1 
 
 A 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2008 with funding from 
 
 Microsoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/belgiumbOOboulrich 
 
BELGIUM 
 
 By 
 
 DEMETRIUS C. BOULGER 
 
 Published for the 
 
 BAY VIEW READING CLUB 
 
 CENTRAL OFFICE. BOSTON BOULEVARD 
 
 DETROIT, MICH. 
 
 1913 
 

 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 The Two Races of Belgium 7 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 The Evolution of Belgium 22 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 The Story of Brussels 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 The Story of Antwerp 58 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 The Story of Bruges and Ghent 69 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 The Story of Liege 81 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 The Belgian Constitution 91 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 Party Politics in Belgium * 104 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 The Army 122 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 Population and Social Matters 136 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 The Court and Society 143 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 Burgher Life in Brussels 154 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 The Miners of the Borinage 165 
 
 5 
 
 5M AQJ O 
 
6 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 The Manufacturing Centers 177 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 Country Life in Belgium 192 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 Religion and Educational Aspects 206 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 The Administration of Justice 223 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 Commerce and Industry 233 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 Literature and Journalism 239 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 Music, Art, and the Drama 251 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 Kermesses, Fetes, and Legends 260 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 Sports, Old and New 273 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 Characteristics and Customs 283 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 Waterways and Railways 297 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 The Colonial Question 310 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 Conclusion 328 
 
Belgium 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE TWO RACES OF BELGIUM 
 
 THE most striking fact in the national life of mod- 
 ern Belgium is that two distinct races, in blood 
 and in language, form there a single community and 
 even a united people. In Austria-Hungary there are 
 many races and many tongues, but in Belgium there 
 are only two, and as they almost balance each other in 
 strength and influence, the harmony that exists be- 
 tween them is more remarkable. These two races are 
 the Walloons and the Flemings. The connecting bond 
 between them is, no doubt, the close political associa- 
 tion that has kept the Walloons and Flemings under 
 the same administration, since the first union of the 
 State in the fifteenth century by Philip the Good, of 
 the House of Burgundy. The fact that the two races 
 have shared a common political destiny under foreign 
 and native rulers during more than four hundred fifty 
 years has removed many natural causes of friction 
 between them, and has created some definite belief in 
 their joint and identical interest. It is a fact which 
 
8 BELGIUM 
 
 cannot be explained away, that Fleming's and Wal- 
 loons have never in the long course of their combined 
 history, which commenced with the close of feudal- 
 ism, engaged in a racial war, and this absence of strife 
 has left an abiding impression on their relations. The 
 strongest link, however, in the chain that connects the 
 two peoples of the South Netherlands is provided by 
 identity of religion; so that the most fruitful cause of 
 all human differences and quarrels has never arisen to 
 create a feud between Walloons and Flemings. There 
 is consequently every reason to conclude that the two 
 races, which in the past never came into hostile colli- 
 sion, are now well content to perform their duties to- 
 gether, and to be known as Belgians. 
 
 When the people talk of the Belgians as a modern 
 people, with a history of only seventy-four years, they 
 should not forget that the Flemings have scarcely 
 changed in character, and not at all in their tongue, 
 since the days of the Plantagenets ; and that the Wal- 
 loons, of Liege at least, are very much what they were 
 in the time of the Prince-Bishops. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, it would have been natural to expect that 
 one language would have prevailed over the other, or, 
 at least, spread, while the other contracted. Such has 
 not been the case. The Flemings still speak Flemish, 
 the great majority of the Walloons French, while the 
 Walloons of the Ardennes and parts of the province 
 of Liege retain, for ordinary use, their old "Romance" 
 tongue, W r alloon. There has been no marked change 
 
THE TWO RACES OF BELGIUM 9 
 
 in the proportions which the three languages bear to 
 each other, except that all the Walloons now speak 
 French. A small section in the Liege province, on 
 the Prussian frontier, have, however, adopted German 
 instead, but numerically they are insignificant. 
 
 There has never been any combined or common 
 movement, as might have been expected during the 
 long process of forming a new nation, towards the 
 adoption of a single language in either French or 
 Flemish, and this fact is very remarkable in the case 
 of French, which had chances of spreading, through 
 its hold on society and literature, that to onlookers 
 would have seemed almost irresistible. The powers of 
 resistance possessed by the Flemish race have been 
 well displayed in the preservation of their language, 
 and this triumph is rendered more remarkable by the 
 fact that the Flemings, despite their language being 
 of German origin, have never had any German sym- 
 pathies, and have never received any outside assistance 
 whatever in the successful maintenance of the right to 
 preserve their own speech. As Flemish national energy 
 is just as intense today as it was in the time of the 
 Arteveldes, any project for the suppression of the 
 Flemish language by French must now be pronounced 
 chimerical. The French propaganda had every chance 
 in its favor, and a fair field between 1831 and 1885, 
 and it signally failed to gain the mastery. The con- 
 ditions are never likely to be again so favorable for it, 
 and in the meantime a decisive Flemish triumph has 
 
10 BELGIUM 
 
 been achieved. The only practical solution of the diffi- 
 culty is that all Belgians should be bilinguists. At 
 present this accomplishment is possessed by little 
 more than ten per cent of the population, and the. bulk 
 of these persons reside in Brussels and the province of 
 Brabant, which is intermediate between Flanders and 
 the Walloon countries. 
 
 The difference in the language of the two races 
 inhabiting what is now Belgium first attracted atten- 
 tion in the divisions of territory that took place soon 
 after the death of Charlemagne, more than a thousand 
 years ago. The Fact of the Flemings speaking a Ger- 
 man or Tudesque language seems to show clearly 
 enough that they are descendants of the German col- 
 onists established on Belgian soil by several Roman 
 Emperors. Clovis also introduced German settlers in 
 the Meuse Valley, and finally Charlemagne removed a 
 large number of Saxon families from their homes in 
 Germany to the plains of Flanders. The western dis- 
 tricts of Belgium were those in which these immi- 
 grants, voluntarily or forced, congregated. Flemish 
 influence never reached the right bank of the Meuse, 
 and a solid wedge of Walloon territory separated the 
 Flemings from the Germans. When the Germans be- 
 came interested in the Netherlands, at the end of the 
 fifteenth century, through the marriage of the Arch- 
 duke Maximilian with the heiress of Burgundy, the 
 Flemings had lost all sympathy with their kinsmen in 
 blood, and so it has remained ever since. 
 
THE TWO RACES OF BELGIUM 11 
 
 While the Flemish people form the German ele- 
 ment in the Belgian nation, ethnologically considered, 
 the Walloons represent the Celtic. They have probably 
 a superior claim over that of the Flemings to be re- 
 garded as the descendants of the Belgic tribes of the 
 country, or such of them as survived the sweeping 
 measures of Caesar, and they are closely akin to the 
 people of ancient Gaul and modern France. They 
 were probably leavened also by marriage between their 
 women and the members of the Roman garrison, es- 
 tablished for several centuries on their soil, just as 
 they were in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
 by association with the Spaniards. The Roman and 
 Spanish types are frequently met with in the provinces 
 of Namur, Luxemburg, and Liege; and many Roman 
 names, such as Gambrinus, Fabronius, Mamius and 
 Marius are to be found today among Walloon sur- 
 names. 
 
 The Walloons have the more right then, to pose as 
 the original inhabitants of the country, and their lan- 
 guage may be regarded as the "Romance" tongue 
 which marked the transition between Latin and 
 French. As Walloon is a living language today, the 
 vehicle for the thoughts of the people in large dis- 
 tricts, such as Liege and the Ardennes, this race has 
 shown scarcely less tenacity in preserving the idiom 
 of a thousand years ago than the Flemings. But 
 there is one marked difference between them. There 
 is scarcely a Walloon who does not now speak French, 
 
12 BELGIUM 
 
 whereas the vast majority of the Flemings are only 
 acquainted with their own tongue, and find themselves 
 in a foreign State when they visit the French-speaking 
 parts of the common country. 
 
