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portions of the territory of the kingdom of the Netherlands as belonged to either country at that time, except that, for reasons presently to be explained, they transfer Luxembourg to Holland. They also provide for an apportionment of the national debt between the two fragments of the late kingdom. This decision was accepted by the Dutch, but rejected by the Belgians, who, at the hazard of a war with Holland and of being left to their fate in the event of a general European war, protested against the dismemberment of their territory by the annexation of Luxembourg to Holland.

On this subject it seemed inevitable that collision should occur. Luxembourg had the same claims to independence with Brabant or Flanders. The Luxembourgers had made common cause with the other inhabitants of the southern provinces, in expelling the Dutch authorities, and in admitting those appointed by the provisional government at Brussels. They had elected deputies to the National Congress, and participated in all its acts, from the declaration of independence down to the selection of a Regent. Finally, notwithstanding the decision of the five powers, awarding Luxembourg to Holland, the Regent of the Belgians had announced his determination to sustain the Luxembourgers in their connection with the other Belgic provinces, by force of arms if necessity should require it; and the movements of Holland indicated that such a necessity was at hand.

A brief explanation of the difficult questions growing out of the situation of Luxembourg, is therefore material in this place.

Holland, it is to be remembered, had set up an independent government under the sovereignty of William of Nassau, before the final termination of the struggle between France and the allies. In the numerous changes of that time, and before the establishment of the kingdom of the Netherlands, William acquired a cession from the allies of the grand dutchy of Luxembourg as an equivalent for the principalities of Nassau, Dillemberg, Liegen, and Datz, the hereditary possessions of the house of Nassau, in Germany, which were ceded to Prussia. For the same purpose of indemnity to him, Luxembourg was made a member of the Germanic confederacy, in order that he might retain his connexion with that body, and have a voice in the Diet. And in pursuance of this arrangement, a garrison of Prussian troops was placed in the fortress of Luxembourg, as a fortress of the confederation. In addition to which, it was to descend to the second son of William, while the Netherlands should descend to the oldest, so that eventually, on the death of William, it would be entirely severed from the kingdom of the Netherlands.

Subsequently, however, to the establishment of the kingdom of the Netherlands, it was deemed important to make some changes in regard to this matter, so as to prevent the separation of the two

countries by their descent in different lines. The States General, with the concurrence of the King, assigned to his second son certain royal domains in the district of Breda as an indemnity for the future inheritance of Luxembourg, which was declared inseperable from the Netherlands. This being the case, the Belgians insisted that, on a dissolution of the kingdom of the Netherlands, Luxembourg belonged to the Belgic section of the kingdom, with which it had always been conjoined, from the days of the House of Burgundy, through all the subsequent changes of sovereignty, to which that part of Europe has been subjected. Nay, in the adjustment of the national representation of the kingdom of the Netherlands, this question seemed to be decided by the Dutch themselves. It had been arranged that the number of deputies for the whole kingdom should be 110; 55 for Holland, and 55 for Belgium, so as to secure a perfect equality of power between the two nations; and the deputies of Luxembourg entered into the 55 assigned to Belgium.

The facts, which we have thus summarily stated, were such as to give color of reason to both parties. William insisted that Luxembourg was held by him as an hereditary domain, wholly independent of his title to the kingdom of the Netherlands. The Belgians replied, that he acquired Luxembourg just as he acquired Brabant,-by the arbitrary act of the allies; that as for

his hereditary estates, he might seek them of Prussia, by whom they were held; and that at any rate, Luxembourg, like the rest of Belgium, was resolved to be independent of the House of Orange, to which it owed no natural or hereditary allegiance,and the rest of Belgium was equally resolved to maintain the independence of Luxembourg.

In the midst of all the irritating discussions, to which this question gave rise, the Belgians had been gradually settling upon Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg for their king. It was ascertained that the heads of the Catholic, as well as the Protestant party, were favorable to his pretensions, and that a large majority of the members of Congress were disposed to offer him the crown. But it was deemed prudent to ascertain the views of Leopold before proceeding to a formal election, for which purpose a deputation repaired to London. Finding him disposed to accept the crown, if regularly tendered to him, the Belgian Congress at last proceeded to ballot once more for a king, and elected Leopold by a vote of 152 out of 196 members who were present at the time. Indeed, of the dissidents, only 14 voted for another person, the rest having abstained from voting at all; so that, on the whole, the vote was a very strong and decided expression of preference for Leopold.

