The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-15 00:00:00

THE DUTCH BUSINESS.

Antwerp has fallen, and the Scheldt is closed! Leo-
pold of Saxe Coburg has obtained possession of a ruined
and useless fortress, but the trade of his principal city is
destroyed, and the Belgians are excluded from the com-
merce of the only navigable river which intersects their
territory and that of the King of the Netherlands.
This is a beautiful illustration of Whig policy . Pre-
vious to the invasion of Belgium by, the _French, and the
embargo laid upon Dutch vessels by the ministers of
England, the Scheldt was free. It was open to the ships
of all nations. No complaint was made by any power
of the exactions of the Dutch. The trade of Antwerp
was not molested; the navigable channel was marked
out by Dutch buoys, and traced by Dutch pilots.—
Now, however, that the war, or, to speak by the card,
the peace is ended, the situation of the people of Belgium
is sadly altered. Instead of obtaining any advantages by
the surrender of the citadel of Antwerp, they are deprived
of those which they enjoyed, and a passage to the sea,
the chief outlet of their manufactures, is denied them.
They have obtained a sort of a pass key, which is useless,
for the door is bolted and barred on the outside.

What a ludicrous dilemma is that in which his Majes-
ty'sministers have placed themselves ! France we forgive,
for she accomplished her object, advanced her favourite
foreign policy, and crowns her infamy with a wreath of mi-
litary glory. But the English ministers have been willing
and slavish dupes from first to last, throughout the whole
of the negotiations, and most conspicuously of all in this
..concluding act of shameless aggrandisement and op-
pression. If Lord Palmerston were asked, " What have
you done to secure the independence, or the commercial
rights, of the Belgic people, or effect a final settlement
of the matter in dispute between Holland and Belgium ?"
what would be his reply I

" We have taken the citadel of Antwerp !"
Have you ?—Yes. But what else have you taken by
your motion ?
" Nothing."

That is an unsatisfactory, if not an equivocal answer,
my lord. You have taken the citadel it is true, but have
you not also taken away the trade of Antwerp ? Have
you not taken the commercial advantages which the Bel-
gians possessed in the navigation of the Scheldt, and
given them exclusively to Holland ? Have you not taken
away the trade lately carried on by British merchants
who have or had large mercantile establishments at Ant-
werp ? You have left the houses of . the citizens of Ant
werp standing as you found them, and for this thanks are
due to General Chasse, not to Lord Palmerston; but have
you not taken away the means whereby the citizens
live ? Have you not reduced nine-tenths of the inhabi-
tants to beggary ? Have you not shut them out from
any intercourse with the foreign world ? Have you not
spread desolation around a once flourishing city I And
have not you and your allies, and the loving subjects of
this puppet Leopold, drained the treasury of Brussels_ of
its last florin ?

These questions must be answered in the affirmative ;
for the charges they convey are true. If the noble lord
had done, " nothing" in reality, as it is admitted he did
for two years before, we could have forgiven him. 'lf
he had stood by, like the dog in the play, and said
" nothing," we should have pardoned him. But un
fortunately for the peace and welfare of Europe, his
" sayings and doings" have been of a very mischievous