BELGIUM (Fr.
Belgique; Flem.
Belgie), an independent, constitutional and neutral state
occupying an important position in north-west
Europe. It was formerly part of the Low
Countries or
Netherlands. Although the name Belgium only
came into general use with the foundation of the modern kingdom in
1830, its derivation from ancient times is clear and
incontrovertible. Beginning with the
Belgae and the Gallia Belgica of the
Romans, the use of the
adjective to distinguish
the inhabitants of the south Netherlands can be traced through all
stages of subsequent history. During the
Crusades, and in
the middle ages, the term
Belgicae
principes is of frequent occurrence, and when in 1790 the
Walloons rose against
Austria during what was called the
Brabant revolution, their
leaders proposed to give the country the name of Belgique. Again in
1814, on the
expulsion
of the French, when there was much talk of founding an independent
state, the same name was suggested for it. It was not till sixteen
years later, on the collapse of the
united kingdom
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the Netherlands, that the occasion presented itself for giving
effect to this proposal. For the explanation of the English form of
the name it may be mentioned that Belgium was a
canton of what had been the Nervian country in
the time of the Roman occupation.
Topography, &c. - Belgium lies
between 49° 30' and 51° 30' N., and 2° 32' and 6° 7' E., and on the
land side is bounded by
Holland on the N. and N.E., by
Prussia and the grand duchy of
Luxemburg on the E. and
S.E., and by
France on the S.
Its land frontiers measure 793 m., divided as follows: - with
Holland 269 m., with Prussia 60 m., with the grand duchy 80 m. and
with France 384 m. In addition it has a sea-coast of 42 m. The
western portion of Belgium, consisting of the two
Flanders,
Antwerp and parts of Brabant and
Hainaut, is flat, being little
above the level of the sea; and indeed at one point near
Furnes it is 7 ft. below it. The
same description applies more or less to the north-east, but in the
south of Hainaut and the greater part of Brabant the general level
of the country is about 300 ft. above the sea, with altitudes
rising to more than 600 ft. South of the
Meuse, and in the district distinguished by the
appellation " Between Sambre and Meuse," the level is still
greater, and the whole of the province of Luxemburg is above 500
ft., with altitudes up to 1650 ft. In the south-eastern part of the
province of
Liege there are
several points exceeding 2000 ft. The highest of these is the
Baraque de Michel close to the Prussian frontier, with an
altitude of 2190 ft. The
Baraque de Fraiture, north-east of
La Roche, is over 2000 ft. While the greater
part of western and northern Belgium is devoid of the picturesque,
the
Ardennes and the
Fagnes districts of " Between Sambre and Meuse " and Liege contain
much pleasant and some romantic scenery. The principal
charm of this region is derived
from its fine and extensive woods, of which that called
St Hubert is the best
known. There are no lakes in Belgium, but otherwise it is
exceedingly well watered, being traversed by the Meuse for the
greater part of its course, as well as by the
Scheldt and the Sambre. The numerous affluents
of these rivers, such as the Lys, Dyle, Dender, Ourthe, Ambleve,
Vesdre,
Lesse and
Semois, provide a system of
waterways almost unique in Europe. The canals of Belgium are
scarcely less numerous or important than those of Holland,
especially in Flanders, where they give a distinctive character to
the country. But the most striking feature in Belgium, where so
much is modern, utilitarian and ugly, is found in the older cities
with their
relics of medieval
greatness, and their record of ancient fame. These, in their order
of interest, are
Bruges,
Antwerp,
Louvain,
Brussels,
Ghent,
Ypres,
Courtrai,
Tournai, Fumes,
Oudenarde and Liege. It is
to them rather than to the sylvan scenes of the Ardennes that
travellers and tourists
flock.
The climate may be described as temperate and approximating to
that of southern
England,
but it is somewhat hotter in summer and a little colder in winter.
In the Ardennes, owing to the greater elevation, the winters are
more severe.
Belgium lies upon the northern side of an ancient mountain chain
which has long been worn down to a low level and the remnants of
which rise to the surface in the Ardennes, and extend eastward into
Germany, forming the
Eifel and Westerwald, the Hunsriick
and the
Taunus. Westward the
chain lies buried beneath the Mesozoic and
Tertiary beds of Belgium and the north of
France, but it reappears in the west of England and
Ireland. It is the " Hercynian
chain " of Marcel Bertrand, and is composed entirely of Palaeozoic
rocks. Upon its northern margin lie the nearly undisturbed
Cretaceous
and Tertiary beds which cover the greater part of Belgium. The
latest beds which are involved in the folds of this mountain range
belong to the
Coal Measures, and
the final elevation must have taken place towards the close of the
Carboniferous period. The fact
that in Belgium
Jurassic
beds are found upon the southern and not upon the northern margin
indicates that in this region the chain was still a ridge in
Jurassic times. In the Ardennes the rocks which constitute the
ancient mountain chain belong chiefly to the
Devonian
System, but
Cambrian beds rise through the Devonian
strata, forming the masses of
Rocroi,
Stavelot, &c., which appear to have been
islands in the Devonian sea. The
Ordovician and
Silurian are absent here, and the Devonian
rests unconformably upon the Cambrian; but along the northern
margin of the Palaeozoic area, Ordovician and Silurian rocks
appear, and beds of similar age are also exposed farther north
where the rivers have cut through the overlying Tertiary deposits.
Carboniferous beds occur in the north of the Palaeozoic area. Near
Dinant they are folded amongst
the Devonian beds, but the most important band runs along the
northern border of the Ardennes. In this band lie the coalfields of
Liege, and of Mons and
Charleroi. It is a long and narrow trough,
which is separated from the older rocks of the Ardennes by a great
reversed
fault, the
faille
du midi. In the southern half of the trough the folding of the
Coal Measures is intense; in the northern half it is much less
violent. The structure is complicated by a thrust-plane which
brings a mass of older beds upon the Coal Measures in the middle of
the trough. Except along the southern border of the Ardennes, and
at one or two points in the middle of the Palaeozoic
massif,
Triassic and
Jurassic beds are unknown in Belgium, and the Palaeozoic rocks are
directly and unconformably overlaid by Cretaceous and Tertiary
deposits. The Cretaceous beds are not extensive, but the
Wealden deposits of Bernissart,
with their numerous remains of
Iguanodon, and the
chalk of the district about the Dutch frontier
near
Maastricht, with
its very late Cretaceous
fauna,
are of special interest.
Exclusive of the Ardennes the greater part of Belgium is covered
by Tertiary deposits. The
Eocene, consisting chiefly of sands and marls,
occupies the whole of the west of the country. The
Oligocene
forms a band stretching from Antwerp to Maastricht, and this is
followed towards the north by a discontinuous
strip of
Miocene and a fairly extensive area of
Pliocene. The Tertiary
deposits are similar in general character to those of the north of
France and the south of England. Coal and
iron are by far the most important mineral
productions of Belgium.
Zinc,
lead and
copper are also extensively worked in the
Palaeozoic rocks of the Ardennes.
Area and Population
The area comprises 2,945,503 hectares, or about 11,373 English
sq. m., and the total population in December 1904 was 7,074,910,
giving an average of 600 per sq. m..
| The NineProvinces. |
Area inEnglish sq. m. |
Population atend of 1904. |
Population persq. m. 1904. |
| Antwerp. . |
1093 |
888,980 |
813'3 |
| Brabant . |
1268 |
1,366,389 |
1077'59 |
| Flanders E. |
1158 |
1,078,507 |
931.35 |
| Flanders W. |
1249 |
845,732 |
677.8 |
| Hainaut . |
1437 |
1,192,967 |
830.18 |
| Liege . |
1117 |
863,254 |
772'8 |
| Limburg . |
931 |
255,359 |
274'28 |
| Luxemburg . |
1706 |
225,963 |
132.45 |
| Namur . |
1414 |
357,759 |
253 |
| Total |
11,373 |
7,074,910 |
622 |
| Year. |
|
Total births. |
Total deaths. |
Excess of births. |
| 1880 |
. |
|
171,864 |
123,323 |
48,541 |
| 1895 |
. |
|
183,015 |
125,148 |
57,867 |
| 1900 |
. |
|
193,789 |
129,046 |
64,743 |
| 1904 |
|
|
191,721 |
119,506 |
72,215 |
The population was made up of 3,514,491 males and 3,560,419
females. The rate at which the population has increased is shown as
follows: - From 1880 to 1890 the increase was at the rate annually
of 54,931, from 1890 to 1900 at the rate of 62,421, and for the
five years from 1900 to 1904 at the rate of 66,200. In 1831 the
population of Belgium was 3,785,814, so that in 75 years it had not
quite doubled. The following table gives the total births and
deaths in certain years since 1880: These figures show that the
births were 23,674 more in 1904 than in 1880, while the deaths were
nearly 4000 fewer, with a. population that had increased from 52 to
7 millions. Of 191,721 births in 1904, 12,887 or
6
. 7% were illegitimate.
Statistics of recent years show a slight
increase in legitimate and a slight decrease in illegitimate
births.
The
emigration of
Belgians from their country is small and reveals little variation.
In 1900, 13,492 emigrated, and in 1904 the total rose only to
14,752. Of Belgians living abroad it is estimated that 400,000
reside in France, 15,000 in Holland, 12,000 in Germany and 4600 in
Great
Britain. The number of
Belgians in the
Congo State in 1904 was 1505. The
number of foreigners resident in Belgium in 1900 with their
nationalities were Germans, 42,079; English, 5096; French, 85,735;
Dutch, 54,49 1; Luxemburgers, 9762; and all other nationalities,
14,411.
|
1880. |
1890. |
1900. |
| French only. . |
2,230,316 |
2,485,072 |
2,574,805 |
| Flemish only. . |
2 ,4 8 5,3 8 4 |
2,744,271 |
2,822,005 |
| German only . |
39,550 |
32,206 |
28,314 |
| French and Flemish . |
423,752 |
700,997 |
801,587 |
| French and German . |
35,250 |
58,590 |
66,447 |
| Flemish and German . |
2,956 |
7,028 |
7,238 |
| The three languages . |
13,331 |
13,185 |
42,889 |
With regard to the languages spoken by the people of Belgium the
following comparative table gives the return for the three censuses
of 1880, 1890 and 1900:
Constitution and Government. - The
Belgian constitution, drafted by the national assembly in 1830-1831
after the provisional government had announced that " the Belgian
provinces detached by force from Holland shall form an independent
state," was published on the 7th of February 1831, and the
modifications introduced into it subsequently, apart from the
composition of the electorate, have been few and unimportant. The
constitution originally contained one hundred and thirty-nine
articles, and decreed in the first place that the government was to
be " a constitutional, representative and hereditary monarchy."
Having decided in favour of a monarchy, the provisional government
first offered the throne to the duc de
Nemours, son of
Louis-Philippe, but this offer was
promptly withdrawn on the discovery that Europe would not endorse
it. It was then offered to Prince Leopold of
Saxe-Coburg, widower of the princess
Charlotte of England,
and accepted by him. The prince was proclaimed on the 4th of June
1831 as
Leopold I., king of the Belgians,
and on the 21st of July 1831 he was solemnly inaugurated in
Brussels. The succession is vested in the heirs male of Leopold I.,
and should they ever make complete
default the throne will be declared vacant, and
a national assembly composed of the two chambers elected in double
strength will make a fresh nomination. In 1894" a new article
numbered 61 was inserted in the constitution providing that " in
default of male heirs the king can nominate his successor with the
assent of the two chambers, and if no such nomination has been made
the throne shall be vacant," when the original procedure of the
constitution would be followed. The Belgian national assembly
assumed that its constitution would extend over the whole of the
Belgic or south Netherlands, but the powers decreed otherwise. The
limits of Belgium are fixed by the
London protocol of the 15th of October 1831 - also
called
the twenty-four articles -
which cut off what is now termed the grand duchy of Luxemburg, and
also a good portion of the duchy of Limburg. These losses of
territory held by a brother people are still felt as a grievance by
many Belgians. The Belgian constitution stipulates for " freedom of
conscience, of
education, of the press and also of the right of meeting," but the
sovereign must be a member of the Church of
Rome. The government was to consist of the king,
the
senate and the chamber of
representatives. The functions of the king are those that appertain
everywhere to the sovereign of a constitutional state. He is the
head of the army and has the exclusive right of dissolving the
chambers as preliminary to an appeal to the country.