 As the two races had preserved their own separate 
 languages during the long centuries that the country 
 was subject to a foreign Power — Germany, Spain, 
 Austria, France, or Holland — it was not surprising to 
 find that the achievement of independence in 1830 was 
 followed, at a brief interval, by the appearance of a 
 language difficulty in modern Belgium. The Belgian 
 rising against the Dutch in that year was primarily a 
 Walloon movement. The Flemings, whose community 
 of language with the Dutch provided them with a cer- 
 tain fellow-feeling, and at least prevented their resent- 
 ing the proclamation of Dutch as the official national 
 language of the Netherlands, were more disposed than 
 the Walloons to accept the Orange dynasty. They 
 might have dissociated themselves from the insurrec 
 tionary movement altogether but for the Dutch meas 
 ures against the Roman Catholic Church which roused 
 their religious fervor, and even as it was, they left the 
 direction of the movement in the hands of the Wal- 
 loons of Brussels and Liege. On the success of the 
 movement for national liberation, it was only natural, 
 then, that the Walloons should proclaim French as the 
 official language of the country. At that moment, 
 quite half the population did not understand a word 
 of it ; but seeing that the fatal act of the Dutch, which 
 
THE TWO RACES OF BELGIUM 13 
 
 entailed their expulsion, had been the proclamation of 
 their language as the national tongue to be employed 
 in the Courts, the triumph of French became a nec- 
 essary part of the national triumph, and any agitation 
 at such a moment on behalf of the Flemish language 
 would have seemed unpatriotic and sympathetic to the 
 Dutch. None the less, a thoughtful man knowing the 
 situation would have declared that such a state of 
 things could not endure permanently. A solution 
 would have of a necessity to be found, or the State 
 would split into two fragments at the first crisis or 
 appearance of danger. The only possible solutions 
 were three in number, viz. : that the Walloons should 
 give up French and adopt Flemish, which was so in- 
 conceivable as to be palpably absurd ; or that the Flem- 
 ings should drop their language and learn French, 
 which if not so fantastic, was still highly improbable; 
 or that both races should master the two languages 
 and become bilinguals. For this last solution, the most 
 equal and the most flattering arrangements to both 
 races, time and the spread of education were essential 
 elements of success. 
 
 The establishment of the modern kingdom of Bel- 
 gium in 1831 was followed then by that of French 
 in the Chambers, the Courts of Law, and the Colleges 
 as the national language of the new State. It had 
 been employed by society more or less generally since 
 the Crusades. Not a word was raised for or by the 
 Flemings, the vast majority of whom, as has been said, 
 
14 BELGIUM 
 
 could not at that moment speak a word of French. 
 But before the young kingdom had reached its twen- 
 tieth year several things had become clearer, and one 
 of these was that the Flemings were quite resolved not 
 to give up their language. The necessary corollary of 
 this tenacity was that they should claim and agitate 
 for the admission of their language to an equal place 
 with French in the country, of which they formed not 
 the lesser part. A French observer, writing in 1855 
 from Brussels, declared, 'The Fleming is slow, but he 
 moves, and when once he makes up his mind to travel 
 he goes far without stopping." The observation was 
 called forth by the appointment of a commission to in- 
 quire into the complaints of the Flemish population 
 set forth in numberless petitions. The report of this 
 commission was strongly in favor of Flemish pre- 
 tensions. It recommended that Flemish should be 
 placed on an equality with French, and that all exami- 
 nations and pleadings in the Courts should be held or 
 expressed in either language or in both. The Govern- 
 ment was so surprised at the sweeping character of 
 these proposals that it suppressed the report, and kept 
 it secret. Its purport only leaked out gradually with 
 the lapse of years. 
 
 The Flemish movement began at Ghent in a mod- 
 est way about the year 1836. Half a dozen literary 
 and scientific men founded there a Flemish review 
 called Belgisch Museum, and meeting with consider- 
 able success, they soon afterwards formed a club, tak- 
 
THE TWO RACES OF BELGIUM 15 
 
 ing as their motto, de taal is gansch het volk — ''the lan- 
 guage is the whole people." In 1844, Jan Frans 
 Willems, the leader of the movement, summoned a 
 congress, not, it is true, for a political purpose, but 
 merely to exhort the Government to preserve the lit- 
 erary treasures of Flanders by the publication of its 
 ancient texts. Assent was given to this request, but 
 the necessary funds were not voted for ten years, 
 which proved that the Government regarded the Flem- 
 ish movement with distrust and even dislike. Willems 
 died soon after the first congress, but the congresses 
 went on, and were sometimes held in Holland as well 
 as in Belgium. The work of Willems was continued 
 in a more efficacious manner by Henri Conscience, 
 whose romances stimulated Flemish pride and aspira- 
 tions, and recalled the great days of Flanders. His 
 Leeuzv van Vlaanderen became not merely the most 
 popular book of the day, but it idealized for all time 
 the thoughts and longings of the Flemish race. It has, 
 without much exaggeration, been called the Flemish 
 Bible. 
 
 The efforts of Conscience were well seconded by 
 those of the poet Ledeganck, whose ballads were sung 
 or recited from one end of Flanders to the other. 
 There were many other writers in the same field, and 
 the Flemish agitation was illustrated by the one gen- 
 uine literary movement that has occurred in modern 
 Belgium. There were thus two marked and opposing 
 tendencies in the country. The liberation of Belgium 
 
16 BELGIUM 
 
 had been followed by the undoubted and obvious in- 
 crease of French influence in official circles. All the 
 sympathies of the Court and the Government were 
 French, but there was no corresponding movement in 
 the literature of the country. The Walloon intellect 
 proved sterile. On the other hand was to be seen a 
 remarkable ebulition, not merely of talent, but of 
 original genius, in the Flemish race, which had so 
 long remained torpid and silent. This literary activity 
 furnished proof of the vitality of the race, and of the 
 strength of its hopes, which precluded the possibility 
 of contentment with a subordinate position. The 
 Flemings were resolved not to be a party to their own 
 efacement. It was not, however, until 1861 that the 
 Flemish party succeeded in carrying in the Chamber 
 an address to the King, expressing the hope that jus- 
 tice would be done to "the well-founded demands of 
 the Flemings." 
 
 It was soon after this event that a favorable op- 
 portunity offered itself for a demonstration calculated 
 to stimulate public opinion. A native of Flanders, 
 brought before one of the courts at Brussels, refused 
 to plead in French, and his attitude was supported and 
 imitated by his counsel. In another case a Fleming 
 accused of murder was tried and sentenced without 
 his understanding a word of what passed in court. 
 The most was made of these cases to strengthen the 
 claims of the Netherlanders, as the Flemish party 
 called themselves. There was an obvious need for re- 
 
THE TWO RACES OF BELGIUM 17 
 
 form, and the public realized that this concession of 
 the Flemish demands could only be at the peril of dis- 
 integration. At last a first tangible success was ob- 
 tained when a law was passed in 1873 to the effect that 
 in criminal cases the court should employ the language 
 of the accused person. After that the Flemish move- 
 ment progressed rapidly. A Flemish Academy was 
 founded by the State in 1866 ; Flemish theaters for the 
 exclusive representation of Flemish plays, or, at least, 
 translations, were set up at the cost of the nation in 
 Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent. Finally, the Flemish 
 text of laws and regulations was declared to be equally 
 valid with the French; the names of streets, and all 
 public notices in them, were to be printed in two lan- 
 guages in the five provinces in which Flemish is 
 spoken ; and a fluent acquaintance with both languages 
 has more recently been made an express condition of 
 employment in Government service in the same prov- 
 inces for minor posts, and generally those of a superior 
 grade. With these successes the triumph of the Flem- 
 ish cause may be said to have been made complete. 
 Ostrasized after 1830, the Flemish language has 
 gained in the last forty years a position of equality 
 with French as the official language of Belgium. 
 
