Chamber, it was resolved, as there appeared no necessity for stimulating the labours of the executive, to pass to the order of the day..

In the course of the session, the project of a law was submitted to the Chambers by the minister of finance for modifying the law as to the customs of 1819-a law, we may observe, which, upon the whole, was founded on the justest principles, it having in view the removal of all unnecessary restrictions upon commerce, and the facility of transit; but it also assumed the vicious principle of protecting duties in favour of home manufactures. These, it is true, were moderate; but as they lessened commercial inter course with foreign states, they hurt the foreign sale of articles of Bavarian manufacture. The wants of the manufacturers required some modification of those duties; and as there were temporary difficulties of opposite kinds arising out of the introduction of a new and important system, the minister proposed that the executive should be empowered to raise or lower the import duties, according to its discretion, until the next meeting of the States General. The project was adopted by the Chambers as a law.

The projects of laws which most excited attention, were two which related to the establishment of provincial councils, and regulated the rights of citizenship, domicile, marriage, and the exercise of industry. The first recognised the principle inherent to every free government, that taxes cannot be levied from the people, for any purpose whatever, but by their own consent. Both were eagerly resisted in the Chamber of Senators, as invading the feudal privileges of the nobility; but being in strict harmony with the principles of the charter, the Chamber of Deputies would listen to none of the amendments proposed by

the Senators, and the projects were finally passed into laws.

The discussion of the budget occu pied a considerable portion of the time of the Chamber. The report by the finance minister exhibited a considerable deficiency in last year's receipts, and, as new imposts were out of the question, it became indispensa ble to resolve upon certain reductions. After a number of conferences with the minister, and having agreed upon the nature of the reductions, the Chamber of Deputies, upon 1st August, finally fixed the expenditure for the six following years at twenty-nine millions five hundred thousand florins.

The reduction of the army was in. sisted upon by some deputies, but its present establishment was successfully defended by others. The Chamber, by a vote, expressed its desire that any savings out of the taxes which might be effected by variations in the value of money, should be devoted to the construction of a national fortress. It also voted 755,000 florins for the purposes of education and instruction. Some of the deputies proposed that the yearly sum bestowed on the sovereign for the support of his court, should be voted for his lifetime—in other words that a civil list should be created; but the proposal was rejected by the minister as unconstitutional. The Chamber also voted 855,000 dollars for the erection of public buildings, and 260,000 florins for roads and bridges. Having completed their labours, the session of the States was closed on 12th September, by royal commission, his Majesty being then at the waters of Baden.

An event soon afterwards occurred most afflicting to Bavaria: On 12th October, being the day of his festival, the King received at Baden the congratulations of the distinguished person

ages there resident. In the evening, he honoured with his presence a ball given by the Russian minister Count Woronzow, according to his usual custom, and then returned in his carriage, in the middle of a thick mist, to his seat at Nymphenburg. He retired to bed, without exhibiting any symptoms of illness, after directing his valet to waken him at six o'clock next morning. At that hour, the valet entered his royal master's apartment, and with horror behield him stretched on his bed in the calm repose of death. On inspecting his body, it appeared that life had been extinct not more than an hour at the utmost.

Thus died Maximilian Joseph, the first King of Bavaria, the most patriotic and most sagacious of all the Continental Sovereigns. The history of his kingdom, during his reign, would be a history of Europe. Amid all the vicissitudes of the times, he maintained the integrity of his dominions, and even greatly added to their extent; and having conferred upon his subjects the blessings of a constitutional government, his efforts were unremittingly directed to the consolidation of it. In the whole of his public conduct there was a frankness which inspired esteem and begot confidence; and of no monarch could it be more truly said than of him, that he reigned in the hearts of his subjects. In private life he appears to have been remarkably temperate and charitable. In the proclamation by his heir, the Prince Royal, Charles Louis Augustus, which announced his death, it was stated, that it appeared from his private papers, that in the month of October he had secretly disbursed 80,000 florins in charity, and after the 1st of October, 12,000 florins in the same way.

The new monarch, upon receiving intelligence of the death of his prede cessor, at the waters of Bruckenau, repaired to Munich, where, upon 19th

October, he took the oath to the constitution, in presence of the Council of State. After taking the oath, he made a speech to those present, which thus concluded: "It is difficult to reign after a monarch such as him we have lost; it is impossible to equal him.”

After the ceremony of the funeral of the late King, which took place at Munich on 23d August, his successor, who had announced his intention to pursue the example and adhere to the system of his august father, made, notwithstanding, considerable changes in the administration. Count Tærring, president of the council of state, and Count Rechberg, minister of the household and of foreign affairs, having given in their resignations, the appointments of the latter were given to Count Thurheim, and Count Armensparg was made minister of finances, and, ad interim, minister of the interior.

Among the early measures of the new reign, all of which breathed a truly constitutional spirit, were an ordinance, confiding the direction of ecclesiastical matters and public instruction to a superior council, to be attached to the home administration, and to be composed of, besides the president, three members, one of whom at least is to be a Protestant; the extension of the powers of provincial councils; and the reduction of the army, by the last of which, it was expected, several millions per annum would be saved to the state.

