lasting gratification than he could have found even in the high office of which he has been deprived. All that conferred real honor on that office, Mr. Deane possesses-the confidence and respect of those who are best acquainted with him. These are honors that will not pass away with a year of office, or be laid aside with a mace; they are honors that the decision of a Plunkett can never tarnish; an upright character is a blessing that the titled and the pensioned renegade may envy, but never can take away; and its possessor has this consolation, that that character will never be injured by a steady adherence to principle, no matter what that adherence may cost.

Consul non unius anni

Sed quoties bonus atque fidus Judex honestum prætulit utili. One word more and we have done. It is possible for Lord Mulgrave to find for his conduct the pretext that he dared not openly to put forward, and to have rejected Mr. Deane because he was an Orangeman. We tell Lord Mulgrave, that, if so, this was an insult to every individual whose name is enrolled among the members of the Orange body; and his Lordship knows that that list contains hundreds of names in every sense of the word more respectable than his own. But where was his abhorrence of political associations when he was preceded through the streets of our city by the lodges of Ribandmen and Trades' Unionists, parading ostentatiously the emblems of murder and sedition? Where was it when he invited to his table as his political friend-for in no other character could Daniel O'Connell be the associate of the Viceroy the president of one of those noisome conventions that shed their moral pestilence through our city-those demoralizing "unions" that debauch our artizans and make traitors and ruffians of our once industrious workmen? On the same page on which we write the rejection of Mr. Deane, let us also record the fact, that Daniel O'Connell, the foul slanderer of all that is great and good in the land-the ten times convicted liarthe once convicted preacher of sedition was entertained under the roof of the house that is still called in

mockery his Majesty's castle of Dublin. We have not, we confess, patience while we write. "Still reeking with the foul steam of treasonable agitation," (if we may borrow the strong language of the Times,) the man who called the King's brother "a white-whiskered liar with the foul and unmanly falsehood still warm upon his fetid breath-is a guest at the table at which presides the man who calls himself the representative of the King. To what a state of slavery

yes, slavery-is the monarch of England reduced--at the feet of the vilest faction that ever disgraced a country whenever the feelings of his natural affection, of his personal pride, are outraged and under his roof, in his castle, there sits at his board the wretch who called his brother "a white-whiskered liar?" How long is this tyranny to last? How long is

THE REIGN OF RUFFIANISM to con

tinue? How long shall every generous feeling of the nation be outraged, and every thing that is respectable be trampled on and insulted?

We have hitherto, we confess, been inclined, perhaps in the spirit of the charity that "hopeth all things," to believe Lord Mulgrave possessed of the principles and feelings of a gentleman; but by his entertainment of Mr. O'Connell he has made it impossible for us any longer to continue in this belief. Those acts, which might be supposed to be incident to his political mission, and which might be the result of his political instructions, we could not but condemn in the Viceroy -but from the Viceroy, even for the sake of literature, we were anxious to

separate the man. We saw places conferred upon the basest and most incompetent candidates that could be found-men little better than idiots made assistant barristers, because they happened to have done service to the cause of sedition. We saw compliments interchanged between the king's representative and the most vulgar and the most insolent of the hierarchs of treason. At all these things we were indignant; but still, we can honestly say, we endeavoured to separate Lord Mulgrave-the man whose accomplishments were exquisite enough for the coxcomb, and whose punctilious refinement approached the affected delicacy of the "petit maitré”—we separated, we

say, his personal character from the dirty occupations in which his appointment as the cat's-paw of O'Connell involved him. It is true, there was something revolting to the feelings of a gentleman in accepting of such a situation; but party feelings may have induced his Lordship to accept of the disgusting, office and we made every allowance for his peculiar position. But the most liberal allowance will not furnish the shadow of excuse for the act upon which we comment. He insulted his sovereign by the invitation, and in thus insulting his master, by a necessary consequence, he degraded himself. It is impossible any longer to separate the man from his politics. Lord Mulgrave has identified his own personal character with all the blackguardism of the factionand we wish him joy of the association. Can it be, that feeling himself lowered by the office in which he is placed, he has become indifferent to character? Can it be that in the sickening knowledge of his true position every feeling of self-respect has died; and that in the consciousness of degradation Lord Mulgrave has become mean?

The gross and vulgar insolence the foul and beastly personalities of O'Connell's speech-have excited the

disgust of the empire. Even the most radical prints assailed the cowardly reviler who called the King's brother a "white whiskered liar," and the hero of Waterloo a "stunted corporal." There is but one solitary spot where anything that even by courtesy can be called respectable is to be found, to which the universal feeling of execration has not penetrated. While men of all

parties are giving utterance to their deep disgust at the atrocious expressions; while the common consent of maukind is stigmatising the wretch who used them as unfit for the society of any honourable man—that individual is feasted as the chosen guest of the Lord Lieutenant.

