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resolution, and to do away with the principle of the free navigation of the Rhine, which was proclaimed in the face of the world in the first document of the political restoration of Europe, and on the same day when Holland was given up to the House of Orange.”

In its answer, the cabinet of Brussels repeated the geographical argument, that the Rhine terminates long before reaching the sea: and to the reasoning of the Austrian minister drawn from the conditions of the incorporation of the Netherlands with Holland, it was replied, that the republic of Holland had never ceased to exist de jure, and had resumed its exist ence under a monarch de facto, before the treaties which incorporated with it the Catholic Netherlands, and before the acts of the congress of Vienna. That his majesty, owed the sovereignty of his family, to the blood shed by his ancestors for the country, to the glory which it had acquired, and the prosperity it had enjoyed, under their auspices, to the intimate connexion formed in the course of centuries between them and the nation, to the ancient rights of his house, and to the confidence, as well as to the spontaneous choice, of a free people. It by no means dated from the act of Union, accepted the 21st July, 1814, which concerned only Belgium; but from the arrival of the king in Holland, the 30th November, 1813; from the 2nd December, 1813, when his majesty was proclaimed sovereign at Amsterdam; and from the 29th March, 1814, when the fundamental law was sanctioned and promulgated, an event which gave occasion to congratulatory letters, addressed by the allies to the sovereign prince. His majesty would

never have accepted the sovereignty of the United Provinces, if the origin of it was to be ascribed to a foreign co-operation, however powerful it might be, and however magnanimous the monarchs composing it; and he would have utterly rejected any increase of territory, if it had been necessary to purchase it at the expense of the dignity of the country in which the remains of his ancestors repose.

There was something wanting to this argument. Although it were granted that the king of the Netherlands had regained the sovereignty of the United Provinces in virtue of the ancient and wellwon rights of the House of Orange, it by no means followed that he held the new sovereignty of the Catholic Netherlands by the same tenure. These formed a possession, to which Holland and her monarch had no claim; which the allied powers, if possessing any right to dispose of the Netherlands at all, could give, or refuse, at pleasure; and which, they alleged, they had ceded to his majesty only

condition of his performing certain stipulations. They could affix to their gift, and his majesty could reject, any conditions they might think proper; although the outlets of the Rhine were more peculiarly streams of Holland, and therefore subject only to his ancient sovereignty, it was as competent to the allies to stipulate for a relaxation of the rights of that ancient sovereignty as a condition of their boon, as for the reservation of any franchise to the citizens of the newly-acquired provinces themselves. He might reject the proffered gift when coupled with a sacrifice of some of the privileges of his ancient dominions; but if

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he did accept of it (and this was what the allied courts alleged) on the understanding that certain exclusive rights of the latter were to be limited, the argument drawn from the history of his family, was both bad faith, and bad logic. All that argument and remonstrance could as yet gain from the Netherlands was, that the Leck should be considered as the Rhine; that the vessels of the German states should be allowed to navigate it unmolested, under no higher duties than might be imposed on other parts of the river; and that the prohibitions against the transit of goods in other vessels than those of Holland, should be abolished. This still left in uncertainty the great question through what channel is the navigation of the Rhine as far as the sea to be carried - for the Leck terminates where it joins the Meuse, a river purely Belgic and Dutch, before reaching Rotterdam. The abolition of the prohibition against transit was, it was further said, a point gained, in so far as it removed the exclusive provisions in favour of the Dutch trade, and permitted the free trade of German shippers with each other on the Rhine of Holland; but that still, so soon as they approached the sea, there they were stopped until they should pay the export duties fixed by Holland, which, in favour of its own trade, might be so high as to amount to a prohibition. This was one of the many instances in which disputes and errors have arisen from the arbitrariness with which the original name of a rami fying river is bestowed on one of its branches. One would think that the larger arm ought always, like a first born, to bear the family title: more nice investigations

may be allowed to the inquisitive geographer; but in the serious business of real life, it does appear strange, that the name of the mighty Rhine should be continued to a petty brook, while two thirds of its mass of waters are gliding on. through the windings of the Waal, and receiving in their course the Meuse as a tributary.

