The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-13 00:00:00

Gentlemen were in the habit of quoting Lord Chathailll
remarkable words, " that if that House did not reforin
itself from within, it would be reformed with a vengearo
from without." In his apprehension there was nothingi
ill became the present Ministers, a- quoting the celebrate,'
Lord Chatham. If that distinguished Statesman lived j°
the present times, he certainly would never live gone j}ll
length of the present Reform Bill, however strong ',I
views might have been on that subject. But be that as
;nielit, the bare mention of Lord Chatham's name wa°e
,eproach to the foreign policy of the present Administrm•
tiori. In the days of Lord Chatham England was ri,c
spected by all the nations of Europe, but in these dar
sh
bad abandoned all her ancient principles, and ought to blind
at the name of Chatham—she had abandoned her 01d a 9
faithful Aliieg, rushing forward to grapple with the st•ealo
and perfectly ready to truckle to France and to Russia. ,
Lord ELLIOT (as we understood) said be should ttoub;i
the Home with only one or two remarks. He sh(n3
merely call the attention of the House to the coeciadil
paraaraph of a communication from the King of 110110,e
in which lie stated, this; under certain circumstances 1"
should have recourse to hostilities!, and it was here to bef
observed, that there was a simtiltaneoua commencement
hostilities and r newal of negociations ; uu lilt wtlt!fl
trot.hie the House by too minute a reference to dates;
would maintain that throughout it was with the King °f
llolland a question of policy and of expediency, and Dot i°
/debt ; for nothing could be more explicit than was „e
stat. mint of the King of the Netherlan Is, that if a fore's
Prince ascended the throne of Belgium, without aceedin!'
to the terms which the Dutch Monarch thought it for
interest and honour to propose, a Prince so assuming tbe
Government of Belgium must be treated as an entIPP
Such were the sentiments of the King of Holland; uririci
aim': principles, so avowed, he acted; and now he wilt' 0
inquire of all who heard dim, how such conduct lay 01);
CO the charges which had been urged ? The King of .1,1
Netherlands affirmed that Prince Leopold had not ascento
the throne of Belgium in conformity with those terms, s;
upon that eround he declared war against him. What ai
especially complained of in the conduct of the Noble IP"
was this, that he did not abide by the principles which be
himself laid down.
Lord STORMONT wonld not persevere in the motioo,
of which he had given notice, but begged to observe, thej
on the 22d of June the King of the Netherlands
Ije
stated, that if the treaty then pending were not settled °I
he proposed, he should certainly have recourse to militso,
means. There was another point to which he wished t°,
call the attention of the House, namely, that on the Pt;
of August the Noble Lord opposite (the Secretary of
for Foreign Affairs) was in possession of a sealed comul;
nication of the utmost importance, as it turned out, %chic
he retained unopened for 24 hours. Under the circa)",
stances the Noble Lord might well have supposed tbat
contained matter of importance ; it might, therefore, veil,
naturally he supposed that the Noble Lord would not hay.
lost a moment in calling together the members of the
ference and ascertaining its contents. It according
could be no matte of surprise that his Right Hon. filo
should express his surprise that the communicat°
question should S 1 long have remained unopened. Ihet,
could be no sort of doubt that in the whole of these 11',„
tern the Noble Lord opposite had taken things too easdi Yu;
and he felt perfectly assured that the occurrence referre,,
gave an instruction to the Noble Lord, front which it 'l:r
to be hoped that in future he would profit. If a° era
occasion of the same sort occurred, he would ventare,,,
predict that the Noble Lord would take special care ilrocb
lose a moment in summoning a conference.--0
coughing and mdse.) It was quite a mistake iP
Jot
Noble Lord to suppose that his Right Hon. Friend njeof
'to blame him for not opening the seal of the packet. ,de
complaint was not that the Noble Lord was unwillit''o,4
break the seal, but that he neglected to call the cooferedi
together, for the purpose of ascertaining the 0)°:;',l 1:t
of these documents. The Noble Lord and his ,
Honourable Friend were educated in the same "ali
school, and the House roust know that to break 8e
communications was nut the practice of that school ; 30,1 a
therefore, he was justified in assuming that his eiSn't,le
Hon. Friend would be as slow to recommed as the
Lord himself could he to adopt such a practice. 00'
Sir GEORGE MURRA said, he should be Yell re,
willing to detain the House upon an occasion like 6'1)00
sent ; but he was sure that most lion. Members ‘v°l)Ce
agree with him, that it was one of sufficient nnport"v°
ol
to justify his making u few observations. The Nohleth
had complained that he was put upon his defence, "a b.,01
being enabled to produce those docutuenta by which,l;tta
his conduct could be justified and explained; but 11,
Noble Lord could, with any show of reason, comPlatif
the treatment which he himself had received, with -bill
much greater cause might the King of Holland rau°,l'
voice in the language of complaint ? for that Mons...‘
had been most completely put upon his defence by the
Noble Lord wl.n had spoken from the other side of too
House. The Noble Lord had insinuated, nay, had al °,41
directly brought an accusation of bad faith against
ter,
Sovereign. It had been stated in that House, on S't
day, that the armistice had been broken and violatedr,
the King of the Netherlands : that was a grave cb°!_c
but when the Right Hon. Bironet, the Member for assns
worth, pointed out the expression as too strong. and, yegi/
bably the result of inadvertence, it was then explain'ltati
there were two armistices—the one local, and con 60711;
the opposing forces of Antwerp, and the other geneyo
the ohs rvation being added, that time latter was Vol
Wittiow: ally notice ; and that up to the moment at
d 1f
the Noble Lord spoke, his Majesty's Government 10,0
notice on the subject. On Tuesday, the Noble Lorsoro
reply to a question from the Hon. Member for Sndlito
said that there had Leen no communication fr°,31,,,01;
Dutch Minster of any intention to resume host"' pp,
lot of what importance were those statements, when 110
thing could have been more distinct and explicit that'll,'
intimation given by the King of the Netherlandsa--3bsd
should resort to military means for the purpose of ,V
porting ha negociations? He confessed himself a' tiO
unable to comprehend how the Government nifilld
country could profess not to know the intention 061
King of the Netherlands to break the armistice.
