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 THE PAST 
 
 AND THE 
 
 FUTURE OF BELGIUM 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBERT J. CARNOY 
 
 PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITIES OF LOU VAIN (BELGIUM) AND CALIFORNIA 
 
 UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA- 
 
 .•. r 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Xlbc 1kn(cf?erbocf?er press 
 
 NEW YORK 
 1919 
 
 -' -? /« •- 
 
 -a5j29
 
 Copyright, 1919 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBERT J. CARNOY 
 
 TCbe ftnfcfterbocher press, Dew ^rft 
 
 0/OOf (i>33G
 
 — ' I 1 
 
 5 ?. T 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Belgium has been placed in special prominence by her 
 situation at the center of the greatest fight in history and 
 by her noble attitude during a long period of indescribable 
 sufferings. Many a name of her cities and villages has 
 been associated for ever with deeds of glory or shame. 
 Many a name of her sons has been added to the list of 
 heroes who have suffered for ideals dear to mankind, The 
 German intrigues as well as the discussions at the Peace 
 Conference have acquainted the whole world with special 
 aspects of Belgian nationality and Belgian politics. But all 
 this has been very fragmentary information, and numerous 
 are the persons in America who have the most friendly 
 interest for Belgiimi but know very little of that country, 
 her aspects, her inhabitants, the essential facts of her 
 history, the main features of her national character. 
 
 Particulars as to the amount of destruction wrought by 
 the Germans and about the part played by Belgium in the 
 war are also very desirable; but above all, in connection with 
 the restoration of the country and with its future, it will 
 be helpful to provide reliable and clear information to all 
 those who may come in contact with a nation that has now 
 indelible bonds of friendship with the United States. Both 
 countries will remain associated during the period of re- 
 construction and it is desirable that they know one another. 
 
 This is the idea which has inspired the present booklet 
 which in a condensed form treats of Belgium, her glorious 
 past, her ideals, her part in the war, her problems in the 
 near future, her possibilities, her place in the new world. 
 
 3
 
 Belgium before the War 
 
 THE COUNTRY 
 
 *' On a map of Europe of ordinary size, Bel^um is scarcely 
 more than a spot, and one often cannot help admiring the 
 skill displayed by some geographers in placing, on so small 
 a space, the seven letters of the name. The territory of 
 Belgium covers only about ^\» as much of the earth's 
 surface as the United States — Alaska included. A com- 
 parison with regard to population, however, produces a 
 different impression. The United States has only fourteen 
 times as many inhabitants as Belgium which in 191 4 had 
 7,425,784 people on an area of 11,373 square miles, or 652 
 to the square mile. This remarkable proportion exceeds 
 that of any other country, and since, on the other hand, 
 the number of people in the cities compared to the rural 
 population is smaller than in England and in Holland, one 
 may infer that the Belgian countryside is probably the 
 most densely populated in the world. Now, it is certainly 
 surprising that in spite of such a condition there is scarcely 
 any emigration from Belgium. Hardly more than 15,000 
 persons a year leave the little kingdom to settle in one of 
 the neighboring countries, mostly in France, and these 
 losses are largely replaced by an influx from France, Hol- 
 land, and Germany. The death rate and birth rate coin- 
 cide approximately with those of England, the Flemish 
 districts having however more births than the Wallonian 
 section.
 
 Another compensation for the very limited area is to 
 be found in the great variety of the geographical character 
 of the country. 
 
 Along the shore of the North Sea stretches a belt of 
 white dunes where tiny fishing villages are hidden in the 
 sandy valleys or pannes. In one of these valleys (La Panne) 
 stands the villa where the King and Queen took refuge 
 during the war. Behind these sand ramparts lie great 
 meadows, the "polders"; these are lower than the sea at 
 high tide, and since Roman times have been a choice graz- 
 ing ground for cattle. Beyond these, again, and to the 
 south comes the "Campine," a flat sandy district. This 
 was originally an arid, heather-grown country, but it has 
 been reclaimed by the Flemings, and in some places, 
 notably around Ghent and Antwerp, their perseverance has 
 turned it into an excellent garden-land. In the center of 
 Belgium is a clay soil which is extremely fertile, especially 
 in the district of Hesbaye. Formerly it was thickly wooded 
 with oaks and beeches, of which the Forest of Soigne is 
 a remnant. Now the woods are replaced almost entirely 
 by fields of corn and beets. Southern Belgium belongs 
 to an earlier geological period than the northern districts. 
 It is a region of carboniferous limestone, celebrated for its 
 quarries, and even more for its coal mines, which reach 
 from the French frontier to the country around Lidge. And 
 lastly there are the mountains of the Ardennes with their 
 wooded plateaus and their deep and sinuous valleys. 
 This part of Belgium is the most picturesque and the least 
 populous. 
 
 The towns and villages vary in appearance in the different 
 regions. In the north, in Flanders, one finds high bell-towers 
 and steeples, pointed gables, and gay coloring, whether 
 it be of the red brick in the towns, or of the red tiled roofs 
 and green shutters of the little white village houses. The 
 towns in the center of the country look modem and pros- 
 
 6
 
 perous. In the Ardennes any human habitations seem 
 lost in the valleys, almost undistinguishable from the blue- 
 gray of the rocks, because they are built of similar colored 
 stones. 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 The kingdom of Belgium was formed from these various 
 regions in 1830, but the ties which hold the diflerent prov- 
 inces together date from a much earlier time. In the 
 Middle Ages, when the country was still divided into 
 counties and duchies, held in part by France and in part 
 by the Empire, there was already a dawning of common 
 interests and of national feeling. Belgium was as it were 
 the crossroads of Europe. Here the products of the north 
 and of the south met, and here the ideas, the art, and the 
 literature of France and the Mediterranean countries found 
 their way among the Teutonic peoples. As a consequence 
 the merchant and artisan classes became influential, and at 
 the same time the towns became powerful as trading cen- 
 ters; and breaking away from the bonds of feudalism, 
 formed themselves into independent democratic com- 
 munities. Their love of independence was intensely felt 
 and expressed in 1^2 in the Battle of Courtrai, at which 
 time the people overthrew the feudal power of France; 
 and again, this spirit of freedom was reasserted in the 
 Hundred Years' War — when the communities of Flanders 
 combined under the leadership of Jacques van Artevelde 
 and claimed a political life of their own. The University 
 of Louvain, founded in 1423, formed a moral and intellec- 
 tual center for these provinces. The Dukes of Burgundy 
 succeeded in uniting the Netherland provinces politically. 
 
 In the sixteenth century they fought as a body for their 
 liberty and independence, which were threatened by Philip II 
 of Spain, who had inherited the provinces from his father, 
 
 7
 
 the Emperor Charles V. This revolution, in which rehgious 
 differences complicated' the political situation, ended in 
 the secession of the northern provinces, which formed a 
 prosperous repubHc, the Republic of the Netherlands. This 
 democratic community fostered the Calvinistic religion. 
 The southern provinces, on the other hand, were recon- 
 quered by Spain. They remained faithful to Catholicism, 
 and from then on began a life of their own. These Cath- 
 olic Netherlands were destined to become the present 
 Belgium. 
 
 In 1715 the country fell to Austria by right of succession. 
 Under this rule the Belgians persistently defended their 
 liberty and defiantly fought against the t^Tanny of Maria 
 Theresa and the schemes of Joseph II. At last, they re- 
 volted and formed an independent state, "The Republic 
 of the United States of Belgium." All the institutions of 
 the Burgundian times were revived, and the new nation 
 adopted a federal constitution not unlike that of the 
 United States of America. But the independence of the 
 Belgium Republic was soon smothered by the armies of 
 Austria and France. The French, however, were well 
 received, but under the influence of the extreme revolu- 
 tionar}^ party they established a regime which was antago- 
 nistic to the Belgian love for moderation. Certain local 
 uprisings, known as the "Peasant Wars," protested against 
 the anti-religious polic)' of the French Revolution. How- 
 ever, Napoleon put an end to persecution, reorganized the 
 country, improved the situation of Antwerp, and succeeded 
 in winning a fair amount of popularity in Belgium. 
 
 In iSlj, the Congress of Vienna decided to reunite the 
 Northern and Southern Netherlands, and placed them un- 
 der the scepter of William of Orange. His policy, how- 
 ever, was unfortunate: he favored his Dutch subjects at 
 the expense of the Belgians; and the result was a renewed 
 separation of the north and the south. In 1830 a revolution
 
 broke out in Brussels and spread to most of the Belgian 
 towns. A temporary government was organized with a 
 very liberal constitution which combined the local and 
 ancient communal liberties with the principles of the French 
 Revolution. 
 
 By this constitution the Belgians won liberties that 
 many a "free" nation might well envy: for instance, the 
 right to hold political gatherings, freedom of the press, 
 unrestricted education, freedom of religion and the right to 
 hold the services of any creed in public places, freedom of 
 speech, equality of every citizen before the law ,and privacy 
 of correspondence. 
 
 Since 1^830 the trend of Belgian politics has been toward 
 increasing liberty and justice. Two parties have been con- 
 stant rivals, the "Catholics," or traditional evolutionists, and 
 the "Liberals," who held the ideas of the French Revolu- 
 tion. At first there was a cessation of party strife and a 
 period of organization under the minister Charles Rogier; 
 then the Liberals came into power under the lead of Fr^re- 
 Orban. In 1879 they passed an education bill which hurt 
 the religious feelings of a great part of the population. In 
 1884 there was a reaction and the "Catholic" party became 
 dominant, and has been in power ever since. 
 
 In the last thirty years, however, the party has undergone 
 a gradual evolution. Side by side with the conservative 
 element there has grown up a "Young Right" with a 
 decidedly democratic program. Together with the Socialist 
 party this wing of the "CathoHcs" is working for legisla- 
 tion in favor of the laboring classes. 
 
 In this last epoch Belgium had a time of great economic 
 prosperity, due, in part at least, to the stimulating and 
 enterprising spirit of Leopold II, who encouraged indus- 
 trial expansion. Leopold also made great eflorts to estab- 
 lish a colony for his country by founding the Congo Free 
 State, which has since then been taken over by Belgium. 
 
 9
 
 He also contributed to the building of the forts along the 
 Meuse, and to the development of the army. Neverthe- 
 less it was not until 191 2 that universal service was intro- 
 duced, and in 19 14 the forces so raised were still insufficient 
 to repel an invasion. 
 
 LANGUAGES AND RACES 
 
 When the Romans came to Belgium the country was 
 inhabited by the Belgae, a group of Celtic tribes related 
 to the people of Gaul or France. These tribes put up a 
 stout resistance to the armies of Cassar who paid due tribute 
 to their courage. "The bravest of all the Gauls," he says 
 in his memoirs, "are the Belgae." They finally, however, 
 had to give way, and, as in other parts of Gaul, the Latin 
 of the conquerors replaced the Celtic dialects and became 
 the prevailing language of the country. 
 
 From the third century of our era, the north of Belgiiim, 
 which consists of a vast plain offering no resistance to any 
 invader coming from the Rhine, was overrun by Germanic 
 tribes. They devastated the country, took possession of 
 the land, and then formed their settlements in this desolate 
 region. Of these tribes the Franks were the best known. 
 By the fourth century they were well established in Flanders 
 and the Campine, that is in the districts now inhabited by 
 their descendants, the Flemings. In 406 a.d., the Frankish 
 warriors appeared much farther south and took possession 
 of the greater part of Gaul, which from that time has been 
 called France. Nevertheless they did not drive out the 
 Gallo-Romans, who lived on in this country and kept their 
 customs and speech; and from their Latin is derived the 
 French language with all its different dialects, notably Wal- 
 loon, which is spoken in the south of Belgium. This southern 
 portion of the country, being cut off from the northern 
 plains by the " Foret Charbonni^re," escaped Germanization. 
 
 10
 
 Since this time, therefore, there have been two languages 
 in Belgium, the Flemish dialects in the north, which are 
 related to Dutch, the Wallonian dialects in the south, which 
 are akin to French. 
 
 Nevertheless, this difference in speech has never resulted 
 in corresponding political divisions. At first the French 
 kingdom included both districts; then, when Charlemagne's 
 empire was broken up, although the people of Flanders 
 retained and spoke the Flemish language, Flanders never- 
 theless remained a part of the French territory. The 
 Wallonian countries, however, such as Hainault and the 
 Principality of L\6ge, along with Flemish Brabant, became 
 part of the Empire. In the County of Flanders there was 
 a long struggle between the Frenchified nobility — " Leli- 
 aerts," as they were called, being partisans of the Lilies 
 of France — and the middle and lower classes — the "Clau- 
 waerts" who upheld the Lion of Flanders (and his claws). 
 This conflict, however, was not a disagreement over lin- 
 guistic differences; it was a social and political disturbance. 
 
