Star.
London, England, 1831-08-15 00:00:00

" Not having been able to obtain from the plenipotentisv
ries of the Netherlands any exlanation of these facts, we still
refuse to believe that the King, At the very moment wizen be
communicated to us his intention of negotiating a definitive
treaty of peace, can have taken the resolution to rekindle the
Rama of war, and to lead to the destruction of a com-
mercial city--an event deplorable in itself, and which, by the
sentiments of hatred and revenge to which it would excite,
might, perhaps, almost render it impossible to conclude a
peace so much desired by the King and by Holland. Yqwe
Excellency knows the grour.ds of general interest thighilk
the five Powers in November last to effect a sespimilee et
arms between Holland and Belgium. You know As 411.
gagements which subsist on this subject between des
Powers, and which were mentioned in express terms in tbo
letters which we bad the honour to address to your Excel•
iency on the 25th of July. Their motives and their es.
moments are still the same. The tranquillity of E
is connected with them. We bope that it will be won't
dent to allude to them here, and that your Excellency will
not fail to obtain from the King the necessary orders that
all hostilities may cease without delay, that his Majesty's
troops may retire within the frontiers of his territory. and
that the city of Antwerp may not be exposed to a cotes.
trophe which wotld be infinitely to be regretted.
" These demands, founded on our engagements. will
doubt be facourab!), received by his Majesty. We tabs
pleasure in believing that such will be the case. and request
your Excellency to honour us with a speedy and satisfactory
answer. We have not failed to call on the Belgians to cease
the hostilities which they may have resumed, in consequence
of the movements made by the King's troops.
"ESTESHALT, WEISE/416R0, TALLITRAND, PAL,.
MERSTON, BOLOS?, LIEVEN, NIATUSCURWITZ."
Tbe answer to this letter is in the following
terms : %, The Hague. Aug. 8.
_ .

" I have had the honout to receive the letter of your Ex-
cellencies of the sth of August, in which you have been
pleased to inform me that the Conference at London had un-
derstood the support of the negotiations by military measures
mentioned in my letter of the lot of August, as if it sea n t
measures to be adopted in the interior of the territory of
Rolland.

66Imust take the liberty to observe, that the terms in
which this part of my letter is drawn op appeared explicit
here. ' King,' I bad the honour to say, 6 had re.
solved to suppon the negotiations by his military means
fen:yens militaires ),—a determination which has become
doubly necessary, since the events which have lately
taken place in Belgium.' We thought that these words
clearly expressed that a new determination was meant,
not an intention of remaining in the passive attitude
of the last nine months,—an attitude to which this ob-
servation could not apply, that it bad become neces-
sary since the late events; nor the exposition which the
lime part of my letter was destined to demonstrates the
power to recommence hostilities which was repeatedly made
during the negotiations on the part of the King. I took the
liberty to add, that whatever might be the result of these
dispositions of his Majesty, they would by no means dimi-
nish his desire for the happy success of the Peculation. Be.
sides, I made a point of giving, on the morning of the depar-
ture of Baron Zuyleu de Nyevelt, as well as the evening and
following motning to the representatives of the five Courts
at the Hague, all the explanations which they thought pro-
per to ask.
" As for the city of Antwerp, I am happy to be able to
confirm the opinion of your Excellencies, that the. King has
by no means taken the resolution to cause the destruction of
that comtnercial city—a resolution which would be at once
incompatible with the exalted sentiments of his Majesty, -find
with the wishes which he has never ceased to form for the
happiness of Belgium. The sally lately made by the garrison
of Antwerp was intended, not to injure the habitations, but
to spike the cmnon which had been planted against the cius.
del, and which were evidence of the abuse that had been
made of the suspensien of aims. The direction of the mill-
tiny opera ions being confided to the Prince of Orange, it
will depend upon his Royal Highness to determine those
which may concern the city of Antwerp ; but. at all events,
his Royal Highness will undoubtedly follow his own natural
inclinationtosparet he peaceable inhabitants and their property.
" 1 beg your Excellencies to he convinced that the present
movement, of .he Royal army, far from being dictated by
motives of policy or vengeance, must be considered merely
as coercive measures, such as the Conference at London itself
had manifested its intentions to employ against Belgium, in
ease of the non-acceptance of appendix A to protocol 12, and
which the King on his part had reserved to himself a right
of employing. Solely destined to support a negotiation for
which the Plenipotentiaries of his Majesty are furnished
with the most extensive instructions and full powers,
favoured by the kind co-operation of your Excellencies,
and having for its object purely clumesee interests con-
cerning the relations between Holland and Belgium, they
are entirely foreign to that part of the Belgian question
which has been thought to interest Europe, to Which the King
has made the sacrifice of the separation between Holland and
Belgium. The conclusion of the definitive treaty, which his
Majesty hopes is very near, will at once put an end to the
!nanny operations; but when the question is to save and
secure the existence of Holland by an equitable treaty of,
separation, his Majesty, as a constitutional monarch, reign-
ing over a free people, cannot adopt any course but such u
is in harmony with the public spirit of the nation, and un-
animously sanctioned by the two Chambers of the national
representation.
VERSTOLK VAN SOELEN."

