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COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.

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Duc d'Ursel, Frederic de Sécus, Comte Félix de Mérode, Gendebien, Van de Weyer, Rouppe, and Meeus; and the general objects committed to their charge were declared to be, 1. To assure the maintenance of the dynasty; 2. To maintain the principal of the separation of the North and South; and 3. To take all necessary measures in the interest of commerce, industry, and public order. This, of course, was a government more purely revolutionary than the mixed authorty of the Regency and the Burgher Guard, which had controlled public affairs since the 25th of August. It was a measure justified, in the eyes of the Belgians, by the ambiguous terms of the King's Proclamation, coupled with the incessant movement of troops on the line of communication between Antwerp and Brussels.

On the 13th the States General assembled at the Hague. The King's Speech had been expected in Brussels with extreme impatience; and when it came, it produced universal agitation, from its vague generality on the subject of the grand question of the separation of Belgium and Holland. Instead of directly and positively recommending this measure, as the Belgians conceived he ought to have done, he touched upon it in the language of studied obscurity. After alluding to the disturbances in Brabant, he says:

'I invoke all your wisdom, all your calmness, all your firmness, in order that, strong in the concurrence of the representatives of the nation, I may, in concert with them, adopt such measures as the welfare of the country demands.

In more than one quarter the opinion is manifested that, to obtain this object, it would be proper to a proceed to a revision of the Fundamental Law and even to a separation of provinces, which treaties and the Constitution have united.

'This question, nevertheless, can be resolved only in the forms prescribed by the Fundamental Law itself, which we have solemnly sworn to observe,'

While the Speech was open, and in a still greater degree, to all the objections alleged against the Proclamation, it gave particular offence, by various expressions,to the Belgian Deputies, who were many of them parties to the movement in Brussels, and who therefore felt themselves to be involved in the exceptionable terms applied to the movement itself. The Speech was in Dutch, also, and thus jarred upon the prejudices of the Belgians. On the other hand, the Dutch members were equally sensitive; for when the President of the Chamber announced the object of the session in French, preparatory to reading a message from the King, a Dutch Deputy, named Byleveld, rose and said in Dutch, that having heard the presiding officer pronounce some words in a language, which he (M. Byleveld) did not choose to comprehend in that place, and not understanding, therefore, that any object of deliberation was regularly or legally before the assembly, he could not take part in its deliberations, or any longer continue present;-upon which he left the hall. It must have been sufficiently apparent from these and other circumstances, that the two nations were in no frame of mind to continue to be jointly represented in a single legislative body. The message from the King was in the following words,' according to the forms of address in use with the States General:

NOBLE AND MIGHTY LORDS:

In pursuance of what we made known to your assembly, at the opening of the present extraordinary session, and pre viously to the nation by our Proclamation of the 5th of the month, we desire your noble mightnesses to take into mature and serious consideration without delay,

1. Whether experience has shown the necessity of modifying the national institutions;

2. Whether in that case the relations, established by treaties and by the Fundamental Law between the two great di

THE KING'S SPEECH.

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visions of the Kingdom, ought, for the common interest, to be changed in form or nature.

'It will be agreeable to us to receive, as promptly as the importance of the subject will permit, a frank and legal communication of the opinions of the representatives of the Belgic nation* on these grave questions, in order to advise with your noble mightnesses afterwards, according to circumstances, as to the measures proper for realizing their desire.' The Hague, September 13th, 1830.

WILLIAM.'

The mode of proceeding, designated by the Speech and by this communication, involved a delay of several months; for less time could not have sufficed to carry through the proposed separation as a mere amendment of the Fundamental Law, and in the forms prescribed by that instrument. And in the spirit of procrastination, which dictated such a plan, it was three weeks before the slowmoving Dutchmen had prepared their Address in reply to the King. At length, on the 30th of September, the States General proposed the separation of Belgium and Holland, not without opposition from MM. Doncker Curtius, Van Sytzama, and others of the more violent of the Dutch Deputies, who insisted that 'the rebels' should be reduced to order by military force, before any resolution was voted upon the measure of separation. They maintained that it was wrong to deliberate on the affairs of Belgium in presence of' rebellion.' They proposed an amnesty for the generality of the revolted,' and the exemplary punishment of the chiefs; reserving to themselves afterwards to determine what was needful to reestablish the reign of the laws after a stable and permanent system. The Belgic Deputies abstained from participation in these discussions. Mean

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* Here, as in the Speech, the word Belgic' was affected employed to designate all the inhabitants of the Netherlands.

while the holding back of the King upon the great point of separation had brought on a new crisis in Brabant, which totally changed the state of the question, and left nothing for the States General to decide, except whether they should make war upon Belgium as a state independent alike of Holland and of her King.

The Speech arrived at Brussels on the 14th of September; and deputies from the Sections were invited to meet the Committee of Safety and the chief officers of the Burgher Guard, early the next morning at the Hôtel de Ville, to take the whole subject into consideration. They prepared and subscribed a warm address directed to the Belgic Deputies, commenting in very earnest language upon the Speech from the throne, demanding the immediate recognition of the separation of the two nations, and the removal of the Dutch troops from Belgium, and urging the Deputies, if they could not immediately obtain the guaranties indispensable in the actual crisis,' to refuse to legalize, by their presence at the Hague, hostile views and measures, which would consummate the ruin of their country.' On the same day, another address to the Belgic Deputies, of the same purport with the first, but brief and decisive, was subscribed by great numbers of individuals assembled in Brussels from other towns in Belgium. Messengers were despatched to the Hague to ensure the safe and formal delivery of these communications.

Matters now began to assume a threatening aspect. The Courrier des Pays-Bas, the organ of the more active revolutionists, declared that no alternative remained for Belgium but to fight for liberty or submit to be slaves; that two adversary nations were now en présence, the one struggling for its deliverance, the other to prolong its

EXCITEMENT IN BRUSSELS.

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oppression; and that now was the decisive moment to be free, or to be enslaved once and forever. Brussels was filled with unemployed workmen, impatient of a condition of uncertainty, who demanded a decision, a crisis, a conclusion of some sort, to their present sufferings from the stagnation of business, and who were clamorous for bread and for arms. The more peaceably disposed citizens, on the other hand, felt anxious and alarmed, afraid to oppose the movement, yet desirous at any price to secure the restoration of tranquillity. The revolutionary leaders organized a political club, called the Central Union, to serve as a substitute for a legislative assembly. M. de Stassart having quitted the Hague, as deeming his continuance there of no utility, arrived at Brussels, and published a statement of the reasons of his conduct. The messengers, despatched with the two addresses to the Deputies, also returned, making known that the latter were so situated at the Hague as to be totally deprived of the power of deliberating or acting to any good purpose, and describing the hostile temper and language of some of the Dutch members of the Chamber.. All these incidents, between the 15th and 19th of September, combined to inflame, to the highest degree, the popular leaders, and indeed the whole mass of the population of Brussels. — In short, everything tended towards a state of mere anarchy, where chance or the strongest arm would decide the fate of Belgium.

Under such circumstances, the slightest causes of excitement were enough to produce confusion, and such causes could not fail to arrive. Troops of volunteers had pushed on towards Vilvorde and Tervueren to reconnoitre. They seized four horses belonging to gendarmes; and stopped a diligence, which might, they supposed, occasion

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