 Under the influence of the Dukes of Burgundy French 
 spread, even into the Flemish districts, and became the 
 language of the upper classes. Notwithstanding this an 
 important Flemish literature developed in the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries. 
 
 In the religious wars the Walloons formed the "Mal- 
 content" party and helped Spain to reconquer the southern 
 provinces of the Netherlands. After this most of the 
 Flemish literary men withdrew into the Dutch Republic, 
 and French gradually became the language of literary 
 and court circles, the prevailing language of Belgium. 
 This situation reached its climax under the French 
 rule of Napoleonic times. During the few years that 
 Belgium and Holland were united, William of Orange 
 insisted that in administrative affairs Dutch should 
 be the official language, and that French should never
 
 be used in diplomatic circles. The result was a strong 
 reaction . The constitution of 1 830 recognized both tongues, 
 but from then on French was used in the governmental 
 affairs, in the schools, and in the courts. Flemish became 
 merely a popular dialect with an archaic spelling which 
 almost concealed its identity with Dutch. Since the mass of 
 the Flemish people felt themselves drawn by their habits, 
 traditions, customs, and religion to the Walloons rather 
 than to the Dutch, the suppression of the Flemish 
 language at first excited no protest. The Flemish bour- 
 geoisie took especial pride in emphasizing its thorough 
 "Frenchness." Nevertheless, under the influence of Ro- 
 manticism there was a revival of Flemish literature. Lede- 
 ganck's patriotic poems and Conscience's historical novels 
 recalled the former glories of Flanders and taught the 
 Flemings to love their own language and their own country. 
 But, so long as the middle classes alone had the vote, this 
 movement was of no great importance. After 1893 the 
 workingmen and the peasants gained great influence, and 
 the politicians found themselves forced to favor, or at 
 least appear to favor, the claims of the "Flamingants," 
 whose ideas soon spread and made headway among the 
 enthusiastic students in the universities. Yet, there never 
 has been a Flemish political party, and the matter 
 did not attract the serious attention of the middle classes 
 till twenty years ago. The militant Flemings proposed that 
 a Flemish university be established. This plan was stub- 
 bornly opposed, especially by the middle classes in Flanders. 
 This proves clearly that there is no question of freeing an 
 oppressed nation, but rather a case of social evolution. 
 The same conclusion might be drawn concerning the avowed 
 hostility to Flemish things of the feminine element in Bel- 
 gium, because the women are attached to the French con- 
 ception of social life and to French fashion. The Flemings 
 proclaim that their aim is to tear down the barriers between
 
 the educated classes and the f)opulace, barriers which are 
 largely due to the difference in language. But they have 
 never for one moment let their program become con- 
 fused with that of the Pan-Gennans. The Belgians of 
 Gennan birth worked against the Flemings, and it was 
 only in 1915 that it occurred to the Germans to use the 
 Flemish movement as a means of sowing dissension 
 among the Belgians. They decided to make without delay 
 a Flemish university in Ghent. The chiefs of the " Flamin- 
 gants" saw through their trap at once, and refused to 
 associate themselves with the scheme. A few obscure 
 persons finally succeeded in forming a faculty; and mean- 
 while the newspapers and magazines in Germany spoke 
 enthusiastically of the "liberation of the Flemish people." 
 That being accomplished, they divided the administration 
 of Belgium into two, the Wallonian section and the Flemish 
 section; and, finally, the so-called Council of Flanders, com- 
 posed of almost wholly unknown individuals who were sub- 
 servient to the German Government, declared the political 
 independence of the Flemish countries. On February 18, 
 1918, this action was protested. Senators and deputies in 
 the occupied territories, the different district councils, and 
 even the Flemish societies and well-known people in the 
 Flemish region, emphatically denounced the deceptive plan 
 of the Council of Flanders. They realized that these Prus- 
 sianized tools were only "camouflaging" the real issues. 
 Hence the Court of Appeal in Brussels impeached the leaders 
 of this "activist" movement, charging that they were break- 
 ing the law forbidding sedition against the established gov- 
 ernment. The Germans, however, put an end to these 
 proceedings and deported three of the judges to Germany. 
 All this tyranny and false representation could have but 
 one result — that the Flemings decided to reject all outside 
 interference and to manage their own affairs in reconstruct- 
 ing Belgium; and the outlook for Belgium, at the present 
 
 13
 
 time, is hopeful and seems to indicate that the Belgians 
 will solve their problems in a way which will put an end 
 to the troubles of the Flemings at least when the reaction 
 provoked by the action of the "activists" will have abated. 
 
 At this moment, when every citizen is called on to give 
 himself, body and soul, to the building up of his country, 
 the government has realized that, if the Flemish patriotic 
 enthusiasm could be willingly and loyally given and util- 
 ized, valuable services would be rendered to their country. 
 Accordingly, on the 15th of October, 191 8, the government 
 gave official recognition to a commission established "to 
 introduce absolute equality between the two languages in 
 law and in practice, without endangering the national unity," 
 and in his inaugural address to the Chambers on the day 
 of his "joyous entry" into liberated Brussels, the King 
 solemnly confirmed this program. 
 
 NATIONAL CHARACTER 
 
 Despite their differences of race and language the Wal- 
 loons and Flemings have many customs and characteristics 
 in common. Both have a clear conception of the realities 
 of life. This realism is revealed in their popular philosophy, 
 in their art, their manners, and their humor; and both 
 love life too dearly to waste it in useless regrets and vain 
 desires: their practical spirit and good common sense 
 help them to smile, to make the best of their circiunstances, 
 to overcome their difficulties, and finally to use their mis- 
 takes as stepping-stones whereby they may rise to higher 
 and greater and nobler things. Their feelings are vivid 
 and intense — but not particularly refined; their vision is 
 accurate, but not far-reaching. They ardently love their 
 home life, their little coterie of friends, and even the dis- 
 trict in which they live. Both have a horror of pretense, 
 convention, and exaggeration, and both have a strong 
 
 14
 
 sense of justice united with a keen appreciation of the 
 rights. 
 
 Besides these characteristics, the Walloons have two 
 other qualities: a spirit of adaptability and an inexhaustible 
 fund of gayety. They are cordial, talkative, quick, and 
 clever. The Flemings are less quick-witted, but, when 
 they do make up their minds, they hold fast to their 
 opinions. They are somewhat suspicious, very independent, 
 and capable of violent or concentrated passions. Their 
 artistic sense is highly developed. Being very democratic, 
 independent, and hard to bend, they are very different 
 from the modern Germans. They are impulsive rather 
 than methodical and persevering, sensuous rather than 
 sentimental, and, in their expression of personality, they 
 are anything but conventional. 
 
 ART IN BELGIUM 
 
 Although the Belgians were influential in molding the 
 political and economic evolution of Europe, still they are 
 better known, and justly so, for the art treasures which 
 they have added to the artistic heritage of humanity. 
 
 The Belgians are extraordinarily gifted artistically, and 
 have given many proofs of an inspiration both forceful and 
 original. In every field of art the same characteristics 
 recur — strong imagination, clear perception, and intense 
 feeling. The Flemings in particular have a marked tend- 
 ency to visualize, and consequently to materialize their 
 ideas in plastic forms. They see colors better than forms, 
 hence their best work is done, not in sculpture, but in 
 painting. Theirs is an art which, along with great sin- 
 cerity, shows a fine grasp of life and essential details. Thus 
 it happens that the Flemings are often implacable realists, 
 very vigorous and, at the same time, excellent in doing 
 work which requires minute details. But their intense 
 
 15
 
 vision, accompanied by a certain concentration of feeling 
 also draws them, to some extent toward mysticism. Given 
 this temperament it is only natural that they should have 
 devoted themselves chiefly to painting. 
 
 The Flemish "primitives," such men as the Van Eyck 
 brothers, Roger Van der Weyden, Hans Memling, Dierik 
 Bouts, and others, are celebrated for the richness of their 
 coloring and the charming realism with which they have 
 expressed their mystical ideas. 
 
 The influence of the Italian renaissance was not long in 
 making itself felt in Flemish art, and its profound effect is 
 best seen in the works of Rubens who was the most gifted 
 and powerful interpreter of the Flemings' intense love for 
 life and color. Rubens's successors, Van Dyke, Jordaens, 
 Teniers, all gave proof of this same love for life; and the 
 latter two especially expressed the exuberant vitality of 
 the Flemish people. The influence of this school was still 
 felt in the painters of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
 turies, who, though clever men, are less well known. 
 
 The modem Belgian school has been remarkably active. 
 There is probably more painting going on in Belgiimi in 
 proportion to its size than in any other country. The 
 Flemish influence is still recognizable, but that of the 
 Paris schools is not less so. Several periods can be traced 
 in this movement. About 1850 the canvasses were vast 
 and the scenes represented were usually historical and full 
 of movement ; Leys and Wiertz are the best known artists 
 of this theatrical time, a time of fine execution and little 
 inspiration. There followed a period when genre painting 
 was in vogue, with interiors modeled after the manner of 
 the Dutch school. The great name of this time was De 
 Braekeleer. Soon, however, the idea of "art for art's 
 sake" arose and the Belgians were not the least auda- 
 cious of innovators. The movement is definitely towards 
 nature. There is a demand for open air, for fields and 
 
 16
 
 copses, for moonlight and sunset effects, and especially for 
 the color plays of mists and clouds. This is the period of 
 animal painters, such as Venvee, of impressionists like Van 
 Rysselberghe, and of the sunny landscape of Claus, the 
 stippler. 
 
 At the heyday of Flemish painting, sculpture had not 
 yet arisen in Flanders as an independent art, but was 
 chiefly occupied with architectural ornamentation. The 
 flamboyant-Gothic lacework found in such profusion on 
 the churches and town halls shows great technical ability, 
 and the statuettes, intermingled with the arabesques, are 
 often surprisingly realistic in idea and finely executed with 
 minute details. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centu- 
 ries this talent found expression mainly in wood carving, 
 of which a splendid example was the great hall of the 
 library at Louvain, destroyed when the city was burnt 
 down in 1914. It was only in the last few years that real 
 sculpture has developed in Belgium. Jef Lambeaux gave 
 much of the Flemish exuberance in his very realistic works, 
 but it was left for a Walloon, Constantin Meunier, to pro- 
 duce works of the first order. As is well known, his statues 
 are of working men in such poses as illustrate the effort of 
 man and his power in the struggle with nature. 
 
 Music also is a Belgian gift — as important and as fine 
 as their art of painting. The popular airs of the coun- 
 try are especially remarkable, whether they be the songs 
 of Flanders with their energy and sentiment, or the gay 
 Wallonian songs with their lilt and sparkle. Every village 
 has at least one musical society whose members often 
 show considerable talent; and even the street singers are 
 often gifted. Grdtry of Li^ge is the great Wallonian 
 musician, while the Flemings have a good title to claim 
 Van Beethoven as one of their own, since he belonged to an 
 Antwerp family although he lived in Germany. In more 
 modern times, C^sar Franck gave his genius to the founding 
 
 17
 
 of the French school. Peter Benoit, Jan Blockx, Tinel, 
 and others, inspired by Flemish energy and mysticism, 
 wrote music which has become deservedly popular. 
 
