The manufacturers of Ghent and Verviers, have thus turned their eyes towards the Zoll-Verein, and year after year attempts have been made to effect a connexion, if not a formal juncture with the Prussian Commercial League; but here again disappointment alone awaited them, for independently of the fact, that by the constitution of the Zoll-Verein, it is accessible only to those of German blood (on which score Luxembourg might have been admissible), it was manifestly hostile to the very spirit of the league, whose object is to protect their own native manufacturers, to admit amongst them a formidable rival, who would inundate them with her produce, and could take nothing from them in return. But if the necessities and weakness of Belgium, render it impracticable for her to continue as she is, and if national independence be irreconcilable with her prosperity, the question which occupies the thoughts of her discontented subjects, is to what quarter she shall turn for relief from without. To attach herself again to Austria, as before the French revolution, is a matter impracticable and could be productive of no advantage, even if it were otherwise. The condition of the Rhenish provinces, under the dominion of Prussia, would make her eager for a similar incorporation, but this the interests of Europe, as well as those of Prussia herself forbid. An union with France would be equally hopeless and incompatible with the policy of the Congress of Vienna, and would, with the exception of the districts immediately bordering on the French frontier, be in the highest degree distasteful to the population at large. Their annexation to the territory of France in 1794, had been resisted by the clergy, and its termination in 1814 was hailed with rapturous impatience by all classes. Their condition under the empire had been one “of the most insignificant vassalage. Their religious institutions destroyed, their cherished privileges annihilated, and all their rights and immunities for which they had been contending for centuries before, trodden under foot.”[41] Even their commerce and manufactures were jeopardised by the jealous rivalry of their new allies, their clergy debased, and their youth drafted off by conscription to feed the slaughter of Europe. The recollection of this has left no vigorous desire for a return to fraternization with France, nor would France herself, however important Belgium might be as a political acquisition, consult the interest of her native manufactures by imparting an equality in all her advantages to competitors so formidable. Still so impatient are the Belgians to fly from the “ills they have,” that at the present moment, whilst the possibility of war between France and the rest of Europe occupies the attention of all the world, I was repeatedly assured in Belgium that it would only require France to give the signal, and a powerful section of the people would declare in her favour. So conscious are all parties of