into the government, would be inconsistent with the public safety? Though nothing was done towards the formation of a new constitution, there was no want of vigilance in the internal administration. The public debt was fixed at somewhat more than 180 millions of rix-dollars, or between 28 and 29 millions sterling; and with the payment of it, all the demesnes of the state were declared to be charged. If at any time any new loan should be necessary, it was not to be charged upon these funds, but was to be provided for separately.

In the preceding year, the expenditure had been fixed at somewhat more than seven and a half millions sterling. A royal ordinance was published in the month of January, urging the necessity of further retrenchment, and commanding the state of the finances to be laid before the public once every three years. The requisite saving was sought to be effected, chiefly by reducing the number of battalions in the militia-regiments. The regular troops had been already diminished. Yet, with all the rigid economy for which the Prussian administration is remarkable above any state in Europe, the imposition of new taxes was found to be necessary, in order to equalize the income with the expenditure; and judging from these taxes, we must infer, either that political science is in a very low state in Prussia, or that the scanty resources of the country were previously so exhausted, that it was impossible to find out an imposition, which, at the same time that it was productive, would not be liable to peculiar objection. One of these taxes was upon the

profits of trade-tending to the diminution of that fund exclusively, out of which additions to the national capital are usually made. Another was a poll-tax, which must always be unjust, because it presses with too much equality on the poor and on the rich. Others of them were on the necessaries of life.

Austria, with much greater resources at her command, and an infinitely greater capacity of improvement, was more embarrassed in her finances than Prussia. In the beginning of the year, she contracted for a large loan; and the military preparations, which she made in consequence of the events in Italy, forced her afterwards to borrow a still larger sum. Perfect harmony subsisted between her and the other powers of Germany. The emperor made various journeys, and the arch-duke Rainier married a princess of Savoy.

On the 25th of the preceding November, ministers from the different German states had assembled, for the purpose of conferring on the means of completing and consolidating the organization of the Germanic league. No less than thirty-one sittings were held under the presidency of prince Metternich, and, at last, on the 17th of May, the "final act"

the result of these multiplied conferences-received the signature of the representatives of the different states concerned in the deliberations. This "final act" must be regarded as supplementary to the federal act of 1815. It contains no fewer than sixtyfive articles. In it the basis of the German Confederation is declared to be the independence and inviolability of the several states composing it. No member can

vereign and independent, shall, without the intervention of force, be controlled by a superior law,

Besides these constitutional deliberations, the state of commerce in Germany occupied the attention both of the Diet and of the ministers who were assembled at Vienna. And on this subject there were two classes of regulations, which it was conceived would be advantageous. The first related to the exclusion of foreign manufactures from the German market, so that German industry night be promoted, and impoverishment might no longer be occasioned by paying in money for commodities, which, with proper encouragement, might be produced at home. The crudeness and inaccuracy of the notions, on which these views are founded, would not have prevented them from being carried into practical operation; but the opposing interests of some of the members of the confederation, and the difficulty of framing a system of exclusion which would suit the supposed advantage of a variety of independent states, hindered the Diet from going farther than words upon this subject. The second class of regulations would undoubtedly have been very advantageous. They were intended to give greater facility for the circulation of commodities, by suppressing the transit duties, which existed in the different states. But here the financial Joss, which almost every state would have sustained from the proposed alteration, threw insuperable difficulties in the way of the adoption of the scheme.

To a committee of the Diet was also allotted the task of preparing a plan for the organization of an

armed federal force... The results of its labours were comprised in a project containing 51 articles. This project we have not seen; but its outline is said to be as follows: "The federal force, in time of peace, is to be in such a proportion to the population, that out of every million of people there shall be 10,000 soldiers, with a reserve, besides, equal to the half of this number; the cavalry of this army to be 1-7th of the whole; the corps of engineers to be in the proportion of 1-100th. For every 1,000 men there are to be two pieces of artillery, with 36 men to each; the guns, one-half six-pounders, onefourth 12-pounders, and the other fourth howitzers. There is to be, besides, a battering train of 100 pieces of large calibre, 70 mortars, and 30 howitzers. The men attached to the artillery are calculated at 30,000. The whole army is to be divided into ten corps; three of them to be formed of contingents from the small states.

The history of the minor powers of Germany, during the present year, is confined to the steps taken for the settlement or improvement of the representative constitutions, which, according to the federal act of 1815, each sovereign was bound to grant his subjects. On this point, much dilatoriness had appeared in the councils of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. At length, on the 18th of March, the long-desired edict was issued, creating two chambers, and fixing their respective rights and privileges. An abstract of this edict will be found in the Appendix to the Chronicle (page 747). In addition to the articles there specified, we may add, that it did not

oblige the sovereign to convoke the chamber oftener than once in three years; that the budget was always to be voted for that length of time; and that, in case of a difference of views between the two chambers upon it, it should be discussed by them both united in one assembly, under the presidency of the president of the first chamber, and the decision taken by an absolute majority of votes. It was further expressly declared, that laws of police, and all those regarding the administration of the state of a regulating kind, might be made, and carried into execution by the sovereign, without the concurrence of the chambers.