 The visitor to Belgium, though he may pass through all 
 too quickly, will rank the beauties of her churches and city 
 halls as fully equal to those of the pictures hung in her 
 museimis. They interpret the very soul of the Nether- 
 lands. The pride of the cities in their struggle for liberty 
 could not be better expressed than in the lofty belfries 
 which seem to pierce to the sky, and the rich ornamenta- 
 tion on the public buildings reveals the opulence of the 
 commvmities that built them; the lines of the cathedral 
 towers and their arches, as it were springing towards the 
 heavens, the capriciousness of their stone lace work in 
 its mysterious designs, the exquisite realism of their sculp- 
 ture, all these reflect different aspects of the old-time Flem- 
 ish mysticism. Here again appears the taste for flowery 
 detail, and the love for color shows in the painted work 
 and the robes of sacred statues. The result, to be sure, is 
 not conducive to purity of line. There were, however, two 
 striking examples of the ancient and more simple Flemish 
 Gothic art, the markets of Ypres and the vaulted markets of 
 Louvain, but both have been destroyed in this war. The 
 renaissance in Flanders produced a style of architecture 
 which is graceful rather than imposing, but which, with its 
 pointed roofs and steep gables, and its contrasts of white 
 stone and red brick, is particularly well suited to the country. 
 On the other hand, the eighteenth-centiiry rococo, when 
 applied with the usual Flemish prodigality, outdid its style 
 in richness as witnessed by the church of St. Michael at 
 Louvain and by many a highly decorated fagade in the great 
 square of Brussels. The classicism of the nineteenth century 
 took on a more sober form, though still preserving no little 
 grace. Some of the best examples of this style are to 
 be found in the neighborhood of the park in Brussels. 
 
 i8
 
 But the love for decoration ended in the degeneration of 
 
 the style, until it produced such results as the official build- 
 ings of the nineteenth century which are simply graceless 
 piles of stone covered with rather banal designs. In the 
 last twenty years there has been a salutary reaction. The 
 classic style is still in vogue for big buildings, but it is now 
 more controlled and therefore purer. The churches and 
 even some of the public buildings arc neo-Gothic. The 
 Palais de Justice in Brussels shows marked originality. It 
 is composed of motifs borrowed from various styles, com- 
 bined very happily to produce a harmonious whole. The 
 result is imposing, although not very elegant. Modem art, 
 with its bold curves or cubic outlines has affected a large 
 number of Belgian architects; and the newer residence 
 quarters of the towns are full of surprising fagades — some 
 of which are really beautiful. 
 
 BELGIAN LITERATURE 
 
 It has often been said that the Belgian has more gift for 
 art than for literature. He has not the Frenchman's 
 rapidity of conception nor his ease in expression. He has 
 more humor than wit and more feeling than ideas. This, 
 however, only proves that his gift is for another kind of 
 literature than that of the Frenchman. For instance, 
 although he is fond of comedy, he rarely succeeds in writ- 
 ing that kind of plays. His novels, which are sometimes 
 interesting, generally have weak plots. Nevertheless he 
 can tell a story well and with humor. Froissart and 
 Comines, the two best mediaeval historians who used the 
 French language, were Walloons. Though these two wTote 
 in French, there was growing up at that time a Flemish 
 literature, consisting chiefly of moral and satirical poems. 
 At the end of the sixteenth century, when the southern 
 
 19
 
 provinces of the Netherlands had been reconquered by 
 Spain, the Flemish authors emigrated to Holland; and it 
 was there that the tragedian Vondel wrote some of his 
 greatest plays. For two centuries there were no important 
 writers, but in the nineteenth century a reaction fortu- 
 nately set in. Some of the moderns wrote in French and 
 some in Flemish. The Belgian literature, written in the 
 French language, dates principally from 1880; and it shows 
 the influence of the group known as "Young Belgium." 
 The novelists, of this time, men like Camille Lemonnier 
 and Georges Eeckhoud, wrote in a vigorous and realistic 
 style: a mode of expression, which, with its fervid and 
 ardent sincerity, its persuading and convincing power, 
 seems to have reached its climax in the works of those 
 robust personalities; the poets, however, George Roden- 
 bach, Edmund Le Roy, Charles Van Lerberghe, Max 
 Elskamp, and Albert Mockel were symbolists. The last 
 named of these, as editor of the magazine La Wallonie, 
 exerted a great influence over the symbolist movement in 
 France as well as in Belgium. But of the whole group, 
 the best known names are those of Maurice Maeterlinck 
 and Emil Verhaeren, the former of whom has won a world- 
 wide reputation by his plays and his philosophic studies. He 
 has tried to explain the subconscious and mysterious side 
 of the human soul. Emil Verhaeren, on the other hand, 
 has written forceful poems which glorify labor and the 
 ideals of the modern world. Flemish literature is devoted 
 to its native land, singing of the glorious past of Flan- 
 ders, and calling on the Flemings to remain loyal to their 
 own language and their traditions. The novelist Con- 
 science is the most popular of Flemish writers. Quite 
 recently the lyric poetry of Guido Gezelle and the novels 
 of Stijn Streuvels (F. Latteur) have by their originality 
 and their very real excellence called attention to this litera- 
 ture which is growing very important in Belgitun.
 
 SCIENCE IN BELGIUM 
 
 The Belgian love of art goes hand in hand with a taste 
 for science. 
 
 Until the fifteentli century the Netherlands had no fa- 
 mous schools; students went to Paris or Bologna. In 1425, 
 just as the Belgian provinces were being united under the 
 rule of the Dukes of Burgundy, the University of Louvain 
 was founded, and since then it has been the intellectual 
 center of the country. A number of books were printed 
 there from 1470 on, in the press of John of Westphalia. 
 These books fonned the foundation of the fine collection 
 which was destroyed when the library of Louvain was 
 burned down in 1914. After 1502 Louvain, thanks to the 
 fame of Erasmus, became the meeting place for classical 
 scholars in northern Europe, especially when the "Three 
 Languages College" was started; it then became famous 
 through its scholars, Barthelemy Masson, whom Francois 
 I made head of the "College de France," Jan Bosche 
 who went to Paderborn, and Justus Lipsius who added 
 luster to the University of Leyden and then returned 
 to his Alma Mater. Louvain scholars attained celebrity 
 in various fields. Vesalius founded the modern school of 
 anatomy, Mudaeus introduced the methode elegante of inter- 
 preting Roman law; Jansenius, Baius, and other theolo- 
 gians had much influence on the evolution of ideas in 
 the seventeenth century; Alinckeleers experimented and 
 worked out a method of utilizing gas as a means of illumi- 
 nation. Hagiography became a science under the direc- 
 tion of the Jesuits; and one of the order, a Belgian named 
 Bolland, started the immense collection of Lives of Saitits 
 which his disciples are still publishing at Brussels. There 
 were many names during the nineteenth century which 
 brought honor to Belgian science, but this is not the place 
 to list them. Nevertheless, it is fitting that the following
 
 should be mentioned — Gevaert and F^tis, universally known 
 as historians of music, the psychologist Delboeuf , the jurist 
 Nys, celebrated for his works on international law, the 
 geologist Andr^ Dumont, the mathematician de la Valine 
 Poussin, the biologists Van Beneden and J. B. Camoy, 
 the philologists Willems and de Hariez, the historian Kurth, 
 the economist Waxweiler, and the philosopher Cardinal 
 Mercier. 
 
 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS 
 
 It has been said already that the government which 
 Belgium gave herself in 1830 is one of the most liberal in 
 all Europe, in spite of the fact that it is a monarchy. It 
 should be remembered that the king is "King of the Bel- 
 gians," not "King of Belgiimi." All his power is given 
 him by the nation and he has not one right that has not 
 been granted to him by the constitution. He swears to 
 "Obey the constitution and the laws of the Belgian people, 
 to maintain national independence, and to keep the coun- 
 try's territory inviolate." His powers are the right to 
 call together and to dissolve the Chambers, to command 
 the army, to declare war, to make treaties for peace, for 
 alliance, and for commerce, and to grant pardons. He acts 
 generally through his ministers who, though appointed by 
 him, are responsible to the Chambers. Nevertheless, the 
 Belgian kings have had a real influence in molding the 
 destiny of their country, but it has been altogether due to 
 their personal character. 
 
 In Belgium there is no privilege given to birth, the Senate 
 and the House of Representatives both being elected. 
 There are, it is true, certain differences in the forms of the 
 summons to attend the sittings, and the sufiErage rights of 
 the citizens are not all alike, but these variations are not 
 in any way based on hereditary privileges.
 
 Up to 1893 a citizen, before he could vote, must have 
 paid a certain sum in taxes to the state. This custom was a 
 relic of the middle-class democracy which was established in 
 France and Belgium in 1830. The Liberal party, which 
 looked for its support to the bourgeoisie of the towns, and 
 which had preserved much of the viewpoint of 1830, hesi- 
 tated to introduce universal suffrage. Moreover the idea 
 was repugnant to the Belgian mind which is no friend of 
 extremist measures. So the plan proposed by Professor 
 Nyssens was adopted, which brought in a modified form of 
 universal suffrage arranged to give preponderance to the 
 more intelligent and thoughtful of the population and to 
 those who would have the most interest in seeing that the 
 public affairs were well managed. This system, known as 
 the "plural vote," gave one vote to every citizen twenty- 
 five years of age, two additional votes to college graduates, 
 one additional vote to married men at least thirty-five 
 years old, and one additional vote to each person owning 
 his home. The maximum number of votes allowed 
 was three. This plan succeeded in slightly reducing 
 the influence of the common workers, massed in the in- 
 dustrial centers, who it was feared might exercise a real 
 tyranny in the land, because they were uneducated and 
 very easily swayed by the politicians. The "plural vote" 
 system was thus inspired by very sane democratic ideals, 
 but unfortunately it looked like a privilege accorded to the 
 upper classes, and it was so complex that the people sus- 
 pected it. Thus the abolition of this system became the 
 platform for opposition parties. To put an end to this 
 cause of dissension at this time, when complete union of all 
 parties is necessary for the reconstruction of the country. 
 King Albert, in his address to Parliament on the 21st of 
 last November, states that his government is prepared 
 to introduce equal suffrage. 
 
 Notwithstanding the privileges of the "plural vote" 
 
 23
 
 the universal suffrage of 1892 did away almost entirely 
 with the Liberal party, and favored both the Catholics, 
 supported by the Flemish peasantry, and the Socialists, 
 elected by the workmen in the Wallonian country. 
 This situation facilitated the establishment of propor- 
 tional representation. Since then the country has been 
 divided into great electoral districts, each of which 
 elects a large number of representatives. These are distri- 
 buted between the different parties in proportion to the 
 number of votes they receive. In this way no vote is 
 lost. The Liberal and Socialist minorities in Flanders, 
 and the Liberal and Catholic minorities in the Walloon 
 districts have been represented since then. This arrange- 
 ment prevents passing opinions from having any decisive 
 influence on the composition of the parliament, and gives 
 great stability to the various parties. Elections become 
 more a test of party strength than an opportunity for the 
 mass of the people to participate actively and directly in 
 the government. This system is the open recognition of a 
 state of affairs which has been growing up in many modern 
 democracies. 
 
 The secrecy of the ballot is rigorously preserved and a 
 law, providing that every citizen must vote, is a guarantee 
 that the election will not be falsified by the withholding 
 of votes. 
 
 Such is the procedure in the election of the members of 
 the Chamber of Representatives. The Senate was destined 
 by those who formed the constitution in 1830 to be a con- 
 servative body occupied in amending the bills put before 
 it by the other Chamber. Consequently it was stipulated 
 that Senators could only be elected from among citizens 
 who were at least forty years of age, and who also paid a 
 considerable sum in taxes to the state. The electors must 
 be thirty years old; otherwise the electoral body is similar 
 to the one which chooses the Chamber of Representatives. 
 
 24
 
 The Provincial Councils elect senators whom they choose 
 without regard to the taxes they pay. These councils are 
 to be found in every district, looking out for the interests 
 of that part of the country; they have no particular im- 
 portance in general politics, but as they have control of 
 the provincial funds they are very powerful locally. They 
 elect a "Deputation Pennanente" who, along with the 
 Governors chosen by the King, administer the finances and 
 supervise the decisions of the Communal Councils. These 
 latter are 'independently elected by the communes, both 
 by the towns and villages. So there are no "County 
 Councils" in Belgium. The autonomy of the communes 
 is carried very far; it is indeed a relic of the old time 
 liberties granted by the Netherlands. The burgomasters 
 (maires), although nominated by the King (i. e., the min- 
 isters), are really chosen by the communes, through a 
 majority vote of the Communal Council, which forms a 
 little parliament looking after the doings of the aldermen 
 and managing the municipal treasury. 
 
 In common with the communal officials the administra- 
 tors of justice have a great measure of independence. The 
 Belgian judges have a well-deserved name for probity 
 and impartiality, and their attitude during the German 
 occupation of the country was worthy of their reputation. 
 The members of the "Cour de Cassation" (Supreme Court) 
 and of the Courts of Appeal are chosen from candidates 
 presented by the Chambers and by the courts of justice 
 themselves. All the judges are Doctors of Law; their 
 appointment is permanent and their salaries fixed by law. 
 These last two facts make them quite independent of the 
 government. The creating of exceptional courts is for- 
 bidden. Criminal questions are solved in the Assize Courts 
 where a jury decides on the guilt of the accnised. 
 
 The police is under the control of the parish authorities 
 but the gendarmerie is a state police force especially charged 
 
 25
 
 to patrol the country districts and to serve the magistrates. 
 In the army the gendarmerie forms a picked corps. 
 
