The last violence offered to him was his being carried off a few years since; but he was discovered in the house of a liberated felon, and speedily restored to his old place and functions amidst the delight of the Brussellois. In the Place du Grand Sablon, another fountain, surmounted by a marble statue of Minerva, between figures, representing Fame and the river Scheldt, and holding a medallion with the heads of Francis I. and Maria Theresa was erected, as its inscription imports in 1711, by Thomas Bruce, Earl of Aylesbury, in recognition of the enjoyments he had experienced during a residence of forty years in Brussels. We dined to day with the gentlemen who formed the Commission of Inquiry which had lately visited the linen districts of Great Britain. The entertainment was at du Bos’, Rue Fossé-aux-Loups, the favourite restaurant of Brussels, and the dinner was altogether French, and equal to the best cuisine of the Palais Royale. The hotels of Brussels, those, I mean, in its upper town, are on an immense scale, especially the Bellevue, which overlooks the park, and was in the very focus of the fight during the “glorious three days” of 1830. Beside it is the Hôtel de Flandres, said to have the most recherché table-d’hôte of the entire, and such is its popularity, that we could neither obtain apartments in the hotel on our arrival, nor seats at the table on a subsequent occasion. In this dilemma, we took up our residence at a house on the opposite side of the same square, the Hôtel Brittanique, where we found the arrangements as execrable, in every respect, as the charges were monstrous. As usual, however, a stranger with his foot on the step of his carriage, has no resource but to submit; but, as a general rule, the traveller who is in search of the _cheapest_ hotel, should invariably address himself to that which has the reputation of being the _best_; where there is no temptation, as in the less frequented establishments, to make those who visit the house pay for the loss occasioned by the absence of those who avoid it, and where, even if the bill be occasionally something more than is equitable, he has, at least, the satisfaction of feeling that he has had _comfort_ in exchange for extortion. CHAPTER VI. BRUSSELS. EFFECTS OF THE REPEAL OF THE UNION WITH HOLLAND.