POTTER United Families

Louis, on the other hand, hoped that Belgium could form an
independent and progressive state, electing its own Head of State
among the “New Belgians”. He learned from his visit and contacts
with La Fayette that the new French government was indeed not
favorable to revolution in Belgium.
It not only threatened the stability of Louis-Philippe's government, it
would cause the other major powers to suspect the on-going French
political “intrigues”. A republic was an unsettling idea: Louis-Philippe
did not want a republic being so close to Paris but could not form a
decent alternative.
Two other colleagues of Louis also met Lafayette (Gendebien and
Rogier), preparing the venue of Louise-Marie d’Orléans, sister of
Louis-Philippe, future Queen of the Belgians.
If the official stance was cold, the sympathy of the Parisians and the
expatriate groups of Paris, can only be described as very enthusiastic.
August 31, 1830, the First Legion of the National Guard had held a
banquet for the “exiles” at the Chatelet, the law courts of Paris, which
was attended by guardsmen, Belgians, Russians, Poles, Italians...
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