700,000,000 of francs, to be divided among the allies, and defrayed by modes and at periods specified in a separate convention. Conditions so degrading Marlborough and Eugene had never offered to impose after ten victorious campaigns. Such, however, was the mode adopted by the allies to maintain the imbecile monarch on his inglorious and improvident throne;-such the bitter cup of humiliation to be drained by that country, after so many triumphs over her neighbours, enjoyed with so little moderation.

Since the assumption of the regal title by the house of Orange its prudence and moderation had been conspicuous. Subsequent to the battle of Waterloo, in which the prince had displayed all the heroism of his ancient house, a committee had been appointed to draw up a constitution for the Seventeen Provinces. This was afterwards laid before an extraordinary assembly of the States of the United Netherlands, by whom it was unanimously accepted. In September the ceremonial of the king's inauguration took place at Brussels, with every mark of general satisfac

tion.

It is now time that we glance at the domestic concerns of Great Britain during 1815. In the parliamentary discussions which arose on the royal message of the 22nd of May, and its concomitant documents, lord Castlereagh stated, 'that Austria, Russia, and Prussia had engaged to furnish contingents in the following proportion :-Austria 300,000, Russia 225,000, Prussia 236,000 men; and the other states of Germany 150,000. Great Britain and Holland 50,000 each; and Britain to advance the sum of £5,000,000 in subsidies.' The measures of the ministry were supported by vast majorities in both houses, and the almost unanimous voice of the nation. Yet there were a few individuals in each house, distinguished for talent and integrity, who deprecated this warlike policy.

The estimate of expenditure for the present year was of a magnitude exceeding all precedent; the amount being £80,000,000 for Great Britain, and £10,000,000 more for Ireland. To meet this astonishing demand, the war taxes were continued to the height. Two successive loans were negociated for £45,500,000, and a vote of credit passed for £6,000,000. Subsequent to the victory of Waterloo the additional sum of £200,000 was voted to the duke of Wellington; and, in addition to the parliamentary and royal honors and rewards conferred on the conquerors of Waterloo, a national and truly noble subscription of nearly £500,000 was raised for the relief of the soldiers disabled by wounds, and the widows of the slain. On presenting the money bills for the royal assent, the speaker of the house of commons addressed the prince regent in terms of the highest exultation. Parliament was prorogued 11th July.

After a long recess, the parliament re-assembled on the 1st of February, 1816. The return of peace, though it brought security in its train, did not diminish the burdens of the nation in that degree which was expected. A large standing army was maintained; and it was the intention of the ministry to continue the odious tax on property, not altogether at its full amount,

but with a reduction of five per cent. This excited a general alarm. Notwithstanding the presentation of numerous petitions against the impost, the chancellor of the exchequer ventured to propose its continuance; but the spirit of the house revolted from it: and when it was exploded, by a majority of thirty-seven votes, the shouts which arose from the unexpected popular triumph resounded over the whole neighbourhood.

The debates respecting the new settlement of the civil list were warm and acrimonious.

Soon after the opening of the session Mr. Brougham moved for the production of a copy of a treaty entered into at Paris, on the 26th of September, 1815, between the sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, and which had received the sign-manual of those potentates. By the tenor of this singular document, which received the name of 'The Holy Alliance,' being couched in the most devout and solemn language, the high contracting parties declared their resolution to take for their sole guide, both in their domestic administration and foreign relations, the precepts of the holy religion of Christ their Saviour. Politicians were much perplexed to comprehend the meaning of an engagement at once so vague and so serious, and the production of it was resisted by lord Castlereagh, though he admitted that the prince regent had been urged by a joint letter of the three sovereigns to accede to it, and had in reply expressed his satisfaction with the nature of the treaty, and given an assurance, that the British government would not be one of the least disposed to act up to its principles. Subsequent events seem to indicate, that a resolution to support the authority of each other against any revolutionary movement among their own subjects, was the true object of this mystical combination.

