Switzerland; Belgium; Holland; Denmark; Sweden and Norway.

In Switzerland, after 1815, the democracy grew in power and many of the cantonal constitutions were modified in that direction. Religious troubles arose between Protestant and Catholic cantons, and in 1841, after some fighting in Aargau, some convents were suppressed, with the confiscation of lands and other property. In 1844 the town of Lucerne was attacked by bands of volunteers, demanding the expulsion of the priests. Protestant indignation had been aroused by the concession to the Jesuits of control over public education. Hence arose, in 1847, the war of the Sonderbund, or "separate league," composed of the cantons of Lucerne, Freiburg, Valais, and Zug, whose people, mainly Catholic, insisted on the re-establishment of the convents and of Jesuit authority. The federal army was assembled, to the number of 50,000 men, under General Dufour, the Catholics being able to muster only half as many troops. This little civil war of less than a month's duration ended in the capture of Freiburg, the submission of the other cantons, the dissolution of the Sonderbund, and the adoption of a new form of constitution. The confederacy, formerly a close alliance of sovereign cantons, now became a federal nation, with two councils sitting in Bern, one of members representing the governments of the separate cantons, and the other a national assembly for the whole people, elected according to density of population. In 1874 other modifications were adopted, but the main point is that the Federal Government is supreme in matters of peace, war, treaties, the army, the postal and telegraph system, the coinage, weights and measures, import and export duties, public works, the revenue, copyright, patents, bankruptcy, and other matters, so that uniformity of policy and administration is secured. Education and manufactures have made great progress, and this "playground of Europe" is yearly enriched by the expenditure of some millions of pounds from the pockets of tourists attracted by the superb scenery. We note finally that in 1873 there was a complete rupture with the Papacy, and the institution of a Catholic clergy elected by the people. Entire liberty of conscience exists, and the order of Jesuits and its affiliated societies are excluded from all parts of the country.

The political connection between Holland and Belgium, established at the Congress of Vienna, soon proved to be an ill-assorted union. The people of the northern and southern parts of the "kingdom of Holland" were essentially different in language, interests, religion, and historic feeling, and the Belgians were greatly dissatisfied at their exclusion from the higher civil and military offices. Belgium was a Catholic, agricultural, and manufacturing country; Holland was largely Lutheran in religion, commercial, and maritime. The people of Belgium included two nationalities - the Flemish and the Walloon - the latter being of mingled Celtic and Roman origin, descended from the old Gallic Belgae of Julius Caesar's day. The language of the Walloons is now a dialect of northern French, with old Celtic and "Low German" words, and they are far more like the French than the Flemings in appearance and character. The signal for revolt in the southern provinces was given in 1830 by the French "July" revolution, and the volunteers of Liege, Tournay, and Mons being hailed by the Flemish insurgents as "Belgians," the name was taken as that of all the rebels. Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia soon recognised the independence proclaimed in November, 1830, and in 1832 a large French army, under Marshal Gerard, forced the surrender of the citadel of Antwerp by the Dutch commandant, after wrecking the interior of the fortress by a terrific vertical shell-fire from enormous mortars. The new state had been already constituted as a liberal monarchy under the excellent Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, formerly husband of our Princess Charlotte. King Leopold I. ruled with great popularity and success for 34 years, during which manufactures, arts, and commerce were greatly developed. The only troubles of the country have been electoral and parliamentary conflicts between the liberal and clerical (Catholic) parties on the subject of education,-and some serious industrial riots and Socialist disturbances in the mining and manufacturing towns of the south-east. In 1865, on the king's death, his son Leopold II. came to the throne. In -1870, when the Franco-German war caused an uneasy feeling in the country, Great Britain induced the two belligerent powers to recognise anew the neutrality of Belgium in European warfare, a matter which had been guaranteed by the Powers in her behalf in 1831 and 1839. We shall see hereafter the entrance of Belgium into Africa as a colonial nation.

