His Majesty has long been imbued with the immense utility which would result for Belgium from the possession of some commercial establishment outside her territory, outside the European continent. This thought constantly preoccupied the King.

All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 4. Viceroys without colonial aspirations? Jules Van Praet (1806-1887) In a letter to consul Edouard Blondeel van Cuelebroeck in 1837 DUCHESNE, A. A la recherche d'une colonie belge: le consul Blondeel and Abyssinie (1840-1842): contribution à l'histoire précoloniale de la Belgique. Royal Belgian Colonial Institute. Moral and Political Science Section. Papers in-8 30.3. Brussels, 1953, 47. Blondeel would later also exert an influence in favor of Belgian colonialism on the heir apparent of Leopold I.