During the session a message from the prince regent announced the approaching marriage, with his consent, of his daughter the princess Charlotte Augusta, with his serene highness Leopold George Frederick, prince of Saxe Coburg-Saalfeld, who had visited England in the train of the confederate sovereigns. His royal highness expressed his persuasion of the concurrence of the house in enabling him to make such provision on the occasion, as might correspond with the dignity and honor of the country. It was consequently proposed by the chancellor of the exchequer, and unanimously agreed to by the house, that an income of £60,000 should be settled on the illustrious pair; of which £10,000 were to form a sort of privy purse for her royal highness, and the remainder was to defray the domestic expenses of the prince of Coburg; this sum to be settled on them for their joint lives. Should the prince of Coburg die first, the whole was to be continued to her royal highness; if he should be the survivor, the sum of £50,000 was to be continued to him. The allowance to the princess from the civil list of £30,000 a-year

was to cease.

From the period of the restoration of king Ferdinand VII. to the Spanish throne, his reign had been characterised by a series of uncontrolled bigotry, cruelty, and despotism.

Mr. Brougham, the able and intrepid advocate of freedom, now drew the attention of the British public to the proceedings in Spain; and during the session of 1816 brought forward a motion for an address to the prince regent, 'humbly intreating him to take into his gracious consideration the sufferings of the late Spanish regency and cortes; and representing that the alliance at present subsisting between his royal highness and his Catholic majesty affords the most favorable opportunity for interposing the good offices of Great Britain in their behalf, with the weight that belongs to her, and to the sentiments of this house and of the people.'

The distresses of the agricultural interests produced a number of petitions to parliament for relief. One member attributed the pressure to a combination of causes, but chiefly to the enormity of taxation; another to an overtrading in the bounty of the soil, and a consequent redundance of produce: but all were at a loss to devise a promising remedy. The manufacturers at the same time complained of that want of employment which was occasioned by the general impoverishment of their countrymen. Riots arose in several counties from the discontent which this state of affairs produced.

Near the close of the year a popular meeting took place in Spa-fields, Islington, and resolutions of reform, suggested by Mr. Henry Hunt, were voted by acclamation. An apothecary of the name of Watson also harangued the rabble in the same neighbourhood; and the subsequent operations of those who listened to his oratory excited a temporary alarm in the metropolis. The rioters paraded the streets, carried off firearms from the shops of several gunsmiths, marched to the Royal Exchange, where they had a short contest with the lord mayor and some officers of the police; but they at length dispersed from the fear of a military attack. These disturbances did not seriously encroach, however, on the general tranquillity of the realm.

In the midst of the tranquillity of Europe, an unexpected war arose on the coast of Africa in the course of this year, which gave occasion for a display of the undaunted valor of the British avy, not less honorable in its principle than splendid and triumphant in its results. The conduct of the Algerines, and other barbarians on that coast, had long excited general indignation; and, as even British vessels were occasionally attacked by them, lord Exmouth, being ordered by the prince regent to try the effect of temperate expostulation, sailed to Algiers, and submitted to the dey's consideration, that he should treat the Ionian Isles as if they were British colonies; that he should conclude peace with the kings of Naples and Sardinia; and that he should abolish Christian slavery in his dominions. Promises were given on the first two heads, but the other request was considered by the dey too important to be hastily settled. The rulers of Tunis and Tripoli, who were also addressed by the admiral, were more compliant: they promised that they would not consign prisoners of war to the miseries or disgrace of slavery, but would treat them according to the practice of Christian nations.

Returning to Algiers, his lordship renewed his remonstrances, but without effect; and, while he was thus employed, a brutal massacre was perpetrated at Bona upon many coral fishers, acting under the supposed security of the British flag. A fresh squadron, adapted to a bold en terprise, was therefore put under lord Exmouth's command; and he was joined by vice-admiral Capellen, of the Netherlands.

The session of parliament was opened, January the 28th, 1817, by the prince regent in person. The speech from the throne stated the anxious desire of government to make every reduction which the safety of the empire and true policy would allow; the deficiency in the revenue was acknowledged, but ascribed to temporary causes; continued assurances of amity from foreign powers were mentioned; but the most remarkable passages of this speech are those which relate to the state of the country as drawn in the late petitions. I am too well convinced,' said his royal highness, of the loyalty and good sense of the great body of his majesty's subjects, to believe them to be capable of being perverted by the arts which are employed to seduce them."