We shall now turn our attention to the Netherlands, the government of which was not a little embarrassed by the bigotry and proselytising spirit of the Catholic priesthood. It had been made a subject of frequent complaint, both by the Protestant and Catholic population of the provinces bordering upon France, that a great number of families sent their children to receive their education in

that kingdom, particularly to the College of St Acheul, which was conducted by the Jesuits. It was complained also, that the country was overrun with Catholic missionaries, and that, in the small seminaries for the instruction of youth destined for the church, the most unconstitutional doctrines were taught. The remedy for these evils was a subject of long and anxious deliberation with the government. At length, on 4th April, a circular was addressed by the Director of affairs connected with the Catholic worship, to the Archbishop of Malines and the bishops under him, enjoining them to direct the curates within that see not to receive within their parishes missionaries or others, who should presume to instruct the people in matters of religion. And on 14th June, two ordinances were issued, by which it was decreed, that no episcopal seminary should in future be established without the sanction of the minister of the interior; that every seminary of the kind, which should not obtain such sanction previously to the 30th of September following, was to be suppressed; that every house of education or academy under the inspection of the bishops, should be confined exclusively to the education of youth destined for the church; and that the youths attending such academies, where there were colleges, should be instructed in science and literature, but that their exercises should be conducted within the academies, and that their religious education should be under the exclusive direction of their religious superiors. It was decreed also, that there should be a philosophical college established in connexion with the University of Louvain, the nomination of the professors to belong to the King, but the chairs of philosophy and the canon law, and the chair of ecclesiastical

theses to be confided to three Ca→ tholic professors, who were to be under the archbishop's authority. It was declared, in fine, that on the expiry of two years from the date of the organization of the new college, all lessons in philosophy should cease in the ecclesiastical seminaries. By another ordinance, of date 1st October, it was decreed, that young Belgians, having studied humanity abroad, should not be recei ved into the Philosophical College of Louvain or any one of the national universities, should be disqualified from holding any situation under government, and not be permitted to exercise any ecclesiastical function within the realm.

These ordinances, so directly hostile to the dark, subtle, and jealous policy of the Catholic priesthood, though they in no way encroached upon the independence of the Catholic Church, gave great offence to the Belgian bishops, and also to the Court of Rome. The Pope forwarded remonstrances against them to the Court of the Netherlands, and enjoined the heads of the different dioceses to join in a general remonstrance, modelled upon that which had been presented by the Belgian priesthood in 1787, against the general seminary erected by the Emperor Joseph. But the government was not to be moved from its course by this priestly opposition. It carried its different ordinances into effect; and, on 17th October, the new philosophical college was opened with great ceremony.

The session for the year of the States-General was opened by the King in person, on the same day. His Majesty, in his speech, slightly glanced at the differences which had arisen between him and the Catholic bishops; and dwelt upon the flourishing situation of the country, the improvemnts which had been introduced in

to the administration of the provinces and communes, and the establishment of a sound monetary system, by the suppression of French coins. An address to the King was voted by the two Chambers, in unison with his speech.

The minister of finance, on 27th October, presented to the States his annual budget of extraordinary expenses, which reached twenty millions of florins; which sum, joined to the amount of the decimal budget, decreed in 1820, (59,875,052 florins, 80 cent.) composed a total charge of about eighty millions. But it had to be observed, that the expenditure had been gradually subjected to a reduction of about three millions per annum; and that the receipts since the year 1823, presented a constantly increasing excess. The minister also announced that the sum destined for the redemption of the debt, had, by its productiveness, increased from 200,000 to 2,200,000 florins.

The budget was attacked and defended by several members. The opponents of it (many of whom complimented the executive upon the improvements it had introduced into the administration,) inveighed against the continuance of a national lottery, and the tax upon the grinding of corn, (which one orator described as a tax on nature;) and others, from the Belgian provinces, attacked the ordinances of 14th June, as tending to give disquiet to the consciences of a very great proportion of the people. These ordinances were powerfully defended by many in the Chamber of Deputies; and, in short, the projects of law which were developed in the minister's budget, were finally carried in both Chambers.

The government showed itself extremely well disposed, indeed expressed its great anxiety to pursue the liberal system of commerce which had

been adopted by Great Britain; the foreign policy of which country it also adopted, by accrediting agents to the new American states.

The government of the Netherlands received accounts of serious insurrections having broken out in the island of Java, a great many of the native chiefs of which island had declared in favour of the son of their late Emperor, Sansan Haunan; but it ap peared from the same accounts, that the Dutch troops had succeeded in dispersing the rebels.

The affairs of Denmark present not a single incident deserving of notice, or a topic on which to found a remark.

The history of Sweden is almost equally barren of incidents such as history should notice. She was engaged in a foolish controversy with Spain regarding the sale of an old ship of war and two old frigates, (the three, if not as old, as rickety as the Spanish government itself,) which had been sold by a Swedish house to a house in London. As it was reported that the latter purchase had been made for behoof of the new American States, the Spanish government remonstrated against the transaction, as affording assistance to its insurgent subjects; but the go, vernment of Sweden readily excul pated itself by showing that the very vessels in question had been offered for sale to Spain, and refused by her; after which they had been exposed for sale in the market, and sold to the highest bidder. Into this paltry affair, the great Leviathan of the North, Russia, chose to thrust her fingers; and, owing to her interference, an order was issued to the Swedish officers and subalterns on board the vessels to quit them, and await the further orders of govern

ment.

After much time consumed in negotiation, the English company at length stated, that the season had advanced too far to admit of their employing the ships in the commercial adventure they had intended them for. The King then agreed to have the bargain cancelled, and to indemnify the purchasers.

Because a Swedish journal, the Argus, had published the correspondence on the subject of the sale of

those vessels between the Swedish and Spanish courts, the editor of it was subjected to a prosecution for violating the law upon the liberty of the press; and herein the finger of Russia is distinctly visible. A majority of the jury convicted him ; but as two-thirds of the jury did not concur in the verdict, he was, according to the law of Sweden, fully absolved.