colonies.  By the Convention of London (August 13, 1814), which was Castlereagh’s work, it was arranged that all the captured colonies, including Java, the richest and most valuable of all, should be restored, with the exception of the Cape of Good Hope and the Guiana colonies—­Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo.  In the latter the plantations had almost all passed into British hands during the eighteen years since their conquest; and Cape Colony was retained as essential for the security of the sea-route to India.  But these surrenders were not made without ample compensation.  Great Britain contributed L2,000,000 towards erecting fortresses along the French frontier; L1,000,000 to satisfy a claim of Sweden with regard to the island of Guadeloupe; and L3,000,000 or one-half of a debt from Holland to Russia, i.e. a sum of L6,000,000 in all.

One of the most urgent problems with which the Sovereign-Prince had to deal on his accession to power was the state of the finances.  Napoleon by a stroke of the pen had reduced the public debt to one-third of its amount.  William, however, was too honest a man to avail himself of the opportunity for partial repudiation that was offered him.  He recalled into existence the two-thirds on which no interest had been paid and called it “deferred debt” (uitgestelde schuld); the other third received the name of “working debt” (werkelijke schuld).  The figures stood at 1200 million florins and 600 million florins respectively.  Every year four millions of the “working debt” were to be paid off, and a similar amount from the “deferred” added to it.  Other measures taken in 1814 for effecting economies were of little avail, as the campaign of Waterloo in the following year added 40 million florins to the debt.  Heavier taxation had to be imposed, but even then the charges for the debt made it almost impossible to avoid an annual deficit in the budget.  It was one of the chief grievances of the Belgians that they were called upon to share the burden of a crushing debt which they had not incurred.  The voting of ways and means for ten years gave the king the control over all ordinary finance; it was only extraordinary expenditure that had to be submitted annually to the representatives of the people.

The dislike of the Catholic hierarchy in Belgium to Dutch rule had been intensified by the manner in which the king had dealt with the vote of the notables.  Their leader was Maurice de Broglie, Bishop of Ghent, a Frenchman by birth.  His efforts by speech and by pen to stir up active enmity in Belgium to the union aroused William’s anger, and he resolved to prosecute him.  It was an act of courage rather than of statesmanship, but the king could not brook opposition.  Broglie refused to appear before the court and fled to France.  In his absence he was condemned to banishment and the payment of costs.  The powerful clerical party regarded him as a martyr and continued to criticise the policy of the Protestant