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been duly opened, a law was immediately passed, ordering the towns and districts, whose deputies had withdrawn themselves, to proceed to fresh elections.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 avocations 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 legis lature, as often as the former

should be detained from its sittings 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 emninence, they possess of acquiring a reputable subsistence in some neighbouring state.

Wirtemberg, too, was not with out embarrassments in the proceedings 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 mediatised princes absolutely refused to attend as members of the legislature, to take any share in its proceedings, or to acknowledge its authority.

In Bavaria every thing went on quietly. The course of improvement, 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, satisfied with the mild paternal rule of their royal family, the people have shown less eagerness for political 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

numerous, acting in Russia as they had formerly done in other parts of Europe, not merely as ministers of religion, but also as instructors of youth. Latterly, however, they had carried their zeal of proselytism too far, and had frequently attempted (probably with no small success) to gain converts from the Greek church, from the Protestants, and even from the Jews. Though they had been admonished by the proper authorities to desist from such a line of conduct, they, nevertheless, persisted init: and, at length, by an edict, issued in the course of the present year, their schools were abolished, and they themselves were banished beyond the frontiers of the empire, with a prohibition of re-entering under any form or denomination whatsoever. The grounds of this measure, and the provisions for carrying it into effect, are detailed in the edict itself, which will be found in the Appendix to the Chronicle, page 831. There is a degree of harshness and cruelty in it, which does not seem called for by the occasion, and which is little in unison with the general character of the emperor.

In the month of September, one of the regiments of the imperial guard, which numbered among its officers several young men of distinguished family, after having been long dissatisfied with the capricious and severe conduct of the colonel, openly refused to obey the orders which he had issued for a review on the following Sunday. Late on the evening of Saturday, they sent a deputation to communicate to him their resolution not to obey him, and not finding him at home, they broke his windows. On the next

day, their general of division remonstrated with them. In their reply, they disclaimed all intentions of revolt, but protested, that there was no punishment which they would not endure, rather than remain under the command of their present colonel. They were ordered to march into the fortress, and they immediately obeyed. There part of them were put under arrest; the remainder were embarked and transported to forts in Finland, where the battallions were soon afterwards disbanded, and the soldiers distributed among other corps. An inquiry was instituted into the conduct of the colonel, and of some of the officers, to whose mismanagement and negligence this instance of insubordination was mainly owing.

The grand duke Constantine had married early in life a princess of Saxe-Cobourg Saalfeld, who, not finding much happiness in her matrimonial connexion, had left Russia in 1801, and did not appear to have any intention of returning. Under these circumstances, an ecclesiastical synod, upon the application of the grand duke, dissolved the marriage; and the decision was confirmed by an imperial decree, dated the 20th of March, which, at the same time, declared, that the children of any marriage, which might be contracted by a member of the imperial family with a person not born of a reigning house, would possess no right of succession to the throne. Nine weeks afterwards, the grandduke married, with his brother's approbation, the countess Grndzinska, to whom he had been for some years attached.

The grand-duke's usual residence was at Warsaw, and he was

regarded as the real director of the administration of the kingdom of Poland, though the title and dignity of viceroy were nominally conferred on a native Pole. The Russian policy towards this dependency of their crown, was extremely liberal. It had its own military force, and the public functions were discharged for the most part by natives. It had a legislature, which bore the name of Diet, and was composed, according to the prevailing fashion, of two chambers. This body, which had met, for the first time, in 1818, assembled again in the Antuinn of the present year. The emperor opened the session with a speech, which will be found in the Appendix to the Chronicle, page 833.

Three important measures were brought forward by the ministers -one, for modifying the constitation of the senate; another, the plan of a civil code; and the third, a criminal code. The first, after being approved by the senate, was rejected by the lower chamber; the second, was withdrawn by the government itself; and the third, was lost in the lower chamber by a majority of 120 to 3.

While the Diet thus paid but little reverence to the schemes which were proposed to it with the imperial sanction, it received with attention numerous petitions from the different provinces, and recommended them to the notice of the emperor. These petitions pointed out specifically many im provements which might be made in the administration of justice, in the collection of the revenue, in the state-expenditure, in the management of public funds, and in the regulations affecting agriculture and commerce. On the

latter subject, it was especially prayed, that the army might be clothed in Polish cloth, and that the importation of English merchandize should be prohibited, so long as the corn-bill remained in force. Let such an instance teach us to doubt, whether, for the sake of a policy, which is in itself more likely to cramp than to foster national prosperity, it is worth while to excite sentiments of hostility in the minds of foreigners, and to lead them to adopt a system unfavourable to our interests.

The session was closed on the 1st of October, by a speech from the emperor, in which he expressed a grave and dignified displeasure at the reception which the plans of his ministers had met. We may be surprised, that the Russian autocrat should allow so much freedom of thought and of will to any of his subjects, as we find displayed in the proceedings of the Polish Diet. It is, however, his strength that makes him generous. The lion may allow the lamb to gambol about him. The king of Prussia must watch over, and must suppress every symptom of resistance to his authority; because, the prevalence of a spirit of independence among his subjects would endanger the existence of his throne. But, Alexander may safely allow the Poles to carry free deliberation and discussion to any length. A single word from him will, at any time, calm the tempest. Were they even to launch forth into all the extravagances of democracy, he could instantly overwhelm them with a deluge of his northern barbarians.

Though Poland is nominally an independent kingdom, yet, as it is an integral part of the de

pendencies of the imperial crown, the emperor Alexander has, with sound views of policy, endeayoured, in the course of the present year, to promote its commercial intercourse with the rest of his dominions. The establishment of tolls, on the frontier of Russia towards Poland, is still maintained; but only in respect to goods coming from, or going to foreign countries: as to all other commodities, Poland has, since the 1st of January, 1820, ceased to be considered as a foreign country. There is now a free and uninterrupted passage across the frontier, for, 1st, all the raw productions of the two countries, which are intended for the use of each other respectively, under the single condition of specifying them at the frontier, for statistical purposes; 2nd, for the manufactures and productions of the industry of the two countries, but accompanied with certificates of origin; those manufactured from the raw materials of the two countries respectively, free of duty; and those manufactured from the raw materials furnished other countries, upon conditions hereafter to be determined.

The Russian ministry of finance, and the Polish government, are to agree together on the most convenient stations for taking the export duty on Russian productions exported to foreign countries through Poland.

To maintain the superintendence over the importation of fo

reign manufactures through Poland into Russia, and at the same time increase the trade, and especially the fairs of Warsaw, it has been ordered-1. That, to prevent fraud, the Russian chief board of customs is to receive from the Polish government a complete catalogue (to be successively completed as circumstances require) of all Polish manufactories, with a statement of the place, the proprietor, the quality and quantity of the goods manufactured, adding the stamp and mark of the manufacturers; but that (2) all goods coming from the Warsaw fairs to Russia, shall have, for three years together, an abatement of ten copecs per ruble, on paying the tariff duty to the Russian custom-house at Warsaw, and of five copecs per ruble, on paying it at the Russian frontier toll-house. 3. All Polish manufactured goods (except from those parts which are too remote) shall be imported into Russia by way of Warsaw only, and have a certificate from the Russian board of customs.

All the subjects of the two states are entitled to be admitted into the guilds or companies of each other. Travellers from Russia to Poland, and vice versa, are subject to no other formalities, than from one government of the Russian empire to another.

It is in regulations like these, that the liberal policy of Alexander's administration is chiefly conspicuous.