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General Krukowiecki acknowledged the necessity of a surrender, but declared that it lay with the Diet alone to decide upon the measure. An interview took place on the subject between Krukowiecki and Paskewicz, in which the latter strongly urged the Polish General to avert from

three hours respite, for the purpose of reflecting upon the situation of affairs; and at the end of that time, commenced his ope rations against the second line of intrenchments.

were now quieted, and the Russian troops which had been sent thither had returned to strengthen the main army; and that the approaching events must be decisive of the fate of Poland. He exhorted them, accordingly, to lay down their arms, and accept of terms of peace and reconciliation in unconditional submission the city the disasters which must to his mercy. The Poles, of inevitably attend a protracted decourse, were far enough from a fence.-Paskewicz gave the Poles disposition to submit, without a last expiring struggle, to the power of the Russians; and both sides prepared for the final effort. Paskewicz, having invested the city, opened a negociation on the 5th of September, in order to prevent the effusion of blood, by obtaining a voluntary surrender. But finding that the Poles were determined to fight it out to the last, he caused his army to advance, on the 6th at day break, to the storm of the city. According to the accounts of the Russians themselves, it was only after a desperate and sanguinary resistance, that the enormous masses, which they successively brought up to the assault, succeeded in making themselves masters of the redoubts in their line of march, and of the outer defences, which surrounded the city, one of which was in itself a perfect fortress. But after they had proceeded thus far, and having occupied the whole day in carrying the external line of intrenchment, they found that a second line of intrenchments, and a broad moat defended by bastions, remained to be carried. Early on the morning of the 7th, new attempts at negociation were made, and

The Russians advanced with great bravery, but they were received by men not less brave than themselves, and who were animated by the convulsive energy of despair. In this attack Marshal Paskewicz himself was wounded by a contusion on the left arm and breast, and obliged to quit the field, leaving General Toll to lead on the battalions to the assault. The Russians were at first repulsed; but they possessed a resource in their numbers, which enabled them to continue the assault with fresh troops, while the unfortunate Poles had but small means of reinforcement. However, this devoted people defended every inch of ground with unshaken resolution. When the intrenchments were carried, they made a determined stand in the gardens and on the edge of the ditches around the city, so that it was already dark before the Russians had overcome the various successive obstacles, which impeded their access to the walls.

These being at length reached, ganic statutes of Nicholas, rewere scaled and carried at the pealing the constitution of Poland, point of the bayonet, the soldiers in defiance of the acts of the being lighted on by the burning Congress of Vienna, by virtue of houses of the suburbs and the nu- which alone he held the kingdom. merous windmills in the environs. But here, at the close of another day of carnage, the Russians were obliged to pause, to gather strength for the sack of the city, which they contemplated for the morrow. Even now, while Warsaw was, in a military point of view, in possession of the enemy, the Polish army, if beaten, yet was not conquered. At midnight, a deputation of the citizens came to the Russians, to signify that the Diet was dissolved, and to deliver up the city at discretion. On the morning, therefore, of the 8th, the army left the city by the way of Praga, and proceeded in the direction of Plock.

On the same day the Russians took full possession of the city, which, by its submission, was rescued from sack and pillage at the hands of a lawless soldiery, only to be gradually sacked and pillaged by the titled minions of a foreign oppressor.

With the surrender of Warsaw the war was ended; for the shattered relics of the army were incapable of making head against the Russians. Of the subsequent fate of these brave men, we shall have occasion to give an account in another year, when the measures of administration adopted by Nicholas were developed, and the condition of the refugees became the subject of particular in

terest.

We defer to the same period the explanation of the new or

It should be stated, in explanation of the long inaction of the Polish troops, which preceded the capture of Warsaw, that the two chiefs, Skrzynecki and Czartoriski, were misled,-shall we rather say deluded?-by the representations of foreign cabinets. The Polish government received official advices from Count Sebastiani, by a special messenger despatched on the 7th of July, urging the Poles not to risk a general battle with the Russians, but to temporize for the space of two months, when the cabinets of France and England would be enabled to accomplish, by means of negociation, the national object so ardently desired by the Poles. They did wait, and the consequence was the fall of their country. Thus it was that those two powers, which, by manifesting a proper degree of indignation and firmness, might have saved Poland originally, were equally instrumental, by the same defective policy, in accelerating the final overthrow of the Poles. But we trust that they will efficaciously exert the influence they possess, in alleviating the sufferings of the Poles, after having apathetically stood by, to witness their subjugation unmoved. If they do not, let the gallant Poles be persuaded that, banished as they may be from their native country, and jealously watched as they are in Europe, there is yet republican America remain

ing to receive with the open arms of affectionate welcome, the exiled countrymen of Kosciuszko. In view of the fate of Poland, with all her glorious aspirations after independence,-in view of that heroic and self-sacrificing resistance of hers to the inexhaustible hordes of the Muscovite, which, all things considered, has no parallel in our day, but which has passed away unblessed,-we bow in humble submission to the power which rules the universe. It is the inscrutable decree of Providence, which has suffered the most barbarous in lineage and spirit among the Christian sovereign families to extend its empire over a hundred tribes of men, covering an ample half of Eu

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CHAPTER XII.

