622 The Wellington and the Grey Administrations, [DEC. 



This was plain sense, and was not to be answered, but by some fair 

 acknowledgment that Belgium was to be put down at all hazards, and 

 that England was*, to be one of the instruments in putting it down. 

 But the Duke of Wellington had already changed his tone, for it is 

 impossible to doubt that his original language had been hostile. It was 

 now to be declared that prejudging meant giving no opinion what- 

 ever, and that pronouncing the act of the Belgians to be a revolt, meant 

 nothing but a pacificatory arrangement. 



" f I hope/ said the noble Duke, ' that we shall be enabled to effect the 

 pacification by means of impartial mediation, and a prudent conciliation, 

 without any necessity for an appeal to arms. The Noble Earl may be 

 assured, therefore, that there is no intention on our part to interfere by 

 force, or by an appeal to arms. We hope, by means of negociation, and by 

 moderate, conciliatory, and pacific intervention, to carry into effect an 

 arrangement that ought to be satisfactory to all parties, conducive to the 

 peace and good government of the Netherlands, and to the welfare and 

 tranquillity of Europe. ' ' 



In all this tissue of declaration, and of denial in the teeth of declara- 

 tion, plain men can discover nothing but feebleness, want of purpose, 

 and want of knowledge of the feelings of England. We have not the 

 slightest idea that the Duke of Wellington intended to involve England 

 in war for the supremacy of the Dutch King; yet he must make a 

 bravado : could he believe that his bravado would answer the purpose of 

 putting down the Belgian insurrection ? No. Might it not have driven 

 Belgium in its first alarm into throwing itself into the hands of France ? 

 Undoubtedly : for men will not suffer their bodies to be cast into Dutch 

 dungeons, nor their throats to be cut on Dutch scaffolds, while they can 

 save either liberty or life by calling in the help of their neighbours. 

 Might it not too have given the French liberals the opportunity which 

 they so obviousty desire, of taking Belgium under their protection, and 

 forcing their King to set himself at the head of insurrection and repub- 

 licanism throughout Europe ? Undoubtedly. And nothing but the 

 instant disclaimer wrung from this rash minister, could have prevented 

 the catastrophe. Thanks to " his Majesty's opposition," which righted 

 his Majesty's government, redeemed the credit of the country out of the 

 giddy hands of the outcast cabinet ; and compelling the chief of that 

 cabinet to swallow his words, substituted words of quietness and com- 

 mon sense in their room. 



But his Grace had to exhibit himself in one more attitude of bravado ; 

 and luckily it was the last in which he is likely to display himself for 

 some time. England, infinitely disgusted with her late parliament, 

 which she had seen successively upholding every ministry, let its prin- 

 ciples be however obnoxious, or its waste of the public money on its 

 creatures be, however scandalous ; had been driven by the palpable 

 necessity of the case into a demand of some change which might give 

 her an honest representation. The cry was no longer confined to the 

 radical or the whig ; men of all parties and of none, equally joined in it ; 

 and the tories were the loudest in their determination to have some 

 change instantly made. Yet the premier, urged by his fate, and under 

 the influence of that feeling of mingled short-sightedness and arrogance 

 which makes him the most unfit man alive to be the minister of a 

 country where men have rights and feelings to be consulted, haughtily 

 declares himself against all improvement. He does more, he ornaments 



