The Belgians have attained that perfection of worldly eultiva- timi,
seperuirity to astonishment. Neither the heavens nor the earth can astonish them. The tremendous floods which have in- undated great part of their land are endured with admirable pa- tience. Royalty, which they respect and esteem on political cal-
culation, moves them not : their King arrives, and so does the live stock on market-day ; but why should they put themselves out for that ? Qv's* Victoria erosseis the ves in Tenet weather, and an English narrator says that the Belgic mind was thrown of its guard into a condn of eargise ; Lit the placid mien of the people refutes the assertion. The Flemings do their duty in the way of building triumphal arches and flags ; but why make a fuss ? Dutch phlegm, and that audacity of French speculation which outruns all possible events, being united, produce the unastonishable Belgian. Horace raves about a rise of the Tiber, and wonders at the stout heart of the sailor; but Horace was no Fleming. It is worth such a trip as that which Queen Victoria has just taken, to view this good farm race of the Low Countries breasting the tides of vicissitude as unmoved as a lighthouse.