But these things will produce their effect. The rabid violence, the imperious insolence, the ill disguised treason of O'Connell, are arousing the people over whom he holds dictatorship. All men see that he is the master of the ministry, and the murmur is swelling to a tone of thunder that proclaims-" we will not have this man to rule over us;" and it is with a full conviction that our question will speedily be answered by the voice of an outraged and indignant nation that we ask again, “HOW LONG IS THE REIGN OF RUFFIANISM TO LAST ?"

THE retirement of Prince Frederick left the insurgents in Brussels quite triumphant, and from that moment the royal cause might be said to have been abandoned. By the events which occurred the troops were dispirited and demoralized; and the disconcertion arising from military disaster, and from want of confidence in their leaders, exposed them to the inroads of revolutionary principle, by which, in many instances, the loyalty which they had manifested in the commencement of the contest was rapidly supplanted.

Nor are we to be surprised that a spirit of defection should have manifested itself, under such circumstances, amongst the Belgic forces, when we consider the manner in which they were organized and quartered. Of 90,000 men, recruited by ballot, on a system resembling the Prussian Landwher rather than the French conscription, more than two-thirds were constantly on furlough without pay. They consisted of unmarried men, between the ages of nineteen and twenty. three; and one-fifth of the whole was renewed annually. The infantry regiments remained stationary in the same districts for many years. Indeed, Mr. White informs us that the major part had not changed their quarters from their first formation, in 1816, down to the summer of 1830.

The usual consequences should have been foreseen. The esprit du corps was superseded by local attachments; and the pursuits and the habits which must have been indulged in and contracted by a lengthened sojourn, approaching so nearly to the condition of domestic life, must have materially

impaired the vigour and the vigilance, and seriously encroached upon the independence and the self-possession, which are essential to the efficiency of the soldier.

There were, besides, other causes, which had their full effect in undermining their allegiance. The garrisons of the various Belgic towns being recruited from the surrounding cantons,

"The men were connected, by ties of parentage and early intercourse, with the inhabitants and neighbouring peasantry. They had relatives and friends amongst the people, from whom two-thirds were only separated during the brief period of annual exercise. They also spoke the provincial dialect, and were thus more easily persuaded that it would be a grievous crime towards God and their country to shed the blood of their fellow-citizens. Independent of the just discontent felt by all ranks at the obnoxious system of Dutch partiality, no arts, no arguments, were left untried, to inculcate the doctrine of revolt, either by the priests or revolutionary agents. Threats of excom

un

munication and menaces of various kinds were employed to convert the loyal, whilst bribery and cajolery were sparingly exerted to hurry the disaffected ment and municipal funds were approfrom their allegiance. Even the governpriated for the purposes of subornation, credit being subsequently given to the different functionaries for the sums thus disbursed.

"The militia, of whom two-thirds resided during eleven months with their families, fully participated in the general sentiment of hostility to the Dutch government. When ordered to join their battalions at the moment of the revolution, for the express purpose of combating

VOL. VI.

2 T

that revolution, their hearts were already embittered against those whom they were required to serve. The ordinary repugnance of the recruits for service was aggravated by their hatred to the cause for which they quitted their homes. In bidding adieu to these homes, they felt that, if they were to do their duty, they should probably be called on to immolate the objects of their affection at the command of foreign chiefs whom they detested, and for the support of a government for which they entertained no sympathy. To expect that such men should suddenly for

get all the ties that bound them to the people, and willingly take up arms to smite their own flesh and blood, was to expect too much of human nature: it was a premium and encouragement to desertion. Indeed, great numbers deemed it more simple to avoid the alternative, by not joining their regiments, preferring to risk the punishment inflicted on refractory conscripts, rather than to raise their weapons against their families, or to desert their colours when once enrolled."

The de facto government of Brussels now proceeded to exercise their functions with great energy and determination. They issued a decree that justice should be administered in their name in all the tribunals throughout Belgium. They published a spirit-stirring appeal, calling upon the troops to abandon the Dutch standard, and liberating them from their oath of allegiance; and, in consequence of the inability of the commercial body in Brussels to meet their pecuniary engagements, they issued an order that the payment of all bills due on the city should be postponed for twenty-five days. This last measure argued a maturity to revolutionary tactics, for which it would be difficult to account, if we did not know that Brussels contained at that period a vast gathering of individuals whose lives had been passed in civil disturbance of one kind or another, and who were, perhaps, at that very moment, the most systematic and inveterate revolutionists in Europe-men, than whom it would be very difficult indeed

to find those who were more

"Fit for treasons, stratagems, or spoils." Their next act was an invitation to "Louis De Potter, and all other Belgians, to return to their native country." These worthies, we may be sure, lost no time in obeying this summons, and

their presence gave an additional stimulus to the movements and the measures of the exulting insurgents.

