IN

I.TN the capital of each province, where the government of the country refides, no more than one lodge shall be permitted, leaving it entirely at the option of its members to affemble and meet as often as they may think proper, upon condition, however, that notice of the day and hour of fuch meeting or meetings, fhall be given to the magiftrate, or to the intendant of the police. If, in a large and capital city, one fingle lodge fhould prove infufficient for the general accommodation of the brethren, then they may be allowed, on the fame terms of giving notice as above, two, or even three additional lodges, being under the tontroul of the fift and principal one.

II. No Free Matons Lodges fhall be admiffible in any fuch city or town, which is not the feat of the principal government, much lefs in the country, or at any private feat. The informers, in fuch a cafe, fhall be entitled to the fame reward, as is ufually allowed to those who inform againft gambling houfes; because affemblies which confitt of perfons of different ranks and conditions ought not to be left entirely to themfelves, but ever remain under the controul of the magistracy. The delinquents fhall be liable to perfonal punishment.

III. The heads or prefidents (whatever be the title they are known by among themselves) of fuch lodges as will be tolerated hereafter in each town or province, fhall, on their honour and credit, deliver to the principal man in the country, a lift of all the members of the brotherhood, of whatever rank and condition they may be; which lift fhall be tranfmitted here. Every three months the fame heads or pretidents thell join thereto a fupplement, by which it may be known whether the number of Free Malon's, has, within that space of time, increafed or diminished. There wil he no manner of neceflity to add to the names the app:llations by which the brethren are diftinguished among themfelves; yet, whenever a new mafter fhall be appointed, the new elected one fhall give notice thereof to the Regency.

IV. Lodges thus managed, fhall hence forth be fubject to no other inqueft of any kind and nature whatfoever, and the brethren thall be at full liberty to affumble without any controul. By this means, it may not be impoffible, that this fraternity, in which are enrolled fo many meu of inregrity well known to me, may highly diftinguith itself, by becoming ufeful both to the public in general, and to literature in particular. But in the mean time, spnrious lodges, and clandeftine meetings, which I am well informed have been in many inftances diforderly and irregular, fhall be, and are rigorously prohibited, and for ever abolished.

I make no doubt but this prefent rcfcript will prove acceptable to all honest and well-meaning Free Mafons, as it will be their fecurity, whilft it holds out juft and equitable means for preventing all unlawful conventicles, as well as the ir regularities arifing therefrom.

This ordinance fhall have force of law, and take place on the ift of January, 1786. Whoever is refractory thereto, Thall forfeit for each offence 300 ducats, as is enacted against hazard-players. One third of the above fum fhall be allowed to the informer, had he even been of the parry, nor fhall his name be difclofed." Given at Vienna, Dec. 16, 1785.. JOSEPH.

(Signed)

It may not be out of our purpose to ob ferve, that the infertion of the above article in the Vienna Gazette, retarded for Teveral hours the publication of that court paper. The cafe was, that the two Ger. man words, which, in the tranflation, have been foftened into thofe of art and myflery, appeared too fevere, and that great interest was made by the Free Matons to have them altered. Thefe in the German original, worde are, Gauckelei, juggling tricks; and Geldfchneiderei, fwindling, or extorting money, but the Emperor would hearken to no remonttrance, and the expreffion's complained of remain on record.

AUSTRIAN NETHERLANDS.

THE port of Oftend, though widened, is not capable of a Lulky, though well enough adapted for a moderate comerce. The trade here, which dourifhed

very much, during the late war, has, in the courte of 1785, ben obferved to decay. But, though it is not fo confiderable as it was during the war, it is much greater than it was before it: and it has revived,

พ

in a very confiderable degree, a fpring of induftry and adventure in the towns and villages of the Auftrian Netherlands. In thefe provinces, which have fill retained, after witneffing fo many fieges, and bat es, and political revolutions, a very high d.gree of civil liberty, the fertile foil is caltivated with infinite care and skill, by a Virtuous race of men, among whom the gound is parcelled out in lots, generally not exceeding fifty acres. A law has lately been pafled, by the States of Brabant, and, after their example, by the other provinces, limiting farms, at their utmost extent, to one hundred and fifty acres, The land is cultivated by the induftrious hands who reap its fruits, who bestow an attention on every corner of their fields, employing the fpade and hoe in cultivating fpets inacceffible to the plough, Population has thus been prodigiously increafed in the Netherlands, and ftill continues to incirafe. Efy taxes, perfect liberty, and Lecurity of property, with abundance of all things at low prices, neceffary to life, render the Netherlands a scene fit for all the mechanical arts. The linen manufacture, that of lace, porcelain, tapeftry, with fome of the remains of the iron, or rather copper, in Limbourg, and fome of the Walloon provinces, are ftill carried on, though faintly in comparifon of their former profperous ftate. It was not to be wondered that the emperor fhould conceive the project, and endeavour to rettore thefe provinces, by opening of the Scheldt, the Thames of the Low-Countries, to the prerogatives of nature, and their ancient fplendour. In this attempt, even the unconcerned spectator, from a regard to ascient times, and a fenfe of natural right, withed him fuccefs. But in the courfe of 1585, the Flemings faw all the movements of their beloved prince, towards this objeft, rendered abortive. Antwerp viewed the Schelde roiling his deep and ferene tide by the foot of her walls into the ocean, of which, from her lofty battlements, the had a distant profpect, and yet was forced to abandon, with deep regret, thofe commercial enterprizes to which the had begin to raife her views, with hope, and with exultation.

things by the councils and authority of France their moft formidable enemy; and forced to redeem Maeftricht, with its adjacent territory, at the expence of an inmenfe tribute to the Emperor. In the predominancy of the Louveftein faction, we trace the arts of France, as well as her authority, in the pacification between the Dutch and Auftrians. The matter in difpute between the Stadtholder and the States General, appears to be brought to a crifis, by that prince's withdrawing himself from the Hague; but how the French fhall be pleated to decide concerning it, time has not yet difcovered.

