POTTER United Families

But suddenly some new papers, with Belgian editors, appeared, and
proposals were made that disputes about religion should be laid aside
in favor of an agitation for Ministerial responsibility, a free press, and
other reforms.
This transition did not occur overnight. By 1827 the journalists
around Louis had become strong, vocal, and interested, but disputes
over religion had still not been erased by common objections to the
government. The leading Catholic paper at this time was the Courrier
de la Meuse, founded at Liège in 1820.
Also prominent was the Catholique des Pays-Bas of Ghent, whose
editor Bartels was exiled with Louis in 1830, condemned for causing
public troubles. Bartels was also a writer for l'Eclaireur of Namur. In
addition to the Courrier des Pays-Bas of Brussels, the Mathieu
Laensberg of Liège, founded in 1824, was also a training school for
young statesmen, including for the famous French brothers Rogier.
Journalists linked young newspaper men of similar attitudes in
Brussels, Liège, Louvain, Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruges, thus creating
a virtual network of Liberal opinion. Linked by the same profession,
these men soon became furthered united by their criticism of King
William. Louis was a leading 1830 journalist, federating a
growing profession around him. He was so talented in writing like
professors are talented in speaking.
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