declared, That the public affliction had preceded their approach to the foot of the throne. That the exile of the first prince of his blood, and the imprisonment of two magiftrates, without any known cause, had excited univerfal confternation and grief. Could it have been a crime to speak the truth in the prefence of his majefty-to fpeak it with a refpe&tful Trankness, which might have merited his approbation? His maje ty had come among them to demand their free fuffrages: to give them on every occafion was the right and the duty of parliament, and the intereft of the king? He had come to the parliament that he might fit encircled with the love and with the wildom of his fubjects. -It was true, the ke per of his feals had expreffed to them his majefty's fentiments; but if they allowed that circumftance to form any diftinction, they should do injuftice to the fimplicity of truth, and the real dictates of his majesty's breaft. If fuch principles were to be eitablifhed, their counfel would indeed no longer come from the fanctuary of justice, the afylum of law; but as truth muft be heard, it would break forth from the abode of terror and filence.-If the duke of Orleans was guilty, they were alfo. It was worthy the first prince of the blood to reprefent to his majefty, that he was transforming a meeting of the parliament into a bed of justice: his declaration only announced their fentiments; his confcience had judged of theirs. "In fact, fire, ftrangers cannot "conceive, pofterity will not be"lieve, that we could be expofed "to any danger in telling your majefty that truth which you "have demanded in perfon. Your "prefence is always accompanied "with favour: muft it henceforth produce fear and affliction? A "bed of justice would be lefs terri"ble than a fitting of parliament. "Our loyalty to your majefty "could not prevent the fuppreffion "of our opinions, if our confidence, encouraged by yourself, was no other than the fignal of our exile or imprisonment.' cr They reprefent in colours and terms equally ftrong and pathetic, the cruel and unworthy treatment which the two fuffering magiftrates had received on the occafion of their imprisonment, from those baseft of mankind, as they term them, the inftruments of arbitrary power and of the police; as well as the state of their confinement in horrid and unwholesome prifons, where life is a continual punishment.-If then exile is the recompence of fidelity to the princes of your blood; if outrage and captivity threaten the ingenuoufnefs of the first magiftrates of the kingdom-we may ask ourfelves with terror and grief, what will become of the laws, of the public liberty, of the honour, and of the manners of the nation? A deputation, which returned by order three days after, received for answer, that they had already been informed by the keeper of the feals, that the more goodness the king fhewed when he could follow the dictates of his own heart, the more firm he could prove himself when he faw his goodness abused.This would be a fufficient anfwer to their fupplications. But he would add, that if he did not blame the concern they seemed to give themfelves about the detention of the two two magiftrates, he could not but difapprove of their exaggeration of the circumstances and confequences of that measure, and of their feeming to attribute it to motives, which the freedom of opinion he allowed did not permit them to fuggeft. He owed no explanations to any body of the motives of his resolutions; defired them to endeavour no longer to join the particular caufe of those whom he had punished, with the interefts of any other fubjects, or with that of the laws. All his fubjects knew that his goodness was continually awake to their happinefs, and they felt its effects even in the acts of his juftice. Every one was interested in the prefervation of public order, and it effentially belonged to his authority. If those who had been charged with the execution of his orders had behaved in a manner contrary to his intentions, he would punish them. If the places where the two magiftrates were detained fhould be prejudicial to their health, he would order them to be removed. The fentence of the two magiftrates was in confequence changed from imprisonment to exile, M. Frereau being fent to one of his country feats, and the abbé Sabatiere to a convent of Benedictines.-We, however, apprehend that the parliament had confented to register the loan edict, before this measure of favour or grace took place, The parliament, notwithstanding this appearance of mutual conceffion, were by no means difposed to give up the points against which they had already remonftrated, nor in any degree pleafed or fatisfied with the king's late anfwer. At an affembly of what is called the great chamber of parliament, attended, as they informed the king, by the princes and peers of the realm, having taken into confideration his majefty's anfwer, they were charged to lay before him their reprefentations on the subject. This remonstrance, under the name of a petition, we conceive to be unequalled in the annals of that country, for the boldness of opinion and freedom of fentiment which it difplays. They tell the monarch, without referve, that the magistracy of his kingdom, as well as every true citizen, were aftonished at the reproaches contained in his answer, and the principles which it manifefted. They were, however, far from attributing