The senate is composed of seventy-six elected members and
twenty-six members nominated by the provincial councils.
A senator sits for eight years unless a
dissolution is ordered, and no one is
eligible until he is forty years of age. Half the seventy-six
elected senators retire for re-election every four years. There is
no payment or other privilege, except a pass on the state railways,
attached to the rank of senator. The chamber of representatives
contained one hundred and fifty-two members until 1899, when the
number was increased to one hundred and sixty-six. Deputies are
elected for four years, but half the house is re-elected every two
years. A deputy must be twenty-five years of age, and the members
of both houses must be of Belgian
nationality, born or naturalized. A deputy
receives an annual honorarium of 4000 francs and a railway pass.
Down to 1893 the electorate was exceedingly small. Property and
other qualifications kept the voting power in the hands of a
limited class. This may be judged from the fact that in the year
named there were only 137,772 voters out of a population of 6z
millions. In April 1894 the new electoral law altered the whole
system. The property qualification was removed and every Belgian
was given one vote on attaining twenty-five years of age and after
one year's residence in his
commune. At the same time the principle of
multiple votes for certain qualifications was introduced. The
Belgian
citizen on reaching
the age of thirty-five, providing he is married or is a widower
with legitimate offspring and pays five francs of direct taxes,
gets a second vote. Two extra votes are given for qualifications of
property, official status or university diplomas. The maximum
voting power of any individual is three votes. In 1904 there were
1,581,649 voters, possessing 2,467,966 votes. This system of plural
voting has proved a success. It does not, however, satisfy the
Socialists, whose formula is one man, one vote. The final change in
the system of parliamentary elections was made in 1899-1900, when
proportional representation was introduced. Proportional
representation aims at the protection of minorities, and its
working out is a little intricate, or at all events difficult to
describe. The following has been accepted as a clear definition of
what proportional representation is:- " Each electoral district has
the number of its members apportioned in accordance with the total
strength of each party or political
programme in that district. As a rule there
are only the three chief parties, viz.
Catholic, Liberal and Socialist, but the
presence of Catholic-Democrats or some other new
faction may increase the total to four or even
five. The number of seats to be filled is divided by the number of
parties or candidates, and then they are distributed in the
proportion of the total followers or voters of each. The smallest
minority is thus sure of one seat." An illustration may make this
clearer. In an electoral district with 32,000 votes which returns
eight deputies, four parties send up candidates, let us say, eight
Catholics, eight Liberals, eight Socialists and one
Catholic-Democrat. The result of the voting is, 16,000 Catholic
votes, 9000 Liberal, 4500 Socialist, and 2500 Catholic-Democrat.
The seats would, therefore, be apportioned as follows: four
Catholic, two Liberal, one Socialist and one Catholic-Democrat.
The king has one right which other constitutional rulers do not
possess. He can initiate proposals for new laws (
projets de
loi). He is also charged with the executive power which he
delegates to a cabinet composed of ministers g P chosen from the
party representing the majority in the chamber. Down to 1884 the
Liberal party had
held power with very few intervals since 1840. The Catholic party
succeeded to office in 1884. The ministers represent departments
for
finance, foreign
affairs, colonies, justice, the interior, science and arts, war,
railways, posts and telegraphs,
agriculture, public works, and industry and
labour. The minister for war is generally a soldier, the others are
civilians. Ministers may be members of either chamber and enjoy the
privilege of being allowed to speak in both. Sometimes one minister
will hold several portfolios at the same time, but such cases are
rare.
The kingdom is divided into nine provinces which are subdivided
into 342 cantons and 2623 communes. The provinces are governed by a
governor nominated by the king, the canton is a judicial division
for marking the limit of the jurisdiction of each
juge de
paix, and the commune is the administrative unit, possessing
self-government in all local matters. For each commune of 5000
inhabitants or over, a burgomaster is appointed by the communal
council which is chosen by the
electors of the commune. As three years'
residence is required these electors are fewer in number than those
for the legislature. In 1902 there were 1,146,482 voters with
2,007,704 votes, the principles of multiple votes, with, however, a
maximum of four votes and proportional representation, being in
force for communal as for legislative elections.
Religion
The constitution provides for absolute liberty of conscience and
there is no state religion, but the people are almost to a man
Roman Catholics. It is computed that there are 10,000 Protestants
(half English) and 5000
Jews, and
that all the rest are Catholics. The government in 1904 voted
nearly 7,000,000 francs in aid of the religious establishments of,
and the benevolent institutions kept up by, the
Roman
Church. The grant to other cults amounted to 118,000 francs,
but small as this sum may appear it is in due proportion to the
relative numbers of each creed. The
hierarchy of the Church of Rome in Belgium is
composed of the
archbishop of
Malines, and the
bishops of Liege, Ghent, Bruges, Tournai and
Namur. The archbishop receives £800, and the bishops £600 apiece
from the state yearly. The pay of the village
cure
averages £80 a year and a house. Besides the regular clergy there
are the members of the numerous monastic and conventual houses
established in Belgium. They are engaged principally in educational
and eleemosynary work, and the development in such institutions is
considerable.
Education
Education is compulsory by law, and is free for those who cannot
pay for it. In the primary schools instruction in
reading, writing,
arithmetic, history and
geography is obligatory.
In 1904 there were 7092 primary schools with 859,436 pupils of both
sexes. Of these 807,383 did not pay. Primary education is supposed
to continue till the age of fourteen, but in practice it stops at
twelve for all who do not intend to pass through the middle
schools, which is essential for all persons seeking state
employment of any kind. The middle schools have one privilege. They
can give a certificate qualifying scholars for a mastership in the
primary ,schools, which are under the full control of the communes.
These appointments are always bestowed on local favourites. The pay
of a schoolmaster in a small commune is only £48, and in a large
town £96, with a maximum ranging from go to £152 after twenty-four
years' service. It is therefore clear that no very high
qualifications could be expected from such a staff. The control of
the state comes in to the extent of providing district inspectors
who visit the schools once a year, and hold a meeting of the
teachers in their district once a quarter. In each province there
is a chief inspector who is bound to visit each school once in two
years, and reports direct to the minister of public instruction.
With regard to the middle schools, the government has reserved the
right to appoint the teaching staff, and to prescribe the books
that are to be used The results of the middle schools are fairly
satisfactory. Still better are the Athenees Royaux, twenty in
number, which are quite independent of the commune and subject to
official control under the superior direction of the king.
Mathematics and
classics are taught in them
and the masters are allowed to take boarders. The expenditure of
the state on education amounts to about a million
sterling. In 1860 the grants
were only for little over one-eighth of the total in 1903. In 1900
3 1.94 % of the toal population was illiterate.
Considerable progress in the education of the people is made
visible by a comparison of the figures of three decennial censuses.
In 1880 the illiterate were 42.25% and in 1890 37.63, so that there
was a further marked improvement by 1900. Among the provinces
Walloon Belgium is better instructed than Flemish, Luxemburg coming
first, followed by Namur, Liege and Brabant in their order.
Higher instruction is given at the universities and in the
schools attached thereto. Those at Ghent and Liege are state
universities; the two others at Brussels and Louvain are free.
At Louvain alone is there a faculty of
theology. The number of students inscribed for
the academical year 1904-1905 at each university was Ghent 899,
Liege 1983, Brussels 1082, and Louvain 2134, or a grand total of
6098. Liege is specially famed for the technical schools attached
to it. There are also a large number of state-aided schools for
special purposes; (1) for military instruction, there are the
Ecole Militaire at Brussels, the school of cadets at
Namur, and army schools at different stations,
e.g. Bouillon, &c. For
officers in the army, there are the
Ecole de Guerre or
staff college at Brussels with an average attendance of twenty, a
riding school at Ypres where a
course is obligatory for the
cavalry and
horse artillery, and for soldiers in the army there
are regimental schools and evening classes for illiterate soldiers.
(2) For education in the arts, there is the
Royal Academy of
Fine Arts at Antwerp, and
besides this famous school of
painting there are eighty-four
academies for teaching
drawing throughout the kingdom. In
music, there are royal conservatoires at
Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, and Liege. Besides these there are
sixty-nine minor conservatoires. (3) For commercial and
professional education, there are 181 schools. The Commercial
Institute of Antwerp deserves special notice as an excellent school
for clerks. (4) Among special schools may be named the three
schools of navigation at Antwerp,
Ostend and
Nieuport. Since the
wreck of the training-ship " Comte de Smet de
Naeyer " in 1906, it has been decided that a stationary
training-ship shall be placed in the Scheldt like the "
Worcester " on the
Thames. Among the numerous
learned
societies may be mentioned the Belgian Royal Academy founded in
1769 and revived in 1818. For the encouragement of research and
literary
style the government
awards periodical prizes which are very keenly contested.
Justice
The administration of justice is very fully organized, and in
the Code Belge, which was carefully compiled between 1831 and 1836
from the old laws of the nine provinces leavened by the
Code Napoleon and
modern exigencies, the Belgians claim that they possess an almost
perfect statute-book. The courts of law in their order are
Cour
de Cassation, Cour d'Appel, Cour de Premiere Instance, and the
Juge de Paix courts, one for each of the 342 cantons. The
Cour de Cassation has a peculiar judicial sphere. It works
automatically, examining every judgment to see if it is in strict
accord with the code, and
where it is not the decision or
verdict is simply annulled. There is only one
judge in this court, but he has
the assistance of a large staff of revisers. The
Cour de
Cassation never tries a case itself except when a minister of
state is the accused. The president of this tribunal is the highest
legal functionary in Belgium. There are three courts of appeal,
viz, at Brussels, Ghent and Liege. At Brussels there are four
separate chambers or tribunals in the appeal court. Judges of
appeal are appointed by the king for life from lists of eligible
barristers prepared by the senate and the courts. Judges can only
be removed by the unanimous vote of their brother judges. There are
twenty-six courts of first instance distributed among the principal
towns of the kingdom, and in Antwerp, Ghent and Liege there are
besides special tribunals for the settlement of commercial cases.
Of course there is the right of appeal from the decisions of these
tribunals as well as of the regular courts. Finally the 342
Juge de Paix courts resemble British county courts.
Criminal cases are tried by (1) the
Tribunaux de Police, (2) Tribunaux
Correctionnels, (3) and the
Cours d'Assises. The last
are held as the length of the
calendar requires.
Capital
punishment is retained on the statute, but is never enforced,
the prisoner on whom sentence of death is passed in due form in
open court being relegated to imprisonment for life in solitary
confinement and perpetual silence. The chief prisons are at
Louvain, Ghent and St Gilles (Brussels), and the last named serves
as a house of detention. At Merxplas, near the Dutch frontier, is
the agricultural criminal
colony at which an average number of two
thousand prisoners are kept employed in comparative liberty within
the
radius of the convict
settlement.
