Star.
London, England, 1829-10-10 00:00:00

THEREWITH.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.
" Reform it altogether."
SIR,—A long and anxious observation of the political
world—and especially of the " second order of our Legis-
lature"—has convinced me that the haughty aristocrat,
who is most jealously tenacious of his own peculiar pri-
vileges—who most violently insists upon the inviolability
of his own rights and properties, while he loudly pro-
fesses an unfelt respect for the freedom of his fellow men,
is ever the most arbitrary and insolent of tyrants. A
recent example, which your indignant reprobation has
held up to the scorn and detestation of all honorable men,
has taught us that, in this regard, Folly often goes be-
yond her bounds, and Impudence has none.
But, Sir, it is high time that the Borough-mongering
system should be annihilated ;—cut up, root and branch:
—And that every borough demoralized by corruption, or
held in abject vassalage, should be re-consigned to that
stagnant nonentity, from which the ambitious LEICESTER
roused them, when, in 1265, " he ordered," as HUME
tells RS," returns to be made of two Knights from each
shire, and what is more remarkable, of deputies from
the boroughs, an order of men, which in former ages
has always been regarded as too mean to enjoy a place
in the national councils."
But if we be still doomed for a season, to see every
Noble Boroughmonger—every " domineering aristro-
crat"—every man-mountain of oligarchy—clinging
round the neck of the Constitution, like the OLD MAN
or Tim SEA round Cle neck of Sinbad ; let us not
tamely bear the burden—let us make at least one worthy
effort to cast off the baneful incumbrance, and dash the
oppressor to the earth in the very intoxication of his
fancied triumph. Let the Press—that boasted " Palla-
dium of our rights"--do its duty fairly and fearlessly ;
and we may hope to witness the discomfiture of those
SHYLOCKS of conscience--who trade in poor men's
oaths, and, like the Jew exacting his pound of flesh,
claim an inherent and indefeasible property in the vote of
every freeman :

" That freehold vote which I demand of him,
1./dearly bought, 'tis mine—AND I WILL MATZ IT!"
The remedy of this monstrous grievance lies in TEE
PEOPLE—and in THE PRESS :—ln such a cause, that
mighty engine of popular opinion has never been em-
ployed in vain ; and although it has been betrayed by
base and sordid men to the advocacy even of the vilest
measures, yet there are still to be found amongst its con-
ductors, integrity, firmness, and public spirit more than
equal to the occasion which now calls forth their
energies. Even in the onset of this glorious struggle
for the maintenance of our elective liberties, you,
Sir, have displayed an honourable zeal for the in-
dependence of your countrymen ; and an indignant
scorn of those petty tyrants who would degrade them
into the mere creatures of their lordly will—the passive
instruments of their ambition and their power. You, at
least, may enjoy the consciousness of having discharged
a great public duty, and set an example of unshrinking
patriotism and unsullied purity of principle, which it is
cheering to contemplate. You have done your duty,
and the upright constituency of England may gratefully
own that the FREEMEN of NEWARK have done theirs.
Allow me to suggest, as one mode of giving due honor
to all men, that the Press should seize upon every occa-
sion of conferring upon the occupants of Borough-seats
—those " Peers' warming-pans"--that notoriety which
they so passionately covet. Let them have notoriety, to
their very hearts' content : to PO r CLARITY they can
make no earthly pretension. To the respect of freemen
it would be worse than mockery for them to lay claim.
But to the disrespect of every constitutional representa-
tive of the people of England, and to the execration of
every conscientious elector, they possess an unenviable
and an indisputable title. Let the Press, then, at all
times, and on all occasions, single out the " tainted
wethers of the flock," and fix the well-earned badge
upon them :

" For sufferance is tke sacs of all their tribe."
No matter upon what question their " voices"—their
" most sweet voices" may be heard—whether it involve
the very safety of the realm, or be only the defence of
their own " gilded rottenness"—let us see theni hence-
forth in print, " with all their blushing honours thick
upon them"—thus Mr. -, the 1) of --'s
nominee for the Borough of —; Sir A— B---,
the M— of —'s locum tenens for the Borough of
—; General —, the Minister's Member for •"
And before giving the " sum total of the whole" of the
votes upon every divided question, let the votes of all such
mouth pieces of power be set apart—as things within
themselves ; that some estimate may be formed of the
.real state of the Representation of Great Britain.
Oct. 9. 1829. JOHN OLDHAM.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM PORT-AU-PRINCE OF

THE BEGINNING OF AUGUST.

" The delay on the Treaty of Commerce with France,
has suspended all commercial speculations both here
and from France, as well as in other Foreign Ports ;
and our government cannot be blind to the discontent
which now manifests itself in several points of the Re-
public, and the precarious state of our situation with
France ; they are also greatly alarmed, as well as with a
great number of forged notes which are in circulation;
and their whole attention, for these eighteen months
past, have been applied to withdraw them from circula-
tion. The loan contracted by the Republic with France
causes much anxiety on account of the great sacrifices
the country must sustain by it.

" THE PEACE !"