The Sun.
London, England, 1832-07-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

So, according to the current information, five
or six weeks more of hollow diplomacy are sug-
gested by Lords Grey and Palmerston as the best
means of preserving the peace of Europe, and
expediting the settlement of Belgium ! We
have not yet, then, enough of protocols ; the
masquerade, the carnival, of lying and treachery,
is to last another season. The people of Eu-
rope, and, what imports most to us, the people
of England, are to be stretched on tenter-hooks,
until it shall please their 'Ministers to pluck up
so much courage and understanding as may
enable them to put one plain question to the Mo-
narchs of the Holy Alliance, viz. " Will you or
will you not fulfil the engagements which you have
contracted with us ?" If the above-named noble
Lords did not believe at the outset that Russia,
Prussia, &c., were trustworthy or honourable
Governments, it was puerile to make the ar-
rangement of a serious difficulty depend upon
any compacts of theirs. But if, again, we did
at first place reliance on the words of honour of
Wessembourg, Matuschewitz, and Bulow, and
only began during the progress of the negotia-
tions to entertain fears of their honesty, which
every hour has strengthened, what was the duty
of a British Minister ? What would manly
3ense and wisdom have prescribed tinder such
circumstances to a person in ordinary life ?
Why, every reasonable man must say, that the
first moment at which another began to shuffle
with him, and to afford ground for di•trusting
his good faith, ought to be the signal for deter-
mining the justice of the suspicion, and for thus
guarding against the risk of being further involved
with a worthless individual in transactions which
might compromise one's own security. What
would be thought of the spirit of him who shrunk
from testing another's truth for the dread of re-
ceiving an insolent or illusory answer? Yet
what has been the conduct of these personages,
who, in the guise of British statesmen, bear their
heads so loftily ? Does it not savour of miser-
able pusillanimity,—of their being men who
know that they have bullies to deal with, and
feel themselves deficient in the firmness necessary
to resent the insult which they anticipate, should
they venture to call for explanation. To
imagine for a moment that Holland means
seriously to stand the shock of arms with all
the five Powers, which have bound themselves,
as far as words go, to her concession of the
stipulated rights of Belgium, would he utter
idiotism. What, then, is the secret of the seem-
ing perverseness of King William ? It is ob-
viously his confidence in the underhand support of
some of those Powers, and his assurance of their
readiness to combat for him against their own
solemn obligations. Then let us see how Lord
Palmerston provides for the fulfilment of such
duties by the soi disant allied Courts, and to
resist the breach of them. Thus, the more pe-
tulent, peremptory, refractory, and obdurate, is
the language of the King of Holland, the
greater is the respect and deference shown him
by our " exquisite " Foreign Secretary. The
more provoking and indefinite are the delays
presented to the evacuation of Antwerp, the less
Inclined does our English protocol-writer show
himself to end them, or even to define their pe-
ricd. The more of the cloven foot appears, the
less chance there seems to be of getting the fiend
exorcised. And what, and why, is all this? We
hear some jargon about being " afraid to disturb
the peace of Europe." And is this a state of
peace?! Can a miserable, trembling, supplicating
petitioner, not for justice, but forbearance, ever
hope that his conqueror's mercy will endure one
moment beyond that of a renewed temptation to
spurn him ? Europe is not at peace. Eng-
land can be no guarantee for the peace of Eu-
rope but by proclaiming, as Lord Chatham did,
" Not one of you shall fire a cannon-shot with-
out my permission." The hostile occupation
of friendly territory can never be prevented but
by such men as Air. Canning, who announced
that "on the spot where waves the flag of
England, no foreign standard shall ever be
raised." Preserve te peace of Europe by tame-
ness and prostration truly ! Why, it is our
tameness that tends to make war inevitable.
had Lord Palmerston said boldly, the day
after the treaty of the 24 Articles was signed,
" Now Holland shall act upon this
treaty,
and shall evacuate Antwerp, or here are a French
army and a British fleet to compel her,"—
let any man in his senses answer, would
not the peace of Europe have been more secure
than now ? Not one of the musket Courts
would have dared to stir, for their preparations
were not then half ready. Even the bloody pro-
tocol of the Frankfort Diet would never in such
a case have been heard of. But let Lord Grey kiss
the earth under the feet of the Holy Alliance,
let him leave Antwerp in the hands of Holland,
and Luxemburg, and the navigation of the Scheldt
and Rhine, and the inland waters, to the discre-
tion and liberality of the Dutchman, and how
much peace will belong to such a course of hu-
miliations ? The people of Belgium will hardly
submit to the total destruction of a commerce,
which, judging from the official tables of the
port of Antwerp, has quintupled within the five
years previous to 1830. The whole of that in-
dustrious and magnificent country, the natural
vents for whose commerce and manufac,
tures are through the embouchures of the
:Meuse, the Scheldt, and the Rhine, or by the
canal of Bruges, will scarcely bear to be sacrificed
without mercy to the tyrant jealousy of Amster-
dam. And will France submit to such an extinction
of the wealth and prosperity of the Flemings ?
Will she suffer the Dutch King, or Stadthol-
der, to domineer at her own threshold ? This
is no time for cramming down the throats of
men the suffocating conditions of the peace of
Westphalia, whereby the traffic of the Scheldt
was annihilated. If the Dutch attempt to re-
tain possession of Antwerp, which is the appa-
rent object of Lord Grey's " pacific policy,"
neither his Lordship, nor Lord Palmerston,
nor Melton-Mowbray Matuschevitz, nor M.
_Metternich, will prevail on Belgium, with the
full support of France (we mean the French
nation, not the paltry Government of Louis
Philippe), to abstain from attacking Holland
within another month, Then, my Lords of
the Protocols, where is your peace? If there
be one prospect left—and now but a remote
prospect—of preventing war, it is in the move-
ment of Great Britain for the release of Antwerp,
before the armies of the Continent come into di-
rect collision. England will act for a specific and
well-recognized object. Her interference will ter-
minate with the liberation of the Scheldt ; and
if she does act, and in downright earnest, the
Scheldt may be opened without spilling a drop of
blood. But let the Continental armies move :
they may begin with the Scheldt,—but on what
river will their operations terminate ? This is
an awful question. Loid Grey mistakes his
road : his is not a true pacific policy, if when he
apostrophizes peae,., and Lord Palmerston
feebly echoes him, they are answered by a fierce