PORTUGAL.

In Portuguese affairs we have little to chronicle. There were two ministerial crises; one in February, when the Marquis D'Avila reconstructed the Cabinet on the resignation of two of the Ministers; and another in September, when D'Avila himself resigned, and Señor Fontes became the President of a new Cabinet.

The Emperor of Brazil visited Lisbon in May, and was received by his kinsman of Portugal with cordial hospitality. A rebellion took place in the little dependency of Goa in the East Indies, which was suppressed before the end of the year.

BELGIUM.

The Peace Conferences between France and Germany were held at Brussels in March and April.

In this little kingdom, as elsewhere, the two extreme worldinfluences were at work. Ultramontane agitators were busy with the endeavour to procure an interposition of Government in favour of the Pope. On the other hand, the circumstances attending several workmen's strikes which took place at Ghent, Brussels, and elsewhere, showed that the dreaded "International" had its adherents among the industrial classes of society.

The most important incident of the year was the anti-ministerialist demonstration in December. Baron d'Anethan, who had been raised to the Premiership by the victory of the Clerical and Conservative party in the summer of 1870, had steered his course prudently during the war, and in domestic politics he had increased the power of the Ultramontanes considerably by carrying a Reform Bill, which widened the basis of representation by introducing large masses of the Catholic lower orders to the privilege of the franchise. As the Protestants of the whole country only number about 10,000 as against 5,000,000 Romanists, the democratic move was evidently calculated to throw increased power into the hands of the priests. This, at all events, was the case in the country districts. In the towns there was a much stronger Liberal element at work. The law was not to be put in operation till the spring of 1872. Meantime the Liberals waited for an opportunity to show their discontent, and they found one towards the end of the year, when Government appointed to the office of Governor of Limburg M. de Decker, one of the most conspicuous leaders of the Clerical party. It was not, however, on political, but on personal and moral grounds, that the nomination of M. de Decker was attacked. He was denounced as one of the Directors of the banking-house Langrand-Demonceau, some of whose transactions happened to be under judicial investigation. M. Bara led the attack of the Opposition in the Chamber. M. Nothomb defended the Government. The Clerical party outvoted the Liberals,

but the mob of Brussels took up the question, and tumults came to pass which the police and civic guard had to put down by force. M. de Decker resigned the office to which he had been appointed. His resignation, however, did not appease the populace; it was demanded that the Ministers themselves, who had ventured to nominate him, should retire. The King at first demurred, but he resolved that, at all events, his new advisers should be chosen out of the Parliamentary majority, which had given its support to the outgoing statesmen. Accordingly, M. de Theux, a Member of the Right, like D'Anethan, succeeded to the office of Prime Minister. On the 12th De Theux made a ministerial communication to the Chamber of Representatives, when he had to encounter the opposition of the Bara party. M. Bara reproached the new Ministers on their presenting themselves as a simple Ministry of Affairs, while their political past designated them clearly as a Ministry of clerical reaction. M. Malou, the Minister of Finance, argued the constitutional question in the abstract, and refused all responsibility for what had happened during the crisis, except only for the constitution of the new Cabinet. The émeutes, he said, had compromised the respectability of Belgium, and the mission of the new Cabinet must now be one of restoring peace. M. Frère-Orban, the chief of the Ministry which had preceded that of Baron d'Anethan, attacked the new Ministers violently for shelving the question of responsibility for the dismissal of the late Cabinet. He maintained that they would have been in a better position if they had allowed the Opposition to undertake the Government, and had consented to a dissolution of the Chambers. The acts of the Ministers had caused the émeutes; a free and manly nation could not be ruled like a convent or a barrack. He concluded by giving it as his personal opinion that the late Ministers had been dismissed by the King because of their unworthiness; an assertion to which M. Jacobs, late Minister of Finance, replied by a tu quoque. Unfortunately, the speakers continually dragged the King's name into the discussion.

NETHERLANDS.

A new Cabinet, with M. Thorbecke at its head, took office at the commencement of the year. In December a Treaty was introduced into the Houses of Legislature for the cession to England of the Dutch possessions on the coast of Guinea, for which a convention between the two countries had been signed in February.

A new Customs' Bill for the Dutch East India possessions abolished the last remains of the Indian Protective tariff.

SWITZERLAND.

The Peace Society held its meeting at Lausanne in September, when Herr Sonnemann, the Frankfort Member of the German

Parliament brought a friendly greeting from the Democrats of his country, who, he stated, were opposed to the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine. He deplored the increasing lack of public spirit at home, and expressed a conviction that France and Germany would hereafter extend hands to each other, notwithstanding the Bonapartes and Bismarcks. The applause with which these sentiments were received by the meeting was but feeble. M. Fribourg defended the International, and demanded that the League should contest the proposed new law with reference to the Association. Several stormy debates took place on the subject of the Paris Commune. Finally, amidst great uproar, a resolution was passed condemnatory of the massacres perpetrated under its rule.

The Infallibility question had its echoes among the Catholic Cantons. At a meeting of "Old Catholics" at Soluthurn in September it was proposed by Alt-Landamman Kurti, of St. Gallen, "that they should once for all secede from the Church of Rome." The speech in which he explained and supported this proposition was one long act of accusation against the Papacy, and was very frequently interrupted by applause. When put to the vote, however, it was strongly opposed by many speakers and utterly lost. The main points urged against it were these:-By his protest against the resolutions of the last Vatican Council each protester had declared that he did not recognize a Church with an infallible Pope at its head to be the Catholic Church. But for this very reason there could be no question of secession from the Catholic Church, since it was precisely the antagonists of the Syllabus and the Papal Infallibility who were the true representatives of the Catholic principle, and who, from so being, called themselves "Old Catholics:" nothing would be more welcome and pleasing to the upholders of Infallibility than the secession of their adversaries from the Catholic Church.

