Liberals. The chambers met on the fifth of November. A most pestilent fever, which in Autumn broke out in Barcelona, forced the French government to take strict measures of precaution for the safety of its southern provinces. All communication with Spain, except by the road of Perthus, was forbidden. Reinforcements of troops were sent to the passes of the Pyrenees, and a cordon of health was maintained along the whole frontier. Every traveller coming from Spain was subjected to quarantine, and all animals and goods, supposed to be capable of conveying the contagion, were placed under the most peremptory and vigilant superintendence. Men, women, and children, attempting to enter France in breach of any of the prescribed rules, were to be indiscriminately repelled by the soldiers; and death was to be the penalty of a successful violation of the cordon. During this year, there seems to have been a considerable improvement in the state of the manufactures of France. The artisans at Lyons, in Normandy, and towards the Flemish frontier, had more abundant employment, and were better paid, than they had been for some time. The whole kingdom, indeed, was evidently in a state of progressive prosperity; yet the public mind was far from being tranquil; and the administration far from being popular. Some very extraordinary trials took place at Paris towards the end of the year, the result of which gave a strong indication of the state of popular feeling. M. Barginet was indicted for a libel VOL. LXIII. on the king, in a pamphlet, of which he avowed himself the author, entitled, "The Queen of England and Napoleon, who both died of cancer," and which manifestly ascribed to poison the death of the two individuals mentioned in the title. The following expressions may serve as a specimen of the whole : "But our young hands will not carry the censer before the idols to whom human blood is sacrificed-before we were subjects of kings we were citizens of a coun try; we will speak for it, and we will wait for the future. Caroline was sacrificed to private interest, and Napoleon to policy. I hesitate not to repeat, that both died of the same distemper! Where will that cruel delirium end, which has taken possession of European cabinets? Weary of treachery and perfidy, have they resolved henceforward to employ only poison and the steel?" The jury, after some deliberation, acquitted the author of this production; probably upon the ground, though not expressed, that it was a libel rather on the king of England than the king of France. This was followed by the trial of M. Flocon, who avowed himself the author of a pamphlet addressed to "Francis Charles Joseph Buonaparte, born at the Castle of the Tuilleries, March 20, 1811." He was charged with "an attack upon the order of the succession to the throne, an offence against the person of the king, and an offence against the members of the royal family." The passage, on which the charge principally rested, was the following, "Twice have I seen the soil of France polluted by the steps of foreigners, whose arms [L] have twice imposed upon us shame and slavery; and being then too young, I could not enjoy the glorious right of dying by the hands of the enemy. Time rolls on, things change, men pass away, sovereigns are alarmed, yes, for the sad offspring of a degenerate race!" M. Flocon, who defended himself, contended, that he had not transgressed the boundaries of free discussion allowed by the charter; and the jury agreed with him. The circulation of such wretched productions, and their acquittal, are equally melancholy proofs of the perverted state of public opinion. Another political trial deserves to be mentioned for the curious ground on which the acquittal proceeded. A man of the name of Des jardins was tried on his own confession, for having admitted that he was an accomplice of Louvel, the assassin of the Duke de Berri. The case was clearly proved. Desjardins set up, as his defence, that he was so notorious for his falsehood, that nobody could give credit to a word he said, and produced a whole host of witnesses, his friends and relatives, who all swore to the fact with such effect, that he was declared Not Guilty. CHAP. IX. NETHERLANDS-Expedition against Palembang-Slave Trade-The Estates-Trials-Sweden.-the Conduct of the Norwegian Storthing -Their Measures for the Abolition of Nobility-The King's endeavour to obtain a Compromise-Proceedings with respect to the Prolongation of the Session-Firm Conduct of the King-Close of the Session. -Germany-The Diet-Constitution of the Federal Army-Dispute between Anhalt Koethen and Prussia-Appeal to the Diet-Compromise of the Dispute.-New Regulations for the Navigation of the Elbe.-Prussia-Finance-Conspiracy in Pomerania-Restraints on the Press-Commission for a Constitution.-Hanover-State of the Administration of Justice-Improvements in it-Changes in the Administration of Criminal Justice-Change in that of Civil Justice -Visit of the King to Hanover-Cassel-Death of the Elector-His Character-Dispute with the Purchasers of National Domains.— Darmstadt-Plans of Commercial Policy-German West Indian Company-Saxony-Proceedings of the College of Representatives of Towns-Weimar-the Opposition of the Estates to the Publicity of their Proceedings-The Right of the Grand Duke to Remove Public Servants.-Wirtemberg-Proceedings against one of the Representatives for Libel.-Bavaria-Cures of Prince Hohenlohe.Austria. I N the course of this year, the government of the Netherlands brought to a successful conclusion the expedition, which it had undertaken in the preceding, against the sultan of Palembang, on account of its eastern possessions. After making themselves masters of the works by which he had defended the entrance of the river, the Dutch troops, on the 20th of June, attacked his capital; but the difficulty of the approach, and the obstinacy of the resistance, compelled them to retire. A second attack, which was made some days later, proved more successful, and ended in the occupation of all the principal forts. The sultan now endeavoured in vain to capitulate; he found himself compelled to surrender at discretion, with the single condition, that his life should be spared. His brother, who had accompanied the Dutch expedition, was rewarded with the throne, and the deposed sultan was transferred as a prisoner to Batavia. The only other measure, which