68 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [^366 



Emperor Joseph II. Relations between Bel^um and the 

 Emperor had already been strained ; the French revolution 

 fanned the flame. " Brussels applauded the fall of the 

 bastille and in the Park, in the churches, in the streets one 

 found placards bearing the words : ' Here as in Paris.' "" 

 Open warfare between Belgian volunteers and Austrian 

 troops began in the summer of 1789. "The £tats of each 

 province assumed for themselves sovereign power, and their 

 mandatories, convened at Brussels in the fitats Generaux to 

 the number of fifty-four, signed on January ii, 1790, the act 

 of union of the United Belgian States. "^^ 



Thus Belgium had constituted itself an independent re- 

 public. However, civil strife broke out between the mod- 

 erate revolutionaries under Vander Noot and the extremists 

 under Vonck. The latter appealed for support to the 

 nation ; Vander Noot had, without practical results, ap- 

 pealed to the stranger — England, Prussia and Holland.''* 

 While Vander Noot was Minister of the new republic, 

 Vonck refused the presidency of the Council des finances 

 and of the Cour des comptes.^^ The Vander Nootists, or 

 statists, controlling the fitats Generaux, branded Vonck as 

 "inventor of odious novelties" and "the Abbe de Feller 

 exclaimed that he would rather recall the Austrians than 

 live under the rule of the cohue nationale franqaise."^" 

 Vonck and his adherents fled Brussels and gathered their 

 forces at Namur. The fitats Generaux engaged the Prus- 

 sian Schoenfeld, recommended by Holland and Prussia, 

 and the Englishman Koehler'^^ to command their troops. 

 While thus civil war was being waged in Belgium, Emperor 

 Joseph II died. He was succeeded by his brother, Leopold 

 II, who oflfered complete amnesty to the Belgians with as- 



°2 A. Chuquet, Jemappes et la conquete de la Belgique (Les guerres 

 de la revolution, iv), Paris, no date, p. 17. 



<*' Ibid., p. 26. 



^* Ibid., pp. 18, 25. 



^^ Ibid., p. 27. 



»« Ibid., p. 28. 



'■'^ Ibid., pp. 30-31, 37. Colonel Bath was in command of the 

 Legion britannique, consisting of some Englislimcn and Belgians. 



