the Congress unanimously proclaimed the independence of Belgium. On the 22d, it decreed, by a majority of one hundred and seventy-four votes against thirteen, that the form of the government should be monarchical. Other important measures were passed within a few months of busy and turbulent discussion. The perpetual exclusion of the Nassaus, the adoption of the Constitution, and the election of a sovereign, were the other great questions on which the fate of the country hinged; and they were all debated, and decided in accordance with the convictions of Europe at large.

On the 4th of November the Conference of London, composed of representatives of the five Great Powers, commenced their long series of protocols, which began by pronouncing the existence of an armistice between Holland and Belgium, and assigning the same boundaries to the two States as existed before the union; that is to say, before the treaty of Paris of May 30th, 1814. By a protocol of December 20th, 1830, the Conference pronounced the dissolution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Several circumstances occurred in rapid succession, and of almost miraculous coincidence, in favor of the new State, still struggling on to independence. First, was the singular want of sense, spirit, and of common powers of calculation, which hurled De Potter from his eminence to the meanest level, political and personal; until, within a few weeks from his triumphal entry into Brussels, he was driven from its gates, reviled and unpitied, an outcast too happy to escape with his life.

Secondly, was the unlooked-for forbearance of Louis Philippe, (no matter from what source it sprang,) making him repress the national longing of all France to seize on Belgium, as a recovered portion of its territory.

Thirdly, the breaking out of the Polish revolution, November 29th, 1830, turning the attention, and calling for the whole force, of the Russian despot to internal affairs, and paralyzing all his plans for offensive operations against France, and for a restoration in Belgium.

Fortuitous circumstances of minor moment might be adduced, all tending towards the same great end. Altogether, the good genius of Belgium triumphed over a thousand obstacles, raised up by domestic faction, Dutch intrigue, and foreign jealousies; and the crowning measure, the election of

Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg to be King, completed the series of events which marked Belgium as the only perfect political result of the revolutions of 1830, and led to her becoming a model for the monarchical states of Europe.

With this result before us, it is unnecessary to dwell on the minute details of seventy protocols, issued by the Conference of London, in reference to the Dutch and Belgic question. The multifarious state papers relative to this remarkable affair have been collected and printed. Their examination may be useful for the student of diplomatic anatomy; and they certainly form a monument of statesmanlike forbearance and forethought.

The question of the choice of a king offered a most curious spectacle to the world at large, and its progress abounded in important lessons to both monarchs and people. From the various persons named by the public voice or actually put upon the list as candidates in the first instance, the most remarkable were the Duke of Leuchtenberg, the eldest son of Eugene Beauharnais, and the Duke of Nemours, second son of Louis Philippe, King of the French. Of these rivals it may be stated, that the choice of the first would have been anti-French, without being European ; that of the latter exclusively French, but anti-European. Louis Philippe and the Conference of London declared against both; and while the election was nevertheless proceeding at Brussels, the Prince of Orange was proclaimed at Ghent, in an unsuccessful attempt for his succession, by Colonel Ernest Grégoire, one of the defenders of the Brussels barricades against the Dutch attack.

From that period the necessity became evident of finding some individual to fill the vacant throne, who would unite in himself the confidence of all the European powers, without being a mark for the jealousy of any. To occupy the interregnum by a neutral measure of preparation, M. Surlet de Chokier, a respectable Belgian gentleman, was named Regent on the 24th of February, 1831. The national congress, having adjourned on the 6th of March, assembled on the 29th of the same month, separated once more on the 12th of April, and did not meet again till the 18th of May. During these intervals they completed the work of the revolution in the spirit of European policy; and they consummated the most important of its acts, (for a false step then had irretrievably - NO. 114.

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ruined the country,) by making a formal offer of the throne to Prince Leopold.

The conferences between the Prince and the commissioners deputed by the congress to wait on him in London afforded many proofs of his good sense and good feeling. He came forward at their solicitation, backed by the entreaties of the principal powers of Europe; and he accepted the great, but most troublesome, trust they reposed in him, from an exalted regard for the public good. The only conditions for which he stipulated were such as related to the well-being of the country he was chosen to rule over. He left London on the 16th of July, 1831, and made his entry into Brussels on the 21st, when he was at once inaugurated, with all due solemnity; the national congress being, by this act, dissolved.

Scarcely was Leopold seated on his uneasy throne, when the King of Holland, true to his treacherous character, sent forward his son, the Prince of Orange, unfortunately, on this as on former occasions, too subservient to his father's will, to invade Belgium, at the head of an army of fifty thousand men and seventy pieces of cannon, in defiance of the existing armistice, and while the Dutch plenipotentiaries at the Conference of London were giving written assurances of the King's ardent desire to conclude a definitive treaty of peace!