De Potter was immediately associ ated with the provisional government; and such was his immense popularity at that period, that he was immediately regarded as its chief. Three fundamental questions were propounded, the ultimate solution of which was reserved for the national congress; namely— Shall Belgium erect herself into an independent state? What form of government shall she adopt? Shall she separate herself entirely from the house of Orange?

With respect to the first questionthat of national independence-but little, if any, difference of opinion prevailed. Not so with respect to the second and the third. De Potter strongly contended for a republic, and was therefore utterly averse to all connexion with the house of Nassau. M. Gendebien, a democrat, warmly rewhile M. Van de Weyer, and the commended a reunion with France; remainder of the provisional godence on a monarchical basis, would vernment, who advocated indepenPrince of Orange as their king, prohave been well contented with the vided the severance between Holland and Belgium was complete, and his elevation to the throne of the newlycreated state involved no subjection to their former masters.

To France the bait was sufficiently tempting, and a weaker man than Louis it. But he knew that the incorporation Philippe might have been attracted by of Belgium into his dominions could

not have been effected without exEuropean power, and he wisely deciting the jealousy of every other clined an accession of territory, the securing of which would, at all events, have cost him more than it was worth, and for the maintenance of which he must have risked the safety of his crown and the integrity of his kingdom.

stood almost alone. In advocating a republic, De Potter It was by no means the policy of France to encourage republican notions at this period; and, in a country so predominantly popish, the monarchical sentiment was sure to prevail. Besides, there were many who even thus early shrewdly suspected the great demagogue of aiming

at supreme power; and, accordingly, by a combination of parties, to whom he was personally, or by reason of his principles, obnoxious, his schemes were counteracted; not more than thirteen out of two hundred members, who were afterwards assembled in a national congress, having been induced to favour his views. The principal question was thus practically decided. The form of government was to be monarchical, and every security was to be taken by which the independence of the country might be guaranteed. Respecting the choice of their future sovereign, nothing was as yet determined. Many still looked to the Prince of Orange, as an individual eminently fitted for that arduous post, not only by his personal qualities, but because of the approbation with which a decision in his favour would be regarded by the other powers of Europe. Nor did the prince himself abandon his hopes of elevation to the throne, until events took place, which ought at least to have satisfied him that the perils attendant on such a position were fully equal to its glory. And now it was that the proceedings at the Hague furnished a pretext to the allied powers to abandon the cause of the King of the Netherlands, and even to take part against him with his revolted subjects. Upon the news of Prince Frederick's repulse, an event alike dismal and unexpected, the cabinet were thrown into great embarrassment, and a commission was appointed to compile a project of organization, "based on a separation," and a revision of the fundamental law. The Prince of Orange received temporary powers to act as governor of the southern provinces, and the ministers at foreign courts were directed to demand the strict execution of the treaty of Vienna. The concessions implied in the deputation of the prince were treated by the triumphant rebels with haughty scorn; while the allied powers, who had predetermined the new course which they were resolved to take, affected to regard them as such a departure from fundamental arrangement, as not only justified them in declining a strict compliance with the demands of the King, but even in lending their countenance to those by whom his authority had been rejected.

We confess that we have neither

time nor temper for entering into any lengthened discussion respecting the evasions and the subterfuges of the high and mighty contracting parties to the treaty of Vienna, who were now about to undo the work of their hands, by dismembering the kingdom which, they had created. Far more dignified would it have been to plead at once the necessity of the case, than thus to insult the embarrassed monarch by special pleading respecting concessions which they well knew were reluctantly extorted. But we do regret that the King of Holland was led to suppose that such concessions were at that particular moment required, as they only served to add fuel to the flame which already raged in Belgium, and which might still, by a proper vigour, have been repressed, and as they did certainly serve as an excuse for that species of mediatorial interference by which this injured sovereign might literally be said to have been swindled out of more than half of his kingdom.

Nor was the King more happy_in the choice of his representative. The conduct of the Prince of Orange had already been such as should have satisfied his royal father of his utter unfitness to act in a mediatorial capacity between him and his revolted subjects. Having failed to satisfy the wishes, or even to lull the suspicions, of the Belgians, by the powers which he possessed, or the protestations which he made, he came to the resolution of heading the revolt and renouncing his allegiance. A traitor is at all times loathsome; but when a son rises in rebellion against a father, that father's only fault being that he was too partial and too indulgent, even traitors themselves cry out shame. So it was in this case. The Belgians, in our opinion, stand redeemed, in some measure, by the fact that, in such circumstances, they would not have the prince to rule over them. Even as he had spurned the paternal rule, so he was himself spurned in return; and the only reward which he reaped for his treachery was the scorn and derision of those for whose behoof it was ostensibly practised. Mr. White has satisfied us of his moral disqualification for being the historian of these transactions, by the timid and mincing manner in which he just ventures "to hint a fault, and