228 he Cotiference, and [Sept. 



better than even dancing or flirtation. The first shot was fired, and 

 instantly the French rushed to the spot, like boys to a pastime, |"or 

 hounds to a view-halloo. Before the news was in Paris five minutes. 

 King Philip was in council, sword in hand. Before the sun reached 

 his noon, the telegraph had sent the news from Paris to Bayonne, to Lisle, 

 and every where. Before dinner-time, all France was in an ecstacy at 

 the hope of going to war at last ; and, before supper, the two young 

 dukes and future Charlemagnes, were escorted, in triumph, by the 

 rabble out of Paris, exulting, " to make their first campaign." Fifty 

 thousand gallant Gauls were on foot in twenty-four hours, and marching 

 in full gaiety on Belgium. For this the Hollander was unprepared, and 

 the Gauls would have made hoiiiUi of his cavalry and infantry, Ijeaten his 

 cannon into camp-kettles, and turned his baggage into bonfires, if he 

 had waited for them till another sunset. But the news extinguished his 

 military ardour at once, and the war of Dutch glory was at an end ; and 

 it is the absurdity of having been unprepared for this, that makes us 

 think contemptuously of the brains of King William. There was not a 

 smuggler of schiedam, in all his borders, who could not have told his 

 majesty that the French were longing only for an opportunity of 

 pouncing on Holland, or Belgium, or any thing that came in the way ; 

 that not a French dragoon had blacked his boots, for the last six months, 

 but with a hope that before night he would be bemiring them on the 

 march to Belgium ; that the hope of beating the Dutch first and the 

 world afterwards, has been the solitary and the social thought of the 

 French garrisons for the last year ; that it has made their chansons, 

 raised their spirits, and filled every man of them, from the drummer to 

 the duke, with hallucinations of full pay, double rations, plunder, and 

 new ribbons at their button-holes. Yet King William and all his coun- 

 cillors, within a few leagues of them, were as ignorant of all this as new- 

 born babes. And when the fact flashed upon them at last, and they 

 saw the French cavalry running out to plant their pickets on the hills, 

 like school-boys broke loose for the holidays, they fancied that though 

 such a contingency was possible, they " could never have looked upon 

 it as probable." So much for the grave wisdom of the INIynheers ! 



But a heavier charge lies against the Dutch. There can be no doubt 

 that they broke faith, and broke it with an attempt at saving character, 

 ■which is, in all cases, only the stronger evidence of conscious deception. 

 It is acknowledged that there was an armistice with the Belgians, and 

 an armistice opened expressly for the purpose of negociation with the 

 " Conference." That armistice was broken by the Dutch, at the moment 

 while they were sending their envoy to negociate. What could be the 

 impression of those to whom that minister of peace was sent, but that 

 while the end, negociation, was obviously pursued, the means, the 

 armistice, would be pursued too? Or what could be the King of 

 Holland's impression, but that, the moment the news of his invasion 

 reached England, all negociation must be at an end ? Can we believe 

 that he sent an envoy with the bond fide intention to make peace, while 

 he knew that within three days all peace-making would be nullified by 

 his own act of making war .'' Let the Dutchman deny the conclusion if 

 he will — it is irresistible. Again, he clears his conscience by sending a 

 letter to the British ministry to warn them of his hostilities. And for 

 this purpose he. sends a letter which cannot reach London before 

 Wednesday, to ivarn tliem of hostihties which he was to begin on 