During the year most of the differences, which had been so long existing between the Netherlands and the Papal see, regarding the powers of the Catholic bishops, and the rights and maintenance of the Catholic religion, were finally adjusted; and the former power sent an envoy to Rome to open a new negotiation in regard to the remainder. By a decree of 1822, no private chapel, or oratory, could be erected or consecrated without the permission of the king, granted upon an application by the bishop of the diocese. This regulation was now relaxed; and the power was given to the bishops of authorizing the erection of chapels and oratories exclusively for the use of the individuals, corporations, or congregations, who might build them, on condition that such authority should never be granted except to persons who from age or infirmity were unable to attend church, that the chapels themselves should be erected with all possible economy, and that only aged and infirm priests, having no other duty to perform, should be appointed to officiate in them. The Catholics were likewise relieved of part of the burthen of supporting their own hierarchy, a sum of five hundred thousand florins being voted by the Statesgeneral towards the expenses of the Catholic Worship in the northern provinces. But a proper jealousy was still manifested of the encroach

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jesty intended to abide by the existing system, and was therefore most seriously warned not to make any use of the said letter, or of any others relative to the same subject, lest he should expose himself to serious consequences.

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During the autumn of the year, the province of Groningen was afflicted with an epidemical disease, which spread itself likewise into Friezland, operating most fatally in the districts far removed from the sea. It appeared in the end of July: in the first week of August, the deaths of Groningen amounted to one hundred and six; and by the middle of September, their number had increased to one hundred and forty two. The sick amounted to upwards of five thousand, scarcely a single house escaping the malady; and, although the country suffered less than the cities, yet, in one vil, lage, out of a population of a thou sand souls, not an hundred escaped the disease. It raged chiefly among the labouring poor: dread of con tagion deprived them almost en tirely of attendance and assistance, and even of medical advice. The magistrates of Groningen applied to the government for medical officers, and invited, by a public address, the services of the profession generally; but all the remuneration they could offer was, a hundred guilders per month. The epidemic was supposed to have originated from the violent and long-continued heats, and it gradually disappeared as the winter returned.

ing disposition of that dangerous church. A few years before, a religious association, denominated the "Brethren of the Christian Schools," professing their object to be the education of youth, and bearing a jesuitical character, had been al lowed to settle themselves in the kingdom, and each of its members had been required to sign, and had signed, a declaration that it was independent of any foreign supe rior. It was now discovered that these declarations had been intended to deceive; and that, notwithstanding them, the relations formerly existing between the Superiorgeneral of the body out of the kingdom, and the members of the association within the kingdom had never been discontinued; and therefore, in the month of February, the association was suppressed by a royal decree. The archbishop of Mechlin, likewise, was severely censured in the name of the king, by the Director-general of the affairs of the Roman Catholic church, for having received through an unusual channel, and not communicating to government, a papal rescript, tending to excite disobedience and opposition to his majesty's measures regarding the Catholic church. The letter was farther denounced as being an encroachment on the rights of the bishops of the kingdom, who alone are authorized to govern their churches, the Pope having no power to interfere without violating the liberties of the church of the Netherlands, as had always been understood, and especially In the Dutch budget for the since (1767, when a certain de- year there was an increase of more claration from Rome, relative to a than 2,000,000 florins in the exmarriage of the marquess of Chas- penses of its first division, partly teler with a widow of Amsterdam, occasioned by the half million was declared null and void. The voted to the Catholics, and a milarchbishop was told that his ma lion and a half which had been ex

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pended in works on the rivers and sea coast. Holland could not spend money more usefully either for her industry or her safety and a spe cial commission had been appointed to examine into the means for im proving the course of the rivers, and preventing those inundations, which, in a single night, could work wide-spread misery and devastation. Some of its suggestions had already been adopted, and the channels of internal communica tion were constantly increasing On the expenditure forming the other branches of the budget there was a considerable diminution; and, from the preceding year, there was a surplus revenue, which enabled the government to reduce some of the taxes, and make an addition of 10 per cent to the sinking-fund. The duties received on exports and imports amounted to 6,200,000 florins.

