The new government, it must be admitted upon all hands, in spite of the murmurs of those, the evils of whose condition lay too deep for superficial remedies, such as the ministry had it in their power to apply, have left no practical expedient untried to afford them relief, but as yet in vain; and the history of one year seems but to afford a painful contrast with the greater prosperity of that which preceded it. Money, so far as it was available, has in no case been spared. Mechanical and commercial education, both theoretical and practical, has been duly attended to; prizes and honours have been awarded to successful industry; and communications, both by highways, railroads, and canals, have been lavishly provided to invite consumption and demand; but no government can possibly afford the Belgians or procure for them, that which alone can be a fundamental remedy--_a market proportionate to their machinery_. In every thing that is the offspring of manual labour brought to bear upon native produce, their manufactures are successful; but so soon as they are either obliged to bring their raw material from abroad, or to come into competition with the machinery of more populous countries, their advantages suddenly disappear. Thus in iron work in general, cutlery, ordinary machinery, and hardware, they excel; as well as in the production of lace and of linen yarn, in distillation or brewing, in the manufacture of furniture and paper, and, in short, in all the indispensable requisites of a home consumption. On the other hand, their coal and their iron, though abundant, lie deeper and dearer than those of their most formidable rivals in Great Britain; and copper, which is equally essential to extensive operations in machinery, they have none. Their trade would lose its pre-eminence could the Irish be once induced to adopt their processes for the preparation of flax; their cotton manufacture is in the agonies of dissolution, and their silk has already departed. Their woollens, their sugar refiners, and other once fruitful fields of enterprise and wealth, are no longer to be relied on; and, in a word, the whole frame-work of their system is labouring under a plethora, for which no ingenuity has yet sufficed to invent an effectual relief.