at
Wellington, with still greater difficulty, and amidst yet brighter
glories, regained for it, has been lost. It has been lost, too, not by
the enemies of the nation, but by itself; not by an opposite faction,
but by the very party over whom his own great exploits had shed such
imperishable lustre. Antwerp, the first-fruits of Ramilies--Antwerp,
the last reward of Waterloo--Antwerp, to hold which against England
Napoleon lost his crown, has been abandoned to France! An English
fleet has combined with a French army to wrest from Holland the
barrier of Dutch independence, and the key to the Low Countries. The
barrier so passionately sought by the Dutch has been wrested from
them, and wrested from them by British hands; a revolutionary power
has been placed on the throne of Belgium; Flanders, instead of the
outwork of Europe against France, has become the outwork of France
against Europe. The tricolor flag waves in sight of Bergen-op-Zoom;
within a month after the first European war, the whole coast from
Bayonne to the Texel will be arrayed against Britain! The Whigs of
1832 have undone all that the Whigs of 1706 had done--all that the
glories of 1815 had secured. Such is the way in which nations are
ruined by the blindness of faction.

[Footnote 1: Continued from No. I., in July 1845, Vol. lviii. p. 1.]

[Footnote 2: "C'est le retard de toutes les troupes Allemandes qui
derange nos affaires. Je ne saurais vous expliquer la situation ou
nous sommes qu'en vous envoyant les deux lettres ci jointes,--l'une
que je viens de recevoir du Prince de Bade, et l'autre la reponse que
je lui fais. En verite notre etat est plus a plaindre que vous ne
croyez; mais je vous prie que cela n'aille pas outre. _Nous perdons la
plus belle occasion du monde--manque des troupes qui devaient etre ici
il y a deja longtemps._ Pour le reste de l'artillerie Hollandaise, et
les provisions qui peuvent arriver de Mayence, vous les arreterez,
s'il vous plait, pour quelques jours, jusqu'a ce que je vous en
ecrive."--_Marlborough a M. Pesters; Treves, 31 Mai 1705. Despatches_,
II. 60-1.]

[Footnote 3: Even so late as the 8th June, Marlborough wrote.--"J'ai
d'abord pris poste dans ce camp, ou je me trouve a portee
d'entreprendre la siege de Saar-Louis, si les troupes qui devaient
avoir ete ici il y a quelques jours m'avaient joint. Cependant je n'ai
pas jusqu'ici un seul homme qui ne soit a la solde d'Angleterre ou de
la Hollande. Les troupes de Bade ne