116 The Stale of Europe. [August, 



and what human vigilance can prevent them ? the epidemic mai'ches on, 

 and may before long make itself felt in the presence of the monarchs as 

 well as of the people. TJie only hope of stopping the progress of this 

 awful infliction is by stopping the havoc of the war ; peace once come, 

 will give time for the exercise of those precautions which have so often 

 checked the advance of pestilence. But continued war will be sure to 

 spread it through the belligerents first, then through every bordering 

 nation ; and then, when its fury defies all control, Europe, in tears and 

 terror, will pay the penalty of those military madmen. 



Brussels at last has found a king, Prince Leopold a throne, and the 

 British nation has got rjd of an illustrious sinecurist. We can have no 

 desire to enfeeble the merits of Prince Leopold in this sacrifice; but 

 truth is the first point, and it must be observed that though he has de- 

 sired the surplus of the £50,000 a-year to be returned to the treasury, 

 yet he preserves the grant in a condition to be resumed the moment he 

 pleases. He has not giveti up the £50,000, he has placed it " in the 

 hands of trustees," thus keeping up the whole machinery of the grant ; 

 and evidently intending to resume it, if his Belgian patriots should think 

 fit to return him again upon our pension list. 



The accounts of his reception are highly favourable. Triumphal 

 arches, flowers, illuminations, and reviews of the burghers, have wel- 

 comed him evei'ywhere, and the people are clearly glad of the prospect 

 of quiet and money-making again. And what man of common sense 

 would not rejoice to escape the eternal hazards, fooleries, and crimes of 

 republicanism ? If Prince Leopold will conduct himself with intelli- 

 gence, and still more, with a real wish to do justice to the nation, if he 

 give them freedom, and disdain to sink into a mei'e enjoyer of a laced 

 coat and handsome salary, he may carry his crown with him to his grave. 

 If he play the miser, he will be scoffed at: if he play the lover of mili- 

 tary parade, the amateur of lancers, hussars, and other gewgaws of ser- 

 vice, he will be in danger of it over-draining his exchequer, and being 

 rapidly turned out. If he play the German prince, the Landgrave or 

 Margrave, the sullen sovereign of three square miles, his fate will be 

 sealed within the first week. 



But at best his throne must be an uneasy one. A strong and bitter 

 Flemish party have already declared against him. The Dutch nation 

 are universally indignant at the loss of Belgium, and are determined to 

 recover it, if suUenness, grumbling, and the virtues of the Prince of 

 Orange will help them in the recovery. But the time for those weapons 

 is past. Wilhelmus van Nassau was not made for a conqueror, and he 

 must be content with the triumphs of the counting-house. His admi- 

 nistration was unwise, for it was displeasing to the people. In spite of 

 all remonstrance he kept the scourge over their heads, in the shape of a 

 minister whom the people universally abhorred. If he thought proper 

 to sacrifice his supremacy to the happiness of keeping M. Von ]\Iaanen 

 at the head of Belgium, he has only himself to thank for the consequences. 

 Another absurdity was the determination to make the Flemings speak 

 Dutch, whether they knew it or not ; the consequence was that they 

 have left their king to contribute his philosophical cares to his Hollanders 

 alone. There were fifty other similar fooleries played off vipon a people, 

 tetchy enough in their nature, much connected with France, who taught 

 them to despise the Hollanders most heartily, and fully recoil cting the 

 brilliant times of Napoleon, who taught them as heartily to despise. 



