The Sun.
London, England, 1833-09-28 00:00:00

porium." But here again you have been mis-
taken. I have told you, over and over again, in
the columns of the Morning Chronicle, that
you would be so. I knew that M. Verstolk was
sent " as a blind ;" that the King of Holland
and the Prince of Orange continued to write to
their agents and partisans in Paris, at Brussels,
and at Antwerp, not to imagine that he (King
William), would ever sign a treaty with Leo-
pold ; and I knew that he (William), had sent
money and instructions everywhere, how to act
on his behalf, to his well-paid and zealous re-
presentatives. Still, my Prince, you pursued
the same tone of assurance—wrote home
over and over again the same declarations,
that all would be speedily settled—still the
Belgian stock went higher and higher, and at
last the Five per Cent. Belgian Loan was at par.
There has been a fall since then of four or five per
cent., but it is even now some thirty per cent.
too high. You know, my Prince, that the
18th July, and then the 17th August, and then
an early day in September, were all fixed for the
final settlement ; but now the Dutch Minister
has gone back to the Hague for instructions—
the Conference of London is dispersed among
the partridges—the affairs of Belgium are as
far off an arrangement as ever—and you have
taken your leave of the Court of St. James's,
perchance never more to return.
There are not a great many persons in the
world who have a right to laugh or to crow at
this denouement; but at least 0. P. Q. is entitled
to do so ; for, during the nearly three years of
negotiation which have taken place, he has never
once said the affairs of Belgium are about to be
finally settled. The Chronicle has not repeated
the foolish reports, and the yet more absurd
predictions of the Globe and the Courier; but
when almost all the Paris and the London press
have contained some paragraph assuring their
readers that the affairs of Belgium were approach-
ing a final settlement, I have said, no, there will
be no treaty signed between Holland and
Belgium, and there will be no real arrangement
until the Belgian provinces shall be reunited to
France.

And now, my Prince, allow me to condole
with or to congratulate you on the results of
your three years' diplomatic negotiations to lose
Belgium to France, and to maintain it at all
risks and hazards what you are pleased to dig-
nify with the title of an European peace. The
King of Holland was told months ago not to
sign anything, not to promise anything, not to
concede anything, but to wait for a Conference
or Congress of Sovereigns which would be held
in the month of August or September. Though
the Citadel of Antwerp was taken in January,
we have arrived very nearly at October without
any settlement, and none you will have, for the
Congress of Munchengratz will at least have
directed King William to obtain more delays,
by refusing to make any more concessions.
And here permit me to ask you one question
—will you advise your own Government, and
will the British Minister of Foreign Affairs
counsel the King of Great Britain, to make war
against Holland, to invade Holland, blockade
Holland, conquer Holland, depose the King of
Holland, and occupy militarily, and that for a
considerable portion of time, the interior and the
capitals of Holland, in order to compel King
William to sign a treaty with the son-in-law
of Louis Philip, and with the half-nephew
of the King of Great Britain and Ha-
nover ? I doubt it very much ! Yes,
I doubt it very much, indeed ! And yet, un-
less this counsel be given and followed, I am as
certain that the King of Holland will never
sign that treaty, and never come to any arrange-
ment, as I am that error is not truth, and that
vice is not purity. Besides which, let me ask
you another question. Do you believe, if your
advice were given to this effect, that Louis
Philip would follow it ? Do you think that
the lovers of peace and commerce, above and
before everything, would risk a general war in
Europe, even for his son-in-law ? Or do you
think that the Courts of Russia, Prussia, and
Austria, would submit quietly to see the King
of Holland dethroned, and perhaps a Stadt-
holder appointed in his stead, for the sake of
securing the permanence and stability of what
they look upon as a revolutionary Government ?
No, no, my Prince; this Belgian question is a
war question, a thorny question—a question
you cannot, and will not, get over by negoti-
ation or conferences ; and if you and Lord
Palmerston are bent on maintaining Leopold at
Brussels, both you and he must make up your
minds to draw the sword.
Thus, my Prince, at the end of three years,
you are the victim of a series of duperies, and
duperies practised upon you with insolence and
impunity, because it was known, and given out
from the commencement, that your mission was
to preserve peace— that your Government would
not go to war—and that, come what would, the
counsellors of the King of the French would
not, and could not, prevail on him to adopt
any other than a peace-seeking and peace-
submitting policy. Your mission, then, has
been a complete failure. Europe is just as
much in a state of uncertainty as to the future
as she was when you first went to London.
Europe is just as indisposed to disarm as she
was in 1830 ! The German Confederation will
not suffer the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg to
belong to Belgium ! The German Confedera-
tion is about to alter the German constitutions,
and render them less liberal ! And the German
Confederation is preparing to interfere in the
affairs of Switzerland ! Your mission then has
failed, and neither France nor Belgium owes you
either gratitude or honour.
But, my Prince, if war must after all be made
about Belgium, how much better would it be that
it should be so made in the interest of France,
to the advantage of the Belgians, and with a view
to the final settlement of the question, than that
it should be entered into merely to serve some
dynastic interests or some personal ambition ! ! !
How much better, then, if war must be
made about Belgium, that it should be so
made to secure the re-union of the Belgian pro-
vinces to France, than that it should be declared
merely in favour of King Leopold, who never
can assure to Belgium either permanent peace,
prosperity, or happiness. You know, my Prince,
Aat now, even now, Belgium desires to become
French ; and you know that France entertains
the same wishes and hopes. If, then, there must
be a war, in order to settle the Belgic question--
if the King of Holland has been only eajolinc,
and laughing at
you for the last three years, and
means to carry on his system of duping still
farther, and to the end ;—and if, as I maintain,
King William will never sign the treaty with
King Leopold, which is required of him, why,
just
and the name of all that is national and wise,
and necessary, do, pray, be the dupe no longer in
the machinations of those who have laughed at
you so long—but in the event of a war about
Belgium becoming inevitable, let the first object