BELGIUM. 



479 



cliange in the national institutions was recognised, by 

 the lower chamber, by a vote of fifty to forty-four, 

 and the necessity of a change in the constitutional 

 relations of the two divisions of the state, by a vote 

 of fifty five to forty-three. Both questions were 

 decided in the affirmative, in the upper chamber, by 

 a vote of thirty-one to seven. September 29, the 

 states-general declared, by eighty-nine votes against 

 nineteen, the legislative and administrative separation 

 of Belgium from Holland, and the common sovereign- 

 ty of the house of Nassau. 



October 1, the king ordered a state committee to 

 draw up a bill of separation, to be discussed and 

 sanctioned by the states-general. But the Belgians 

 would not wait for the constitutional way of proceed- 

 ing, the result of which was no longer doubtful. The 

 populace gained the ascendency in Brussels, and 

 Belgium was drawn into the vortex of a revolution. 

 Under the pretext that Dutch troops might attack 

 the city, and that the burghers were too irresolute, 

 the populace, instigated by violent and factious 

 individuals, and reinforced by the Liegers, took their 

 arms from a part of the burghers. The pikemen 

 joined them. The committee of safety ordered 

 tlie Liegers to leave Brussels ; but a new insurrection 

 broke out : the country people made common cause 

 with the populace ; the civic guards were obliged to 

 yield ; the government hitherto existing was abolish- 

 ed (September 20); and the central society estab- 

 lished a popular administration, at the head of which 

 was to be placed De Potter (who was yet in Paris) 

 and De Stassart, to whom Van Maanen, Gendebien, 

 Raikem, count d'Oultremont, Felix de Merode, and 

 Van de Weyer, were added. Thus the French and 

 the republican parties, together with the ultramonta- 

 nists, united to overturn the Protestant government 

 and the monarchy. 



It seems that the clubbists from policy, and the 

 armed populace from passion, intended to effect a 

 formal rupture with the house of Nassau, by attack- 

 ing (particularly on Sept. 20) the advanced posts of 

 the royal troops stationed at Antwerp, under the 

 command of prince Frederic. That part of the 

 population which wished only the administrative 

 separation of the two sections of the kingdom, had 

 already become apprehensive for their property and 

 the public safety : the power had been taken from 

 those who had been the leaders of the opposition ; 

 and the wild and violent acts of the clubs threatened 

 to involve Brussels and the rest of Belgium in a 

 common anarchy. To avert this danger, some influ- 

 ential burghers invited prince Frederic to lead his 

 troops into Brussels, whose tranquillity was disturbed 

 by a small number of violent men, mostly strangers. 

 The Belgian deputies at the Hague, anxious for 

 their property, and disturbed by the news from Brus- 

 sels, also called upon the king for aid : they assured 

 him of the support of the majority, because every 

 respectable man wished, to see an end put to anarchy. 

 The king, who had been as little inclined as the 

 prince of Orange to an armed interference, yielded 

 to these representations. Count de Celles, one of 

 the leaders of the revolution, is said to have prevailed 

 upon the king to adopt this measure. Prince Fre- 

 deric, theretore, issued a proclamation (Sept. 21), 

 from his head-quarters at Antwerp, to the inhabi- 

 tants of Brussels, in which he says " The national 

 troops will enter your city in the name of the law, 

 and at the request of the well-disposed burghers, in 



order to give them assistance and protection 



A generous oblivion shall cover all past offences and 

 irregularities. The chief perpetrators of acts too 

 criminal to deserve forgiveness, the strangers who 

 have abused your hospitality to excite disorder among 

 you, shall alone be subjected to trial. . . . The 



armed people not belonging to the city sliall return 



home unarmed The colours adopted by a 



part of the civic guard, as a mark of distinction, 



must be laid aside Resistance will be met 



by force of arms." 



This proclamation became the signal for the strug- 

 gle. French soldiers, and the example of the victory 

 of the Parisians in July ; the confidence, in the barri- 

 cades, and the zeal of the armed people ; especially 

 however, the dangerous situation in which the lead- 

 ers, excluded from the amnesty, found themselves 

 placed, as well as the order to lay aside their colours, 

 received by the burghers themselves with indigna- 

 tion, excited a determined spirit of resistance. The 

 army with which the prince left Antwerp (Sept. 21) 

 amounted to from 12 to 16,000 men. The troops 

 thought that they had merely to clear the city of a 

 few factious revolutionists and strangers, and that 

 they would be assisted by all well-disposed burghers. 

 The insurgents advanced (Sept. 22) to meet the 

 prince, but, after some skirmishing, were driven 

 back into the city. Here, Juan van Halen (q. v.), 

 and a French general, Mellinet, had the military 

 command. In the night and the morning of the 

 23d, till eleven o'clock, the parties fought for the 

 possession of the gates of Schaerbeck and Louvain. 

 Every house was a block-house : from some of them 

 boiling water and oil were poured; rockets and 

 stones were thrown upon the troops, who, at length, 

 at five o'clock in the evening, reached the royal 

 palace, On the next day, after an obstinate strug- 

 gle, the Dutch took possession of the other palaces, 

 of the gate of Louvain and Namur, as well as of a 

 part of the once magnificent King's street, now a 

 heap of ruins, and of the park. But the lower city 

 was yet to be cleared ; and the struggle for the pos- 

 session of the upper city was continued on the 25th. 

 Volunteers from the surrounding villages had come 

 to the assistance of the people of Brussels. The 

 prince saw that submission could not be expected, 

 and, having received information, at his head-quar- 

 ters, on the 26th, that the people of Liege intended 

 to march upon his rear, that the women were taking 

 up arms, that the insurgents had recovered some im- 

 portant points, and that the palace of the king, and 

 that of the states-general, were in flames, ordered a 

 retreat, and marched through Mechlin to Antwerp, 

 where he arrived Oct. 2. During these four days, 

 twelve houses on the boulevards, the palace of prince 

 Frederic, two hotels on the park, and other houses 

 in various streets, had been burned down ;* but it is 

 said that the loss of the Belgians did not exceed 165 

 killed, and 311 wounded, while the loss of the Dutch, 

 in killed, prisoners, wounded, and deserters, was 

 above 4000. 



After this victory, the insurrection spread with in- 

 credible rapidity. Mons, Ghent, Ypres, Dender- 

 monde, Bouillon, Meenen,Namur, Louvain, Philippe- 

 ville, Ath, Marienbourg, Doornick, Arlon, &c., fell, 

 without resistance, into the hands of the insurgents, 

 who consisted not so much of burghers as of volun- 

 teers and foreigners. Oct. 6, the Dutch garrison 

 also left the citadel of Liege. De Potter had, in the 

 meantime, made his entry into Brussels, and, as a 

 member of the provisionary government, had put 

 himself at the head of the central committee. The 

 provisionary government now declared, Oct. 4, tliat 

 " the provinces severed from Holland shall form an 

 independent state." It resolved, Oct. U, that a meet- 

 ing should be held in Brussels to elect a ruler, and, 



During these days, tho Liegcois, uuder Rogier and 

 other volunteer*, destroyed the greater part of the books 

 and nianuscripta of Van Hulthero, which composed one of 

 the richest private libraries in Europe. 



