POTTER United Families

One of the men King William sent to visit Louis and investigate the
possibility of his accepting a pardon was Van Bommel, the Bishop of
Liège. A native of Holland who became an ardent Belgian partisan,
Louis thought he was a straw-man playing reform-oriented actions
with local politicians such as de Gerlache or d’Oultremont who were
“at the service of the Dutch government” and, later on “at the service
of any other new outside leader”.
Louis, who will publish a booklet with his reply to Van Bommel, was
right. These men eventually “recuperated” the revolution and helped
name an outsider.
That fall, however, Louis did petition to have the Second Chamber
reconsider his case, because he had been found guilty under a decree
of April 20, 1815, which had been revoked since his arrest. The new
law of May 16, 1829, upgraded governmental toleration of the press,
and Louis contended this exonerated his actions.
Louis wished a pardon from the States-General and not the king. It
is unclear, however, why he waited five months to appeal. He
published a demand for his appeal in the presses in October, and
appealed to the States-General in November. The delegates to the
debated his case spiritedly, but he did not receive a pardon.
This evidently did not discourage Louis. He wrote to his Brugesnative
friend Charles de Brouckère that: “I never made my case a
personal matter; I simply wanted to push my advocacy to its limits in
order to make it available to others who would want to join in for
general society conduct.”
Petitions circulated in October 1829 by three good friends and
supporters of Louis: Bartels, priest de Haerne and brewer
Rodenbach. They were sent to the Lower House of the States-
General in November demanding governmental changes. These were
259