House only turn its attention to the measures whic`:o44
been taken by the Dutch Government, and the 1"I'"90
which that Government held. It says, that " the?
of establishing an armistice had never been realised/ 01?
exists at the present moment only a cessation of 11°ta17!
ties." Was, then, the King of the Netherland°, %SI
charged with any breach, founded upon his putt '.°loo
and to that, which had never been completely estalooolo
They were at issue with the Noble Lord as they
100ei
denied the existence of the armistice ; yet still he "10
imputing to time King of the Netherlands a vit°;llo,,
the armistice, when he merely had recourse to
means in the event of the negociations not terinin,'
his satisfaction. Of this, however, there coulcia
question, that not a shadow of imputation reste,,,ol,l
the character of the King cf the Nether! inds. A,41
did he mean to cast any imputation upon the On"
l
the Noble Lord, for, as he had himself very' proPetati:o
it was not in his power to produce those docun- or
which alone his defence could be sustained ; and, „I tY
part, such was his confidence in the Ministers IV,
Crown, he would not tail for them. But it was nco-iti
less necessary that the attention of the public sh 01;
directed to all the foreign policy of this country -'0:1
proceedings which had recently taken place, as i•
specting the Netherlands as with regard to PortugaX
it appeared to him, that British policy had been rewlm;
subordinate to that of another power, with regard t 0 `r
he should be the last in the world to use any offeri%o
pression. No man entertained a more sincere 01,-ace(a/
the French nation than he did. His professionaicto
ence led him to en'e.tlin for their military cha,rAtitool
io
highest respect ; but, with the feelings of a "-"coic°i
could not allow what appeared to him an aqui° et
French views to pass altogether without notice'oerio,
same time that his Majesty's Ministers might,_ jas'l
was in their power to lay the documents befors,o
ts
went, produce a complete justification of their 'l° as',
1
duct. In the meanwhile, however, he did think lotie,
si_rb.aeeuioeefbe
etgtiirnlte:a,et
ttaaiht
elevßnalarntitttmaiasg:ale:tit
matter
ifrne
eatoti,rife6sohß,u,onrruiptlii(r)isio:er
bt ieuttguhala c
att %
l. ic
teorn::
tions in the channel, and a French Pfilt r Toiruhocie4 .4:r;
principal harbour of our ancient ally.
certainly matters upon which the public wn",
and were entitled to the fullest expi,natiou 0,1
icy
with respect to Belgium, he did not mean her he was then prepared to urge any objection to e
thin l!
i from Holland, provided in that separatism Pttho,il
terests were not neglected—were not a3crificed I°oll,ol
that neighbeurine Power towards which the
ousy of Englishmen would not be tiiminishrd • the
occurrences. Rumour slid that the fleet under be
dr
roan,; of Sir E. Codrington had been placed at tl
of the Congress; but was the army under Mural
to be governed by the same authority ? WOO r Ode'
instance of Congress draw back from Be/ gi :ay r
d.arbd
ere:o ;
Would he draw back his army as Sc' 000,,f1'
retire with his fleet ? There were many
which the attention of the British publi° We°u„peeeb,
be strongly directed ; they would refer to th eNrO(
by the King of the French, wherein his Maiesro'ied Of,
satisfaction " that the kingdom of Belgium ,64, b, 00 ;
of the German Confederation." Now he dodipiaaa,
profess to be particularly acquainted with
fairs ; but he did believe that it wOO4l be infitrt