Show 1 iia 5 K v I 1 ni R fig Z e 1 A A VERY visitor to the field of EVERY waterloo knows the liou lion mound but not one in a thousand Is acquainted with it history and the great majority of british tourists at least regard it as tile the british lion in 1829 9 shortly after atter its erection a french visitor named Sa saintaine intine described it a as 41 the llou lion looking towards and apparently threatening france that description seems not to leave lave been forgotten and probably lies at the root of tile the suggestion just made in brussels to turn the lion round so that the threat lt it needs a very lively imagination to see any at all in the pose may bo be diverted from france in the direction of Il holland olland writes demetrius C boulger in the graphic what was the origin of the mound and the lion in the first place the 1 animal represented is neither a british I 1 I 1 nor it a emblem it Is the dutch lion and somewhere in a corner if it has not been obliterated will be found I 1 I 1 magine imagine the alie motto of nassau nasau orange je whatever is done with it then the atles of neither belgians I 1 nor british fire are involved involve the beltis h government have certainly no inherited claim to a voice in whatever solution may be adopted it Is not their concerns concern how the mound was built in 1826 william I 1 of Netherlands the Nel herlands the grea great t gra grandfather t tier of the present queen WIlli elmina and one of the most obstinate personages to be found in the whole range of hiN history tory conceived that the field of waterloo required a memorial to establish the he heroism of his eldest son who ilio had received a wound on the occasion the king was actuated entirely by consal considerations erat ions unless lie he also aisher to provide the foundries of cockerill in ill which he was the largest shareholder with a profitable commission at till all events it is quite clear that the belgian people took no interest or part in the matter which was as decided by a vote of the states general at the hague the vote being passed the governments of britain and prussia were nere then invited to make a contribution to the memorial they complied to a certain limited extent the british consenting for their part to the removal of certain french cannon in Welling tons belgian fortresses in order to provide the material for the proposed lio lion it by that time william had decided on the form of the memorial it was to lie be the erection of an enormous mound some feet above the crest of mont st jean at the spot whore where liis his son the dillice of orange had been wounded d the wound to bo be crowned by the lion of the netherlands the clay for the mound was brought from tile the steep bides of the famous sunken road vi hah disappeared in the process by women of the district who nho were paid at the hie rate of half a franc a basket and the site maikel by Welling tons tree was luchi included led within the radius of the eleia elation llon so that when nhen the duke re visited the scene in 1829 1820 with his daughter in law lady douro lie he made the expressive comment com mout sly imy battlefield lias has been spoilt legend of the lions tall the memorial completed in 1828 had been in ili existence two years when tile iho belgian revolution broke out in august 1830 A year inter intel a french army advanced to louvain to repel a dutch invasion it was said that some of the french corps in that advance crossed the field and took offense Tense of not at the mound or the lion but at the shape of its tall uli which feli erect in the air seemed to express defiance the story went on oil to say that in ili their wrath they broke off the tall and that the complaisant belgians supplied the lion with a new one no longer erect but made gracefully dependent I 1 anent ent to considerable pains in 1901 to am shiow that this legend could have n no 0 real basis because the contemporary drawings in the brussels museum of if prints showed the lion being holsted hoisted into its position with the tall in precisely the S same ame form as it wears today there is no evidence of any change having been made at that time or any other in december 1832 tile the french army rendered a second signal service to the belgian people by the siege and capture of the alie antwerp cita citadel def and once more a french regiment traversed the scene without doing any damage A proposal was then made in the belgian chamber by a patriotic leader BI al oen gen deblen to tile the effect that the nathinal gratitude should be evinced by the removal ot of the lion monument altogether lie ile called it and justly as lias has been shown tile hateful liate ful emblem of the despotism and violence which made us subject for 15 years to the humiliating yoke which we cast off in september 1830 I 1 could not ask for a more authoritative corroboration of my view that the lion mound Is a monument to dutch megalomania without any reference to britons or belgians whatever certainly the belgians would never have thought of erecting such a memorial to themselves and as to this country it Is not its way it is quite clear then that the mere reversal of the lions position affords no adequate solution to the problem of satisfying those french sentiments which BI Sal Sa ntine intine expressed 90 years ago and which I 1 do not doubt are still entertained entertain eil once the matter Is taken into consideration there can be no dispute that the position and the pose of tile the lion don are offensive and provocative to the french people who on three historic occasions in less than a century t U ry have I 1 jay e contributed of their best and bravest to the saying saving of belgian independence |