Plan
In lieu of the stalemate, Talleyrand proposed partitioning the Southern Netherlands:
-The province of Antwerp — except the city of Antwerp itself — and Limburg, west of the Meuse river — except Maastricht — would remain to the Netherlands, as was a small part of the province of Brabant, the former Oranje Lordship of Diest;
-The parts of the provinces of Liège, of Limburg and of Namur east of the Meuse river as well as the cities of Maastricht, Namur and Liège and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg would go to Prussia;
-Part of the province of East Flanders, nearly all of the province of Brabant, the province of Hainaut and the province of Namur west of the Meuse would be assigned to France;
-West Flanders, most of East Flanders, including Zeeuws-Vlaanderen (which was not generally considered to be part of the Southern Netherlands as it had been under northern Dutch rule for centuries), and the city of Antwerp were to form the Free State of Antwerp, under British protection. It would have been more or less a restored County of Flanders at the river Scheldt.