THROUGHOUT this year, Great Britain has followed a line of conduct with respect to her foreign relations, which to her is truly novel, although not upon that account improvident or unwise. She has been accustomed generally to take the lead in all that is stirring and military-the first and most active of the belligerent powers: but this has been a year of calm unmoved neutrality. Had she lifted her arm, the whole world might now have been convulsed by war: but the path she has chosen has been the means of preserving the major part in peace. Nor need it be feared that the cause of universal liberty will be injured by this reserve there is a principle abroad in the earth which not all the power of all the tyrants it contains can quell; every nation will in its turn conquer its own freedom; and who else should fight for it? The termination of the Spanish revival is but a hollow tranquillity; and the warmest friend of liberty need not fear, that yet again the flame will burst forth, and consume the fetters and the oppressors who forged them.

The internal state of the empire has been decidedly prosperous. The manufacturer has had constant employment; and if his gains have not been great, they have been steady and continual, which is of far greater importance. In commerce, the shipping have found

themselves able to compete and to surpass other countries; and generally, although there may have been less of commercial speculation, there has been more sure and regular trade. In finance there has been a repeal of two millions of taxes, and of those peculiar taxes which come home to the family of every man. But what more certainly marks a degree of at least comparative prosperity, is the general tranquillity of the country. We have had no Manchester or Spa-fields meetings-no military called into action; but men have been content to follow their own callings, internally satisfied with their country, and with the government which directs it. The agricultural interest alone have been unsettled and depressed; but while the war lasted their day was a long and a prosperous one, and they find it no easy matter to return to the point from whence they set out thirty years ago: yet the proposition does not appear to contain any great mixture of injustice.

The prosperous state of the finances of the country is not less singular than gratifying. From the amazing sums which appear in the shape of capital, none are more extraordinary in result than those arising out of the Savings Banks. The amount of their deposits in April last was 7,323,1797. The number of depositors in the Provident

Provident Bishopsgate Bank to 31st March, 1823, was 7320 persons; and the amount of its deposits 186,345. being 25l. 9s. 1d. each depositor upon the average. Adopting this as the general average throughout the kingdom, if the sum of 7,323,1797. be divided by 25l. 9s. 1d. it follows that 288,195 persons are interested therein! which gives 4237 persons more than the number of stockholders in the government funds! But as the proportion of 25l. 9s. 1d. is probably much higher than belongs to the country depositors in Savings Banks, the number will be much greater. It has been remarked that from " a statement of the imports and exports for the last forty years, it appears, that on an average of the five years 1798-1802, when the taxes of Great Britain averaged only 33,670,1951. per annum, and the pauper rates less than 4,000,000l. per annum, the quantity of merchandise imported annually was 29,578,4901. and the quantity of British produce and manufactures exported annually 23,840,8651.; whilst in 1822,with a taxation of about 55,000,000l. and a pauper rate of 7,761,4411. the British produce and manufactures exported amounted in quantity to no less than 43,558,4901. nearly double the quantity of the former period; but, on the other hand, the imports were actually less than on an average of the five years 1798-1802, having been only 29,401,8077.; and that the real value of the 23,840,865l. per annum of British produce and manufactures, exported in the five years 1798-1802, was declared at 40,322,3817. whilst the real value of the 43,558,4901. exported in the

last year, was declared at only 36,176,8971. or in the proportion of only 19,800,700l. instead of 40,322,3811. for a quantity of 23,840,8651. as on an average of the five years 1798-1802."

The session of parliament was one of extraordinary labour: and the country had reason to congratulate itself on the conciliatory, candid, and manly conduct of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs and his coadjutors, so different from preceding examples, and so much more agreeable to the spirit of the time. Two hundred and sixtynine bills received the Royal assent

ninety-six being public, and one hundred and seventy-three private. Of the public bills there were twenty-five which related to the revenue-thé remodelling of duties on particular goods, regulating the collection, &c. Six acts were for altering and mitigating in certain cases the severity of the penal code; six or seven for the better regulation and improvement of trade; two were for the repeal of taxes; twenty-five of the public bills had reference to Ireland; six or seven to Scotland. New South Wales, our North American, our East and West India Colonies, had seven or eight acts. The other public bills, not enumerated under these heads, were of a general nature, and did not apply particularly to any one part of the empire.

The number of petitions presented to the House of Commons was one thousand seven hundred and sixty.-Among the public petitions there were praying for the reduction of taxation generally, or for the repeal of particular duties, on coals, stone, and slate carried coastwise, 233; complaining of agricultural distress, 44; for the

abolition

abolition of slavery in our colonies, 223; against the insolvent debtors act, 105 there were 2 for its continuance, and the execution of its provisions to uncertificate bankrupts; against the marriage act, passed the session before, 22; against the Roman Catholic claims, 108; in favour of the Roman Catholic claims, 3; in favour of a commutation of tithes, 9; against any alteration in the tithe-laws, 2. The number of returns, accounts, and estimates of various kinds, was upwards of nine hundred. The number of members who took the oaths and their seats during this session was thirty-seven. There were, in the course of the session, twenty select committees appointed on various matters. The principal of these were the committees on the poor returns; on foreign trade; on the game laws; on the employment of the Irish poor; on the means of more speedily recovering small debts; on the laws of factor and agent, and their effects on commerce; and on the state of the Penitentiary at Millbank.