On the return of the prince regent from the house of peers an immense crowd had assembled in the park, by whom he was received with marked demonstrations of popular resentment; and on passing Carlton-house the glass of the carriage was broken by a stone; nor was it without some difficulty that he at length reached the palace. This flagrant outrage being on the same day reported by lord Sidmouth to parliament, the two houses joined in an address suitable to the occasion; moreover, £1000 reward was offered, but in vain, for the discovery of the offender.

On the 3d of February a message was brought down from the prince regent to both houses of parliament, announcing that he had ordered papers to be laid before parliament, containing information of certain practices, meetings, and combinations, in the metropolis and in different parts of the kingdom, evidently calculated to endanger the public tranquillity, to alienate the affections of his majesty's subjects from his person and government, and to bring into hatred and contempt the whole system of our laws and government. On the motion of ministers these papers were referred by each house to a secret committee of the members. The reports of the two committees were delivered to their respective houses on the 18th and 19th of February; and through them some alarming statements were made to the public.

The first result of these proceedings was a motion by lord Sidmouth in the upper house, for a suspension of the habeas corpus act until the 1st of July ensuing; which was carried by a great majority, though not without strong opposition from several eminent noblemen, and a protest signed by eighteen. In the house of commons, lord Castlereagh made a motion to a similar effect; giving notice at the same time of farther measures for the protection of the country against the machinations of the disaffected. These were,-first, the extending of the act of 1795, for the security of his majesty's person to

that of his royal highness the prince regent; se condly, the embodying into one act the provisions of the act of 1795, relative to tumultuous meetings and debating societies, and the provisions of the act of the 39th of the king, which declared the illegality of all societies bound together by secret oaths, and of such as extended themselves by fraternised branches over the kingdom; and, lastly, the making of enactments to punish with the utmost rigor any attempt to gain over soldiers or sailors to act with any association or set of men, or to withdraw them from their allegiance.

Imputing the distress of the people to misgovernment, and the want of reform, a person resident in the county of Nottingham, whose name was Brandreth, aided by several other manufacturers, strenuously exerted themselves to organise an insurrection in that county; yet, with all their clamor and persuasion, they could muster only a very small party: and the result was, that these infatuated men only deluded themselves, and precipitated their own ruin.

Mr. Wilberforce embraced an opportunity, before the close of the session, to call the attention of the house of commons to the slave trade, which was still carried on without molestation by the subjects of France, Spain, and more especially Portugal, which had extended its traffic along the whole coast of Africa; so that the accession of these powers to the eventual abolition was a mere dead letter. He consequently moved an address to the prince regent, praying that he would be pleased to pursue with unremitted activity the negociations into which he had already entered on this important subject.' Lord Castlereagh suggested the danger of interfering with pending negociations; but, as the house betrayed no symptoms of alarm on that head, he acquiesced in the motion, which passed unanimously.

Towards the close of the session Mr. Abbot, who had held the office of speaker in five successive parliaments with distinguished reputation, intimated his intention of resigning, on account of indisposition; and was soon afterwards called to the house of lords, by the title of lord Colchester; an annuity of £4000 being granted to him for his meritorious services. The right honorable Charles Manners Sutton was elected in his place; and the parliament was prorogued in person by the prince regent on the 12th of July.