 The following statistics will be useful for purposes 
 of reference in connection with the language question. 
 By the census of 1890 the population of Belgium was 
 6,069,321. Of this number 2,744,271 spoke only Flem- 
 ish, 700,997 spoke French and Flemish, 58,590 French 
 
18 BELGIUM 
 
 and German, 7,028 Flemish and German, and 36,185 
 French, Flemish, and German. The census of 1900 
 (we have not yet access to the census of 1910) showed 
 that the population had risen to 6,815,054. Of this 
 total 3,145,000 spoke only Flemish, 2,830,000 only 
 French, and 770,000 the two languages. 
 
 The struggle of the languages has, therefore, re- 
 sulted in what may be called a drawn battle. Flemish 
 has gained the position to which the antiquity and 
 solidity of its pretensions entitle it, but French remains 
 the language of society, of the administration, and of 
 the bulk of the literature of the country, while the 
 common language of the people in the eastern and 
 southeastern divisions is Walloon. There still remains 
 to be found a solution for the political difficulties that 
 must arise in a community so constituted, and it seems 
 as if it can only be found in the direction of bilingual- 
 ism. This result must be promoted by the stipulation 
 that proficiency in the two tongues is requisite for 
 public employment; but there are still nearly six mil- 
 lions of people in Belgium who know only one lan- 
 guage. The Flemings have preserved their language by 
 a rigid exclusiveness, and they have always refused to 
 learn any other. The encouragement of bilingualism by 
 the authorities is now represented to be an insidious 
 attempt to vulgarize French in Flanders. On the other 
 hand, the Walloons are protesting against the waste 
 of time and uselessness of learning a language which 
 is never heard in Wallonia. Time may remove these 
 
THE TWO RACES OF BELGIUM 19 
 
 suspicions and complaints, and force home the convic- 
 tion to the mind of every Belgian that under the pe- 
 culiar conditions in which his country is constituted, 
 it is the duty of each citizen to master the language 
 of the brother race, which shares the same national 
 fortunes. 
 
 The great bond, however, between the two races 
 is religious union. Bavaria, Ireland, and Belgium 
 have been called the three most devoted children of the 
 Church of Rome, and in Belgium today the Flemings 
 are the staunchest of Roman Catholics, and the real 
 supporters of the political influence of their church. 
 Readers of Motley may remember his describing "the 
 majority of the burghers" of Ghent as belonging to 
 "the Reformed religion." It would be difficult to 
 discover today not only in Ghent, but throughout the 
 whole of Flanders, a single Flemish family which is 
 not attached to the Roman Catholic faith. This re- 
 ligious unanimity makes for the stability of Belgium, 
 because it effectually separates the Flemings from the 
 Dutch, who are practically the same people in race and 
 language. The Walloons never betrayed any sympa- 
 thies with the Reformation, and their devotion to the 
 Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century was 
 the main cause of the preservation of Spanish rule 
 in the Netherlands, and of the consequent split of the 
 provinces into North and South. But at the present 
 time the Flemings rather than the Walloons are the 
 chief prop of Roman Catholic power in Belgium. The 
 
20 BELGIUM 
 
 reason for this may be found by comparing the char- 
 acters of the two races. The Fleming is simple in his 
 habits, and somewhat restricted in his views, but with 
 strong feelings, and a capacity for intense devotion 
 to his convictions. He is averse to change of any kind, 
 and having reconciled himself to the Church of Rome, 
 after a brief lapse three and a half centuries ago, for 
 which a severe penance was paid, he shows no tend- 
 ency to embark on further theological adventures. 
 The Walloon, on the other hand, is given by character 
 to skepticism and free thought. He is far from being 
 a docile servant of the Church, and politically he is 
 quite beyond its control ; not that he has any tendency 
 towards any other creed. The Church of Rome has 
 not to fear Protestantism in any form among the 
 Walloons, who only include one church within their 
 religious or politico-religious horizon. With them it 
 is a question of the Roman Catholic Church or no 
 church at all. The Walloons are the chief supporters 
 and producers of the advanced Liberals and the So- 
 cialists. With the former the religious sentiment is 
 far from being dead, but with the latter the deposition 
 of the Church is an article of their program. The 
 Liberals, however, have long been a decaying force. 
 For fifty years they possessed political supremacy in 
 Belgium, and the effort has apparently exhausted 
 them. The old leaders are gone, and new ones have 
 not yet been found. The capacity of reproduction 
 seems to have disappeared. The Liberals of today 
 
THE TWO RACES OF BELGIUM 21 
 
 have no inspiration and no program. On the other 
 hand, the Socialists are an active and aggressive body 
 with definite ends, and moving towards a clearly vis- 
 ible goal. In the Walloon provinces they are rapidly 
 winning over, if they have not already won over, the 
 whole of the proletariat. Fortunately for the stability 
 of the country, the Flemish population is just as stolid 
 in its support of the Roman Catholic party, which from 
 the political point of view is the only barrier to the 
 spread and triumph of Republicanism throughout the 
 land. The last election, however, favors a belief that 
 the formation of a new moderate central party is not 
 outside the bounds of possibility, and several eloquent 
 speakers have been discovered who, in the course of 
 time, may become popular leaders. 
 
 There is another direction in which the Flemings 
 have done good work. They may claim that much of 
 the present prosperity of the country has been due in 
 a special degree to their efforts. They are hard work- 
 ers, and the development of the agricultural wealth of 
 East and West Flanders since Belgium became a king- 
 dom has been unexampled. Industrially they have re- 
 vived the reputation of Ghent, and commercially they 
 have made Antwerp the first or second port of the 
 Continent. The extraordinary material progress of 
 Belgium furnishes clear proof that the presence of 
 distinct races side by side, and running together, as it 
 were, in harness, is not incompatible with the attain- 
 ment of a high degree of prosperity. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF BELGIUM 
 
 THERE is no country in Europe where the old and 
 the new are brought into closer juxtaposition 
 than in Belgium. Perhaps it is due to its compactness, 
 to its manifest limitations in size, that the student 
 seems to find there set out under his eyes for close 
 examination a microcosm of European history — on 
 one side the well-preserved relics, not merely in art, 
 but in social customs, of the Middle Ages, and on the 
 other the fierce activities of this twentieth century. 
 Its civilization might be called a product of Mediaeval- 
 ism moulded by modern influences. It is scarcely 
 more than'a generation of time since Belgium came 
 into her own ; yet behind the Revolution of 1830 lay 
 ten centuries of recorded history. There are dark 
 periods in that record when it looked on the surface 
 as if the nationality that owed its name to Caesar had 
 expired ; but a little research suffices to show that be- 
 low the surface, whatever the ruler's name on the 
 current coin, there survived the pride of race which is 
 the surest foundation of independence, and that in the 
 darkest hours of subjugation the cities and the prov- 
 inces of Belgium knew how to retain, or if lost for 
 brief periods to recover, their civic and constitutional 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF BELGIUM 23 
 
 privileges. To those who admire the display of cour- 
 age and fortitude under difficulties, the tenacity of the 
 Belgians throughout their chequered history should 
 survive as a model of an arduous fight for all that 
 men hold most dear may be won in the teeth of adver- 
 sity and against seemingly hopeless odds. 
 
