ice, that shuns the noontide glitter
of the world's applause, and better loves the quiet solitude of their
own unobtrusive waters; and had they thus remained, nothing would have
tempted me to draw them from their obscurity. But alas! national
ambition has visited even the seclusion of this service. Not content
with coasting voyages, some twelve miles down their muddy river--not
satisfied with lording it over fishing smacks and herring wherries,
this great people have resolved on becoming a maritime power in blue
water, and running a race of rivalry with England, France, and Russia;
and to it they have set in right earnest.

They began by purchasing a steam-vessel, which happens to turn out on
such a scale of size, as to be inadmissible into any harbour they
possess. By dint of labour, time, cost, and great outlay, they
succeeded, after four months, in getting her into dock. But alas! if
it took that time to admit her, it takes six months to let her out
again; and, when out, what are they to do with her?

When Admiral Dalrymple turned farmer, he mentions in one of his
letters, the sufferings his unhappy ignorance of all agricultural
pursuits involved him in, and feelingly tells us: "I have given ten
pounds for a dunghill, and would now willingly give any man twenty, to
tell me what to do with it." This was exactly the case with the
Belgians. They had bought a steam-ship, they put coals in her, and a
crew; and then, for the life and soul of them, they did not know what
to do with them.

They desired an export trade--a _debouche_ for their Namur cutlery and
Verviers' frieze. But where could they go? They had no colonies.
Holland had, to be sure: but then, they had quarrelled with Holland,
and there was no use repining. "What can't be cured," &c. Besides, if
they had lost a colony, they had gained a cardinal; and if they had no
merchantmen, they had at least high-mass; and if they were excluded
from Batavia, why they had free access to the "Abbe Boon."

There were, however, some impracticable people engaged in traffic,
who would not listen to these great advantages, and who were obstinate
enough to suppose that the country was as prosperous when it had a
market for its productions, as it was when it had none. And although
the priests, who have multiplied some hundredfold since the
revolution, were willing "to consume" to any extent, yet, unhappily,
they were not as profitable customers as their _ci-devant_ friends
beyo