In the month of August arrived at Portsmouth, from his embassy to China, lord Amherst, who had left England in 1816, and arrived off the Chinese coast in the following July. Whatever were the advantages anticipated from this expensive equipment, of which indeed the prospect, after the total failure of the former embassy by lord Macartney, must have been very faint, they were entirely frustrated by the refusal of lord Amherst to submit to the degrading ceremonial of prostration now required by the court of Pekin, though dispensed with in the person of his predecessor. The emperor, how ever, in his imperial mandate to the king of England, for such was the language of the court of Pekin, expressed his satisfaction at the dis

position of profound respect, and due obedience, which were visible in sending this embassy.' 'I therefore,' says he, 'thought proper to take from the articles of tribute a few maps, with some prints and portraits. In return, I ordered to be given to you, O king, a jouée (a string of imperial beads), two large silk purses, and eight small ones, as a proof of our tender and indulgent conduct. Your country is too remote from the central and flourishing empire. Besides your ambassador, it would seem, does not know how to practise the rites and ceremonies of the central empire. There will be no occasion hereafter for you to send an ambassador from so great a distance, and to give him the trouble of passing over mountains, and crossing the ocean. If you do but pour out the heart in dutiful obedience, it is by no means necessary, at any stated time, to come to the celestial presence.' Such was the haughty language of rebuke in which the emperor of China thought proper to address the king of England, after which, it can hardly be expected that a third embassy to China will speedily take place.

The 6th of November this year was rendered fatally memorable by the sudden and melancholy demise of the princess Charlotte of Wales, presumptive heiress of the crown, immediately after the birth of a still-born infant.

The general regret had not entirely subsided when, on the 28th of January, the British parliament re-assembled. The prince regent then declared, that it was a soothing consolation to his heart to receive from all descriptions of his Majesty's subjects the most cordial assurances, both of their just sense of the loss which they had sustained, and of their sympathy with his parental sorrow; and that, amidst his own sufferings, he had not been unmindful of the effect which this sad event must have on the interests and future prospects of the kingdom. The affairs of this session were not remarkably interesting. The first bill that was brought forward provided for a repeal of the act which suspended the habeas corpus. As ministers could not deny that some irregularities had been committed in the exercise of the great powers which had been allowed to them, they also demanded from the two houses a bill of indemnity for themselves, and for all who had acted under them.

The subject of education, particularly that of the poor, occasioned some debates in parliament. It was generally believed that shameful abuses and embezzlements had disgraced the characters of many trustees, appointed to superintend the application of those funds which were destined to aid the purposes of public instruction. Mr. Brougham therefore proposed, that persons of learning, judgment, and respectability, should be authorised to make a str ct enquiry into the execution of every trust of this kind. A bill to that effect received the royal assent.

The diffusion of religious knowledge also occupied the attention of both houses of parliament. A message was brought down from the prince regent, desiring them to direct their attention to the deficiency which had so long existed in the number of places of worship belonging to the established church, when com

pared with the increasing population of the country,' and £1,000,000 sterling was voted for the building of new churches. Lord Holland suggested the expediency of drawing a large sum for this purpose from the richly endowed church of England; but this idea was instantly exploded by the higher clergy, although the archbishop of Canterbury and some of his brethren contributed by individual donations to the increase of the fund.

A royal message, on the 13th of April, announced the intended marriages of the dukes of Clarence and Cambridge, to the princesses of Saxe Meinungen and Hesse-Cassel; and, soon after, that of the duke of Kent to the dowagerprincess of Saxe Leiningen, sister of prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg. The prince regent at the same time expressed his reliance on the readiness of parliament to make the necessary provision for the same,' which gave rise to a memorable debate. Parliament therefore granted an addition of £10,000 to the income of the duke of Clarence, and £6000 to the other dukes. The latter sum was not objected to; but, no reason being assigned why the house should show any partiality to the duke of Clarence, Mr. H. Sumner moved an amendment, placing him on the same level, which was carried by 193 to 184 voices.

In April the princess Elizabeth, third daughter of the king, was married to the hereditary prince of Hesse Homberg; but no application was made to parliament on that account.

A treaty, alluded to in the speech from the throne, between England and Spain, relative to the slave trade, was laid before the house by lord Castlereagh. Conformably to the articles of this treaty, Spain, in consideration of the sum of £400,000, to be paid her by England, in compensation of the losses which had been or might be sustained by the subjects of his Catholic majesty engaged in that traffic, consented to its abolition on all the coasts of Africa, north of the line, still leaving it open to the south! A convention was also concluded with Portugal to the same effect.

