The Sun.
London, England, 1831-04-01 00:00:00

PRICES ()Jr IRISH STOCKS, DUBLIN, MARCH 29.
yank Stock '2lo St. Patrick lnsur. (per ah.)
Consols, 3 oer cent. ..
OGY. Stock, 34', per cent.. : 048 National Ditto... ......... —
rim, /il-.1-iv -N Patriotic Ditto —
4 ~er Ceut — Hibernian Bank
Gov. Deb. 3i per cent.... 66 ,', Provincial Ditto —
Boyal Canal Stoca 39 Royal Irish Mine —
Grand Canal Stock 35 imperial Mine —
City Deb. 4 per cent —' Mining Co, of Ireland ......
Ballast Office Deb. 4p. C — Commercial Buildings —

COURSE OF EXCHJ
Amsterdam C.F 12 21
Ditto. at sight 12 0
Rotterdam " U 12 21
Antwerp 12 2,1
flambli.g M.8.13 19
Alton& 11 12;
Paris, 3 days' sight 25 20
Ditto " U 25 55
nordoaux ^5 60
Berlin
Franh fort on Maine, Ex. M. 131
Petersburgh, ruble, 3 Us. 10 0
Vießna eetiveft tl. M. 10 7
'Trieste
...... do . 10 6
Madrid 37
Cadiz 37
Bilboa lll4
Barcelona 36%
Seville
Gibraltar 4746

?,,TGE YESTERDAY.

Leghorn
Genoa
Venice ...
Malta
Naples . 39
Palermo per oz. 118
Lisbon
Oporto
Rio Janeiro
25
I)tienoi Ayres
Dublin, 21 days' sight 11.4
Cork

BULLION, PER OZ.
g. d.
Portugal Gold, coin 0 0 0
Foreign Gold, in bars 3 17 101.
New Doubloons 0 0 0
New Dollars
Silver bars. tandard 0 0 0

HIGH WATER AT LONDON MUDGE TO-MORROW.
M°tning... 39 minutes after 4. I Evening...7l minutes alter 5.

rt
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LONDON,
FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL I, 1831.

The change of Ministry in Belgium, and the dis-
turbances that have again occurred in that country,
are events which again require attention to be di-
rected to Belgian affairs, to which we should more
frequently have referred had it not been for the more
immediate importance of our domestic politics.
Although the Belgian question has passed from the
field of battle to that of diplomacy, it is far from cer-
tain that it wall not escape from the hold of the
great Powers and become again a question of war,
for it is now manifest that the diplomatists have
altogether departed from the object for which they
met in London in November last, and which was
then declared to be to regulate the terms of an
armistice between Belgium and Holland. The two
Protocols of the 4th and 17th of November had an
armistice for their object, and were accepted and
observed by Belgium ; but subsequently the Pleni-
potentiaries of the five great Powers have sought
not merely to preserve provisionally to the two
armies the lines which they actually occupied, but
to give to Belgium definitive limits, against which
the Belgian Congress and Government have ener-
getically protested, and still do protest. The most
material difference between the great Powers and
the Belgians is in reference to the declared intention
to exclude Luxembourg from the limits of Belgium,
and upon this question the following is the substance
of what we have gathered from the Belgian Jour-
nals of the last three weeks:—

The Duchy of Luxembourg has ever since the
15th century formed an integral part of Belgium.
Having been governed by its own Duke during the
middle ages, it Fussed under the sceptre of the house
of Burgundy in 1461, at the death of the Duchess
ELIZABETH, of Gorlitz. From that time it has never
ceased to form a province of Belgium. It was
united as a Belgian province to the French Republic
by the law of the 9th Vendemiarie, year IV. (Ist
October, 179.5), and was ceded as such by the Em-
peror of AUSTRIA to France, under the denomination
of the Austrian Netherlands, by the third article of
the treaty of Campo-Formio. ',ln 1814 the southern
provinces of the Netherlands were separated from the
French empire, and remained fur a time under a provi-
sional military occupation,unt il the treaty of London of
June, 1814, created the kingdom of the Netherlands
without any reservation of Luxembourg, but com-
prising it under the general denomination of Bel-
gium. The Prince of ORANGE'S Proclamation of
the 16th March, 18:0, declared, " That all the
" countries belonging to Belgium and to Holland
form the kingdom of the Netherlands, and that
" he assumes for himself and his successors the
" title of King, with the addition of that of Duke
"of LUXEMBOCRG, on account of the relations
" which this province is destined to have with Ger-
" many." Thus it is clear that these relations did
not then exist. The Treaty of June, 1814, and the
Proclamation of the 16th March, 1815, consider
Luxembourg as an integral part of the kingdom of
the Netherlands. As to the relations which Lux-
embourg was destined to have with Germany, they
were these :—The Allied Powers were only dis-
posed to ratify the elevation of the House of Orange,
but in consideration of a sacrifice,and without destroy-
ing entirely its relations with Germany, from which
it sprung. It had preserved or recovered its here-
ditary posF.essions of Nassau-Dillenbourg, Sieger),
Hadamar, and Dietz, which gave it a rank among
the dynasties of Germany, and which were regu-
lated by a particular system of succession. The
Allies required the cession of these possessions by
way of exchange for the province of Luxembourg,
and this substitution, which is a mere political fic-
tion, was to have two effects, viz.-Ist, The King
of the NETHERLANDS remained a German Prince as
Chief of the province of Luxembourg, which was
considered to represent the States of Nassau.-
-2cir The law of succession in force in the States of
Nassau became applicable to the Province of Luxem-
bourg. But things did not remain there. In con-
sidering Luxembourg as replacing the States of
Nassau, the Prince FREDERi(', (second son of
King WILLIAM) would inherit it as coon as
his brother attained the throne of the Ne-
).lierlands,—Luxembourg would become a sort
f private perquisite of the Prince, and Belgium
tlight have been exposed to dismemberment.
the treaties, contemplating the inconveniences that
Would result from such a :tate of things, gave to
I" the King of the NETHERLANDS the power of taking'
the necessary measures to preserve the integrity of
kingdom. This was the object of a law of the
.25th May, 1816, which—after reciting that the States
." Nassau (the inheritance of Prince FREDERIC)
having been ceded in exchange for Luxembourg,
itnis province would have indemnified him for the
of his expectancy, but that as the King had
deemed it conformable to the general interest of the
kingdom to re-unite to it the Grand Duchy of Lux-
vnibourg, and to place it under the same constitu-
iiVnal la ws, it was just to provide for the Prince an
'nderanity out of the property of the State, whose
revenue and power had been augmented by
144 re-union—assigns to the Prince FREDERIC
domain situate in the territory of Breda, of
value of 190,000 florins. It is rieces-
:urY to bear in mind these facts, in order to compre-
hend the real state of the question about Luxem-
bourg, for unless we take into consideration this
_e oral exchange, we shall always reason on incor-
breoct es.ta. As to the military relations of Luxem-
Lug with Germany, the new Chief does not ap-
tPieer to object to preserving them, but in the face of
unpo Facts we have mentioned, any argument resting
for the assumption that L.:xembourg has never
gr:ued a part of Belgium, necessarily falls to the
L. I'd' It may be added that in all subsequent acts
• "clurg was considered and treated as a Belgian

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