gian territory on or before the 15th of the same November, that then a French corps should enter Belgium and forcibly expel the Dutch. This treaty had meaning and point in it; and was precisely the measure which, and which alone, could overcome this vis inertia of Holland.

The King of Holland having distinctly refused to evacuate the citadel of Antwerp, and the forts and places dependant upon it, which the treaty was destined to effect, an English order in council made its appearance on the 7th of November, suspending all intercourse with Holland, and commanding the detention and capture of all ships belonging to that nation. The Moniteur of that date gave information that a like order had been issued in France. And at the same time the combined English and French fleets were despatched to the Scheldt. And these demonstrations producing no effect, the French army of the North, under the command of Marshal Gérard, passed the frontiers on the 15th, directing itself on the citadel of Antwerp. In taking this step Louis Philippe expressly undertook not to occupy any of the fortified places of Belgium, but that, on the contrary, after attaining their object, the French troops would immediately retire upon the territory of France.

Marshal Gérard was accompanied by the Dukes of Orleans and Nemours, and followed by a numerous army, organized and equipped with those irresistible means of sure success, which had characterized the expedition

against Algiers. On the 17th, Baron Chassé, who still commanded the citadel of Antwerp, issued an order of the day, announcing his resolution to hold out the place to the last extremity. Simultaneously with the entrance of the French into Belgium, Prussia caused a numerous army of observation to assemble on the Maes, engaging to withdraw it when the French should withdraw. And thus at length the Belgian question, which had filled Europe with alarm for two years, openly assumed the threatening aspect of an impending European war.

By the 30th of November the French army was ready to commence attempting the reduction of the citadel. The only delicate point in the matter was to preserve the city of Antwerp from being subject to the fire of the citadel. To attain this object Marshal Gérard opened a negotiation with Baron Chassé, which resulted in an understanding that the garrison would treat the city as neutral in the contest, on condition that the French abstained from availing themselves of the fortifications of the city in their hostile operations. This arrangement added greatly to the difficulties of the French, but was dictated by every consideration of honor and humanity. It is edifying to remark the tranquil civility of language employed in the summons to surrender, and the reply. I hope,' says Gérard, to find you disposed to acknowledge the justice of my request (for the possession of the citadel.) If, contrary to my ex

pectation, it should be otherwise, I am charged to apprise you that I must employ all the means at my disposal to occupy the citadel of Antwerp,' To which Chassé responded in the same courteous tone: 'In reply to your summons, which I have this instant received, I inform you that I shall not surrender the citadel of Antwerp, until after having exhausted all the means of defence at my disposal.' Whereupon the parties proceeded to address each other in the more expressive language uttered at the cannon's mouth.

The trenches were opened during the night of the 29th to the 30th, and the fire commenced from the citadel at noon of the 30th. Amid great embarrassments from heavy rains and the local situation of the works under the fire of the citadel, everything was completed by the fourth of December, on which day the French batteries opened with a tremendous discharge from eightytwo pieces of ordnance. All means of siege and attack, which modern art supplies, were now brought in requisition by the French, and to such effect that, on the 23d of December, General Chassé signified his desire to stop the further effusion of blood. By the articles of capitulation the garrison, consisting of about 4000 men, became prisoners of war, to be released, however, on condition that the King of Holland should order the surrender of the forts of Lillo and Liefkenshoek, which, being independent of General Chassé, could not be delivered up by him. When the French took possession of the

citadel they found all the buildings within it a heap of ruins, and the soil everywhere ploughed up by shot and shells, indicating alike the skill of the besiegers and the resolution of the garrison. The great object of their expedition being accomplished, the French troops were immediately marched back to their country, leaving King William to digest this decisive step of his good allies, and to ponder upon the measures of coercion still employed by them on the water.

In GERMANY, during the year 1831, various changes occurred among the secondary States, and occasional insurrectionary movements, not attended with any important general results. Of the insurrection, the most serious was that which broke out in the kingdom of Hanover, in January, 1831, beginning at Osterode, and then showing itself at Gottingen. It was promptly suppressed, however, by marching up a strong body of troops, serving no other purpose but to indicate the spread of constitutional opinions, the great point of controversy between the people and the government being the neglect of the latter to concede the constitutional forms promised by the Congress of Vienna. The manifest uneasiness of the people in the smaller States, generally, had already awakened the jealousy of the three greater ones, especially Austria and Prussia, where the happening of a political meeting in Rhenish Bavaria in 1832, led to decided measures of coercion on the part of the Diet, under which measures Germany is now labor

