The Sun.
London, England, 1832-01-27 00:00:00

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11 --

(Loud cheering)—with the exception, he was sorry to
say, of the interference between Turkey and Greece.
Was not the Noble Lord aware that he was, up to the
present day, carrying on his negociations under the
arrangements of that very settlement ?—(Cheers.)
The power which the Noble Lord professed to have over
the Conference of London was entirely owing to that set-
tlement, of which he so much con►plained.—(Hear, hear.)
But the Noble Lord said that the late Administration left
him in difficulties. It was they, however, who com-
menced the settlement of the difference between Belgium
and the King of the Netherlands; and he (the Duke of Wel-
lington) believed that the present Ministers found that the
other Powers were negotiating (at the time when their
predecessors signed the last protocol) with a sincere desire
to bring those transactions to a speedy arid an amicable
conclusion.—(Hear.) The late Government did no more
than settle the suspension of hostilities, and take an en-
gagement from the two hostile Powers that they would
adhere to the suspension. They settled upon a line be-
yond which neither party should pass ; and in the same
protocol it was distinctly stated, that the line was deter-
mined on only for the purpose of suspending hostilities,
and not as the definite separation of one territory from
the other. On the 7th November (and it wag curious
and extraordinary that on that occasion the late Govern-
ment avoided the error into which the Noble Earl op-
posite fell in ten days after) the late Ministers refused
to guarantee the suspension of hostilities—(Hear, hear)—
but the Noble Earl guaranteed it.—(Cheers.) Indeed he
would not say that the Noble Earl had since made good
his guaranty.—(Hear.) The late Government refused
to make good the suspension, because they knew that if it
should be violated it would be necessary to go to was to
enforce it, and that then it would be very difficult to de-
termine to what Power the task of its enforcement should
be committed. The only way in which the Noble Earl
had executed the guaranty was by forcing the King of the
Netherlands to break up the blockade of the Scheldt—
(Hear)—but he had not compelled the Belgians to adhere
to the suspension. There was one curious circumstance,
worthy of their Lordships' attention, respecting that gua-
ranty. On one occasion, in February or March, the
suspension of hostilities was to be enforced against the
Belgians by a blockade of their ports ; and how ? By
neutral Powers. But it must be well known to the Noble
Lords who signed the protocol, that a neutral Power can
have no right to blockade the ports or seize the ships of
one of the belligerents.—(llear, hear.) The Noble Earl
professed to have acted throughout with impartiality.
How did the Conference prove it ? At the same time
that they threatened Belgium with the blockade of her
ports by the ships of a neutral Power, they gave notice to
the King of the Netherlands that he must, by the 20th
of March, break up his blockade of those same ports.—
(Cheers.)
The next part of those transactions to which he
begged the attentiuo of their Lordships, was the declaration
of independence. The Noble Earl (Grey) stated that he
had always been of opinion that the best arrange-
ment for the peaceful adjustment of the differences
between the separated States would be, that the Prince of
Orange should became Sovereign of Belgium. But the
mischief was, that what the Belgians wanted in the first
place was to have their independence declared by the Five
Powers; and the first step taken, after the guaranty for
the suspension of hostilities, was to make that declara-
tion. This took place on the 20th of December ; and on
the Orb of January the French Minister (M. Sebastiani)
wrote to the Belgian Minister at Paris, expressing great
sympathy for the Belgic nation, which long formed part
of France, and was still a member of the same great fa-
mily, and assuring him that the Government of France
had obtained for Belgium all that they could obtain fur
her. Such was the construction which the French Mi-
nister put upon the declaration.—(Cheers.) Again—in
the month of August, M. Moulinard, the Secretary of the
Belgian Government, addressed the Conference in these
terms:—" The circumstances under which the suspen-
sion of hostilities, in November, 1830, was proposed by
the Conference and accepted by the Belgian Government,
are too well known to require that I should recall to your
recollection that Holland, seeing her army suddenly dis-
organised by the natural effects of the separation of Bel-
gium from her dominions, readily acceded to the sus-
pension ; but that Belgium might have continued to
profit by the state of things at that time, anti might
have pushed part of her population out of her own
limits, and that yet, on the assurance that her hide •
pendence would be acknowledged, she acquiesced in
the wishes of the Five Powers, anti made her debut
in the political world by a sacrifice to the peace of
Europe. Such was the construction which Belgium put
upon the declaration. Such was the result of the Noble
Earl's negociations, as far as France and Belgium were
concerned --(Cheers.) After that came the discussion of
