Transcriber’s note Variable spelling and hyphenation have been retained. Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently repaired. A list of the changes made can be found at the end of the book. Formatting and special characters are indicated as follows: _italic_ =bold= BELGIUM. VOL. I. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. IN THE PRESS, IN 2 VOLS. POST 8vo. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. THE STATES OF THE PRUSSIAN LEAGUE. BY J. EMERSON TENNENT, ESQ. M.P. AUTHOR OF “BELGIUM,” “THE HISTORY OF MODERN GREECE,” &C. [Illustration: WATERMAN’S HALL, GRASS QUAY, GHENT. Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street.] BELGIUM. BY J. EMERSON TENNENT, ESQ., M.P. AUTHOR OF “LETTERS FROM THE ÆGEAN,” AND “HISTORY OF MODERN GREECE.” “L’UNION FAIT LA FORCE,”--MOTTO OF BELGIUM. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. =Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.= 1841. LONDON: PRINTED BY SCHULZE & CO., 13, POLAND STREET. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD STANLEY, M.P. &c. &c. MY DEAR LORD, MY desire to inscribe this page with your name, is associated with the recollection of the period when you filled one of the highest administrative offices in Ireland; and when your firm and vigorous discharge of it, effectually stifled the designs of those, whose measures, if tolerated, would have drawn down upon that country, consequences similar to those which similar proceedings have, unhappily, entailed upon Belgium. The value and effect of that nervous policy, by which you “boldly muzzled treason” then, is attested by the contrast, which the social condition of Ireland exhibits now, under the nominal government of those who have submitted to abandon it; and whose sacrifices to purchase the loyalty, and secure the permanent attachment of the Irish Repealers, have been rewarded by an intimation of a prospective fraternization with the “hereditary enemies of England,” so soon as their “compact alliance,” with the English administration shall have expired.