The case of Belgium is not at all to the point, the Dutch being by no means anxious that the foolish arrangement made at Vienna, by which Holland and Belgium had been formally united, should be continued, though the House of Orange was averse to the loss of so much of its dominions.  The disputes that followed the expulsion of the Dutch from Belgium were about details, and the whole matter was finally settled by the action of the Great Powers, and England was not then in a condition to decide it, had it been left for her decision.  The makers of the Kingdom of the Netherlands destroyed their own work, after it had been found to be a bad job, and had had fifteen years and upward of fair trial.  England had no choice in the matter,—­especially as the effect of determined opposition on her part would have thrown Belgium into the arms of France, and have brought about a French war, which would have extended to the whole of Europe, with the revolutionists in every country for the allies of France.  Louis Philippe either would have been overthrown very speedily after his elevation, or he would have been enabled to wear his new crown only by placing the old bonnet rouge above it.

That England recognized the Spanish-Americans is true; but why did she recognize them?  Because she had to choose between doing that and allowing the Holy Alliance to enter upon the reconquest of the Spanish colonies.  Mr. Canning declared that he had called a new world into existence to redress the balance of the old,—­and that, if France, as the tool of the Holy Alliance, should have Spain, it should not be “Spain—­with the Indies.”  This was in 1823, though it was not until 1826 that Mr. Canning made use of the language quoted; and so serious was the matter, that our country was prepared to make common cause with England in resisting the interference of the Allies and their dependants in the affairs of Spanish-America.  The question was one which did not relate to English interests alone, but concerned those of the whole world; and it was not decided with reference to the interests of any one country, but after it had been ascertained that its decision would closely and immediately affect the welfare of Christendom.  England had to choose between diplomatic resistance to the Continental Powers and the support of a policy which she could not adopt without degrading herself.  Naturally she elected to resist, and she did so with success.  The Spanish-American countries, however, were freed from the rule of Spain long before she recognized them, and Spain had not the means of subduing them.  England, therefore, did not acknowledge them as against Spain, but as against France, and in opposition to the Holy Alliance, the decrees of which France was engaged in enforcing at the expense of the Spanish Constitutionalists, and which process of enforcement the French Government was prepared to extend to Peru and Mexico, and to the whole of that part of America which had belonged to