 Belgium is divided into nine provinces. Each of 
 their names recalls, and indeed represents, the oldest 
 and most famous titles on the roll of European chiv- 
 alry. They are (1 and 2) Flanders (now divided into 
 East and West to separate the spheres of Ghent and 
 Bruges, rival though, as the poet Ledeganck well 
 called them, "Sister Cities") which is but the countdom 
 created by Charlemagne, oldest of hereditary titles, the 
 holder of which stood first among the Twelve Peers 
 of the ancient kingdom of France ; 
 
 (3) Hainaut, another countdom little junior to its 
 neighbor, and known to every English schoolboy as 
 the home of the good Queen Philippa, savior of the 
 citizens of Calais; 
 
 (4) Brabant, a Duchy from the ninth century, 
 whose dukes were long regarded as the mirror of 
 Western chivalry; 
 
 (5) Limburg, another Duchy, connected with the 
 House of Geuldres, of which the famous Egmont was 
 a scion; 
 
 (6) Luxemburg, the countdom of the illustrious 
 blind King of Bohemia, killed at Crecy ; 
 
 (7) Antwerp, a Marquisate held by the sage God- 
 
24 BELGIUM 
 
 frey of Bouillon, Lord and Protector of Jerusalem; 
 
 (8) Namur, a countdom once possessed by the 
 Courtenay family, Emperors of the East ; and 
 
 (9) Liege, the seat of a long line of prince bish- 
 ops, who held their own for a thousand years among 
 emperors and kings. 
 
 These provinces remain as separate entities, each 
 preserving the crest and coat of arms borne by their 
 feudal owners, but are all now merged in the modern 
 constitutional Kingdom of Belgium. Before passing 
 on it may interest the inquiring reader to state that 
 the seven hereditary titles just recapitulated belong by 
 descent to the Emperor of Austria, as Head of the 
 Houses of Hapsburg and Burgundy; but it is the 
 present practice in Belgium to call the heir apparent 
 Duke of Brabant, his brother, the Count of Flanders, 
 and if the Duke of Brabant should chance to have a 
 son in the King's lifetime, he is called the Count of 
 Hainaut. Better proof could scarcely be furnished as 
 to Belgium love for antiquity. 
 
 Side by side with the feudal dignities of which we 
 have been speaking there sprang up in Belgium an- 
 other institution that is scarcely less ancient than they 
 are. The civic dignities won by the people themselves 
 are almost as old as those conferred by Emperor and 
 King. In the year 960 cloth markets were recognized 
 by law at Ghent, Courtrai, and Ypres; and in 1068 
 the city of Grammont received the first charter granted 
 by any of the Counts to the people of the towns. This 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF BELGIUM 25 
 
 charter established a new law for the citizens, making 
 them secure against the tyranny of Feudal and Cler- 
 ical Courts. It will be interesting to trace the devel- 
 opment of civic liberty in the history of the great 
 cities. For the purpose of this general survey it is 
 only necessary to note that the ancient glories of Bel- 
 gium are as much civic and communal as noble, feudal, 
 and chivalric. It was from Flanders that England 
 borrowed her own civic institutions. The order of the 
 Mayor, Sheriffs, and Jury, the great City Companies, 
 the social splendors of the Guildhall, the excellent sys- 
 tem of apprenticeship, were all based on the Flemish 
 model, and originated in English emulation of Belgian 
 prosperity and enterprise. The connection and resem- 
 blance are all closer because there as in Belgium civic 
 magnificence and independence were regarded as en- 
 tirely independent of and separate from the State and 
 political power. 
 
 In the fourteenth century James van Artevelde 
 sought to convert the Communes into a solid political 
 confederacy. The attempt was renewed by his son 
 Philip, but they both failed of success. The citizens 
 did not want political influence or to be troubled about 
 high affairs of State. They desired local liberty and 
 freedom to attend to their own business. For external 
 questions they were content that the Counts of Flan- 
 ders should have their own way, and they were willing 
 to provide them even generously with subsidies for 
 the purpose. But this was always on the assumption 
 
26 BELGIUM 
 
 that the civic privileges remained intact, and when 
 Ghent incurred, at the hands of the Emperor Charles 
 V, the humiliation which its insolence fully deserved, 
 the rights and statutes of the other cities remained 
 undisturbed. 
 
 The influence of these civic traditions has not dis- 
 appeared from Belgian life today. The Belgian de- 
 scribes himself by the name of his city rather than by 
 his country, and if he happens to be of Brussels, he 
 will even be so precise as to cite the name of his com- 
 mune. For instance, it is quite usual to hear a person 
 reply, instead of "I am a native of Brussels," "I am 
 of Scserbeek," or "I am of Ixelles." The explanation 
 of this local pride is to be found in the fact that 
 whereas the Belgian sometimes lost his country, he 
 never lost his commune, and that he also found con- 
 solation in local liberty for the loss of national inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 There is no doubt that Belgian life and character 
 were greatly modified by the events of the sixteenth 
 century. It does not seem an exaggeration to say that 
 from the time of the Arteveldes to the abdication of 
 Charles V the Belgian provinces formed the richest 
 state in Europe. When that Emperor was chatting 
 and joking with his rival, Francis I, he boasted not 
 of his Indian argosies, but of his Flemish possessions. 
 "I could put your Paris in my Gand," punning on the 
 word "gant" or glove. Belgian prosperity was greatly 
 diminished during the troubled reign of Philip II, but 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF BELGIUM 27 
 
 the emigration of the weavers to England and Holland 
 dealt a ruder and more lasting blow than the execu- 
 tions ordered by the Blood Council. The emigrants 
 not merely impoverished the country they quitted, but 
 they enriched that which they made their new home, 
 by bringing to its industry the methods devised by 
 their own skill and experience. 
 
 After the sixteenth century, then, Belgian pros- 
 perity declined, and the life of the nation passed under 
 a cloud which was not dispelled until the country ac- 
 quired its independence three centuries later. It de- 
 clined not merely in itself, but by comparison with the 
 increased prosperity of its neighbors. In Bruges and 
 Ghent, once the centers of world-wide activity, grass 
 grew in the stone-flagged streets. Antwerp fared no 
 better, for its trade was strangled by the Dutch who 
 closed the Scheldt, and got the Powers to endorse the 
 closure by a long succession of treaties. Trading ships 
 could not get into or out of Antwerp because the door 
 of the port was shut and barred. Nor had Belgium 
 to struggle only against Dutch jealousy. When the 
 Emperor Charles VI took up the development of his 
 Belgian provinces, and endeavored to make Ostend 
 the base of a trade with India, he roused the apprehen- 
 sions of England, whose price for assenting to the 
 Pragmatic Sanction in favor of the succession of his 
 daughter, Maria Theresa, was the cancelling of the 
 Charter of the Ostend Company. In interesting him- 
 self in colonial matters like that of the Congo the late 
 
28 BELGIUM 
 
 King Leopold II took up the thread that was dropped 
 in 1731. 
 
 The self-repression, and even suspended national 
 vitality, to which the Belgians found themselves con- 
 signed after the Treaty of Munster, served to intensify 
 the feeling that they had to live a life apart from their 
 rulers, and that in the careful preservation of inherited 
 custom they had the sole means of showing that they 
 were still a nation. To the neglect of their foreign 
 rulers were long added the horrors of the wars waged 
 by rival nations on their soil. In the seventy years 
 that closed with the Treaty of Utrecht, scarcely a city 
 escaped pillage once if not twice, many thousands of 
 soldiers had to be fed, the most sanguinary battles of 
 the period were fought in Belgium. War was a curse, 
 all the greater because peace brought no blessing. 
 
 Despite the rude trials of this long period of ad- 
 versity the Belgians clung to their own way of living, 
 and carried on the national traditions notwithstanding 
 the presence of foreign hosts and indifferent rulers. 
 When Villeroi, in 1895, laid half Brussels in ashes, and 
 its civic life seemed ended with the destruction of the 
 Hotel de Ville and Guild houses on the Grande Place, 
 the citizens, regardless of international storms sweep- 
 ing across the country, set themselves to the task of 
 reconstructing what they loved with patience and per- 
 sistency. Twenty years after the bombardment the 
 Grande Place had resumed its normal appearance; 
 the Austrian rulers, on assuming the government of 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF BELGIUM 29 
 
 the country, found the civic life of the capital full of 
 vigor. It took the Austrians imbued with the spirit of 
 absolutism a generation to discover that the subject 
 people, of whose very existence the Imperial Chancery 
 affected to be ignorant, had a constitution of their 
 own. The Count de Neny, Austrian by service but 
 Irish in blood, reported to his sovereign, "These people 
 have a constitution," and the English traveler, Shaw, 
 declared the Belgians to be "the freest people on the 
 continent of Europe." 
 
