But the similarity consists not less in the ostensible grounds for revolt, than in the identity of the actual instruments and agents. In Belgium, as in Ireland, they were the uneducated and bigotted mob, inflamed by the half-educated press, and led on by a propaganda of priests and a crowd of unsuccessful and hungry lawyers. In both countries, too, the leaders of the movement, whatever may have been their real and secret sentiments, ostensibly professed to seek merely a redress of grievances, and to start with alarm at the idea of _separation_; their only desire being a _federative union_ under the same crown, but with a distinct administration. The Belgian, however, soon felt that he wanted a power, which there is but little reason to ascribe to the Irishman of saying “thus far shalt thou go, and no farther,” and the stimulants applied to the versatile vanity of the people, soon rendered them impatient of any proposition short of actual independence. An unfortunate phrase in the treaty of Paris that Belgium was to be to Holland “as an accession of territory,” was construed into a national indignity, notwithstanding the expression of perfect equality and “fusion” which pervaded every other passage of the document, and the cry of “_a nation no longer a province_” became forthwith the aspiration of every discontented coterie. That distinction they have, at length, attained, and enjoy the barren eminence of a throne, but unfortunately without either the power, the wealth, or the influence as an European state, that are essential to give it dignity and stability. There are, however, some points of marked distinction between the two cases, inasmuch as whilst the Irish sufferers clamour _for_ assimilation to England, those in Belgium flew to arms _against_ assimilation with Holland; and, besides the Belgian repealer pursued his object of separation notwithstanding the admitted prosperity of his country, whilst the Irish one, less barefaced, tries eagerly to invent a case of distress in order to justify his treason. Above all, there is this happy difference, that whilst in Belgium the repeal has been achieved at the expense of national prosperity, Ireland has still the opportunity to reflect and to be warned by her lamentable example.