act of adhesion of the Peers. The Prince then rose and said: 'I have read with great attention the Declaration of the Chamber of Deputies and the act of adhesion of the Chamber of Peers. I have weighed and meditated all their expressions. I accept without restriction or reserve the conditions and engagements, which it contains, and the title of King of the French, which it confers upon me; and I am ready to swear to their observance.' M. Dupont de l'Eure, acting Keeper of the seals, delivered the form of the oath to the King, who, according to the New England form of swearing practised in France, raised his hand, and pronounced the words of the oath as follows: In the presence of God I swear faithfully to observe the constitutional Charter, with the modifications expressed in the Declaration of the Chamber of Deputies; to govern only by the laws and according to the laws; to cause exact and impartial justice to be done to every one according to his rights; and to act in all things with a sole view to the interest, the happiness, and the glory of the French People.' The King then having subscribed the three documents, sat down and pronounced the following brief speech : 'I have performed a great act. I deeply feel the weight of the duties which it imposes upon me; but my conscience tells me that I shall fulfil them; and it is with the full conviction of this that I have accepted the conditions proposed to me. I could have wish ed never to occupy the throne to which the national will has called me; but I yield to this will, expressed by the Chambers in the name of the French People, for the maintenance of the Charter and the laws. The wise modifications which we have made in the Charter guaranty the security of the future; and France, I trust, will be happy at home and respected abroad; and the peace of Europe more and more confirmed.' To render the ceremony more impressive the insignia of royalty were presented to the King by four Marshals of France. Marshal Macdonald presented the crown, Marshal Oudinot the sceptre, Marshal Mortier the sword, and Marshal Molitor the hand of justice. M. Dupont de l'Eure concluded the proceedings by inviting the Deputies to meet the next day to take the oath of fidelity to the King and obedience to the constitutional Charter and the laws, and the assembly separated amid acclamations of applause, the Duc d'Orleans being now Louis Philippe, King of the French. The first care of the King was, of course, to fix the organization of his Cabinet on a permanent basis. The Moniteur of August 12th announced that M. Dupont de l'Eure was appointed Keeper of the Seals; General Gérard, Minister of War; the Duc de Broglie, of Public Instruction; M. Guizot, of the Interior; Baron Louis, of Finance; Comte Molé, of Foreign Affairs; and Comte Sébastiani, of Marine. At the same time MM. Lafitte, Casimir Perrier, Dupin, and Bignon became members of the Cabinet without holding portfolios. These eminent individuals, most of whom we have had frequent occasion to mention in the foregoing pages, represented the moderate party among the enemies of the late dynasty; and the same reasons, which had seemed to exact the hasty proceeding of the Deputies in the transfer of the Crown, namely, the danger of commotions in France and the necessity of conciliating the rest of Europe, spoke loudly in favor of the formation of a Cabinet of moderate views. ments, which occupied the attention of the new Ministers, those of the journalists were not the least urgent. While their fearless conduct had certainly entitled them to be well considered, yet if they were desirous thus to cancel the merit of their professedly patriotic exertions by receiving compensation as for mercenary services performed, it may well be supposed that no Government, in the then state of France, would feel disposed to slight the pretensions of those, who governed the movements of the newspaper Press. The next care of the new Ministers was to place themselves in amicable communication with the various powers in Europe. As to the United States there was of course no room for doubt or difficulty. Mr Rives was among the earliest of the diplomatic agents in Paris to offer his good wishes to a Government, which, beside the The Ministers immediately proceeded to reform the officers of the army and the employés in the civil departments, by substituting for those, who held their offices or commissions from the late Government, men of their own political opinions. This was undoubtedly just and proper in such a case as a change of dynas- advantages of having plausible ty, a political Revolution brought on by the usurpation of the previous head of the State, and essential, indeed, to the stability of the new institutions. The officers of the old army now had their revenge for the neglect to which they had been doomed during the two last reigns. To have been prominent in the days of the Republic or the Empire became a title to reward, not a badge of disgrace. The victors of the Three Days did not manifest any indisposition to be recompensed for the toils and dangers and losses they had undergone during the last week of July. In the claims for official honors and emolu grounds of right to stand upon in the sense of legitimacy, had the nobler claim to respect, in the republican sense, as being the product of the sovereign will of the People. Our Government entered, without hesitation, into the most cordial and friendly intercourse with that of Louis Philippe. Nor could Great Britain fail to see that, in the recent events, France had but imitated the proceedings of the revolution, by virtue of which alone the House of Hanover ascended the throne. Whatever sympathy the Duke of Wellington had for the fate of Charles X., it was impossible for him to deny that this unhappy Prince had provoked with well founded dread lest the and justly incurred his misfor- diffusion of the sentiment of freetunes. Nor would the Duke, or dom and national independence any other English Minister, how- from France to other countries ever strained the notions he might should kindle up intestine comentertain of legitimacy, have pre- motion and foreign war from one sumed to propose the quixotic end of Europe to the other. It plan of refusing to acknowledge is not surprising that Sovereigns, Louis Philippe. England, there- whose whole rule was a series of fore, from principle, and the usurpations such as that which Netherlands, as much from fear had just hurled Charles X. from as principle, manifested no re- his throne, and who held their luctance in renewing their amica- authority only by the tenure of ble relations with France. Aus- conquest or successful oppression tria, Prussia, and Spain were less of their natural subjects, should prompt in doing so; but they, begin to feel a terrible looking like some of the minor