Provinces of the continent Provinces beyond the Seas

MILREES.

6,877,494,269 1,482,236,034

....

1,218,378,250

9,578,108,553

The minister did not propose to lay on any new taxes; for he hoped, that, at no distant period, the increasing prosperity of the country would render the decima alone sufficient to answer all the wants of the state. In the mean time, all that he required to cover the deficit was, that the chamber, besides sanctioning the law for the sale of national and church property, should authorise the government to take an interest of ten per cent in any undertaking of private responsible individuals or companies for the repairing or construction of roads, canals, improvement of harbours and ports on the coasts, directing the course of the rivers, or for any other purpose of public utility; to grant charters for the establishment of banking companies in four capitals of provinces, for the purpose of granting loans of money to the farmers and manufacturers, with the privileges not exceeding those of the bank of Lisbon, and reserving to the bank of Lisbon the option, in the first instance, of establishing such banking compa. nies: and, to adopt such measures, as it might deem expedient, for the consolidation of the national credit, without increasing in any manner the charge to the public treasury.

The pecuniary wants of the

12,549,270,912

administration, though the only, were but a poor excuse for the mode in which they treated the British volunteer auxiliaries, by whose aid chiefly the cause of the queen had been made triumphant. They had been induced to enter into Don Pedro's service by promises of pay equal to that of England, exclusive of allowances for compensation and other advantages. The difficulties, which for a long time confined the progress of Don Pedro to Oporto, having disabled him from fulfilling his engagements, the officers and soldiers were content to be paid in the meanwhile at the rate of the Portuguese service, leaving the arrears to accumulate till the end of the war. The regiment of British lancers voluntarily renounced their British rate of pay till the army should arrive at Lisbon; and they received Don Pedro's thanks in a printed order of the day, for setting such an example of disinterestedness to his army. When the campaign had begun before Santarem the Portuguese government proposed to the British infantry new terms, which were signed by the minister at war, marshal Saldanha, who pledged himself to their execution, and by the adjutant-general. These were, that, from the 1st of

January, 1834, the British should receive only Portuguese pay; that upon leaving the service, after the war, they should receive certain compensations, and that, in the mean time, their arrears up to the 31st of December, 1833, should be paid in bills, half at three months' date, payable in March, 1884, and the remainder at nine months, payable in September. The English officers, having discussed these propositions, consented, though reluctantly, to accept them. The regiment of lancers were to go on Portuguese pay, on condition of their arrears to the 31st of December being immediately paid.

The war came to an end; the arrears due to the British troops still remained unpaid; and the men, on whose bravery the sole dependence was placed when danger threatened, were left to wander through the streets of Lisbon in rags and poverty, without pay, and prolonging a miserable existence on scanty rations of beans and bread, with the occasional addition of a morsel of salt fish. Such are the rewards which await adventurers or zealots, who hire themselves out to be the mercenary supporters of foreign revolutionary governments.

so as to connect Holland by a Dutch territory with its ancient possessions on the right bank of the Meuse, and especially with the fortress of Maestricht: and this would not be done, if Limburg were, at any time, severed from the Dutch crown. In fact, to offer Limburg to the king's collaterals, and to the German confederation, as an indemnity, would be to give it to them at the expense of Holland.

Great blame was imputed to the king of Holland, on account of the procrastination of these negotiations: for the rule laid down by France, and humbly subscribed to by England was, that Holland was to yield every thing and Belgium nothing. Belgium might become part of France; it was open at all times, to be overrun by the armies of France; and the gratification of Belgian pride, and the humiliation of Holland, at the same time that it augmented the present dependence of Belgium on her ambitious and unprincipled neighbour, added to the value of the prize which that neighbour might hope, ere long, to seize.