For the relief of pauperism there are a limited number of houses
of mendicity, in which inmates are received, Provinces and
communes. and houses of refuge for night shelter. At the
beguinages of Ghent and Bruges women and girls able to
contribute a specified sum towards their support are given a
home.
|
Year. |
|
Revenue. |
Expenditure. |
| 1880.18 951903 . |
|
|
394, 21 5,93 2 francs395,73 0 ,445632,416,810 „ |
382,908,429 francs410,383,402 „627,975,568 „ |
| from various revenues, return of capital, loans,
&c. The followingare the principal items of expenditure
(1903) |
| Service of debt |
|
143,065,352 francs |
| Sovereign, senate, chamber, &c. |
|
5,289,087 |
| Departments, foreign office . |
|
3,751,636 |
| „ agriculture |
|
12,253,957 |
| railways . |
|
165,086,019 |
| finance . |
|
34,479,674 |
| industry . |
|
19,905,589 |
| war |
|
63,972,473 |
| public instruction |
|
31,799,105 |
| justice |
|
27,168,032 |
| Minor items . |
|
4,179,046 |
| Total |
|
510,949,970 |
National Finance
The
budget is submitted to
the chambers by the minister of finance and passed by them. The
revenue and expenditure were in the years stated as follows: - The
revenue is made up from taxes, including customs, tolls, including
returns from railway traffic, &c., and the balance comes The
difference is made up of "special expenditure." The total debt in
English money may be put at 126 millions sterling, which requires
for interest, sinking fund and service about 5-1 millions sterling
annually. The rate of interest on all the loans extant is 3%,
except on one
loan of 219,959,632
francs, which pays only 21%.
Army and National Defence
The army is divided into the regular army, the
gendarmerie, and the
garde civique. The Belgian regular army is thus composed:
infantry, one regiment of
carabiniers, one of
grenadiers, three of
chasseurs a pied, and fourteen of the
line, all these regiments having 3 or 4 active and 3 or 4 reserve
battalions apiece; cavalry, two regiments of guides, two of
chasseurs a cheval, and four of lancers, all light
cavalry; artillery, four horse, thirty field, and seventy
siege batteries on active service;
engineers, 140 officers and 2000 men. The
train or
commissariat has only 30 officers and 600
men on the permanent establishment. Belgium retains the older form
of
conscription,
and has not adopted the system of " universal service." The annual
levy is small and substitution is
permitted. In 1904 the number inscribed for service was 64,042. Of
these only 12,525 were enrolled in the army, and of that number
1421 were
volunteers,
who took an engagement on
receipt of a
premium. The effective strength of the army in
1904 with the colours was 3406 officers and 40,382 men. To this
total has to be added the men on the active list, but either absent
on leave or allowed to return to civil life, numbering 70,043. It
is assumed that on mobilization these men are immediately
available. The reserve consists of 181 officers and 58,014 men, so
that the total strength of the Belgian army is 3587 officers and
168,439 men. The field force in war is organized in four infantry
and two cavalry divisions, the total strength being about 10o,000.
The peace effective has not varied much since 1870, but the total
paper strength is 75,000 more than in that year. In the years
1900-1904 it increased by 8000 men. The gendarmerie is a mounted
force composed of men picked for their physique and divided into
three divisions. It numbers 67 officers and 3079 men, but has no
reserve. It is in every sense a
corps d'elite, and may be
classed as first-rate heavy cavalry. The total strength of the
garde civique in 1905 was 35,10 2, to which have to be
added 8532 volunteers belonging to the corps of older formation,
service in which counts on a par with the
garde civique.
Some of the latter regiments, especially the artillery, would rank
with British volunteers, but the mass of the
garde civique
does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against
sedition and
socialism. The defence of
Belgium depends on five fortified positions. The fortified position
and camp of Antwerp represents the true base of the national
defence. Its detached forts shelter the city from
bombardment, and so
long as sea communication is open with England, Antwerp would be
practically impregnable. Liege with twelve forts and Namur with
nine forts are the fortified
tetes de Pont protecting the two most important
passages of the Meuse. The forts are constructed in
concrete with armoured
cupolas. Termor de on the Scheldt and
Diest on the Dender are retained as nominally
fortified positions, but neither could resist a regular bombardment
for more than a few hours, as their casemates are not
bomb-proof.
The training camp of the Belgian army is at Beverloo in the
province of Limburg, and at Braschaet not far from Antwerp are
ranges for artillery as well as
rifle practice. The Belgian officer is
technically as well trained and educated as any in Europe, but he
lacks practical experience in military service.
Mines and Industry
The principal mineral produced in Belgium is coal. This is found
in the Borinage district near Mons and in the neighbourhood of
Liege, but the working of an entirely new coal-field, which
promises to attain vast dimensions, was commenced in 1906 in the
Campine district of the province of Limburg. The coal mines of
Belgium give employment to nearly 150,000 persons, and for some
years the average output has exceeded 22,000,000 tons. Other
minerals are iron,
manganese, lead and zinc. The iron mines
produce much less than formerly, and the want of iron is a grave
defect in Belgian prosperity, as about £5,000,eoo sterling worth of
iron has to be imported annually, chiefly from French
Lorraine. The chief
metal industry of the country is
represented by the
iron and steel works of Charleroi and
Liege. Belgium is particularly rich in quarries of
marble,
granite and
slate. Ghent is the capital of the textile
industry, and all the towns of Flanders are actively engaged in
producing woollen and
cotton
materials and in
lace manufacture.
The bulk of the population is, however, engaged in agriculture, and
the extent of land under cultivation of all kinds is about 62
million acres.
|
Imports. |
Exports. |
| France |
¢65,68¢,000 francs |
346,670,000 francs |
| Germany .. |
351,025,000 , |
505,473,000 „ |
| England |
335,404,000 |
392,324,000 „ |
| Holland .. |
240,873,000 |
268,781,000 77 |
| United
States. . |
222,301,000 „ |
86,324,000 „ |
| Russia |
212,119,000 „ |
26,671,000 „ |
| Argentina |
198,913,000 „ |
41,508,000 „ |
| British India |
141,669,000 „ |
25,860,000 „ |
| Rumania |
102,174,000 „ |
3,949,000 |
| Australia. |
58,190,000 |
12,087,000 „ |
| Congo State . |
53,100,000 „ |
14,049,000 „ |
| Chin |
8,770,000 „ |
25,546,000 „ |
Commerce
The trade returns for 1904 were as follows:
Imports
General Commerce 4,426,400,000 francs Special Commerce (included in
General Commerce).. 2,782,200,000
Exports General
Commerce. 3,849,100,000 Special Commerce (included in General
Commerce). 2,183,300,000 The general commerce includes goods in
transit across Belgium, the special commerce takes into account
only the produce and the
consumption of Belgium itself.
.^ Belgium Conferences, Conventions, Trade Shows and Meetings .- Belgium Conferences, Conventions, Trade Shows and Meetings 19 January 2010 8:48 UTC www.allconferences.com [Source type: News]
The principal imports are food supplies` and
raw material such as cotton,
wool,
silk,
flax,
hemp and
jute. Among minerals, iron ore,
sulphur, copper, coal,
tin, lead and diamonds are the most
imported. The exports of greatest value are textiles, lace, coal,
coke, briquettes,
glass, machinery, railway material and fire
arms.
Belgium has no state
navy,
although various proposals have been made from time to time to
establish an armed flotilla in connexion with the defence of
Antwerp. The state, however, possesses a certain number of
steamers. In 1904 they numbered sixty-five of 99,893 tons. These
steamers are chiefly employed on the passenger route between Ostend
and
Dover. The total number of
vessels entering the only two ports of Belgium which carry on ocean
commerce, namely Antwerp and Ostend, in 1904 was 7650 of a
tonnage of 10,330,127. Among
inland ports that of Ghent is the most important, 1127 ships of a
tonnage of 786,362 having entered the port in 1904. The
corresponding figures for ships sailing from the two ports first
named were in the same year 7642 and tonnage 10,298,405. The
figures from Ghent were 1128 and 787,173 tons. Whereas the lines of
steamers from Ostend are chiefly with Dover and London, those from
Antwerp proceed to all parts of the world.
Internal Communications
The internal communications of Belgium of every kind are
excellent. The roads outside the province of Luxemburg and Namur
are generally paved. In the provinces named, or in other words, in
the region south of the Meuse, the roads are macadamized. The total
length of roads is about 6000 m. When Belgium became a separate
state in 1830 they were less than one-third of this total. There
are about 2900 m. of railways, of which upwards of 2500 m. are
state railways. It is of interest to note that the state railways
derived a revenue of 249,355 francs (or nearly io,000) from the
penny tickets for the admission of
non-travellers to railway stations. Besides the main railways there
are numerous light railways (
chemins de fer vicinaux), of
a total length approaching 2500 m. There are also electric and
steam tramways in all the principal cities. The total of navigable
waterways is given as 1360 m. Posts, telegraphs and telephones are
exclusively under state management and form a government
department.
The principal banking institution is the Banque Nationale which
issues the
bank-notes
in current use. In 904theaverage value of notes in circulation was
645,989,100 francs. The rate of
discount was 3% throughout the whole of the
year.
The mintage of Belgian money is carried out by a
directeur
de la fabrication who is nominated by and responsible to the
government. The
gold coins are for
10 and 20 francs,
silver for
half francs, francs, 2 francs and 5 francs.
Nickel money is for 5, Io and 20 centimes, and
the copper coinage has been withdrawn from circulation.
Authorities
- Annuaire
statistique de la Belgique (1905); Beltjens
and Godenne,
La Constitution beige (Brussels, 1880);
La Belgique illustree (Brussels, 1878-1882);
Les
Pandectes beiges (Brussels, 1898);
Annales du parlement beige for
each year;
Belgian Life in Town and Country," Our
Neighbours " Series (London, 1904). For geology see C. Dewalque,
Prodrome d'une description geologique de la Belgique
(Brussels, 1880); M. Mourlon,
Geologie de la Belgique
(Brussels, 1880-1881); F. L.
Cornet and A. Briart, " Sur le relief du sol en
Belgique apres les temps paleozo ques,"
Ann. Soc. Geol.
Belg. vol. iv., 1877, pp. 71-115, pls. v.-xi. (see also other
papers by the same authors in the same journal); J. Gosselet,
L'Ardenne (Paris, 1888); M. Bertrand, " Etudes sur le
bassin houiller du
nord et sur le
Boulonnais,"
Ann. des mines, ser. ix. vol. vi. (Mem.), pp.
569-635, 1894; C. Malaise, " Etat actuel de nos connaissances sur
le silurien de la Belgique,"
Ann. Soc. Geol. Belg. vol.
xxv., 1900-1901, pp. 179221; H. Forir, " Bibliographie des etages
laekenien, ledien, wemmblien, asschien, tongrien, rupelien et
bolderien et des depots tertiaires de la haute et moyenne
Belgique,"
ibid. pp. 223 seq.
(D. C. B.)
History 1 The
political severance of the northern and southern Netherlands may be
conveniently dated from the opening of the year 1579. By the
signing of the league of
Arras
(5th of January) the Walloon " Malcontents " declared their
adherence to the cause of Catholicism and their
loyalty to the Spanish king, and broke away
definitely from the northern provinces, who bound 1 See for earlier
history Netherlands, Flanders, Brabant, Liege, &C.
themselves by the union of
Utrecht (29th of January) to defend their
rights and liberties, political and religious, against all foreign
potentates. Brabant and Flanders were still indeed under the
control of the prince of Orange, and through his influence accepted
in 1582 the duke of
Anjou as
their sovereign. The French prince was actually inaugurated duke of
Brabant at Antwerp (February 1582) and count of Flanders at Bruges
(July), but his misconduct speedily led to his withdrawal from the
Netherlands, and even before the assassination of Orange (July
1584) the authority of
Philip
had been practically restored throughout the two provinces. This
had been achieved by the military skill and statesmanlike abilities
of
Alexander
Farnese, prince of
Parma,
appointed governor general on the death of
Don
John of Austria, on the
prince of 1st of October 1578.