 It is necessary to remember these things if we are 
 to understand how it was that the Belgians so easily, 
 and as it were naturally, made for themselves a new 
 constitution and system of government in 1830. They 
 had merely to borrow from the old charters the ordi- 
 nances that had prescribed the freedom of the people 
 from the times of the Baldwins of Flanders and Wen- 
 ceslas of Brabant. The Belgian Revolution did not 
 introduce a new system, it merely revived and nation- 
 alized what had already been cherished as its ideal by 
 the Belgian people under every form of foreign tyr- 
 anny. There was greater difficulty in providing for 
 the future than in extracting wisdom from the past. 
 
 For after Belgium had achieved her independence 
 she was confronted with the necessity of adapting 
 herself to the conditions of her new life. The old 
 system to which under foreign tyranny she had clung, 
 had totally disappeared from Western Europe; there 
 remained the problem how would she adapt herself 
 
30 BELGIUM 
 
 to the new exigencies of an age of mechanical devel- 
 opment and social upheaval ? It must be recorded that 
 under the influence of her recent emancipation Bel- 
 gium succumbed to modern influences. Veneration 
 for the past was superseded by the need of providing 
 for the future. An entirely new Belgium came into 
 evidence. The intense conservatism of the people was 
 modified by the struggle of life, now that it had become 
 a matter of national existence. One common trait 
 connected the men of the two epochs — the capacity for 
 work. At all periods of his history the Belgian has 
 been a hard worker — "Give me a Walloon for honest 
 work," said a German manufacturer of Gladbach re- 
 cently to the present writer. Before 1830 the Belgian 
 worked under adverse circumstances, after that year 
 he worked with hope. In the wake of work has come 
 unexampled prosperity, and that explains why the 
 Belgian character and mode of life have been modified 
 of recent years. 
 
 When its industry was strangled in the sixteenth 
 century, Belgium became essentially an agricultural 
 country, and this remained the state of things until 
 long after Waterloo. To the Dutch King William I 
 belongs, indeed, the credit of having initiated the in- 
 dustrial activity which is the characteristic feature of 
 modern Belgium by associating himself with the Eng- 
 lishman, John Cockerill, in founding the great enter- 
 prise at Seraing. But it was not until after the sub- 
 stitution of national for Dutch rule that the coal mines 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF BELGIUM 31 
 
 of Hainaut and Liege were exploited to any extent. 
 The introduction of railways in 1835 rendered a sup- 
 ply of home-produced coal necessary, and about the 
 same time that the Hainaut coal-fields were brought 
 into full activity the extensive iron-field between the 
 Sambre and Meuse was discovered and turned to 
 profit. The foundries of Charleroi and Seraing were 
 thus provided with all they needed for immediate 
 activity and future development. 
 
 The achievement of national independence was 
 thus followed by a great outburst of industrial and 
 mechanical activity which enormously increased the 
 wealth of the country. The provinces continued the 
 intensive agricultural production which had for cen- 
 turies kept the people from starving when their land 
 was overrun by foreign soldiers. But the towns, and 
 especially those in the valleys of the Meuse and the 
 Sambre. emerged from a provincial stage and became 
 the head centers of the new national activity. The as- 
 pect of the country completely changed. Its rural 
 character was modified and encroached upon by the 
 excavation of mines and quarries, and the erection of 
 factories. Those who knew Belgium at the time of 
 the French Revolution, when much of it was virgin 
 forest, would not have known it fifty years later when 
 the State had executed the plan of main railways de- 
 vised in 1835. 
 
 The change was not confined to the external aspect 
 of the country. Increased prosperity altered the char- 
 
32 BELGIUM 
 
 acter of the people. The necessity of thinking out and 
 carrying out a national policy introduced new views 
 and stimulated larger ideas. Misfortune had made the 
 Belgian secretive and reserved. The centuries of for- 
 eign subjection had taught him the wisdom of caution, 
 and those who are always cautious must in the end be- 
 come more timid. As a nation, the Belgians of the old 
 days sought to efface themselves; and they succeeded 
 in their object so well that no foreign observer, after 
 the close of the Burgundian period, can be found who 
 attempted to diagnose their character or to treat them 
 seriously as a people differing in essential points from 
 all their neighbors. A few writers during the Aus- 
 trian occupation refer to "the good Belgians" as "hum- 
 ble, meek, and subservient." That was before the 
 Brabant revolution which temporarily ended Austria's 
 domination, but it would have been far nearer the 
 truth to have selected as their chief national character- 
 istic long-suffering pride. They might be imagined as 
 apostrophising Fate in words like these: "Do your 
 worst. You cannot make us suffer more than we have 
 suffered; yet we survive!" 
 
 As great a change as has passed over the face of 
 the country has modified and moulded anew the Bel- 
 gian character. Prosperity, the remarkable national 
 success, the feeling of independence have dispelled the 
 timidity that used to color all the views of the Bel- 
 gians. Those who described them as loath to accept 
 responsibility and fearful of their capacity to retain 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF BELGIUM 33 
 
 what they have won are thinking of men of the last 
 generation and not of the present day. Quiet but none 
 the less resolute self-confidence is the basis of public 
 opinion among Walloons and Flemings alike. The 
 qualities that enable nations to bear adversity are not 
 always those most suited for prosperity. Self-re- 
 straint, the suppression of natural emotion when with- 
 holding influence disappears, may easily become ar- 
 rogance, and desire to browbeat those identified with 
 former oppression may prove irresistible. But in the 
 case of Belgium two circumstances have counteracted 
 this natural revolution from one extreme to the other. 
 There is the limitation to Belgian sovereignty in the 
 imposition of permanent neutrality by the Treaty 
 Powers which seemed to carry with it the assumption 
 that Europe had recognized Belgium to a certain 
 extent "on probation." It is scarcely necessary to say 
 that that phase of her national life passed away long 
 ago. Belgium can more or less work out her own 
 destiny. 
 
 The second restraining circumstances is of a mate- 
 rial order. To meet the increased financial burden 
 imposed by the task of preserving what has been won 
 under such difficult and perilous conditions attention 
 has had to be concentrated on the development of the 
 country's resources. All the greater effort has been 
 needed because its population has increased at a 
 greater rate than in any other part of Europe. With 
 so much at stake, with such constant and continuous 
 
34 BELGIUM 
 
 demands on the administrative and intellectual facul- 
 ties of the nation, it is not surprising that the Belgian 
 character has become one of an essentially practical 
 order, and that it recognizes only the proved facts of 
 the day. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 
 
 1L JOB I LI BUS Bruxella viris is the attribute as- 
 •L V signed to the city of Brussels in the well-known 
 monkish quatrain that summarizes the pretensions of 
 the chief Belgian cities. Seven noble houses alone 
 were in the first four centuries of its civic existence, 
 allowed to build residences of stone within the walls ; 
 the seven gates were entrusted to the guard of a ccion 
 of each family, and although the seven lignages have 
 disappeared from the livre d'or of Belgian nobility 
 there is not a family of distinction today in Brabant 
 that omits to trace its descent from one or other of 
 those seven Brussels gentes. The chronicler knew his 
 subject when he declared that Brussels was proudest 
 of its noblemen. 
 