Lucerne, the head-quarters of the old Roman Catholic Sonderbund, was still the stronghold of the Swiss Ultramontanists. The Papal Nuncio had his residence there; and he spared no effort to lead the Central Government into a reactionary policy, insisting above all things on the restoration of the religious houses which had been suppressed during the late ascendancy of the Liberal party. But while some anxiety was felt as to what the result of his manœuvres might be, the very existence of cantonal rights in their hitherto constitutional acceptance was becoming a matter of serious doubt and discussion. For many years past schemes for a reform of the Federal Constitution had been afloat. In the winter of 1870-71 a Committee was appointed to draw up a list of proposed amendments, and in the session of the two Chambers which commenced on the 6th of November this year the whole subject was taken into serious consideration. The Committee had been instructed that the Federal principle on which the Constitution was based should remain untouched. This understanding, however, was not adhered to, and a party of "unionists," composed chiefly of members of the

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democratic party, formed itself, which advocated centralizing the State as much as possible and introducing a uniform system in respect of law, of military service, and of education. This party was very strong in the National Council, which is composed of deputies, elected according to population; but in the State Council, to which each canton elects two Members, without reference to population, the number of "unionists" was comparatively small. The reforms which were brought forward for discussion aimed at carrying out this transfer of power from the cantons to the nation at large, and so throwing political action more directly into the hands of the people. As the constitutional question is still under discussion, its exposition properly belongs to the history of the coming year. We may content ourselves here with mentioning one measure relative to the ever-vexing question of Church and State, which received the sanction of the National Council (Bundesrath) in December. It was to prohibit the Jesuits from settling in Switzerland, or from making any attempts at education, or from founding or re-establishing convents throughout the Federal

territories.

SWEDEN.

The death of the Queen, Wilhelmina of Orange, and the dangerous illness of the King, in the months of February and March, are among the few public events which attract notice in the history of the Northern monarchies this year. The question of military reform occupied a great deal of attention in the Swedish Diet. In the early session a Bill was brought in based upon a former one of 1869, in which the principle of general liability to military service was announced, as well as a tax for the purchase of war material and the erection of fortresses. When the Diet closed, on the 20th of May, the King had to express his regret that the measure had not been carried, but he announced that a special session would be held in the autumn for the purpose of again considering it. The Diet accordingly reassembled in September. Again the opponents of the Government measure proved victorious; and in consequence of its rejection by the Second Chamber, the Ministers tendered their resignation. In the King's speech of May the 20th, allusion was made to the recent rejection, by the Norwegian Storthing, of the scheme for a union of Norway and Sweden, and it was announced that this question would in consequence be postponed until facilities should present themselves for a natural development of the connexion between two countries so closely related. In the Budget presented to the Diet in January the revenue for the financial year 1871-1872 was estimated at 45,610,000 rigsdaler, and the expenditure at 50,563,000 rigsdaler, exclusive of 17,000,000 rigsdaler for extraordinary military expenses.

A project of the Swedish Government to annex the sterile island of Spitzbergen, "for scientific purposes," was officially opposed by

the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, on the ground that public opinion in Russia, though not adverse to the existence of Swedish colonies on the island, was against any formal annexation. Granting, it was urged, that Spitzbergen, being a country which is useless for agricultural purposes, has at present no value for Russia, it might yet become more fertile at some future period, as the Gulf Stream which proceeds from America along the Norwegian coast is beginning to take another direction. The project was abandoned accordingly.

DENMARK.

In September King Christian, travelling incognito, arrived at Baden, and visited the Emperor of Germany. A marriage was arranged to take place between the King's daughter, Princess Thyra, and the King of Bavaria. The Budget for the financial year 1872-3 was declared in October. It showed a deficiency of about two million dollars, which it was proposed to cover by an income tax of three-and-a-half per cent. for three years.

RUSSIA.

"We have thus arrived at the end of the glorious and bloody war which has been forced upon us by the frivolity of the French. Prussia will never forget that she owes it to you that the war did not enter upon extreme dimensions. May God bless you for it! Yours till death, WILLIAM."

"Many thanks for the communication of the Preliminaries of Peace. I share your joy. May it be the will of God that a durable peace follows. I am happy that I could prove to you my sympathy as a devoted friend. May the friendship which unites us insure the happiness and the glory of both countries. ALEXANDER."

Such were the telegrams which flashed between Versailles and St. Petersburg, on the 27th of February, the day on which the capitulation of Paris had been decided. The outside world stood for a moment dismayed. So cordial an understanding between the rulers of Teutonic Germany and Slavonic Russia had not been anticipated. In fact, the "National party" in Russia itself had throughout the war looked suspiciously upon the German successes. The publication of the above telegrams by the advice of the party inclined towards Germany was purposely intended to reassure those otherwise minded, as showing that the Czar had been able to exercise an influence of his own on the course of events.

In Russia, as in most other countries of Europe this year, much attention was paid to the subject of army organization. The Prussian successes had frightened all old military systems out of their self-complacency, and the great War-office question of the day was whether the Prussian plan of universal liability to service