ence.

WESSENBERG.

TALLEYRAND.

BULOW.

MATUSZEWICZ. NIEUMANN. PALMERSTON. LIEVEN.

NOTE by BELGIUM to the CON

FERENCE.

"The undersigned plenipotentiary of his majesty the king of the Belgians, has had the honour of receiving the note, which have been pleased to address to him, under the date of the 11th of June, the ambassadors of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, assembled in Conference in London, and he hastened to have the contents thereof brought to the cognizance of his government. "It results from this note 1st That the Conference considers as an indispensable prelude to all ulterior negotiations, the complete evacuation of the respective territories between Belgium and Holland, the free navigation of the Scheldt, and of the Meuse, and the use for the commercial relations of Belgium with Germany, of the existing roads. 2nd. That the negotiations to which some dispositions of the treaty of the 15th of November could as yet give an opening, cannot be understood but as negotiations of mutual arrangement between Belgium and Holland; negotiations, which if they did not bring about results of a nature to be accepted by Belgium, would leave the treaty subsisting in it entire.

"The Belgian government would have thought it mistook the spirit of equity that animates the Conference, in doubting that

fully of the proceeding, which it considered itself entitled to adopt, in consequence of the common sanction given by the five Courts to the treaty of the 15th of November; nevertheless, the Belgian government experienced a delay in receiving, on the part of those Courts, the formal manifestation of tion is found in the note of their their approbation. That approbaexcellencies the plenipotentiaries, dated the 11th of June, but the Belgian government could not but feel regret on finding, that in that note, their excellencies had passed over in silence many important points, treated by the undersigned in the note of the 1st aud 8th instant, and to which conformably to the orders of his sovereign, the undersigned again takes the liberty of calling anew, and in the most pressing manner, the attention of the Conference.

"In the two notes already specified the undersigned had the honour of proposing

"To fix the epoch after which there will be ground for placing to the charge of Holland the expenses of the armaments supported by Belgium, and of considering the latter as freed from the payment of the arrears of the debt.

"To fix also the epoch at which the execution of the treaty of the 15th of November is to be brought about by the employment of means of coercion.

"The undersigned cannot doubt that these propositions are not conformable to the views of the five Courts: they are besides based on the public rights of Belgium.

"In effect it is incontestable that it is to the charge of the Dutch government that are to be attributed all the delays experienced

in the negotiations, since the day when the Conference found itself, by the declared wish of the parties, and by the force of things, invested with a supreme arbitrage; it is, therefore, on that one of the parties who persists in declining the effects of the arbitration, that the consequence of those delays, ought to fall.

By adhering purely and simply, since the 14th of November, 1831, to the twenty-four articles, Belgium has a right to consider herself for the future placed beyond the necessity of maintaining her armaments; and she has not maintained, and much less augmented them, but, in consequence of the non-adhesion of the king of Holland; if she subscribed to the onerous conditions imposed on her by the treaty of the 15th of November, it was chiefly from the very plain consideration that the state of war ought immediately to cease, and to procure for her a compensation for her sacrifices.

This compensation has become a failure; and the Belgian government has continued to defray the expenses of an armament that each month exceeds 3,000,000 florins, and which, by consequence, surpass by far the arrears of the debt. Belgium can therefore receive, in the sole freedom from those arrears, the indemnity to which she has a right.

"After the refusal (now well known) of the government of Holland to accede to the last propositions of the Conference, it is beyond all doubt that the declaration of the loss of all claims to the arrears will not, by itself, become a measure of a nature to bring about the execution of the treaty of the 15th of November on the part of that government. The Conference ought, at this period, to be con

vinced that that resolution cannot be obtained but by means of coercion, to which it is the more necessary to have recourse, as it has become indispensable to put an end to the political uncertainties, the prolongation of which will not fail to produce, within a short period, the most serious consequences for the peace of Europe. As the results of the preceding facts and considerations, the undersigned has the honour to demand formally from their excellencies the plenipotentiaries of the five Courts

"1. That from the date of the 1st of January, 1832, to the peace, the expenses of the armaments supported by Belgium shall in full right be placed to the charge of Holland, to the amount of 3,000,000 florins each month, and that Belgium be authorized to deduct those expenses from the sums which she owes or may owe to Holland.

"2. That, as the Dutch government has not consented to the previous evacuation of the territories and places recognized to belong to Belgium, as well as to the enjoyment of the navigation of the Scheldt, and of the Meuse, and to the use, for the commercial relations of Belgium with Germany, of the existing roads, the Conference will please to order immediately the employment of the means of coercion necessary for obtaining this end.

"The undersigned flatters himself these demands will receive a favourable consideration from their excellencies the plenipotentiaries of the five Courts.

