The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-29 00:00:00

BRUSSELS.

BRUSSELS, THURSDAY, 1, le•O'
Those who calculate on Dutch obstinacy are not like'
is be disappointed while William of Orange reigns. lie
has, as was expected by every body here, sent an answer
in the negative to the propositions for the surrender of the
forts of Lillo and Lief kenshoek. By this answer be oitci
signs above 7,000 of his subjects to a captivity which
be measured by the duration of h;s own dominance ;P
those forts ; for to whatever period be may be able to
protract the one, he will by the terms of the capitulstit
necessarily extend the other. But he who has len
shown himself so careless of the lives of his troops 010
be expected to be very solicitous about their liberty.
It is true that this new instance of his Majesty's ':
vourite principle of " passive resistance," as he calls '"
may, indeed must, prolong the stay of at least a large
part of the French force in this country. Situate
those two forts are, it will be difficult to take them,
less a frost should come so hard as to mate the ice on
polders about them able to bear the weight of canoes'
and for the last twenty years there has not been, I ain it;
formed, such a frost here, nor is there any appearance,.
present of the probable approach of such weather. tr
the contrary, it is unusually mild for the season.
I was speaking to-day to a gentleman who has the or,
portunity of knowing the opinions of the most compel.
judges on this subject, and he says, that the attempt of tr,
combined English and French fleets to come up to Lilo
could not be made with any fair chance of success. Tl 4
buoys have been removed out of the Scheldt, the navig
tion of which, in many places, is difficult and dangerous;
and if the vessels should get aground in some parts, Shefj
would, on the falling of the tide, heel over. I have h
it said, that it would be possible to attack the forts nisi'
success, by means of a number of large schuyts used in
navigation of the Scheldt. They are much larger etPb".
stouter than the strongest of the coal-barges used in, br;
Thames, and could carry guns of a much greater crab
than any of the gun-boats which were lately before
citadel. If a number of these, it is said, were el
Tor
with the cannon now at the disposal of the French, ter
might keep the guns of the forts in play, and thus 1..
the landing of a body of troops sufficient to carry the Pwd;
I give this as the opinion of a very intelligent individe
but not being myself a competent judge of such matte*
do not offer any opinion of my own. of
icuatioe

Preparations are already begun for the evai.—
the citadel, and the forts dependent on it, by the D°o.,
garrisons, who will be marched without delay to the rrai
of the French army, and, as soon as places are readY
their reception, will, it is probable, be sent into Fraa.re'po
It is scarcely necessary for me to say, that there $1: r
foundation whatever for the report which I find bag te
yelled over to London, that the accounts of the
ments along the Dutch frontier were sent forth by Disk;
shal Gerard, in order to serve as a pretext for the ,
Vance of more French troops into Belgium. So fafbAt
this from the intention of the French Government, . i
some of the troops sent in here have already set out al
their return, and a considerable portion may be exPec,,,,t!
on their countermarch in a few days. It is certain `l",,h,
a large body of troops will form the escort of the Date
prisoners into France.
The papers here of this morning are unusally barrenithd
intelligence; they are, for the greater part, filled
the echoes from every direction of their own leporeicea
the capitulation, which they describe as having prod° nti
the most lively sensations at every place where the aeon's'
transpired on its route to the French capital.
The two French Princes, after having spent a day 00,
their august sister, the Queen of Belgium, set out fr°o,
this city to day, about noon, on their return to Par,_ere,
Before quitting Antwerp, they visited the hospital, WPtbeit
they left substantial proofs of the interest they take hibcosi
situation of the wounded. Indeed, the conduct of of;
two brave young soldiers has, from the cotnineecearaneri
the campaign, been such in every respect as jot',
dear them to the whole French army. day, ell
A report has been in circulation here since 14T1,
which I paid no more attention when I first bear" ".0%.01114
I do to the thousand and one fables that are dailyttl
here as news; but having now reason to believe Oar ji
may have,travelled to London, I think it right to iatliel
word about it. It was, that Sir George
Hamiltoprincipal secretary to the British Embassy here, was tong s
down to the citadel by Sir Robert Adair, with a
protest, in tl e name of his Government, against tueviapi
tention of Chasse, or his garrison, as prisootra of or!
The only foundation of this was the fact, that 500? .01 I
the capitulation, Sir George Hamilton went to the cigsol
hut his only object was to gratify a curiosity veryritorif
in any man whose station gave him the meow ore
nseno
access to the place. The mission from Sir Robert 'ore
and the protest against the detention of Chasse, 10"
all fudge ! Anti
The following is the address from the citizoi °ids, re'
werp to the King of the Belgians. It ho 41'61
ceived a vast number of signatures; 3
" Sire,—The city of Antwerp rises this day fr
painful agony of 26 months. alre
" One of our worthy Magistrates, of whom left 0/
prematurely deprived by the force of circumeta"el,„
a Wedge of lively solicitude, by obtaining from t"-lidos
visional Government an arrete, ordaining the de° tios•
of the citadel of Antwerp immediately alter its evar".4„g °CI
" We respect!ully take the liberty, Sire, of s ,
your Majesty the prompt execution of a measure. of $
renders for ever secure the tranquillity and hapPiors'Atiri.'l
city, in which you have deigned, Sire, to evince 80,;-he'''
interest, and whose gratitude will henceforth villa'