 Belgium was the first country in Europe to introduce the 
 system of solitary confinement. The prison at Ghent was 
 built in 1835 after the model of the Philadelphia Peniten- 
 tiary. In 1888 the systems of probation and parole were in- 
 troduced. Since then children's courts have been established. 
 
 In the domain of public instruction, Belgium is chiefly 
 concerned in protecting the freedom of the paterfamilias. 
 Compulsory primary education was only introduced at a 
 very late date; hence the number of illiterates in Belgium 
 is greater than in the neighboring countries, though the 
 situation is improving all the time. There are official 
 schools, built by the communes with the help of the state, 
 and private schools. The government subsidy since 1913 
 has been divided between the schools, public and private, 
 in proportion to the number of their pupils and without 
 reference to their confessional or unconfessional character. 
 This is a compromise arranged to put an end to a long- 
 standing quarrel between the Catholics, who wished to 
 retain religious instruction as a part of the public school 
 program, and the Liberal party, whose idea was to suppress 
 all such instruction and to refuse the state subsidy to 
 private and communal schools. 
 
 During the last twenty-five years Belgium has developed 
 an important labor legislation. The employment of women 
 and children in factories has been regulated; the number of 
 hours in the working day has been limited; minimum wages 
 have been introduced; the state has organized an old-age 
 pension scheme; employers' responsibility in case of accident 
 has been regulated by law; a working man's insurance act, 
 providing for cases of sickness and lack of employment, 
 has been adopted. Belgium has abandoned the laissez- 
 faire principle without falling into the German extreme of 
 state interference; the old methods of saving have been 
 
 26
 
 retained but have been embodied in a system of insurance 
 
 controlled by the state. But the most interesting of these 
 social laws is one relating to the housing problem, which 
 was introduced by M. Beernaert in 1889. Not only does 
 it tend to do away with slums but it allows the work- 
 ing man to become the owner of his house, which he 
 rents from the company, by paying a small sum each 
 month which includes the cost of the real estate, the 
 paying off of capital and an insurance. In this way, 
 by paying yearly installments of about 7.5% of the 
 value of the house, he may own it in twenty-five years. 
 Thanks to the insurance, should he die before the end of 
 the time, his family will come into possession of the real 
 estate. Because of this law and the low charges for build- 
 ing and low rents, the Belgian laborer is, as Mr. Rowntree 
 says, one of the best housed workman in the world. ' This 
 situation has been still further improved by the introduc- 
 tion of season tickets on the railroads, which allows the 
 workmen to be employed in town while living in the villages 
 where they can keep small farms. Their families have all 
 the advantages of fresh air and the increased income from 
 the cultivation of their small property. In this way, too, the 
 workman if thrown out of work is not so completely at a 
 loss as if he were in town. The condition of the Belgian 
 working man is thus far better than would seem possible 
 considering the low rate of wages. Moreover, the pur- 
 chasing power of these wages is greater than might have 
 been expected because the cost of living has always been very 
 low. In fact, the rate of saving in Belgium was, in 191 1, 
 thirty-six dollars per head, as against twenty-three dollars 
 per head in England. However, there are still great 
 advances to be made along this line, especially in Flanders, 
 but the growing strength of the trades-unions indicates 
 that great improvements will be made. The peasantry 
 ' Rowntree, Land and Labour. Lessons from Belgium, p. 458. 
 
 27
 
 are better off than the town laborers. Certain agricultural 
 associations known as boerenbonden have grown up. These 
 associations make wholesale purchases, rent farm machines 
 and draft horses to the small farmers, establish coopera- 
 tive dairies, and organize agricultural instruction in the 
 country districts. In short these boerenbonden allow the 
 small holder to enjoy the same advantages as the great farm- 
 ers, and they unite the peasants in groups strong enough 
 to force the parliament to look out for the agrarian interest. 
 The Raffaisen Banks, which were organized to help the 
 working men, make small advances to the farmers at low 
 interest, thus allowing them to improve their fields, to 
 drain and irrigate their land, to build greenhouses or to 
 buy cattle. Therefore, it is not remarkable that the culti- 
 vation in Belgitmi should be as intensive as anywhere 
 in the world. The following is the production per acre of 
 the various cereals in Belgium and the neighboring countries* : 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Rye 
 
 Oats 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 Belgium 33KB. 
 France 19 B. 
 Germany 27 B. 
 Great Britain 30 B. 
 
 31KB. 
 
 15KB. 
 
 23 B. 
 
 54KB. 
 
 26XB. 
 
 38KB. 
 
 39B. 
 
 6.7 ton 
 3 
 
 The best results are generally obtained from the small 
 farms, the average size of a holding being 143^^ acres as 
 against 63 acres in England. Thus the greater nimiber of 
 the farmers cultivate their own land. Out of one hundred 
 cultivators there are only thirty-five paid laborers. In 
 England these figures are exactly reversed. 
 
 This agricultural prosperity has been increased in the 
 last few years by the development of light railways ("Che- 
 mins de fer Vicinaux"). These little lines have local 
 
 ' Rowntree, ibid., p. 178. 
 
 28
 
 interest only and offer no very brilliant prospects to 
 their shareholders; but the Belgian Government en- 
 couraged the fonnation of a "National Organization of 
 Local Railways," a serai-official body which has a monopoly 
 of the light railways and is guaranteed by the state, the 
 shares being held by the state, the provinces or the com- 
 munes. Each line is built by certain men who in turn 
 lease the railway to another company. These tenants 
 operate the roads. The advantages of this system are, 
 first, that it prevents excessive centralization and bureau- 
 cratic complications and, on the other hand, that it makes 
 possible the construction of lines which would bring in 
 very little, or would not even pay at all for a number of 
 years. The expense is small because the tracks are laid 
 along the roads, very light material is used, and country 
 inns are quite often used for the stations. In this manner 
 the railroads are run without actual loss and contribute a 
 great deal to the success of farming in out-of-the-way dis- 
 tricts. The percentage of local railways in Belgium in 
 191 8 was 22.8 miles per square mile of country, whereas 
 in Germany it was only 2.6, in France 1.8, and in England 
 0.38 miles per square mile. 
 
 It should be remembered that these local lines are only 
 supplementary to the regular railways, which have also 
 developed quite remarkably in Belgium. There are about 
 three thousand miles of track, that is 30.29 to every square 
 mile as against 22.38 in England, 15.72 in Germany, and 
 11.72 in France. Almost all these lines are owned by the 
 state. 
 
 There is a fine system of canals in Belgium, especially 
 in the north, which makes it possible to transport heavy 
 loads at a low charge. The port of Antwerp is the natural 
 exit and entrance to this network of waterways. It was 
 known among European ports for the ease with which any 
 vessel unloading there could find another cargo. Antwerp 
 
 29
 
 was not only the natural export-harbor for Belgian pro- 
 ducts but was also an important port of transit. It is 
 noteworthy that, contrary to a fairly current opinion, 
 German trade was not the most important. Statistics 
 show that Antwerp's commerce was half with England 
 and only one fifth with Germany. 
 
 Belgium's commerce, in proportion to the population, was 
 the most flourishing in the world. In 1913 it amounted 
 to about nine milliards of francs ($1,800,000,000). Strictly 
 speaking Belgium ranked fifth, coming after England, 
 Germany, the United States, and France. This was due 
 partly to the nation's favorable position and the industry 
 of the inhabitants, and also in an almost equal degree to 
 the natural resources of the country. These latter are 
 mostly a result of the agricultural prosperity which has 
 already been mentioned: for, although Belgium could 
 not produce enough com for her dense population (four 
 fifths of the wheat consumed in the country was im- 
 ported), she was able to export sugar, vegetables, and fruit. 
 The chief mining wealth was coal, the output of which was 
 equal to that of Russia and about half that of France, but 
 much less than the production in England and the United 
 States. The recent discovery of a large coal bed in the 
 north of the country gives promise that the coal supply of 
 Belgium may double in a few years. The iron mines are 
 to a great extent worked out, but the Grand Duchy of 
 Luxemburg and Lorraine are both near enough to supply 
 material for a great deal of metal work in Belgium. The 
 production of steel was more than half that of the French, 
 a third of the English and a seventh of the German. For- 
 merly there was a large supply of zinc found in "La Vieille 
 Montagne" near Lidge but the veins are now exhausted, 
 and the industry has developed with imported material. 
 In 1 9 14 Belgium handled a quarter of the annual zinc supply 
 of the world. The quarries, which are another considerable 
 
 30
 
 source of Belgian wealth, brought in sixty-two million francs 
 a year. They contain bluestone for building, limestone, 
 black and red marbles in the Wallonian district, chalky 
 stones from the country round Maestricht, porphyry for 
 paving stones from South Brabant. 
 
 The public debt was relatively small — $1,200,000,000 
 in 1 914, of which about half was represented by the state 
 railways. Belgium was one of the most lightly taxed 
 countries in the world. 
 
 THE BELGIAN CONGO 
 
 At the conclusion of the conference of Berlin in 1885, 
 Leopold II, King of the Belgians, was called to the sover- 
 eignty of the independent state of the Congo on account 
 of the part he had taken in the struggle against slavery 
 in Central Africa. Between the new state and Belgium there 
 was only a personal union. The power of the sovereign 
 of the Congo was absolute. The Congo State experienced 
 at first quite a difficult period, then came prosperity, due 
 especially to the export of rubber. A part of the revenue 
 from the colony became the property of the King of the 
 Belgians, who employed it particularly to beautify Brussels 
 and its vicinity. Various charges have been made against 
 the administration of the independent state of the Congo. 
 It has been proved that most of these accusations, which 
 in no case concerned Belgium, were unfounded. The 
 action of the principal accusers, Messrs. Morel and Case- 
 ment, in the present war renders moreover their testimony 
 highly questionable. 
 
 A short time before the death of Leopold II, the Congo 
 was taken over by Belgitun. King Albert at his succession 
 to the throne emphasized in quite a special way in his 
 address to the Chambers and also on the occasion of the 
 inaugiu-ation of the Museum at Tervueren the necessity 
 
 31
 
 for extending to all of the Congo a rule worthy of Belgium. 
 He recommended to the Chambers that they vote a series 
 of decrees, which, as he said, had for their aim the happi- 
 ness of the native population, and were prompted by a 
 liberal policy, for "we should enjoy the respect of our neigh- 
 bors, and, surrounded by other sympathetic nations, ad- 
 vance unceasingly in the path of progress." A short while 
 before his coming to the throne, Albert I had visited the 
 colony. The first minister of the colonies, Mr. Renkin, 
 did likewise, and it was in the colony itself that he elaborated 
 most of the plans of which the King had spoken. Under 
 the direction of Mr. Renkin, great progress was realized. 
 The sleeping sickness was combated, while a chain of 
 important lines of railroads and the creation of an impor- 
 tant fleet of river boats facilitated the development of the 
 colony. The missions were doubled, the mining region 
 of Katanga was explored. The war has not interrupted 
 these activities: the copper mines are being developed, 
 and several months ago the last rail was laid on the line 
 connecting Katanga with the network of lakes in Central 
 Africa. 
 
 The native army was also increased and the fidelity of 
 the blacks (remarkable examples of this have been pub- 
 lished) proves their attachment to the present government. 
 
 The war has produced great prosperity in the Belgian 
 colony. In 1916, the exports amounted to 129,200,006 
 francs against 46,391,000 francs of exports. 
 
 32
 
 black troops in the state so that the Belgians at first 
 directed their contingents against Cameroon. These, joined 
 to the French troops of Gaboon, went up the valley of the 
 Sanga, and on the 28th of January, 1916, entered Yaunde, 
 the capital of Cameroon. 
 
 German East Africa was provided with numerous black 
 troops, well armed and commanded by many European 
 oflRccrs. The war supplies had been increased from the 
 armament of the cruiser Kocnigsherg. The Belgians were 
 therefore obliged at the beginning to hold themselves on 
 the defensive while provisions and ammunition were being 
 transported across the vast continent — partly on the backs 
 of the men. 
 
 In March, 191 6, General Tombeur felt strong enough to 
 launch an offensive, which was energetically directed. On 
 the 3d of July, at Kato, the main body of the German army 
 was cut to pieces. On the 26th of September, after other 
 engagements, the Belgians entered Tabora, capital of the 
 colony, and there delivered 189 Europeans belonging to 
 the allied nations. They had captured from Germany 
 about 120,000 square miles. Their offensive powerfully 
 aided those of the English in the northern part of the same 
 colony. 
 