Although we have learned both from books and converfation that the origin progrefs and termination of the late difpute between the Dutch and the Emperor have been very generally understood, we conceive it poffible that fome of our rea ders may have been mifled in their conclufions on that fubicct. We hall, therefore, give a brief ftate of the matter, from which it will appear, that the Emperor did not make any claims on the Dutch in oppofition to treaties; and that the latter have not made any conceffions to the Emperor degrading in the eye of justice, however they may appear humiliating in that of political ambition.

The Republic of the United provinces had not only extended their territories beyond the Scheldt and the Meufe, the natural boundaries that feparate the provinces from Flanders and Brabant, but had aifo obtained the fingular prerogative of placing garrifons in many of their frontier cities within the bounds of the Auftrian Netherlands. Holland alarmed at the dangerous vicinity of France, had very carty difcovered the importance of keeping the catholic provinces, between that kingdom and the Republic, for a protection to her own ftare against France; and, with this view, readily fuccopred thofe provinces when they were invaded by Lewis XIV. The apprehenfions of the Republic were increated, when the pretenfions of the Houfe of Bourbon, in confequence of the will of Charles 11. of Spain, to the fucceffion of that kingdom, threatened ro join the frontier of France to that of the States; and, accordingly, the gave a more firm fupport than they had done before to that grand alliance which was formed for oppofing the domination of the family of Bourbon. The

Republic at the treaty of Utrecht, in order

to render the Auftrian Netherlands a Stronger bulwark to her own provinces Fi against

gainst French encroachment, ftipulated that certain cities on their fouthern fronfier towards France, fhould be affigned as barrrier cities, and that these should be garrifoned only by the troops of the States General. It appeared extremely humiliat ing to the Catholic Provinces of the Netherlands, that fome of their principal cities were to be garrifoned by the troop of a foreign power, and of a power too which had exhibited, by the fhutting up of the Scheldt, and other articles of the peace of Munster, fo great, and, as it were, malignant a jealoufy of their profperity. But their oppofition to a barriertreaty was vain against the united power of Holland and England. Tournay, Menin, Ypres, with other cities fituated on the fouthern confines of the Auftrian Provinces, and forming one continued chain of fortreffes, were affigned as barrier cities against France, were garrisoned with Dutch forces; and the expence of inaintaining them was to be defrayed by the catholic provinces.

The prefent fovereign of these provin ces took other measures for freeing them from the degradations in which they were held, and the conftant expence under which they laboured in con'equence of the peace of Utrecht. In the war carried on against the Netherlands by Lewis XV. the barrier cities poorly defended by the Dutch, were reduced by the fuperior arms of France, and for the most part difman tled, before they were by the treaty of Aix-la Chappelle, reftored to their fovereigns. The Republic not having fulfilled the article by which the engaged to repair

the fortifications of the barrier cities, the Emperor affirmed with justice, that be was no longer bound to maintain the garrifons of Holland, in places which in war were abfolutely untenable; and these garrifons, in confequence of the remon ftrances and military preparations of the Emperor, evacuated the barrier cities. The encroachments of the Dutch on the Auftrian territories, beyond the bounds marked out by treaties, had been, by the late pacification, reftrained: and the forts which they had built on ufurped ground thrown down. The City of Macftricht was retained by the Hollanders against an exprefs article of the treaty of Aix laChapelle. To this important city the Emperor afferted his title, and to an adjoining and dependant domain; but offered at the fame time, to give up his claim on condition that the navigation of the Scheldt fhould be opened to his fubjects. The Dutch anxiously concerned for their commerce, have propofed and obtained through the mediation of France, averfe to the opening of the Scheldt, as well as themselves, a commutation of this for other facrifices to his Imperial Majefty. Maeftricht has been redeemed by the United Provinces, for an immense ransom, Several forts and diftricts, built and ufurped by them, have been ceded to the Catholic provinces: and the Dutch have been compelled to do juftice. But whe ther and how long the bounds of juftice will reftrain the approaches of their pow erful neighbours, is a queftion of great uncertainty and anxious concern,

THIS formidable Coloffus, from the

bofom of Afia, threatens Europe, which, by a ftrange fafcination feems to Jook on the vaft mafs with indifference, Is the reftless genius, which used to prefide over the balance of Europe, enchant edor does it reckon the weight of Afia, in the hands of England, as of no confequence? What! the contefts for the poffeffion of a small province in Italy, Germany, or Flanders, have more than once raifed a flame in Europe, which has trembled for its liberty, and cried out against the afpiring prince for his ambition to at

tain an univerfal monarchy and when England engroffes one after another the kingdoms of Afia, the nations of Europe, with a liftleffoefs unworthy of their dignity, leave their common rival to run his race, without an obftacle when their ruin is the prize that it feeks, and which it is almoft ready to feize. Shall an age dif tinguished by revolutions fa important, pafs away without our perceiving thofe events, which fhall render it an object of attention to the eyes of pofterity;

Let us roufe, for it is time, and guard against the furprizes which England pre