them to his perfonal fentiments. They fupported and confirmed their former charge, relative to the indignities offered to their two members; and faid, that public decency had received a fevere wound in the choice of the executors of his orders upon that occafion. They stated, that in devoting themselves to the public fervice; in promifing to releafe his majefty from the firft duty which he owed to his nation, namely, that of juftice; in bringing up their children to be fubject to the fame facrifices, they never could have supposed that they were deftining themselves and their children to misfortunes, and still less to outrages of fo heinous a nature. But we do not come fo much to claim your benignity, as the pro"tection of the laws. It is not to 66 your humanity alone we address "ourselves; it is not a favour which your parliament folicits; it comes, fire, to demand justice."-They argue, that juftice is fubject to re[N] 4 gulations gulations independent of the will of man-that kings themselves are fubfervient to them; that his glorious ancestor, Henry the IVth, acknowledged, that he had two fovereigns, God and the laws.-One of thefe 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 reprefent 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 task the king cannot exercife. And they deduce from these premises, that those who advise him to punifh 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 juftice upon which they fet out. 66 It is therefore, in the name of "thofe laws which preferve empires, in the name of that li "berty of which we are the refpectful interpreters, and the lawful mediators, in the namẹ "of your authority, of which we "are the firft and moft confidential "minifters, 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 majefty." Such was the first direct attempt made in France to overthrow fome of the ftrongeft 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 en fuing year. СНАР. CHA P. VIII. 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 establishments of the provinces. Two imperial ordinances published on the first day of the year 1787, which went in their immediate effect to the jubverfion of the established tribunals if juftice, 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 fuppreffed by the new edicts. Great feal transferred from the hands of the chancellor to the imperial minifler. Low Countries divided into nine circles, and intendants and commiffaries, with arbitrary and undefined powers, appointed to rule thefe circles. Standing committee of the ftates of Brabant fuppreffed, and its powers transferred to an engine of ftate, under the name of a council of general government. Univer al confternation and general difcontent. Great licence of language with respect to the fovereign, and his violation of the inaugural compact and oath. Committee of the ftates of Brabant prefent a ftrong memorial to the court of Bruffels. People determine refolutely to maintain their rights and liberties. The bold remonftrance of the Syndics gives new energy to this determination. Flame in the univerfity of Louvain, occafioned by the juppreffion 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 oppofition to the acts and defigns of government. Vifitor of the capuchins banished for refufing to fend the novices of his order to the general Jeminary 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 redreffed; forbid all obedience to the intendants and their commiffaries; prefent a jpirited 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 exercife of its functions. States of Flanders and Haynault adopt fimilar meafures with thofe 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 prefent fatisfaction. Mandate iffued by the emperor on his return from Cherfon, expreffive of his resentment at the measures pursued in the Low Countries, and commanding the ftates 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 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 preceding, and fome tending to an accommodation. Alarming tumult at Bruffels, and fome blood fhed, in a rash attempt made by the military to difarm the volunteers. Farther Farther ill confequences prevented by the excellent conduct of count Murray. Accommodation happily takes place; the public rights are generally refiored; and the fates grant the customary fubfidics. 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 engagéd, although among the most 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 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 competition. They were our leaders and inftructors in agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and all the arts of civil life. Even the ruin that fell fo heavily upon themfelves, through the religious oppreffion 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 industry 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 small nation, without friend, ally, or the moft remote hope of fupport, bravely encountering all hazards and dan gers, in the maintenance of those liberties of which fuch poor relics are now left unextinguished in Europe, and venturing firmly to oppofe the defpotiím 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 underflood. 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 fhare 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 immerfed in ignorance and barbarifm, civilization, with all the arts and embel lishments |