high seas sixteen years before, contrary to the law of nations, were reduced to poverty. The secret, however, of these delays was soon after revcaled. A suggestion was made by a person connected with the government of Spain, that, as the proceedings under a commission of this nature were always excessively dilatory, it would be advisable to make an offer to accept a given sum in liquidation of the whole demand. This sum was fixed at 800,000l., and the claimants were given to understand, that this would be the amount likely to be afforded by Spain. in discharge of claims amounting to upwards of 3,000,000l. Upon this suggestion the British merchants agreed to act, and they made a proposal which was copied from the plan of the Spanish agent himself, who had originated the suggestion. It produced, contrary to expectation, no good result; and the only object which the Spanish government appeared to have in contemplation was, to induce the claimants to make a proposition, in order that they might have it in their power to quote the sum so proposed as an admission that, in point of fact, no more was due. The Spanish government through its agents, then proposed to pay 500,000l., thus abating even the diminished sum demanded by the claimants. There was this additional breach of faith, that the Spanish minister at London, in the year 1824, had told their agent, that such a moderation of their demands should be without prejudice to their claim. Yet, so far from this promise being kept, the offer to accept a limited sum was made, in the spring of 1826, a proof that such was the maximum of their demand. The next step

was still more disgraceful. The Spanish agent professed to Mr. Cock that his government was willing, as a proof of the honour of the Castilian character, to add to the sum of 500,000l. already offered, an additional 50,000l., such total of 550,000l. being in full discharge of British claims. Such was the course of mean and paltry higgling adopted on this occasion, that it almost amounted to a clear evasion of the claim, or an attempt to annihilate it altogether. For some time matters remained in this state of uncertainty, until the gentlemen, who acted for the British claimants, were invited to Paris to settle the matter with Señor Aguado, the banker of the Spanish government at Paris, and Don Antonio Uriarte, keeper of_the Great Book of Spain. The English agent was furnished with a notarial copy of the powers which had been granted by his Catholic majesty to these gentlemen, by which it appeared that they were fully authorized to effect an arrangement, with the concurrence of the Spanish ambassador, the duke of Villahermosa; and they gave the most positive assurances, that any agreement, which might be entered into, would not require to be confirmed by their government but would be final and conclusive. Accordingly, on the 4th February, 1827, an agreement, under the hands and seals of the Spanish commissioners and ambassador, and of the agent of the English claimants, was concluded, by which it was provided that the sum of 300,000,000 of reals, amounting to 3,000,000l., should be delivered in about two months, in seven thousand seven hundred certificates of rentes or annuities,

inscribed in the Great Book of Spain, bearing interest from the 15th January, 1827, at 5 per cent., as in full for the whole of the British claims under the convention. The two months expired, but no certificates were ready, nor had a single step been taken towards the execution of the agreement. Application was made to the Spanish government, and that government unblushingly disavowed the agreement, on the lying pretext that the commissioners and ambassador had exceeded their powers. This the commissioners and ambassador indignantly and positively denied. The ambassador returned to Madrid to wipe off the imputation, and, instead of being received with disapprobation, was honoured with the order of the Golden Fleece. Thus matters remained, till count Ofalia arrived in London, again to renew the negotiation. During twelve months afterwards, ineffectual offers were made to effect an arrangement; until the court of Madrid raised the offer from the 550,000l. formerly tendered, to 700,000l., adopting a system which would have disgraced a pedlar. The sum offered was then raised to 900,000l., which the British claimants, now in despair, seemed willing to accept; but still the Spanish agents adopted every expedient of trickery and delay, to postpone a final settlement. The claimants, at length, had recourse to parliament. Their petition, detailing the disgusting train of chicanery and lying, by which a crowned king was evading the payment of just debts, recognized by a solemn treaty, was presented to the House of Commons on the 15th July, by sir James M'Intosh. From all sides of the House there

was but one expression of satisfaction at the anxiety with which our foreign secretaries, from Mr. Canning downwards, had supported the interests of the unfortunate claimants, and but one expression of utter loathing and scorn at the baseness, and audacity, and meanness which had characterized the government of his Catholic majesty. It was suggested that the crown should be addressed on the subject, as it regarded not merely the rights of private individuals, but the observance of treaties by an allied government. The suggestion, however, was departed from on Mr. Peel remarking that it would be premature, as no copy of the treaty had been laid before the House, or been moved for, and stating that there was now a greater prospect of an amicable settlement than at any previous time. There can be no doubt that the exposure in parliament brightened that prospect, and facilitated the negotiations. At all events, in the course of October a convention was finally concluded between lord Aberdeen and count Ofalia. It was agreed, that the sum of 900,000l. sterling should be paid by Spain in full of all the claims presented to, and registered by, the mixed commission, appointed in conformity with the treaty of 1823. The money was to be paid by instalments, as follows: 200,000l. on or before the 8th of Decem

ber next.

200,0007. on the 8th of March, 1829. 350,0007. on the 8th of June. 150,000. on the 8th of September. The sum of 600,000l. at the least was to be paid in sterling money. For the remaining 300,000l. the Spanish government was to be at liberty to grant debentures, bearing interest of 5 per cent., at the rate

of 100l. in debentures for 50l. money, reserving to itself the right of paying them off at any time within four years of their date at 55 per cent., or at a subsequent period at 60 per cent., giving in either case six months' notice.

