whether payable at sight, or at one or more days or months, or usages at sight, must demand payment or acceptance within six months from its date, on forfeiture of all claim upon the endorsers, or even the drawer, if the latter has made provision for it.
March 26.—Chamber of Peers.—The Duke of Richelieu and the Duke of Feltre were introduced. The former delivered to the president his majesty's proclamation, conceived in the following terms:—
Louis, by the Grace of God, &c.
The session for 1816 of the Chamber of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies is and remains closed.
Thuilleries, March 26, 1817.
The Chamber broke up immediately after the proclamation had been read.
NETHERLANDS.
Intelligence has been received at Amsterdam, that the Dutch commissioners received the island of Java from the English on the 19th of August.
On the 19th of February, at Brussels, the Princess of Orange was delivered of a son, who is to take the title of Duke of Brabant.
The States General have finally rejected a proposition for prohibiting the exportation of grain.
The Dutch papers communicate a measure calculated to injure, if not to ruin, the trade at Antwerp. A toll is ordered to be collected upon all vessels entering or leaving the Scheldt, in addition to the custom-house duties. Its weight is represented as incompatible, not only with any prosperous commerce, but with any other intention than that of destroying it, for the toll is seven times greater than the freight of goods brought from a short distance—England for instance. The king has been petitioned for its removal, and the latest reports give reason to believe that the application has been successful.
The episcopal Prince de Broglie at Ghent, still occupies the public attention, by refusing to acknowledge the temporal supremacy of the crown. Shortly after Bonaparte assumed the imperial diadem, this prelate ventured to act upon the same principle; but the Emperor, as jealous as himself of his authority, conveyed orders to M. d'Houdelot, the prefect, and to M. d'Erlaburath, the general of division, to put the bishop under military arrest, and to compose a regiment of the numerous seminarists who embrace the orthodox tenets of their unbending pastor. This ridiculous scene really took place. The youths "un peu gauches," in their black robes, were marched to the place publique, and, in the presence of an immense multitude, were marched and countermarched, and taught all the evolutions of military discipline by corporals and Serjeants of the national guard. In the night they were quartered in barracks, and were not permitted to return to their holy duties before a month or six weeks. This measure was arbitrary; but during the whole reign of Napoleon, the name of the Prince de Broglie never once reached the public ear.
SPAIN.
The strict prohibition of journals published in England or the Netherlands, which had for some time been suspended, is renewed with great severity, probably on account of the popular discontent manifested at some late acts of the government. The frequent arrest for political offences is said to be regarded with particular disgust.
Letters from Spain of the 4th Feb. state, that in consequence of a new impost levied on charcoal at Valencia, which bore very hard on the poor in the winter season, the people murmured, and at last deputed commissioners to wait on the governor (Elio) with their complaints. Instead of listening to them, Elio put the commissioners in prison; the people rushed to arms, and liberated them; and the governor, in his turn, was obliged to fly to the citadel. The insurgents kept possession of the city all the 17th January; but on the 18th, supplies of troops arriving, they were overpowered, and the governor liberated. He attempted to put to death some of the rioters without trial, but the judges of the High Court of Justice declared, they could allow no citizens to be executed without a trial. The governor threatened to imprison the judges. The citizens were emboldened by this vigorous conduct of the judges, and affairs wore so serious an aspect, that Elio posted off to Madrid to lay the matter before the king.
The report of some commotions having arisen in Valencia, agrees very well with what we know of the present state of popular feeling in Spain, viewed in connection with such instances as the following, of the cruelty of their semi-barbarous government.—"Pamplona, Feb. 10th. On the 2d, 3d, and 4th of this month, and in the prison of this city, the torture was inflicted on Captain Olivan, who for this purpose was brought down from the citadel, where he had been confined during eight months, merely because he was suspected of disaffection to government. Amidst the most excruciating pangs, no other than energetic declarations of his own innocence were heard, as well as of that of more than thirty other officers confined with him under similar cicumstances.
The English government lately solicited, that a field in the neighbourhood of Tarragona, in which 300 English soldiers and some officers fell gloriously defending that fortress, should not be cultivated, or otherwise disturbed, offering to purchase it: but the city of Tarragona, emulating the feeling of our government, nobly made a present of the ground.