"If, contrary to all expectation, it should prove otherwise, his majesty the king of the Belgians will find himself forced to take measures proper for bringing about a

termination of a state of things, which the hope of seeing brought to a speedy close could alone have induced him to support so long. The sacrifices to which he has consented in favour of the general good, are sufficiently numerous to prove, that he cannot then be exposed to the reproach of having subjected the peace of Europe to a crisis, of which from the present moment, he rejects all the responsibility.

"The undersigned embraces with eagerness this occasion to offer to their excellencies the renewed assurance of his highest consideration.

"To their Excellencies the Plenipotentiaries of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia.

"London, June 30, 1832. "By a note of the 11th of this month, emanating from their excellencies the plenipotentiaries of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, assembled in Conference in London, the plenipotentiaries of his majesty the king of the Low Countries had the honour to receive a project of a direct treaty between Belgium and Holland. They also found a demand made, to know from them, if, on the supposition that Belgium should accept this direct treaty, that said treaty, and the treaty to be concluded between Holland and the five Powers, would receive the assent of his majesty the king of the Low Countries.

"The said note and the annexes having been transmitted to the

government of the Low Countries, the undersigned plenipotentiary of his majesty the king of the Low Countries has been charged to lay what follows before the Conference.

"These projects carry with them the recognition of the 24 articles, to which the government of the Low Countries has declared it cannot accede.

"In effect, in article 2, of the project of treaty between the five Courts and the Low Countries, it is found that the twenty-four articles are invoked with their explanatory articles, as necessarily forming the conditions of separation, and as having the same force and value as if they formed an integral part of a treaty between Holland and the five Powers; and, accordbe transformed immediately into a ing to the same article, they are to treaty between Holland and Belgium.

"The three explanatory articles are not of a nature to remove the difficulties which arise respecting the signature of the said twentyfour articles.

"The first, notwithstanding the six weeks granted for the exchange of the ratifications, orders the respective evacuation of the territories for the 20th of July,-an evacuation which cannot be consented to, so long as an understanding is not formed as to the conditions of separation.

"According to the 2nd explanatory article, commissioners were to assemble at Antwerp, to negociate by mutual arrangement on the articles 9 and 12, the execution of which is to be suspended until the definitive conclusion of the said negotiations. The execution of those articles, supposed their existence real, and their simple suspension, renders always their execution possible at a late period.

Besides, the treaty with the five Powers, and that with Belgium, will lose all their force, if objects such as those contained in articles 9 and 12, in which general principles, and not particular dispositions, are treated, were postponed to ulterior negotiations, which may be difficult to terminate. To open those negotiations in Belgium would be also to wound anew the dignity of the Netherlandish go

vernment.

"This article terminates by the stipulation that the free navigation of the navigable rivers which traverse or separate the Belgian and Dutch territories, shall be subject to the same rates of passage-money as now exist. This stipulation can have no result for the Low Countries, as the king has formed the resolution of continuing an impassible spectator of the navigation of the Scheldt, as there did not remain to him, since January, 1881, but the choice of preventing the navigation by arms, or of consenting thereto; by which resolution no dues are consequently received on the Scheldt.

"The 3rd article bears relation to the capitalization, and not to the liquidation, of the debt. The postponement of those subjects to a future and unfixed negotiation is not admissible, since the admission of such entreaty would have for effect to assure immediately to Belgium the enjoyment of the advantages promised to it, while no guarantee would be given to the Netherlands for the conditions in which they are concerned.

"In a verbal note of the 11th of June, the Conference makes mention of its note of the 4th of January, 1832, in which a decision was pronounced on several points of the treaty of the twenty-four articles. The Conference adds,

that if doubts should arise on the sense or execution of this treaty, the declarations contained in the memorial of the 4th of January, 1832, were to be regarded as the opinion of the five Courts on the reciprocal engagements resulting from this treaty.

"The opinion expressed by the Conference in this verbal note, does not seem sufficient to tranquillize the Netherlands as to the execution in the sense of the articles, on the subject of which the note of the 1st of June, 1832, had pronounced itself favourable, that is, on the articles 7, 8, 10, 17, 23, and 24, independent of the amelioration of article 9, and the abandonment of the servitude in Limburg imposed by articles 10 and 12. The following observations are submitted to the Conference on those points :

"The treaty is to be finally executed by the Netherlands and Belgium, and this latter country has never given in its adhesion to the memorial of the Conference of the 4th of January; it is clear that it will not then consider itself bound by that act.

"The Conference having of its own accord offered modifications to articles 7, 8, 10, 17, 23, and 24; and the cabinet of the Hague hav ing accepted them by its note of the 30th of January, this treaty establishes between the cabinet of the Hague and the representatives of the five Powers, an obligation which necessarily ought to receive a legal fixity, in conformity with the diplomatic forms in usage. If the reciprocal obligations that result from the modified articles do not obtain this legal force, they would become, in their application, an inexhaustible source of discord. The cabinet of the Hague would be obliged, in all cases of differences, to address itself to the five Powers,