MISCELLANIES. 
untouched. The allied generals 
wrote with a pencil, on the mar- 
gin of this article non accordé, 
(not granted). This refusal, it 
appears, did not arise so much 
from any decision taken with re- 
spect to the Museum by the Duke 
of Wellington, who would not 
prejudge the question, but be- 
cause General Blucher, supported 
by the public opinion of his coun- 
try, had, in his own mind, de- 
termined upon takingit. The ar- 
ticle on the respect to be paid to 
public and private property was 
loosely worded. The Provisionary 
Government were, perhaps, not 
sorry to have left room for misin- 
terpretation, since the surrender 
of Paris was unavoidable. The 
allies assert that their respect for 
the monuments of the arts could 
never be justly applied to the re- 
taking of objects which had at 
first been seized by violence. 
General Blucher, immediately 
upon his entrance into Paris, sent 
aletter to M. Denon, the Director 
of the Museum, demanding not 
only the objects of the last year’s 
negociation with M. Blacas, but 
what was also in the Museum. 
M. Denon answered, that it was 
an affair which must be negociated 
with his government, and that he 
would not give them up. M. De- 
non was arrested during the night 
by twenty men, and was threaten- 
ed to be sent to the fortress of 
Graudentz in West Prussia. 
From this argument there was 
no appeal. The objects demanded 
were delivered. This surrender 
was made in due order, and the 
Gladiator, the two pictures of 
Correggio,andsomevaluablepieces 
of the old German school, were 
carefully packed upby the persons 
587 
employed at the Museum. This 
would have been but a trifling 
loss had not the King of Prussia 
taken not only what belonged to 
Potzdam and Berlin, but also to 
Cologne and Aix la Chapelle, 
countries on this side of the 
Rhine, and therefore not in his 
possession at that period, on the 
pretext that these objects belong- 
ed to the cathedral, and the mu- 
nicipality of those towns. 
The public mind again became 
tranquil; it was asserted these 
acts of Prussian violence had nei- 
ther the assent of the emperor of 
Russia, nor of the duke of Wel- 
lington, and it was currently be- 
lieved that they had condemned 
these measures. 
Two months had now passed 
when the Gallery of the Louvre 
was menaced from another quar- 
ter. The King of the Belgic 
Provinces, now united to Holland, 
had published a Constitution in 
the modern style, that is, on free 
and liberal principles. It was 
understood that it had met with a 
general acceptance, for who would 
refuse the blessings of liberty ? 
The acceptance, however, was 
not so cordial as had been gene- 
rally believed. There was a nu- 
merous and respectable class of 
the inhabitants of those pro- 
vinces who were not. eager to 
adopt strange doctrines, or suffer 
themto beadopted by those under 
their influence. 
The Catholic clergy, in that 
country, had displayed some en- 
ergy twenty years since, when 
threatened with liberal principles, 
they roused the faithful into in- 
surrection against such innova- 
tions by their then lawful sove-~ 
reign. The emperor Joseph the 
