congress appointed
a regent to hold office till a king should be elected. On March 13 the
accession to office of an anti-revolutionary ministry in France rendered
the complete co-operation of the powers easier.

On April 17 France declared her adhesion to the protocol of January 20,
and by a new protocol the other four powers consented to the demolition
of some of the Belgian fortresses on the French frontier. Another
protocol of the same date ordered the Belgians to evacuate the grand
duchy of Luxemburg. On May 10 a further protocol even threatened Belgium
with the rupture of diplomatic relations in case she did not by June I
accept the protocol of January 20. But the powers soon adopted a more
conciliatory attitude. France and Great Britain desired that Prince
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who in the previous year had resigned the crown
of Greece, should now be offered that of Belgium. Prince Leopold would
not accept the crown so long as Belgium continued to defy the powers,
and on the other hand there was no chance of securing his election by
the Belgian congress unless he undertook to maintain the Belgian claim
to the possession of Luxemburg. Lord Ponsonby, the British minister at
Brussels, succeeded in inducing the London conference to sign a new
protocol, undertaking to negotiate with Holland for the cession of
Luxemburg to Belgium, in return for an indemnity elsewhere, provided
that Belgium should first accept the protocol of January 20. The Belgian
congress gathered that the acceptance of Prince Leopold was regarded by
the powers as more important than the maintenance of the terms of that
protocol, and they accordingly elected him as their king on June 4
without accepting the protocol. In answer to Dutch complaints Ponsonby
and General Belliard, the French minister, were recalled from Brussels
as the protocol of May 10 required. Leopold refused to accept the crown
until the conference should have offered better terms, and on the 26th
the conference signed another protocol, which differed from that of
January 20 in that it left the Luxemburg question open for future
negotiation, and rendered Holland liable for the whole of the debt that
it had incurred before the union of the two countries. On the same day
Leopold accepted the Belgian crown. The Belgian congress accepted this
last protocol on July 7, and on the 21st Leopold was proclaimed king,
and immediately recognised by Great Britain and France. The other great
pow