by our august brother, and which we have all sworn to observe, and cause to be observed, and by them to govern the aforesaid kingdoms, it is convenient that I make this declaration, that my dear sister may give to this solemn declaration the necessary publicity, and may at the same time manifest my firm intention to repress factions, which, under whatever pretexts, may attempt to disturb the public tranquillity of these kingdoms; it being my desire that the past errors and faults, which may have been committed, shall be buried in total oblivion, and that concord and a perfect spirit of conciliation may succeed the deplorable agitations which have divided a nation, which is renowned in history for its virtues, its valour, loyalty, and its respectful attachment to its princes." He requested that a vessel of war should be despatched to Falmouth, to carry him to Lisbon; for it had been arranged that, on his return to Portugal, he should visit England. In the last days of December he arrived in London, and sailed for Lisbon in the beginning of the year.

Don Miguel's professions of respect for the charter, although received with much distrust by all thinking men, who reflected on his past conduct, and the instruments of mischief which he would find ready to his hand, were sufficient to disappoint and irritate the faction that supported his absolute and exclusive right. They had expected that the constitution and its friends would be proscribed, not that the former would be announced as the great object of government, and an assurance thus given to the latter, that they would be protected and encouraged. In the first moments of their resent

ment, the more extravagant among them spoke of setting Miguel himself aside, and proclaiming don Sebastian, son of the late infant of Spain, by a Portuguese princessguided more by his name than by any other consideration, for they called to their aid a popular tradition, received with much credulity among the lower orders, that don Sebastian, who fell in Africa, in an expedition against the Moors in the fifteenth century, is still destined to revisit his throne, and renovate the power and the glories of Portugal. The more practical members of the faction, undertook the more feasible service of preventing, if they could, the convocation of the Cortes. Their convocation seemed advisable, in order that the prince might take, in their presence, the oath of office, as regent, to govern according to the charter. This public and solemn declaration was what the ultras wished of all things to avoid. If the prince should be inclined to throw off the mask, the voice of the Cortes, if sitting, might occasion much embarrassment; and if, as a preparatory step, he should unexpectedly prorogue or dissolve them, that very measure would unveil his designs to all the world. Every art of intrigue, therefore, was put in practice, to prevent them from assembling, and the majority of the princess's advisers themselves were by no means desirous to meet them. The influence of some of the foreign ministers, however, prevailed; and, after public expectation had been more than once excited and disappointed, a decree was issued to call the Chambers together. So ignorant were the men, who now held office, even of the ordinary forms of the govern

ment, and still less intimately were they acquainted with its spirit, that the decree was followed by à letter from the minister of the Interior to the President of the Upper Chamber, desiring him to convoke the Peers; and a similar mandate was addressed to the President of the Chamber of Deputies. But the former, the duke of Cadaval, immediately replied to his excellency of the Interior, that it be longed to government, and not to him, to convoke the Peers individually by a carta regia or royal letter, as had been done before, and that, consequently, he considered his excellency's collective letter of injunction for that purpose as never received; and royal letters were addressed to the peers. But no change was made regarding the deputies; because the bishop, their president, although a clever man, was much more accommodating than the duke of Cadaval. His eminence, however, could not refrain from carrying back the ministerial letter to the office of the Home Department, because it was not only full of errors of orthography, but the very articles of the charter were wrongly cited. His eminence had to correct it with his own hand in order that it might be copied correctly, and signed again by the minister.

It has been mentioned, that it was intended that the bank of Lisbon should take the loan of 4,000 centos of reis (about a million sterling), which was voted by the Cortes in the beginning of the year, and that, for this purpose, it should be empowered to extend its capital. A committee was ap pointed by the bank to examine into the prudence of engaging in the operation, and the propriety of

increasing its stock. That com mittee reported, that the capital should not be increased, and that the directors should be authorized to take such part of the loan as they might think compatible with the resources of the bank, on such terms as they should judge advisable. The committee declared, likewise, that, after making all necessary examination, they had found the bank in the best possible order, and sums in its coffers, sufficient to meet all the current payments, and to take a good part of the loan of 4,000 centos. After a great deal of tiresome negotiation, the bank agreed to take the half of the loan on its own account, or about 500,000l., at five per cent, giving 801. in cash for every 1007. in stock. It declined to take the remaining half of the loan on its own account, but offered to contract for it on the same conditions, providing it should find subscribers willing to accept of its guarantee. The interest had been already provided for by the imposition of certain duties, more than sufficient to cover its amount. The produce of those duties, to the extent of the interest and sinking fund, was to be transferred to the bank one month before the time for paying the dividends. In consequence of the security begotten by this cautious system, the funds or paper money of the government had scarcely fluctuated a fraction, during all the agitations and changes that had reigned from May downwards. When Carvalho, however, had succeeded to the Finance department in June, he had prevailed on the bank to take a much larger proportion of the loan than it had originally intended. This occasioned a proportionally larger issue of the bank paper,

