XXXIV. 1838. 20. Louis Na poleon is leave Swit come to England. CHAP. obligation on him to abstain from any attempt to disturb the Government of France, yet the Prince was too strongly impressed with the hope of ultimate success, and the belief of his mission, to abstain from the attempt to realise obliged to them. After the death of his mother, accordingly, he zerland and remained at Arenenberg, which again became the centre of political intrigues. There was drawn up a pamphlet, shortly after published by Lieutenant Laity at Paris, on the Strasbourg attempt, and which was so hostile to the existing Government that the author was brought to trial for it, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, and to pay a fine of 10,000 francs (£500). The Cabinet of the Tuileries having received authentic intelligence that the young Prince was renewing his attempts to organise conspiracies in France, and to shake the fidelity of the army, addressed energetic remonstrances through their minister at Berne to the Swiss Government, calling on them to remove Prince Louis Napoleon from their territories. This demand was warmly supported by Prince Metternich on the part of Austria. The demand was resisted by the whole strength of the united Republican and Napoleonist parties in Europe, and excited the warmest and most acrimonious debates in the Swiss Assembly, where the loudest declamations were heard against this "unheard-of stretch of tyrannic power." The strength of France and Austria, however, was too much for the Helvetic confederacy: the significant hint that the débouche for their cattle by the Ticino and the St Gothard would 429 430; be closed if the demand was not complied with, was not lost 355-357; on the Swiss farmers; and after some hesitation, the Government, in courteous but decided terms, intimated to the young Prince that he must select a new asylum.1* He 1 1833. Cap. ix. L. Blanc, v. Ann. Hist. xxi. 213. * "Après les évènemens de Strasbourg et l'acte de généreuse clémence dont Louis Napoléon Buonaparte avait été l'objet, le Roi des Français ne devait pas s'attendre à ce qu'un pays tel que la Suisse, et avec lequel les anciennes relations de bon voisinage avaient été naguère si heureusement rétablies, souffrirait que Louis Buonaparte revint sur son territoire, et au mépris de toutes les obligations que lui imposait la reconnaissance, osât y renouveller de criminelles intrigues, et avouer hautement des prétentions insensées, et que leur folie XXXIV. 1838. made choice of Great Britain, and arrived there early in CHAP. November 1838. Great events were linked with this change of scene; it led to the Boulogne attempt, the captivity of five years in the chateau of Ham, and was indirectly instrumental in producing the alliance of France and England which has since wrought such wonders. The cordial union of France and Austria on this attempt 21. of Ancona. of Prince Napoleon led to the removal of the most serious Evacuation apple of discord which still remained between them. It Dec. 4. had never been intended by the French Government that the occupation of Ancona should be permanent; it had only been adopted as a temporary measure to counterbalance the influence of Austria in Tuscany and the Roman States. Now, however, this necessity had in a great measure ceased, and the troops employed in Ancona were loudly called for on the opposite coast of the Mediterranean. Italy was tranquil. An amnesty, with very few exceptions, had been wisely proclaimed by the Austrian Government Sept. 6, on occasion of the coronation of the Emperor at Milan, as sovereign of the kingdom of Lombardy and Venice; and the attention of the French Government was so evidently absorbed by the affairs of Northern Africa, that no danger was to be apprehended from their ambitious designs in Italy. The moment, therefore, seemed favourable for the evacuation, and it was brought about without difficulty. The French Cabinet at first insisted on some stipulations in favour of the constitutional regime in the Legations being forced upon the Pope, but this was not même ne peut plus absoudre depuis l'attentat de Strasbourg. Il est de notoriété publique que Arenenburg est le centre d'intrigues que le Gouvernement du Roi a le droit et le devoir de ne pas tolérer. Vainement Louis Napoléon voudrait-il les nier; les écrits qu'il a fait publier tant en Allemagne qu'en France, celui que la Cour de Pairs a récemment condamné (Laity), auquel il était prouvé qu'il avait lui-même concouru, et qu'il avait distribué, témoignent, assez que son retour d'Amérique n'avait pas seulement pour objet de rendre les derniers devoirs à une mère mourante, mais aussi bien de reprendre des projets et d'afficher des prétentions auxquelles il est démontré aujourd'hui qu'il n'a jamais renoncé. La Suisse est trop loyale et trop fidèle alliée pour permettre que Louis Buonaparte se dise à-la-fois l'un de ses citoyens, et le prétendant au trône de France.-Duc de MONTEBELLO au Gouvernement de la Suisse, Oct. 8, 1838. CAFEFIGUE, ix. 429, 430. Moniteur, Oct. 10, 1838. 1838. XXXIV. 1838. Oct. 25. 1 Cap. ix. CHAP. persisted in, as derogatory to his dignity as an independent power; and in the end an order from General Bernard, Minister of War at Paris, removed the little garrison of Ancona to Bona, on the opposite coast of Africa. 