226 The Conference, and [|Sept. 



always lost ground with the country ! — No. If ministers are to be 

 attacked effectually, the attack must be brought in to their own quar- 

 ters ; they must be attacked for their insults to the rights of the subject, 

 and their tamperings with the constitution. 



Still, we by no means give Lord Grey's cabinet credit for the part 

 which they have acted in the present convulsion. The Belgian revolt 

 is now almost a year old. The British Government ought to have as- 

 certained, in that time, the true feeling of the leading governments on 

 this subject, a point which they have evidently not ascertained at this 

 hour; and we question whether our foreign minister now knows more 

 of the actual mind of Austria, Prussia, or Russia, relative to Belgium, 

 than he did on the first announcement that Belgium was free. In this 

 we say nothing of the mind of IMetternich, for we do not expect that 

 cautious and profound statesman to lay his mind open to any man's 

 inspection. Yet there are circumstances which make a peculiar policy 

 imperative on nations, let their ministers be as subtle as the serpent ; 

 and it is by judging of those circumstances that a man of ability acts 

 with decision and success. But the whole state of Europe, during the 

 last twelve months, is a lesson against our putting faith in high names. 

 The French insurrection took every cabinet of Europe by surprise; yet 

 it might have been conjectured by every man who drank a cup of coffee 

 in a Parisian cabaret. The Belgian insurrection startled every potentate 

 from the Volga to the Tagus j yet it might have been conjectured by every 

 lounger over a Flemish Gazette ; or, if he did not find it in the para- 

 graphs of the paper, he might have found it in the editor's announce- 

 ment, that he wrote in a dungeon, and that he was one of a dozen or 

 twenty editors who were in dungeons at the same time for speaking 

 their minds. The Polish insui'rection was wondered at, till the rescripts 

 of the German courts had no other language ; and yet it was notorious 

 to every drummer in Poland, three years ago, that the Russian govern- 

 ment dared not give the Polish regiments a round of ball-cartridge, for 

 fear of their firing it down the throats of Constantine and his aides-de- 

 camp. It was notorious that Russia dared not march a single Polish 

 regiment to the Turkish war, and that Poland cursed Constantine, and 

 those who delivered it into the hands of that savage, every day the sun 

 rose. And yet men wondered when Poland made one wild and despe- 

 rate effort to break the Russian chain. 



The labours of the five powers to secure the quiet of Belgium have been 

 more than unlucky, and it is inconceivable how they could have expected 

 that Prince Leopold's simple presence would have quieted Holland, at 

 the moment when Holland distinctly proclaimed that it would be a 

 declaration of war ; a;id the Dutchman kept his word. No sooner had 

 the unlucky Prince arrived, than he was saluted with the bellowing of 

 the Belgic boors running away from the Dutch bayonets. He was 

 roused from his Belgic bed, at two in the morning, to look upon his 

 villages blazing for fifty miles round. His next royal indulgence was to 

 fight a battle, in which all his heroes ran away, and the exulting Gazet- 

 teer of his exploits, details them all in the words that " the King did not 

 run awaij." After this unequalled triumph, he had still another oppor- 

 tunity of adding verdure to his laurels; for he was caught, aye, even by 

 Dutch alacrity, cooped up in the City of Louvain, and his heroes who, 

 a month ago, were to have pelted King William of Nassau and all his 