 The early history of Brussels is obscure, and it is 
 not till we come to the construction of the first wall in 
 the year 1000 that we touch firm ground. Yet the 
 place is mentioned in cartularies of the tenth century, 
 and popular belief is far astray if the building which 
 gave it its name (Brock — sele, i. e., dwelling on the 
 border of a marsh) was not there a hundred years 
 earlier. The dwelling seems to have been the residence 
 of the clergy attached to the Church of St. Gery, 
 
 35 
 
36 BELGIUM 
 
 erected on an islet in the river Senne. Here about the 
 year 980 Charles, brother of King Lothaire of France, 
 and greatgrandson of Charlemagne, who had been 
 raised to the Duchy of Lower Lorraine by the Em- 
 peror of Germany, Otho II, built a castle, in close 
 proximity to the Church of St. Gery. To this church 
 he removed from Alost the body of Ste Gudule (niece 
 of the first Pepin distinguished as "of Landen") and 
 at a later date we shall see how her name became at- 
 tached to the collegiate church of Brussels. Charles 
 did not reign long, for on attempting to make good his 
 claim to the French throne on his brother's death he 
 was captured by Hugh Capet and died in prison at 
 Orleans. One of his daughters named Gerberga had 
 married Lambert, Count of Louvain, who, on his 
 father-in-law's departure appropriated Brussels. This 
 circumstance explains why Louvain and not Brussels 
 was the first capital of Brabant, and why modern 
 Brussels is not a separate bishopric. 
 
 Lambert is an important personage in Brussels his- 
 tory for he was the first to surround the town with 
 a wall. This enceinte was about two and a half miles 
 in length (4,000 meters), and its eastern side ran along 
 the crest of the hill named Michael's Mount, which at 
 the southern extremity was specifically called the Cau- 
 denberg, or frigidus mons (the cold mount). On this 
 side then the wall followed part of the modern rue 
 Royale and the Caudenberg stood on the Place Royale. 
 Lambert was killed at the battle of Florennes, but dur- 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 37 
 
 ing the indescribable confusion that followed in the 
 affairs of the two Lorraine duchies his sons Henry and 
 Lambert II succeeded in retaining possession of both 
 Louvain and Brussels. In the year 1081 Henry of 
 Louvain was a signatory of the famous Peace Tribunal 
 established at Liege. In his time also the Church, 
 dedicated to St. Michael alone in the first place, was 
 commenced on its present site half way up the slope 
 of the mountain at Brussels, and the relics of Ste 
 Gudule were removed there from the Church of St. 
 Gery. It was after this incident that the name Ste 
 Gudule gradually displaced that of St. Michael, but 
 in all formal documents both names are preserved to 
 the present day. 
 
 The construction of the wall and the commence- 
 ment of the Collegiate Church, which has been for so 
 many centuries the glory of Brussels, marked its inclu- 
 sion among the cities created by the industrial develop- 
 ment of the peoples of Flanders and Brabant. If the 
 Count of Louvain gave the order for surrounding 
 Brussels with a wall to be pierced by seven gates, it 
 was the citizens themselves who built it for their own 
 ends. Protection from the raids of robber knights, 
 and even from the attack of their own Counts was 
 what they sought, and thus in the first fortification of 
 Brussels no provision of a residence for the Count was 
 made. The seven aristocratic families secured the 
 privilege to build their houses in stone — for the others 
 
38 BELGIUM 
 
 wood or wattle was to suffice — and each assumed the 
 custody of the gate nearest to its abode. 
 
 There is not much information to be found on the 
 subject of civic life in Brussels in the eleventh cen- 
 tury, but it may reasonably be assumed that the provi- 
 sion of security encouraged the weaving industry 
 which furnished the basis of public prosperity in Bra- 
 bant as well as Flanders. An incident of the year 
 1101, which is still preserved in public memory by at 
 least a partial observance, throws some light on the 
 state of society in that day. In 1096 many Brussels 
 knights and citizens left to follow the banner of God- 
 frey of Bouillon for the First Crusade. More than 
 four years passed without news, and it was concluded 
 that all had perished in the distant expedition. One 
 afternoon — 19th January, 1101 — the watchman at one 
 of the gates announced the approach of a small band 
 to the sound of trumpets. It was soon discovered that 
 they were the returned Crusaders, or at least such of 
 them as survived, and their wives and womenfolk 
 rushed through the gates to meet and welcome them. 
 A great banquet was provided in honor of those who 
 were thought to be lost but had returned in safety, and 
 it was declared that the husbands remained so long 
 over their feast and their wine that their wives seized 
 them and carried them off on their shoulders to bed. 
 This event is still known as the Vrouwkins Avondt or 
 la Veillee des Dames (the ladies' watch), and in some 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 39 
 
 parts of Brussels on each 19th of January women may 
 still be seen carrying men about on their backs. 
 
 In the year 1140 Godfrey the Bearded, Count of 
 Louvain and Brussels, was raised to the rank of Duke 
 of Lower Lorraine, but gradually the different Counts 
 (e. g., Luxemburg, Limburg, Namur) shook off their 
 dependence on the Duke who became merely a feuda- 
 tory of the Empire on the same level as the others. 
 It was in these circumstances that the name Brabant 
 superseded that of Lower Lorrain. The diminution 
 in the extent and significance of the Duke's authority 
 rendered the good-will of the citizens of Brussels more 
 important to him. Thus it gave the citizens their 
 chance of establishing their own position in an age 
 when there was no intermediate grade between the no- 
 ble and the serf. The Duke needed the subsidies of 
 the towns ; the communes granted them in return for 
 rights and immunities. In 1235 Louvain and Brus- 
 sels received their first charters of enfranchisement. 
 They were exempted from the operation of the feudal 
 law by the Duke's assent to laws of their own making. 
 Brussels acquired the right of choosing seven sheriffs 
 and thirteen jurors, subject, indeed, to the Duke's ap- 
 probation, but this formality did not affect the main 
 point which was that the citizens were to be tried not 
 in the Duke's court, but in their own. Once the im- 
 munity of the citizen from the feudal law was secured 
 there was not much difficulty in making each grant of 
 
40 BELGH 
 
 money an occasion for strengthening the terms or en- 
 larging the conditions of the original charter. 
 
 In the midst of these discussions came the reign of 
 John I, Duke of Brabant, one of the most splendid 
 figures of the feudal ages. He was a poet, songster, 
 and knight-errant as well as a great general and a 
 wise and considerate ruler. His court was the resort 
 of the troubadours, and he and his sister Mary, after- 
 wards Queen of France, took part in the competi; 
 of the minstrels. As knight-errant he proved the vic- 
 tor in seventy tournays, the most memorable of which 
 was when he slew his sister's calumniator in the lists 
 at Paris on the occasion of his demanding on her be- 
 half the "judgment of God." His claims to general- 
 ship were established at the battle of Woeringen on 
 the Rhine, the most famous victory in the annals of 
 Brabant. His wars proved so costly that he had t 
 to ask the citizens of Brussels and Louvain to aid him 
 with the twentieth of their real property. In return 
 for this "free gift. " i s it was termed, the cities received 
 further privileges including a definite penal code which 
 they had authority to enforce on all persons except 
 "monks, nuns, priests, Lombards, and Jews," who 
 to remain subject to the Duke alone. He also bound 
 himself to nominate no amman or other ducal repre- 
 sentative in the towns as the reward for money lent to 
 himself, and finally he agreed that the evidence of his 
 officers and servants was not to be regarded as of 
 greater weight than that of their accusers. It was in 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 41 
 
 1292 that John the Victorious granted these privileges; 
 two years later he was mortally wounded in a tournay 
 in Champagne, and he was buried in the Church of the 
 Franciscans at Brussels, his favorite city. 
 
 The privileges enumerated were won and retained 
 not by the mass of the citizens, but by the privileged 
 members of the aristocratic or plutocratic families 
 who alone provided the sheriffs and jurors. From the 
 
 disaffeetion lli.it i<< <l itself dttftng the reigns of 
 
 John's two immediate successors it seems plain that 
 they abused their power, and that those born outside 
 the charmed circle found oligarchical tyranny worse 
 than that of the feudal law. Duke John II supported 
 the privileged classes at Brussels and Louvain, and in 
 a battle in the Vilvorde meadows he overthrew the 
 "white hoods," as the artisans called themselves. But 
 in the end the citizens carried their way by closing 
 their coffers, and in the year 1312 the Duke was com- 
 pelled to sign the famous Charter of Cortenberg, 
 which confirmed and extended the privileges his father 
 had granted twenty years before. This charter was 
 the real basis of all Belgian liberties. John II died 
 soon afterwards, and like his father was buried in 
 I '.russcls, where his tomb and that of his wife Mar- 
 garet of York may be seen at the present day in Ste 
 Gudule. 
 
