their accomplices in Brabant. The party sent to perpetrate this deed, succeeded so far as to tear the duke from his family and force him into a carriage; when the volunteers interposed, and effected his deliverance.

The severe conduct of the congress towards Vandermersch, and the violence both of congress and the states of Flanders respecting the duke of Ursel, rendered them generally unpopular and odious. But the public hatred and indignation were chiefly pointed against Vandernoot and Van Eupen, two men who, in close connexion together, carried all things in the congress, and by their influence possessed in fact all the executive powers of the state. It was universally said by the democratical party, "That priests and feudal tyrants had seized the sceptre and sword of the chief magistrate of Belgium, and used them as instruments of injustice and cruelty against the most patriotic exalted characters in the nation. The Belgic nation had not resisted the encroachments of a single tyrant, in order to exalt the power of a few ecclesiastics and civil chiefs, but to restore and main. tain the rights of the people and of human nature." The people of Flanders resented the imprisonment and prosecution of Vandermersch, who was a native of their province (and of whom they were with reason proud) as an act of the most injurious and outrageous nature : and if matters had been left to the tide of popular passions, a rupture might have taken place between the two great provinces of the union. This was prevented by a mutual agreement between the states of the different provinces, to

make certain changes in their respective governments.

A

The new government of the Netherlands, already shaken in so short a space of time by discordant interests, opinions, and passions, now began to totter greatly, and was soon to fall. The army, with their general and their honour, lost their spirit; and defeats from the Austrians, of late so much despised, became not unfrequent. grand expedition being formed by government against the Austrians, it became of course necessary to raise supplies of both men and money. But so unpopular had the sovereign congress become in the principal cities, and so low their credit, that Vandernoot having applied for loans of money, met with a repulse at Antwerp and other places in the rich provinces of the Netherlands. He was not more successful in his attempts in England and Holland. Some corps, however, of Brabanters were brought together. But the towns of Flanders peremptorily refused to send a single man to join them :— nor did the intended expedition meet with much greater encourage. ment even in the city of Brussels, where the military spirit had been raised so lately to so extraordinary a pitch of ardour; so that the enterprize, after considerable expense, was abandoned.

Having thus far followed the new order of affairs in the provinces, and also its consequences at home, we shall now take a view of the effects produced by both these on foreign nations.

The emperor Joseph 2nd, humbled by misfortune, weakened by disease, and receding from his perfidy and pride in proportion as he approached

approached his end, had manifested an intention of treating the Netherlands and his other dominions with greater justice, moderation, and prudence, than had hitherto characterized his government. About the time of issuing his last memorial from Vienna, he gave further evidence of this change in his disposition, by dispatching the count Cobentzel, so highly distinguished by his diplomatic talents, to Brussels, in the hope of restoring tranquillity and order, and effecting a re-union with the Belgic provinces.* The death of Joseph, which happened on the 20th of February, 1790, as above related, and the accession of his brother Leopold, afforded a very considerable degree of expectation that a reconciliation and re-union might be effected between the people of the Netherlands and the new successor to the Austrian dominions, who was not personally an object of dislike, aversion, and mistrust, like their late sovereign; but who, on the contrary, had gained universal applause on account of the moderation of his disposition, as well as the mild and equitable administration of his government during so many years as the grand duke of Tuscany. The general expectations that had been formed from a review of the manners and conduct of this prince, were not an. swered by a memorial which he transmitted to the inhabitants of the Netherlands soon after his ar

rival at Vienna: and still less was it satisfactory to the people to whom it was addressed. In that piece, Leopold, while he greatly blames. the perfidious and despotic conduct of his deceased brother, "makes the strongest professions on his own part, of lenity, kindness, and affection for the people; and gives them the strongest assurances of his disposition and intention to redress all their real grievances. But at the same time: he asserts, in the highest terms, his undoubted right to the sovereignty of the Austrian Netherlands, and insinuates a threat, that.no power on earth shall deprive him of that right, while he possesses the means of maintaining it."

This memorial was considered by many at the time, and has since been pronounced by several writers, to be ungracious for a first address from a throne, and, on the whole, ill-judged and impolitic. It appears to us in a different light, as being in exact conformity with his maxims of government already noticed, on the occasion of mentioning his mode of settling the affairs of Hungary: a prudent mixture of condescension with firmness.

It was evident that the united Belgic states were every day becoming, from their internal jealousies and dissentions, less formidable than they had at first appeared to be. Ambitious, interested, and sor did views, became more and more apparent

apparent in all their conduct. They had begun now to be considered as equally incapable of framing, adopting, or maintaining any wise and equitable system of government, not only by the court of Vienna, but by the three allied powers, Great Britain, Prussia, and Holland, who, in the beginning of the contest, had shown so lively a disposition to afford them countenance and support. And, in fine, matters were in train for an accommodation and settlement of all disputes both between the king of Hungary and his own subjects, as well as foreign nations, by the treaty which took place soon after, at Reichenbach. The memorial of Leopold was not impolitic, if policy is to be estimated merely by its subserviency to views of interest and ambition. Nor yet does there appear to be any proposition in the memorial inconsistent with the most enlarged, equitable, and benevolent system of policy. Few, if any, constitutions of government were in fact better than that of which the Flemings were in possession before the invasions of the late emperor. This constitution Leopold engaged to restore. There was not the least reason to suppose either that he would break his promise, or be backward to concur in any wise measure that might be at any time proposed for bettering the condition of the people. The whole tenor of his life and conduct proved the bumanity of his disposition, and his moderation in matters of government. It was extravagant to suppose that Leopold, mild and pacific as he was known to be, would yet give up his hereditary claim to such an inheritance as the low countries, without a strug

gle; nor was there any reason to hope, from actual circumstances, that he would have consulted by such a relinquishment the interests of the Flemings, any more than those of his own family. Sovereign princes, of the softest and gentlest tempers, have had recourse to arms rather than submit to a deprivation of any portion of their dominions; as had been proved by instances even in the history of the low countries. There could not be a greater contrast in point of natural disposition, than what had been exhibited in two sovereign princes of the Austrian race, Philip II and Philip III, kings of Spain, and sovereign lords also, as heirs to the dukes of Burgundy, of the Netherlands: the former ambitious, perfidious, and cruel: the latter, peaceable, just, and humane. Philip III continued, as long as he was able, the war that had been begun and carried on so long by his father, Philip II.

