The Sun.
London, England, 1829-12-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT

The political state of the Netherlands has lately
attracted a good deal-Of .attcntion in this country
from the declared ►nisunclerstauding existing be-
tween the Government of the King and the Le-
gislative Chambers of the kingdom. We rather
doubt, however, whether the scanty details sup-
plied by the English Press of their hostile atti-
tude, are sufficient to enable the public generally
to comprehend the precise nature of the points
at issue, or to appreciate the probable results of
the contest. Though, therefore, we have alluded
to the topic once or twice before, we shall make
no apology for again entering into some further
explanations on the subject. The great cause
of the dissatisfaction and agitation which now
exist in the Netherlands is not of recent origin,

though it has only recently displayed itself
in proceedings and discussions calculated to ex-
cite an interest or alarm beyond the limits of

that kingdom. The southern and northern pro-
vinces of which it is composed speak a different
language, profess a different religion, and are ac-
tuated by rival commercial interests. The junc-
tion of Belgium to Holland was effected by the
Congress of Vienna, for the supposed security of
Europe, rather than for the promotion of their
own mutual advantage : the banns were pro-
claimed without the consent of the par-
ties, and, like most forced matches, the
union has hitherto been neither cordial
nor happy. The King, as a Protestant and a
Dutchman, is Viewed with jealousy by the Bel-
gic Catholics : the attachment of the latter can
with more difficulty be secured, as it had previ-
ously been pledged to France. By their union
with Holland, the Belgians have lost the French
markets, without deriving a proportional advan-
tage from those of their new connexion. The
fundamental laws of the kingdom declared the
inhabitants of the northern and southern pro-
vinces equally eligible to all public offices ; but
the favours of the King are alleged to be re-
served chiefly for his old subjects. All colonial
establishments and sources of commercial gain
are by law equally opened to all ; but the Dutch
interest predominates in the restored foreign
possessions of the Crown, and Dutch enterprise
or capital has engrossed the most of its foreign
trade. The taxes levied on both portions of the
union are nominally the same ; but the budget
is alleged by the Belgians to impose burdens
upon them which Holland ought exclusively to
have borne. From paying the debt of the latter
in particular they pleaded an exemption, as they
had derived no advantage from the use of
the loans by which it was created. The
impolitic expenditure incurred for the reten-
tion and pacification of Java (which has not
enjoyed an hour's peace since its restoration to
its old masters) appears equally foreign to Belgic
interests. The manner, too, in which the ne-
cessary revenue is raised, by affecting differently
the provinces devoted chiefly to trade, to agricul-
ture, or to manufacturing industry, has main-
tained a source of jealousy which every discus.
sion of the annual budget tends to exasperate.
The land-tax seems oppressive to the Belgians,
who participate little in foreign trade, while they
allege that Dutch commerce does not contribute
its due assistance to the public necessities. Hol-
land, during its most prosperous times, was al-
ways so heavily taxed, that its most distinguished
writer tells us nothing was exempted from fiscal
rapacity—agri, cedes, annonce, vestes, capita,
nihil immune; and by the larger establishments
rendered necessary for the protection of a more
extended frontier, Belgium, which was formerly
very lightly taxed, comes in for its full share of
imposts, beyond even those formerly levied .on
its rival. Add to these causes of dislike, the
wounded pride of the Belgians, in being
subjected to the sway of a sovereign sprung,
from the inferior section of the king-
dom, instead of being allowed to make
part of the " Great Nation," and their religious
repugnance to the professors of a different
creed, and we shall make out a tolerable cata-
logue of grievances, real or imaginary, which
the southern provinces have accumulated against
their Dutch rulers. This state of dissatisfac-
tion, which existed. from the formation of the
kingdom, has been subsequently aggravated by
several acts of oppression or impolicy. As the
feeling of the Belgians has always run strongly
in favour of a French connection, for which
they are fitted by the general use of the French
tongue, to counteract this tendency, and to unite
the different sections of the kingdom by the na-
tional tie of a common language, the Dutch
Administration issued a decree in 1819, which
it renewed in 1822, ordering the employment
of the national language only (that is, Dutch
or Flemish) in all the acts of the authorities, in
all legal proceedings, and by all persons in office.
By this decree it was enacted, that after the
commencement of the year 1823 no man was to
receive employment in any branch of administra-
tion who did not or could not speak the national
language,—in other words, Dutch or its Flemish
cognate dialect. The Dutch are fond of mono-
polies, and the monopoly of language thus esta-
blished in their favour soon became a monopoly
of place and emolument. In two or three years
afterwards came the dispute between the Crown
and the Catholic Church about the manner of
regulating ecclesiastical education, and the inter-
course of the Belgic Prelates with the Court of
Rome. An important ordinance was issued on the
former of these subjects in 1825, which declared
lecessary the authority of the civil magistrate to
he erection of all institutions of education,—