On the 4th of November the plenipotentiaries of the courts of Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, assembled at Aix-la-Chapelle, where they addressed to the duke of Richelieu, the French minister, the following important document:-That their august masters being called upon, by the twentieth article of the treaty of Paris, to examine, in concert with the king of France, whether the military occupation of a part of the French territory, stipulated by that treaty, ought to cease at the termination of the third year, or be prolonged to that of the fifth; had recognised, with satisfaction, that the order of things established by the restoration of the legitimate and constitutional monarchy of that country, gave assurance of the consolidation of that state of tranquillity in France necessary to the repose of Europe; and that in consequence they had commanded the immediate discontinuance of such military occupation,-a measure which they regarded as the completement of the peace.

Her majesty queen Charlotte expired at Kew

palace on the 7th of November, in the seventy-fifth year of her age, after a lingering decline, attended with much suffering, which is said to have been sustained with great fortitude. She merited the respect of the nation by her conjugal and maternal character, by the uniform propriety of her conduct, and by the strict decorum which she maintained at court. Her ruling passion in the decline of life was believed to be the accumulation of riches; the political influence which she acquired during the illness of the king, in 1788, she maintained to the last.

The new parliament was convened for the despatch of business on the 14th of January, 1819. On the 21st, the speech delivered by the lord chancellor, stated that his royal highness was persuaded that parliament would view with peculiar satisfaction the intimate union which so happily subsisted among the powers who were parties to the late congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. His royal highness had the greatest pleasure in being able to inform the parliament, that the trade, commerce, and manufactures of the country were in a very flourishing condition! In adverting to the papers relative to India, which the prince regent had directed to be laid before the two houses, the lords commissioners had the commands of his royal highness to inform them, that the operations undertaken against the Pindarees were dictated by the strictest principles of self defence; and that, in the extended hostilities which followed, the Mahratta princes were in every instance the aggressors.' The addresses in answer to the regent's speech were voted without opposition, and both houses condoled with his royal highness on the death of his venerable parent. It was now proposed that the duke of York should have the custody of the royal person; and that he should be remunerated with an annual grant of £10,000, for the great trouble and extraordinary expense which must unavoidably attend his occasional journeys to Windsor. After warm debates this allowance was voted; but the Windsor establishment was at the same time reduced.

A topic deeply interesting to the friends of humanity occupied the early attention of the new parliament. This was the state of the criminal code. On the 9th of February Mr. Wilberforce presented a petition, from the people called Quakers, praying for a revisal of it. A petition was also presented from the corporation of London, complaining of the increase of crimes, and pointing out the commutation of capital punishment as a remedy. Ministers on the 1st of March proposed to refer the subject to a committee; and on the following day Sir James Mackintosh rose to make a motion to this effect.

He divided capital felonies into three classes; those on which the punishment of death was always, those on which it was very often, and those on which it was never put in force. The first and second divisions he proposed for the present to leave untouched: the last, consisting of no less than 150 different crimes, ought, he conceived, to be expunged entirely from the list, as the relic of barbarous times, and disgraceful to the character of a thinking and en

lightened people. Lord Castlereagh passed many compliments on the candid and moderate spirit in which the honorable and learned gentleman had brought forward his motion; but he persisted in opposing the appointment of a separate committee. Other members, however, strenuously supported the measure, and it was finally carried by a majority of 147 to 128 voices.

During this session of parliament, and the succeeding months, the political horizon of Great Britain wore a clouded aspect. A numerous part of the community, chiefly of the operative class of citizens, became clamorous for what they termed a radical reform, as the only remedy for grievances that were become intolerable; and their tone had risen to such an elevation at the time of the prorogation, that the speech from the throne noticed, in the language of asperity, the 'attempts which had been made in some of the manufacturing districts, to take advantage of circumstances of local distress to excite a spirit of disaffection to the institutions and government of the country.' Meetings took place in various parts, and strong resolutions were voted. At Manchester, Leeds, Stockport, &c., multitudes of artisans and manufacturers were convened to listen to speeches from popular orators, and to pass by acclamation resolutions for annual parliaments, universal suffrage, and voting by ballot. In general these assemblages were regularly convoked and dissolved without any tumultuous proceedings, though with minds greatly inflamed by wild declamation against what were called the usurpations of the higher orders, and the intolerable sufferings of the poor. It afterwards appeared, that some of the most violent of these harangues were made by spies of government.