 His son and successor John III was allied, some- 
 what reluctantly, by treaty with Edward III of Eng- 
 land, who appointed him his "lieutenant-captain" for 
 
42 ' BELGIUM 
 
 the kingdom of France, but his days were saddened 
 by the deaths of his sons and the ravages of the "black 
 death." He died in 1355, leaving his possessions to 
 his daughter Joan and her husband Wenceslas of Lux- 
 emburg, son of the blind king of Bohemia who fell at 
 Crecy. At a remarkable assembly on the eve of his 
 death the representatives of thirty-eight towns of Bra- 
 bant swore before Duke John to uphold the integrity 
 of the dominions he bequeathed to his daughter and 
 her husband. A few days later, January, 1356, Wen- 
 ceslas and his wife made their "joyous entry" into 
 Louvain, and it was decreed that this form of inaugu- 
 ration carried with it the ratification by each succes- 
 sive duke of the Charter of Cortenberg. 
 
 During the reigns of the three Johns Brussels had 
 been growing in importance. Several of the most im- 
 portant churches that have come down to the present 
 day were then commenced. Ste Gudule, the Sablon, 
 and La Chapelle may be named. John III built on the 
 Caudenberg the castle residence which ultimately de- 
 veloped into the famous Palace of the Netherlands. 
 His friend and comrade in arms, William de Duven- 
 voorde, was permitted to build a stone house near his 
 prince's, and this became eventually the Palace of Nas- 
 sau and the home of William the Silent. The famous 
 Hotel de Ville already flanked the Grande Place, and 
 the guilds and metiers fixed their quarters in the ad- 
 jacent houses although at first they were built only in 
 wood. At the same time that Brussels was assuming 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 43 
 
 a more imposing appearance by the erection of these 
 important buildings, its inhabitants were greatly in- 
 creased by the advent of many persons who wished to 
 exchange the insecurity of the open country for the 
 security of a walled town. Brussels was also the cen- 
 ter of a prosperous weaving industry. At this period 
 the population may be reasonably computed at 50,000 
 persons. 
 
 Remembering that people required a great deal 
 more space for their houses in those days, and that 
 some cultivation had to be allowed for within the walls, 
 it is not surprising that the original enceinte of the 
 year 1000 seemed too small, and that space within it 
 had grown too cramped. Almost the first act of Wen- 
 ceslas and Joan, so far as Brussels was concerned, 
 was to decide on the construction of a new and en- 
 larged wall, which was still to be pierced, however, by 
 the seven historic gates. This enceinte embraced a 
 much larger extent of the crest of Michael's Mount 
 than its predecessor, and the three gates of Louvain, 
 Namur, and Hal, occupied the very positions which 
 their names at least apply to at the present time, al- 
 though that of Hal alone remains as a structure. In- 
 deed, the wall of Wenceslas existed more or less com- 
 pletely down to the time of Waterloo. The work be- 
 gun by Wenceslas in 1357 was not completed till the 
 close of the reign, as the year 1381 carved in the wall 
 of the Hal tower shows. 
 
 There was a curious but strictly enforced rule 
 
44 BELGIUM 
 
 passed at this time with regard to entrance and exit 
 to and from the city. The gates were open from 3 :30 
 in the morning to nine at night in the summer, 
 and from six to five in winter. During the times of 
 closure the gates were opened for no one, high or low, 
 and the belated citizen had to pass the night as well as 
 he could on the other side of the mote. It is said in 
 one of the chronicles that these unlucky persons, in 
 addition to being kept out of their beds, had to put up 
 with the jeers and jests of luckier citizens who wit- 
 nessed their discomfiture from the walls. 
 
 It was just before the commencement of the sec- 
 ond enceinte that one of the most striking episodes in 
 Brussels history took place. On the death of John III 
 of Brabant, Louis de Male, Count of Flanders, put 
 forward his claim to the possession of Brussels in right 
 of his wife, the Lady Margaret, Joan's younger sister. 
 He promptly marched with a large army to seize the 
 city, and Joan, in the absence of her husband Wences- 
 las, went out to meet him in the fields of Scheut, near 
 Brussels. The battle, fought on Aug. 17, 1356, proved 
 a victory for Flanders, but Joan escaped to join her 
 husband on the Meuse. Then for the first and only 
 time in history a Flemish garrison was installed in the 
 gay proud city of Brabant. 
 
 The occupation lasted only two months, and Brus- 
 sels was recovered by an act of heroism on the part of 
 a scion of one of the seven lignages. Everard 
 T'Serclaes was a knight attached to the cause of Wen- 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 45 
 
 ceslas, and he conceived the idea that it would be easy 
 to recover the city by a coup de main. He collected 
 a small band of resolute men from among those who 
 had fled with Joan, and scaling the wall in the night 
 of Oct. 24, 1356, made straight for the Hotel de Ville. 
 Here they slew the guard, cut down the Flemish 
 standard, and proceeded to rouse the citizens to the 
 cry of "Brabant for the Great Duke!" The Flemish 
 garrison was exterminated, and the authority of Wen- 
 ceslas was restored. Everard T'Serclaes became the 
 hero- of Brussels and in a sense still remains so. 
 Thirty-three years later he was surprised on the high 
 road by an enemy who caused his tongue to be cut out 
 and a foot to be cut off. He was conveyed into 
 Brussels to die. The closing scene took place in a 
 house known as the Etoile beside the Hotel de Ville. 
 This house, built of wood, was demolished in the six- 
 teenth century to allow of a fresh street being pierced 
 into the square; and some years ago a recumbent 
 statue of Everard T'Serclaes was placed within a niche 
 to remind the modern age of his achievement. 
 
 The later years of the reign of Wenceslas wit- 
 nessed serious troubles at Louvain, where the trades 
 rose against the patricians. In the end the Duke had 
 the opportunity of establishing his own power through 
 the fatal rivalry of the two parties, but the prosperity 
 of Louvain declined. It ceased to be regarded as the 
 capital of Brabant, and its pre-eminence was trans- 
 ferred to Brussels. Wenceslas, although he extended 
 
46 BELGIUM 
 
 the charters and swore more than once to respect them 
 in return for subsidies, did not love the cities. He 
 built a strong moated castle at Vilvorde, which was as 
 much a State prison as a house, and he lived generally 
 at Luxemburg. He died at that place and was buried 
 at the famous abbey or Orval. His widow reigned 
 alone for twenty-three years after his death, dying 
 herself in 1406. 
 
 The fifteenth century saw a great advance in the 
 fortunes of Brussels. Somebody described it in the 
 fourteenth century as "poor, sad, and somber." This 
 was at a moment when the "black death" was ravag- 
 ing the country. The establishment of the House of 
 Burgundy on the throne of the Netherlands intro- 
 duced a brighter future. It was not, indeed, until 
 the accession of the third Burgundian ruler, Philip 
 the Good, that any definite change could be noted in 
 the ruler's treatment of Brussels. He was the ruler 
 of Brabant as well as Flanders, having made his "joy- 
 ous entry" into Brussels in October, 1430. That oc- 
 currence was the ratification by the new dynasty not 
 merely of the charters already cited, but of new privi- 
 leges gained in the interval after Duchess Joan's 
 death. Of these the most important was the division 
 of the forty metiers into nine Nations that still exist. 
 