which established a philosophical college at
Louvain, compelling all persons intended for
the church to attend it before they could be
admitted into the Bishops' seminaries,—and
which pronounced ineligible to livings in Bel-
gium ecclesiastics who went abroad to pursue
their theological studies. The Archbishop .of
Mantles, joined by a great body of the Ultra
clergy, protested against this interference with
their mode of educating candidates for hoh
orders, and appealed to the See of Rome for
directions how to act on the emergency. It is
needless to say, that the Holy See advised pas-
sive acquiescence in the obnoxious order. The
Episcopal preparatory seminaries were therefore
Phut up, the Philosophical College at Louvain
was established, and threats were denounced
against foreign education ; but the ferment
created by these innovations was so great, that
the Government college was not attended. The
scheme failed. In this contest with the Belgic
church, however, though the great body of the
clergy and a considerable portion of the lower
orders were hostile to the Government, the
liberal party, the public press, the directors of
public opinion, and nearly all the enlightened
members of the States-General, lent it their
countenance and support. It was a merit
in the eyes of the latter, that the King
had curbed the ultramontane tendencies
of the clergy,—had resisted the parti-
pr&re,—had banished the missionaries, and ex-

I S

ili

the frontiers, they •saw a bigotted Administration
introducing and • cherishing those sacred nui-
sances, and they bleised their stars that they lived
under a more enlightened Prince, though a Pro-
testant and Dutchman. Hence, during the whole
of the administration of M. de Villele, we hear
so few complaints of the sufferings of Belgium.
The desire of a union with France having ceased
while France was under the Jesuits and the Con-
gregation, the Belgians endured without mur-
muring their compulsory alliance with Holland.
The budget was annually voted without much
opposition ; internal improvements were pro-
jected and executed, at the common charge ; the
Chambers were making rapid progress in the
completim. of their code of laws, and in the
adaptation of their institutions to their charter ;
the periodical press, which enjoyed perfect free-
dom to abuse the Jesuits, found employment
enough in echoing the invectives of its liberal
friends in Paris against priestcraft and arbitrary
power; multitudes of publications, disp!aying
a freedom of political or religious discussion
which could not be tolerated under the Bour-
bons, appeared in Brussels, and the latter
city, instead of being oppressed, as now re-
presented, by the traders of Amsterdam, was
considered one of the first as well as the 'tics;
enlightened capitals of Europe. This pleasing
and promising scene changed with the change
of Administration in France. The Be'gians,
seeing that their southern neighbours were
now free, seem again to have been remind-
ed, that they themselves were enslaved.—
Grievances which were formerly undiscover-
ed or unheeded, now started into promi-
nence, and were declared intolerable. They
demanded laws for ministerial respo►►sibility ;
the Liberals, who found the ordinances of