 In Russia, a Belgian division of armed motor-cars ren- 
 dered valuable service during the offensive of 191 7. Tliey 
 opened up the way for the infantry at Koniuchy; they 
 covered the retreat on the Tamopol route and stopped the 
 enemy — sometimes for whole days. 
 
 MORAL AND DIPLOMATIC INFLUENCE OF 
 BELGIUM 
 
 It is always contrary to the rules of international law 
 to enter by force with an army the territory of a neutral 
 country in such a way as to reap any advantage whatso- 
 
 37 
 
 i45<:9
 
 ever in a war with another nation. In the case of the viola- 
 tion of the neutrality of Belgium by Germany, the injustice 
 takes on a special character. Belgium was, in fact, re- 
 duced to a state of neutrality imposed by a treaty. This 
 was a double contract. On one hand, the five contracting 
 powers (England, Austria, France, Prussia, and Russia) 
 agreed, in relation to Belgium, to abstain from all acts of 
 hostility on her territory on condition that she should 
 abstain from forming alliances and from entertaining any 
 political ambitions. On the other hand, there was an 
 agreement on the part of each of these powers in relation 
 to the others to respect Belgian neutrality. This stipula- 
 tion was the principal reason for the treaty of London: for 
 the powers wished to prevent any one among them from 
 reaping any advantage in occupying Belgitun or in forming 
 an alliance with her. Belgium had kept her word in resisting 
 by all means any attempt of this kind. For this reason 
 she had always kept an army, but this had been maintained 
 in modest proportions not only because she had confidence 
 in the promise of the guaranteeing powers but also in order 
 to avoid any suspicion among them that Belgiimi was 
 entertaining any idea of political aggression. The relative 
 weakness of the Belgians, before the German attack, there- 
 fore, was due not only to their confidence in their neigh- 
 bors' word but to their scrupulous and faithful adherence 
 to the terms of the treaty. This adds to the odious char- 
 acter of Germany's act, the perfidy of which appears still 
 more complete when one takes into account the reiterated 
 assurances which she had given to Belgitmi, saying that 
 she intended to respect the treaty. 
 
 Bismarck had written in 1870: "In confirmation of my 
 assurances given by word of mouth, I have the honor to 
 restate to you in writing the declaration — superfluous if 
 one considers the treaties in force — that the North German 
 Confederation and its allies will respect the neutrality of 
 
 38
 
 Belgium, provided naturally that this country be respected 
 by the other belligerent." 
 
 In a speech of Von Jagow, minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 to the Budget Committee of the Reichstag on April the 
 29th, 1913, he declared: "Belgian neutrality is guaranteed 
 by international conventions and Germany is determined 
 to respect these conventions." 
 
 On the 2d of August, 1914, Von Below, the German 
 Minister at Brussels stated to the Brussels newspaper edi- 
 tors: " The troops will not cross Belgian territory. Serious 
 events are impending. Perhaps you will see your neighbor's 
 house burned down but the fire will spare your own resi- 
 dence." 
 
 In spite of all these protestations, on this very day, the 
 2d of August, at seven o'clock in the evening, the same 
 minister delivered to M. Davignon, Belgian Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, a note announcing Germany's intention 
 of sending her troops across Belgian territory with the aim 
 of averting a French attack by way of the Meuse valley. 
 (The Germans have since then acknowledged that there 
 was no indication that such an attack was being prepared.) 
 In case Belgium should oppose the passage of German 
 troops, she was to be considered as an enemy country. 
 The reply had to be given in twelve hours. 
 
 The members of the Belgian Government had little diffi- 
 culty in reaching an agreement among themselves and with 
 the King as to the nature of the reply to be made to this 
 ultimatum. It ends with these words: "The Belgian 
 Government by accepting the proposals made to it would 
 sacrifice the honor of the nation and at the same time betray 
 its duty in relation to Europe. Conscious of the r61e that 
 Belgium has played for over eighty years in the civilization 
 of the world, it refuses to believe that the independence of 
 Belgium can be preserved only at the price of the violation 
 of that neutrality. If this hope is deceived, the Belgian 
 
 39
 
 Govermnent is firmly determined to repulse by every means 
 in its power any violation of its rights." 
 
 This attitude of Belgium exposed it to the greatest dan- 
 gers. It was not, however, an attitude due to a vain pride 
 or to boldness, or to an exaggerated idealism. It was a 
 profound sense of the justice of her cause and of her duty 
 to Europe and to herself which led Belgium in the person 
 of King Albert and of her ministers to make unhesitatingly 
 these serious resolutions. They were entirely approved 
 by the nation. 
 
 This upright policy had a great moral effect on the war. 
 It had as a first result the intervention of England. This 
 country would have abandoned an age-old policy if she had 
 permitted an important power to take possession of Ant- 
 werp and of Flanders and thus to threaten Pas de Calais, 
 and the whole of Great Britain. A complete victory more- 
 over would have constituted a great danger for the British 
 Empire. In one way then it was a wise policy for England 
 not to detach herself from the Triple Entente and to enter 
 the struggle. On the other hand, however, it was a terrible 
 adventure to undertake with a very small army, the enor- 
 mous task of crushing the formidable German military 
 power. Great sacrifices had to be made by the nation 
 and, an ardent patriotism had to be aroused in the mass 
 of the English people who were rather inclining towards 
 pacificism. The undertaking would perhaps have been 
 beyond human strength if it had not been for the moral 
 shock produced by the German crime in Belgium. The 
 violation of neutrality had been followed by the contemp- 
 tuous words of the German chancellor referring to the treaty 
 as a "scrap of paper." Then had come the news of the 
 burning of Louvain with the horrors inflicted on the Belgian 
 population by the German armies. From the very beginning 
 of the campaign, the German conception of war, born of the 
 philosophy of Kullur, presented itself as diametrically op- 
 
 40
 
 posed to all the ideas of morality, of justice, and of human- 
 ity, the ideals dear to modern peoples. There was from 
 that moment a lofty aim in the war, an ideal to the defense 
 of which the whole world rallied, irrespective of political 
 opinions, class interests, or patriotism. 
 
 Belgium's heroic stand and the German atrocities in 
 Belgium not only facilitated the powerful intervention of 
 England but they produced a deep feeling in Italy and there, 
 also, strongly contributed to the creation of a state of mind 
 necessary to the great resolution of May, 1915. In the 
 small neutral nations of Europe there was, without doubt, 
 some fear caused by the cruelty of the Germans towards 
 the little country which dared to resist them, but sympathy 
 went to the victim in spite of the German propaganda, 
 which, particularly through the pen of the Swedish profes- 
 sor Steffin, attempted to represent the attitude of Belgium 
 as an act of folly. 
 
 In the United States the sympathy of the greater part 
 of the population for those who suffered unjustly in Bel- 
 gium expressed itself immediately in concrete acts. The 
 Commission of "Belgian Relief" was founded in October, 
 1914, and since that time the great nation of America has 
 not ceased to show proofs of a steadfast friendship for the 
 little country of Europe which suffered for principles dear 
 to every American. 
 
 The violation of her promises by Germany and her in- 
 describable conduct in Belgium had rapidly created a 
 public opinion which neither peaceful tendencies, nor the 
 Monroe doctrine, nor German propaganda — impudent or 
 cunning — could alter. The submarine exploits raised to 
 the highest pitch an exasperation which was already very 
 great; and the breaking off of diplomatic relations between 
 Washington and Berlin, caused by the actions of the Ger- 
 mans on the sea, had already been demanded with insist- 
 ence all over the country — in the name of Lincoln's great 
 
 41
 
 principles— when Germany established slavery in Belgium 
 by the deportation of workmen. 
 
 The noble conduct and the powerful letters of Cardinal 
 Mercier, proclaiming the imprescriptible rights of Christian 
 morality in the presence of the force founded on a bar 
 barous philosophy, made a profound impression among 
 Christians and especially on the entire Catholic world. 
 They helped to dissipate the clouds with which a very 
 insidious Austro-German propaganda had tried to disguise 
 among them, the true moral character of the conflict. To 
 the pacifists of every class who wish peace, if not at any 
 price at least above everything, the Cardinal held up the 
 sovereign rights of justice and the promise that the "last 
 word of this war shall be pronounced by the God of Justice." 
 
 The destruction of the University of Louvain moved the 
 entire thinking world, and the cltmisy manifesto of the 
 ninety-three German scholars, approving blindfolded all 
 the acts of their government and of their soldiers in Belgium, 
 struck another blow to the fellow-feeling which German 
 science had won in university centers. 
 
 BELGIAN MORAL EFFORT 
 
 The civilian population of Belgium had given proof of 
 courage in accepting all these risks of resistance to the will 
 of Germany; the army also immediately showed great 
 bravery, especially at Liege, under command of the intre- 
 pid General Leman. This effort from the beginning was, 
 however, a small thing in comparison with the long ordeals 
 which were to follow. The Belgian fighting men little knew 
 the electrifying effect of victory. Facing an innumerable 
 army and powerful instnmients of war, their task was to 
 dispute, foot by foot, the road with those who wished by a 
 withering march to crush nations insufficiently prepared 
 to resist them. Each heroic, stubborn resistance was 
 
 42
 
 followed by an order to retreat. Later, it was the long 
 waiting in the mud and stagnant water of the Yscr. Be- 
 hind the gloom of the drenching rains the soldier divined 
 the presence of an enemy who was torturing his people 
 and whom he could not think of pursuing until the general 
 situation of the front should make this offensive possible. 
 
 The invincibility of the Belgian attack in September, 
 19 1 8, showed that this army had been able to resist those 
 four years of ordeal without seeing its morale weaken. 
 
 The civilians, on the contrary, were in permanent con- 
 tact with the enemy, which fact caused it to be said that 
 "Belgium was the civilian front." Their attitude might 
 lead to the gravest consequences for the future of their 
 country. Germany conducted against them a continuous 
 warfare, seeking to compromise them in some way in order 
 to make the world believe that Belgitmi was accepting the 
 accomplished fact, attempting to separate them from the 
 Allies by an artful press, doing her utmost by a thousand 
 privations and by the severity of her rule to provoke a 
 feeling of discouragement — the necessary condition for a 
 shameful peace — striving to create a division between the 
 rich and the poor, the townspeople and the peasants, the 
 refugees and the Belgians who had remained in the country, 
 between the Catholics and the free-thinkers, the Flemings 
 and the Walloons, by slandering the King, the Queen, the 
 Cardinal, the government, etc. 
 
 All this was of no avail. The population of Brussels 
 and of the province remained inflexible in the attitude of 
 passive resistance in the face of the invader. The authori- 
 ties set the example. The sovereigns and the government 
 had shown the way. They were followed by the burgo- 
 masters who, on the arrival of the enemy, assumed a fear- 
 less attitude; for example Air. Max in Brussels, Count 
 Visart de Bocarm^ at Bruges, Mr. de Lalieux at Nivelles. 
 
 The corporation of lawyers of Brussels in the person of 
 
 43
 
 Mr. Theodor protested against the manner of administering 
 justice in Belgium in the tribunals organized by the Ger- 
 mans. This act cost him a long imprisonment in Germany. 
 The judges, also, by causing the arrest of the traitors who, 
 with the support of Germany, were attempting to divide 
 Belgimn, exposed themselves to the severities of the in- 
 vader. Exile and imprisonment were likewise inflicted on 
 Professors Pirenne and Frederic for having refused to 
 support the German plan concerning the founding of a 
 Flemish university at Ghent. 
 
 Many leading men were condemned for having refused 
 to make their workmen labor for the enemy; for refusing 
 absolutely to give information to the enemy for the purpose 
 of deportation; for having protested against some abuse of 
 power, or under the accusation of either having communi- 
 cated with relatives outside of Belgitmi, or of having assisted 
 a young man to the frontier, or of having read or spread 
 abroad a prohibited pamphlet. Many are those who lost 
 their lives in such manner — either by contracting diseases 
 in German camps or by facing the bullets of a firing squad. 
 
 The victims were still more numerous among the work- 
 men deported to Germany or forced to labor behind the 
 lines. The percentage of deaths among those who were 
 sent back home, after the complete exhaustion of their 
 strength, is frightful. 
 
 Notwithstanding this cruel treatment and in spite of 
 threats and of all kinds of temptation, the working class 
 remained obstinate in spite of the efforts of the Germans 
 to make them work for their advantage. The resistance 
 of the workmen in the machine-shops in Malines, Luttre, 
 and Lidge, and the firmness of the quarrymen of Lessines 
 were particularly obstinate. In the face of deportation, 
 the Belgian workmen sent a protest to all their brethren in 
 the neutral countries. It ended with these words : "Work- 
 men, from the depth of our misery, we count on you. Act ! 
 
