note: Foreign intervention]

Under the leadership of Lord Palmerston, the Belgian Conference in London
was conducted to a successful issue. Early in January the representatives
of the Powers signed a protocol defining the limits of Belgium and Holland
and apportioning to each country its share in the national debt. The
problem of providing an acceptable government for Belgium still remained.
The Belgians themselves would have welcomed incorporation into France. With
this object in view they elected for their sovereign the Duc de Nemours,
second son of Louis Philippe. When a proclamation to this effect was made
on February 3, Louis Philippe, acting under Talleyrand's advice, withheld
official sanction. Privately he had encouraged his son's candidacy, the
more so as a Bonapartist rival, the son of Eugene Beauharnais, was in the
field. The conference at London determined not to permit Belgium thus to
become a dependency of France. The British Government decided that it would
no longer discountenance armed intervention in Belgium against French
schemes of aggrandizement. Talleyrand obtained the best terms open to his
sovereign by insisting on the withdrawal of the Bonapartist pretender. The
selection of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who had just been disappointed
in his aspirations for the empty throne of Greece, was encouraged by France
on the understanding that Leopold, if elected King of Belgium, should marry
a daughter of Louis Philippe. Leopold was elected on June 4, and accepted
the crown only on the condition that the London Conference should modify
its territorial arrangements of January. This brought up the Luxemburg
question. Since the Paris treaty of 1814, the formidable stronghold of
Luxemburg, though under the sovereignty of the King of Holland, was
maintained as the strongest border fortress of the German Confederation.
Now, the Luxemburgers had made common cause with the Belgians. Leopold
accordingly insisted that Luxemburg should be treated as an integral part
of Belgium. The powers at London yielded to this demand sufficiently to
annul the declarations of January, with the promise of a future settlement
of the status of Luxemburg. On this repudiation of the recent international
declaration in favor of the Netherlands, the King of Holland took up arms.
A Dutch army of 50,000 advanced into Belgium. Leopold at once appealed to
France for assistance. A French army marched into Belgium from the other
side. The po