1825 perfect wisdom, now declared that their
religion was oppressed ; the laws of the press, the
system of education, the regulations of trade, and
the distribution of imposts, were all wrong.—
The Dutch majority in the States-General,
under the title of Ministeriels, were denounced
as more hateful to freedom and more dangerous
to knowledge than the Jesuits. The legislative
session of last year was extremely stormy. Some
imprudent prosecutions and arbitrary proceedings
on the part of the Ministry increased the
tempest. Two Frenchmen, called Billet and
Jador, having published what was declared a
libel, were sentenced to imprisonment for a year ;
and, having solicited their pardon from the King
received it on condition of leaving the kingdom.
This act of clemency was called an ag2ravation
of the penalty, and excited great rage among
their countrymen resident in Brussels and the
friends of a French connexion. A puhlie writer,
M. Ducpeteaux, having published a pamphlet
strongly impugning the legislative proceedings
respecting some articles of the Criminal Code,
was likewise sentenced to a long imprisonment,
and was consequently exalted into a political
martyr. But the prosecution which ex-
cited the greatest and the mod excusable in-
dignation was that directed against M. de
Potter, well known to many of our readers
as an indefatigable and able writer on eccle-
siastical history—the author of the Life of Scipio
de Ricci, and other valuable works. This gen-
tleman was sentenced to an imprisonment of 18
months, for calling, in the Courier des Pays
Bas, the majority of the Second Chamber the
ministoialists. The circumstance which aggra-
vates the injustice of these various judicial de-
cisions is, that they were passed—not under a
law sanctioned by the legislature, but under two
royal ordinances, issued in 1815 and 1818, of
which the repeal was last year urgently demanded
and which were actually repealed a few months
after M. de Potter had been consigned to a
dungeon under their au:hority. In consequence
of these acts—of the alleged partiality of the
Ministers towards the northern division of the
kingdom—of the difficulties said to be thrown
in the way of a reasonable concordat with the
See of Rome—and, in short, of the general
unpopularity of the Administration, tl,e Belgic
members of the Second Chamber of the States-
General resisted both last year and this the
passing of the budget. In the present session,
the laws of finance proposed by the Ministry
were of more consequence than on any of the
late sessions, because by the charter this is the
year for discussing and continuing, or modify-
ing the decennial budget. In other words, the
fundamental law, published in 1815, has, in
one of its articles, declared that a certain por-
tion of the permanent establishments and per-
manent revenue shall be voted only every tenth
year, an annual budget being passed to meet ex-
traordinary circumstances or temporary neces
sities. On the 19th inst., the States-General
having previously agreed to the estimates of
expenditure, or to the supplies for this de-
cennial budget, thought proper in their wisdom
to reject the proposition of the ways and
means. The Government was, in consequence,
driven to the necessity of proposing, on
the 21st instant, a temporary arrangement
for meeting both what are called the an-
nual and decennial charges. How the new
project of law on the press, which is
more oppressive than even the late legislation by
ordinance, and the new propositions for regu-
lating the system of education, will be treated in
the present temper of the Lower Chamber, and
amid the indignation excited by the imprudent
conduct of the Ministers, it would be needless
now to speculate. In the legislative conflicts
respecting the financial policy of the Nether-
lands, both now and formerly, the most striking
and most ominous fact is, that we find the re-
presentative of the two nations who compose
the Chamber nationally arrayed against each
other. They have not a ministerial and oppo•,
sition side of the House, a right or a left side,
as in England or France, but a Dutch and
Belgic side. Each national section is nearly
unanimous, opposed to its unanimous national
antagonises. There is no fusion of parties, no
desertion of sides, no change of place by the
prevalence of private interest over provincial
predilections. The Members even speak
their separate languages, Dutch or French, to
make their national votes wear their national
colours. As their numbers are nearly equal, so
is often their suffrages. " In supposing," said
M. Reyphius, a Belgian, in 1822, " that the
affirmative vote's prove that all the population c f
the old United Provinces (Holland) desires the
new system of imports, the same proof of the
aversion of the Belgian provinces results from
the unanimity of our negative votes. If there
had been any amalgamation, the majority, how-
ever feeble, would have presented a force in
favour of the triumphant opinion, hut a schism
so complete allows us only to see on one side an
imperious will, always formidable for those who
exercise it ; on the otl e a boundless submission
of which we give the first example." The IJw
:o which he alludes passed by a majority o
to 51; only two of the former being Belgians,

-and one of the latter Hollanders-. The same.:
phenomenon was exhibited last year, and ha,
been displayed' in the present Session whenever
a question has occurred calculated to call forth a
national feeling. Last year the budget was
passed by a majority of 53 to 31, all the Bel
Nlembers but fbur voted against it, and al
the Dutch but two voting in its support. On
another occasion last Session, we find the num.
hers 59 to 50, only three Dutchmen being in
the latter, and two Belgians in the former. The
decennial Budget of Ways and Means was re-
jetted on the 19th inst. by a majority of 55 to
53, the former being Belgians, with the excep-
tion of two or three, and the latter Hollanders.
The fat ts which we have thus stated, and which,
if we had room, we could support and explain
by a more extensive reference to the proceedings
of the last two years, are of great importance,
taken in connexion with the avowed projects of
a party in France, whose feelings and wishes,
and political morality,—whose taste for round-
ing boundaries, and whose fresh recollections of
the empire, have been lately so unblushingly dis-
dosed by Count Richemont, a General in the
French army, and a Member of the Chakiber
of Deputies.—Times.

