ation has
arrived to that height so as to render it dangerous, it is swept away by
the all-wise and benevolent Creator, and we are permitted to begin again
_de novo_. After all, what we term posterity is but a drop of water in
the ocean of Time.

CHAPTER NINE.

Brussels.
There are few people in Brussels, indeed in Belgium, who do not complain
of the revolution; all that goes wrong is at once ascribed to this
cause--indeed I was rather staggered by one gentleman, at Ghent, telling
me very gravely that they had had no fat oxen since the revolution; but
this he explained by stating that the oxen were fattened from the refuse
of several manufactories, all of which had been broken up, the
proprietors having quitted for Holland. The revolution has certainly
been, up to the present time, injurious to both countries, but it is
easy to foretell that eventually Belgium will flourish, and Holland, in
all probability, be the sufferer. The expenses of the latter even now
are greater than her revenue, and when the railroads of Belgium have
been completed, as proposed, to Vienna, the revenue of Holland will be
proportionably decreased from her loss of the carrying trade. It may be
urged that Holland can also have her railroads--but she cannot: so large
a proportion of her population find their support at present on the
canals, that a railroad would be productive of the most injurious
effects. It is true that she can lower her rates of carriage, but the
merchant will save ten days of transport by the railroads, and this
rapidity of communication will always obtain the preference.

But whatever may be the future prospects of Belgium, it is certain that,
from the heavy expenses attending the support of so large an army, the
retirement into Holland of most of the influential and wealthy
commercial men, and the defection of almost all the nobility, at present
she is suffering. Brussels, her capital, has perhaps been most injured,
and is no longer the gay and lively town which it was under the dynasty
of King William of Nassau. When the two countries were united, it was
the custom of the Dutch court to divide the year between Brussels and
the Hague; and as there was not only the establishment of the King, but
also those of Princes William and Frederick (in fact three courts), as
well as all the nobility of Holland and Belgium, there was an overflow
of wealth, of co