Commissioners. The revising Barristers under the Reform Act are liable to civil action; why should not the Poor-law Commissioners? If they are competent and honest persons, they will want no indemnity. If they should be like some of the Magistrates of whom they complain, they will require such indemnity; but for that very reason it ought not to be given. The strong and justly indignant terms in which Mr. GODSON, Colonel EVANS, Sir Samuel WHALLEY, and a few other Members, described the Bill, as presented to the House in its original deformity, proves-what we have some satisfaction in ascertaining that all regard for the principles of the English Constitution has not perished, even in the present obsequious House of Commons. There are still provisions of the Bill which render it a disgrace to a country, boasting of its knowledge and practice of civil freedom. * Poor-Law Bill.-Unconstitutional Character continued.June 9, 1834. TRULY did Sir James SCARLETT, say on Friday night [6th] that, "taking into consideration the irresponsibility of the Commissioners, the effect of retaining the clause disallowing the issue of a writ of certiorari, would be to create a species of tyranny in the country, to which, he believed, the people of England were not at the present moment prepared to submit." We believe the people of England are not prepared to submit to any thing of the sort, notwithstanding the ominous conjunction of Sir Robert PEEL and Mr. GROTE in favour of irresponsible power as a corrective of abuses—the very opposite principle to that upon which reform in Parliament was based, and a more dangerous nuisance in itself than any which it could possibly abate. Indeed the argument of Mr. GROTE goes to this extent that the more unconstitutional the Bill is, the better; for he expressed a hope that the powers of the Commissioners would not be crippled, adding, "if the efficiency of the measure was destroyed, the House would incur the odium of passing an unconstitutional measure, without having the consolation to derive any benefit from it :"-thus admitting that the measure is unconstitutional, and that it will be efficient in proportion as it outrages the principles of the Constitution! Sir Robert PEEL approves of the orders and rules of the Commissioners not being removeable into the King's Bench by writ of certiorari, on the special-pleading ground, that “ there is a great distinction between applying to a Court of Justice by writ of certiorari, on a specific question of law-and going there to get its sanction to a whole code of laws before they are issued." Now, what is this but to say, that those Central Bashaws may make a whole code of laws, without the intervention of Parliament, and which laws may be in utter violation of the laws of the land-of the most valuable principles recognised by Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights-and yet there shall be no superior authority to revise those laws-no Court of appeal from the tribunal, which unites in itself the incompatible functions of legislative and executive power! Monstrous presumption upon the ignorance of the people of England, or their indifference to those constitutional principles of Government, which make all the difference between free England, and Bashaw-ridden Turkey! The AUTOCRAT, at Warsaw, threatens to lay it in ruins In the records of merciless conquest†—of the brutal insolence of barbarian victory, we cannot call to mind any thing more truly atrocious than the sentiments, which the AUTOCRAT has expressed respecting unhappy Poland to the Municipal body of Warsaw. They are sentiments worthy of [+❝Several letters from the frontiers of Poland announce that the young Lady HAWEEKER, aged 18, was recently shot at Lubin by the Russiansaccused of having furnished to the insurgents provisions. She proceeded quietly to the place of execution between a file of Russian soldiers."(Times, July 6, 1833.)-This is but a solitary instance out of multitudes, of the cruelty of the barbarian victors. ED.] the "Herod of the North"-worthy of him who tore the Polish children from their frantic mothers to prevent the love of country being instilled with their milk, or the infection of the patriot-passion being conveyed with their land's language-of him who wields the Russian knout over myriads of brave Poles in the wildernesses of Muscovy, and who has sent aged Nobles, laden with chains, to be buried alive in the mines of Siberia ! A tranquillity, deep and undisturbed as that of death, is upon Poland. The military tribunals that followed the great massacre of Warsaw, have done their work. Murder, banishment, and confiscation have established Russian power, as firmly as acts of blood and rapine can establish the dominion of a barbarous conqueror. At such a time, when even those who knew the ruthless disposition of NICHOLAS well, supposed even his thirst of vengeance was slaked, and his rage for Polish victims surfeited by indulgence, he pictures to his imagination a more dreadful picture of sweeping desolation than any that Poland has yet presented, and gives his guilty thoughts utterance in expressions such as these: "If you persist in your dreams of a distinct nationality-of the independence of Poland, and of such chimeras, you will only draw down upon yourselves still greater misfortunes. I have raised this citadel, and I declare that on the slightest insurrection I will cause its cannon to thunder upon the city!