Thus it was, that this favorite of fortune at length arrived at a throne. Leopold had been se

lected by Princess Charlotte to resistance, and was driven before be her husband, on account of the Dutch in disgrace, who

his external graces of person. Her sudden death had left him in possession of a splendid appanage and the princely residence of Claremont. The throne of Greece had courted him in vain. His reputation for intelligence, good sense, cultivated mind, and moderation of spirit, now attracted to him the suffrages of the Belgians, and placed him among the crowned heads of Europe. He left London for Brussels on the 16th of July, and landed at Calais, where he was met by General Belliard and M. Le Hon. On the 17th, he proceeded through Dunquerque to Ostende, being received on the Belgic frontier, between the two last named places, by Baron d' Hoogverst, Governor of West Flanders. He was everywhere greeted with the highest demonstrations of loyalty. It is somewhat remarkable that he entered Belgium on the anniversary of the very day on which William was compelled to leave it, whether by design or accident we do not know.

Scarcely, however, was he warm in his new throne, when he was called upon to repel an invasion of his kingdom by the Dutch. They entered the Belgic territory in great force, sacking and firing the villages, pillaging the farm houses, and committing manifold outrages on the persons and property of the inhabitants. The Belgian army being wholly unprepared for this sudden inroad, made but a feeble

threatened to march to Brussels. In this difficult emergency, King Leopold instantly notified the French and English governments of the breach of the armistice by the Dutch, and called upon them to make good their pledge of sustaining the neutrality of Belgium. However humiliating may have been the necessity of recurring to foreign aid for the protection of the country, it was the only resource, which, in the circumstances, the Belgians possessed. Their appeal was promptly met by England and France, especially the latter. Immediately on the receipt of the intelligence that King William's troops had invaded Belgium, Louis Philippe summoned a council, at which it was resolved that Marshal Gerard, at the head of 50,000 French troops, should march to the succor of the Belgians. The French army was put in motion forthwith, and entered Belgium on the 7th of August in three different directions, while an English fleet under Sir Edward Codrington was ordered to assemble in the Downs to act as events might demand. These summary measures of the French and English governments were decisive in the matter; for King William lost no time in withdrawing his troops, and professing a readiness to proceed with the negociations undertaken by the five powers. The French troops were welcomed by the Belgians as brethren and friends, but had

no occasion to engage in combat with the Dutch; and, after remaining long enough to be assured of the cessation of hostilities and the restoration of tranquillity, they quietly evacuated the Belgic territory and returned to France. • The Belgic chambers assembled under the provisions of the new constitution in September, when Leopold delivered his opening speech, at this the proper commencement of the constitutional existence of Belgium. With this event we terminate our chronicle of Belgian affairs for

the year, in order to give, on resuming it on a future occasion, a connected account of the internal organization of the kingdom under the new order of things, and of the unsatisfactory and inconsequent negociations for the settlement of its relations with Holland, which continue now, at the expiration of two years from the occurrence of the events of July, to be quite as threatening to the peace and repose of the rest of Europe, as they were in the very outset of the revolution.

CHAPTER XIV.

SWITZERLAND.

Formation of the Confederacy.-Constitution of the old Republic. -Its Evils and Abuses.-The French Revolution.-Act of Mediation.-Compact of 1814.-Its Public Law.-Example of Berne.-Other Cantons.-Foreign Interference.- -Movement in Tessino.-In other Cantons.-Hostilities in Bale.-Constitution of Berne.-Of other Cantons.-State of Schwytz.Proceedings of the Diet.-Neufchátel.—Reflections.

DURING the last two years, events have transpired in Switzerland, which, if they do not affect the situation of so large a population as the revolutionary movements in France, the Netherlands, and Poland, are intrinsically of considerable interest and importance in the political history of our times. The condition of Switzerland, as a federal republic, renders the incidents in question peculiarly deserving of attention in America, from the analogy, in many points, between the institutions of the two countries. To understand the nature of the changes lately effected in the heart of the Helvetian mountains, it is necessary to take a brief retrospect of the origin and successive combinations of the political rights of the confederated parties. The primitive confederation was composed of the three forest cantons, so called, of Schwytz, Uri, and Unterwalden, which pos

sess, even in our day, only a population of seventy thousand inhabitants. It was this handful of heroic mountaineers, which undertook to resist the powerful House of Austria, and which for twenty years maintained the contest for independence unaided and alone. Fifteen years after the great victory of Mongarten elapsed, before Lucerne was received into the confederacy. Zurich, Glaris, Zug, and finally Berne followed. These eight cantons, by their persevering love of liberty, and by a succession of splendid victories, signalized the name of Switzerland, during the fourteenth century, and at last compelled Austria to desist from asserting her pretensions by force of arms, although it was not until the peace of Westphalia, three centuries later, that she formally recognised the national independence of the Swiss.

Thus passed the fourteenth

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