Yet

The humbler the station in which men are placed in life, the more circumscribed their views; the loftier the eminence on which they stand, the more extensive the prospect around them. The mendicant lives, as it were, from day to day; the labouring poor from week to week; and even the manufacturer and merchant are usually go. verned by the circumstances and tone of the present month and year. The man of landed property takes root in the earth, is ambitious to establish and aggrandize his family, embraces in his views a wide horizon, and casting his eyes forward over the long length of time for which he expects his estate to remain in the possession of his natural heirs, endeavours to fix such max

ims in his family, and to make such arrangements, as shall secure the patrimony he leaves, against the caprices and follies of individuals, and transmit it with additions, at least without diminution, from generation to generation. But most of all do the heads of royal houses carry their views backward into past, and forward into future times. Surveying the images of their ancestry, and anticipating in their imagination the fancied forms of a progeny yet unborn, they consider themselves as accountable to those invisible judges of their conduct. Their own personal character is modified, in some measure, by that of the race from whence they are sprung. The aggrandizement of this, in some shape or other, is generally among their governing passions.

Though the character of Leopold, therefore, was as opposite to the character of Joseph II as that of Philip II was to Philip III of Austria, still it was not to be expected that he, any more than Philip the Pious and Good,* should renounce the claims of his family. The love of Sovereign power was as natural to the representatives of the Austrians, as that of liberty was to the people of the Netherlands: nor were these passions, though different, necessarily of an opposite and mutually hostile nature, the stability and the glory of monarchical power being best promoted by a just regard to the interests and rights of the people; and the interests and rights of the people being safest under the wing of a limited monarchy. The declared intention of Leopold to assert and maintain his rights of sovereignty to the provinces, revived a

party that had for some time, in the midst of the violent dissentions and contests that divided and tore the country, lain dormant. This was the loyalists, or friends to the House of Austria; who now began to declare themselves openly, to be distinguished by cockades of a different colour from those of the patriots, and who, being probably joined by many persons of other parties who were dissatisfied with the present state of affairs, appeared to be by far more numerous than they had been before imagined. In proportion as aversion to the present govern ment prevailed, the loyalists increased in numbers and in courage. The inhabitants of several villages assembled in bodies, wearing Austrian cockades, displaying Austrian standards, and, until the troops were collected for their dispersion, proceeded to various acts of irregularity and violence. It was evident that the Congress did not possess either the dispositions, the ta lents, or the authority that would have been necessary for conciliating, harmonizing, and governing so divided a people. Many moderate and judicious men, who had at the outset favoured the revolution, began to compare the present miserable posture of affairs with the tranquillity and contentment enjoyed under Maria Theresa. Their at tachment to the family of their ancient sovereigns revived; they recollected, that from the period when the Burgundian provinces were united to the Austrian dominions to the present time, from the archduke Maximilian to Joseph II there was but one instance of an Austrian monarch attacking what might be

called

Nevertheless, when it became evident that a double aristocracy had combined with the rudest of the people, only for the purposes of self-interest and aggrandizement, and all things were involved in public confusion and calamity, the evils that might be apprehendedfrom a re-union with a power so greatly superior to that of the provinces, werecompared with those to be certainly expected from a continuance of the present distractions. "If the states-general," it was observed, "should continue to hold the reins of government in the Catholic Netherlands, the Belgic nation groans under the pressure of a twofold and a species of monstrous aristocracy if a republic is attempted, there is the utmost reason to fear, from what we have seen, that anarchy and uproar will ensue; and terminate, as anarchies usually do, in the tyranny of one man. Various popular leaders would put in their claim to the supreme power, and the nation would not be able to obtain even the lethargic shades of despotism without wading to them through blood: the government might become elective, and

peated at every election. An hereditary monarchy when duly modified, the best species of government, would prevent those calamities which so often overtook the Roman empire, and which now so frequently desolate eastern nations, and have so often afflicted the kingdom of Poland. A claimant, with so natural a title to the Burgundian throne, and so fair a character as Leopold, ought not to be opposed in the present circumstances, but received with joy. He is willing to grant all that the Flemings can desire for the security of their privileges: he has never yet been known to forfeit his word any more than his title to be their sovereign."

The declining power of the congress, and its approaching dissolution, in some way or other, was perceptible to most people but themselves, when they received a letter about the middle of August from the king of Prussia, signifying that he had acknowledged Leopold * to be duke of Brabant: an acknowledgment which implied his succession, under different titles,+ to the other Austrian provinces in the Netherlands.

So intoxicated were the congress by the small taste they had received of supreme power, that they would not suffer themselves to see that the fate of the Netherlands, for the present, was undoubtedly decided by the convention of Reichenbach : but, in spite of internal division and an external union among so many great powers, in opposition to their pretensions

As earls of Flanders, &c. &c.