THE NETHERLANDS.

State of things in October, 1830.-Bombardment of Antwerp.National Congress.-De Potter's Resignation.-Declaration of Independence. Adoption of Monarchy.-Exclusion of the House of Orange.-Designs of Russia.-The Constitution.-Offer of the Crown to the Duc de Nemours.-Regency of Surlet de Chokier.-Conferences of London.-Question of Luxembourg. Election of Prince Leopold.-Hostilities commenced by Holland.-Opening of the Belgic Chambers.

NOTWITHSTANDING that the relations of Belgium and Holland remain to this day in the most unsettled state, still much was done in the course of the year 1831, to give stability and permanency to the independent political existence of Belgium. We took leave of the subject, in our last volume, at the time when the Prince of Orange gave sanction, by his proclamation from Antwerp of October 16th, 1830, to the revolutionary movements of the Belgians. The commission of the Prince of Orange had been granted only on the 4th of October; and it was recalled by his father on the 20th of the same month. By the royal ordinance of that date, which terminated the authority of the Prince, it was announced that the Dutch government would be thenceforth confined to the northern provinces, and to Luxembourg, and the actual sep

aration of Belgium and Holland was thus officially recognised. At the same time, the fortresses of Antwerp, Maestricht, and Venloo, within the Belgic territory, were still held by Dutch troops, and those places were declared to be in a state of siege. And at the opening of the States General on the 18th, King William admitted, in somewhat similar terms, that the separation was now complete. The affairs of Belgium, meanwhile, were administered by the provisional government established at Brussels, under the presidency of M. de Potter.

At this period, although William has thus avowedly ceased to have any effective control over the Belgians, and the Hague was once more the capital of the Dutch provinces exclusively, yet a possibility existed, that the sovereignty of the new state of Belgium might be offered to the Prince of

peculiarly exposed, as being situated directly between the citadel and the river, and in which there was a large amount of foreign property. The provocation received by General Chasse had been so slight, that this outrageous proceeding could not fail to be attributed to the Dutch jealousy of Antwerp, the commercial rival of Amsterdam. It was impossible not to recollect the pertinacious, and but too successful, efforts of the Dutch to destroy the trade of Antwerp, at the epoch of the separation of the provinces from Spain. The Dutch were known to regard with infinite jealousy the growing prosperity of this great commercial emporium, at the present time. Under these circumstances, the bonbardment of Antwerp by the Dutch troops raised a cry of indignation and vengeance, throughout Belgium, which totally obliterated the lingering attachment of the people to the House of Orange.

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Orange. This possibility was ex- others, the entrepot, which was tinguished forever by events which transpired at Antwerp. A body of Dutch troops remained on the road between Mechlin and Antwerp, continually pursued, however, by parties of the Belgians from Brussels. At length, the Dutch troops were compelled, partly by armed citizens of Antwerp and partly by the Brussels volunteers, to take refuge in the citadel. This is a strong fortress, constructed by the side of Antwerp by the Spaniards, whose object in building it, was quite as much to command the city, as to protect it against foreign aggression. After the Dutch had retired into this convenient strong hold, which may be considered impregnable when properly garrisoned and provisioned, a convention was entered into between General Chasse, then commander of the Dutch, on the one hand, and the burghers of Antwerp on the other, to the effect, that the troops in the citadel would not molest the citizens, provided the latter made no attack on the citadel. But, on the 27th of October, some hostile movements on the part of the volunteers having occurred, General Chasse commenced a furious bombardment of the city, as well from the citadel as from Dutch ships of war, which lay at anchor in the Scheldt. The cannonading lasted from four o'clock in the afternoon until eleven at night, with red hot balls and shells, which occasioned immense destruction of property, although but little loss of life. Many buildings were consumed, and among

The provisional government at Brussels had convoked a Congress of the Belgic people to assemble at Brussels on the 10th of November. Previously to the late revolution, the members of the States General had been returned by the Provincial States acting as electoral colleges. For the Congress, however, the elections were made by the people acting immediately. In the exercise of this new franchise they proceeded with peaceful regularity, at the same time that they gave a distinct manifestation of the parties into which they were prone

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