Caufes of the difcontents in the Auftrian 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 fubverfion of the eftablished tribunals of justice, and tended more indirectly to the overthrow of the ancient conftitution. Sketch of the conflitution of Brabant, and of the establifbed fyflem of jurifprudence. Council of Brabant fuppreffed 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 suppressed, and its powers transferred to an engine of ftate under the name of a council of general government. Universal confternation and general diffontent. Great licence of language with respect to the fovereign, and bis violation of the inaugural compact and oath. Committee of the ftates of Brabant present a strong memorial to the court of Brussels. People determine refolutely to maintain their rights and liberties. The bold remonftrance of the Syndics give new energy to this determination. Flame in the university of Louvain, occafioned by the fuppreffion of the ancient feminaries of inftruction, and the establishment of a new school of theology, under the government of German profeffors. All orders of men are thus coalefced in an opposition to the acts and defigns of government. Vifitor of the capuchins banished for refufing to fend the novices of bis order to the general feminary at Louvain. Mr. de Hondt feized by foldiers, and fent a prifoner to Vienna. Spirited proceedings of the ftates of Brabant; refuse to grant fubfidies until the public grievances are redressed; forbid all obedience to the intendants and their commissaries; present a spirited memorial 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 act 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 present satisfaction. Mandate issued by the emperor on his return from Cherfon, expreffive of his refentment at the measures purfued in the Low Countries, and commanding the states of the refpective 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 likewife 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 pre'ceding, 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. teers. Farther ill confequences prevented by the excellent conduct of count Murray. Accommodation happily takes place; the public rights are generally restored; and the flates grant the customary fubfidies. T HE political ftruggles in which our near neighbours and ancient friends, the inhabitants of thofe 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 obligatios. They were our earlieft 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 themfcives, through the religious oppreflion and civil tyranny of Spain, was to us productive of the greatest and most lafting 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 spectacle 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 em peror's ordinances was attributed to the violence of their religious bigotry; and when they were riíquing 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 thare of freedom, and of the perfect fecurity with refpect 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 embellishments The cities had early communicated 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 molt populous villages in Europe, and ftill difplays a face of culture elfewhere 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. lifhments of focial life, illuminated thefe provinces, and spread a luftre through the furrounding gloom.. The great cities of the Low Countries did not, however, efcape fome occafional contefts with their princes; but the latter were fo fenfible of the benefits which they derived, both with refpect to ettimation and fecurity, from the opulence and power of their fubjects, that they were not often difpofed to venture upon fanguinary or oppreffive measures; and, when they acted otherwife,were refifted with fuch vigour and effect, that the iffue of thefe contests was ultimately favourable to the people, by affording the opportunity and means of their procuring formal written acknowledgments or ratifications of their ancient rights and privileges. Brabant, in particular, formed a regular conftitution, which was ratified and iworn to by the reigning prince at the time, and which has been fince confirmed and attefted in the fame manner, at their acceflion, by his different fucceffors to the prefent day. This is the Magna Charta of that country, and is regarded with a greater degree of veneration, approaching almoft to idolatry, by that people, than even the former is by thofe in England. This charter of their rights and liberties is, from a circumftance attending its execution,diftinguished by the name of the Joyous Entry. The great cities of Flanders, as well as thofe of the other lordships and territories which are included under the general name of Netherlands, all received, at different periods, ratifications of their refpective rights and privileges; but the conftitution of Brabant is deemed the beft defiued and most perfect of the whole. 3 Upon the acceffion of the German branch of the houfe of Austria to the dominion of thefe provinces, Charles the VIth was received by the people with the greatett cordiality and good-will; he having first fworn at his inauguration, as his fucceffors have constantly done, to the prefervation of their ancient conftitutions and rights. In the dangerous fhocks which that family have fince fufiained, they derived the moft 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 measure of fupply. Their troops alfo were among the best in the Auftrian armies. It is peculiarly neceffary upon the prefent occafion to oblerve, 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, mirion, 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 themfelves far fuperior to any other Roman catholic nation, Spain alone, pcrhaps, 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. ever it might fail in exalting their opinion of his character with refpect to political ability or military frength: on the contrary, the attempt was regarded by them as poffeffing a full claim on their gratitude, from the intereft which they conceived he took in their affairs. But that reflefs spirit of innovation, which has fpread diftraction through every other part of his dominions, and that refinement on defpotiẩm which, reducing mankind to the ftate of mere machines, would deprive them of all volition in the commoneft offices of life, were foon 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 queftioned 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 thofe 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 ftriking characteritics of the fovereign. 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 unjuft this project might be in the deligu, 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 money for which he fold his claim to the Dutch. Grievous as this difappointment was, it being in fome fort attributed to neceflity, did not loofen the affection of the Nether-The fenfe, however, of the states, landers to their new fovereign, how- and of the principal men, including all all the governing departments of the nation, feemed to coincide fo much with the emperor's intention in his firft religious reforms, that the multitude, however aftonifhed and grieved, and the clergy, however greatly alarmed and affected, funk under them in nearly a filent acquiefcence. But when the rage for reform increased hourly with its fuccefs; when it was feen that no moderation was observed, that the ftates not only were not confulted, but did not feem to be thought of, and that the royal authority, acting fingly from itself, overthrew every thing in its way, without regard to the most fixed, ancient, or popular establishments, then the moft wife and enlightened men, and confequently the most remote from fuperftition and bigotry, began with reafon to tremble for their civil rights, well feeing that the fame defpotifm which fwept every thing before it in the religious departments, might, by a new direction, prove equally fatal to the conftitution of their country in all other respects. The ecclefiaftical order formed a very powerful, numerous, and opulent body in the Low Countries, their poffeffions and property, of every kind, being eftimated at the immenfe fum of twenty-five millions fterling. They had likewife poffeffed from time immemorial, at least, a third part in the government of the country; the ftates being compofed of the reprefentatives of the clergy, of the nobility, and of the commons. Although the ftates confented to the first innovations made by the emperor, in the fuppreffion of fome of thofe orders or establishments which were deem ed most unneceffary or ufelefs; yet when they faw the headlong ftrides he was taking to the overthrow of the whole, they conceived at once that his object was not reform but plunder; and that he aimed at grafping the whole of this immenfe property for the purposes of establifhing defpotifm at home, and the gratification of an infatiable ambition abroad. This confideration obliged all orders of men to coalefce in the endeavour to preferve their common privileges; and those who before, being only attentive to the care of their civil rights, gave themselves no great concern about the dilapidations of the church, now perceived clearly, that to refift the inroads of arbitrary power with effect, all the inlets by which it might enter fhould be equally guarded. They accordingly found it neceflary not only to profit of the filent difcontents of the clergy, but to retain the paffions, the prejudices, and even the bigotry of the people on their fide, in order to form the moft compact and powerful oppofition of which they were capable against the dangers which they too well faw fo heavily threatened their ancient civil eftablishments with ruin. From thefe caufes, difcontents and murmurs became general in the Low Countries. The harth, auftere, and arbitrary spirit which was manifefted in all the reforms that had already taken place, did not tend to allay the difcontents excited by new and extraordinary meatures. The fmalleft compliance with ancient and popular cuftoms or preju. dices, or to the opinions of a people who had for feveralcenturiesbeenhabituatedto freedom,was never thewn in thofe fecondary matters, which would have been neceifary to linooth the |