Adding to the growing body of literature on 1848, this study amplifies the politieal and diplomatie posture of Belgium both before and after the February Revolution. The narrative is based on diplomatie and administrative correspondence, most of it unpublished, and also on the papers of Charles Rogier and Sylvain Van de Weyer, now part of the holdings of Belgium's Archives Generales du Royaume. These materials make possible a more complete account of the Liberal Ministry's first year in offiee, a fuller treatment of the impact of the February Revolution on the Belgian domestie scene, and, for...

This book is based on published correspondence. Thus it stands in debt to the scores of persons who have edited and selected the material referred to in the notes as well as to the authors of the letters themselves. Literal translation from the French has been this writer's responsibility. The research was done in library collections at the University of Wisconsin, Yale University, and Harvard University. Personal thanks are due to Professor Emeritus Chester Penn Higby at Wisconsin who encouraged my early interest in the Crimean War and to Professor Chester V. Easum, also of Wisconsin, for...