The Minister of Finance stated, that the above would be the maximum of the expenditure for the ensuing year, unless in the case of the occurrence of new and unexpected events.

He had also to state, that under the head of 23,500,000 florins for the department of finance, were included two new items. One of these was the sum of 1,500,000 florins, as the share of the Netherlands for the payment of the interest and the extinction of the Russian debt, in conformity to the Convention concluded at London, on the 19th of May last. The other was a sum of 475,000 fl. for payment of interest on the Austro-Belgian debt, which the kingdom of the Netherlands had taken upon itself by the Convention of the 11th of October.

The Minister next proceeded to state the Ways and Means for meeting this expenditure. Among these were the Land Tax for all the provinces of the kingdom, which is fixed at 16,132,540 fl.; the tax on persons and moveables, fixed at 2,735,570 fl.; and the tax on doors and windows, at 1,578,330.

Then follows an enumeration of a variety of other taxes, direct and indirect, the produce of which is not stated in the speech of the Minister, though subjoined in schedules annexed to the plan of law.

The total produce of the Ways and Means is estimated by the Minister at 75 millions of florins. The amount of the expenditure is estimated at 82 millions, thus creating a difference of 6 millions. On the subject of this

difference, the Minister observes, "that however improvident it might appear, in ordinary times, to fix the expenditure of a year without providing the means for meeting the whole of it, yet it appeared inexpedient to his Majesty, in the present situation of things, to propose to the Chamber any increase of the taxes or other burdens on the country, so long as there was a possibility that the difference would of itself decrease either in whole or in part." He expressed his hope, that the restoration of general peace would leave a surplus, even after all the necessary expenses of the State were defrayed. It was impossible at present to state how far experience would justify this hope; but the question would be decided long before this difference of 6 millions could be felt as a burthen upon the finances of the country. If, however, the hope of some considerable diminution of the expenditure in various branches, which had been fixed at the maximum, should be disappointed, together with the hope of the improvement of the revenue from the restoration of general peace, then it would be for the States General, at their next sitting, to consider of the means of covering this unlookedfor deficit."

As few particulars of the assembly of the states have been brought before the public, there is reason to suppose, that it passed with general tranquillity: we find however in a Dutch paper the report of a discussion, which, as relating to the forms of a representative body, may be regarded with interest. At the

sitting

sitting of the second chamber on Jan. 4th, the report of the central section was read, relative to the mode in which the minutes should in future be drawn up, and whether the opinions delivered by the members should be inserted at length, or in analysis. The report recommended. on the ground of an article in the standing orders, that no speech should be inserted in the minutes, with the exception of leading or incidental expositions. This occasioned a warm debate, and Mr. Pycke, a member from East Flanders, delivered a long speech against the recommendation. Arguing from an article in the Constitutional Code, enacting the publicity of the discussions in the second chamber, he contended, that the intention of the legislature could hardly have been that this publicity should be confined to the few auditors who daily attended in the galleries at Hague and Brussels; and that it was important that the public, as well as the deputies, should be acquainted with the persons who most promoted the interests of their country, in order to direct them in their future elections of representatives. He replied to the objections urged in the committee, of the slowness such a practice would occasion in their proceedings, and the time it would cost to the secretary and members, by remarking, that their time could not be better expended than by promoting the good of the kingdom.

Mr. Gondebieu, from Hainault, in opposition, said, that the meetings of the chamber being public, every one who chose

it might hear and report their discussions, and that for this reason it was unnecessary that the minutes should contain the deliberations. The question being put to the vote, Mr. Pycke's motion was negatived by 64 to 23.

Another member from West Flanders having put the question, whether the minutes might not at least contain an abstract of the opinions of each member, it was negatived by 5% to 35.

The great improvement in domestic policy, of establishing an uniform system of weights and measures founded on stable principles, which has occupied many states in Europe, and it is to be hoped, will in time become universal, has in this year been taken up by the government of the Netherlands, and his Majesty on June 4th submitted a plan for the purpose to the States-general. In the royal message preceding, it is observed, that the plan approved, called the metrical or decimal, has already been introduced by law into many provinces of the kingdom, (those, apparently, which had longest been under the dominion of France,) and had been employed in all the transactions in which public authority takes a part. As it cannot but be of advantage to place under general consideration every wellweighed proposal for bringing into practice a scheme of great national utility, we shall copy the articles of the law here offered for enactment.

Art. 1. As soon as circumstances shall shall permit, and at furthest by the 1st of January 1820, the same weights and measures shall be introduced through

out

2. After their introduction, no one shall be permitted to make use of other weights and mea

sures.

3. Commencing from the 1st January after the year of introduction, no claims whatever which become the subject of legal dispute shall be pronounced lawful; unless in the deeds, books, and documents on which they are founded, and which shall be brought to prove their legitimacy, the new system shall be used, and form the groundwork of the calculation.

4. From the enactment in the preceding articles are excepted transactions entered into abroad with the subjects of other powers. 5. Moreover, after the 1st of January, 1817, in all the schools of this kingdom, without exception, where arithmetic is taught, elementary instruction must be communicated according to this established system of weights and measures; and after that time no one shall be admitted into them as teacher, who is not sufficiently acquainted with the same to be able to give instruction to others.

6. The new system of weights and measures for this kingdom, shall have for foundation a length which is the forty-millionth part of a meridian-circle of the earth, which passes through Paris.

7. All measures and weights shall stand in connexion with this length, and all its multiples and aliquot parts shall be decimal.

S. To them shall be given none other but the usual Dutch names; and such, by preference, shall be employed of the present weights

them.

9. The length mentioned in art. 6, is the foundation or element of all length-measure, and shall bear the name of ell.

10. The unity of all measures of distance shall be the ell multiplied a thousand times.

11. The foundation of all superficial measure is the square of the ell, or the ell square.

12. Forland measure the square of a multiple of the ell by ten shall form the unity of measure.

13. The foundation of all measures of contents in the great shall be the cube of the ell.

14. The cube of the tenth of the ell shall be the unity of the measure of contents for retail articles.

15. The foundation of weights shall be the weight of a quantity of purely distilled water reduced to its greatest solidity, contained in the cube of the tenth part of the ell, and shall bear the name of pound.

16. The cube of the ten-thousandth part of the pound shall be the unity for the weight of valuable wares.

17. The direction and form of the new weights and measures, together with their multiples and aliquot parts, as also the names of every measure and weight, together with their multiples and aliquot parts, in conformity to what is contained in art. 8, shall afterwards be fixed by us.

The so-termed Sacred Alliance entered into by the three confederate potentates was acceded to on June 21st by the king of the Netherlands, which act was notified by a message to the Statesgeneral

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 or other printed writings.

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