1831.] Europe, and the British Parliament. 245 



within a day. If Belgium is to have a prince, and that prince is to 

 have a permanent kingdom, he ought to be chosen among the established 

 powers of Europe. The Nassau family would probably be the most 

 eligible. But they seem to have given some irreconcilable offence to 

 the people of Brussels, and they come with the unlucky imputation of 

 having been beaten. The Belgians, therefore, treat them with scorn. 

 This was the old policy of Europe, when Poland received a foreigner 

 on her throne. It was the acknowledged and wise policy to place on 

 that throne some individual whose hereditary dominions would supply 

 him with the means of preserving the throne independent. While the 

 electors of Saxony and the king of Hungary were thus in possession, 

 Poland was independent. But when Russia was weakly suffered to put 

 Stanislaus on the throne, a man taken from the common order of the 

 nobles, from that hour Poland became little more than a Russian fief. 

 In the same manner, while the Netherlands remained connected with 

 Austria, they retained their influence in European affairs, and their 

 independence of the neighbouring powers. They were, of course, 

 involved in every war of Europe, from their situation in the centre of 

 the great military powers ; but though a regular exercise-ground for 

 all the Continental armies, they underwent no separation ; they retained 

 their rank, and by their location, which, unlucky as it was in war, was 

 the source of commerce and prosperity in peace, they continued one of 

 the most opulent portions of Europe. But if a young Beauharnois, or 

 any other waltzing boy of the Continent, with nothing but his mous- 

 taches and spurs to sustain his throne, shall be invested with the Bel- 

 gian destinies, it is impossible that either the people will endure, or 

 the ambitious and warlike powers of the Continent will respect him. 

 Prussia will partition his dominions, the Dutch will buy them, or 

 France will seize them at one fell swoop, and there's an end. 



The world beyond the Rhine is still in that state of silence, yet of 

 confusion, which is " between the acting of a dreadful thing and the 

 conception." Prussia is drilling, arming, and parading in every 

 quarter. The Polish insurrection has called large bodies of troops into 

 the provinces, her share of the plunder of that unhappy country. The 

 Belgian insurrection had drawn away another army to the provinces on 

 the Rhine. The sulkiness of the populace in Berlin, and of the 

 students and professors in the universities, is understood to be suffi- 

 ciently marked to keep another army in the centre of the kingdom, 

 and, at this moment, Prussia without a war, or any thing to gain by 

 one, is in the same attitude as if the armies of Europe were thundering 

 at the gates of Berlin, and is undergoing an expence that is preying on 

 the vitals of the land. 



In Italy symptoms of that insurgent spirit, which is known to exist 

 in every corner of that fine country, have lately broken out even in the 

 quiet districts of the Modenese and the Bolognese. They will be put 

 clown, and the insurgents be forced to hide themselves, as usual, until a 

 more favourable opportunity. But the chance has put Austria on the 

 alert, and her army is in preparation for marching alike to the Rhine and 

 the Brenta. 



The Polish insurrection seems to have failed. A w r ant of concert 

 between the people and the nobles was the first source of weakness. 

 The next was the want of a leader. We are too remote from the scene 

 to know the circumstances under which Klopicki, the dictator, has 



