They Complain That Their Interests Have Been Sacrificed
Entirely To Those Of The House Of Orange, And They Say That
From the
readiness they displayed in shaking off the yoke of France, and the great
weight they thereby threw into
The scale, they were entitled to the
restitution of all their colonies in Asia, Africa, and America. The
colonies of the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon are what they most regret; for
these colonies in particular furnished ample employment and the means of
provision for the cadets of patrician families. If you tell them they have
acquired the Belgic provinces as an indemnification, they answer: "So much
the worse for us, for now the patronage of the colonial offices must be
divided between us and the Belgians."
The preparations for the grand conflict about to take place are carried on
with unabating activity; the conscription is rigorously enforced and every
youth capable of bearing arms is enrolled. Almost all the officers of the
Belgian army and a great proportion of the soldiery have served with the
French and have been participators of their laurels; one cannot therefore
suppose that they are actuated by any very devouring zeal against their
former commander; nor have I found amongst the shop-keepers or respectable
people with whom I have conversed, and who have been falsely represented as
having suffered much from the tyranny of Napoleon, any who dislike either
his person or government, and certainly none either high or low express the
cannibal wish that I heard some English country gentlemen and London
merchants utter for the destruction of Paris and of the French people, nor
would it be easy to find here men of the humane and generous sentiments
professed by some of our aldermen and contractors when they welcomed with
ferocious acclamations of joy and were ready to embrace the Baschkir or
Cossack who told them that he had slaughtered so many French with his own
hand; nor would the ladies here be so eager to kiss old Blucher as was the
case in London.
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