The picture which Ireland presents is a wilderness of bigotry, superstition, anarchy, and outrage. It is hoped that the bill for commutation of tithes will do some thing towards tranquillizing the country, or at least prove the sister kingdom wishes to do so; the reform in the magistracy-the extension of education, it is hoped, will still farther forward this object. Ignorance is a great cause of the misery of the country; and neither the Catholic nor the Pro

testant are free from its enslaving influence. Thus, while the impostor Prince Hohenloe is blinding the Catholic with his cures, the Orangeman sees his miracle for supporting the sacred character of his unhallowed orgies, in the vegetation of the flowers that deck the table of debauch on giving his ruling toast. It is gravely asserted that on one of these occasions, lately, a lily actually burst out into bloom!

In the East, affairs have proceeded with regularity and tranquillity. In the West the infernal character and consequences of slavery have been evinced in insurrections, and in cruel, and no doubt in some instances unjust prosecutions. An attempt was made to throw the odium of the insurrection in Demerara upon the Methodists; but this report origi. nated among men who are opposed to the Methodists, or to any who are anxious to raise the debased Negro to his share of the privileges which his Creator intended him to enjoy.

At Sierra Leone, great exertions have been made to put down the slave-trade, which notwithstanding is carried on to a lamentable extent.-New South Wales is remarkably prosperous.

Having given the original documents from which our short abstract is drawn, we refer to them, considering it the duty of a Registrator rather to preserve materials for the future historian, than to be an historian himself.

WE do not, after the example of some, rely upon the words of Bonaparte as upon the predictions of an infallible oracle; but an observation which he is reported to have made seems corroborated by events the incorrigibility of the Bourbons. "The Bourbons," he said, "after all they have endured, have neither learned nor forgotten any thing." In what particular are the present generation at all more enlightened, more liberal, or less selfish and treacherous, than the former. In the beginning of the present year, 1823, few considered it possible that France could venture upon such an unhallowed crusade as the invasion of Spain. Louis XVI. sent his soldiers to learn a lesson of liberty in America, but Louis XVIII. sends his to aid the cause of slavery in Spain; and that noble country has the yoke once more placed upon her neck. Her liberators were few: they spoke aloud for freedom, and their voice was heard; it was hoped by many to be the voice of the nation, but it was the cry of a small and enlightened part only. They have since fought and fallen. There were few to aid them: apathy had seized the mass of the people; and the heroes have met with the death of martyrs.

The Holy Alliance, that most unholy of all alliances, in unison

with its worthy coadjutors, superstition and ignorance, have formed a confederacy to keep tyranny upon her throne, and the soul in chains at her feet: but a calm spectator, in a free country like this our safe and happy island, may view their combined efforts unmoved; the chains WILL be broken, and freedom wILL prevail; and the feeble powers who would attempt to place a barrier against the rising tide will be overwhelmed and swept away by its fury.

France, in the present instance, was made the tool of the other Allies; Russia, Austria, and Prussia stood aloof; but had England joined the contest, it would have been the probable cause of calling into action the barbarians of the North, and of deluging Europe once more with blood and devastation; and that, too, for the rescue of a people, the great majority of which do not seem ripe for that bright summer of freedom, to whom a few of the noblest among them were striving to awaken them.

The following observations are extracted from a well-written tract upon the Spanish question, which appeared in the " Pamphleteer," written, as its predictions will prove, before the decision of the faint struggle:—

"But what is the nature of this revolu

revolutionary spirit which renders Spain an object of jealousy and apprehension to surrounding nations? It is not the desolating fury of Jacobinism tearing down the sanctuaries of religion and the law; for the national Church has been inade co-existent with the new constitution, and the law has gained the new support of public opinion;nor is it a war against the rank and riches of the state, against security of property, or political distinction; for every order is alike protected under the law. It is not a new attempt of visionary and speculative men to throw the elements of society into confusion, for the purpose of re-modelling them by rule and compass: for the constitution is that originally framed under the auspices of Great Britain, according to the fundamental laws and recognised institutions of the Spanish monarchy. It is not a proselyting spirit which sends its missionaries to preach new doctrines, and sow the seeds of mutual hatred amongst the subjects of other states; for it renounces all attempt at foreign interference, and possesses neither language nor literature to diffuse its doctrines. It bears no resemblance in any feature to those principles which agitated Europe at the beginning of the revolutionary war, except the one of change-it is simply the movement by which a generous nation endeavours to attain her true position amongst civilized communities. Her neighbours, once as far inferior as they now surpass her, have risen to eminence in science, arts, and literature, in agriculture and manufactures, in policy and legislation-in every thing which enlarges the intellect, increases the enjoyments, and guaran

ties the security of men :-but her institutions have prevented her from running the same race-she has been held back like a solitary ship by an unwieldy anchor, while her companions of the fleet are proudly borne along the tide to wealth and glory. Is it criminal to feel her degradation, and emulate the prosperity thus presented to her view?-She shows no jealous hostility to her precursors, nor pursues unwarrantable means of following in their career-her conduct is open

open and unequivocal, founded on the indisputable right of an independent nation. She respects the established institutions of every state, and upholds her own ;-the law is omnipotent in judging the excesses of the passions;-no spirit of revenge is exhibited in the moments of triumph and exultation, though many violations of faith have arisen to awaken it;-the humanities of civilised warfare are exercised towards the vanquished: there is no general confiscation, no proscription, no licence amongst a victorious soldiery, no door closed on reconciliation;-the majority of the people have declared their will, and the minority are required to obey it. This is the spirit which "threatens the security of surrounding nations, and may ultimately endanger the tranquillity of Europe."

But the Inquisition, which formed an integral part of the old government, is abolished; the overgrown monastic establishments have been pruned; the extensive right of commonage, by which a few corporations and individuals were empowered to hold extensive territories in a state of waste and depopulation, has been modified.

Here