declared that no abbots were to be named in future in Brabant, the fuppreffion of the first order of the states was denounced by that declaration. The third order, that is the Deputies of the Commons, too little complaifant to the will of the prince, was pronounced to be improperly and whimfically conftructed. All the barriers which a refpectable conftitution had fet up, against the encroachments of princes, were thrown down; the Joyous Entry was reprefented as encumbered by useless articles. That ancient privilege of Brabant, by which the people claim to be releafed from fuit and fervice to their princes, till reparation be made for the infringement of rights, was treated as a vain pretenfion, founded in error. The fovereign having fet forth that embarraffment, which the Joyous Entry, and the affembly of the ftates gave to his measures, did not conceal his purpose of new modelling, by his own authority, the conftitution, into fuch a form that the operations of government fhould no longer be perplexed or disturbed by that embarrafiment. Whilft a despotic reign was thus proclaimed, the displeasure of adminiftration was directed, in an arbitrary manner, against thofe from whom an oppofition to the new fyftem was apprehended, and many perfons were imprifoned on vain pretences, and contrary to the known forms of law in the province.

GENERAL REVOLT.

This open and repeated violation of the rights of the people, has produced thofe remarkable events in the Low Countries that have fo recently drawn the attention of Europe. The Brabanters, beholding the entire overthrow of a conftitution that had been maintained through fo many ages, and perfuading themfelves that their laft refource was to be found in arms, displayed the ftandard of revolt; and the fame month of October, that announced the taking of Belgrade, declared to the Emperor the revolt of his fubjects in the Low Countries. The firft enterprizes in arms were fuccefsful; zeal for freedom triumphed over the difcipline of regular troops, and the fpirit of revolt foon communicated itself to the other provinces, that, in the fate of the conftitution of Brabant, beheld the approaching fall of their own liberties. The army of the Brabanters was quickly increased in numbers; bands of armed citizens rofe up in different parts; great exertions of valour were made by men undifciplined in war, but not fparing of blood in the caufe of Liberty; and, by a rapid train of fuccefs, in the space of a few weeks, the Auftrian garrifons were worfted and diflodged from the great cities in the Netherlands. Even the city of Bruffels, where the Imperial army had made the greatest fhew of refiftance, the Auftrian General was compelled to yield to the fignal bravery of its inhabitants. Luxemburgh, fituated at the fartheft extremity of the provinces, on the German frontier, and defended by strong

works,

works, has received the remains of the Auftrian army, weakened by desertion and defeat.

CONDUCT OF THE EMPEROR..

The Emperor, alarmed by the firft fymptoms of a dangerous revolt, fought to conciliate the minds of his difaffected fubjects, by repairing the wrongs that had been offered to the Conftitution. Those perfons who had been imprifoned, contrary to law, were fet at liberty: the Council of Brabant was opened, and the Judges of that tribunal were called upon to assemble. The care of the public revenue was affigned to that Committee of the States to which it belonged. Even the long contested feminary of Louvain was yielded up to the public wifh; and the States were invited to meet deputies appointed by the prince, with full affurance that the ancient constitution fhould be maintained. But a people who had feen the chains of defpotifm a fecond time prepared for them, have not been inclined to lay down their arms, or to liften to terms of accommodation. Brabant, Flanders, and Haynault, have openly caft off the allegiance to their fovereign, and declared themfelves free and independant States; an example that it is probable will foon be imitated by the other provinces.

REFLECTIONS.

Such is the interefting fcene which is difplayed in the Auftrian Netherlands, at the conclufion of the year 1789. The lovers of Liberty, while they regret the calamities infeparable from war, and the fatal neceffity that compels to a conteft in arms, muft applaud the gallant fpirit with which a brave nation has refifted that yoke with which they were menaced. Concerning the probable iffue of this fudden revolution men will reafon varioufly. That a powerful monarch will tamely yield up the fovereignty of thofe flourishing provinces, whofe lofs can with difficulty be compensated by his Turkish acquifitions, is fcarce to be imagined. On the other hand, to regain, and keep poffeffion of a country, where the people are fo much alienated from the Government of the Sovereign, and have made fuch advances to Independance, may be thought no eafy enterprize. Is the time come, when the laft remaining part, that belonged to the House of Auftria, of the rich poffeffions of the Dukes of Burgundy, is to be withdrawn from the dominion of that family?

From the Netherlands the flame of liberty extended to the principality of

LIEGE,

A small state; but peopled with a hardy and brave race of men, worthy of freedom, and, with the favour and aid of Pruffia, Holland, and other powers, jealous of Auftria, able to maintain it. The fame fpirit began to appear in Bohemia and Moravia; in

fomuch,

fomuch, that the Emperor did not think it prudent to weaken his ftrong garrisons in those countries, by detachments either to the north, where all was confufion and revolt, or to the fouth, where time and the ufual accidents of war, though fuccessful, demanded continual reinforcements.

IN THE MILANESE,

The ftates refused to grant the fubfidy required by their Imperial Sovereign.

IN NAPLES,

Pafquinades appeared, which, after enumerating certain grievances, intimated, That the FASHION OF FRANCE had at laft come to Italy.

SPAIN.