On the 16th of August, pursuant to notice given by means of hand-bills and placards, a meeting was held in an open space called St. Petersfield, near a church of that name in Manchester. During the whole morning large bodies of reformers, arrayed in regular order, continued marching in from the neighbouring towns and villages. Each party or division had its own banner, bearing some short inscription or motto, such as no corn laws,' 'universal suffrage,' ' vote by ballot,' 'liberty or death,' &c. &c. The numbers collected on this occasion were estimated at 50,000 or 60,000. The chairman of this meeting was a Mr. Henry Hunt, a person of more talent than principle. Having ascended the platform, he harangued the mob, expressing his full confidence in their orderly and peaceable demeanor; nor was any offensive weapon to be seen in the whole assemblage. While he was engaged in making his speech, a troop of the Manchester yeomanry cavalry suddenly appeared at the extremity of the field. Making their way to the hustings, the commanding officer told Hunt he was his prisoner; and immediately took him into custody, with several others who were standing beside him. The yeomanry then began to strike at the banners, charging right and left with their drawn swords, and dashing through all that obstructed their passage. A dreadful scene of confusion and terror ensued; numbers being trampled under the feet of the

horses, or cut down, men and women indiscriminately, by the sabres. The Manchester magistrates, who viewed this bloody scene from the windows of a house at a convenient distance, are said to have read the riot act; but, if they actually did so, the fact was known to very few; and it is certain that no time was allowed for dispersion, conformably to the requisition of the act. The number of killed and wounded was estimated at between 300 and 400,

Among other places that held meetings for the purpose of petitioning the legislature to enquire into the late proceedings at Manchester, a numerous one was convened at York by the high-sheriff, and sanctioned by the presence of earl Fitzwilliam, as well as many other persous of rank and consequence. At this meeting appropriate resolutions were passed, and a petition was voted to the prince regent, to institute an enquiry; the only effect of which was the dismission of that highly respected nobleman from his lieutenancy. In the reply to the city of London, the regent referred the sufferers to the tribunals of the country, if any injury had been sustained;' but the Lancashire grand jury threw out all the bills preferred against those concerned in the outrages and enormities perpetrated. This was afterwards a topic of great debate in parliament.

It was now announced that the health of the king, which had hitherto been good for his age, was on the decline; and that decline, proved to be rapid. On the 23d of January, 1820, the public mind received a severe shock by the death of his fourth son, the duke of Kent, who expired at Sidmouth, in Devonshire, after a very short illness, much esteemed and lamented, leaving an infant daughter. The regrets excited by the loss of this illustrious prince were speedily absorbed in the greater interest excited by the tidings from Windsor, which foretold the approaching dissolution of his august father: the prince regent himself was also seriously indisposed.

On Saturday, the 29th of January, the long and eventful career of the monarch, who had attained his eighty-second year, terminated by a quiet and almost insensible dissolution, about thirty-five minutes past eight in the evening. The duchess of Gloucester, and the princesses Augusta and Sophia, who had been unremiting in their attentions to their venerable parent, were at this time in the palace; and the duke of York watched with filial solicitude by the side of his couch. On that prince devolved the luty of announcing the mournful event to the resent, who on the 31st of January was proclaimed king with the usual solemnities.

The venerable age, the protracted sufferings, the private and personal virtues of George III. with his still recent demise, render it both a difficult and an invidious task to attempt to sketch the political features of his reign with historic fidelity. It has been said of him on high authority, and we believe with equal truth, that he would never do wrong, except when he mistook wrong for right.' The notions of government originally infused into his mind by the earl of Bute, probably differed little from those which Charles I. learned from archbishop Laud, however modified