In Holland, William I., in 1840, abdicated in favour of his son, William II, who died in 1849, just after the revolutionary, movement had compelled him to grant a new constitution. The reign of his successor, William III., was marked, in 1862, by the abolition of slavery in the Dutch West Indies, with compensation to the owners, under which about 42,000 slaves, mostly in Dutch Guiana, became freemen. In the following year the navigation of the Scheldt was freed by the purchase from Holland, on the part of the European naval Powers, of her right to levy tolls. In 1867 the "Luxemburg question" arose in an awkward form, when Louis Napoleon of France sought "compensation" for the increase of Prussian power by negotiations for the purchase of the grand-duchy from Holland, but Prussian resistance caused the scheme to be abandoned, and the matter was settled after a Conference of the Powers in London, whereby the Prussian garrison evacuated the fortress of Luxemburg and the works were dismantled and destroyed, the duchy becoming an independent state. In 1869 capital punishment was abolished. In 1887 a new constitution increased the electorate by 200,000 voters, and the death of the king, in November, 1890, brought to the throne the young Princess of Orange, Wilhelmina, only child of his second marriage with Emma of Waldeck, a lady who acted as regent until the young queen's assumption of power, at 18 years of age, on August 31st, 1898.

Denmark, at the middle of the 19th century, was in' trouble concerning the Schleswig- (Sleswick-) Holstein duchies, which Danish royal policy had for many years sought to make wholly dependent on the Danish crown. In 1815 the Congress of Vienna had reincorporated Holstein in the German Confederation. The population was, to a large extent, German in race and feeling, and much hostility existed towards the Danish element. In 1848 great discontent was caused by King Frederick VII.'s proclamation that Sleswick was to be an integral part of the Danish kingdom, and his refusal to summon the common " estates " of the joint duchies. The German party in both territories were united in feeling, and in March, 1848, a revolt occurred in Holstein under the leadership of Prince Frederick of Augustenburg. The Holsteiners were aided by Prussian and Confederation troops, and some sharp fighting took place. In April, 1849, the Danish redoubts at Duppel were stormed by Bavarian and Saxon troops, and the Danes, a few days later, were defeated by the Schleswig-Holstein army under the Prussian general Bonin. Peace came for a few months, concluded between Denmark, Prussia, and the Confederation, but in January, 1850, the struggle was renewed by the duchies, whose forces were several times severely defeated by the Danes. Austrian intervention then brought a cessation of hostilities, Denmark making a vague promise to "respect the rights of the duchies," but continuing really her former policy of hostility to the German element and of attempts to render the territory thoroughly Danish. It was impossible that such a state of things could continue, and the "Schleswig-Holstein question" became the terror of Lord Palmerston and other great European diplomatists. The matter came to a crisis on the death of Frederick VII. of Denmark at the end of 1863, when Frederick of Augustenburg proclaimed himself "Duke of Sleswick," a title also claimed by the new king of Denmark, Christian IX. In 1864 conjoint forces of Austria and Prussia invaded the territory, overwhelmed the Danish troops, with the storming of the Duppel lines by the Prussians, and occupied Alsen island and all Jutland by the end of June. Some naval warfare was also unfavourable to the Danes, and the Peace of Vienna, in October, 1864, concluded the war with the renunciation by Denmark of all her claims on the duchies, which ultimately became, as we have seen, an integral part of the Prussian state. Denmark has since remained in a peaceful and prosperous condition, deriving large sums of money from the dairy-industry conducted with great skill by her people, and distinguished among European nations in the fact that her royal family has given a king to Greece, a tsarina to Russia, and a Princess of Wales to Great Britain.

In Sweden and Norway, we find Bernadotte, Napoleon's former marshal and foe, succeeding to the throne in 1818 as Charles XIV., and actively engaged, during a reign of 26 years, in the useful work of educational and financial reform, the development of communication by roads and canals, and the reclamation of waste-lands in the vast territory under his control. A constitutional reform, in the shape of a directly elected parliament replacing the old diet, came in 1866, under the reign of Charles XV. A continuance of peace has favoured the commercial and industrial activity which arose in Sweden about the middle of the 19th century, and the national representatives of the peasantry and the trading-class, the chief holders of power under the new constitution, have been actively engaged on questions of internal development and reform. Norway now derives much pecuniary advantage from the annual visits of yearly increasing numbers of British and other tourists - yachtsmen, salmon-fishers, and lovers of fine scenery. The present king of the two countries, Oscar II., has already received honourable mention in these pages in connection with international arbitration.