This constitution was not sufficiently democratical to please the Hessians; and in some places they would not even deign to elect representatives. When the deputies assembled at Darmstadt, a great majority of them, previous to the formal opening of the session, concurred in an address to the grand duke, declaring that they could not look upon themselves as deputies, nor exert their functions as such, till the necessary alterations were made in the constitution. The government, while they condemned this proceeding as illegal, sought to conciliate the deputies, and promised, after they should have taken the oaths, to consider what modifications might advantageously be made in the system established by the edict. Many of the deputies were intractable, and immediately left Darmstadt, to resign their trust into the hands of their constituents. Thirty-two (the second chamber consisted of fifty in all) were prevailed on to take the oaths; and, the session having

been duly opened, a law was immediately passed, ordering the towns and districts, whose deputies had withdrawn themselves, to proceed to fresh elections. Many useful measures received the sanction of the legislature; and, considerable changes in the constitution having been agreed upon, a new charter was presented to the states on the 11th of December. The alterations introduced into it were not all of a popular nature. One of them, for instance, was, that if a bill, introduced by the ministers, was approved of by one chamber, and rejected by the other, in two successive sessions, the bill might be considered as passed, if the sum of the votes for it in the two chambers exceeded the sum of the votes against it.

In the neighbouring territory of Baden, also, some difficulties occurred in the proceedings of the legislature. The states met at Carlsruhe, on the 25th of June. It was then found, that several of the members, who had been troublesome to the government in the preceding session, could not attend; some, because they had been unable to obtain leave of absence from their usual avoca✩ tions in the service of the public; others, because no letters of summons had been issued to them! The chambers immediately presented a remonstrance to the grand duke. The absence of the public functionaries was placed by him to the account of attention to the public service; and it was proposed, that, whenever a functionary of the state was chosen deputy, another should, at the same time, be elected, who should be entitled to vote, in the legislature, as often as the former

should be detained from its sit tings by his official duties. This arrangement was rejected; the grand duke yielded, and the absent deputies were summoned. To Englishmen it seems not a little extraordinary, that public functionaries should be the most active members of opposition. In the present case they were probably individuals, who held posts in the university, or who filled legal situations-two descriptions of persons, who in Germany are protected against the caprice of the sovereign, both by public opinion, and by the facility which, if they have attained to any eminence, they possess of acquiring a reputable subsistence in some neighbouring state.

Wirtemberg, too, was not with out embarrassments in the pro ceedings of its legislature, though these were of a very different nature from what occurred in Baden and Darmstadt, and sprung from a very different origin. The first session of the states-general had been terminated by prorogation on the 15th of June of the present year. Every thing had passed in it with perfect harmony between the sovereign and his subjects. By the new arrange ments, which had been carried into effect after the downfall of Buonaparte, several petty princes, who were sovereign and independent in the old German empire, subject only to the Diet, had been annexed to Wirtemberg. There, as elsewhere, they were distinguished by the epithet of mediatised princes. Though now subjects, they still possessed many peculiar privileges, and, being undoubtedly superior to the common nobility, they had seats and votes assigned them in the first

chamber. On the meeting of the states, however, in December, the greater number of these me diatised princes absolutely refused to attend as members of the legislature, to take any share in its proceedings, or to acknow ledge its authority.

In Bavaria every thing went on quietly. The course of improve ment, which had been steadily pursued for some years, was still followed. The people were strongly attached to their sovereign; and that sovereign merited their attachment by his liberal views, his economical administration, and his simple unassuming manners and mode of life.

Even in Saxony, where, satis fied with the mild paternal rule of their royal family, the people have shown less eagerness for po litical change than the subjects of any other of the second-rate sovereigns of Germany, the spirit of improvement was not altogether idle. For, in the course of the year, an alteration was made in the constitution of the estates, by which persons, not noble, might be elected members of that body.

The spirit of improvement displayed itself in Russia, not less than in Germany. By an imperial ukase, published in the month of January, all the serfs of Livonia, whether belonging to the crown, or to cities and corporations, or to individuals, were declared free. This emancipation was to be carried into effect gradually, and was to be completed in 1826.

The Jesuits, upon their suppression by pope Clement XIV. in 1773, had been received and protected by the empress Catherine. They acquired considerable property, and gradually became very