London, Wednesday, March ...
Wc had hoeed that the reitgn of the Holy Alliance, in so far as the measures and institutions of the British einpire were to be affected by it, would ere this have expired, or tni-iht at least have been permittedl to drop quietly into oblivion: but it seems wve had ma:le a too favourable esti- mate of the consistency of His Majesty's Councils, in assuming that the dOumestic Governmnent of Engiand was to drink at tho same fountain by wlhich her foreign policy has of late been rofreshed, or that individual victims of Conti-, nental power were to enjoy an equal certainty of protection- from the laws, as whole nations in their collective charac- ter have done from the commercial jealousy of Great Britain. The Alien Bill being abhut to clie a natural death, it Avas expected by imany people that Mlinisters would not think it worth reviving. Something better was looked for from fe.srss. CANNX IG and PEEL, than a servile imitation of such nob!e persons as their predecessors, on a poinlt whlcre nothing but sickly delicacy towards the mnemory of one man, and the feelings of another, could be set against the fame and( conistitution, the usages and honour, of this ftw country. Mr. PEEL, and those who went before him in recoimmending the revival of the Alien Act, have not failkdl to urge their very tempcrate e-erciae of the powers which it created. This may be a defence of the prac- tic7e, but it is an argument against thc principle-that is, against the necessity of the law itself; for if its provisions have been such that there 'was no need for calling them into action, why pass a bill, wvhich, by the showing of its ad- vocates, isno less superfluous thani it is confessedily odious ? Again: wlhat plots are now apprehended, of which Eingland could noiw be the scene, and any foreign state the object? BvoN0APARTE is gone. The Frenich nation-as we are as- surcd by these who refer us to the late elections for proof of wlhat they affirmn-the people of France are one and all devoted to the BoURBONS. What con- federacies, then, against the peace of Europe, can IMi- nisters anticipate from the landing of foreign refuigees upon our shores? These CASTvLEREA(sn-politics ought, in common decency, to be abanlone3d. 'Mr. PEEL introduced last night a ilodification into the measure, whinh is of a lenient tendeaicy. It appears that the whole number of foreigners whose names are known at the Alien-office amounts to 26,500. Of thtse, near 20,000 are resident in London; and 1,300 have sought an asylumn in the course of the last year from the scenes of trouble on the Continent- About 10,000 foreigners have been inhabitants of this coulntry for seven years and upwards; and upon them it is not the design of Government that the act should operate at all. The imperfect right of denizenship thus restored to one class of strangers, mtight, with equal safety, be ex- tended to all; for the laws by whieh a foreigner is bound and punished like a native, ought, according to evcry English principle, to serve him, as they do the native, foV La complte and unlqualified protection. [O(,V ON:, WI)DNESDfA F, A,iARCII 24, 182.