general on July 1st. His Majesty declares it to have been in compliance with the invitation of his powerful ally, the emperor Alexander. From a royal decree dated July 17th, it appears, that the bigotted attachment of the clergy in the Belgian states to the See of Rome has not deterred the King from that assertion of the rights of the crown in ecclesiastical affairs, which even many Catholic Sovereigns now openly maintain. He orders the full and entire execution in his states of the law which prohibits resorting to the papal see for dispensations, briefs, and rescripts in spiritual and ecclesiastical matters, without having previously obtained the permission of the Sovereign; matters of conscience being alone excepted. Further, all such dispensations, &c. granted even after permission to solicit them has been given by the king, are to remain null and void, without the Royal exequatur. The delicate subject of the freedom of the press, at this time a topic of particular interest in every government partaking of political liberty, was brought before the legislature of the Netherlands in September, by a message from the King, accompanying the plan of a law, for restraining the licentiousness of the press in respect to foreign powers. His Majesty, in his introduction, observes, that the constitution of the country makes all persons responsible for what they publish, the limits of which responsibility are to be found in the penal code: that some have thought the regulations under this head insuffi cient to protect from the insolence of the ill-disposed the government of a country, in which the censorship, arbitrary arrests, and other coercive measures are, and must be, illegal; but as long as calmness and probity are the national characteristics, his Majesty sees no reason to fear the conflict between truth and error, or to restrain the expression of opinions relative to the internal government that, however, the case is different with respect to insults offered through the medium of the press to neighbouring governments and sovereigns, which abuse has lately increased to a great degree; and the numerous complaints made on that head, show that it is high time to put a stop to it. The law is then proposed under the following articles : Art. 1. Those who, in their writings, shall have abused or outraged the personal character of foreign sovereigns or princes with whom we live in peace and good understanding, shall have denied or called in question the legitimacy of their dynasty and their government, or shall have represented the acts of their administration in an odious light, shall be, for the first offence, punished by a fine of 500 florins; or, if they are incapable of paying it, with 6 months' imprisonment; and in case of a repetition of the offence, with from 1 to 3 years' imprisonment. 2. The same penalties shall be applicable to printers, publishers, and booksellers, who shall have printed or published, or caused to be printed or distributed, the aforesaid writings, provided they shall shall be incapable of giving up the author, so that he may not only be prosecuted, but also convicted of the offence, and punished accordingly; and the penalty thus inflicted on printers, editors, and booksellers, shall be accompanied with the suppression of their patent, and the prohibition to print or publish any work for three years, for the first offence, and for six years for the second offence, with confiscation, in both cases, of the copies of the work printed or published, notwithstanding such prohibition. 3. Neither authors, editors, nor printers, publishers, nor booksellers, shall be admitted to allege as ground of excuse, that the writings, or articles, which give occasion to their prosecution, are copied, extracted, or translated from foreign papers printed writings. or other 4. Every official complaint and reclamation of a foreign government, grounded on writings of the kind mentioned in art. 1, shall be directly transmitted by our Minister for Foreign Affairs to our Minister of Justice, in order that the author, editor, printer, or bookseller whom it concerns, may be, if there is ground for it, prosecuted before a court of justice, at the instance of the Attorney-general or other public judicial officer in the place where he is domiciliated. It is obvious whence the complaints proceeded, which suggested this restriction of the free publication of political opinions relative to foreign courts and governments; it was indeed well known, that in the Belgian provinces the cause of Buonaparte still possesses zealous votaries. The restraint, however, appears to have been quietly acquiesced in by the body of the nation; for when the plan of the law was discussed in the second chamber, on September 25th, it passed by a majority of 64 to 4. The share taken by the government of the Netherlands in the British expedition against Algiers, has been recorded in our relation of that glorious enterprise. Its success produced a treaty of peace between the two states, concluded by the Dey, and Vice-admiral Capellen, at Algiers, on August 28th, the conditions of which were laid before the States-general on October 1st. Their substance is a declaration of peace and friendship between the two countries, and a renewal and confirmation of all the articles of the treaty of amity concluded between them in the year 1757; together with an agreement for the reception at Algiers of a Dutch consul, upon precisely the same footing, and with the same privileges, with the British consul. Previously to the Algerine expedition, there had been concluded between the kingdoms of the Netherlands and Spain, a defensive treaty, the object of which was to protect from piracy the commerce of the powers who were parties to it. The union of the Dutch and Flemish provinces under one government, occasioned a difficulty respecting commercial regulation, arising from their different interests and policy in that respect. From the era of the independence of the Seven provinces, the foun dation of their prosperity was laid in extensive foreign commerce; and in order to render their unproductive country the receptacle and mart of commodities from all parts of the world, the greatest facilities were given to importation, while domestic products were no further regarded than as they supplied the immediate wants of a trading and maritime population. The Belgian provinces, on the other hand, had long attained to great wealth and distinction by their manufactures, which they exported largely to all the neighbouring countries; and when the mercantile superiority of Holland had reduced to insignificance the foreign traffic of the Flemings, they still exercised to advantage their industry and ingenuity in the fabrics of their looms, and other products of art. In process of time they encountered rivalry in these branches, which greatly reduced them in the scale of general wealth and population; yet manufactures were still subsisting in their principal towns, which, if encouraged, might find employment for a proportion of their remaining inhabitants. They were, however, unable to support a competition with British goods of a similar kind; and when the inundation from the warehouses of England began to overflow the continent, the shops and factories of the Low-countries were shut up or deserted. Loud complaints of the ruinous consequences echoed through the Belgic provinces, and produced various