States, did forward to judgment, when they not feel bold enough, either indi- heard the lesson of popular vidually or collectively, to defy strength and popular vengeance, the revolutionary spirit, which if which the barricades of Paris duly provoked, seemed as capa- proclaimed to every subject of ble now, as it was thirty years misrule throughout the civilized before, of sending out its armed world. missionaries to preach a fearful doctrine of liberty and conquest in every corner of Europe. Russia made a stand against the dangerous example of popular right taking to itself the companionship of popular might; but the domestic troubles of the Czar compelled him also to temporize, and at last acknowledge the new Government when he could no longer help doing it. France herself, with the democratic vigor of a national effort, speedily armed her population and assumed the attitude of defensive energy suited to her new position; and while professing an earnest desire to preserve peace, prepared herself to encounter the hazards of war without reluctance or apprebension. All Europe now stood in fearful and anxious expectation, filled They saw that France had reopened a school of liberty for the teaching of nations. The Marseilles Hymn had again become classic verse, chanted by every voice and seemingly sacred to every heart, where but a few weeks before to lisp its name would have been sedition. The Reveil du Peuple rang once more through France, arousing her myriads like a trumpet call. The tricolored flag, which had waved in triumph over so many well fought and hard won fields of battle, was unfurled again, and flung abroad to the breeze as the standard of a martial people, full of enthusiasm and ardor, and proud to avow those forbidden tenets of national independence, which European princes would gladly keep confined to these wilds of America. What wonder that Nicholas, or Frederick William, or Francis of Austria, or William of Nassau should have trembled in the inmost recesses of their palaces? For they saw France again revolutionary, revived, regenerate, snapping asunder the chains which had been fastened upon her at Waterloo like Sampson escaping from the toils of Delilah, and standing up in her strength as an armed knight ready to do battle against all challengers. It comes not within the scope and compass of our present purpose to follow the effects of the Revolution at home or abroad. The repetition of the barricades of Paris in Brussels, the troubles in Italy, the revolt of the heroic Poles, the discussion of constitutional reform in England,-these and other kindred topics belong to the history of another year. We leave the French with the form and conditions of Government which their leaders had chosen for them, entering upon the agitated career of freedom under better auspices than in the old time. The whole field of political disquisition was now open to her writers and her speakers. With them, it was no longer a dispute of ordinances or double vote, or censorships, and still less of Villèle or Polignac, those ministerial bugbears, which had so long been used to frighten men withal. These were trivial questions which had passed away forever, and yielded place to more stirring matters, as the rushing tempest clears off the mists that hover about the lower sky. It ceased to be a consideration simply of the now comparatively trifling inquiry, of what dynasty should sit on the throne of Saint Louis. In the developement of the principle which was now the basis of the public law of the French, that neither divine communication to a favored individual or family, nor transmission by hereditary succession, nor prescription, nor concession from the head of the church, nor consecration by his legates and bishops, was the legitimate source of power, but that it flowed only from the supreme will of the People;—and in the consideration whether the defence of their own institutions did not require them to anticipate the formation of a hostile league of crowned heads, and to propagate the faith of liberty as it were in partibus infidelium, so as to raise up beforehand an adversary league of the governed millions for their reciprocal protection against the governing few ;- in such deep and all comprehensive subjects of interest was the rife mind of France now absorbed, to the exclusion of every meaner thing. To the French there had commenced a period of daring speculation, of bold purpose, of brilliant promise: to all but the French, a period of vehement agitation and uncontrollable solicitude. pour The meteor star of revolution had arisen to forth its stormy light upon the nations: but what presumptuous gazer could presume to calculate its orbit? · - CHAPTER XIX. NETHERLANDS. Opposition of the Allies to Republican Governments.— Kingdom of the Netherlands - The Creation of the Congress of Vienna. - United Provinces, Islands, &c, of German Origin. - Walloons of the Gallic race.- Contests of the Fifth Century between the Salians and Saxons. Conversion of Witikend to Christianity. -Conquest of the Country by Charlemagne.- Corporate Trades. -Charles the great grandfather of Charles Fifth.-Marriage of his daughter with Maximilian of Austria. Connexion with Ferdinand and Isabella.- Charles Fifth. Reformation. — Inquisition.-Philip. -William of Japan. The obnoxious Minister Granville. Gueux or Beggars, the title of the Opposers of Government. - Division between the Protestants and Catholics. Union of the Seven United Provinces.- Power of the Dutch in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Conquests in the East and West Indies. -French Revolution. - Batavian Republic.- Kingdom of Holland. - French Province. - Belgium annexed to France. - Revolution of 1813.- Restoration of House of Nassau. - Constitution.- Belgium united with Holland. Assembly of Notables.-Amended Constitution. - Public Debt. Situation of the Netherlands as to Foreign Powers. Internal Disputes from the Catholic Religion and Education. Free Trade and Restriction. Ordinances as to Language. Budget.-M. de Potter. His Trial. Session of 1829. Ministerial Responsibility. - Law on the Press. Revolution of 26th August, 1830.-Demands of the Belgians.-Meeting of the States General, 12th September, 1830.- King's Speech. Provisional Government at Brussels. - Attack of Prince Frederic. Recognition of Belgians by the Prince of Orange. Return of M. de Potter to Brussels.- Character of King William. WHEN in 1814, after the downfal of the great chieftain, the Plenipotentiaries of the primary powers met in Congress to parcel out the fruits of their victories and to reconstruct the fabric of Euro pean society, a cardinal principle, by which they were actuated, was hostility to all republics. Recollecting what Kings and Emperors had suffered from the anarchists and military despots of France, they |