NEWS OF THE WEEK.
IN our second edition last week, we mentioned, on the authority of a gentleman who had left Brussels on the previous Thursday, that great fears were entertained by the better classes, on whose exertions the maintenance of the public peace had, up to that time, depended, that the unemployed workmen and others would rise in open insurrection against the existing authorities, as they had done against VAN MAANEN and his satellites ; and it was added, that the unhappy burghers had applied to the Commander of the Royal forces at Antwerp, and entreated him to send back for their pro- tection a portion of that very force which, but a week or two be- fore, they would not .allow to remain in their neighbourhood. It does not appear, from subsequent arrivals, that the anticipated rising of the people took place ; but that there was some foundation for the opinion that it would, as well as for the story of the applica- tion to Government for troops to meet it, seems confirmed by the following extraordinary document. It is a proclamation issued by Prince FREDERICR of Orange to the Bruxellois ; and could hardly have been made unless their temper and views had wider- gone a very wonderful change.
" Conformaty," says the Pripce," to the orders of the King, we come to signify to you, as the only means of re-establishing legal order, that the National Army shall enter your walls, in the name of the law, and at the request of the most faithful citizens, to relieve them from ii,,painfur duty, and to give them aid and protection. Those officers and suldiers unite4 under-the flag of the country, are your friends and brolther 1.: they do not come to avenge themselves, but to restore order and peace. A general pardon will be extended to those faults and irregularities which circumstances have produced. Those who have acted as principals in acts too criminal to escape the punishment of the law, will alone, and justly, be punished; their cause has nothing to do with yours. In virtue, therefore, of our powers, we ordain as follows :—
" Art. I. The National troops will enter Brussels. Art. 2. All obstacles to their march will be removed by the care of the mu- nicipal authorities. Art. 3. The posts of the Garde Urbane will be given up to the national troops. Art. 4. The strangers armed in the town shall retire without arms to their homes. Art. 5. The colours adopted as a distinct mark by a part of the Garde Urbane must be given up. Art. 6. The Municipal Administration, the Committee of Safety, the Council, and the Chiefs of the Garde Urbane, will see to the execution of these orders as regards the maintenance of peace until the troops have made their entry. Art. 7. The members of these bodies are personally responsible from the present date, for all resistance which may take place against the public force. Art. 8. The garrison will be quartered so as not to be at the charge of the inhabitants, and will observe the strictest discipline; all resistance will be repulsed by force; and all indi- viduals guilty of such resistance, and who are taken, will be given over to be tried.'
This proclamation bears date the 21st of September, and is signed "FREDERICK, Prince of the Netherlands ;" and it forms a very pretty epilogue to the comedy of a revolution which had been so hastily got up, and, as appears, by so indifferent actors, on the thintre of Brussels. Our excellent correspondent O'HIGGINS, in a. letter which will be found in another place, finds fault with us for saying that the revolution in Belgium was not justified on any ground.. We spoke as our knowledge of the facts enabled us to speak; and we think the event has amply borne us out. Justi- fiable revolutions may commence under such circumstances as that of Brussels did, • but they do not end as it has done. The truth of the case seems to be, that the only real cause of griev- ance among the Belgians was the stupid and indefensible attacks on the press. Stupid and indefensible such attacks always are. Thapress, where it is free, will ever be found the best coadjutor of a nioderately prudent government. It is only where a government attempts to shackle it, that it becomes a dangerous enemy; be- eituseit is only then that the interests as well as the passions of its conductors are enlisted on the side of the opposition. For viers every- antagonist t that a government which is even moderately ' ,ti,se may los -. r, it may look for two advocates in the •newspapc ...s, pro ' will but accept of voluntary asisistance, if it will i.ot comparapprobation. AIL attempts to pit down the press are tip- prilitibes more or lest-te the government of physical power,—a species of government which is impossible in any country in Europe except Turkey and Russia. To speak of law or any other protection to a. people who have no means of free praise and free censure of what is good or had left them, is nonsense. Take away public opinion and its expression, and courts and legislatures, for all purposes of practical good, must follow. If they do not perish by their own inherent corruptions, they must by the neglect- of the people. But, barring the attacks on the press, there was nothing in the condition of the Netherlands that called even for a rising. What did they do when they rose ? They chased away an obnoxious Minister—did it require a rising to effect that ? They abolished a municipal tax—did it require a rising to effect that ? The separation of the two portions of the kingdom was to be effected by the joint Legislature, if effected at all. The Belgians had as free and as powerful a voice there as the Dutch—why was it not heard ? If all the Belgian Deputies had been instructed to vote for such a separation, it must have been conceded. That they were not so instructed, proved that their constituents were not agreed even on this grand object. Indeed, in a letter from our correspondent dated Wednesday last week, it is very distinctly stated that there was no ground whatever for a revolution ; that it was an afterthought, which nothing but the fashion of revolutions then prevalent could have led the sober Netherlanders to entertain.
" The separation," he says, " though somewhat hastily proposed, and, as I think, a little too suddenly repented of, is becoming more decidedly the wish of all. The commercial objections are met by arguments which appear to have satisfied the complainants ; or it has occurred to them, that though they may lose by Holland they may gain by other countries. But the truth of the matter is—and it will sufficiently explain the whole circumstances of the case—the movement in Brussels is not areal revolu- tion—it is got up. The Belgians had grievances, but not of the revolu,- tionary pitch : nevertheless, as revolutions were the fashion, they thought they would try one. There is no heart in the matter ; and the good sort of people, always influential though not always right, contend that had they waited they should have gained all they wanted, and that without either shouldering muskets or neglecting their counters."