petitions for redress to the legislative body. The English name and character even suffered under the irritation ex cited by severe losses: its commercial spirit was pronounced exclusive and insatiable; and at Ghent the popular indignation was vented in a public bonfire of British manufactures. The government took these calamities and discontents under its serious consideration; and on September 3d, Mr. Wickers, director-general of convoys and licenses, presented to the second chamber of the states, on the part of the King, the plan of a law and tariff, by which the levying of duties on, the import, export, and transit of all wares and merchandize in the kingdom, might in future be regulated on an equitable and uniform footing. After an introductory speech by the director, respecting trade in general, and the modes in which it may be favoured by the interference of government, the principles and grounds of the proposed law were laid before the assembly; and as the matter of this exposure appears to us, both on account of its reasonings, and the future commercial prospects it affords, well worthy the attention of our readers, we shall insert it at length. On these principles it is proposed: 1st. That all the objects of great branches of commerce be very moderately charged, on import, export, and transit. 2. That very small duties be laid on the import of all raw materials used in our native manufactures. 3. That upon the import of all foreign manufactured goods which can come into competition with home fabrics, such high duties should should be levied as may be sufficient to favour the sale of our own productions; but so as that foreign commerce may be as little as possible obstructed. 4. That the export of all articles of internal industry should, as much as is practicable, be favoured and free. Articles of foreign manufacture must in this way of course become dearer to the consumer. But it should be recollected, that a revenue will thus be raised, which must otherwise have been levied in some more oppressive mode; and that the destruction of our internal manufacturing establishments would, too probably, be the result of a free and unimpeded import of foreign goods. The foreign manufacturer would then be able to dictate his own prices, and render the domestic merchant and consumer wholly dependent upon him. Besides, would not the value of our domestic raw materials be in great part lost by the fall of our manufactures; or, if the foreign manufacturer purchased them of us, would it not be with a view to send them back to us in the wrought state; thus compelling us to pay the price of the manufacture? In fine, what would be the result, after the fall of our internal fabrics, when wars arising should render our foreign supply of goods difficult or impossible? In fact, if we take counsel from the experience of other nations on this head; if we look into the recent laws and tariffs of commercial and manufacturing nations in Europe, and even in America, we may thence derive the lesson, that they, in order to favour internal industry, tax heavily foreign, and, therefore, our manufactures, on import, or in some cases prohibit them; that they in all possible ways favour the export of their own manufac tures, in order to furnish the foreign consumer with them. It thus, Gentlemen, requires no further proof that our internal manufactures, which have reached such a measure of perfection, cannot remain in that state, unless care be taken that foreign manufactures be charged with such a duty as may proportion their price to the consumer, to that of our own products,-a price which, in consequence of the burdens and taxes here bearing on the manufacturer and workman, cannot be diminished. Our hatters, our glass-makers, our tanners, our flax, cotton, and wool-spinners and weavers, our manufacturers of arms and ironsmelters, with many others, must thus be supported by laws, and maintained in their present state. And this, the rather, because no choice remains for us to act on certain theoretic principles, but in conformity to the actual subsistence of so many valuable establishments, whose permanence can be exposed to no one moment of interruption, to not one day of discontinued protection, without endangering their fall, the discharge of industrious workmen, and establishing the triumph of our enterprising neighbours. It is not, however, meant that the protection and favour afforded merce. To protect this, the proposed law permits the transit of all goods and merchandise free of import and export duties, with the payment alone of a moderate duty for such transit over our territory. With this view it is proposed, that in every town where any extensive commerce is carried on, an entrepôt should be established, where, for a very moderate duty, goods should be placed under the inspection and care of the administration of convoys and licenses." The session of the States-general, held in turn at Brussels, opened on October 21st, with a speech from the throne. It touched upon various topics relative to the state of the country, one of which was a meditated exchange of small portions of territory on the Prussian frontier, with equivalent portions belonging to that power, for mutual convenience. The most interesting topic was that of the finances, concerning which his Majesty spoke in the following terms: "When the view of the receipts and the expenses of the public treasury shall be communicated to the Statesgeneral, your High Mightinesses will see, I hope, with satisfaction, the considerable reduction which, conformably to your wish and mine, has been effected in the charges of the general administration. In consequence, no augmentation of the existing means, no creation of extraordinary resources, will be necessary to cover them. At the same time, the regularity and the facility of the collection of the revenues in almost all the provinces, demonstrate the salutary influence which the liberty of commerce, and of every species of industry, has already had on the situation of the inhabitants. But neither this circumstance, nor any of the facts from which it is permitted to presume the still increasing solidity of the public credit, will make me forget the necessity of further economy, and the duty imposed on me, not to require from my subjects any sacrifices, but such as are strictly indispensable to maintain the honour and safety of the state." On rising, after the delivery of his speech, the King was saluted by the repeated acclamations of the whole assembly; and there is reason to suppose, that no sovereign in Europe has better succeeded in acquiring the general confidence of his people in the sincerity of his declarations of regarding their interests as exclusively his own. A treaty was laid before the States concluded between the King of the Netherlands and the Prince Regent of Great Britain and Hanover, the purpose of which was to abolish the tax called the Droit d'Aubaine, and the imposts named Gabelle d'Heredité and Redevance d'Emigration, when an inheritance passes from the States of the King of the Netherlands to the dominions of Hanover, and reciprocally; which arrangement is extended, not only to the duties and imposts which come into the public treasury, but to those levied on account of provinces, towns, corporations, and other public bodies. The defence of the Netherlands against any future attack from a powerful neighbour, could not but |