The duke of Wellington arrived in Brussels from the congress of Vienna on the night of April 4th, and took the command of the allied army; but the Dutch-Belgian army had not been placed immediately under the Duke’s command. His Grace being strongly convinced that his power of regulating the movements of the Dutch-Belgian troops ought not to be left open to any cavil or dispute, demanded the most unequivocal statement upon this matter from the king of the Netherlands. Nothing less than this measure could have made those troops serviceable to the cause of their country; such was still the fascinating power of Napoleon’s name over countries in which his rule and conscriptions had subdued and enervated the minds of men. On the 4th of May, Wellington received copies of the king’s decrees, making him field-marshal in his service, and placing the Dutch-Belgian army entirely under his command[2]. The Duke immediately put matters in a better condition, and instructed the prince of Orange how to keep up the necessary communications[3]. He transferred prince Frederick’s corps to lord Hill[4], warned the Prussian commandant at Charleroi, the duke of Berry, and all others concerned, to be on the alert; he also gave them exact accounts of the movements and strength of the enemy between Valenciennes and Maubeuge. All this was accomplished by the Duke before the 10th of May. On the 11th, he wrote to sir Henry Hardinge, then attached to the Prussian head-quarters for the purpose of communication, that he reckoned the enemy’s strength on the frontiers at 110,000 men; and was glad that Blücher was drawing his forces nearer to the British. His Grace adopted the most effective measures for placing all the fortified towns and strong places in a condition to embarrass the enemy; and notwithstanding the objections made, by interested parties, to the necessary inundations, he was firm in ordering them, wherever the general security required it. The Duke sent able engineers to limit, as much as possible, the injury arising from letting out the waters, and to inundate with fresh instead of salt water, when practicable. For this timely care of the general interests, and even, as far as it was possible, of private property, the return he met with was unceasing complaints from the authorities of the several towns, where these measures had been applied. But the Duke did his duty firmly, and, after some expostulation with unreasonable grumblers, compelled them to do theirs. On the 7th of June, he issued his orders for the defence of the towns of Antwerp, Ostend, Nieuport, Ypres, Tournay, Ath, Mons and Ghent. The governors of these respective towns were required to declare them in a state of siege, the moment the enemy should put his foot on the Belgian territory: the towns were to be defended to the utmost; and if any governor surrendered before sustaining at least one assault, and without the consent of his council, he