This is the true course of Belgian policy, and we hope it will be pursued under such guidance, steadily and long.

A circumstance, on which great stress has been laid by some of the public writers in Belgium (though from reasons assigned in the early portions of this paper we think it of little consequence), must bring our observations to a close. In the annual speech on the opening of the Dutch Chambers, ever since 1830, King William has invariably introduced the phrase den Belgischen opstand, the Belgian insurrection. The States-General in their address to the throne have always, until 1837, repeated the phrase. In that year's address they abstained from noticing the paragraph in the speech from the throne relative to "the evils inflicted on the Netherlands by the Belgian revolt." So that while King William persists in still considering Belgium as a revolted portion of his dominions, the Dutch people, through their representatives, begin to acknowledge it as an independent nation—a distinction of very small importance to Belgium, while all the rest of Europe must admit it to be (allowance made for minor blemishes) the best existing model of a well-organized, wellconducted, and flourishing commonwealth.

Postscript.

Since this article was written, a few months back, every thing has tended to confirm the views expressed in it, both as to the political question and the commercial and manufacturing interests of Belgium. The former is certainly, to say the least, as far as ever from its solution; the latter are in a state of rapid progression. The month of August has been distinguished by two events of considerable prospective importance to the country, viz. the opening of the whole line of rail-road from Ostend to Brussels, and the execution of a treaty of commerce between Belgium and the Ottoman Porte. The commercial returns for the year 1837 have given additional evidence of the many resources enjoyed by the country,

and of the satisfactory prospects for the future*. Some faults have however been attempted, rather than committed, by a body of the national representatives, energetic in error, in their isolated zeal for local and individual advantage. These attempts have been, in most instances, baffled by the more enlightened spirit which guides the executive and the majority of the legislature; and it is probable that the general tariff of import duties on foreign produce will undergo a revision before the end of this year in a sense most favourable to the principles which regulate the present government. A remarkable proof of the sincerity of those principles is offered in the system pursued by M. Nothomb, the Minister of Public Works, relative to the rail-roads. Instead of taking advantage of their establishment to inflict a high rate of payment on travellers, the rate of charges is fixed on the lowest possible scale of remuneration; the transport of merchandise is made an object of far less importance than the encouragement given to travelling; the great object of civilization in creating quick and frequent intercourse between the Belgian people and their neighbours being considered paramount to the realization of pecuniary profits.

The purely commercial movements of the present year have continued to establish the progressive state of improvement which, without any inspiration of prophecy, we predicted two years back, as the natural consequence of the system then brought into play. One branch of trade, that in raw and clayed sugars, forms an exception to this remark; the sale of refined goods being now much interfered with, by the protection given to the culture of beet-root, with the view to its being employed by the refiners; the produce being forcedly destined for home consumption, as on the export no drawback (operating as a bounty which favours the export of refined sugars made from colonial produce) is allowed by government. The consequence is, that beet-root sugar is gradually

*The returns of rail-road travelling in Belgium for this month of August 1838, give a total of 259,086 travellers, and 409,679 francs of receipts. Shipping returns of arrivals in the port of Antwerp for the three last years.

replacing foreign in the home market, as the returns of the import trade at Antwerp and Ostend will amply prove. The policy which has led to this result is of course considered as very questionable by the mercantile houses in those towns; and it must at best be looked on as an experiment, the success or failure of which a very little time will be sufficient to But the question it involves is of small importance in comparison to another, arising from the quantity of capital in the country, and the prodigious stimulus lately given to every kind of commercial speculation. We allude to the facility allowed by the government during the last three years, for the establishment of "Sociétés Anonymes," under which title a swarm of joint-stock companies have sprung up for almost every ostensible purpose of trade, but in many instances, like similar undertakings in this country, for the mere promotion of agiotage, that expressive word for describing the shifts and tricks of stock-exchange manoeuvring. The operations of such associations are admirably adapted-when they are boná fide establishments for industrial objects—for working coal or iron mines, making canals, or engaging in some pursuit, such as the whale-fishery, which requires a larger capital than individuals are able or willing to risk; but when placed in direct competition with private enterprise, they unquestionably do great mischief to the general interests of trade, and are seldom attended with any solid or legitimate success. One flagrant instance of the contrary has lately given a salutary warning to the government and the country, in the fate of the branch of the "Société du Commerce" of Brussels, which was about two years ago established at Antwerp. It was professedly formed for the purpose of assisting the manufacturers of Belgium in finding or forcing new issues for their goods. As soon as it was organized, its members commenced a system of wholesale competition with all the merchants and agents of the place, as exporters, importers, and commission agents, to all parts of the world. Within two years of its creation, that is to say, on the 31st of last December, the directors acknowledged to a loss of 900,000f., and it is expected that the final liquidation will establish a total loss of 1,500,000f. In spite of this example, so recent and so discouraging, a successor to the defunct society has, in the course of this summer, been got up at Antwerp, under the special patronage of the