Farnese first won by
promises and blandishments the confidence of the Walloons, always
jealous of the predominance of the " Flemish " provinces, and then
proceeded to make himself master of Brabant and Flanders by force
of arms. In succession Ypres, Mechlin, Ghent, Brussels, and finally
Antwerp (17th of August 1585) fell into his hands. Philip had in
the southern o f Netherlands attained his object, and Belgium was
henceforth Catholic and Spanish, but at the expense of its progress
and prosperity. Thousands of its inhabitants, and those the most
enterprising and intelligent, fled from
the Inquisition, and made their homes
in the Dutch republic or in England. All commerce and industry was
at a standstill;
grass grew in the streets of Bruges
and Ghent; and the trade of Antwerp was transferred to
Amsterdam. On Parma's death (3rd of
December 1592) the
archduke Ernest of Austria was appointed
governorgeneral, but he died after a short
tenure of office (20th of February 1 595) and
was at the beginning of 1596 succeeded by his younger brother the
cardinal archduke
Albert. Philip was now nearing his end, and in 1598 he gave his
eldest daughter Isabel
Albert in marriage to her cousin
the archduke Albert, and erected the Netherlands into a sovereign
state under their joint rule. The advent of the new sovereigns, of officially
known as " the archdukes," though greeted ands the r" with
enthusiasm in the Belgic provinces, was looked upon with suspicion
by the Dutch, who were as firmly resolved as ever to uphold their
independence. The chief military event of the early years of their
reign was the battle of Nieuport (2nd of July 1600), in which Maurice of Nassau defeated the archduke Albert, and the
siege of Ostend, which after a threeears' heroic defence was
surrendered year Y (20th of September 1604) to the archduke's
general, Spinola. The Dutch, however, being masters of the sea,
kept the coast closely blockaded, and through sheer exhaustion the
king of Spain and the archdukes
were compelled to agree to a truce for twelve years (9th of April
1609) with the United Provinces " in the capacity of free states
over which Albert and Isabel made no pretensions." During the
period of the truce the archdukes, who were wise and statesmanlike
rulers, did their utmost to restore prosperity to their country and
to improve its internal condition. Unfortunately they were
childless, and the instrument of cession of 1598 provided that in
case they should die without issue, the Netherlands - should revert
to the crown of p S ain. This reversion actually took
place. Albert died in 1621, just before the 1633 renewal of the war
with the Dutch, and Isabel in 1633. The Belgic provinces therefore
passed under the rule of Philip IV., and were henceforth known as the
Spanish Netherlands.This connexion with the declining fortunes of Spain was
disastrous to the well-being of the Belgian people, for during many
years a close
alliance
bound together France and the United Provinces, and the Southern
Netherlands were exposed to attack from both sides, and constantly
suffered from the ravages of hostile armies. The cardinal arch-
Peace of g duke
Ferdinand, governor-general from 1634-1641,
was a capable ruler, and by his military skill prevented in a
succession III. 22 of campaigns the forces of the enemy from
overrunning the country. On the 30th of January 1648, Spain
concluded a separate peace at
Minster with the Dutch, by which Philip IV.
finally renounced all his claims and rights over the access to the
ocean. Thus they remained for a long course of years without a
sea-port, and in the many wars that broke out between Spain and
France were constantly exposed, as an outlying Spanish dependency,
to the first attack, and peace when it came was usually purchased
at the cost of some part of Belgian territory. By the treaty of the
Pyrenees (1659)
Artois (except St Omer and Aire)
and a number of towns in Flanders, Hainaut, and Luxemburg were
ceded to France. Subsequent French conquests, confirmed by
to the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), took away
Lille,
Douai, Charleroi, Oudenarde, Coutrai and Tournai.
These were, indeed, partly restored to Belgium by the peace of
Nijmwegen (1679); but on
the other hand it lost
Valenciennes, Nieuport, St Omer, Ypres and
Charlemont, which were only in part recovered by the peace of
Ryswick (1697).
The internal history of the Belgic provinces has little to
record during this long period in which the ambition of
Louis XIV. to possess
himself of the Netherlands, in right of his wife the infanta
Maria Theresa (see
Spanish Succession), led to a series of invasions and desolating
wars. The French king managed to incorporate a large slice of
territory upon his northern frontier, but his main object was
baffled by the steady resistance and able statesmanship of
William III. of England
and Holland. Meanwhile from 1692 onwards brighter prospects were
opened out to the unfortunate Belgians by the nomination by the
Spanish king of
Maximilian Emanuel, elector of
Bavaria, to be governorgeneral
with well-nigh sovereign powers. The elector had himself a claim to
the
inheritance as
the husband of an Austrian archduchess, whose mother, the infanta
Margaret, was the younger
sister of the French queen. Maximilian Emanuel was an able man, who
did his utmost to improve the condition of the country.
of He attempted to promote trade and restore prosperity
customs laws and other measures, and particularly by
to the construction of canals to counteract the
damage done to Belgian commerce by the closing of the Scheldt. The
position of the elector was greatly strengthened by the
partition treaty of the
19th of August 1698. Under this instrument the signatory powers -
England, France and Holland - agreed that on the
demise of
Charles II. the crown prince of Bavaria
under his father's guardianship should be sovereign of Spain,
Belgium and Spanish
America.
Charles II. himself shortly afterwards by will appointed the
Bavarian prince heir to all his dominions. The death of the
i nfant heir a few months later (6th of February 16 99)
unfortunately destroyed any prospects of a peaceable settlement
of the Spanish
Succession. Charles II. was persuaded to name as his sole
successor, Philip duke of Anjou, the second son of the
dauphin, and on his death (on
the 1st November 1700) Louis XIV. took immediate steps to support
his grandson's claims, in spite of his formal renunciation of such
claims under the treaty of the Pyrenees. England and Holland were
determined to prevent, however, at all
costs the acquisition of Belgium by a French
prince, and a
coalition,
known as
the Grand Alliance, was
formed between these two powers and the empire to uphold the claims
of the archduke
Charles,
second son of the
emperor.
One of the first steps of Louis was to take possession of the
Netherlands. The hereditary
feud
between the houses of Austria and Bavaria induced the elector to
take the side of France, and he was nominated by
Philip V.
v icar eneral of the Netherlands. The unhappy
Bel is
successes. g
PPY g provinces were again doomed for a number of years to be the
battle-ground of the contending forces, and it was on Belgic soil
that
Marlborough won
the great victories of
Ramillies (1706) and of Oudenarde (1708), by
which he was enabled to drive the French armies out of the
Netherlands and to carry the war into French territory. At the
general peace concluded at Utrecht (11th of April 1713) the long
connexion between Belgium and Spain was severed, and this portion
of the Burgundian inheritance of
Charles V. placed under the
sovereignty of the
Habsburg claimant, who had,
by the death of his brother, become the emperor
Charles VI. The Belgic
provinces now came for a full century to be known as the Austrian
Netherlands. Yet such was the dread of
The France and the
enfeebled state of the country that Holland retained the privilege,
which had been con-
Nether- ceded to her during the war,
of garrisoning the principal fortresses or Barrier towns, on the
French frontier, and her right to close the navigation on the
Scheldt was again ratified by a European treaty. The beginnings of
Austrian sovereignty were marked by many collisions between the
representatives of the new rulers and the
States General, and provincial "
states." Despite their troubled history and long subjection, the
Belgic provinces still retained to an unusual degree their local
liberties and privileges, and more especially the right of not
being taxed, except by the express consent of the states. The
marquis de Prie, who (as deputy for Prince Eugene) was the imperial
governor from 1719 to 1726, encountered on the part of local
authorities and town
gilds
vigorous resistance to his attempt to rule the Netherlands as an
Austrian dependency, and he was driven to take strong measures to
assert his authority. He selected as his victim a powerful popular
leader at Brussels, Francis Anneesens,
syndic of the gild of St
Nicholas, who was Y g ? beheaded on the
19th of September 1719. His name is remembered in Belgian annals as
a patriot
martyr to the cause
of liberty. The administration of de Prie was not, however, without
its redeeming features. He endeavoured to create at Ostend a
seaport, capable in some measure to take the place of Antwerp, and
in 1722 a Chartered Company of Ostend was erected for the purpose
of trading in the East and West Indiessee
Ostend). The determined hostility Y of the Dutch
rendered the promising scheme futile, and after a
precarious struggle for
existence, Charles VI., in order to gain the assent of the United
Provinces and Great Britain to the
Pragmatic Sanction, suppressed the
Company in 1731. For sixteen years (1725-1741) the archduchess
Mary
Elizabeth, sister of the emperor, filled the post of
governor-general. Her rule was marked by the restoration of the old
form
Arch_ of administration under the three councils, and
was a period of general tranquillity. She died (1741) in
Mary the Netherlands, and the
empress-queen, Maria Theresa, who had succeeded under the Pragmatic
Sanction to the Burgundian domains of her father about a year
before, appointed her brother-in-law, Charles of Lorraine, to be
governorgeneral in her aunt's place, and he retained that post, to
the great advantage of Belgium, for nearly forty years. He was
deservedly known as the " Good Governor." The first years of his
administration were stormy. During the Austrian War of Succession
the country was conquered by the French, and for two years Marshal
Saxe bore the title of governor-general, but it was restored to
Austria by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). Belgium was
undisturbed by the
Seven Years' War (1756-1763), and
during the long peace which followed enjoyed considerable
prosperity. Charles of Lorraine thoroughly identified himself with
the best interests of the country, and was the champion of its
liberties, and though he had at times to make a stand against the
imperialistic tendencies of the chancellor Kaunitz, he was able to
rely on the steady support of the empress, who appreciated the wise
and liberal policy of her brother-in-law. Although the Scheldt was
still closed, Charles endeavoured by a large extension of the canal
system to facilitate commercial intercourse, he encouraged
agriculture, and was successful in restoring the prosperity of the
country. He also did much for the
advancement of learning, founding, among
other institutions, United Provinces, and made many concessions `
to them. Among these was the closing of the Scheldt to all ships, a
clause which was ruinous to the commerce of the Belgic provinces,
by cutting them off from their only to the impoverished land by the
introduction of new but visited Belgium in person and
governor-general,g p showed a great and active interest in its
affairs. Here as elsewhere in his dominions his intentions were
excellent, but his reforming zeal outran discretion, and his hasty
and self-opinionated interferences with treaty rights and
traditional privileges ended in provoking opposition and disaster.
Finding the United Provinces hampered by a war with England, he
seized the opportunity to try to get rid of the impediments placed
upon Belgian development by the Barrier and other
treaties with Holland. He was
able to compel the Dutch to withdraw their garrisons from the
Barrier towns, but was wholly unsuccessful in his high-handed
attempt to free the navigation of the Scheldt. These efforts to
coerce the Dutch, though marred by partial failure, were, however,
calculated to win for
Joseph
II. popularity with his Belgian subjects; but it was far
otherwise with his policy of internal reform. He offended the
states by seeking to sweep away many of their inherited privileges
and to change the time-honoured, if somewhat obsolete, system of
civil government. He further excited the religious feelings of the
people against him, by his
edict
of Tolerance (1780), and his later attempts at the reform of
clerical abuses, which were pronounced to be an infraction of the
Joyous Entry (see
Joyeuse Entree). Fierce opposition was
aroused. Numbers of malcontents left the country and organized
themselves as a military force in Holland. As the discontent became
more general, the insurgents returned, took several forts, defeated
the
revo Austrians at
Turnhout, and overran the country.
t. On the 11th of December 1789, the people of Brussels
rose against the Austrian
garrison, and compelled it to capitulate, and,
on the 27th, the states of Brabant declared their independence. The
other provinces followed and, on the 1th of January 1790, the whole
formed themselves into an independent state, under the name of the
" Belgian United States." A few weeks later, on the 10th of
February, Joseph II. died, his end hastened by chagrin at the utter
failure of his wellmeant efforts, and was succeeded by
Leopold II.