A small volume has just been put into our
hands, entitled " Political Fragments, by Ro-
bert Forsyth, Esq, Advocate." Mr. Forsyth is
a barrister of long standing and great practice in
Scotland, and his evidence before the Parliamen-
tary Commissioners appointed to inquire into
the proceedings of the Courts of Law in that
country, appeared to us, at the time, to be the
very best that was given. The present volume
contains many views well deserving of attention,
while, at the same time, on many points his opi-
nions appear to us erroneous, and, indeed, ex-
travagant. Bayle, on his ingenious work on
Comet,i, laboured to show that the actions of
men were in no ways influenced by their specu-
lative opinions. Mr. Forsyth goes to the other
extreme ; for, perceiving in an infallible Church
what ft; W men who, with unbiassed minds, in-
quire seriously into the subject perceive—a prin-
ciple involving a prostration of the intellect, and
it subjection to a degrading mental despotism—
he seems to conclude that there must necessarily
be a harmony between the speculative principles
and practices of Catholics. He is one of those
whose apprehensions of danger from Popery are
as vivid as ever, precisely because they were not
swigested by interested motives. We are no
Meat admirers of Popery, any more than Mr. For-
syth, but we do not perceive that the act of jus-
tice whieth has been done to the Catholics at all
adds to our danger of subjugation by the Pope and
the Jesuits. Mr. Forsyth's volume is a collec-
tion of essays or fragments on the mercantile
distress, smuggling, national debt, income tax,
Popery, foreign policy, and Catholic rent. I

. „ .
his essav on our foreign policy, he observes—
that " since the Peace, we have somehow been
losing character on all sides ; nations attempting
to establish liberal institutions naturally looking
to thitain, the land of freedom, for sympathy
and aid. But the Neapolitan Patriots, the
Spanish Cortes, and the Portuguese Constitu-
tionalists looked to us in vain. The party of
the Apostolicals in Europe, that is, the Catholic
Ckirch, were allowed to trample down every

man, mid every body of men, that favoured
liberal institutions. The excuse was, one nation
oufht not to interfere in the internal affairs of
:Another. But where was that principle at the
date of the Treaty of Pilnitz, when the com-
bined Monarchs of Europe conspired to divide
France, as Poland had been divided, and when

Britain subsequently became a party to those
proceedings, for which the European nations
sufficiently suffered ? Nay, where was that
principle when we allowed the Duc d'An-
gouieme to march into Spain against the
Certise, at the head of a French army ? This
he would not have dared to do in the face of
serious opposition to Britain." No man of
sense could ever have supposed it practicable
under a Constitution which gives the Govern-
ment to an Oligarchy, that there could be any
Teal sympathy with the partizans of Democracy
t ahe Continent. The nations attempting to
establith liberal institutions, who, looked to Bri-
tain, were of course very ignorant both of the
natoTe of our institutions as modified by practice,
and of ::story. Mr. Forsyth must have a very
imperfect recollection of the times when the
foreign patriots endeavoueed to give liberal insti-
tutions to their countrymen, if he does not know
that the persons who were most alarmed lately
for our Protestant Constitution, were the very
pecans
who were most alarmed then for the
safety of the Catholic Church in Spain, Portugal,
and Italy; or, at least, of that part of the Church
which is viewed as the only essential part by
churchmen of all creeds—the revenues. Mr.l
Feeeyth supposes that our Protestant Consti-
tution has been destroyed, in order to give
confidence to the French King and the Apos-
'once's, in their struggle to put down the
Liberals. " Thus (he says) has the Bourbon
become disposed to lean upon Britain, which
stood by him with such pereeverance in his ad-
sersi:y. But there was one obstacle to a per-
fect union awl confidence between the two Ca-
binets. The Jesuits, or high Catholics, styled
the party of the Apc4olicals, rule the French
Court and the old Royalist:e. How could full
confidence exist between that Jesnit Govern-
ment and a Protestant Government, alleged to
act illiberally and oppressively towards the Irish
Catholics ? What I am now to say is irresisti-
bly suggested by the juxta.poeition of events.
Immediately after the British Protestant Con-
stitution was destroyed, the French King yen-
lured to dismiss his Ministers, a body avowedly
favourable to liberal ir)stitutions. Have we, in
order to gain an ascendancy in the French
Councils, encouraged the Bourbon to lean upon
she party of the Apostolical at home, and upon
Dritein abroad, and to set at defiance the French
popular party ? Have we, further to cement the
union of France and Britain, given way to the
Irish Catholics, in order thereby to purehase
the confidence of the Roman Catholic Priest-
hood ?" How far our Government may now
lie abetting the French Government in its at-
tempts against the liberties of the country we
have no means of knowing. The French Papers
allude to Notes which have passed lately on this
subject between the two Governments ; and M.
Dupin, in his speech for the Journal des
Debats, spoke cf Secret Notes. But we think
we can say that the concession of the Catholic
Claims was no more granted to please the Apo-
stolicals than to please the worshippers of Bujiha.
There is much good sense in what Mr. Forsyth
says with regard to the means to be adopted to-
wards Ireland :
" Britain has now (he says) to defend itself
against a most imminent evil from Ireland. The
Irish cottages, chiefly the Catholic cottages, pour
out annually an immense population destitute of
bread, of education, and consequently of morals.—
These, from necessity, hasten to Great Britain in
vest of food. They are constrained to accept of

