red himself to be governed by priestly delusions;
and, secure in his military appointment, seemed to set the rest of his
subjects at defiance. Apprehensive, however, that these disputes would
put an entire stop to the administration of justice, he, by letters
patent, established a royal chamber for the prosecution of suits civil
and criminal, which was opened with a solemn mass performed in the
queen's chapel at the Louvre, where all the members assisted. On this
occasion another difficulty occurred. The letters patent, constituting
this new court, ought to have been registered by the parliament which
was now no more. To remedy this defect, application was made to the
inferior court of the Chatelet, which refusing to register them, one
of its members was committed to the Bastile, and another absconded.
Intimidated by this exertion of despotic power, they allowed the king's
officers to enter the letters in their register; but afterwards adopted
more vigorous resolutions. The lieutenant,-civil appearing in their
court, all the counsellors rose up and retired, leaving him alone, and
on the table an _arret_, importing, that whereas the confinement of one
of their members, the prosecution of another, who durst not appear, and
the present calamities of the nation, gave them just apprehensions for
their own persons; they had, after mature deliberation, thought proper
to retire. Thus a dangerous ferment was excited by the king's espousing
the cause of spiritual insolence and oppression against the general
voice of his people, and the plainest dictates of reason and common
sense.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE DIET RELATIVE TO EAST FRIEZELAND.

The property of East Friezeland continued still to be the source of
contention between the electors of Bran-denburgh and Hanover. The
interest of his Britannic majesty being powerfully supported by the
house of Austria, the minister of that power at the diet proposed that
the affair should be taken into immediate consideration. He was seconded
by the minister of Brunswick; but the envoy from Brandenburgh, having
protested in form against this procedure, withdrew from the assembly,
and the Brunswick minister made a counter-protestation, after which
he also retired. Then a motion being made, that this dispute should be
referred to the decision of the Aulic council at Vienna, it was carried
in the affirmative by a majority of fourteen voices. His Prussian
majesty's final declaration with regard