ing and struggling, like a giant tied to the earth by ignoble bonds. It was the first wish of the Germans, as subsidiary to their grand aim of uniting all Germany together in one country with free institutions, to have the press unfettered, so as to be able to discuss political subjects with independence. In Bavaria and Hesse, public journals existed, which entered into political affairs more than was agreeable to the ruling powers; and the States of Baden exacted from their Prince his assent to a law relieving the press of the Grand Duchy from censorship. Hereupon the Diet on the 13th of March, in pursuance of a decree on the subject adopted in 1819, as related in our last volume, ordered the suppression of three journals, two printed in Bavaria and one in Hesse. Indignant at the dictation imposed upon the governments of Hesse and Bavaria, the popular party proposed to hold a meeting in the open air, at Hambach, for the purpose of concentrating the opinions of Germany, and giving to it an audible expression. At first, the King of Bavaria prohibited the meeting, but this prohibition was afterwards withdrawn; and the assembly accordingly took place on the 27th and 28th of May. Twenty thousand persons, it is averred, met on the occasion, gathered from Hesse, Nassau, Rhenish Prussia, Baden, and Wurtemberg, as well as from Bavaria. Some few Frenchmen and exiled Poles likewise attended it. Their speeches, toasts, resolutions, and their proceedings in general, were too strongly im

༣

bued with republican spirit, to be acceptable to the crowned heads of Germany. Indeed, the meeting itself was of peculiar influence upon their authority, Here were the people, not of this or that State, of Baden or Bavaria, - but of Germany, acting together upon a common object, and upon a question where the interest of the governors conflicted with that of the governed. A few such meetings, and the Germans would be prepared to assert their political rights effectively. Looking to such a consequence, the Diet gladly availed itself of the occasion to throw the swords of Austria and Prussia into the scale of political justice.

Germany, it is to be remembered, is divided into two great interests; on the one hand, that of Austria and Prussia, which have no representative assemblies except the old provincial states, and on the other, Saxony, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and the minor principalities, which possess a constitutional government. Hanover, notwithstanding its being a dependency of the English crown, is always governed in conformity with the views of Austria and Prussia. It is the settled policy of the two latter governments to discredit, in all possible ways, the legislative assemblies of the smaller States, because in them every man sees the instruments of the ultimate deliverance of Germany. Constitutional assemblies and the press, these are the dreaded enemies of absolutism all over Europe. The meeting of Hambach, like the murder of Kotzebue in 1800, furnished the

great sovereigns with a plausible pretext for whatever outrage on the independence of the smaller States, and the political rights of the people, it might be deemed desirable to perpetrate. In July, the Diet published a set of decrees, which imposed on the legislative bodies of the constitutional States a variety of restrictions, calculated to deprive them of the faculty of deliberating or acting freely, and rendering them the mere subordinate agents of the Diet. At the same time, additional regulations were provided in relation to the press. These acts encountered the warmest opposition in the several legislatures affected by them, although supported by most of the sovereigns; and the discussion of this whole matter is the great political question, which now occupies the general mind of Germany.

GREECE, after the assassination of Capo d'Istrias in 1831, became the scene of utter anarchy, and so continued until the three powers which had interested themselves in its affairs, England, France, and Russia, pitched upon Otho, a minor son of the King of Bavaria, to be made King of Greece. The basis of the new sovereignty was established by a treaty concluded in May, 1832. It was stipulated, that the King of Bavaria should furnish his son with 3600 Bavarian troops for the maintenance of his authority among the turbulent Greek chiefs, the troops to be paid out of the revenue of Greece. The powers guaranteed a loan of two and a half millions sterling for the service of the new sovereign,

of which a portion was appropriated to paying to the Porte an indemnity in consideration of the extension of the Greek frontier to a line uniting the gulfs of Arta and Volo. By the close of the year, all the preliminary arrangements were so far completed as to enable Otho to embark for Napoli in December, after receiving full assurances that his authority would be gladly recognised by the great body of the Greeks.

If Greece had thus finally escaped the immediate control of RUSSIA, that empire did not the less labor for the extension or consolidation of its power in Poland and Turkey. It was not to be supposed, indeed, that Russia would lose the opportunity she had acquired, to take from the Poles what little they still retained of their peculiar institutions. In February an organic statute appeared, which declared the kingdom of Poland to be an integral part of the Russian Empire, and numerous changes were made in the interior government, in the intent of totally obliterating the nationality of Poland. Whatever of remonstrance on this head might be addressed to the Emperor, by Great Britain and France as parties to the Congress of Vienna, it was now too late for them to interpose very efficiently in behalf of the Poles. They might have done so, when Poland bristled with armed freemen; but the complete suppression of the insurrection rendered Russia independent of their wishes, and but little disposed to listen to their reclamations.