the meanest wages that will support life. The)
become the tival of the British common people it
all agricultural and manufacturing labour. Thus
they reddce our own common people to utter mi-
sery, deprive them of the menus of educating their
children, and fill the land with wretchedness and
ignorance.
• • • • •
" Establish Poor Laws. This is an act of jus-
tice to Britain. We ought not to be required tr
support the Irish poor. This is a point so clear as
to require no illustration. The effect of it will be
to induce the Irish landholders to depart from tht
Cottage System, by which the country is overpeopled.
• • • • • • •

" The Irish landholders would, perhaps, oppose
the measure, hut the nature of their opposition would
be too grossly unjustifiable to stand in need of being
exposed. To do any good, it is absolutely nu_ t..-
sary that the Irish landholders shall be compelled L.
support the poor reared in that country.
• • • • • 0

" A correct administration of justice ought to br
established, by establishing Courts in every District,
similar to the Courts in Scotland of the Sheriffs and
their Substitutes. Professional tnen ought to act as
JudgPs, with suitable salaries. Unless justice be ac-
cessible and impartially administered, Ireland cannot
prosper. This also is clear.
♦ • • •
• •

" Every proprietor ought to have it in his power
to obtain his tithes to be valued, and to be liable
only for the valuation so fixed. The improvement
of latiA will be thereby highly promoted, and the
populaiity of the national clergy increased, or, at
least, a great source of hostility against them will be
removed.
" The Elective Franchise in counties ought to be
plAced on a new footing.
• a • • • •
" Of those who have attained to mature years, a
shoe-maker, or other tradesman, resident in Edin-
burgh or Glasgow, who eats the Marquis of Staf-
ford's, or the Duke of Argyll's, or the Duke of Gor-
don's beef or mutton, and pays for it, he may vote
at an election, because he is independent. But
ware he merely a tenant of a bit of ground, yield-
ing an alleged annual profit of ten pounds on the
estate of any of these Noblemen, it is clear that
he must vote as directed by the factor for his
Grace or his Lordship; because he cannot sup-
port and educate a family on such a pittance,
and must depend on the great man or his rela-
tions for bread. He must vote as directed or
leave the estate, and emigrate some twenty or thirty
miles, which to him is equivalent to exile. To
give that poor man a vote, therefore, is just compel-
ling him to become criminal, by vo:ing into power
somebody of whom he knows nothing, or whom he
knows, perhaps, to be destitute of principle of any
sort, moral or religious, or even perhaps of common
honesty. . . . . . Tenure as tenant is radi-
cally bad; because inferring dependence, or at least
];ability to incur debts to the proprietor, who has I
thereby the means of destroying the independence
of his tenant.

