in money or in kind, and to sue for it, in default of payment, as for a debt due to the crown. Thus the debtors were both to fix the amount of their debt, and to direct measures against themselves for its payment. Another decree was issued in November, to introduce one uniform system of duties on vessels sailing from Portuguese harbours, by imposing a duty of so much per ton, and to remove a great variety of complicated forms which produced delay and inconvenience in clearing out merchant men. In December appeared an ordinance abolishing the slavetrade, by prohibiting, under very severe penalties, the importation and exportation of slaves in all the Portuguese dominions without exception. The value of this decree depended entirely on the inclination and the power of the government to enforce it.

The commercial treaty between Portugal and this country was to expire on the 31st January of the present year, and the Portuguese government had given notice in 1835, that it would not be renewed in the same form, or on conditions so favourable to Britain. Negotiations for a new treaty were commenced, but did not appear likely to lead to any satisfactory result. In December, 1835, the British government applied for a prolongation of the treaty from the end of January to the end of April, on the ground that it was impossible to have a treaty concluded before the expiration of the former period. The request was granted, on its being clearly understood, that, whether a new treaty was concluded or not, certain specified articles of the existing treaty would cease to be in force after the

30th April.

These were articles which fixed the duty on British produce at fifteen per cent, for goods enumerated in the Portuguese tariff, and bound the government either to take the merchant's invoice for the value of goods which had no tariff, or to take the goods themselves, paying for them ten per cent on the invoice price. When the 30th of April arrived, no treaty had been concluded; but so anxious were the Portuguese authorities to get money by higher duties, that they refused to allow large parcels of British merchandise to be cleared out on the last day of April, under the old regulations, insisting that the 30th of April was not to be counted, and that the prolonged term had expired on the day before. The political changes which followed left matters in the same unsettled state at the end of the year, in which its commencement had found them; with this difference, that a new scale of duties had been propounded to the Cortes, which seemed to render impracticable the conclusion of a commercial treaty on any fair principles of reciprocity.

Equally unsettled remained a far more sacred claim, that of the British volunteer troops, who had borne so large a share in bringing the civil war to a successful termination in favour of Don Pedro, and in securing the crown to the reigning queen. It was not to be expected that a country, which annulled the pecuniary recompence granted to the duke of Wellington, who had saved it, would treat with less injustice men who had served it in a capacity not recognised by their own government. These men had spent year after year in

fruitless applications for their arrears of pay and other gratifications, for which the faith of the government was engaged. Some of them had returned to England, abandon. ing all hope of redress; others had been prevailed on to go to Spain with empty promises; nearly two hundred of them were still living in misery on board receiving ships at Lisbon. At the end of 1833, Don Pedro had authorised marshal Saldanha, when commanding the army before Santarem, to offer certain terms to the British auxiliaries then in the service, in order to induce them to accept of Portuguese pay from the 1st of January, 1834, in lieu of the British pay, for which they were then serving. An agreement was accordingly entered into by the assistant adjutant-general, Thomas Pinto Saavedra, to the effect, that the common soldiers were to receive, at the end of the campaign, from 30l. to 401. each in national land, the corporals, sergeants, &c., in proportion, besides their pay; pensions for the wounded, widows, &c., were likewise provided. The government submitted the claims which the men had made under this agreement, to a committee of six officers. The majority invariably decided against the men, who were compelled to go away under a private assurance which used to be given them, that they would ultimately be paid. Those who went to Spain, about 450 in number, offered to take 67. 15s, each, and give up the whole of their outstanding claim; but they were amused with promises until the last minute, and were then hurried off without receiving anything. The same treatment was preparing for those who still

remained in Lisbon. In the majority of the committee of officers was colonel Saavedra, the very man who signed the agreement. The revolutionary change of the government brought no change of purpose. The new cabinet named a new commission, but refused the request of the applicants that it should contain a French and an English officer. In truth, the display of British force before and during the events of the 4th and 5th November, had excited in the insurgent population of Lisbon a strong feeling of dislike against all our countrymen.

Yet it happened that British force preserved to Portugal one of her colonies.

In the month of May, an insurrection broke out in the capital of Mozambique, either with the mere object of plunder and massacre, on the part of the insurgents, or with the intention of declaring in favour of Don Miguel. The plot originated with some of the officers of the fort of St. Sebastian, in conjunction with some Portuguese prisoners banished to that province. Having captured and imprisoned the governor, they remained in possession of the town and forts from the 26th of May to the 14th of June. On that day, the British brig of war, Leveret, in search of slave vessels on the coast, sailed into the harbour. A requisition was immediately made to the commander, Lieutenant Bosanquet, for assistance, which was promptly acceded to; and by his advice the plan of a combined movement of the Portuguese troops and the men from the brig was formed, to be put into execution the ensuing night. This movement was effected with such secresy and precision, that by the following

morning the forts had been regained, the governor released, and the lawful authorities reinstated, without bloodshed, and before the people of the town were aware of what was going forward. Lieu tenant Bosanquet and his crew

retained possession of the customhouse and palace for two days, till tranquillity was perfectly restored, and then sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, carrying with him the principal insurgents, to be sent prisoners to Portugal.

tion of the criminal code, and the ordinary matters of finance. They found the revenue equal to the expenditure, and were able to reduce some of the taxes: they voted all the necessary supplies; but they refused a proposition of the government to fix the budget of ordinary expenses, and to grant the ways and means to raise it, for another period of ten years, three years of the current decennial period being still to run. They likewise passed an act for making the colonies bear part of the debt which had been contracted on account of them. Public attention was occupied for a time by prosecutions carried on against a separatist clergyman, called Scholte, for irregular preaching. On the 19th of January he was convicted at Utrecht, along with some inhabitants of Loosdrecht, seceders from the reformed church, who were included in the same indictment, on a charge of having assembled in meetings of more than twenty persons. On this occasion the court declared that the acts charged were contrary to law, but, taking into consideration the circumstance that no indecorum or disorder had been committed, adjudged the preacher to pay only a fine of twenty-five florins (21. 1s. 8d.), and three of his associates eight florins each (13s. 4d.). Other three of the parties accused were acquitted, on the ground that, though they had spoken, it was not proved that they had taken any leading part in the meeting. On the 25th, Scholte was again brought before the correctional tribunal of the Hague for performing public worship on the 29th of November in a house at Bodegraven, where more than twenty persons were assembled. The

owner of the house was indicted along with him. The former was now fined 100 florins (between 81. and 91.), and the latter in twentyfive florins. These sentences were carried to the supreme court of appeal in Amsterdam, which reversed all of them, on the ground that the meetings had nothing secret about them, and were not calculated in any way to endanger the public peace, the persons present at them having assembled merely for prayer.

In BELGIUM the principal occurrence of the year was the passing of an act to establish a municipal form of government for the towns and communes. The provisional government, called into existence by the revolution which separated Belgium from Holland, had made these local governments purely democratic and altogether independent. Although the government felt all the inconveniences resulting from these separate institutions, they had hitherto remained on the same footing; for a new dynasty would have acted imprudently in encroaching at once on existing popular rights. For two sessions, however, a bill had been before the legislature to re-organise the municipal governments, and to limit their absolute independence, by giving the crown some influence in their formation. The bill left to the citizens the election of the municipal councils, but it vested the appointment of the burgomaster and magistrates (echevins) in the king, under the restriction that they should be selected from among the members of the council. This prerogative had been long and obstinately resisted by those who styled themselves the liberal party; but the measure passed into a law in the beginning of the present