NEWS OF TIIE WEEK.
Do meeting which took place in London on Tuesday, for the pur- pose of addressing the King against the expedition to compel the Dutch to evacuate Belgium, bids fair, from the activity of the Conservatives, to constitute not merely the event of the week, but to agitate the country for some weeks to come. Already, we perceive from the Chelmsford Chronicle, a similar address, from the county of Essex, advertised as lying at Colchester for signature ; another is, it seems, concocted or concocting at Hertford ; and we have no.doubt that we shall have many such lying in other parts of the kingdom. The card is a good one; and if it were not, it is the last that the Conservatives will have to play before the elec- tion: it is not wonderful that they should do their utmost to play it well.
That we are not mistaken in describing the meeting and the address as amere election manoeuvre, may be proved by a refe- rence to the known principles of the parties by whom they were got up.. What other motive is assignable for the conduct of such patriots as the BARINGS; the member for Bramber, and candidate for.Clitheroe ; the proteg6 of Lord LONSDALE, and candidate for Whitehaven under his Lordship's influence; Mr. THOMAS WIL- SON, the patron of Captain MARRY_ATT; Mr. KEITH DOUGLAS, et id genus omne Is there one known name in the list of requi- sitionists, that is known by any other mark than its owner's steady opposition to Reform of every kind? The Herald, in its enmity to Lord PALMERSTON, whom it would represent as the sole author of the expedition, speaks of the friends of Lord GREY as joining to, deprecate his present policy—where are they? Assuredly there Were few'friends either-of his present or of his past policy in the City of London Tavern on Tuesday.
But apart from the political composition of the meeting, there are features in the address and the addressers that are sufficiently indicative of their characters. The object of the address we are told is peace; the parties who advocate it wish only to preserve the peace of Europe. How do they purpose to effect this most desirable end?: • • The FiVe Powers of the Conference had at length agreed on certain terms according to which Belgium and Holland were to be regulated. To these terms one of the parties had assented; the other refused assent. The Conference was appealed to for farther modification, but in vain. What was to be done? Was the Conference to end where it began?. Were LEOPOLD and WILLIAM tomake war for the settlement of differences which the Five Powers had in vain attempted to settle? If they had, was it not to be feared that Prussia would join the one and France the other; in which case, a, general war would be the inevitable consequence? Was it not the anticipation of such an event, that led the Duke of WEL- LINGTON to interfere in the first instance? . If the Five Powers had broken up the Conference, and left Belgium and Holland to terminate their disputes by an appeal to arms, they might have been said to rush with open eyes on the very 'precipice they wished to shun.
It may be urged that further time should have been allowed— that more negotiations should hive been employed—that other Protocols should have been written,' for the purpose of persuading Holland to act against what Holland deemed its immediate in- terests. It must be remembered that the Conference had become the laughingstock of Europe by the delays in which it had al- ready indulged. Granting a further delay to have taken place, Vast not the end have come at last? Will any man in his senses say, that if the King of Holland continued obstinate, the same means, which are now in progress to remove his obstinacy, must not sooner or later haVe been employed? If they were to be used at all, they could not be used too soon.. The injury to comniereial credit, which is the necessary consequence of the suspense in 'Lich things are held by the unsettled state. of Belgium and, Holland, is not so small that it ought to be unnecessarily prolonged. Nor can they be called the enemies of commerce who wiTh to put an end to that suspense, or the advocates of war who wish by one share application to remove the chances of its occurrence. If the men who met on Tuesday were really desirous that com- merce should prosper and peace prevail, they would not have met and talked as they did. Their organs of the Press have been em- ployed day and night, for a twelvemonth and more, in encouraging the King of Holland to withstand the peaceful demands of the Conference. Mr. BARING sends over his sympathies by the steam- boat—his Dutch sympathies are pretty notorious—to encourage the King of Holland in withstanding the warlike demands of the Conference. Another strenuous Tory, Sir JOHN Tvssosi TYRRELL, tells his Essex friends, that on parting with Captain BROWN of the Talavera, the other day, he expressed to Captain BROWN a hope that the English fleet would be defeated ! One of the speakers at the Tuesday's meeting made a charitable allusion to their possible shipwreck—he hoped Providence would interfere! To what do all these sympathies and hopes and prayers tend, but to WAR?—war, which the parties would fain persuade us they, of all things, most deprecate? • It is plain, even on the assumption that the expedition was impolitic, now it has sailed, that the only wish a wise man and a lover either of England or Holland could frame, is a wish for its successful—that is, its speedy termination. Whatever tends to delay the submission of the Dutch King, not only tends to infuse additional bitterness into the contest, but it wonderfully increases the chances of its spreading. The longer the fire burns, the greater the risk of all that are in its neighbourhood. The Minis- try may, and no doubt do, sincerely wish to get rid of an affair which is to them no small cause of embarrassment. They have the strongest interest in the continuance of peace. If their op- ponents were honest, they would lend all countenance to their endeavours to maintain it. Instead of stimulating Holland to re- sistance, they would be the foremost to recommend submission; instead of glorying in an anticipated defeat of the British arms, they would pray for their speedy and assured victory. They know, that if Holland resists, the war must go on—that if our fleets are defeated, the war must go on, for the defeat must be avenged. But they are not honest.
