The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-12-18 00:00:00

MEDIATION AT ANTWERP.

Who will mediate between the Anglo-Gallic mediators
Hand the victims of their good offices? The character of
fighting mediator is a new character, both in war and
diplomacy. Neither Vattell, nor Grotius, nor Puffen-
dorff, nor :any jurist-who ever flourished out of the island
of Laputa" or the moon, has laid down regulations for the-
conduct' of mediatorial hostilities. Such an invention is
worthy of an era distinguished by the discovery of peace-
ful hostilities, and rendereff—themorabf7:l2l the war of
non-interference. One of the mediators—trance, after
solemnly declaring to the world that the ConfeTeneirof
London should never lose the character-of a mediation; is.
engaged with its army of 75,000 men against a little'
band,of not 5000 Dutch warriors, in the.thhicable‘rivalry
of mutual slaughter. Another of he mediators—England,
after threatening Holland with the vengeance of her
fleet, and.sailing forth in all the pride Of naval suprernacy,
to inflict that vengeance upon the beSt customer to her
commerce among the nations of Europe, brings back her.
vessels to their native harbours . unscathed by battle fire,
but shattered by winds and'waves—her flag drooping and
dishohoured—its only• prize, the spoil of peaceful met•.
chants=her only trophies not more precious or glorious
than the helmet of shells which Caligula carried to
Rome as a token of his maritime conquests from the
,sameßatavian shores. E'en our Fieneh allies themselves
speak with contempt of the empty bravado which the
Anglo-Gallic fleet were sent out to execute, under the
conjoint auspices of Lord Palmerston and Sir: James
Graham, upon the coast: of Holland, in :the season of fogs
and storms, because it .pleased Louis Phillipe -and the:
wily doctrinaires; who, by the hand of the veteran in-
triguer, Tallevrand, lead the British IR:if-With the silken
-string of ensnaring diplomacy Wherever their treacherous
policy directs.
'itismt_haxerpefale oreasnodbseirciasy -
and good men are sad for England's glcry, see-
in;The French journal Le Toppi sarcastically says—" The
co-allied fleet, that grapd mystification ef the: cabinet of
London, left the Downs foo late, and returned too early.
We should not be astonished to hear that the English

t '• • ,

•
vessels were gone to be taken into dock at Portsmouth
to repair their damages.. Ministers.seern to Wantbut. -a
decent excuse to get out of this expedition." But why
did they ever get into it, we ask.? To the tottering
French government it brought, along with the invasion
of Belgium, a seasonable supply of much-needed popu-
larity it served, to put, off' the evil day_ yegspningin
the Chambers fur the violated charter and trampled liber-
ties of France.; but, in regard to the English government
and the interests- of England; it was an act of unmixed
lolly, worthy of that statesman whose talents for "pacifi,-.
cation" are now exemplified by the spirit of destruction.
let louse upon Belgium that writes the fatal issue of the
,i.rotoools in is a consolation, to human itythat
our hostile dei•nops,tration against Holland on the ocean
.hati_not been 4ignalised by the loss of life. Had our
vessels sailed up the s!holdt, as was at. first threatened,
not Fitnieli blood alone would have copiously been shed
'for French objects, while the illustrious Leopold enjoy-
•ed Liinself-witii luxurious banquets and festive music, and.
his brave Belgians, pushed aside from the path of heroism.
by the fore; gner, slept on the withered laurels of their revo-
• L is a melancholy .and revolting task to pursue
the details of strife-and carnage which every :day's
gence fr( an An twerp discloses. The Ere nch go ve rn-
m cut would not have dared to have undertaken this, work
of blood if our own g,overnmeut had not
,given it counte-,
nanee, and j'..tined with.it in the unholy league which hu-
manity-will long
.have cause to lament; and which, if the
tri-cciou red flag were now waving on the smoking ashes
Of • the citadel, and (Masse and his, gallant little band
stretched in the repose of deati'.. from their warrior-
labours, would -not bring,-theßelgiequestion one step
nearer to a-satisfactory solution, It is, in truth, a wan-
ton waste of life, a barren slaughter, where the laurelS
of victory will hear no fruit. Those government journals;
those veracious vehicles of, intelligence " from authority,"
that, during a CQUISe of two.years of nlystitiedinegotia,
tion, lixed.successive"last days" for the final and peace.;
lid settlement of the Belgic question—tticse journals that;
when coercive measures,were determined on by the courts
of France and. England, told the public it was with the
perfect consent andconeurrenee of the-other threepowers
—those-journals that- when- -that -untruth was unveiled;
assured the. public;
.that the King of Holland, only wanted
the appearance- otia French force. in., Belgium to surrenL
der-the citadel,--what gross deception have they not prac-
tised on the_Britisb people! j.,0 ,tbe.viblic, therefore,
taught. by experience, be cautious in believing What they
now assert, that.the heroic Jdefence of the citadel, which
already rivals some of the most memorable achievements
of wer, is an isolated act. We suspect Talleyrand knowS
whether it is or not better. than. Lord Palmerston; but,
however it may end, we have the, conscious • satisfaction
of being innocent of all aiding or abetting of this " great
murder," as, from the beginning, we never failed to
protestagairist the foolish interference-of our government
in the Be igieo-llutch dispute.—Morning Herald.