what was called No. 12 (as the Noble Duke was under-
stood to say). Now the Noble Earl said that Holland had
adopted the basis laid down by the Government for the
settlement of the separation of the two countries, and that
the protocol No. 12 did not give her all that she had since
obtained north of the Meuse. But he (tire Duke of Welling-
ton) begged to observe, that that protocol did hold out to
Holland other arrangements (besides the territory upon the
Meuse), which were likely to induce her to agree to the
basis. According to that basis Holland retained possession,
and entire possession, of the Duchy of Luxemburg, and
she had every reason to believe from the protocol, that her
territory on the upper part of the Meuse would be kept
continuous by other territory to he afterwards conceded to
her. It was worthy of remark, that the Conference de-
clared that the settlement contained in the 24 articles to
be irrevocable. But the Noble Lord told the House that
they had been obliged to depart from that settlement, be-
cause an adherence to it would have caused a general war
in Europe.—(Hear, hear.) Now, on that point he (the
Duke of Wellington) begged leave to contradict the Noble
Earl ; for, after the French Government had declared,
in the first instance, that they had some doubt respecting
that arrangement, they gave a full consent to the whole
of it on the Ist of March, and agreed to carry the whole
into execution---(Hear)—at the same time again declaring
their determination to adhere to the mediation, and not
to allow any armed intervention on the part of any St ite
in Europe. There was, therefore, no reason for deviating
from the settlement which France had adopted, anti which
was sa.isfactory to Holland.—(Cheers.) But it happened
just at the time that negociations commenced for the elec-
tion of Prince Leopold to the throne of Belgium. The
Noble Earl (Grey) had said that the Government of this
country bad nothing to do with that election. But the
Noble Earl would allow him (the Duke of Wellington) to
refer him to a letter from the Noble Lord who was at that
time employed in Belgium. From that letter it appeared
that one of the objects of the Noble Lord's residence in
Brussels was to obtain that election ; and that for that pur-
pose he recommended certain arrangements with a view to
facilitate the acceptance of that offer by Prince Leopold of
Saxe Coburg.—(Cheers.) The evidence went clearly to
show that the election of that Prince was the cause of
the abandonment of that settlement which had been
accepted by Holland, and which Belgium hail refused.—
(Hear, hear, hear.) Ile must say that he had a great
respect for King Leopold, and he trusted th it if
that Prince would take on him the character of un inde-
Fendent Sovereign, he would be an excellent King of that
country. But then lie must be independent, not only of
this country, but of France.—(Hear, hear.) Lord Pon-
sonby was ordered to state to the Belgian Government,
that he should leave Bru•sela on the Ist of June unless the
articles should have been accepted by that day. But the
first thing that was done after his return to London, was
the alteration of the basis of the settlement already agreed
upon. Th►s was done without consulting the Dutch Mi-
nister, in consequence of some representations made by
Lord Ponsonl•y to the Conference ; and the Belgian Go-
vernment were told that, if they accepted the articles, the
Conference was willing to go into negociations to obtain
from Holland the cession of Luxembourg for a valuable
consideration—that is, for the cession of an equivalent
territory. Now, according to the usual practice of such
negociations, Hollind ought to have been consulted. But
no such thing. The first that Holland hearth of it was by
the publication of Lord Ponsonby's letter. The King of the
Netherlands remonstrated, hut he was told that ben-grel
rnal-gre, he must accept the new settletnens.--[The Noble
Duke waa for some sentences inaudible.]—He would not
follow the Noble Earl in all that he had said respecting the
war between Holland and Belgium. That formed no part
of the question now under consideration. Holland had great
provocation to go to war when she did. He (the Duke of
Wellington) differed entirely from the Noble Earl. What he
caid at the time in that House was, that he never believed
that the King of the Netherlands had acted with treachery.
The notice which that King gave at the time ought to
have been understood differently from the construction
which tire Conference put upo❑ it, and they ought to
have prevented the consequences that followed. Notwith-
standing the guarantee, hostilities had never• been sus-
pended in the neighbourhood of Maestricht.—(Cheers.)
Iu the same intoner, hostilities were continued in the
neighbourhood of Antwerp. Under• these circumstances,
what did King Leopold ? Before he left this country he
accepted the 18 articles. But when he went to Brussels
be swore to the Constitution, which required that he
should take possession of other territory which had be-
longed to Holland a century back. He trusted that
their Lordships would see in those transactions something
not only of indiscretion, but of what, in common language
would be called bad faith.—(Hear.) He now came to
that part of the question which turned on a comparison