If the king of Holland was blamed for not doing what he could not do, it is not surprising, that he should also be blamed for doing what he did not do. By the treaty of the 21st of May, in the preceding year, the duchy of Luxemburg was to continue in statu quo, till a definite arrangement was concluded; the fortress, which was occupied by Prussian troops, commanded by general Du Moulin, a Prussian officer, remaining in the possession of the garrison, the legal radius of which had been fixed by a former treaty at four leagues, and the Belgians retaining possession of the rest of the duchy. This arrangement was

intended merely to provide for the temporary possession and occupation of the country, and was not meant to authorise the Belgians to treat the districts, of which they had thus the temporary occupation, as their own absolute dominions. The Belgians, however, resolved to act as the absolute owners of the duchy. Accordingly, in the beginning of the year they proceeded to call out the militia, and to order timber to be felled in the forests of the crown, even within the radius of the fortress. On this the governor, Du Moulin, interfered; and finding his prohibitions disregarded, he sent out a detatchment of 1,000 men who seized a M. Hanno, the commissary of the Belgic government for raising the militia force, and confined him to a prison in the fortress. Great and loud was the outcry, which these proceedings excited, not against the German confederation of which Luxemburg was a part,-not against the king of Prussia, whose officer, and whose troops had perpetrated the supposed enormity-but against the king of Holland, whose only connection with the matter was, that Luxemburg had once beeu his. The Belgian deputies blustered in their usual tone; and the support of France and England encouraged the government to insult Holland. Nay more, these two complaisant allies required of the Germanic Diet, that M. Hanno should be released; that the proceedings of general Du Moulin should be disavowed, and that he himself should be removed from his post. There had been no intention of detaining M. Hanno, and the diet had ordered him to be released, before the

notes of the ministers of England and France had been presented. But both the Diet and the king of Prussia approved of the conduct of the general; and the diet not only refused to permit the Belgians to exercise within the radius of the fortress those powers, the usurpation of which had given rise to the contest, but declared their determination to occupy if necessary, with their troops the whole of the German part of the duchy. The Belgians yielded.

On the 20th of October the session of the States General was opened by the king with the following speech:

High and Mighty Lords, It is most agreeable to me to be able to inform your high mightinesses at the opening of this ses sion, that our relations with foreign powers are satisfactory, and that I continue to receive from many, testimonies of sincere friendship. I have been constantly deceived in the just expectation and final arrangement of the rights and interests of Holland, which have been so undeservedly injured by the Belgian insurrection.

"The unforeseen obstacles in the progress of the negotiations, and which, notwithstanding the efforts that have been made, it has not been in my power to remove, have made me consider of measures to lighten, as far as possible, the burden which this state of things brings on my beloved subjects.

"With this view very extensive furloughs have been given to the schuttery. The inclination to exercise, the discipline, the courage, and perseverance in which they have constantly emulated during the time of their service the regular army and the militia, and the sentiments which they manifested,

amidst the unanimous acclamations of their countrymen, on their return to their homes and their ordinary occupations, are pledges for the zeal with which at the first summons they will again be ready at the first call for the combat, and hasten to any place, where their presence may be necessary to defend the honour, the safety, and the independence of their country. "Meantime these furloughs, in which the volunteers in the navy participate, have effected a reduction in the extraordinary expenses of the kingdom, which authorises a hope that the expenses for wants of this kind will not make any augmentation of the burdens necessary next year.

"The internal administration has gone on regularly in all its branches, and the government has been seconded by the local and other authorities. All the attention continues to be given to the public instruction that the importance of the subject requires, and that circumstances allow. The desire to protect the sciences and the fine arts does not abate. Though the dikes and sea-banks suffered much by the storms of last winter, we have reason to be grateful for having been preserved from the. apprehended great breaches of the dikes and inundations. The internal sources of prosperity are in an encouraging condition. While trade and navigation continue to recover from the shocks, which, like those of other countries, they have sustained in consequence of political and other events, it is satisfactory to see that our important fisheries, on the whole, maintain themselves.

"In other branches of national industry, a constant improvement is perceived; many manufactures