Bank of Belgium, with a capital of 12,000,000f., and armed with explicit authority to undertake every branch of commerce the directors may think proper to engage in. No very favourable issue is likely to result from the operations of this body, while they do much to check the enterprise of private individuals; for few merchants will be found to hazard their fortune in a competition with men who speculate with either a fictitious capital, or the funds of others. But blemishes like those we have pointed out, in the general system of the government in matters of trade, are only to be viewed as the effect of an exuberance of capital, and a consequent necessity for experiment and speculation throughout the monied interests of the country.

In one concluding word, all that Belgium wants or wishes, either for her own well-being or the peace of Europe, is-to be let alone. Like all newly-organized countries, she requires repose. But her prosperity is a thorn in the side of the king of Holland; the despotic powers are too ready to aid his efforts to disturb it; the Germanic confederation looks on in a jealous and uncertain neutrality; France gives a powerful but scarcely a cordial support, from considerations of policy, not from feelings of regard. It is England, above all the countries of the world, that is most deeply interested in the maintenance of Belgian independence, that reaps the surest and safest benefit from her prosperity, and would be the greatest sufferer in the now almost impossible event of her fall.

ARTICLE V.

Letters on Paraguay; comprising an account of a Four Years' Residence in that Republic, under the Government of the Dictator Francia. By J. P. and W. P. ROBERTSON. 2 vols. post 8vo. with plates and a map. London: Murray, 1838.

IT has been our ill fortune, during a short career, to have to pour out the vials of our indignation upon no class more bountifully than upon our tourists and travellers. We have fallen foul of lords and ladies, men and women, and those who were neither lords nor ladies, nor men nor women, but sheer

coxcombs. Yet it neither lies in the nature of our predilections nor of our business to treat the meritorious class of hurriers to and fro with disrespect. We claim all matters of interest, both at home and abroad, as belonging to our jurisdiction. Our feelings are British and Foreign, and we pay our tribute of gratitude to those who can enlighten us as to the progress of our race in lands removed by distance from our own immediate observation, with peculiar pleasure. That we have not been oftener able to acknowledge with satisfaction the works of our contemporaries in this field, is, we humbly beg to submit, no fault of ours.

We are not ignorant that travelling to any profitable purpose is a very difficult matter. Severe experience has forced this truth upon us. For a single book containing anything beyond the crude speculations and vapid generalities taken from home, to be brought back and retailed for the homemarket, we have to wade through whole libraries of volumes whose dulness heavily impresses upon us the value of Coleridge's remarks upon the "duty of staying at home."

We shall not dilate upon the mischief done by the mass of gossiping ladies and gentlemen of the class described. It is one of the plagues of this civilized age of ours, that we read for amusement, and judge and act upon what we read seriously. The very clever young men, whom the attainment of their university degree sends out in full-blown honours to take bird's-eye views of other lands and other states of society than their own, especially if they have the good fortune to be men of family, are the misleaders of society in some of its most essential interests. Grave men and gay men, members of parliament, lawyers, legislators, hereditary or elective, prepare themselves for a rare debate on our foreign policy" and our commercial well-being, by cramming from Miss A, Mrs. B, or the Hon. Mr. C's sketches, glimpses, remembrances or romances of travel! And as Miss A, &c. know nothing whatever about the matter, the grave men and the gay men and society at large know somewhat less than nothing; and the vast interests of foreign policy and commerce are treated in a manner which is only saved from being supremely ludicrous by being supremely alarming. In the dealings between foreign states, more than in any other circumstances, knowledge is power; the knowledge namely of the aims, objects,