That the contracting parties should occupy themselves immediately with
the definitive treaty, to which Austria, Prussia, and Russia should be
invited to become parties." The King of Holland having agreed to these
articles, the principal point of discussion remaining was that of
compensation: in the meantime Europe was secured against the danger of
a general war, arising from the differences which had existed between
Holland and Belgium.

CHAPTER XLIV.

{WILLIAM IV. 1834}

_Meeting of Parliament..... Mr. O'Connell's Motion for the
Repeal of the Union..... Divisions in the Cabinet.....
Commission issued to inquire into the state of the Irish
Church..... Irish Tithe Question..... Renewal of Irish
Coercion Bill..... Resignation of Earl Grey, etc......
Rejection of the Irish Tithe Bill by the Peers..... State
of Ecclesiastical Questions, and the Claims of
Dissenters..... Poor Laws Amendment Act..... The Corn-Law
Question..... Financial Statements, etc...... Bill for the
Removal of the Civil Disabilities of the Jews, etc......
Disputes with France regarding the Newfoundland Fisheries,
etc...... Steam Navigation..... Prorogation of
Parliament..... Dissolution of the Cabinet..... Sir Robert
Peel appointed Prime-Minister..... Dissolution of
Parliament..... The Act abolishing Slavery in the West
Indies carried into effect..... The Affairs of Ireland.....
State of the Continent, etc._

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

{A.D. 1834}

On the 4th of February the session was opened by the king in person. In
his speech his majesty alluded to the slavery abolition bill introduced
last year, stating that the manner in which that beneficent measure had
been received throughout the colonies, and the progress made in carrying
it into effect by the legislature of Jamaica, afforded just grounds for
anticipating the happiest results. Among the various important subjects
still calling for consideration, his majesty enumerated reports from
the commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of municipal
corporations, into the administration of the poor laws, and into
the ecclesiastical revenues of England and Wales. His majesty also
recommended the early consideration of such a final adjustment of the
tithes in Ireland as might extinguish all just causes of complaint,
without injury to the rights and property of any class of his subjects,
or to