he industrious and better informed
portions of the middle orders felt differently from the other
two, because they had found tangible and positive advantages in
their subjection to France, which overpowered every sentiment
of political degradation.

We thus see there was little sympathy between the members of the
national family. The first glance at the geographical position
of Holland and Belgium might lead to a belief that their interests
were analogous. But we have traced the anomalies in government
and religion in the two countries, which led to totally different
pursuits and feelings. Holland had sacrificed manufactures to
commerce. The introduction, duty free, of grain from the northern
parts of Europe, though checking the progress of agriculture,
had not prevented it to flourish marvellously, considering this
obstacle to culture; and, faithful to their traditional notions,
the Dutch saw the elements of well-being only in that liberty of
importation which had made their harbors the marts and magazines
of Europe. But the Belgian, to use the expressions of an acute
and well-informed writer, "restricted in the thrall of a less
liberal religion, is bounded in the narrow circle of his actual
locality. Concentrated in his home, he does not look beyond the
limits of his native land, which he regards exclusively. Incurious,
and stationary in a happy existence, he has no interest in what
passes beyond his own doors."

Totally unaccustomed to the free principles of trade, so cherished
by the Dutch, the Belgians had found under the protection of the
French custom-house laws, an internal commerce and agricultural
advantages which composed their peculiar prosperity. They found
a consumption for the produce of their well-cultivated lands, at
high prices, in the neighboring provinces of France. The webs
woven by the Belgian peasantry, and generally all the manufactures
of the country, met no rivalry from those of England, which were
strictly prohibited; and being commonly superior to those of
France, the sale was sure and the profit considerable.

Belgium was as naturally desirous of the state of things as Holland
was indifferent to it; but in could only have been accomplished
by the destruction of free trade, and the exclusive protection
of internal manufactures. Under such discrepancies as we have
thus traced in religion, character, and local interests, the
two countries were made one; and on the new monarch devolved
the