The new emperor at once took steps to re-assert, if possible,
his authority in Belgium without having recourse to armed force. He
offered the states, if the people would return to their
allegiance, the
restoration of their ancient constitution and a general
amnesty. This, however,
provinces. The treaty of Campo Formio (1797) and the subsequent
treaty of Luneville (1801) confirmed the conquerors in the
possession of the country, and Belgium became an integral part of
France, being governed on the same footing, receiving the
Code
Napoleon, and sharing
in the fortunes of the Republic and the Empire. After the fall of
Napoleon and the conclusion of the first peace of
Paris (30th of May 1814) Belgium was indeed for
some months placed under the administration of an Austrian
governor-general, but it
u f was shortly
afterwards united with Holland to form the kingdom of the
Netherlands. The sovereignty of the newly formed state was given to
the prince of Orange, who mounted the throne (23rd of March 1815)
under the title of
William
I. The
congress of Vienna (31st of May
1815) determined the relations and fixed the boundaries of the
kingdom; and the new constitution was promulgated on the 24th of
August following, the king taking the oath at Brussels on the 27th
of September.
From this date until the Belgian revolt of 1830, the history of
Holland and Belgium is that of two portions of one political
entity, but in the relations of those two portions were to be found
from the very outset fundamental causes
183v tending to
disagreement and separation. The Dutch and Belgian provinces of the
Netherlands had for one hundred and
thirty years passed through totally
different experiences, and had drifted farther and farther apart
from one another in character, in habits, in ideas and above all in
religion. In the south the policy of
Alva and
Philip II. had been wholly
successful, and the Belgian people, Flemings and Walloons alike,
were perhaps more devoted to the Catholic faith than any other in
Europe. On the other hand the
incorporation of the country for two
decades in the French republic and empire had left deep traces on a
considerable section of the population, the
French language
was commonly spoken and was exclusively used in the law courts and
in all public proceedings, and French political theories had made
many converts. The Fundamental Law promulgated by William I.
aroused strong opposition among both the Catholic and Liberal
parties in Belgium. The large powers granted to the king under the
new constitution displeased the Liberals, who saw in its provision
only a disguised form of personal government. The principle of
liberty of worship and of the press, which it laid down, was so
offensive to the Catholics that the bishops condemned it publicly,
and in the Doctrinal Judgment actually forbade their flocks to take
the oath. The " close and complete union," which was stipulated
under the treaty of 1814, began under unfavourable auspices.
Nevertheless the difficulties might have been smoothed away in the
course of time, had the Belgians felt that the Dutch were treating
them in a fair and conciliatory spirit. This, despite the
undoubtedly good intentions of the king, was far from being the
case. Belgium was regarded too much in the light of an annexed
territory, handed over to Holland as
compensation for the losses sustained by
the Dutch in the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. The idea that
Holland was the predominant partner in the kingdom of the
Netherlands was firmly rooted in the north and naturally provoked
in the south the feeling that Belgium was being exploited for the
benefit of the Dutch. The grievances of the Belgians were indeed
very substantial. The seat of government was in Holland, the king
was a Dutchman by birth and training, and a Calvinistic
protestant by religion.
Though the population of Belgium was 3,400,000 and that of Holland
only a little more than 2,000,000 the two countries had equal
representation in the second chamber of the states-general.
Practically in all important legislative measures affecting the
interests of the two countries the Dutch government were able to
command a small but permanent majority. The use of the term " the
Dutch Government " is strictly accurate, for the great majority of
the public offices were filled by northerners. In 1830, of the
seven members of the ministry only one was a Belgian; in the home
department out of 117 officials 11 only were Belgians; in the
ministry of war
3 were Belgians out of 102; of the
officers of the army 288 out of 1 9 67. All the public
establishments, the
Bank, the military schools, were Dutch.
That such was the case must not be entirely charged to partiality,
still less to deliberate unfairness on the part of William I. The
conduct of the king proves that he had a most sincere regard for
the welfare of his the Academy of Science, and he consistently
restrained the undue intervention of the church in secular affairs,
and placed restrictions upon the
accumulation of property in the hands of
religious bodies.
The death of Charles of Lorraine preceded only by a few months
that of Maria Theresa, whose son Joseph II. not only appointed his
sister, the archduchess Maria Christine, did not suit the views of
the popular party, who, under the leadership of an advocate named
Van der Noot, had possession of the reins of power, and were
uplifted by their success. The terms offered in an imperial
proclamation were
rejected, and preparations were made to resist
coercion by the
levee en masse of a national army. When,
however, in November 1790, a powerful Austrian force entered the
country, there was practically little opposition to its advance.
The popular leaders fled, the form of government, as it existed at
the end of the reign of Maria Theresa, and an amnesty for past
offences was proclaimed; a superficial pacification of the revolted
provinces was effected, and Austrian rule re-established. It was
destined to be short-lived. In 1792 the armies of revolutionary
France assailed Austria at her weakest point by an invasion of
Belgium. The battle of
Jemappes (7th of November) made the French
masters of the southern portion of the Austrian Netherlands; the
battle of
Fleurus (26th of
June 1794)
by put an end to the rule of the Habsburgs over
the Belgic Belgian subjects, and in his choice of measures and men
his aim was to secure the prosperity of his new kingdom by a policy
of unification. This was the object he had in view in his attempt
to make Dutch, except in the Walloon districts, the official
language for all public and judicial acts, and a knowledge of Dutch
a necessary qualification for every person entering the public
service. That the fierce opposition which this attempt aroused in
the Flemish-speaking provinces was ill recent years there has been
a patriotic movement in these same provinces which has been
successful in forcing the Belgian government to adopt Flemish (i.e.
Dutch) as well as French for official usage. This Flemish movement
is all in favour of establishing close relations with the sister
people of the north. Moreover it cannot be gainsaid that Belgium
during her union with Holland enjoyed a degree of prosperity that
was quite remarkable. The mineral wealth of the country was largely
developed, the iron manufactures of Liege made rapid advance, the
woollen manufactures of
Verviers received a similar impulse, and many
large establishments were formed at Ghent and other places, where
cotton goods were produced which
rivalled those of England and surpassed those of France. The
extensive colonial and foreign trade of the Dutch furnished them
with markets, while the opening of the navigation of the Scheldt
raised Antwerp once more to a place of high commercial importance.
The government also did much in the way of improving the internal
communications of the country, in repairing the roads and canals,
in forming new ones, in deepening and widening rivers, and the
like. Nor was the social and intellectual improvement of the people
by any means neglected. A new university was formed at Liege,
normal schools for the instruction of teachers were instituted, and
numerous elementary schools and schools for higher instruction were
established over the country. These measures for the furthering of
education among the people on the part of a government mainly
composed of Protestants were received with suspicion and disfavour
by the priests, and still more the attempts subsequently made to
regulate the education of the priests themselves. The establishment
under the auspices of the king in 1825 of the Philosophical College
at Louvain, and the requirement that every
priest before ordination should spend two years
in study there, gave great offence to the clerical party, and some
of the bishops were prosecuted for the violence of their
denunciations at this intrusion of the secular arm into the
religious domain. With the view of terminating these differences
the king in 1827 entered into a
concordat with the
pope, and an agreement was reached with regard to
nominations to bishoprics, clerical education and other questions,
which should have satisfied all reasonable men. But in 1828 the two
extreme parties, the Catholic Ultramontanes and the revolutionary
Liberals, in their common hatred to the Dutch regime, formed an
alliance, the
union, for the overthrow of the government.
Petitions were sent in setting forth the Belgian grievances,
demanding a separate administration for Belgium and a full
concession of the liberties guaranteed by the constitution.
Matters were in this state when the news of the success of the
July revolution of 1830 at Paris reached Brussels, at this time a
city of refuge for the intriguing and discontented of almost every
country of Europe. The first outbreak took place on the 25th of
August, the anniversary of the king's accession. An
opera called
La Muette,
which abounds in appeals to liberty, was played, and the
audience were so excited that
they rushed out into the street crying, " Imitons les
Parisiens !" A
mob speedily
gathered together, who proceeded to destroy or damage a number of
public buildings and the private residences of unpopular officials.
The troops were few in number and offered no opposition to the mob,
but a burgher guard was enrolled among the influential and
middleclass citizens for the protection of life and property. The
intelligence of these events in the capital soon spread through the
provinces; and in most of the large towns similar scenes were
enacted, beginning with plunderings and outrages, followed by the
institution of burgher guards for the maintenance of peace. The
leading men of Brussels were most anxious not to push matters to
extremities. They demanded the dismissal of the. specially
obnoxious minister, Van
Maanen, and a separate administration for Belgium. The government,
however, could not make up their minds what course to pursue, and
by allowing things to
drift
ended by converting a popular
riot
into a national revolt. The heir apparent, the prince of Orange
(see William of the Netherlands), was sent on a peaceful mission to
Brussels, but furnished with such limited powers, as under the
circumstances were utterly inadequate. He did his best to get at
the real facts, and after a number of conferences with the leaders
became so convinced that nothing but a separate administration of
the two countries would restore tranquillity that he promised to
use his influence with his father to bring about that object - on
receiving assurances that the personal union under the
house of Orange
would be maintained. The king summoned an extraordinary
session of the states-general,
which met at
the Hague
on the 13th of September and was opened by a speech from the
throne, which was firm and temperate, but by no means definite. The
proceedings were
dilatory,
and the attitude of the Dutch deputies exceedingly exasperating.
The result was that the moderate party in Belgium quickly lost
their influence, and those in favour of violent measures prevailed.
Meanwhile although the states were still sitting at the Hague, an
army of 14,000 troops under the command of Prince
Frederick, second son of
the king, was gradually approaching Brussels. It was hoped that the
inhabitants would welcome the prince and that a display of armed
force would speedily restore order. After much unnecessary delay,
at a time when prompt action was required, the prince on the 23rd
of September entered Brussels and, with little opposition, occupied
the upper or court portion of it, but when they attempted to
advance into the lower town the troops found the streets barricaded
and defended by citizens in arms. Desultory fighting between the
soldiers and the insurgents continued for three days until, finding
that he was making no headway, the prince ordered a retreat. The
news spread like wildfire through the country, and the principal
towns declared for separation. A provisional government was formed
at Brussels, which declared Belgium to be an independent state, and
summoned a national congress to establish a system of government.
King William now did his utmost to avoid a rupture, and sent the
prince of Orange to Antwerp to promise that Belgium should have a
separate administration; but it was too late. Antwerp was the only
important place that remained in the hands of the Dutch, and the
army on retreating from Brussels had fallen back on this town. At
the end of October an insurgent army had arrived before the gates,
which were opened by the populace to receive them, and the troops,
under General
Chasse, retired
within the citadel. The general ordered a bombardment of the town
for two days, destroying a number of houses and large quantities of
merchandize. This act served still further to inflame the minds of
the Belgians against the Dutch.
A convention of the representatives of the five great powers met
in London in the beginning of November, at the request of the king
of the Netherlands, and both sides were brought to consent to a
cessation of hostilities. On the
of the 10th of November
the National Congress, consisting of 200 deputies, met at Brussels
and came to three important decisions: (I) the independence of the
country - carried unanimously; (2) a constitutional hereditary
monarchy - 174 votes against 13; (
3) the perpetual
exclusion of the Orange-Nassau family-161 votes against 28. On the
10th of December the conference of London proclaimed the
dissolution of the kingdom of the Netherlands, but claimed the
right of regulating the conditions under which it should take
place. On the 28th of January 1831, the congress proceeded to the
election of a king, and out of a number of candidates the choice
fell on the duke of Nemours, second son of Louis Philippe, but he
declined the office. The congress then elected Baron Surlet de
Chokier to the temporary post of
regent, and proceeded to considered and unwise,
is shown by the fact that in ?' draw up a constitution on the
British parliamentary pattern. The constitution expressly declared
that the king has no powers except those formally assigned to him.