lection which it has always expressed towards you. 0
" We are, with profound respect, Sire, SO'
6 o'cr.ocic r"f tie
I have got no further particulars as to tt,e refit.i
King of Holland, but the fact is beyond all question' p the
An evening paper, generally well-infortne,l, rePtittle
rumours about the protest of Sir Robert Adair, "

the dt,frainn of Cha.o-.

foundatior.

It, is ntv ttl.eleils without ai-,y

(Froth the Evening Edition of the Independane.)
REFUSAL OF THE KING OF HOLLAND.

We have just received news from Antwerp of the re-
turn of the Dutch officer charged with the mission to the
Hague respecting the capitulation of the citadel. Messrs.
de Tallenay and Passe, who have returned with him,
were obliged to await his return on the frontier, their
entry into Holland having been refused.

King William refuses to evacuate the forts of Lillo and
Liefkenshoek, declaring that he will give them up only
to force, and not as required by the terms of the capitulation.
This refusal will astonish no one. W.

(From the Courrier Beige of yesterday.)
CHAMBER OF REPRESENTATIVES.
SITTING OF THE 26TH.

The President—The coder of the day is the discussion
upon the project of law upon the contingent of the army.
M. Gendebien—The Chamber decided, on Monday,
that the discussion upon the vote of credit to Government
should be taken at the same time as this upon the contin-
gent of the army; but the Commission upon the former
question, though it met yesterday and to-day, has not
been a.Ye to agree upon a report. Why, then, is good
faith viola'ed, and the partial discussion of a part of the
project now pressed ?
M. Muelenaere observed, that he thought there were
two reasons why the discussion should not now come on:
first, that there were not members enough present ; and,
secondly, that the project upon the vote of credit would he
certainly ready to-morrow.
M. Gendebien—lt would be more candid to promise
the report for Friday certainly, when a full House might
be calculated upon, than to-morrow, when its appearance
is most unlikely. What is the use of asking for 3n in-
crease of the army till we have found out the means of pay-
ing them.

The President here interfered to suggest that, as the
Minister had pledged himself to present the report on the
vote of credit to-morrow, it would be as well to postpone
the other discussion for the present.—(Supported.)
The Minister of Finance then presented a project of a
loan for 30 millions of francs, to be secured by the issue
of Royal Bonds, which was referred to the sections.
Some other business having been gone through, the
President asked if the Chamber was disposed to discuss
the project upon the contingent of the army ?—(Yes, yes.)
The Minister of War—Twelve thousand men are called
for ; not to increase the number of the army, but to fill
up the vacancies occasioned by the periods of enlistment
of other soldiers having expired.
M. Dumortier moved, as an amendment, " that the
Government be authorized to retain in service such of the
civic guards as would be entitled to their discharge upon
the Ist of January next."
The Minister of War—The Hon. Member who has
just spoken is in error. It is not true that Government
detained the men last year entitled to their discharge;
they were all sent home though at irregular periols.
M. Gendebien—lt appears to me that the less that is
said upon the matter the Netter, tor, in point of fact, most
of tie garde civigne is bound to serve till March.
The following proict was then proposed :
" Art. 1. The contingent of the army upon the war
footing for 1833 is fixed at 110,000 men, exclusive of the
mobilised civic guards.—Adopted. _ _

" 2. The contingent of the levy for 1833 is fixed at the
°'aximum of 12,000 men, who are placed at the disposal
of Government.—Adopted.
"3. A law shall fix ulteriorly the contingent of the
army upon the peace footing."
\IM. Elrhoubue and Gendehein demanded the suppres-
sion of the last article as useless.—A !opted, however.
" Art. 4. The present law to be binding from the l st.
January, any thing contained in Art, 3 notwithstanding.
It was then agreed to discuss this project on the follow-
ing day, and the Chamber adjourned at three o'clock.