but no suspicion was entertained that it would affect the stability of the bank; when suddenly, on the 6th December, the directors, without previously calling any meeting of the shareholders, issued a notice, informing the public of Lisbon, that, "in consequence of the unexpected issue of silver, in exchange for its notes, in order to be exported abroad, having increas ed to the extent of draining away entirely the silver which it pos sessed, the bank found itself in the painful situation of being un able to exchange readily its notes as it had hitherto done." It was added, that the direction had ap plied to government, and would employ all its resources, in order to resume, with the shortest delay possible, the payment of its notes in cash. This announcement creat ed more surprise and displeasure than alarm. The bank had, indeed, burthened itself with too large a portion of the government securities, and imprudently extend ed its issues to fulfil its engagements with the government; but the suspension of payment itself was voluntary and unnecessary;

for, even if it had been true that the bank was drained of its silver, it never pretended to be drained either of gold, or of bills and securities. The directors, unwilling to part with their profits on the discount of bills, and still more unwilling to circulate their gold, chose rather to suspend payment than employ the resources of the bank itself. The answer returned to applications for specie in exchange for their notes was, that silver they had none, and gold they would not give. Up to the moment when the notice of stoppage was posted, no want of silver coin had been experienced, and the paper of the bank had maintained its full value against the currency. The government forth with addressed a circular to the commissaries of police, and criminal judges of the districts around Lisbon, directing them to institute judicial proceedings against all per sons guilty of exporting silver coin, "contrary to the principles of poli tical economy." It is to be hoped that they had previously ascertaine ed the possibility of framing such an indictment intelligibly.

T

HE North of Europe continued, during this year, to enjoy undisturbed repose. A census of the population of Norway, which had been begun in the preceding year, was completed. The number of inhabitants was found to be 1,050,132. The Storthing, with its usual sturdiness, refused to gratify some of the royal wishes, and exposed itself to words of reproof. It declined, in particular, to grant the sum of two hundred and eighty thousand dollars which his majesty had requested for continuing, during the next three years, the building of the royal palace. The Storthing alleged, as the principal reason of their refusal, the declining prosperity of the kingdom. They were willing, they said, that every thing should be done for the accommodation of his majesty, but added plainly, that they thought the proposed plan too extensive and costly. The king told them in return, that their present language was contradicted by the view of the state of the kingdom given at the opening of the session; that he could not approve of their reasons for suspending a work already begun,

and which all classes of people greatly desired to see executed; that, if foreign trade had decreased, they should be the more anxious to find employment for the people at home, which might be done without increasing the debt; that the overplus of the revenue in the last three years clearly proved the care of the government in this respect; that even the most powerful nations had suffered a stagnation in their foreign trade, and Norway could not hope to escape the effects of it. His majesty did not easily forget their obstinacy; and, when, in the month of September, they sent him up a very dutiful and loyal address on the birth of a prince, expressing their hopes "that the young shoots of the noble royal stem will become flourishing trees, bidding defiance to storms, under whose shades the inhabitants of the peninsula will enjoy the blessings of civilization, liberty, and virtue," the king, while he thanked them for the attachment thus rhetorically manifested, told them, that he had observed, not without surprise, some resolutions of the Storthing, which did not appear to be con

sistent with the fundamental laws of the kingdom: that he already knew his own duties, as well as the sentiments of the nation, and would, by-and-by, take those of the Storthing into his consideration.

In the Netherlands, the most important transaction of the year was the final conclusion of a concordat between the government and the pope, settling the mode of appointing the great dignitaries of the church in the Catholic provinces. By this convention, it was provided, in the first place, that, whenever an archiepiscopal or episcopal see should become vacant, the chapter should transmit to the king, within one month from the notification of the vacancy, the names of the persons whom they might think proper to propose as candidates. Secondly, if, among these candidates there should be any persons "not agreeable to the king," their names were to be erased from the list, and their place supplied by others whom his majesty might esteem unobjectionable. From the list thus made up, the chapter was then to elect the new prelate, according to the canonical forms, and communicate the result to his holiness within one month from the date of the election. Thirdly, the pope, on being informed of the election, was to order an inquiry into the condition of the see, and the qualifications of the prelate elect. If, after having received the result of this inquiry, his holiness should be satisfied with the qualifications of the presentee, he was to grant him canonical institution by apostolical letters in the established form, and with the least possible delay. If, on the contrary, the election should not

have been conducted in the canonical form, or if the candidate should not be judged by his holiness to possess the necessary qualifications, the sovereign pontiff, "by special favour," was to grant to the chapter the power of proceeding to a new election.

In the ratification by the pope, it was specially declared that every archbishop or bishop of the kingdom of the Netherlands, after receiving canonical institution from the apostolic see, should, before entering on the exercise of his functions, take the oath of allegiance to the king of the Netherlands in the following terms:"I swear and promise, on the Holy Gospels, obedience and fidelity to his majesty the king of the Netherlands, my legitimate sovereign. I promise also not to have any communication, to assist at no council, to maintain no suspicious correspondence, within or without the kingdom, which may be hurtful to the public tranquillity; and that if I should learn that any intrigues prejudicial to the state are carrying on in my diocese, or elsewhere, I will disclose it to the king my master."The same oath was to be taken by ecclesiastics of the second order, before the civil authorities appointed by the king; and that there might be no doubt with respect to the form of prayer, it was modified thus:-"Domine Salvum fac Regem nostrum Gulielmum.” The bishops were to retain the free nomination and election of their vicars-general.

In addition to the existing sees of Malines, Liege, Namur, Tournay, and Ghent, three new ones were erected, viz.: Bruges, Amsterdam, and Bois le Duc. Of these eight dioceses, Malines, was