 44
 
 As for us, even if force succeeds for a time in subjecting 
 our bodies to servitude, never shall our souls submit. We 
 add this: Whatever be our torture, we wish peace only 
 with the independence of our country and the triumph of 
 justice." 
 
 Carried o(T to Germany, they sufTcred all kinds of torture 
 for havin)^ refused to sign a work contract. Subjected 
 to forced labor in Flanders or in Northern France, they 
 went on long strikes, doing the least amount of work pos- 
 sible, while some of the more unconquerable spirits were 
 subjected in the detention camps to a regime of starvation. 
 
 Those who were ruined by sack and fire were just as 
 courageous and as calm as the workmen. In the large 
 crowds flocking towards Brussels after the destruction of 
 Louvain, there was no hysterical passion against their 
 tormentors, no despondency or despair. There was a 
 resigned sadness, great faith in a final victory and retri- 
 bution, a certain satisfaction in having been able to bear 
 the ordeal, a desire to conceal from the Germans any feeling 
 of suffering. As for those who were put to death, they dis- 
 played not stoicism but bravery. They accepted death 
 always without fear and often with heroism, as did young 
 Pierre Hoogerheyde of Reckheim who was executed at Char- 
 leroi in the spring of 1918; who refused to be blindfolded 
 and himself gave the order to fire. 
 
 Far from terrifying the people, as the Germans purposed 
 to do, these executions only made the Belgians hate the 
 invader and strengthened their determination to hold out 
 to the end. This end they could conceive of in no other 
 way except as a victory to be gained for their rights. 
 This unshakable confidence in the future, which sustained 
 them in their long ordeal, they kept, notwithstanding the 
 efforts of the enemy to convince them by their placards 
 and their newspapers that the cause of the Allies was defi- 
 nitely lost. These attempts to poison their minds were 
 
 45
 
 thwarted, above all by a powerful and fearless clandestine 
 press which defied all the efforts of the rapacious German 
 administration to strangle it. These little newspapers, 
 these pamphlets, never ceased to publish the heroic acts of 
 their countrymen, the allied victories, the German crimes. 
 If the attempt at moral suppression was thwarted in this 
 way by Belgian ingenuity, it was the same with the attempts 
 made by the enemy to imprison the Belgians in their coun- 
 try. The only frontier in the direction of a neutral nation 
 — that of Holland — was defended by a triple wire in which 
 ran an electric current at a high pressure. There were, 
 besides, a canal, barbed-wire fences, and a hedge of sen- 
 tinels who fired without pity on every person suspected of 
 attempting to escape. In spite of this severity ahout 
 twenty thousand young men escaped from jail in order 
 that they might join the Belgian army; and many were the 
 circumstances under which numerous others for serious 
 reasons ran the same risk. A great many lost their lives 
 or their liberty in this way, but a greater number succeeded 
 in passing the border — thanks to their incredible cleverness. 
 Among these escapes the best known are those of the 
 boats Scaldis at Antwerp and of Atlas V at Li^ge, each of 
 which by an act of remarkable daring succeeded in taking 
 an important group of Belgians into Holland. 
 
 SUFFERINGS OF THE WAR 
 
 A relative famine was the portion of all the peoples of 
 Europe during this long war. The Belgians suffered from 
 it more especially for two reasons. The very dense popula- 
 tion of the country makes it necessary, even in times of 
 peace, to import a large part of its provisions, and the 
 country found itself, on account of the German occupation, 
 cut off from the rest of the world, except from Holland. 
 On the other hand, the almost complete suppression of all 
 
 46
 
 industry by Germany stopped the economic life of the 
 nation, and millions of people were reduced to want. 
 These people were not able themselves to buy food and 
 became dependent on the public distribution. In addition 
 to this, let it be remembered that there were unceasing 
 requisitions of food made by Germany, especially in the 
 campaigns in Flanders; and it will be readily understood 
 why a frightful famine would have spread over the country 
 if the "Belgian Relief" had not come to avert this catas- 
 trophe. The Belgian Government could hardly hope that 
 Germany would carefully fulfill the duties of an occupying 
 power and furnish to the invaded regions a sufficient quan- 
 tity of food. It was probable that Germany herself, 
 suffering from famine on account of the blockade to which 
 she was subjected, would allow the Belgians only a very 
 little to eat. On the other hand, in permitting food to be 
 taken into Belgium, the Allies ran the risk of having it 
 seized by Germany for their own army. It was necessary, 
 therefore, for a neutral Commission to supervise the distri- 
 bution of foodstuffs and for Germany to promise not to 
 seize these imports. The intervention of the United States 
 and Spain made this plan practicable. An American Com- 
 mission was formed, the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 
 charged with the task of collecting donations and of buying 
 and importing food through the medium of its office in 
 Brussels, and of seeing that Germany respected her promises 
 and did not seize the food brought into Belgium. A Belgian 
 Committee, the National Committee for Relief and Feed- 
 ing, undertook likewise to distribute this same food in the 
 country. Rations were distributed to whomsoever could 
 not pay. Others paid in proportion to their means. The 
 funds were furnished principally by the Belgian Govern- 
 ment, which borrowed, to that end, at first from the English 
 and French governments and afterwards from the Govern- 
 ment of the United States. Public generosity furnished, 
 
 47
 
 in addition to this, important contributions, which came 
 particularly from the United States, from the European 
 allies , and from the English colonies . Wh en America entered 
 the war the American Commissioners were replaced by 
 Spaniards and Dutch. 
 
 The submarine warfare at times rendered the work of 
 the Commission for Belgian Relief extremely difficult. 
 Ships laden with wheat were sunk and the number of avail- 
 able vessels decreased considerably. 
 
 During the winters of 19 16-17 and of 191 7-1 8, the ra- 
 tions had to be reduced to the point of not furnishing more 
 than half the calories necessary for an idle man to keep 
 his weight; consequently there was a general weakening 
 of the population, as is shown by Mr. M. Pate (report of 
 June 6, 191 7), American representative of the Commission 
 for Belgian Relief for the province of Hainault. The rate 
 of mortality in the region of Charleroi, as he states, was 
 three and one-half times what it was in normal times, and 
 that without any epidemic. Physical resistance to disease 
 had been lowered to one-third of the normal resistance. 
 Men had lost from ten to forty pounds of weight. The 
 ntunber of people receiving soup each day had increased 
 from sixty thousand to four hundred thousand during the 
 months of February and March, 1917. So it is to be noted 
 that one could scarcely expect private individuals to be 
 able to supplement the insufficiency of these rations by 
 the purchase of native products. These products were 
 indeed scarce and commanded fantastic prices. During 
 the winter of 191 7-1 8 the retail prices paid in Antwerp 
 were as follows: 
 
 Before the War In April, igi8 
 
 CoflFee per lb. $0.27 $5.50 to $6.40 
 
 Butter " " 0.27 2.38 
 
 Rice " " 0.07 1.83 
 
 Meat " " 0.27 1.37 
 
 48
 
 Bacon " ' 
 
 ' J0.18 
 
 lArd 
 
 0.16 
 
 Eggs, each 
 
 0.02 
 
 Cheese " 
 
 0.18 
 
 Potatoes " 
 
 ' O.OI 
 
 $2.28 
 
 2.73 
 0.13 
 1.64 
 0.18 
 
 Under the influence of these causes, the general state of 
 health grew steadily worse. At Brussels in January, 191 8. 
 a newspaper stated that the majority of the adults di<l not 
 weigh more than no to 140 pounds. In lirusscls, during 
 the last week of 191 7, there were only eighty-five births 
 against two hundred and seventy-six deaths. The same 
 conditions existed in Antwerp, and in the latter city the 
 mortality had increased from 13.5 to 28 per thousand. At 
 Liege during the year of 191 7 there were only 1362 births 
 against 2951 deaths. Tuberculosis spread more and more 
 rapidly with its destructive power. It has been recently 
 reported that in certain districts, one-third of the population 
 is tainted with this germ to some extent in some form or other. 
 
 The progress of tuberculosis was favored by the coal 
 famine which increased the price of coal to S23 a ton, and 
 by the lack of covering and of warm clothing. Cloth sold 
 at $12 a yard; a pair of stockings at $3, and shoes cost 
 from $18 to $25 a pair. Soap was very scarce. It sold 
 for $2 a pound, and its absence caused the appearance of 
 skin diseases, especially the itch. 
 
 Here again, the ingenuity of the inhabitants attempted 
 to remedy these evils in various ways. Substitutes for 
 divers things were invented: people drank coffee made of 
 seeds from the pine tree; they smoked strawberry plants; 
 they made cloaks from bed-coverings; old clothes were 
 turned and made over ; clogs were worn instead of shoes. 
 
 EXACTIONS, DESTRUCTION 
 
 The German invasion and occupation transformed one 
 of the most industrious commercial countries of the world 
 
 49
 
 into a region of misery and desolation. From the very 
 beginning of the invasion, economic life was almost de- 
 stroyed and only the institution of the moratorium could 
 prevent complete financial ruin. The railroads were placed 
 in the hands of the military authorities, and in order to 
 use them the civilians were subjected to endless vexations 
 and restrictions. Even freedom in going about on foot 
 was not permitted — except through the use of a passport 
 whimsically given or refused. Telephones were suppressed; 
 the mail service was reduced to almost no service at all; 
 and only open letters were accepted. 
 
 What is even worse, great quantities of raw material 
 were requisitioned at the beginning of the occupation for 
 instance, eighty-five millions of merchandise at Antwerp. 
 This alone would have struck a heavy blow at the activity 
 of the mills. These continued to operate, however, for a 
 year or two, generally at a loss, and often only for a part 
 of the week. The reserve funds of several large enterprises 
 disappeared in this way. But things did not stop there. 
 Germany had an inexorable plan, conceived by the great 
 manufacturer, W. Rathenau, for the exploitation of Bel- 
 gium. The requisitions were pushed farther and farther. 
 The Germans began by seizing the materials, then they 
 requisitioned machinery of every kind. Finally in 191 7 
 everything that could be taken away was sent to Germany 
 and the rest was utterly destroyed and reduced to scrap- 
 iron. On various occasions the men who executed this sad 
 business confessed that it was a question not only of ex- 
 ploiting the conquered country but of reducing it for years 
 to come to economic helplessness. 
 
 Since this annihilation of the Belgian industrial equip- 
 ment, the requisitions have continued. Copper in all forms 
 has been taken from private homes. In the same way all 
 wool was seized, especially that in mattresses. Leather and 
 linen were also eagerly collected. The products of the soil 
 
 50
 
 were collected in Zentralen and were sold to the inhabitants 
 only after Germany has taken the best part of it. The forests 
 of Belgium have nearly all been cut down by the enemy. 
 
 There were, besides, financial extortions of two kinds. 
 Under the state budget which, according to the interna- 
 tional conventions, should be used exclusively for the needs 
 and for the administration of the occupied territory, Ger- 
 many levied annually about sixteen million dollars for Ger- 
 man interests. 
 
 Besides this, a heavy war tax was laid on Belgium for the 
 support of the army occupying Belgium. Fixed at first at 
 $8,000,000 a month, it was increased afterwards successively 
 to $10,000,000 and $12,000,000 ($144,000,000 a year). In ad- 
 dition to this, townships had to pay large war taxes (Brussels 
 $10,000,000; Lidge, $4,000,000; Antwerp, $10,000,000). 
 
 Under various pretexts, individuals or towns had to pay 
 penalties — Brussels, for example, two million marks because 
 the inhabitants had celebrated the national holiday in silence 
 and contemplation. 
 
 On the 1 2th of September, 1916, the Germans seized the 
 cash in the National Bank and from the Belgian General 
 Society (about $110,000,000), and deposited it in the 
 Deutsche Bank. (The sum was returned after the signing 
 of the armistice.) 
 
 It must be stated, moreover, that besides these exactions 
 there were plunder, incendiarism, bombardments. At the 
 end of 1914, Mr. H. Masson, a Brussels lawyer, estimated 
 the damage caused by these outrages at $1,100,000,000. 
 Since then, destruction has multiplied. Ypres has been 
 destroyed, West Flanders terribly ravaged, and each recoil 
 of the Germans has been marked by destruction and plun- 
 der. The official commission for war damages, instituted 
 by the Belgian Government, recently estimated the damage 
 done to Belgium by destruction, requisitions, extortions, 
 penalties, plunder, etc., at $7,600,000. 
 