Ministers were to be appointed by him, but be responsible to the
cham bers The legislature was composed of two chambers - g P the
senate and the chamber of deputies. Both cham bers were elected by
the same voters, but senators required a property qualification, -
the payment of at least 2000 florins in taxes. Senators and
deputies received salaries. The
franchise was for that time a low one - every
one who paid at least 20 florins in taxes had a vote. The choice of
a king was more difficult than that of drawing up a constitution.
It was desirable that the new sovereign should be able to count
upon the friendly support of the great powers, and yet not be
actually a member of their reigning dynasties. It was from fear of
arousing the susceptibilities of neighbouring states, especially
Great Britain, that Louis Philippe had refused to sanction the
election of his son. It was for this reason that the name of
Leopold of Saxe-
Coburg, the
widower of Princess Charlotte of England, had not been placed among
the candidates in January. Overtures were, however, made to him, as
soon as it was understood that, as the result of private
negotiations at the London conference, the selection of this prince
would be favourably received both by Great Britain and France.
Leopold s
i n ified his readiness to accept the crown
after having
of the g P g
Belgians. first
ascertained that he would have the support of the great powers in
bringing about a satisfactory settlement with Holland on those
points which he considered essential to the
security and welfare of the new kingdom. The
election took place on the 4th of June, when 152 votes out of 196,
four being absent, determined that Leopold should be proclaimed
king of the Belgians, under the express condition that he "would
accept the constitution and swear to maintain the national
independence and territorial integrity." Leopold made his public
entry into Brussels, on the 21st, and subsequently visited other
parts of the kingdom, and was everywhere received with
demonstrations of loyalty and respect.
At this juncture news suddenly arrived that the Dutch were
preparing to invade the country with a large army. It comprised
45,000 infantry and 6000 cavalry with 7 2 pieces of artillery,
while Leopold could scarcely bring forward 25,000 men to oppose it.
On the 2nd of August the whole of the Dutch army had crossed the
frontier; Leopold collected his forces, such as they were, near
Louvain in order to cover his capital. The two armies met on the
9th of August. The undisciplined Belgians, despite the personal
efforts of their king, were speedily routed, and Leopold and his
staff narrowly escaped capture. He, however, made good his retreat
to the capital, and, on the advance of a French army, the prince of
Orange did not deem it prudent to push on farther. A convention was
concluded between him and the French general, in consequence of
which he returned to Holland and the French likewise recrossed the
frontier. Leopold now proceeded with vigour to strengthen his
position and to' restore order and confidence. French officers were
selected for the training and disciplining of the army, the
civil list was arranged
with economy and order, and reforms were introduced into the public
service and system of administration. He kept on the best of terms,
though a Protestant, with the Roman Catholic clergy and
nobility, and his subsequent
marriage with the daughter of the French king (9th of August 1832),
and the contract that the children of the marriage should be
brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, did much to inspire
confidence in his good intentions.
Meanwhile the conference in London had drawn up the project of a
treaty for the separation of Holland and Belgium, which was
declared " to be final and irrevocable." of Luxemburg was divided,
but the king of Holland retained possession of the fortress of
Luxemburg, and also received a portion of Limburg to compensate him
for the part of Luxemburg assigned to Belgium. The district of
Maestricht was likewise partitioned, but the fortress remained
Dutch. The Scheldt was declared open to the commerce of both
countries. The
national debt was divided. The powers
recognized the independence of Belgium, " as a neutral state." This
agreement was ratified by the Belgian and French sovereigns on the
10th and 24th of November, by the British on the 6th of December,
but the Austrian and Prussian and
Russian governments, whose sympathies were with
the " legitimate " King William rather than with a prince who owed
his crown to a revolution, did not give their ratification till
some five months later. Even then King William remained obdurate,
refused to sign and continued to keep possession of Antwerp. After
fruitless efforts on the part of the great powers to obtain his
acquiescence, France and Great Britain resolved to have recourse to
force. On the 5th of November their combined fleets sailed for the
coast of Holland, and, on the 18th, a French army of 60,000 men,
under the command of Marshal
Gerard, crossed the Belgian
frontier to besiege
French Antwerp. The Dutch garrison
capitulated on the 23rd of December, and on the 31st the town was
handed over to the Belgians, and the French troops withdrew across
the frontier. The Dutch, however, still held two forts, which
enabled them to command the navigation of the Scheldt, and these
they stubbornly refused to yield. Belgium therefore kept possession
of Limburg and Luxemburg, except the fortress of Luxemburg, which
as a fortress of the German
confederation was, under the terms of the
treaty of
Vienna, garrisoned
by Prussian troops. These territories were treated in every way as
a part of Belgium, and sent representatives to the chambers. Great
indignation was therefore felt at the idea of giving them up, when
Holland (14th of March 1838) signified
eT its readiness to
accept the conditions of the treaty. The chambers argued that
Belgium had been induced to agree to the twenty-four articles in
1832 in the hope of thereby at once terminating all harassing
disputes, but as Holland refused then to accept them, the
conditions were no longer binding and the circumstances were now
quite changed. They urged that Luxemburg in fact formed an integral
part of Belgium and that the people were totally opposed to a union
with Holland. They offered to pay for the territory in dispute, but
the treaty gave them no right of purchase, and the proposal was not
entertained. Addresses were unanimously voted urging the king to
resist separation, great excitement was g P ? g aroused
throughout the country and preparations were made for war. But the
firmness of the allied powers and their determination to uphold the
conditions of the treaty compelled the king most reluctantly to
submit to the inevitable. The treaty was signed in London on the
19th of April 1839. It saddled Belgium with a portion of Holland's
debt, and a severe financial crisis followed.
The Belgian revolution owed its success to the union of the
Catholic and Liberal parties; and the king had been very careful to
maintain the alliance between them. This continued to be
the character of the government till 1840, but by degrees it had
been growing more and more conserva tive, and was giving rise to
dissatisfaction. A ministry was formed on more liberal principles,
but it clashed P P ?
with the Catholic
aristocracy, who had the majority in the
senate. A neutral ministry under M. Charles Nothomb was then
formed. In 1842 it carried a new law of primary instruction, which
aroused the dislike of the anti-clerical Liberals. The Nothomb
ministry retired in 1845. In March 1846 the king formed a purely
Catholic ministry, but it was fiercely attacked by the Liberals,
who had for several years been steadily organizing.
A congress was summoned to meet at Brussels (14th of June 1846)
composed of delegates from the different Liberal associations
throughout the country. Three hundred and twenty delegates met and
drew up an Act of Federation and a programme of The conditions were
far less favourable to Belgium
of g than had been
hoped, and it was not without much
heart-burning and considerable opposition, that
the senate and chamber of deputies gave their assent to them. The
treaty, which contained 24 articles, was signed on the 1 5th of
November 1831. By these articles the grand-duchy reforms. The
election of 1847 gave a majority to the Liberals and a purely
Liberal ministry was formed, and from this date onwards it has been
the constitutional practice in Belgium to choose a homogeneous
ministry from the party which possesses a working majority in the
chamber. In 1848 a new electoral law was passed, which lowered the
franchise to 20 florins' worth of property and doubled the number
of electors. Hence it came to pass that Belgium passed safely
through the crisis of
the French revolution of 1848. The
extreme democratic and socialistic party made with French aid some
spasmodic efforts to stir up a revolutionary movement, but they met
with no popular sympathy; the throne of Leopold stood firmly based
upon the
trust and respect of
the Belgian nation for the wisdom and moderation of their king.
The attention of the government was now largely directed to the
stimulating of private industry and the carrying out of public
works of great practical utility, such as the extension of railways
and the opening up of other internal means of communication.
Commercial
treaties were also entered into with various countries with the
view of providing additional outlets for industrial products. The
king also sought as much as possible to remove from the domain of
politics every irritating question, believing that a union of the
different parties was most for the advantage of the state. In 1850
the question of middleclass education was settled. In 1852 the
Liberal cabinet was overthrown and a ministry of conciliation was
formed. A bill was passed authorizing the army to be raised to
10o,000 men including reserve. The elections of 1854 modified the
parliamentary situation by increasing the strength of the
Conservatives; the ministry resigned and a new one was formed,
under
Pierre
de Decker, of moderate Catholics and Progressives. In 1857 the
government of M. de Decker brought in a bill to establish " the
liberty of
charity," but in reality to place
the administration of charities in the hands of the priesthood.
This led to a violent agitation throughout the kingdom and the
military had to be called out. Eventually the bill was withdrawn,
the ministers resigned and a Liberal ministry was formed under M.
Charles Rogier. In 1860 the
communal
octrois or duties on articles of food brought
into the towns was abolished; in 1863 the navigation of the Scheldt
was made free, and a treaty of commerce established with England.
The elections of July 1864 gave a majority to the Liberals, and M.
Rogier continued in office.
On the 10th of December 1865, King Leopold died, after a reign
of thirty-four years. He was greatly beloved by his people, and to
him Belgium owed much, for in difficult circum-
Accession
stances and critical times he had managed its affairs g if with
great tact and judgment. He was succeeded by his eldest son Leopold
II., who was immediately proclaimed king and took the oath to the
constitution on the 17th of December. On the outbreak of war
between France and Germany in 1870, Belgium saw the difficulty and
danger of her position, and lost no time in providing for
contingencies. A large war credit was voted, the strength of the
army was raised and strong bodies of troops were moved to the
frontier. The feeling of danger to Belgium also caused great
excitement in England. The British government declared its
intention to maintain the integrity of Belgium in accordance with
the treaty of 1839, and it induced the two belligerent powers to
agree not to violate the
neutrality of Belgian territory. A
considerable portion of the French army routed at
Sedan did indeed seek refuge across the frontier;
but they laid down their arms according to convention, and were
duly " interned." In 1870 the Liberal party, which had been in
power for thirteen years, was overthrown by a union of the
Catholics with a number of Liberal dissentients to whom the policy
of the government had given offence, and a Catholic cabinet, at the
head of which was Baron
Jules Joseph d'Anethan,
took office. At the election of August 1870, the Catholics obtained
a majority in both chambers. They increased their power
considerably by reducing the voting qualification for electors to
provincial councils to 20 frs., and to communal councils to 10
frs., and also by recognizing the importance of what was styled "
the Flemish Movement." Hitherto French had been the official
language of the states. The use of Flemish in public documents, in
judicial procedure and in official correspondence was hereafter
required in the Flemish provinces, and Belgium became officially
bi-lingual. It was, as has been already pointed out, a reversion to
the policy of the Dutch king, which in 1830 had been so strongly
denounced by the leaders of the Belgian revolution, and its object
was the same,
i.e. to prevent
frenchification of
a population that was Teutonic by race and speech. In 1871 M. Malou
had become the head of a cabinet of moderate Catholics, and he
retained office till 1878. This was the period of the struggle
between the pope and the
Italian government, and the German
Kulturkampf. The Belgian Ultramontanes agitated strongly
in favour of the re-establishment of the temporal power and against
the policy of
Bismarck.
Though discountenanced by the ministry, the violence of the
Ultra-clericals compassed its downfall. They passed a law adopting
the
ballot in 1877, but at the
election of the following year a Liberal majority was returned.
The new cabinet, under M.
Frere-Orban, devoted
itself solely to the settlement of the educational system. Hitherto
since 1842 in all primary schools instruction by the clergy in the
Catholic faith was obligatory,children belonging
School g
g
law of to other persuasions being dispensed from
attendance.
1879. In 1879 a bill was passed for the
secularization of primary education; but an attempt was made to
conciliate the clergy by Art. 4, which enacted - " religious
instruction is relegated to the care of families and the clergy of
the various
creeds.
