POTTER United Families

part of some 150 petitions presented to this Chamber during the year
of 1829, containing more than 360,000 signatures.
Louis wrote in his Souvenirs that: “Half a million signatures, all
demanding together the reparation of the same grievances would no
longer let doubt progress any further on our determination to
proclaim democratic power.”
The majority of the petitioners of 1829-30 were Flemish peasants,
encouraged by the countryside business leaders, craftsman or arts
promoters like Alexander Rodenbach from Roulers or Paul Devaux
from Bruges. Some Flemish noblemen and clergy had also signed,
practically none of its bourgeoisie.
The peasantry, largely illiterate, had evidently been assisted by what
Bologne calls the clergy of the second order. In the French or
Walloon towns there was also support from the liberal intellectual
sector and from the journalists like Rogier or Ducpétiaux.
Another investigator, M. G. Magnette, found proof that Dutch
subjects in northern Brabant also signed these petitions, which means
that the union had found adherents in Holland as well, Dutchmen
who also found the reign of William oppressive. It was not stated
whether these Hollanders were found to be of the Catholic minority,
and thus more sympathetic to their Belgian compatriots.
Throughout Belgium the industrial bourgeoisie was almost totally
behind the Dutch-led government, but the countryside craftsmen or
peasants and the urban proletariat had remained uninvolved.
There was widespread unemployment in 1829 and 1830; however,
which meant that the new industrial work force was becoming
increasingly agitated.
260