NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE question whether the Citadel of Antwerp is to be quietly re- signed,—or whether " the Giant of. the Scheldt," as General CHASSE is now designated, is to blow up himself, his wife and mistresses, sooner titan yield to his countrymen,—still remains unresolved. We entertained hopes, when we last 'addressed our readers on the subject, that we should ere this time have had some definite news to communicate, but we have been disappointed. It is now stated- that the formal summons to surrender will not be given until the 3d instant; when all the batteries will be ready, in case of refusal, to play. • The batteries, erecting and to be ereded, are Many and powerful : they are eleven in number, con- taiaing six twenty-four pounders each, besides a reserve of forty mortars. We -do not hear whether the wonderful barrel hooped round' with ironis tobe used as a reserve, or whether a battery is tO be :specially set apart for its service. The causes of the delay havelmen variously reported; but we believe they may all be f'ottittl in the plain and sufficing fact, that the construction of batteries requires time, and that the transport of heavy cannon for some hundred miles, rapid as the march of intellect proceeds in our days, is not the work of a moment. Ingenious men, who are sel- dom content with what floats on the surface, and who, on the old authority that Truth lies at the bottom of a well, are never content butwhenthey are divino. in !March of her, have got up a serious ne0 MUM-1 between. Marsilal;GURARIr and- the .Belgian authorities, toudh:tng the aecupatioO of Antwerp .and the Belgian lines in front of it by the former;—on the presumption that the Citadel can only be attacked with a certainty of success from that point ; and to the denenr of the Belgians to give up the town to CHASSE'S balls and theIines to Marshal. GERARD'S troops, they.attribute the whole of the delay that has -taken place. We rather believe that the difficulty -of carrying the Citadel has been prodigiously overrated. It is quite well understood in Paris (and we could cite the very htWie$t military name in that capital for the opinion) that it can- not stand for above ten days' siege if the weather be fine, or above twenty days if -the weather be foul, attack it front what quarter you may. Nor has it been at all proved that the Belgian lines unleSs as saving some degree of' labour, at all facilitate its capture. The correspondent of the Herald, of yesterday, talks quite coolly of the discussion about the occupation of 'Antwerp as ' not.yet Concluded : it would have been well had lie given us some small proof that it had ever begun. A number of Dutch troops have taken up a position between Breda and Bergen-op-zoom- the accounts say 40,000-; and to oppose these, or rather to check them,—for if there be one point more aimed at than another by the French, it-is- to avoid unnecessary collision,—Marshal GERARD has detached 20,000 of his fotee.- The same strong wish to remove all Pretext for war, would naturally, we need not say, lead the French to save. Antwerp, if, by any arrangement that does not compromise their own safety or the purpose of the expedition, it
eau Le_ saved. .
CHASSE on his side seems as anxious not to come aux voles de fait as the besiegers: True, he has transpdrted twenty guns across the river for the better defence of the Tfite-de-Flandre, and has added a thousand men to the garrison of that outwork; while thus providing in case, of need for defence, he has alowed the drench officers, unmolested by a musket-shot 'even, to take the elevations and draw the, plans necessary for the approaches. kthe-ciAT history'of the-Country, the :most important piece of flewa IS file resigrfatton of .LEOPOLD'S Ministers, in consequence of theirfilefeat:on the-motion for the address to the Crown. The de- bate, which had been urged-with great heat, terminated on .Mon- day ; irhen,tm amendment:Was carried on an • ainendment, which centered R.direct =censure on the Ministers. Even the amendment that, was tarried :implies a *ensure for theirhaving complied with' the emand of the ce,nference to deliver. up Venloo, Limburg, and Part of Lusernburg to Rolland, on condition that Holland deli- - ‘vrol urthecitadel of Antwerp: • It 'Was -Moved by a friendly dfPUty,.instead of the 'original 'paragraph; fit Which the Minittert were praised for what they had done. The amendment was car tied, in a house of 86, by a majority of ; 44 voting for it, and 42 against it—three of the majority were the.Ministers themselves.. The proffered resignation of . the Ministers has not been accepted by the King ; and it is supposed that, sooner than consent to it,. he will. dissolve the _Chambers. The members of the Belgian: Chambers are very little attentive to the real duties of their sta- tion : instead of legislating, they 'would rule. They spend their time in idle and injurious attempts to hamper the proAress of the Executive, instead of Inending the laws. Nothing can be more absurd than to censure the King for an act of imperative neces- sity. If Belgium had not concurred in the plans of the Confe- rence, what would have become of it? And even if the :\rioisters had in some measure overstepped their powers, would any rational' - set of men, in the circumstances in. which Belgium is now placed, have acted as the 'Belgian Opposition has done P. • With fifty thousand Dutch on one frontier, as Many 'Prussians on another,: and an equal number of French in the midst of them,—when the long-armed question between them and their former masters is touching upon its final settlement,—these intelligent and patriotic representatives can find no better amusement than a six days de- bate - on a petty verbal distinction; and for the sake of the party-- triumph which the carrying of it was calculated to give, they must: hazard the dissolution of the Government, at a moment Which called fbr the greatest vigilance and energy. We know not how . the electors may feel, but we should think LEoroLD may, dissolve his Parliament when he likes, with a tolerable certainty that he will not be compelled to reassemble a worse.