It is in vain, under such circumstances, that de POTTER writes letters recommending his townsmen to beware of the finasseries of theKing,and to despise the niaiseries legales by which they are attempted to be trammelled. The warm folts.an Brussels, like the warm folks everywhere, prefer high profits, ready trade, a good dinner, and a cheering glass of wine, tu allitaw:stitutions in the world. They will take as much freedom es in their way; but they will not paddle through dirty streets to the neglect of their comfort and their customers in order to get it. The spirit of the lower orders in Brussels seems very little more allied to the heroic than that of their city rulers. The most notable ex- ploit they have performed since the breaking of Li BRY B &GNANO'S windows and the burning of VAN MAANEN'S hotel, is thus described by our correspondent:
"The famous Discours du Rai des Pays Bays had not been half In hour in town, before it was hawked about and sold, in every quarter, at all prices, according to the eagerness of the purchasers. Moreover, it had not been in the town above four hours, before it was burnt on the Grand Place, by a crowd of ragged rascals, who, I am sure, could not read what they so patriotically destroyed. After this splendid achievement, they pa- raded the streets, crying "a bas le discours I" until they had collected some considerable crowd in the Place Royale. The GardeBourgeoise then turned out, and marched in small detachments through and through them, till they were all separated and dispersed : it was the work of about ten minutes, and unaccompanied with the least violence. I know not whether this event will be made to cut a figure in the newspapers : it was nothing, and yet much more real than half the reports in the English papers; For instance, I read in the Globe, I think, of last Friday, that on the Sunday previous, a stranger driving into Brussels was turned out of his carriage, which was immediately laid on its side and, filled with stones to form a barricade. This is not only utterly false, but could not have been true in the temper in which Brussels was at that date. Carriages on that day drove into Brussels as peaceably as they did into London. As for the barricades, they are too contemptible even to laugh at : there is not a ham and beef shop in London that could not make more formidable barricades of its pots and pans."
There was a report that DE POTTER had returned to Brussels ; but this seems to be unfounded. The last account of the banished journalist exhibits him at Paris, endeavouring to excite the sym- pathies of the National Guard; who seem however to have re- ceived his advances with singular coldness. He is described, by the Constitutionnel, as haviu„cf on Monday attended a banquet, in which he and his party offered to fraternize with the officers of a battalion of the French National Guards, who were enjoying their banquet at the same tavern. The two parties happened to be dining in adjoining rooms. It was proposed to remove the par- tition which divided them, and the proposal was agreed to. The_._ Belgians gave for a toast, The re-union of Belgium with Fm which the- Frenchmen re: I to drink. M. de POTTER another attempt on the mouesty of the French National Gt by a toast, the purport of which was that Belgium would upon them in case of any foreign intervention in Belgic affairs. Frenchmen said, they would willingly fight for the Bdgiane, it- their citizen King comm, them. This is cold comfort. In fact, the French are as o tic ally selfish as their neighbours. They might fight for the purpose of adding Belgium once more to Prance; but they are not disposed to act as liberal Quixotes, and roam over the world delivering suffering patriots from the giants that hold them in thrall.
The discussions in the Second Chamber of the States-General on the address in answer to the King's speech, ended on Monday ; they were, as usual, private. An attempt was made to have the discussion public ; and M. SYTZA.MA made a motion for an ad- dress to the King to direct an inquiry into the disturbances in Belgium, and to lay the result before the Chambers ; but both these motions were negatived. We may therefore conclude, that the address—indeed it seems to be the necessary form of all such documents—will be a mere echo of the speech. The accounts from the Hague of Tuesday's date say it coincides with "the expectations" of the Netherlanders ; and they expected nothing from it. In fact, the address is a mere formality. All that the speech recommended to the Parliament, was to consider the pro- priety of a separation of the Southern portion of the kingdom from the Northern ; all that Parliament could answer was, they would consider of it. Although, as may be fairly deduced from the proclamation of Prince FERDINAND, the people of Brussels are now to be looked on as completely subjected to the Govern- ment,—and although, as may be also fairly concluded, a settlement of their .grievances will not be again attempted for a considerable time by a fresh rising,—still the much-desired separation may take place ; and all that the rioters and their successors the Burgher Guard have asked may be, and if the King is a wise man will be, conceded. If the parties go into it honestly and impartially, a separation may be effected without the smallest difficulty ; and this will remedy many evils which their forced conjunction has produced, without taking away those advantages which the most intimate union of interests is calculated to confer. It is said the King will consent to the separation, but will secure all the benefits of it to Holland. This would be about as wise and practicable a plan as if a man were to appropriate his dinner to the benefit of bis left side while he starved his right. If Belgium gets the power of enacting laws for its own regulation, it will have no more nzou- tures—no more prosecutions of its press: this is something. Brussels, the head and front of the confederacy, being disposed of, it seems almost unnecessary to note the conduct of its minor associates. At Mons, so late as Sunday, there was a rising (per- haps a riot would be the right word, but now-a-days every riot is a rising), which was suppressed by the military, after it had endured for three hours. Namur has been declared in a state of siege ; and there also the military have been obliged to act, and some people have been shot. Liege has received a reinforcement of its garrison. The Netherlands are generally discontented—there is no concealing thtslikoand the sooner the causes of their dis- content are searc and removed, the better will it be for their rulers as well as themselves. The skinning over of an ulcer may kill a patient, and rid the doctor of a case which he could not mend ; but for state quacks there is no such deliverance, —nations won't die, and they will be cured.
