gulations independent of the will of man:-that kings themfelves are fubfervient to them; that his glorious ancestor, Henry the IVth, acknowledged, that he had two fovereigns, God and the laws.-One of these regulations is to condemn no perfon without a hearing; this was a duty at all times, and in all places; it was the duty of all men: "and your majefty will allow us "to represent to you, that it is as obligatory on you as on your fubjects." 66 They obferve, that the glorious privilege of fhewing mercy to criminals belongs to the crown, but the act of condemning them is not one of its functions; the laws have placed that odious office in other hands; that painful and dangerous talk the king cannot exercife. And they deduce from these premises, that those who advise him to punish of his own accord, to punish without a trial, to order exiles, arrefts, and imprisonments, are guilty of equally wounding eternal juftice, the laws of the realm, and the moft confolatory prerogative which the king poffeffes. They fummed up the whole on the fame ground of demanding justice upon which they fet out."It is therefore, in the name of "those laws which preserve em"pires, in the name of that li ་ 66 berty of which we are the re"fpectful interpreters, and the "lawful mediators, in the name "of your authority, of which we are the first and most confidential ministers, that we dare demand "the trial or the liberty of the "duke of Orleans, and the two "exiled magiftrates, who are im prifoned by a fudden order, as "contrary to the fentiments as the "interefts of your majesty." Such was the first direct attempt made in France to overthrow fome of the ftrongest as well as the most odious engines of arbitrary power. The king's anfwer to this address was as little fatisfactory as any of the preceding, and accordingly produced a fet of new refolutions from the parliament, which did not derogate, in point of energy, from any thing they had yet offered.But this bufinefs took place in the enfuing year. CHAP. С НА Р. VIII. Causes of the difcontents in the Austrian Netherlands. Ecclefiaftical reforms filently acquiefced in, until they were involved with invafions of the civil rights and political eftablishments of the provinces. Two imperial ordinances published on the first day of the year 1787, which went in their immediate effect to the subverfion of the established tribunals of justice, and tended more indirectly to the overthrow of the ancient conftitution. Sketch of the conftitution of Brabant, and of the established fyftem of jurisprudence. Council of Brabant suppressed by the new edicts. Great feal transferred from the hands of the chancellor to the imperial minifter. Low Countries divided into nine circles, and intendants and commissaries, with arbitrary and undefined powers, appointed to rule thefe circles. Standing committee of the fates of Brabant fuppressed, and its powers transferred to an engine of flare under the name of a council of general government. Universal confternation and general discontent. Great licence of language with respect to the fovereign, and bis violation of the inaugural compact and oath. Committee of the fates of Brabant present a ftrong memorial to the court of Bruffels. People determine resolutely to maintain their rights and liberties. The bold remonstrance of the Syndics give new energy to this determination. Flame in the university of Louvain, occafioned by the suppression of the ancient feminaries of inftruction, and the establishment of a new school of theology, under the government of German professors. All orders of men are thus coalefced in an oppofition to the acts and defigns of government. Vifitor of the capuchins banifbed for refusing to fend the novices of his order to the general feminary at Louvain. Mr. de Hondt seized by foldiers, and fent a prisoner to Vienna. Spirited proceedings of the ftates of Brabant; refuse to grant subsidies until the public grievances are redressed; forbid all obedience to the intendants and their commissaries; present a spirited mɛmorial to the governors general; forbid the council of Brabant to pay any regard to the late decrees, and command that tribunal to maintain the exercise of its functions. States of Flanders and Haynault adopt fimilar measures with those of Brabant. Syndics a&t a great part in the oppofition. Court of Bruffels alarmed and perplexed. Governors general fufpend the operation of the new edicts, and iffue a declaration which affords prefent fatisfaction. Mandate issued by the emperor on bis return from Cherfon, expressive of his resentment at the measures purfued in the Low Countries, and commanding the states of the respective provinces, as a proof of their obedience, to fend a deputation of their members to Vienna; where the governors general, and the minifter, count Belgiojofo, are like wife ordered to repair. Count de Murray appointed to the government in the abfence of the princes. Great alarm in the Low Countries, on the report. that an imperial army was preparing to march thither. Various measures preceding, and fome tending to an accommodation. Alarming tumult at Bruffels, and fome blood fbed, in a rash attempt made by the military to difarm the volun teers. Farther ill confequences prevented by the excellent conduct of count Murray. Accommodation bappily takes place; the public rights are generally restored; and the ftates grant the cufiomary fubfidies. T HE political ftruggles in which our near neighbours and ancient friends, the inhabitants of those countries now known by the appellation of the Auftrian Netherlands, have been lately engaged, although among the moft interefting events of the prefent year, feem to have been but little attended to in this country. Yet to this people we have owed many obligations. They were our earliest merchants, factors, and negociators in all matters of trade and money; and by a fingular coincidence it has fo happened, that fince we became greatly commercial ourselves, they never have been able to interrupt or injure us by a foreign competion. They were our leaders and in ftructors in agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and all the arts of civil life. Even the ruin that fell fo heavily upon themselves, through the religious oppreffion and civil tyranny of Spain, was to us productive of the greatest and most lasting advantages; and the cruelties of the duke of Alva were the means of flocking England with their moft ufeful manufacturers, the fruits of whofe ingenuity and induftry we ftill retain. In a word, they were among our earliest and most useful allies and benefactors; and had the fortune feldom to appear, under whatever