Heritors;• Kirk Sessions,
and Magistrates of Burghs or Parishes partly land-
ward_.. .
a- , that it
decision
to any