A new king fucceeded to the throne of Spain: a kingdom retained in fubjection to defpotic power only by ignorance and the power of religious fuperftition. The Holy Inquifition, with the concurrence and advice of the Court, laboured hard to exclude liberty and fcience by preaching against the importation of certain books; the names of which they caused to be printed and pafted up on the pillars and walls of their churches, and in other public places. Thus they blindly counteract their own defign of perpetuating the reign of ignorance and devotion. If a spark of curiofity; if human nature remains in Spain, the profcription juft mentioned will precipitate the Revolution they mean to prevent. The genius of the Spaniards, naturally quick and ardent, will take free scope, and their noble country rife, like the Phoenix, from her own afhes.

THE KING OF SARDINIA

Increased his army, and formed magazines, whether he apprehended foreign innovation, or dreaded internal convulfion. GREAT BRITAIN,

Sympathifing with her amiable king, felt equal forrow at his affliction and joy at his recovery. Diffentions arofe in Parliament concerning the right, in cafes of mental dereliction, of appointing a Regent. Regent. As the king, according to the British conftitution, never dies; or, in other words, as the throne is never supposed to be vacant, the right of acting as Regent belonged, in the judgment of one party, to the Prince of Wales, the lineal fucceffor to the throne, though it was the right becaufe it was the duty and office of Parliament to declare the right of the Heir Apparent, to invite him to exercise it. But a majority decided that the right of appointing a Regent, in all cafes where a ceffation had taken place in the functions of executive government, was vested in the two remaining branches of the legifla ture, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. At the fame time that they paffed this abftracted refolution concern

ing

ing the question of right to the Regency, they did what was right because it was natural, proper, politically expedient, and even neceffary, in calling on the Prince of Wales to adminifter the government, though under certain limitations. In the mean time, the recovery of the king fuperfeded this new arrangement.

It was not unnatural for the partizans of the Prince, and the adherents of oppofition, to with for a change in adminiftration. Accordingly, among fo numerous a clafs of men there were not wanting certain individuals who fuffered the impatience of their zeal and their hopes to betray them into expreffions of eager expectation, equally inconfiftent with dignity and decorum. But the Prince of Wales acquitted himself on that trying emergency with perfect propriety: and it is allowed, on all hands, that nothing could exceed the consistency, moderation, and genuine patriotism of the Duke of Portland, who is confidered as the centre of union among the Whig party, and whose conduct was perfectly approved by the molt refpectable among his political friends. The Duke, who had voted for the appointment of the Prince of Wales to the Regency without reftrictions, fhewed, on the very first symptoms of convalefcence in the king, that he had not been governed by any personal predilection or partial views; and proved that his attachment was to the English Constitution and the Royal Line of Brunswick.

PROSPERITY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

The trade and manufactures of Great Britain, from a variety of fortunate circumftances, flourished in 1789 to an extent unknown in any former period. Commerce had risen with an elastic force that carried it beyond its ancient limits; the capitals and the energy of the nation were turned from the American war, and the American continent, and flowed in fafer as well as more productive channels; while the Dutch and the French, the great rivals of Britain in manufactures and commerce, were in a state of ftupor, diffatisfaction, and distraction. The commercial treaty with France was undoubtedly advantageous, and gave frefh excitement to our woollen, iron, and fome other manufactures. But that the great mass of the British trade was moved by other fprings, and did not rett on any fuch flippery basis, appeared from this, that after the diftractions and the wants of the French nation left little or nothing to give in exchange for British commodities, our trade continued to flourish with increafing vigour.

TAXES.

Several trifling but vexatious taxes were impofed on the people for the purpose of making up the deficiency in the minifter's darling scheme, an annual million for the discharge of the national

debt;

debt: A fcheme which we have demonstrated (to the complete conviction, as we have the fatisfaction to underftand, of great numbers of our readers) to be fophiftical, and effentially injurious to the industry and general profperity of the nation. It is, as if a narrow-minded and ignorant mifer fhould hoard and tranfmit to his grandfon a quantity of crown and half-crown pieces, reduced by the gradual depreciation of money to less than half their value, inftead of employing them in his own life-time, in the cultivation of land, or other productive labour.-The most odious and dangerous of all the taxes impofed in 1789 on the people of England, was the extenfion of the excife to the article of tobacco. This occafioned a general and juft alarm. Let us do justice, while we make these remarks, to the activity and public zeal of the minifter; to the fupport he has afforded to the Prince of Orange; to his vigilance in the prevention of smugling; and the candour with which he adopts hints from whatever quarter they are fuggefted.-Let us at the fame time, as becomes good citizens, inquire with freedom, whether the zeal of administration be always according to knowledge?—and whether they are not, in fome inftances, more anxious to ftrengthen the hands of government than to provide for the eafe, or to fecure the privileges, of the people? Having thus taken a review of 1789 we come to

JANUARY 1790,

On which our obfervations muft, for the prefent, be brief. The repulfe, or the retreat of the Imperial troops from Luxemburgh, will probably provoke the Emperor to try the fortune of war, and by no means to abdicate the Netherlands without a bloody conteft. But the declining health of this prince, as well as that of his Imperial ally, take fomewhat from the curiofity and intereft with which we form conjectures concerning their prefent intentions.

KING'S SPEECH.

His Majefty's fpeech to the British parliament announces pro fpects of peace and profperity, we hope, on fecure grounds. Refpecting the difputes on the continent it is properly and prudently filent.

A good understanding happily fubfifts between the Sovereign and the Heir-apparent; and frequent jarrings take place, as happily perhaps, between the Prime Minifter and Lord Thurlow.

Communications for THE ENGLISH REVIEW are requested to be fent to Mr. MURRAY, No. 32, Fleet-ftreet, London; where Subfcribers for this Monthly Performance are refpectfully defired to give in their Names.