as beaten at
Louvain on the 12th of August. The King then claimed
the intervention of France and England in defence of
the neutrality and independence of Belgium, which had
been guaranteed to him by the treaty of the eighteen
articles under which he had accepted the Crown. But the
passage in the text is curious, because it shows how
little confidence was felt at that time in a prince who
turned out to be one of the ablest rulers and
politicians of his time.]

_At night._--Lord Grey was attacked by Aberdeen to-night on his
foreign policy, and particularly about Portugal, and he is said
to have made a splendid speech. Sir Henry Seton arrived from
Liverpool to announce what is going on, and he is bent on
fighting at present. Abercromby, who is come likewise, reports
that he has 50,000 or 60,000 men.

August 9th, 1831 {p.178}

On Saturday morning we were saluted with intelligence that on the
French King's hearing of the Dutch invasion he ordered Marshal
Gerard, with 50,000 men, to march into Belgium; and great was the
alarm here: the funds fell and everybody was prepared for
immediate war. In the afternoon I called upon Lord Grey at East
Sheen (in my way to Monk's Grove, where I was going) to say
something to him about the coronation, and found him with a more
cheerful countenance than I expected. He did not appear alarmed
at what the French had done, and very well satisfied with the
manner of their doing it, marching only in virtue of their
guarantee and proclaiming their own neutrality and the Belgian
independence, and the King had previously received the Belgian
Minister. I told him I thought Leopold's folly had been the cause
of it, and that his speeches about Luxembourg had given the Dutch
King a pretext. He said, not at all, and that the King of Holland
would have done this under any circumstances, which I took leave
to doubt, though I did not think it necessary to say so.[4]

[4] [Lord Grey's composure was mainly due to the entire
confidence he felt in the honour of the Duc de Broglie,
then French Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had given
positive assurances to the British Cabinet that the
intervention of France would be confined to the
immediate object in view. This confidence was equally
honourable to both statesmen, and these assurances were