directly affected the colonies was, a royal edict, prohibiting the importation of slaves into the Dutch islands from any other European settlements which still maintained that traffic with Africa. The king opened the meeting of the estates, at the Hague, on the 15th of October. In his speech he adverted principally to the rising state of the manufactures, and to the improvements which he had in view in various branches of the administration; but the measure, which excited the greatest interest, was the new law regulating the finances. This measure appears to have been all along a greater favourite of the government, than of the country. In the preceding year, an obstinate and vehement opposition had been able to retard, but not to prevent, its progress through the upper chamber; and the opening of the present session, seemed to threaten a still more determined resistance in the lower. The deputies, who were adverse to the measure, and particularly those of the Southern provinces, absented themselves from the estates; so that the assembly was below the number required by the constitution, to the enactment of such a law. The embarrassment, however, in which the government thus found itself, was but temporary; for such a mode of opposition is always too desperate to be long or steadily followed. A sufficient number of deputies was brought together, and the proposed law was carried. Much less difficulty was found in passing another bill, which had for its object to increase the commerce of Holland, by diminishing the transit duty on foreign productions, from four to one quarter per cent. The party opposed to the government, exulted in the acquittal of some persons accused of sedition, for having published a pastoral letter of the bishop of Ghent; and the government, on the other hand, showed its strength in the conviction of more than one journal, that had spoken of the interference of Austria in the Neapolitan revolution, in a way which was thought to be subversive of public order. re In Denmark, the police still followed, with a watchful eye, the remnant of a sect, whose ligious fanaticism was believed to be connected with political extravagance; and the financial arrangements were completed by an English loan. The government of Sweden found itself involved in a very grave dispute with the legislature of Norway. In the latter kingdom, public opinion, as well as the legislative body, had, for a long time, pronounced itself decidedly against the exclusive privileges, and the feudal rights of the Norwegian nobility. Even when the constitution was framed, which secured the independence of Norway, after it had been ceded to Sweden by the treaty of Kiel, the popular party had endeavoured to procure the curtailment of these privileges and rights; but had only succeeded in gaining a provision, that no new privileges should be granted to the nobility reserving to a more favourable opportunity the propriety of abolishing those which already existed. The Norwegian Storthinglost no time in bringing this most delicate topic into discussion, and in their session of 1816, passed an act, which, not satisfied with curtailing the rights, struck at the very existence of an hereditary nobility. It was not to be expected, that any thing but necessity would induce the king to sanction a measure, which annihilated what, in every mixed monarchy, has been esteemed an indispensable safeguard of the throne, and would produce so striking a dissimilarity in the political institutions of the different parts of his dominions, while his whole policy had been wisely directed to remove the distinctions which already existed. He refused his sanction to the decree. The Storthing adhered to their resolution, and in 1819 again passed the same bill, only to have it a second time rejected by the king. In the present session the measure was brought forward once more, under much more favourable auspices for the Storthing. If that assembly only remained firm, it could not fail. The royal sanction was now a matter of indifference: for by the constitution of Norway, any measure which has been passed in three different meetings of the states, becomes law of itself, even without the consent of the king. It was not to be expected, that the legislature, which had hitherto pushed its object with so much resolution, would draw back in the very moment of victory; and on the other hand, nothing could be mor humiliating to the royal authority, than the success of a measure imposed upon the king in defiance of his personal wishes, and all the influence of his crown. As the Storthing showed no inclination to yield, nothing remained for the government, but to avoid a total and formal discomfiture by proposing a compromise, in which each party should appear, at least, to yield something; and such was the es sence and the effect of the message, which the king sent down to the Storthing at the opening of the session. In this message, his majesty expressed distinctly his wish, that the diet should not bring the question of the aboli tion of the nobility to discussion in the present session; but stated his readiness to take any measure under his consideration, which should go no farther, than to abolish such oftheir privileges, as were inconsistent with the public welfare. At the same time, he pressed upon the diet, the necessity of fixing an indemnification for the nobility, proportional to what they should lose and the state should gain by this curtailment of their ancient feudal rights. It is impossible to deny to both of these views the praise of moderation and justice. To eradicate an hereditary nobility in a country, where it has flourished from time immemorial, is neither easy nor advisable; and pernicious as such a body may be, in so far as it is distinguished only by privileges which depress the efforts and hem the prospe rity of the other classes of the community, yet, the very fact that the Norwegian Storthing could thus triumphantly attack the aristocracy, even when shielded by the favour and the influence of the monarch, seems to prove, that this aristocracy might have been as easily amended as destroyed. Considering the state of the public mind in Norway, and the spirit of independence which its legislature had so steadily maintained, there was, perhaps, less prudence in the attempt of his majesty to work upon the Storthing, by holding out the unfavour |