A place in the school may be put at their disposal where the
children may receive religious instruction," at hours other than
those set apart for regular education. The bill likewise provided
for a rigorous inspection of the communal schools. The passing of
this law was met by the clergy by uncompromising resistance. The
bishops ordered that
absolution be refused to teachers in the
schools " sans Dieu," and to the parents who sent their children to
them, and urged the establishment of private Catholic schools. All
over Belgium the agitation spread, and the clergy, who were
practically independent of state control, gained the victory. In
November 1879 it was calculated that there were but 240,000
scholars in the secularized schools against 370,000 in the Catholic
schools. In Flanders over 80% of the children attended the Catholic
schools. The government appealed to the pope, but the Holy See
declined to take any action, and so great was the embitterment that
the Belgian minister at the Vatican and the papal
nuncio at Brussels were recalled, and in 1880
the clergy refused to associate themselves with the fetes of the
national
jubilee. In order
to emerge victorious in such a struggle the Liberal party had need
of all their strength, but a split took place between the sections
known as the
doctrinaires and the
progressists, on the question of an extension of the
franchise, and at the election of 1884 the Catholics carried all
before them at the polls. From 1884 up to the present time the
clerical party have maintained their supremacy.
A Catholic administration under M. Malou at once took in hand
the schools question. A law was passed, despite violent protests
from the Liberals, which enacted that the communes might maintain
the private Catholic schools established since 1879 and suppress
unsectarian schools at their pleasure. They might retain at least
one unsectarian or adopt one Catholic school, where 25 heads of
families demanded it. The state subsidized all the communal
schools, Catholic and unsectarian alike. Under this law in all
districts under clerical control the unsectarian schools were
abolished. In October 1884, M. Beernaert replaced M. Malou as
prime minister,
and retained that post for the following ten years. He had in 1886
a troublous and dangerous situation to deal with. Socialism had
become a political force in the land. Socialism of a German type
had taken deep root among the working men of the Flemish towns,
especially at Ghent and Brussels; socialism of a
French revolutionary type
among the Walloon miners and factory hands. On the!18th of March
1886, a socialist rising suddenly burst out at Liege, on the
occasion of the 18th of April the chamber adopted an electoral
system until then unknown - le
suffrage universel plural. The citizen in
order to possess a vote for the election of representatives to the
chambers was to be of a
minimum age of twenty-five years,
and of thirty years for the election of senators and provincial and
communal councillors. For the four categories of elections a
supplementary vote was given to (a) citizens who having attained
the age of thirty-five years, and being married or widowers with
children, paid at least 5 f.
income tax, and (
b) to citizens of
the age of twenty-five years possessing real estate to the value of
2000 f. or Belgian state securities yielding an income of at least
loo f. Two supplementary votes were bestowed upon citizens having
certain educational certificates, or discharging functions or
following professions implying their possession. This elaborate
system was only carried into law after considerable and violent
opposition in the sessions of 1894 and 1895. It was chiefly the
work of the ministry of M. de Burlet, who succeeded to the place of
M. Beernaert in March 1894.
The composition of the elected bodies for the years 1894-1895
was: - for the chamber of representatives 1,354,891 electors with
2,085,605 votes, for the senate and provincial councils 1,148,433
electors with 1,856,838 votes. The result of the first election in
October 1894 was 94 to give the Catholic party an overwhelming
majority. The old Liberal party almost disappeared, while the
Walloon provinces returned a number of Socialists. In February 1896
M. de Burlet, being in bad health, transferred the direction of the
government to M. Smet de Naeyer. The election of 1894 had given the
Liberals a much smaller number of seats than they ought to have had
according to the number of votes they polled, and a cry arose for
the establishment of proportional representation. Both sides felt
that reform was again necessary, but the Catholic majority
disagreed among themselves as to the form it should take. In 1899
M. Smet de Naeyer gave place as head of the ministry to M. van den
Peereboom. But the proposals of the latter met with organized
obstruction on the part of the Socialist deputies, and after a few
months' tenure of office he gave way to M. Smet de Naeyer once
more. The new cabinet at once (August 1899) introduced a bill
giving complete proportional representation in parliamentary
elections to all the arrondissements. and it was passed despite the
defection of a number of Catholic deputies led by M. Woeste. The
election in May 1900 resulted in the return of a substantial
(though reduced) Catholic majority in both chambers.
During this period of Catholic ascendancy social legislation was
not neglected.
.^ Annual Mobile Regulations and Competition Law Conference .- Belgium Conferences, Conventions, Trade Shows and Meetings 19 January 2010 8:48 UTC www.allconferences.com [Source type: News]
In 1900 laws were passed regulating
the contract of labour, placing the workman on a footing of perfect
equality with his employer, assuring the married woman free control
of her savings, and organizing a system of
old-age
pensions. Primary education was dealt with in 1895 by a law,
which made religious instruction obligatory, and extended state
support to all schools that satisfied certain conditions. In 1899
there were in Belgium 6674 subsidized schools, having 775,000
scholars out of a total of 950,000 children of school age. Only
68,000 did not receive religious instruction. The Catholic party
also strove to mitigate the principle of obligatory military
service by encouraging the system of volunteering and by a
reduction of the time of active service and of the number with the
colours. In 1905 the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence was
celebrated, and there was a great manifestation of loyalty to King
Leopold II. for the wisdom and prudence shown by him during his
long
rein. Owin to disY g g g g
1 90 5. sensions among the Catholic and
Conservative
party on the subject of military service and the
fortification of Antwerp,
their majority in the chamber in 1904 fell from 26 to 20, that in
the senate from 16 to 12. The partial election in 1906 reduced the
majority in the chamber to 12, while the partial election in 1908
brought the majority down to 8. The Smet de Naeyer ministry which
had held office since 1900 was defeated in April 1907 in a debate
on the
mining law over the
proposal concerning the length of the working day. A new cabinet
was formed on the 2nd of May following under the
presidency of M. de
Trooz, who had been minister of the interior under M. Smet de
Naeyer, and who retained that
portfolio in conjunction with the
premiership. M. de Trooz died on the 31st of December 1907, and was
succeeded by M. Schollaert, president of the chamber. The count of
Flanders, brother of the king, died on the 17th of November 1905,
leaving his son Albert heir to the throne.
The
Congo question had
meanwhile become an acute one in Belgium. The personal interest
taken by Leopold II. in the exploration and commercial development
of the equatorial regions of
Africa had led, in the creation of the Congo
Free State, to results which had originally g ?
o not been anticipated. The
Comite des Etudes
du Haut Congo, formed in 1878 at the instance of the king and
mainly financed by him had developed into the International
Association of the Congo, of which a Belgian officer, Colonel M.
Strauch, was president. Through the efforts in Africa of H. M.
Stanley a rudimentary state was
created, and through the efforts of King Leopold in Europe the
International Association was recognized during 1884-1885 by the
powers as an independent state. Declarations to this effect were
exchanged between the Belgian government and the Association on the
23rd of February 1885. In April of the same year the Belgian
chambers authorized the king to be the chief of the state founded
by the Association, which had already taken the name of
Etat
Independant du Congo. The union between Belgium and the new
state was declared to be purely personal, but its European
headquarters were in Brussels, its officials, in the course of
time, became almost exclusively Belgian, and financially and
commercially the connexion between the two countries became
increasingly close.
anniversary of the Paris Commune, and rapidly spread in other
industrial centres of the Walloon districts. Thousands of workmen
went on strike, demanding better
wages and the suffrage. The ministry acted
promptly and with vigour, the outbreak was suppressed by the
employment of the military and order was restored. But as soon as
this was accomplished the government opened a comprehensive enquiry
into the causes of dissatisfaction, which served as the basis of
numerous social laws, and led eventually to the establishment of
universal suffrage and the substitution in Belgium of a democratic
for a middle-class regime. It was not effected till several years
had been spent in long parliamentary discussions, by demonstrations
on the part of the supporters of franchise revision and by strikes
of a political tendency. At last the senate and chamber declared,
May 1892, that the time for a revision of certain articles of the
constitution had come. As prescribed by the constitution, a
dissolution took place and two new chambers were elected. The
Catholics had a majority in both, but not enough to enable them to
dispense with the assistance of the Liberals, the constitution
requiring for every revision a two-thirds majority. The bills
proposed for extending the franchise were all rejected (April 11th
and 12th). Thereupon the council of the
Labour party proclaimed a general strike.
Fifty thousand workmen struck, in Brussels there were violent
demonstrations, and the agitation assumed generally a dangerous
aspect. Both the government and the opposition in the chambers saw
that delay was impossible, and that revision must be carried out.
Agreement was reached by the acceptance of a
compromise proposed by M. Albert Nyssens,
Catholic
The Nys- deputy and professor of penal procedure
and colnmercial law at the university of Louvain, and on the Y In
1889 King Leopold announced that he had by his will bequeathed the
Congo state to Belgium, and in 1890 the Belgian government, in
return for financial help, acquired the right of annexing the
country under certain conditions. At later dates definite proposals
for immediate
annexation were considered but not adopted,
the king showing a strong disinclination to cede the state, while
among the mass of the Belgians the disinclination to annex was
equally strong. It was not until terrible reports as to the
misgovernment of the Congo created a strong agitation for reform in
Great Britain, America and other countries responsible for having
aided in the creation of the state, that public opinion in Belgium
seriously concerned itself with the subject. The result was that in
November 1907 a new treaty of cession was presented to the Belgian
chambers, while in March 1908 an additional act modified one of the
most objectionable features of the treaty - a clause by which the
king retained control of the revenue of a vast territory within the
Congo which he had declared to be his private property. A colonial
law, also submitted to the chambers, secured for Belgium in case of
annexation complete parliamentary control over the Congo state, and
the bill for annexation was finally passed in September 1908.
Bibliography
Th. Juste, Histoire de la Belgique (2 vols., 18 53);
La Revolution beige de 1830 (2 vols., 1872); Congres
national de Belgique (2 vols., 1880); Memoirs of Leopold
I. (2 vols., 1868); De Gerlache, Histoire du royaume des
Pays-Bas (3 vols., 18 59); D. C. Boulger, The History of
Belgium, part i. (1900); C. White, The Belgic Revolution
of 1830 (2 vols., 1835); Moke and Hubert, Histoire de
Belgique (jusque 1885) (1892); L. Hymans, Histoire
parlementaire de la Belgique (1830-1899); Cinquante ans de
liberte (4 vols., 1881); J. J. Thonissen, La Belgique sous
le regne de Leopold I"' (4 vols., 18 551858); De Laveleye,
Le Parti clerical en Belgique (1874); Vandervelde and
Destree, Le Socialisme beige (1898); C. Woeste, Vingt
ans de polemique (1890); Hamelius, Le Mouvement
flamand (1894).
(G. E.)
Literature
Belgian literature, taken in the widest sense of the term, falls
into three groups, consisting of works written respectively in
Flemish, Walloon and French. The earlier Flemish authors are
treated under DUTCH
Literature; the revival of
Flemish
Literature since the separation of Belgium from the Netherlands
in 1830, and
Walloon Literature, are each
separately noticed. The earlier French writers born on what is now
Belgian territory - e.g.
Adenes le Rois,
Jean Froissart, Jean Lemaire des Belges
and others - are included in the general history of
French
Literature. It remains to consider the literature written by
Belgians in French during the 19th century, and its rapid
development since the revolution of 1831.
Belgian writers were commonly charged with provincialism, but
the
prejudice against
them has been destroyed by the brilliant writers of 1870-1880. It
was also asserted that Belgian French literature lacked a national
basis, and was merely a reflection of Parisian models. The most
important section of it, however, has a distinctive quality of its
own. Many of its most distinguished exponents are Flemings by
birth, and their writings reflect the characteristic Flemish
scenery; they have the sensuousness, the colour and the
realism of Flemish art; and on
the other hand the tendency to
mysticism, to
abstraction, is far removed from the
lucidity and definiteness associated with French literature
properly so-called. This profoundly national character disengaged
itself gradually, and has been more strikingly evident since 1870.
The earlier writers of the century were content to follow French
tradition.
