Rear-Admiral Koopman preferred to burn his twelve gunboats rather than surrender them to the enemy.  Marshal Gerard offered to release his prisoners if the Dutch would evacuate the forts of Lillo and Liefkenshoeck, lower down the river.  His offer was refused; and the French army, having achieved its purpose, withdrew.  For some time longer the blockade and embargo continued, to the great injury of Dutch trade.  An interchange of notes between the Hague and London led to the drawing up of a convention, known as the Convention of London, on May 21, 1833.  By this agreement King William undertook to commit no acts of hostility against Belgium until a definitive treaty of peace was signed, and to open the navigation of the Scheldt and the Meuse for commerce.  The Convention was in fact a recognition of the status quo and was highly advantageous to Belgium, as both Luxemburg and Limburg were ad interim treated as if they were integral parts of the new kingdom.

The cessation of hostilities, however, led to a fresh attempt to reach a settlement.  In response to an invitation sent by the western Powers to Austria, Prussia and Russia, the Conference again met in London on July 15.  The thread of the negotiations was taken up; but the Belgian government insisted, with the full support of Palmerston, that as a preliminary to any further discussion the King of Holland must obtain the assent of the German Confederation and of the Nassau agnates to the proposed territorial rearrangements.  William declined to ask for this assent.  The Conference on this was indefinitely suspended.  That the king’s refusal in August was a part of his fixed policy of waiting upon events was shown by his actually approaching the Confederation and the agnates in the following November (1833).  Neither of these would consent to any partition of Luxemburg, unless they received full territorial compensation elsewhere.  So matters drifted on through the years 1834-1837.  Meanwhile in Holland a change of opinion had been gradually taking place.  The heavy taxes consequent upon the maintenance of an army on a war footing pressed more and more upon a country whose income was insufficient to meet its expenses.  People grew tired of waiting for a change in the political position that became every year more remote.  Luxemburg was of little interest to the Dutch; they only saw that Belgium was prosperous, and that the maintenance of the status quo was apparently all to her advantage.  The dissatisfaction of the Dutch people, so long patient and loyal, made itself heard with increasing insistence in the States-General; and the king saw that the time had arrived for abandoning his obstinate non-possumus attitude.  Accordingly, in March, 1838, he suddenly instructed his minister in London (Dedel) to inform Palmerston that he (the king) was ready to sign the treaty of the XXIV Articles, and to agree pleinement et entierement to the conditions it imposed.