The minister, after reading the above documents, spoke
as follows •—" Upon the refusal of Belgium to negotiate
the definitive treaty of peace at London till an agreement
should be made respecting the principles which, as it was
expressed in the refusal, can be no others than those of the
proposed IS preliminary articles, the Conference again In-
sisted at Brussels on the sending of plenipotentiaries to ne.
gotiate a definitive treaty, with the remark, that on the
speedy conclusion of such a treaty even the political ex•
ittence of the Belgian depends. While this was deter.
mined in London, France bad resolved eventually to as.
slit Belgium with an army. In the afternoon of the
Mk inst. the French Charge d'Affaires communicated
to o c a letter, dated from the Minister of Foreign Affairs at
Path., stating, that in cones quence of the denunciation of the
armistice on our side, Belgium had applied to the King of
the Fiend) for assistance ; that it would be given, if Bel.
should have need of it to repel the attack; and that
f the Dutch army did not immediately retire within the
liar fixed by the armistice, it would have to combat a French
army, and that the French Charge d'Affaires would leave
the Hague.
Almost at the same time the Dutch Government received
a report, the authenticity of which cannot he doubted, that
the London Conference had assented to the assistance even.
tually to be given to Belgium by a French inili•ary force,
and had accepted the offer of a fleet made by England. The
same report mentions a convention relative to the stay of the
French •rt'ops in Belgium ; stipulating, among other things,
that the French army shall not enter Holland.
" When the King took the resolution to support by arms
the basis of separation between Holland and Belgium,
all the postale consequences of that important step were
taken into the account. Even the present circumstance
was calculated upon, though it was considered one of the
least probable. Nevertheless, as it has now COMO to peas,
it le the duty of the Government to direct hs course ac-
cordingly.
" A calm consideration of the course of the negotiations
leads to the following conclintions
_ . _

" When Belgium separated itself from Holland, the five
greatest Powers in Europe united to restore tranquillity in the
kingdom of the Netheriands, and then proceeded to determine
equitable bases of separation between Holland and Belgium.
Such bases were laid down by them with the announcement of
compulsory measures in case they should be rejected. The
rejec;ion took place on the part of Belgium. *ln vain did
Holland, which had accepted the basis, call during several
months for the application of these measures to Belgium, as
will in order to regulate the aepatation on the principles laid
down, as to check daily violations of the suspension of
arms; for, instead of doing this, new bases were laid
down entirely to the advantage of Belgium. Holland, abid.
ing by the first, .vhich had become obligatory between the
five Powers and the King, resolved to employ arms to make
them accepted by the Belgians, upon which the five Courts
now declare, without delay, that they will proceed to apply,
foe the advantage of Belgium, that force which the King bas
in vain invoked in support of his own just cause.
" In such a state of thiuge, his Majesty was advised not
to depart from the system which he has adopted. Our dif.
fereece with Belgium is declared to be a domestic difference,
and by no means to concern Europe. The courage of our
troops has, at the beginning, gloriously triumphed in Bel.
glum, but the difference would become European if the King
should retain his arms in his hand against the preponderance
of the powers represented in the Confetothe at London; and
it. east never be the object of his Majesty to abed the precious
blood of his Dutch subjects in fruitless enterprises.

" Should, therefore, a French army enter Blum, that
of the Netherlands Flail retire into our ancient tatitay.