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The darkest spot in the pros perity of the Netherlands was the intestine war which still raged in their Indian colonies, and threatened the downfal of their supremacy The Javanese were in almost a general state of insurrec tion, particularly in the southern and middle districts of the island; the insurgents shewed themselves incessantly upon different points, and always in great force, thus dividing and harassing the Dutch troops, whose numbers were too small to admit of strong detach ments being sent against them. The numbers of the rebels in creased with their success. One body of them had anticipated general Van Gaen in a projected attack to be made upon them from Samarang, drove back his advanced divisions from their positionbat A law was framed for the for- Damack, and took possession of mation of an internal military that town. Djocjocarta and its force, a militia, called Communal environs, though not regularly bèGuards, to be employed in main- sieged by them, was kept in pertaining the public tranquillity, petual alarm by their guerilla sort and in time of war, in repelling an of predatory warfare; the natives enemy. If a commune, however, being able to keep the field even did not contain a population of two during the rainy season, while thousand five hundred souls, its active operations would have de communal guards were not to be stroyed the European troops by called out in time of peace, and, sickness and fatigue. On the 18th during war, they were to form, of February, they attacked an unwith those of other communes, finished fort, and were repulsed the levy en masse of the country. but the Netherlanders, having purThe law extended to all male in- sued them too far, were, in their habitants having attained their turn, attacked by an ambuscade, twenty-fifth, and not completed and forced to retreat with the loss their thirty-fourth, year, on each of part of their artillery. In the successive first of January. The month of June, fortune seemed to force to be embodied was to be two incline in favour of the Dutch; men for every two hundred per they successfully stormed the prin sons, and the period of service five cipal fortress of the insurgents, and years. To have been condemned dispersed the army which covered punishment which the law it. But this success was more helds infamous, was made a dis- than counterbalanced by a defeat

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which they suffered in a battle fought a few weeks afterwards between Solo and Samarang. The insurgents were led by Djupo Magoro, a man of some enterprise and talent, who had raised himself to the command amongst them. The Dutch were completely defeated, losing a great number of men, among whom were several officers, with great part of their artillery and ammunition. The insurgents immediately spread themselves over the country; all communication between Samarang and Batavia was cut off by them. The government was compelled to summon to its assistance the garrisons of Sumatra, Banca, Macassar, and Borneo. Palembang again reverted to the possession of the natives; and the queen of Boni, taking advantage of the great part of the Dutch forces being withdrawn from Celebes, took the field with an army to expel the remainder. Nothing but the arrival of troops from Europe seemed likely to enable the Netherlands to retain its Eastern dependencies in subjection: the most urgent applications were made at Brussels and the Hague from the governor of Java, and were not unheeded by the government at home; but fortune seemed to have sworn to thwart all their projects.

An expedition, consisting of the Waterloo and Wassenaer men of war, was fitted out in the end of the year for Java, where the power of the insurgents was most alarming, and sailed from the Helder in the beginning of January, having on board a reinforcement of two thousand men. Scarcely had they left the shores of Holland, when they were overtaken by a violent storm. The

Wassenaer, after having lost her main-mast, and endeavoured in vain to come to an anchor, while not a cable would stand, drifted towards the shore, struck on the banks to the north of Egmont, and instantly filled with water. As she had struck so near the shore, a number of vessels were sent to her relief; and, the weather becoming more favourable, she held together, till all on board were brought safely on shore, except about forty persons, almost all of whom had been drowned when she first filled upon striking. Her consort, the Waterloo, stood out the tempest with better success, and came to an anchor under the island of Borkum, after having been entirely dismasted.

In WIRTEMBERG and BAVARIA every thing was tranquil and contented. In succeeding his father, Louis of Bavaria succeeded the most popular prince in Europe; for to no monarch were a people ever united by a more hearty regard and good will, than were the Bavarians to Maximilian Joseph. But Louis was far from being a loser by being compared with his predecessor. He was equally liberal in disposition, but had more foresight, severer habits of thinking, and greater firmness of character. As crown prince, he had been distinguished by his love of the arts, and the collecting of their productions was the only luxury of power in which he was fond of indulging. He resisted steadily the officious attempts of the jealous cabinet of Vienna to interfere with the popular forms of government which had been established by his father, and refused to lend himself to its prying policy. Even the vigi

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