 51
 
 Struggle Against the Evils of the War 
 
 I. IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 
 
 Crushed by all the calamities of war and by the extor- 
 tions of the Germans, the Belgians in the occupied territory 
 made a great effort to lessen these evils wherever it was 
 possible. 
 
 The principal organization was the National Committee 
 for Relief and Feeding which acted in conjunction with 
 the Commission for Relief in Belgium. Various kinds of 
 relief work were created in connection with this organization. 
 In July, 1915, it was decided, for example, that attendance 
 on professional courses should become the condition of ob- 
 taining help from the committee. In this way the forced 
 idleness of the workmen was not lost time. The Comptoirs 
 du Travail made the laborers work uniformly in return for 
 the food received from the Committee and required them 
 to make clothing for the needy. 
 
 The food was portioned out in various ways. For ex- 
 ample, the Soupe Communale in Brussels gave each day 
 one-half pint of soup with 250 grammes of bread; one-third 
 of the population took advantage of this distribution. 
 
 The Community Stores collected food products at re- 
 duced prices for those who had housekeeping cards. The 
 Restaurants Bruxellois and the Cantines Communales fur- 
 nished meals at very low cost to the lower middle class, em- 
 ployes, etc. They had more than one hundred thousand 
 customers each day. 
 
 The Ligue du Coin de Terre likewise, under the direction 
 
 52
 
 of the National Committee, took care to procure bits of 
 ground for the workmen in order to occupy them and to 
 permit them to add vegetables to their nourishment. 
 
 There was also incorporated in the National Committee 
 a "Food Commission for Children," providing with funds 
 the local organizations charged with procuring milk for the 
 children and mothers. For older cliildrcn there was an or- 
 ganization for school lunches. The "Little Bees" also 
 operated canteens for mothers and children and distri- 
 buted clothes and layettes. 
 
 The Patriotic Union of Belgian Women found employ- 
 ment for those out of work, furnished work for the lace- 
 makers in Flanders, and shipped their products to foreign 
 countries. There were, moreover, organizations and com- 
 mittees which gave money-aid to families formerly in easy 
 circumstances whom the war had reduced to pecuniary 
 embarrassment. Certain of these organizations brought 
 relief to families deprived by the war of their means of 
 support ; others operated in a more extensive and far-reach- 
 ing way, such as the "Assistance Discrete" and the Cardinal 
 Mercier Fund. 
 
 These relief organizations had sections in a large number 
 of towns. Everywhere those who were in only relative 
 need did all they could to aid those who had nothing. This 
 was the case in that part of Louvain which escaped destruc- 
 tion by fire. Here fourteen war committees operated for 
 relief. 
 
 II. OUTSIDE OF BELGIUM, THE REFUGEES 
 
 Confronted with the invading Germans, a great number 
 of Belgians left their homes. During the month of August, 
 1914, many Walloons joined the people from the north of 
 France, fleeing towards the center and the south of that 
 country. Later, when Flanders was threatened, thousands 
 
 53
 
 of Belgians went over to England. At the capture of 
 Antwerp about a million Flemings took refuge in Holland, 
 where they were well treated, but these crowds constituted 
 a great burden for this little country and their return to 
 Belgitmi was advised. About sixty thousand Belgians 
 remained, however, in Holland. At the same time England 
 received a very large immigration of Belgians, especially 
 of Flemings. From the time of the German advance to- 
 wards the Yser, in October, 1914, a large number of people 
 who had heard of the excesses committed at the time of the 
 first invasion during the month of August, decided to cross 
 the sea. Among these were the late visitors at the seaside 
 summer resorts, interspersed with crowds of Flemish peas- 
 ants. There was a real panic at Ostend, everybody trying 
 to find passage on the small number of boats in port. 
 Folkestone was soon overrun with refugees and new arrivals 
 continued to come. England, guarantor for Belgian neu- 
 trality, felt it to be a matter of honor to show herself hos- 
 pitable to the nation which her brave but too small army 
 had not been able to save from invasion. A committee for 
 War Refugees was formed in London and an appeal was 
 made to the people. One hundred and fifty thousand homes 
 opened immediately to the newcomers. It was not an 
 easy task to portion out the two hundred thousand Bel- 
 gians of every description to these houses, among which 
 htmible cottages were registered along with the mansions 
 and palaces of the Lords. It was inevitable that some 
 disorder should arise and that some assignments should 
 have been unfortunate, a condition which brought certain 
 difficulties in its wake. In a general way, however, the 
 distribution was successfully made, and soon there was 
 scarcely a village in the United Kingdom which did not 
 have its Belgian family. The outbursts of generosity 
 were touching. The war was prolonged; the hospitality 
 offered the Belgians in the English homes could not con- 
 
 54
 
 tinue, so after some hesitation the English undertook to find 
 work for tlie refugees. A larj^'c number of Belgians found 
 employment in the munition factories which sprang up in 
 haste everywhere. Belgian workshops were also organized 
 which employed Belgian labor by preference. Near Leeds 
 arose a city of ten thousand inhabitants, all of them Bel- 
 gians who were employed in the munition factories. At 
 VVhiteinch on the Clyde Belgian dockyards ajjpeared for 
 naval construction. The Belgian Government organized an 
 employment bureau at London and applied itself to the task 
 of procuring for Belgian subjects schools, priests, hospitals, 
 and banks. 
 
 France likewise was very hospitable to the Belgian refu- 
 gees scattered upon all her territory. Many among them 
 also engaged in war industries. The Belgian Government 
 itself was hospitably received by the French at St. Adresse, 
 near Havre, where it had an important administration under 
 its direction. France also gave shelter to the Belgian army 
 instruction camps and to the manufactures furnishing to 
 those camps arms and ammunition. An important part of 
 the personnel of the munition manufacturers of Herstal near 
 Li^ge, having succeeded in making their escape, founded near 
 Paris a factory of expert operatives which has played a very 
 honorable r61e in the manufacture of guns for the French 
 army. 
 
 55
 
 The Problem of Restoration 
 
 The war, which was cruel for all the people drawn into 
 its vortex, proved to be particularly terrible for the Bel- 
 gians because their country for ionr years had twenty-nine 
 thirtieths of its territory occupied by an enemy with a 
 fixed determination to exploit its victim to the utmost 
 limit.* Moreover, Belgium was densely populated, very 
 prosperous and crowded with cities and buildings of artistic 
 and historical interest. 
 
 If the kind of fighting which took place around Ypres 
 and Roulers had been continued all through Belgiiun diuing 
 a desperate retreat of the enemy, the destruction of unre- 
 placeable treasures would have been tremendous. The 
 signature of the armistice has prevented that final catas- 
 trophe, but the amount of damage has nevertheless been 
 enormous. At the moment when this chapter was written 
 the estimation of losses was not yet complete, but had been 
 provisionally put at $7,600,000,000. This total comprises 
 the industrial losses, the destruction of cities and houses, the 
 levies in cash. 
 I The most urgent, although not the most important, 
 damage to repair concerns the houses. Forty-five thousand 
 of them have disappeared. More than four billion bricks 
 will be required for their reconstruction. In anticipation 
 of that situation, companies were constituted during the 
 occupation which have bought large clay grounds — notably 
 at Trazegnies. For the period of transition a few emerg- 
 ency houses in wood will be available. They have been 
 prepared in the camps of refugees in Holland. 
 
 56
 
 In view of facilitating the rebuilding of villages, the 
 government had organized in 191 7, already, the "King 
 Albert Fund," which has considered the problems relating 
 to the providing of plans, materials, labor, etc. Plans of 
 model farms have also been prepared by the agricultural 
 societies in Belgium. There is a strong movement for 
 improving the housing conditions of peasants and work- 
 men. The latter in particular have well deserved to be 
 the object of special solicitude in the general restoration 
 of the country on account of their admirable patriotism 
 and their stubborn resistance to the efforts of the enemy 
 to employ them in war work. 
 
 The rebuilding of monuments of historical interest is a 
 very different problem. There has been going on for some 
 time a discussion between Belgian artists concerning the 
 advisability of reviving structures that have been practi- 
 cally razed to the ground by bombardment or fire. The 
 prevalent view is that it would be unwise to restore them 
 and indulge in mere soulless replicas. Only the monu- 
 ments which have preserved their general aspect and their 
 lines should be repaired by using as much as possible the 
 old stones. The town council of Louvain has prepared a 
 fine plan to rebuild in a more artistic manner the center of 
 the city and to provide an appropriate frame to the splendid 
 city hall which just escaped arson in 1914. 
 
 The Germans during their occupation had tried to in- 
 duce the Belgians to rebuild immediately their destroyed 
 cities, and financial plans had been proposed, but on account 
 of the uncertainty of the immediate future and of the mis- 
 trust of German supervision and German taste the popula- 
 tion was not interested. The Governor then gave an order 
 that all ruins should be reduced to the height of a man, so 
 that the streets of those burnt-down places now run between 
 two walls like garden walls. 
 
 The restoration of means of communication has, of 
 
 57
 
 course, even more importance in reviving the economic, 
 social, and political activity of the country. The destruc- 
 tion here has gone very far. In Flanders, in the battle area 
 and twenty miles behind it, rails have been cut into small 
 pieces and everything must be built anew, which is no 
 small problem in a time when there is no Belgian factory 
 providing rails. In the eastern part of the country the 
 armistice has prevented such a thorough annihilation, but 
 the tracks are in a pitiful state. Besides, the question of 
 the rolling stock is a serious one. Although part of the 
 cars surrendered by Germany have gone to Belgium, it 
 will be some time before the railroads are in good working 
 condition. Out of her previous equipment Belgium had 
 saved 1900 engines out of 4572, 1700 passenger cars out 
 of 7990, 11,000 freight cars out of 99,435. All this had 
 been stored during the war at Oissel in France, but 
 part of this rolling stock had been used for the Belgian 
 army or lent to the Allies and is in poor condition. It 
 is not surprising, therefore, that during many months 
 after the evacuation, the lack of means of transporta- 
 tion seriously hampered the revival of the country. Few 
 lines could be used, trains were very scarce and awfully 
 slow. The restoration of the postal and telegraphic com- 
 munications has also been every difficult. Not till the 
 steel works are fully at work will the Belgian net of railroads 
 and local railways resume the intense traffic of yore. 
 
 In this general reconstruction of the means of transporta- 
 tion, one should not only reproduce a previous situation, 
 brilHant as it was, but try to improve upon the past. The 
 Belgian railroads had too much traffic to handle. An in- 
 crease in the number of canals is the best solution of the 
 difficulty, the more so that it would reduce the cost of trans- 
 portation of raw materials, especially coal. The future of 
 Antwerp is greatly involved in this scheme. A possible 
 reduction in German transit, which has been repeatedly 
 
 58
 
 used as a threat during the German occupation, should be 
 compensated by attracting the products of the Lorraine 
 mines and factories, through a canal to be made in the 
 Chiers Valley connecting the Moselle region with the 
 Meuse basin. • France could also help in the revival of Ant- 
 werp's prosperity by changing somewhat the tarifT system 
 which gives an artificial advantage to French harbors lo- 
 cated much further from the industrial district of northern 
 France. (^Primarily, however, the prosperity of Antwerp 
 will depend upon the development of the newly discovered 
 coal basin of Campine, which was almost ready for exploita- 
 tion when the Germans ordered the boring of pits to be 
 given up. These collieries, located near Antwerp, together 
 with the products of the Belgian industry when it has 
 revived, will provide the return freight which used to be 
 easily found in Antwerp.) 
 
