118 The State of Europe. [^Avgvst, 



of Berri may make fifty foolish journeys, and distribute the last 

 franc of her expatriated purse before any one of her blood makes the 

 slightest impression upon the indignant and justified spirit of the French 

 nation. 



The Polish insurrection has been already alluded to. In this there 

 was nothing of either wanton revolt, or democratic outrage. An op- 

 pressed people appealed to Heaven, started up, as one man, broke the 

 Aveapons of the oppressors on their heads, and put themselves on their 

 trial in the field against the most furious and savage of European des- 

 potisms. God prosper them ! They fight for the same matchless stake, 

 which once covered England with blood, and which was well worthy all 

 the blood that won it. Their misfortunes, if they must sink, will be a 

 source of sorrow to all that is generous, brave, and wise in human 

 nature. Their triumphs — and we will not let go the hope that they may 

 triumph yet — will be a trophy erected for the praise and pride of many 

 a generation to come, a noble memorial to every people struggling under 

 the weight of a tyrant, and a glorious encouragement to those efforts of 

 wisdom and virtue without which nations are better in the grave. 



The Belgian Insurrection too has been justified by the total want of 

 volition in the people, in their transfer to the Dutch, by their natural 

 aversion to the authority of a stranger, and by the original right of every 

 nation to follow its own interests according to the dictates of its own 

 reason. The trade, the finance, and the public privileges of the Fleming 

 will find under an independent sovereign that protection which it would 

 be idle to expect under a Dutch king, And the nation were undoubt- 

 edly authorized to break thi'ough an allegiance which they believed in- 

 jurious to themselves, and which had been imposed on them by the 

 caprices of continental policy. 



There are still some questions, which may seriously occupy the new 

 king's attention. The province of Luxemburg was a kind of purchase 

 by the House of Nassau for some territories on the Rhine belonging to 

 the ancient Orange family. But the Luxemburgers, discovering them- 

 selves to be human beings, and not stocks and stones, conceive that they 

 ought to have some voice on the occasion, and determining to share the 

 fate of the Flemings, they boldly refused to be handed back to William 

 of Nassau. Against this obstinate adherence to their own choice, the 

 Dutchman protests with the air of injured honesty. But the lesson will 

 be good for him, and for others like him. IMan must not be bought and 

 sold ; and the sovereign of the Hollanders must be content with what is 

 content with him. Limburg and Liege are matters of discussion, but 

 the whole will be speedily settled. The Dutch king will see the folly of 

 resisting common sense. Belgium, as a thriving kingdom, will be more 

 productive to him ; an opulent neighbour is better at any time than 

 a disaffected subject. Europe will be quiet (for a while), and men will 

 think of commerce, books, and steam engines — much better things than 

 guns and gunpowder, " brilliant staffs," regulation moustaches, " mor- 

 tars on a new construction," and gazettees extraordinary of killed and 

 wounded. 



In England we have the more pacific battles of the House of Com- 

 mons. Country gentlemen making speeches of half an hour's length to 

 their own great delight and the infinite surprise of their most intimate 

 neighbours. Statesmen falling asleep under the table, debates dragged 

 on from liour to hour through midnight, twilight, and daylight. The 