426,427. The evacuation was made as quickly as possible, to avoid xxi. 301; exciting the revolutionary party in Europe, and show the appearance of the French eagles openly receding before the Imperial standards.1 Ann. Hist. Moniteur, Oct. 28, 1838. While everything was peaceful in the south of Europe, and the evacuation of Ancona removed the last ostensible cause of difference between the French and Austrian Governments, affairs were embroiled in the north, and the senseless obstinacy of the revolutionary party in Belgium had well-nigh lighted up again the flames of a general war in Europe. The affairs of that State had been definitively settled by the capture of Antwerp in 1832, and subsequent treaty by which the limits of the new State were exactly defined. Leopold had signed that treaty, and accepted the twenty-four articles agreed to by the Conference at London. By them the territories of Limbourg and part of Luxembourg had been assigned to the King of Holland, in his right as Prince of Nassau, and member of the German Confederation. Upon various pretexts, however, the cession of these provinces to the Dutch authorities had been evaded, and they still remained in the hands of the Belgians. The disturbances in the Rhenish Provinces of Prussia, in consequence of the dispute between the Government and Archbishop of Cologne, relative to the religious education of the children of mixed marriages, already mentioned, now awakened new hopes in the leaders of the revolution in Flanders; they aspired to nothing less than uniting the Rhenish Provinces of Prussia with the newly-erected kingdom of Belgium, and forming a State which should be able to maintain its ground against either France on the one side, or Prussia on the other. The strong feeling in favour of the Romish Church which animated both countries, XXXIV. 1838. appeared to form the basis of an indissoluble union. "The CHAP. moment has come," said they, "when the idea of a Rhenish-Belgian Confederation will pass from Utopia to realisation. It had been already mooted in 1831 at Brussels. An advocate of Cologne, sufficiently authorised by the great body of the devoted and influential patriots of his country, made proposals to us of a union, which were prudently rejected by the equivocal or irresolute men who at that time were at the head of affairs. The moment has now come when it is possible to renew the ideas with far greater chances of success; to deliver ourselves for ever from all anxiety on the side of Prussia; to enter into a confederacy with a neighbouring people, whose strength will guarantee us from the double danger of a Prussian or a French invasion; to secure peace without commencing war, and to anticipate the necessity of a strife by exercising a propagandism incomparably more 413-415. powerful than that of bayonets." 1 1 Cap. ix. 23. prepara wild views licans. The prevalence of these ideas, which were strongly supported by the Catholic clergy, ever possessed of so great Military an influence in Flanders, explains the tenacity with which tions, and the revolutionary party there clung for so long a time of the Belto the possession of Limbourg and Luxembourg. These gian repubprovinces were of some value in themselves, but they were of far more as a link to connect them with Cologne, the stepping-stone to the Rheno-Belgian Confederacy. In vain was it represented to these heated republicans that these provinces were part of the Germanic Confederacy, which would not yield them without a struggle, and could bring 300,000 men into the field. In vain did the Government point to the treaty to which the signature of the King was attached, which provided for the cession of these provinces to the King of the Netherlands. To the first it was replied that principles were more powerful than bayonets, and that the first approach of the German armies would be the signal for a general war of opinion, which would terminate in their entire discomfiture; to XXXIV. 1838. CHAP. the last, that treaties made by despots could not bind the free and enlightened Belgians. To such a length did the ferment proceed, that the Chamber of Deputies at Brussels, on the motion of M. Metz, the deputy for Luxembourg, adopted unanimously a resolution, praying the King not to consent to the separation of the provinces in dispute from Belgium, to which he returned an evasive answer. Inflamed with these extravagant ideas, they, by their influence in the Chambers, forced warlike measures upon Leopold; and the Belgian enthusiasts, trusting to their tumultuary levies, ill disciplined and scarcely equipped, ventured, with a force which had sunk before the troops of Holland, to throw down the gauntlet to the united strength of Germany, France, and England.1 1 Cap. ix. 415-417; Ann. Hist. xxi. 226, 227. 24. The great powers were now, however, united on the Views of the Belgian question, and the prospect of divisions in a more English Cabinet on the momentous interest made them all desirous to be done. subject. with its discussion. THE EAST had opened with its complicated interests and boundless prospects; the difficulty of solving its questions was present to every mind; and the cabinets, anticipating a coming struggle in the Levant, were all desirous of leaving no source of disquietude behind them on the banks of the Rhine. All parties were tired of the Belgian question, and desirous, with a view to a more momentous struggle, to be done with it. "I have seen Lord Palmerston," said General Sébastiani, the French ambassador in London, "and he is desirous, with the English Government, to arrange on any terms. the Belgian question, in order to be able to give his whole attention to the affairs of the East." Count Molé, in reply, enjoined the General to endeavour to obtain a * "Sire! En 1831 des circonstances malheureuses menaçaient la Belgique, du douloureux sacrifice de nos frères du Limbourg et du Luxembourg; peut-il se consommer aujourd'hui que sept années d'existence commune les ont attachés à la Belgique? La Chambre, Sire, ose espérer que dans les négotiations à ouvrir pour le traité avec la Hollande, l'intégrité du territoire Belge sera maintenue."-Moniteur, May 17, 1838. |