revolutions of war or of government, in the lift of our ene mies. Independent of thefe juft grounds of fympathy, the fpectacle of a final nation, without friend, ally, or the moft remote hope of fupport, bravely encountering all hazards and dangers, in the maintenance of those liberties of which fuch poor relics are now left unextinguished in Europe, and venturing firmly to oppofe the defpotifm of an overgrown and mighty power, could not yet be indifferent to Englishmen, if the nature of the fubject and the grounds of the conteft had been properly understood. But this was by no means generally the cafe: the oppofition of the Flemings to the emperor's ordinances was attributed to the violence of their religious bigotry; and when they were rifquing all things in the defence of their civil rights, they were fuppofed to be blindly contending for the inftitutions of fuperftition. It would not only be difficult, but probably now impoffible, to trace up to the fource the origin of those municipal privileges, which, in fo early a period of the middle ages, enabled the great cities of the Low Countries to flourish in a degree of fplendour that excited the admiration of mankind. Their greatness, wealth, and incredible population, together with the rank they held, and the weight they poffeffed in the political affairs of Europe, are, however, indelible monuments of the great share of freedom, and of the perfect fecurity with respect to perfon and property, which they enjoyed feveral centuries ago. While the other nations of the north and weft of Europe groaned under feudal flavery, and were immersed in ignorance and barbarism, civilization, with all the arts and embel lifhments lifhments of focial life, illuminated The cities had early communicated thefe provinces, and spread a luftre 3 to the inhabitants of the open country a due thare of their own freedom and fecurity, in confequence of which it was covered with the largeft, the most flourishing, and moft populous villages in Europe, and ftill difplays a face of culture elsewhere unequalled. For through the viciflitude of human affairs, though most of the greater cities have declined from their former fplendour, yet no fmall portion of the ancient profperity which they established in the villages ftill continues." Upon the acceffion of the German branch of the houfe of Auftria to the dominion of these provinces, Charles the VIth was received by the people with the greateft cordiality and good-will; he having first fworn at his inauguration, as his fucceffors have conftantly done, to the prefervation of their ancient conftitutions and rights. In the dangerous thocks which that family have fince fuftained, they derived the most effential benefits from the zeal, the fidelity and loyalty, and from the refources of money and of men, which were fupplied by their fubjects in the Low Countries. Their free fubfidies were fo liberally granted, that the greatness of the emergency feemed to be the meafure of fupply. Their troops. alfo were among the best in the Auftrian armies. It is peculiarly neceffary upon the prefent occafion to obferve, that this people are violently attached to their ancient religion as well as to their privileges; that befides what may be afcribed to natural temper and rooted habits, fome part of this predilection may be imputed to their long fubjection to the Spanish do minion, minion, and great intermixture with that nation; and perhaps a greater thare than any, to the animofity arifing from the long wars with their neighbours and countrymen the Dutch, in which they were from neceffity parties, and from fituation and circumftance principal fufferers. It is to be added, that they value themselves highly upon the purity, as they deem it, of their religious faith, in which they hold themselves far fuperior to any other Roman catholic nation, Spain alone, perhaps, excepted. Such an opinion, and the vanity infeparably united with it, could not but ftrongly fix the national difpofition and character. Among other incidental peculiarities, they adhere firmly to thofe old opinions with refpect to the infallibility of the fovereign pontiff, the fanctity annexed to his character, and the reverence due to his perfon, which feem now to be nearly exploded in most other countries of the fame religion. The prefent emperor had completely gained the hearts of the people in the Low Countries, by the flattering hopes which he held out to them of recovering and opening the navigation of the Schelde. However futile or unjust this project might be in the defign, or however difgraceful the failure in the execution, it answered the effential purpose to himself of doubly filling his coffers, firft through the large fubfidy and loan which the ftates of Brabrant granted for its fupport, and afterwards by the vaft fum of mo ney for which he fold his claim to the Dutch. Grievous as this difappointment was, it being in fome fort attributed to neceffity, did not loofen the affection of the Netherlanders to their new fovereign, how ever it might fail in exalting their opinion of his character with refpect to political ability or military ftrength: on the contrary, the attempt was regarded by them as poffeffing a full claim on their gratitude, from the interest which they conceived he took in their affairs. But that reftless spirit of innovation, which has spread diftraction through every other part of his dominions, and that refinement on defpotism which, reducing mankind to the ftate of mere machines, would deprive them of all volition in the commoneft offices of life, were soon to poifon thofe fources of happiness and affluence, which had fo long fpread their benign influence over the Low Countries. The firft innovations were with refpect to religious matters; and however rational thefereformsmight be in the abstract, and however laudable we, as proteftants, may confider them, yet the temper, habits, and prejudices of the people being duly weighed (matters of fome confideration furely in political affairs,) it may well be questioned whether they were wifely adopted. At all events lefs precipitation fhould have been used; and when the people perceived the utility arifing from fmaller reforms, they would have been by degrees prepared to expect proportionable benefits from those that were greater, and where the propriety of the interference of government was ftill lefs obvious. But that impatience which would truft nothing to the operation of time, and a total contempt for the opinions and likings of men, were among the moft friking characte riftics of the fovereign. The fenfe, however, of the ftates, and of the principal men, including all |