If a hundred thousand francs could be earned, Alexandre Dumas's debt problem would not be a problem at all, so he was quite zealous in tinkering with the cause. Dumas was in debt, but the pomp and circumstance did not become any smaller, and he opened the gables of the two adjoining houses on Waterloo Street, and connected them into one, so that it became a three-story mansion, with a gate for vehicles, a beautiful balcony, and a spacious waiting room; The tall staircase was covered with thick carpets, the halls were draped with Lyon's draperies, and the bedrooms and inner rooms were covered with red silk curtains. All this is on credit. Despite being in a foreign country, Alexandre Dumas's private life was just as absurd. His favorite actress Isabel in her 20s during this period was the most? Consteine. Followed by Anna? Bowé, Madame Gidi and many more, and even actresses who came to Brussels for temporary tours. It's a bad habit that can't be broken.

Dumas welcomed Downing into his mansion, delicious and drunk, this ridiculous genius absolutely did not believe that Downing's person who donated 1.5 million pounds to the British government would owe him his small 100,000 francs for book editing, and he did not believe that he would eat and live in his place for nothing.

Downing found it interesting to live in the exile's mansion, so he really moved in. He was not disappointed. Alexandre Dumas's mansion was a frequent meeting place for exiles, most notably John of the Second Republic's Deputy Minister of Defence and who participated in the suppression of the June Uprising. Baptiste? Shalas, writer Emile? Daishanar, writer and publisher Hule? Ezer et al.

Before Downing came to Europe, he set his travel goals mainly in academia, industry, art and literature, but after a period of time with the exiled group in France, he couldn't help but be influenced by them, especially Hugo's ideal of the United States of Europe, which also inspired some of Downing's ideas. If he had said that he was going to visit politicians, I am afraid that the governments of various countries would have issued invitations to this inventor at various levels, and then he would have to take the initiative to ask for a meeting, and he sent a French translator and assistant to send a message to the Belgian Prime Minister Rozher.

Downing's idea was to try to explore the possibility of matching the major European countries by creating a steel company jointly operated by the main European countries, which was very uncertain, and it was not Downing's style to give a passionate speech like Hugo. He also wanted the continent to be close to each other as soon as possible, and the world would be peaceful from now on, but unfortunately, he understood that this was too unrealistic.

There is no doubt that the leader of the Liberal Party, Rojier, was interested in the steel company, and he exchanged views with his aides, arguing that the future of steelmaking, one of Belgium's pillar industries, lies in steelmaking, and that the only technology that can produce steel on a large scale is currently in the hands of Downing.

Rojje was the leader of Belgian independence in the 1830s, and at least in the days when he still had widespread influence, European unity was highly unlikely. Even Belgium and the Netherlands, two countries with a common linguistic foundation and the most deserving union, are not in harmony, and the rest is not compatible.

Why did Belgium become the first industrialized country on the continent? This is mainly thanks to an industrial family from England, the Kirkrills, who were the heroes of Belgium at a time when the English were very concerned about technology, and they were the first to introduce English industry to Belgium. In 1814, the Kirkril brothers bought the palace of a bishop who was a prince and made it the headquarters of the factory, which was located behind the palace. The factory was vertically integrated, from steelmaking to forging machines, and later also owned a textile mill, a paper mill, hair dryers, tractor engines, ship engines, and even a bank, called the Bank of Belgium.

By the 40s, the factory had 16 steam engines, a total of 900 horsepower working non-stop, employing 3,000 workers. However, the Belgian industrial pioneer fell victim to the military confrontation between Belgium and the Netherlands in 38 and 39, and because of the fear of the current situation, the customers of the Belgian banks were run on to exchange for heavy hard currency. Kirkril went bankrupt. With a huge debt of 26 million francs and assets of only 15 million francs, he was forced to seek financing from Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, and on the way back he contracted typhoid fever and died in June 1840 without heirs.

It can be said that this Belgian industrial pioneer was forced to death by the confrontation between Belgium and the Netherlands.

Sure enough, Rozhier completely rejected Belgium's plan to participate in Eurosteel with the Netherlands, saying that Belgium would give Eurosteel the green light, but asked to exclude the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Prussia, Austria, all of them, but not the Netherlands.

Neither side was able to reach a consensus on this most important negotiator, and Downing's other demand, the forgiveness of Hugo's expulsion order, was even more aborted.

After Prime Minister Rozhier left, Downing chatted with Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and the former French Ministry of Defense about this matter, and learned about the process of the Belgian revolution, it turned out that the revolutionary army at that time was less than 1,700 people, while the Dutch army had 6,000 people, the revolutionary army was a rabble, but the Dutch army was well-trained. Tangning finally grasped the point, just such a "big war" of the army? It seems that the so-called democracy in Belgium is nothing more than a game for the upper class, and it is no wonder that after the revolution, French was the official language, and only French speakers had the right to vote, while the Dutch-speaking population, which made up the majority of the population, did not have the right to vote.