After a campaign of ten days, in which a scrambling action, called by courtesy the battle of Louvain, was fought, having put to complete rout the undisciplined volunteers of Belgium, the Prince of Orange retreated to Holland to reap the honors of his poor triumph. The appearance of the French army, which Leopold called to his assistance, was the cause of this retrograde movement. The rival commanders had good opportunities afforded them for proving once more their personal courage; the Prince of Orange having a horse killed under him, and one of King Leopold's aides-de-camp being wounded by his side, in the thickest of the fight.

This battle of Louvain, like the bombardment of Antwerp by General Chassé, had a highly salutary effect on the character of the Belgian nation. Had it not been for these checks to their overweening pride, which may be fairly pardoned in consideration of their great successes, Leopold would have found it perhaps impossible to govern the country with the ease he has done for the last ten years. The influ

ence of his firm, yet forbearing, temperament has been immense on a people at once so susceptible and so reflective. The wisdom of his administration has produced the happiest effects; shown forth in the rapid return to tranquillity and order; in commercial, agricultural, and manufacturing enterprise; and in the establishment of a solid, and, to all appearances, a lasting, system of prosperity.

The series of harassing difficulties, known to diplomacy by the technical title of "the Dutch and Belgic question," lasted long after the election of Leopold; fomented by the sordid obstinacy of King William, but resolutely combated by France and England, to whom the other Great Powers, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, gave a cold, and often a forced, coöperation. The laborious efforts of the statesmen and diplomatists of the two former countries were incessant, and successful beyond hope, in saving Europe from a general war. Among the most distinguished in carrying out those intricate negotiations, was the British Ambassador at the Hague, Sir Charles Bagot, who had previously filled the post of English Minister at Washington, and whose appointment to be Governor-general of Canada has been recently announced. And it may be here observed, in passing, that few individuals could be better adapted for the task of consolidating the union of the two provinces, from his experience of the junction between Holland and Belgium, a case so marvellously analogous to the great experiment over which he has been chosen to preside. The similarity of the two cases is as nearly as possible complete, - difference of races, language, and religion; disproportion of population, with equality of representation; far greater amount of public debt of the less populous division of the country, converted into a general liability to be shared by the other; and many minor resemblances, most striking to any one familiar with the formation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. And, to finish the picture, the proximity of a powerful nation is not wanting, with certain unequivocal yearnings for the possession of those adjoining provinces, which it requires no small exertion of domestic wisdom to repress. Every one of the errors committed by King William and of the evils they brought forth, during his short and troubled reign, must be fresh in the memory of Sir Charles Bagot. No individual was more prominent than he, in endeavours to prevent the former and to mitigate the latter. He has learned a lesson, the value of

which may be now turned to practical account. And it is matter of satisfaction to every good citizen of the United States, that this critical trust has fallen into the hands of one, who is represented by those who know him best, to be honorable, able, and conciliatory; combining qualities of head and heart which fit him to be not only a good governor, but, what is full as important in the present aspect of affairs, a good neighbour.

This digression has awakened reflections that come more home to us, and may perhaps do so to our readers, than even those arising from our coming intercourse with the kingdom of Belgium. We are therefore more disposed to bring the latter subject to a close at present, than to dwell on many of the topics it suggests, and which may at some future time be brought forward.

There is no doubt that from this growing connexion much reciprocal advantage may be drawn. The business transactions of the two countries have been recently facilitated by the conclusion of a treaty of commerce, long wished for by both, and the abortive efforts to effect which some years back must be fresh in the public mind.* But points of material interest (to use a French phrase) apart, many valuable sources of improvement will be opened by a free interchange of personal communications, by mutual observation of character and manners, and by a wider spread of information as to the great public transactions of our own times as well as of the past. If America furnished in the last century the most glorious of revolutionary examples to the Old World, the nations of Europe have, in the present one, given noble proofs that the example was not lost on them. Though France was checked in her career of freedom, and Naples crushed; though Poland may have perished, and though Spain be still convulsed in the throes of her long agony, - Belgium is flourishing in full success. Her triumphs afford many consolations to the less fortunate strugglers against kingly and aristocratical misrule. She has shown, that it is in the heart of the people that the lifeblood of freedom circulates; that its strength is in their sinews; and that their arms must work it out. She has shown, also, that splendid talents are not necessary to trace the march of liberty. Their too often delusive glare need not shine on her self-lighted path. Plain, prompt, and en

* Since these remarks went to the press, the public learns that unexpected obstacles have arisen to the execution of this treaty. We trust they are to prove only temporary. ¡