is universal--and above all the army,--the army, exposed every day to the most cutting sarcasms, vents its indignation in menaces and murmurs. Every class of the population, including those who would have been perfectly contented with the present order of things, were the circumstances of the country at all tolerable; the whole nation, in short, except the fraction of a fraction, without numbers, wealth nor weight, unite in aspiration for the return of the House of Orange; and the restoration of the kingdom of 1815, is in every heart and on every tongue * * Belgium, has herself, no other alternative left to her, and if from predilection and choice she does not invoke the return of a race of princes enlightened, paternal, courageous and brave, she must speedily be reduced by famine, to implore the restoration, as her only relief from evils of the last extremity. Their restoration may be regarded, at this moment, as morally accomplished, the universal voice of the nation has decreed it, and it requires but an accident, an excuse, a name, a banner, and the existence of the revolutionary kingdom is terminated without another ‘protocol.’”[40] Under these circumstances, the position of King Leopold must be any thing but an easy one, if his ambition extends to the foundation of a royal dynasty for his descendants. The religious grievances of the nation are, it is too much to be feared, beyond his reach to correct, and the evils which beset and endanger its internal prosperity, arising out of the circumscribed resources of the nation, must look in vain to them for redress. The fundamental defect is the want of an adequate consumption for the produce of the national industry, and for this the ingenuity of the government has been ineffectually tortured to discover a remedy. It is idle to look to Germany or England for _commercial treaties_ which would afford an opening for Belgian manufactures in competition with their own; important concessions have been made to France, by the reduction of duties upon her produce, when imported into Belgium, but no reciprocal advantages have been obtained in return; on the contrary, ever since 1815, when the Netherlands were taken from her, to be given to Holland, she has exhibited a waspish impatience to embarrass and undermine her prosperity. _Prospects of colonization_ have been discussed and even proposals made to other states for permission to attempt settlements on their distant territory--and where these have failed, commercial expeditions have been dispatched to Algiers, to Egypt, to Brasil, to Bolivia and Peru, all with a view to open a trading intercourse with the natives, but each and all have proved hopelessly unsuccessful.