POTTER United Families

Here is the plea of lawyer Gendebien, long-time friend of Louis and
future member of the Revolutionary government:
They had already sympathized with his call for the abolition of the
milling and slaughtering taxes, this intensified their adulation. It is
perhaps difficult for anyone of the20th century to appreciate the
natural suspicion and distrust the lower classes would have felt for a
man of Louis' status, a born aristocrat, a nephew and grandson of
two of the most powerful men of the Josephist regime.
By May 1830, however, King William had indeed created a folk hero.
Belgium's love object was a graying scholar, 5 feet 3 inches tall and
forty-four years old.
On May 3 the government printed the private correspondence of
Louis and Tielemans. The idea was to discredit Louis, whose private
life and views were somewhat unconventional. Many refused to read
the publication, considering it an invasion of privacy. In general, the
plan backfired because those who did read the letters saw noble and
human values exchanged with children and wives.
By the spring of 1830, King William evidently realized that the
situation in Belgium was tense. His government was caught in a trap
not entirely of its own making.
Like the French revolutions of both 1789 and 1830, the Belgian revolt
was preceded by bad harvests and a shaky economic situation: The
winter of 1829-30 had been exceptionally severe, an economic crisis
of unexpected proportions has swept the country. Factories had gone
bankrupt and leading bankers had closed their doors. Poor relief
could not meet the demands made for the simple necessities of life
and hundreds of unemployed were aimlessly and dangerously
roaming the streets of Brussels, Liege, Antwerp and Ghent.
270