GENERAL 
Christianity. It does not appear 
fo have produced any alteration in 
the resolutions formed by the 
ruling powers relative to the sys- 
tem of religious affairs for the 
Netherlands. The King, on Sep- 
tember the 10th, issued an ordi- 
nance, with the following pre- 
amble ; “ Considering that it is 
just and expedient to recur to the 
advice of functionaries professing 
the Catholic religion, for every 
measure of administration relative 
to the public exercise of this reli- 
gion, and especially for what re- 
gards the relations between the 
clergy of our kingdom and the 
holy see, and desiring to confirm, 
by a special and permanent insti- 
tution, our resolution to remove 
every thing which might tend to 
weaken the real guaranty which 
the constitution secures to the li- 
berty of all forms of worship, or 
which might in any degree affect 
the dogmas and the discipline of 
the Roman-catholic religion, or 
hinder those who profess it from 
freely exercising their faith as 
heretofore, we have decreed, &c.” 
From this formula, it will appear, 
that only protection, and not mas- 
tery, and still less an exclusive 
power, is given to the Roman 
church in Belgium. The sub- 
sequent articles contain the ap- 
pointment of a committee of the 
Council of State, consisting of 
three or four Catholic members, 
to which is to be referred every 
thing relating to Catholic wore 
“On September the 21st, the 
ceremonial of the inauguration of 
the King of the Netherlands was 
tformed at Brussels with all 
solemnity, and with every 
external mark of general satis- 
HISTORY.  f99 
faction. His Majesty in his speech 
took notice of the union, under 
the same Sovereign and laws, of 
the seventeen provinces in the 
reign of the Emperor Charles V. ; 
and congratulated the assembly 
on the prospect of its renewal after 
a separation of nearly three cen- 
turies. He was replied to in an 
appropriate speech by the Pre- 
sident of the First Chamber; after 
which, the constitution was read, 
and the King pronounced the oath 
with peculiar energy. The pro- 
cession then repaired to the church 
of St. Gudule, at the door of 
which the King was received by 
the very Reverend M. Mille, en- 
titled chief priest and pleban, who 
addressed to him a discourse en= 
tirely free from any of the sen- 
timents of the prelatic address 
above mentioned, and claiming 
only the protection for the Ca- 
tholic religion guaranteed by the 
constitution. The first sitting of 
the States-general, at Brussels, 
opened on the 25th, and one of 
the earliest of its acts was a do- 
tation to’ the Duke of Wellington, 
as Prince of Waterloo, of an estate 
on the very theatre of his triumph. 
The Sessions, in which every thing 
passed with unanimity, was soon 
after closed. 
In October, was officially pub- 
lished tlie boundary treaty between 
the King of the Netherlands and 
the Emperor of Austria, concluded 
at Vienna, on May the 31st. It 
marks out topographically all the 
limits between the seventeen Bel- 
gic provinces and their neigh- 
bours, comprising’ also a part of 
the ancient Duchy of Luxem- 
burg, to be possessed in per- 
petuity by the Sovereign of the 
Netherlands, as a compensation 
[H 2) 
