The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-12 00:00:00

complained to his Secretary of his having brought to the •
Laeken a clerk whose habits were troublesome.
At eight o'clock a courier from Brussels brings to the
King books, newspapers, and Ministerial decisions,
which he is to countersign. At ten he meets his family
for the first time at breakfast. He chats with the Queen,
plays with the children, and, above all, puts questions
to the Prince Royal, who, though very young, already
displays the utmost intelligence. The youthful Prince
whom the Queen rather adores than loves, receives thus
early the best education. He can converse in French,
Flemish, English, and German. He answers all ques-
tions upon geography, and is well informed in ancient
history. This child, upon whom the br'.ghtest hopes
are founded, is educated with a simplicity which re-
minds one of the education given to all the sons of
Louis Philippe,
At noon his Majesty enters upon all the real cares
annexed to the throne. He gives audiences. This is
a fatiguing task to a Sovereign, for to accomplish it he
must ever listen, ever smile, and ever promise. It is
but justice to say that the King acquits himself of it
as it he had never done anything else in his whole life,
and in that respect he proves that he has forgotten none
of the good traditions.
At three o'clock in the afternoon the audiences are,
thank God, at an end. The letters from France and
other countries then come in. A courier leaves trip
Laeken at four o'clock, to carry the Royal correspond-
ence to the post-office ; at half-past five dinner takes
place. The dinner is always en fantille ; and what
cooking there is at the Laeken is exclusively allotted to
the Royal Family. The scanty personnel of the cha-
teau receive their culinary supplies from without.
There exists, however, a kitchen service upon quite
a Royal scale ; but it is at Brussels. There is, there-
fore, a table at Brussels just as if the King were
there ; but one dines where he actually is as if
he were not present. The reason is, that the
King abhors whatever savours of Royal splen-
dour. He lives, and will live, as an English gen-
tleman, and would soon abdicate if the constitution
obliged him to exhibit himself in public more fre-
quently. Such was his life at Claremont, such it is in
the domain of Laeken, and plainer still it is in that of
the Ardennes. As for Brussels, he hntes it ;we mean
the Palace, of course, and not the capital.
It may be easily conceived that a Prince whose
plainness is so gloomy cannot kindle about him any
very enthusiastic affections. Leopold, besides, would
not like to be loved in that way. It is, indeed, already
a great deal too much for his Majesty to be con-
demned to endure the civilities of the Palace Grand
Marshal. The King's ever anxious, sombre, and mys-
terious countenance casts, as it were, a gloomy veil over
the whole chateau. Under its roof you never tread but
most lightly, you talk in whispers, and unlearn to laugh.
The valets, in short, are like their master ; and, me-
thinks, even the horses paw much less noisily at the
Laeken than elsewhere. Nevertheless, the King is not
triste, but he labours under a melancholy, over the in-
tenseness of which the gracefulness and charming ami-
ableness of the Queen have never been able to prevail.
One would think that royalty is too great a weight
to Leopold, and that, however light the protocol-
makers have rendered it, it is still too heavy for him ;
and yet Leopold cannot be said to be wholly free from
ambition. Look raund you, and see how the house
of Coburg is spreading its branches over all the
thrones of Europe. It is he who contrived, pre-
pared, and accomplished all this. I can also affirm, for
I have no reason to conceal the truth, that if the oppro•
brious De Theux Cabinet had not submitted to the
fatal influence of Palmerston and Mole, the King would
never have come to a promise on the question of the
twenty-four articles.
It was by repressing all his anger within himself
that he signed the cession of Limburg and Lux-
emburg ; and if it had been possible for him not
to feel the contre-coup of the national humiliat;on,
it would have been only in groaning, and by sub-
mitting to superior force, that he would have given
such satisfaction to his cousin William. That satis-
faction be gave, after all, at the expense of his personal
vanity and honour, and he has not yet forgiven his
father-in-law the hard necessity in which diplomacy
placed him. A well-struck coup de theatre might have
saved the whole affair—rather than give way, King
Leopold should have abdicated. Well, of such abdi-
cation he did think.

At one moment even, notwithstanding the pro-
found discretion of our Sovereign, his design became
so visible that all the people of the chateau no longer
met one another without whispering—" The King
abdicates !" He was near doing so ; and if Leopold
did not persist longer in his heroic resolution, which
would have saved all, it was not owing so much to the
solicitations of Louis Philippe and Queen Victoria, as
to the scrupulous care with which his Belgian Majesty
avoids being talked of. Leopold was afraid of affording
a theme to the babbling of the newspapers and public.
—Belgian Periodical.