" It is impossiide to protect the population of
Britain against the influx of Irish paupers, unless
the change now suggested be made upon the elective
franchise. Irish landlords will still be tempted to
augment their political influence by a pernicious cot-
tage eystern, which cottages wil! continue to throw
out swarms of paupers tc invade us. The qualifi-
cation in Irish counties is still inadequate for our
protection. It is only in a town or city that an ordi-
nary tradesman can be independent.
" Parish Schools ought to be tstablished on the
Scottish footing.
• •••110
" Lastly, for a time, support a strong military
police over the country. A people whose mis-
chievous temper resists improvement, must be go-
verned like wild school-boys, till they can be trained
to better habits under wise institutions.— Morning
Chronicle.

This day ends the year. We leave to Moral-
ists and Divines the task of offering to their
readers and their hearers such reflections as this
important epocha in the division of time natu-

rally suggests. In a political point of view, the
people of this country may be well justified in
parodying the words of the poet, and

Boldly venture on a year unknown—

It cannot use them worse than this has done.
The winter of 1825, known as the Bubble era,
was productive of prodigious misery and dis-
tress, but such as bears no comparison, either in
extent or acuteness, with that which nearly the
whole community is now experiencing. Never,
we believe, was there a period within the me-
mory of any man living, when wretchedness and
sorrow—when actual want and starvation, visited
so many habitations in England as biting ca-
lamity has now reached. And what is most ex-
traordinary of all is, that this melancholy state
of things is not attributable to natural causes.
Providence has been bountiful to our soil—skill

and enterprise were never so rife to turn tl:e
riches of nature and of art to our advantage.
But, by a strange perversity, a new species of
" wisdom" has been allowed to break in upon
our career of success and good fortune, and
turn to our ruin and discomfiture the very ele-

ments of our individual and national prosperity.
We 370 in the state of a country in which irri-
gation has heretofore produced fertility, but from
which the waters have been diverted or stopped

up. Can such a state of things as the present
last ? is the question in every one's mouth. It
may bp asked, with equal reason, Why it has
been pewmittpd to last so long ? We answer
both questions by saying that, till the people
make themselves heard, very Tittle 4lteration

seems likely to take place. This year a whole
Parliamentary Session was exhausted on one
topic ; and it the next we sadly fear that the
tone of postponement will be resumed, unless
the public voice, i❑ accents of b4t peace-
able and respectful remonstrance, sounds itt the
cars gf the Legislature and the Government the
awful truths a opr situation, and the necessity
of immediate redress. Wg are ourselves no

alarmists. We have no wish to Impede or harass
those who have the charge of public affairs; but
if thgy sleep, as they appear to do, we must en-
deavour to awaken them, that they may not, like
Sardanapalus, dream of 024 sure upon a " bed
of roses" while calamity overshadows all LW in-
terests of the empire.—Morning Herald.

A CHRiST4:AS HARVEST.— A most singu-

hr occurrence was witileße4 t High Cattcn, near
Stampford-bride, on the 15th inst. A. firnit• there on
that day, cut and reaped a fine field of barley. The fact
is that be has bad two crops limn the same seed—the first
he cut in May Gr June, as grcen fodder for his cattle ;
and the second thus carne o;,!t of season, but has been
safely placed in his barn, without sustGining any injury.—
Ycirli Courant.

pn Tzi,ecd.4y night an inquest was held be-
fore J. H. GaLL, al.. the Aberdeen Arms, New
Church-court, Strand, on the bo;iy of MARY HENRIETTA
BARRETT, a young woman, 23 years of age ; exci also on
a female child, of which she had been delivered the day
before Lee death. It appeared that the deceased had stu-
diously concealc4 ;hp fact of her pregnancy., which was
not übservable from outwaidipperances, and her mother,
who had noticed that she appeared to kid health,
procured ligr a letter for a dispensary; but, as she Otto
concealed her conditipn from the medical gentleman, she
was treated in a very ditfer;;;t manner to what her case
requic.:.d, and it was only a few hoiart; before her death
that 11r. STA.;;Tori, the surgeon, who WAS called in by

. .
the mother, di.covered what was really the matter. A
premature labour ensued, and elle died about one o'clock
in the morning on Saturday last. The eh;ld died about
eleven o'clock on the same day. Verdict—" Natural
death."