-Warsaw shall be destroyed, and certainly shall never be rebuilt in my time!"+ * * * The same continued.—Nov. 19, 1835. A COPY of the Speech of the Autocrat, NICHOLAS, to the Municipality of Warsaw, substantially the same as that published in the Journal des Débats, is asserted by a Ministerial Paper to have reached our Government. That speech being highly insulting to England, and containing savage threats of extermination [+ In the Morning Herald of Nov. 28, following, may be seen the entire speech of NICHOLAS, as translated from the Frankfort Journal (of the 23rd,)—an organ of the Russian cabinet. The passage above quoted is substantially the same in both. ED.] against a people whose national independence we are bound by treaty to protect-it is naturally asked will Government take any steps to vindicate the national honour and redeem the national faith? If we might be allowed to form an opinion of the future policy of Ministers, with reference to Russia and Poland and the treaty of Vienna-from their past conduct, we should have no hesitation in answering that question in the negative. If we are mistaken, we shall be glad to find it so. Did we without reason accuse the Cabinet of Lord GREY, during the Polish struggle, of a criminal supineness touching the interests of England, and a disgraceful disregard of the faith of treaties? We say the "interests of England," because the negociations which led to the erection of the Duchy of Warsaw into a kingdom, and to the signing of the treaty of Vienna, whereby its independence was guaranteed under a Constitutional Charter and National Institutions, show that the representatives of France and England considered the independent existence of Poland necessary, as a barrier between Western Europe and Russian ambition. Those representatives were TALLEYRAND and CASTLEREAGH; so that, in truth, a tory Government reclaimed, enforced, and established the national existence of that modern kingdom of Poland, which the whigs permitted the giant tyranny of Russia to trample in the dust. Thus ALEXANDER paved the way for that total subversion of the Charter which Russian tyranny perpetrated, under the Vice-royalty of the ferocious CONSTANTINE—who, though excluded from his right of succession to the throne of Russia by his madness and crimes, was considered to be possessed of all the requisite qualities for governing Poland; and he did so govern it, as to bring about that catastrophe which the Cabinet of St. Petersburg anticipated. He treated the Charter as waste paper-he trampled law and justice under foot-he insulted in every way the national feelings of the Poles-he inflicted cruel and arbitrary punishments upon distinguished natives of that country on false or frivolous charges-he established a system of espionnage, the oppressive perfection of which even LOUIS PHILIP himself may envy. In short, his intolerable misrule made the resistance of the Poles a duty, if they would not be content to be accounted the most patient of slaves under the iron scourge of the most cruel, and at the same time the most contemptible, of tyrants. When the Polish nation, stung to madness by the sense of wrong, rose in its power-when the tyrant crouched at its feet -the mercy which he never exercised towards others, was shown to him. The brave Poles disdained to take the blood, even of a tyrant who was covered with crimes, but who was prostrate and defenceless. He was escorted out of the kingdom by Polish warriors, and delivered unscathed to the Russian authorities. Well has the merciful moderation of Poland been repaid by the brother of CONSTANTINE, her ruthless conqueror ! Character of the late Mr. GRATTAN.—Written in 1820. THE destination of the late Mr. GRATTAN was the Bar, but nature had given him talents better adapted to the Senate; his education improved them, and his good fortune rendered them available to his country. Early honoured with the friendship of the patriotic and accomplished CHARLEMONT, he entered as auspiciously as a young man could enter the difficult road to political distinction. In the best circumstances in which a nation can be placed, they are no ordinary abilities which obtain an historical reputation that time cannot destroy, among the wreck of empires and opinions-and such were the abilities of GRATTAN. He would have graced the senate of the most prosperous and enlightened nation, and been in the proudest days of Athens, or of Rome, one of her conspicuous men-one of those whose life would have been a national benefit, and death a public regret. But the situation in which Ireland was placed when GRATTAN appeared on the stage of her stormy politics, was so peculiar, that nothing in human relations could be imagined better calculated to try the resources and wisdom of a public man. Power and violence on the one side-slavery and disorder on the other; a disorganized people-a contemptuous Court; |