In ITALY, a single spark, that disappeared almost before it could be remarked, merely notified that the embers of Carbonarism were not yet extinguished. In the mountainous district of Vallo, in the kingdom of Naples, a small troop of insignificant persons formed themselves into a junta, in the course of the summer, displayed the tri-coloured cockade, and proclaimed the French constitution of the year 9; they received no countenance in their wild exploit from any of the neighbouring communes. On the approach of a small division of the military, which had been sent to put an end to their freaks, they offered no resistance, but instantly dispersed. Yet so easily does political alarm propagate itself, that this prank played in the mountains of Naples, effected a fall in the value of the public funds in Vienna.

Besides this internal event, Naples had a little war of her own

in consequence of a quarrel with the Pacha of Tripoli. His highness had offered some insult to the Neapolitan flag, and as he refused to give redress, a Neapolitan squadron of frigates, corvettes, and gun-boats, was dispatched to Tripoli to exact it by force. The fleet bombarded the town for about two hours on the 23rd of August, without making any useful impression. Its operations

were suspended during the two following days by the violence of the weather. The bombardment, if so it might be called, was continued on the 26th, 27th, and 28th; but the Neapolitans, having already had some of their gunboats burned by the enemy's fire, kept at so respectful a distance from the Tripolitan batteries, and armed vessels, that few of their shot and shells even reached the town; and, on the 29th, the admiral got under weigh, abandoning an expedition which had produced nothing but an useless, and not very honourable, waste of money and powder. Naples found it better to negociate than to fight; and settled her quarrel with the Pacha by a convention on the 28th October.

I

N the Netherlands, during this year, the king's government exposed itself to some unpopularity, and excited against itself a good deal of warm discussion, by certain proceedings which it adopted against the press; not, indeed, contrary to law, but under a law which was justly deemed oppressive. In that country, the law of the press was made at a time when the independence of the country was but ill secured, and when the union between the Belgic and Dutch provinces was far from being consolidated. It was enacted in a period of agitation, and was chiefly calculated to repress excitements to insurrection or rebellion. The latitude of punishment, which it permitted, was therefore excessive, and the discretion, which it intrusted to the judges, unlimited. According to the quality of the libel, the court might condemn the party accused to 10,000 or 100,000 florins,-to an imprisonment of one month, or of ten years, to hard labour, or to any other rigorous penalty short of death. No jury was interposed between the prisoner and judges appointed by the crown, in cases where the crown was prosecutor; and the subject had no security but in the mercy of a tribunal, on which the press, which suffered by

it, was not allowed to invoke the control of public opinion. The immense power thus intrusted to irresponsible magistrates was, as might have been expected, sometimes abused; and oppressive judgments, inconsistent with the general tenour of the government, were often the subject of complaint. The journals, though free to speak against the Jesuits, and to sneer at the apostolical party in France, were thus restricted in their observations on domestic topics within narrow limits. About thirty or forty persons, including six ecclesiastics and two printers, had been prosecuted within a few years. The editor of the Spectateur Belge had been condemned to two years' imprisonment for publishing a controversial letter of an inhabitant of Antwerp, and a note of cardinal Gonsalvi, previously printed at Cologne: and the proprietors of another journal were condemned in July for denouncing, on the 13th March, a toll-duty, which, very possibly in consequence of their representations, had actually been abolished two months before it was determined to prosecute them. At the present time, a particular instance, as always happens, brought the general policy and spirit of the law into question. A couple of foreigners

had been ordered to leave the country. Certain articles, animadverting on this exercise of the prerogative in terms not at all agreeable to the government, appeared in a newspaper called the "Courier des Pays Bas." Proceedings were forthwith commenced against the editor and printer of the journal, on which the authors immediately gave themselves up. The proceedings of the tribunal of Correctional Police, at least in cases like this, seem to be abundantly rapid and summary. The arrests took place on the 28th of Oc tober; and, on the 7th of November, the court pronounced sentence, condemning one of the writers to imprisonment for a year, the other for eight months, the printer for six months, and remitting the editor to another tribunal, as having attempted to sow dis sension among the Belgians.

The Chambers were sitting when these proceedings took place, and the subject immediately attracted the notice of the deputies. A. M. Brouckere moved for the abrogation of the ordinances of April 1815, and of March 1818, which constituted the penal code touching this matter. The debate lasted five days; it was animated and instructive; every member was present, except five who were detained by illness. The laws in question, the mover said, had produced monstrous persecutions, although, in 1815, when a conqueror menaced the political existence of the state, the sovereign had necessarily adopt ed arbitrary regulations, justified by the circumstances in which he found himself. The press is the only means of communication be tween the government and the nation, it makes a way through all obstacles. In a constitutional state,

the king can do no wrong; he must be informed by the press, which is a check on the arbitrary acts of ministers. The liberty of the press may be abused; but this is an inconvenience of trifling importance, compared with the mischief which the government may do, when the liberty of the press does not exist. Under the present law, our individual freedom depends on the procurators of the king, and their substitutes, and, ultimately on a single minister. Since 1817, there have been fifty-six persons accused by virtue of these laws, which ought to be erased from our statute-book as a disgrace to us; for without public discussion there is no public liberty." By far the greater number of the speeches were in favour of the motion, and those, which were against it, were not in favour of the law. Almost all who opposed the motion protested their attachment to the liberty of the press, and their desire to see the laws in question altered; but thought, that, as the king had promised that a measure on the subject should be laid before the Chamber in the course of the session, it would be best to wait for the royal proposition. The ministers tried to close the discussion with the fourth day's debate, but they were left in a minority. On the final division, however, they carried the rejection of the motion by a majority of 61 votes to 44. The debate did honour to the ability, and the division did honour to the spirit, of the Belgian deputies.

In the eastern dominions of the Netherlands, civil war still continued to rage. The military operations of 1827 had been suspended in Autumn by the Dutch accepting the proposals of the insurgent leader for an armistice and