 Belgian agriculture provides little for export outside 
 vegetables and sugar. It does not produce enough cereals 
 to feed the population. This situation has been made 
 rather worse by the war. To be sure, land has enormously 
 increased in value during those four years, but this is 
 entirely due to the artificial situation created by the high 
 prices reached by the farm products. In fact, the produc- 
 tivity has decreased. The very intensive type of cultiva- 
 tion in the Belgian fields cannot be maintained without 
 using fertilizers. These have not been provided during 
 the war, and the ground is exhausted. Horses for farm 
 work have almost disappeared, and cattle have become 
 scarce. For years, the efforts of the state, of the agricul- 
 tural engineers, of the great farmers had tended towards 
 producing a pure and sturdy race of cattle. All the results 
 of that patient work are endangered at present by the loss 
 of many reproducing animals which the Germans have 
 commandeered with the rest. Fortunatelv some of these 
 animals were sent in time to Holland, and it will be pos- 
 
 59
 
 sible to reconstitute the race, but this will be a very long 
 process indeed, and for years there will be few cattle to kill. 
 The Belgians will have to import much chilled meat. 
 
 iThe central problem of restoration, however, is evidently 
 the revival of industry. The more Belgium will have to 
 buy, and she will have to buy almost everything, the more 
 she needs industrial products to give in return. Now, 
 through the policy described in a preceding chapter, the 
 Germans have ruined Belgian industry almost completely. 
 The machines are gone, or they are broken, deprived of 
 necessary pieces in copper or other metals. The buildings 
 are often damaged. Raw materials are absent. If Bel- 
 gium and northern France are left in that state for years, 
 Germany is rather a winner than a loser in the war game^ 
 It was comforting, therefore, to hear President Wilson say 
 in his speech of December 2, 191 8, that he will recommend 
 that the orders for these regions be executed before all 
 others. In view of centralizing purchases and avoiding 
 duplication, over-bidding and disorder, the Belgians have 
 constituted a "National Office for the Restoration of Eco- 
 nomic Activity in Belgium." It will act as a representa- 
 tive of the industrial community in dealing with pro- 
 ducers in foreign countries. This pooling had been advo- 
 cated by important Belgian industrial leaders, such as 
 Trasenster and Ranscelot, and by the great firms of the 
 Charleroi district. It seems unavoidable for the period 
 of reconstruction, but there is much opposition to its main- 
 tenance on the part of the Liege manufacturers and of many 
 Belgians who believe that the success of Belgian industry 
 was due to a system of freedom, congenial to the character 
 of the people. A middle course is likely to prevail/ The 
 economic future of Belgian industry is essentially depen- 
 dent upon its finding markets^ Irrespective of the prin- 
 ciples which will ultimately prevail in the question of tariffs, 
 it is absolutely necessary to provide a period of transition 
 
 60
 
 during which Germany will be prevented from flooding 
 the world with her products at the expense of the countries 
 she has ruined. Belgium, being a convalescent country, 
 should receive for the time of recovery a privileged treat- 
 ment at the hands of friendly nations, allowing her to sell 
 the products of her renewed industry, which on the other 
 hand should be protected from a deadly competition. 
 
 While these arrangements will greatly depend upon 
 measures decided by the Treaty of Peace, these vital prob- 
 lems have already been considered during the war by two 
 commissions working under the direction of the Belgian 
 Ministry of Economic Affairs at Lc Havre. Other com- 
 missions have been preparing an estimation of the war 
 damages and studying the financial question. 
 
 The latter problem has come to the fore now that Bel- 
 gium is liberated and must send to work as soon as possible 
 the swarms of her unemployed laborers and in the meantime 
 feed them. Resources must be created by means of loans. 
 These will have to be granted both on the expectation of a 
 German indemnity and on the basis of Belgium's inherent 
 resources. 
 
 This is not the place to speak about the amount of 
 money which Germany will have to pay or will be able to 
 pay, nor about the mode of payment. The damage per- 
 petrated in Belgium has a special right for indemnifica- 
 tion, not only on account of the especially unjust character 
 of the aggression, but because it is direct destruction of 
 property, houses, or factories, confiscation of goods or 
 machines, levying of taxes all material losses susceptible of 
 estimation. Moreover, the indemnity paid to Belgium is 
 not only the quickest and surest means of restoring fully 
 the economic life of that country, but it will have a great 
 moral significance, not only in a general way, but upon the 
 Belgians in particular. While everything was going wrong 
 around them, while all their notions of morality were 
 
 6i
 
 baffled by the conduct of the enemy, while they had to 
 submit to the most unjust treatment, witness in cold 
 blood the annihilation of the efforts of generations by 
 plundering and destruction, they were always sustained 
 by their unshakable belief that justice would finally prevail 
 and that the work of the enemy would be undone. The 
 indemnification by Germany herself is the only satisfaction 
 that can be given to that thirst for justice, and it will do 
 much towards inspiring confidence in the futiure in a genera- 
 tion that will have to spend most of its efforts in repairing 
 what has been unjustly destroyed.' 
 
 Since, however, the indemnification may be extended 
 over a long period, and since the need of recovery is urgent, 
 credits and loans must be obtained and this in fact 
 is the chief preoccupation of the Belgian Government, 
 which has so many other problems to solve. The guar- 
 antees which Belgium can offer to her creditors are, first 
 of all, her good reputation as a debtor, her habits of 
 thriftiness, industry, honesty, the skill of her engineers, 
 glassmakers, and lacemakers trained for centuries in their 
 delicate tasks. There is, moreover, the fertility of the 
 great plains of Central Belgiimi, the lime, the marble, the 
 porphyry of its quarries, the coal of its mines. New veins 
 have been found some years ago south of the Hainault 
 mines and the Campine basin, which is much more impor- 
 tant, will in a few years double the yearly jrield of coal in 
 Belgium. (The new basin is supposed to contain eight bil- 
 lion tons of coal and, if so, represents more than the Ger- 
 man debt to Belgiimi.) The Congo colony, saved from the 
 German greed, and now ready for a normal exploitation 
 after completion of important railroad lines is another 
 asset, the possibilities of which, as aforesaid, are not yet 
 gauged. 
 
 Belgium is, therefore, no beggar. She is resolved to 
 approach on a business basis the powers who will help her 
 
 63
 
 in this critical hour. These resources, however, while im- 
 portant as a guarantee to a loan, are not immediately avail- 
 able for actual work of reconstruction and for the feeding 
 of the people. The real revival of Belgium is not to be 
 expected before a long time. Since the armistice has been 
 signed, many complications of the problem have been dis- 
 closed and this chapter is necessarily very incomplete. 
 Moreover, there are many losses which cannot be directly 
 made good for by way of loans, purchases, rebuilding, etc. 
 The period of occupation has taxed enormously the 
 population with privations, forced labor, deportation, etc. 
 It is still premature to attempt an estimate of the de- 
 crease of the population, of the reduction of efficiency of 
 labor, of the chronic diseases which have set in everywhere. 
 Numberless tuberculous persons and a great many invalids 
 of the war will need special care. Among the hundreds of 
 thousands returned to devastated areas or deprived of their 
 former resources, there is an infinite variety of distress and 
 many unsolved problems for which private initiative wall 
 have a large field of action. But there is a will to help 
 one another; there is, in spite of some bewilderment in the 
 presence of such an intricate situation, a firm will to revive 
 and to hand over to the next generation a Belgium worthy 
 of her past. 
 
 63
 
 The Future of Belgium 
 
 There is much more involved in the restoration of Bel- 
 gium than the return to normal life of a group of seven 
 millions of persons whose means of existence have been 
 seriously endangered by the war. There are important 
 principles concerned in it. Deschanel has said that 
 ' ' Belgium is not only the stake of the great conflict but the 
 pawn of international justice." Gladstone in 1870 had 
 already said that "The absorption of Belgium in order to 
 satisfy voracious appetites would be sounding the knell 
 of public and international law." These statements refer 
 primarily to the unique situation of Belgium — inasmuch as 
 her independence was pledged by all the powers and bound 
 them together in a solemn contract which may be consid- 
 ered as the first step towards a league of nations. But 
 moreover the problem of Belgium was typical of all those 
 weaker nations which should be entitled to the rights of 
 existence. According to the German theory, the people 
 of the second and third ranks are miserable and despicable 
 institutions which are more dangerous to peace than the 
 larger states. They should be suppressed.^ This theory 
 is consistent with the German conception of an imperialistic 
 organization of the world resulting from the victory and 
 the domination of the fittest race and the strongest sovereign 
 state. Events have dealt a crushing blow to that Darwin- 
 istic construction, inherited from the nineteenth century 
 conceptions. Cooperation, which is found in nature even 
 more than the struggle for life, is the idea that will inspire 
 
 'U. Rauscher, Voss. Zeit, Feb. 11, 19 17. 
 
 64
 
 the twentieth century's thinking. In its extreme form — 
 both mystical and anarchistic — it ignores all difTerences 
 between men, and believes in a unified and homogeneous 
 community. In its more rational expression, on the con- 
 trary, it takes the nations as the real units, and the national 
 components of the great international .society. So speaks 
 Georges Renard, among tiie Socialists: "The great struc- 
 ture which we wish to build — vast enough to contain the 
 whole human race — will have nations as its pillars. It 
 will rest on their strong foundations, which have been 
 cemented by the labor of ages, and whose destruction would 
 bring about its own ruin." The Catholic conception is 
 strikingly similar: "Every nation and state," says Weiss, 
 "has a right to existence in order to perform its own tasks 
 but occupies only a subordinate position in the society of 
 mankind." 
 
 Whatever may be the fate of the first concrete realiza- 
 tion of that conception, at the present moment, it is unde- 
 niable that the minds of the people are turned in that 
 direction. In that great society of nations, the small 
 peoples should be accepted as welcome associates. In 
 mankind, as in nature, development and progress are 
 inseparable from diversity; and it is through the variety of 
 racial aptitudes that mankind can best realize its maximum 
 of potentialities. More nations mean more autonomous 
 centers with cultures of their own, more opportunities for 
 capable men to reach the higher and more independent 
 positions in society. It implies more sacred inheritances 
 and ancient glory to live up to, more national honors to 
 inspire effort and talent, more chances given for fruitful ideas 
 to find a field of experiment. The loss of an original cul- 
 ture is unreplaceable and such loss unavoidable, at least to 
 a great extent, when small countries are included in strongly 
 constituted greater states. 
 
 While this is true of all small nationalities, it applies in 
 
 65
 
 a much greater degree to Belgium, because of her especially 
 interesting and beneficent national characteristics. She 
 has played an important part in the development of civil- 
 ization; and therefore she should be allowed to play the 
 same r61e in the future. Belgium is the melting pot in 
 which northern mentality has been reconciled with the 
 spirit of the nations which have more directly inherited 
 ancient civilization. She was a great factor in the very 
 beginning of our civilization; then she became the real 
 center of the Prankish kingdom, and more especially the 
 cradle of the Carolingian family which gave Charlemagne 
 to Europe, the first great figure of modern times and the first 
 great Belgian. In the Middle Ages, when Gothic architecture 
 and French literature penetrated into Germany through 
 the Low Countries, Belgium still exerted a beneficent influ- 
 ence on civilization. Again in the sixteenth century when 
 Lou vain became the northern center of humanism, Flem- 
 ish artists developed an original and powerful interpretation 
 of the renaissance movement. In our own times also Belgian 
 poets have enriched French literature; Verhaeren with his 
 Flemish impetuosity, Maeterlinck and the other Belgian 
 symbolists by injecting Flemish mysticism into modem 
 verse. Flanders also rejuvenated Dutch literatiu"e by in- 
 fusing it with the rich inspiration of the West-Flemish 
 school. 
 
 This part of being a medium between two main types of 
 mentalities in the modem world is not negligible; but 
 perhaps Belgian's most important contribution is to be 
 found in her democratic ideals, inaugurated in the Flemish 
 communes and so stubbornly defended against all tyrannies 
 until they found a splendid realization in the very liberal 
 constitution of 1830. Since then, Belgium has admirably 
 taken advantage of her privileged situation by making 
 herself a pioneer in solving many problems of the modem 
 world. The great French geographer, Elis^e Reclus, has 
 
 66
 
 called her " the field of experiment for Europe." In a book 
 written in 1910, Henri Charriaut proclaims that "the Bel- 
 gian nation has by degrees placed herself at the vanguard 
 of the movement for better social conditions; and this 
 conscious and persistent impulse towards progress is what 
 makes her eminently interesting."' Belgium conceives 
 this progress as a means of furthering all her powers— her 
 material resources and her ajsthetic and spiritual aspira- 
 tions. She wants to produce more and ever more, but she 
 believes in combining efficiency with freedom. This is 
 why Belgium deserves to live; this is the great work which 
 has been so brutally interrupted by the German invasion. 
 The most urgent problem for Belgium at present is to re- 
 vive ; but amid her pressing needs she is busily engaged in 
 rebuilding her national life on a stronger basis. She has 
 scornfully thrown off the suffocating mantle of guaranteed 
 neutrality which proved to be only a fallacious protection. 
 She has already courageously attacked important problems, 
 such as a further extension of suffrage, the eradication of 
 alcoholism, the suppression of injustice against the Flemish 
 language. 
 
 If Belgium is not disappointed in her hopes, if nothing 
 interferes with the speedy restoration of her economic life, 
 if she receives from the friendly nations a benevolent treat- 
 ment during the period of reconstruction, she will have 
 won in this war a greater consciousness of her national 
 destinies, and she will be an active partner in the League 
 of Free Nations, in which she will see the final realization of 
 a conception which she introduced into the world. 
 
 ' Henri Charriaut, Belgique Modeme, p. i. 
 
 67
 
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