Glasgow Courier. — 1847-07-20 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

TUESDAY MORNING, JULY 20.  The state trials before the French Court of Peers have terminated, and till the time of pronouncing judgment on the official corruptionists, it was intimated that the sittings of the court would be private. It is, however, understood that a verdict of guilty has been determined upon against all the accused parties. M. Teste, since his late attempt at suicide, has been kept under strict surveillance; and General Cubieres, with the view, it is said, of propitiating his judges, has resigned into the hands of the King his dignity of a Peer, and his commission as LieutenantGeneral.  From the Peninsula we have no additional news of any political importance or general interest.  Parliament is proceeding with great rapidity in the despatch of public business. The only drag in the way appears to be the new Bishopric of Manohester Bill, the progress of which through the lower house is pertiuseiouB4y opposed at every stage by a small knot of extreme liberals, who, aware of the squeezable nature of the Ministry, have a notion of ultimately badgering the House out of the measure altogether.  Sir Robert Peel has addressed his Tatnworth constituents in a manifesto of extraordinary length. The document, slightly abridged, appears in to-day's Courier; and any remarks we may have to make on it must be postponed till another day. It is a prolix composition, but the only points appear to be these: The ex-Premier sets out by disclaiming any wish to resume office, or even to become a party leader, and intimates his desire, though he has received offers of support from other constituencies, to continue in the representation of Tamworth. After explaining the general principle on which he intends to act in the event of his re-election, he proceeds to justify the motives by which he was actuated, and to vindicate the free-trade measures and general policy of the late Administration. The Right Hon. Baronet, in conclusion, assures his constituents that his opinions on matters connected with concerns financial and commercial have undergone no change, and that he will adhere to the same principles that regulated his policy while in office. The position which Sir Robert occupies in the public op invests his letter with an interest that would not otherwise attach to it. It is an excessively elaborated and wordy document, and has much of the character of an American President's message to Congress.  kssential  The events which have recently occurred in the ministerial circles in France are not of such a nature as to increase our _respect for 'human virtue, or for the character of public men in that country. There can be little doubt that three, at least, of the servants of the Crown stand convicted of personal corruption, and there is room left to believe that there may be more than this number implicated in the foul charges brought against certain members of the ministry by M. Emile Girardin, himself by no means an immaculate censor; but what, in that case, are we to think of the *tate of society which creates or tolerates such abuses, .or of the value of those terrible revolutions the object of which was to cleanse the world of the workers of evil? To those who are familiar with the history of France under Louis XIV, and more especially to those who have read any of the memoirs which were compiled in the reign of his grandson Louis XV., ministerial cupidity and villany are incidents too oommoa to excite surprise: but we live in an age of so-called light—constitutions and representative governments are the rule, not the exception— the earth has been baptised with blood to purify the streams of national administration—and yet with a great prince on the throne, and a great minister at the head of affairs, we discover the existence of practices more mean and more odious than ever disgraced the aneienne regime. It-would be absurd to charge this upon the form of government now established in France, because, in truth, it  has no direct connexion with it; but it is clear that it has not prevented it, and such occurrences should teach us to abate somewhat of that fervour in behalf of mere change by which the present age is distinguished. In the olden time the whole power of tlte state resided in the monarch, and whatever his personal wishes may have been, it was not possible for one man to prevent the perpetration of much wrong by his servants ; but there was a lofty spirit of honour about the French gentleman of those days, and we should much doubt if with all his failings he would have condescended to do the dirty things which are attributed to M. Teste and his accomplices, one of whom has fled; but the "age of chivalry," as Burke said, has passed away, and in France more particularly the class of men to whom per. sonal integrity was an inheritance has also disappeared. The revolution destroyed the tone of the national mind in the higher walks of life, and replaced it by nothing which could stand in its stead; and it is now plain that in the midst of much lofty vapourina the counsellors of Louis Philippe are altogether below that standard of morality which the necessities of his country and the consolidation of his dynasty, would demand. It is a pity, for the state of continental politics and the relations of the family of Orleans to other powers, would have required that it should have been different; but it would appear as if with the old hereditary honours the noble spirit of Gaul had fled, and as if a mushroom aristocracy formed out of the debris of the empire were not a sufficient bulwark against the encroachments of the lower and baser passions of our nature. It is needless to remind the reader that the territorial gentry of France have long ceased to exist, and that the only avenue to fame is through the senate or the field. Ambitious and clever, but unprincipled, partisans push forward into the common arena, where they struggle like so many gladiators for the prize ; but few of them bring to their new positions the habits and tastes necessary for the honourable discharge of public duties, and when the hour of temptation arrives they fall. Indeed, all that we hear and read.at modern Patisian societi is unsatisfactory. Frivolity, excitement, personal extravagance, and personal immodesty; would seem to distinguish every rank; and amid that torrent of folly which the novelists, male and female, portray, the humbler virtues of honesty and self-denial are forgotten or despised. All is glitter and corruption, a gilded civilisation, in which the surface is resplendent, and the inner parts rotten; and it must happen that in time these serious maladies shall produce their natural consequences, in a fresh convulsion and a third revolution.