The events of 1830-1831 gave a great stimulus to Belgian
letters, but the country possessed writers of considerable merit
before that date. Adolphe Mathieu (1802-1876) belongs to the
earlier half of the century, although the tenth and last volume of
his
Ouvres en vers was only printed in 1870. His later
works show the influence of the Romantic revival. Auguste Clavareau
(1787-1864), a mediocre poet, an imitator of the French and Dutch,
produced some successful comedies, but he ceased to write plays
before 1830. Edouard Smits (1789-1852) showed romantic tendencies
in his tragedies of
Marie de Bourgogne (1823), Elfrida
(1825), and
Jeanne de Flandre (1828). The first of these
had a great success, partly no doubt because of its patriotic
subject. For four years before 1830
Andre van Hasselt had
been
publishing his
verses in the
Sentinelle des Pays-Bas, and from 1829
onwards he was an ardent romanticist. A burst of literary and
artistic activity followed the Revolution; and van Hasselt's house
became a centre of poets, artists and musicians of the romantic
school. The best work of the Belgian romanticists is in the rich
and picturesque
prose of the
16th century romance of
Charles de Coster (see
DE Coster), and in the
melancholy and semi-philosophical writings
of the moralist
Octave Pirmez. The
Poesies
(1841) and the
Chansons (1866) of Antoine Clesse
(1816-1889), have been compared with the work of Beranger;"and the
Catholic party found a champion against the liberals and
revolutionists in the satirical poet, Benoit Quinet (b. 1819).
Among the famous dramatic pieces of this epoch was the
Andre
Chenier (1843) of Edouard Wacken (1819-1861), who was a
lyric rather than a dramatic poet; also the comedies of Louis
Labarre (1810-1892) and of Henri Delmotte (1822-1884). Charles
Potvin (1818-1902), a poet and a dramatist, is best known by a
patriotic
Histoire des lettres en Belgique, forming vol.
iv. of the Belgian compilation,
Cinquante ans de liberte
(1882), and by his essays in literary history.
Eugene van Bemmel (1824-1880) established an
excellent historical tradition in his
Histoire de la
Belgique (1880), reproducing textually the original
authorities, and also edited a Belgian
Encyclopaedia (1873-1875), the
Patria
Belgiaa. Baron E. C. de Gerlache (1785-1871) wrote the history
of the Netherlands from the ultramontane standpoint. The
romanticists were attacked in an amusing
satire,
Les Voyages et aventures de M. Alfred Nicolas (1835), by
Francois Grandgagnage (179.7-1877), who was a nationalist in the
narrowest sense, and regarded the movement as an indefensible
invasion of foreign ideas. The best of the novelists of this
period, excluding Charles de Coster, was perhaps Estelle Ruelens
(
née Crevecoeur; 1821-1878); she wrote under the
pseudonym of "
Caroline Graviere." Her tales
were collected by the bibliophile " P. L.
Jacob " (Paris, 1873-1874) The whole of this
literature derived more or less from foreign sources, and, with the
exception of Charles de Coster and Octave Pirmez, produced no
striking figures. De Coster died in 1879, and Pirmez in 1883, and
the new movement in Belgian literature dates from the banquet given
in the latter year to
Camille Lemonnier whose
powerful
personality
did much to turn " Young Belgium " into a national channel.
Lemonnier himself cannot be exclusively claimed by any of the
conflicting schools of young writers. He was by turns naturalist,
lyrist and symbolist; and it has been claimed that the germs of all
the later developments in Belgian letters may be traced in his
work. The quinquennial prize of literature had been refused to his
Un male, and the younger generation of artists and men of
letters gave him a banquet which was recognized as a protest
against the official literature, represented by Louis Hymans
(1829-1884), Gustave Frederix (b. 1834), the literary critic of
.L'Independance beige, and others. The centres around
which the young writers were grouped were two reviews,
L'Art
moderne and
La Jeune Belgique. L'Art moderne was
founded in 1882 by Edmond Picard, who had as his chief supporters
Victor Arnould and
Octave
Maus. The first editor of
La Jeune Belgique was M.
Warlomont (1860-1889), known under the pen-name of " Max Waller."
This review, which owed much of its success to Waller's energy,
defended the intense preoccupation of the new writers with
questions of style, and became the depository of the Parnassian
tradition in Belgium. It had among its early contributors Georges
Eekhoud, Albert Giraud, Iwan Gilkin and Georges Rodenbach. Edmond
Picard (b. 1836) was one of the foremost in the battle. He was well
known as an advocate in Brussels, and made a considerable
contribution to
jurisprudence as the chief writer of the
Pandectes beiges (1886-1890). His
Pro arte (1886)
was a kind of literary code for the young Belgian writers. His
novels, of which
La Forge Roussel (1881) is a good
example, were succeeded in 1902-1903 by two plays,
Jericho and
Fatigue de
vivre. Georges Eekhoud, born at Antwerp on the 27th of May
1854, was in some ways the most passionately Flemish of the whole
group. He described the life of the peasants of his native Flanders
with a bold realism, making himself the apologist of the vagabond
and the outcast in a series of tragic stories: - Kees
Doorik
(1883), Kermesses (1883), Nouvelles Kermesses (1887), Le Cycle patibulaire (1892),
Mes Communions (1895),
Escal Vigor (1899) and
La Faneuse d'amour (1900), &c.
Nouvelle Carthage (1888) deals
with modern Antwerp. In 1892 he produced a striking book on
English
literature entitled
Au siècle de Shakespeare, and has written
French versions of
Beaumont and Fletcher's
Philaster
(1895) and of Marlow's
Edward II. (1896).
The earlier work of " Young Belgium " in
poetry was experimental in character, and was
marked by extravagances of style and a general exuberance which
provoked much hostile criticism. The young writers of 1870 to 1880
had not long to wait, however, for recognition both at home and in
Paris, where many of them found hospitality in the pages of the
Mercure de France from 1890 onwards. They divided their
allegiance between the leaders of the French
Parnassus and the Symbolists.
The most powerful of the Belgian poets, Emile
Verhaeren, is
the most daring in his technical methods of expressing bizarre
sensation, and has been called the " poet of
paroxysm." His reputation extends far beyond
the limits of his own country.
Many of the Belgian poets adhere to the classical form. Albert
Giraud (born at Louvain in 1860) was faithful to the Parnassian
tradition in his
Pierrot
lunaire (1884),
Pierrot narcisse (1891) and
Hors
du siècle (1886). In the earlier works of Iwan Gilkin (born at
Brussels in 1858) the influence of
Charles Baudelaire is
predominant. He wrote
Damnation de ?artiste (1890),
Tenebres (1892),
Stances dorees (1893),
La
Nuit (1897) and
Promethee (1899). The poems of Valere
Gille (born at Brussels in 1867), whose
Cithare was
crowned by the French Academy in 1898, belong to the same group.
Emile van Arenberghe (born at Louvain in 1854) is the author of
some exquisite sonnets. Fernand Severin (b. 1867) in his
Poemes
ingenus (I goo) aims at simplicity of form, and seems to have
learnt the art of his musical verse direct from
Racine. With Severin is closely associated
Georges
Marlow (b. 1872),
author of
L'Ame en exil (1895).
Georges Rodenbach (1855-1898) spent most of his life in Paris
and was an intimate of Edmond
de Goncourt. He produced some Parisian and
purely imitative work; but the best part of his production is the
outcome of a passionate
idealism of the quiet Flemish towns in which
he had passed his childhood and early youth. In his best known
work,
Bruges la Morte (1892), he explains that his aim is
to evoke the town as a living being, associated with the moods of
the spirit, counselling, dissuading from and prompting action.
The most famous of all modern Belgian writers,
Maurice
Maeterlinck, made his debut in a Parisian journal, the
Pleiade, in 1886. He succeeded more nearly than any of his
predecessors in expressing or suggesting ideas and emotions which
might have been supposed to be capable of translation only in terms
of music. " The unconscious self, or rather the sub-conscious
self," says Emile Verhaeren, " recognized in the verse and prose of
Maeterlinck its language or rather its
stammering attempt at language." Maeterlinck
was a native of Ghent, and the first poems of two of his
fellow-townsmen also appeared in the
Pleiade. These were
Gregoire le Roy (b. 1862), author of
La Chanson d'un soir
(1886), and
Mon Cc ur pleure
d'autrefois (1889); and Charles van Lerberghe (b. 1861),
author of a play,
Les Flaireurs (1890) and a collection of
Poemes (1897).
Max Elskamp (born at Antwerp in 1862) is the author of some
volumes of religious
poetry - Dominical (1892),
Salutations, dont
d'angeliques (1893),
En symbole vers l'apostolat
(1895) - for which he has devised as background an imaginary city.
Eugene Demolder (b.1862) also created a mythical city as a setting
for his prose
conies in the
Legende d'Yperdamme
(1897).
Belgian literary activity extends also to historical research.
Baron Kervyn
de Lettenhove (1817-1891) wrote a
Histoire de Flandre
(7 vols., 1847-1855), and a number of monographs on separate points
in Flemish and
English history. Though an accurate
historian, he allowed himself to be prejudiced by his extreme
Catholic views. He was a vehement defender of Mary
Stuart.
Louis
Gachard (1800-1885) wrote many valuable works on 16th century
history; Mgr. Nameche (1810-1893) completed the 29th volume of his
Cours d'histoire nationale before his death; Charles Piot
(b. 1812) edited the correspondence of Cardinal de Granvelle;
Alphonse Wauters (1818-1898), archivist of Brussels, published many
archaeological works; and Charles Rahlenbeck (1823-1903) wrote
enthusiastically of the history of Protestantism in Belgium. One of
the most masterly writers of French in Belgium was the economist
Emile de Laveleye. In
aesthetics should be
noted the historian of music, Francois Joseph Fetis (1784-1871); F.
A. Gevaert (1828-1908), author of
Histoire et theorie de la
musique d'antiquite (2 vols., 1875-1881); and Victor Mahillon
(b. 1841) for his work in
acoustics and his descriptive catalogue
(1893-1900) of the museum of musical instruments belonging to the
Brussels
conservatoire. In
psychology Joseph Delboeuf (1831-1896)
enjoyed a great reputation outside Belgium; Elisee Reclus (b.
1830), though a Frenchman by birth, completed his
Geographic
universelle (1875-1894) in exile at Brussels; and Ernest Nys
has written many standard works on
international law. In the history of
literature an important work is compiled by Ferdinand van der
Haeghen and others in the
Bibliotheca Belgica (1880,
&c.), comprising a description of all the books printed in the
Netherlands in the 15th and 16th centuries. The vicomte de
Spoelberch de Lovenjoul (1836-1907) was well known in France as the
author of
[[[Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve|Sainte-Beuve]]
inconnu (1901),
La Genese d'un roman de Balzac
(1901),
Une Page perdue de H.
de Balzac (1903), and of numerous bibliographical works.
See F. V. Goethals,
Histoire des lettres, des sciences et
des arts en Belgique (4 vols., 1840-1844); Fr. Masoin,
Histoire de la literature frangaise en Belgique de 1815 a
1830 (1903); F. Nautet,
Histoire des lettres beiges
d'expression frangaise (3 vols., 1892
et seq.),
written from the point of view of young Belgium, and by no means
impartial; A. de
Koninck,
Bibliographie nationale brought down to 1880;
Biographie rationale de Belgique (1866, &c.) in
progress; see also articles by Emile Verhaeren in the
Revue des
revues (15th June 1896), by Albert Mockel in the
Revue
encyclopedique (24th July 1897); a collection of criticisms
chiefly on Belgian writers by Eugene Gilbert,
France et
Belgique; etudes litteraires (1905); Frederic
Faber,
Histoire du theatre francais en Belgique (5 vols.,
1878-1880). An excellent
anthology of Belgian poets was published by
K. Pol de Mont with the title of
Modernites (1898). (E.
G.)
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