 It was in or about the year 1450 that Philip the 
 Good transferred his residence from Ghent to Brus- 
 sels. He caused the castle of Caudenberg to be en- 
 larged and embellished so that it might form a suit- 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 47 
 
 able royal residence. He enclosed a park and garden 
 on adjacent ground, and as a proof that he wished 
 Brussels to be regarded as the capital of his dynasty 
 he removed to it from Bruges, which had witnessed 
 its foundation, the archives and treasury of his famous 
 order of the Golden Fleece. The famous Hotel de 
 Ville was completed and the gilt figure of St. Michael 
 overcoming the Devil (the masterpiece of Martin van 
 Rode) was placed as a vane on its lofty tower where 
 it remained until damaged and broken in 1863 during 
 a great storm. The present figure is as near as may 
 be a facsimile by the artist Heims. The city seal of 
 Brussels bears the figure of St. Michael as that of its 
 tutelary saint. 
 
 Charles the Bold undid as much as he could of the 
 concessions made to the communes, but his military 
 failures led to the cities once more becoming masters 
 of the situation, and after his death his daughter Mary 
 had to restore all that he had taken away. It was at 
 this time that the Burgomasters of Brussels, who 
 have numbered in their ranks some of the most re- 
 markable men of the Netherlands, began to figure 
 prominently before the public. In Flanders the com- 
 munes were always impersonal, except for the brief 
 passage across the public stage of the Van Arteveldes, 
 but in Brussels the personal element was obtrusive 
 The power and authority of the commnue became con- 
 centrated in the person of the burgomaster, the elected 
 head of the citizen, while the Duke's amman was a 
 
48 BELGIUM 
 
 mere cypher, and at last the sovereign did not think 
 it worth his while to nominate one. 
 
 The first of these burgomasters to leave a name in 
 history was the Chevalier de Locquenghien, who in 
 1477 introduced a scheme for improving the water 
 supply of the city. At that time the bulk of the water 
 required was obtained from the Senne, comparatively 
 speaking an insignificant stream. We know nothing 
 of the system of sanitation enforced in cities in those 
 days, but an adequate supply of water was essential 
 both in peace and war. The growth of the population 
 called for an increased supply. Locquenghien ob- 
 tained it by the construction of a canal from the Rup- 
 pel and the Scheldt to the Senne. This canal, known 
 as the Willebroeck, provided Brussels with the nec- 
 essary supply and also with a fresh means of com- 
 munication with Antwerp and the outer world. It was 
 by the Willebroeck Canal that the Prince of Orange 
 made his triumphal entry into Brussels at the invita- 
 tion of the States of Branbant on Sept. 23, 1577. The 
 medal struck to commemorate the event bears the 
 name of Locquenghien in grateful tribute from the 
 people who benefited by his work. 
 
 Brussels owed much to Charles V. He added to 
 the Palace, which had been little touched since the 
 time of Philip the Good. It was he who built the fine 
 Cour des Bailies, the courtyard surrounded by a stone 
 wall crowned with iron railings elaborately worked 
 and richly gilded. The court occupied the space now 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 49 
 
 allotted to the Place Royale. Some years later he had 
 the satisfaction of seeing before the close of his reign 
 the completion of the beautiful chapel. It was consid- 
 ered at that time that the Palace of the Netherlands 
 was the finest royal residence in Europe 
 
 Having mentioned Charles V, there is one incident 
 of his last days in Brussels that may be referred to. 
 After his abdication he resided for twelve months in 
 a small house in the park attached to the Palace. The 
 house seems to have been situated at the extremity of 
 the park nearest the Porte de Louvain. The reason 
 for the Emperor's deferring his departure for the 
 monastery of St. Juste, in Estramadura, is not clear, 
 but there is no doubt that he was greatly crippled with 
 gout and rheumatism. While waiting here he received 
 a visit from Admiral Coligny, who brought him a 
 letter from the King of France. Charles took it in 
 his hand, but owing to the cramp was unable to break 
 the seals. Coligny had to cut them with his dagger. 
 Then they fell to talking of wars and generalship, 
 and Coligny did the part of listener. Charles declared 
 that his brother and he were the two greatest generals 
 because they had seen more wars than any one else. 
 Then came Alva ; Coligny himself was too young as 
 yet to aspire to that eminence. It must have been an 
 interesting conversation, but there were no reporters 
 present, and we only get the fragments. 
 
 We come now to the stormy period of Alva and 
 the Spanish Inquisition. Brussels was the scene of all 
 
50 BELGIUM 
 
 the introductory incidents. It saw the presentation 
 of the famous Petition to Margaret of Parma, the 
 formation of the Beggars' League in the Culemburg 
 Hotel, and then the flight of William of Orange on 
 the approach of Alva, and the arrest of Egmont who 
 would not flee. Horn was then enticed to Brussels 
 and placed in the same prison as his friend, first at 
 Ghent and finally in Brussels. This was only a few 
 days before their execution together on the Grand' 
 Place. The Maison du Roi, which was built about 
 1520, was selected as their final place of detention, 
 because it looked on the Grand' Place, the appointed 
 scene of execution. The Maison du Roi had been 
 named in the first place the Broodhuis because the 
 price of bread was declared there, but its name had 
 been changed on the establishment in the building of 
 some of the Royal Courts of Justice. On June 1, 1568, 
 Alva caused eighteen Belgian nobles to be executed, 
 the next day four more shared their fate. There was 
 a lull of two days, but Egmont and Horn had been 
 brought from Ghent. On the 5th they were executed 
 on the same spot. The scene has been described by 
 Motley, who, however, omits to say that the French 
 Ambassador exclaimed on seeing Egmont's head fall 
 in the dust: "My master's army has been reinforced 
 by 10,000 men." Another and little known instance of 
 the callousness of Alva was furnished in the year fol- 
 lowing these executions, when a great tournay and 
 jousting festival was held on the Grand' Place. The 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 51 
 
 contemporary account does not reveal any popular in- 
 terest in the affair. The citizens of Brussels had for 
 the time at least been cured of their passion for amuse- 
 ment. It was on the Grand' Place, too, that five years 
 later Requescens, the new Governor-General, pro- 
 claimed the Pope's pardon and the King of Spain's 
 amnesty to the people of the Netherlands, or rather 
 to such of them as remained true to their religion. 
 
 A very different scene was enacted on the Grand* 
 Place a little later on. Brussels joined the Pacification 
 of Ghent, and the ruling power was vested in the old 
 States and not in a Spanish Governor. This was the 
 time when William the Silent paid the visit to Brus- 
 sels already referred to. He might have given life to 
 the confederacy in Belgium, but unfortunately the no- 
 bles of Brabant were jealous of him and sent to Aus- 
 tria for the Archduke Mathias to come as Governor- 
 General of the Netherlands. Mathias came and took 
 the oath to the States in 1578 on the Grand' Place, and 
 at the same time William was installed in the inferior 
 office of Governor of Brabant. William the Silent had 
 also rendered himself unpopular in Belgium by leav- 
 ing the Catholic Church and proclaiming himself a 
 Lutheran. The hollowness of these appointments was 
 exposed a fortnight later when Don John of Austria 
 routed the States' army at Gembloux. 
 
 The last and most curious incident of this period, 
 that had the Grand' Place as its scene, was the attempt 
 of Philippe d'Egmont, in June, 1579, to recover Brus- 
 
52 BELGIUM 
 
 sels for the Spaniards. Accompanied by a few hun- 
 dred horsemen, detached from the army with which 
 Parma was besieging Maestricht, young Egmont, 
 wishing to signalize his loyalty by some striking deed, 
 made a raid on Brussels. Forcing one of the gates, 
 he and his band made straight for the Grand' Place. 
 But the town levies rose to the occasion. They also 
 hastened to the scene, and, blocking the seven streets 
 then and still leading to the Square, the invaders found 
 themselves caught in a trap. After listening to the 
 reproaches poured upon him for forgetting his father's 
 death, Philippe d'Egmont was allowed to retire, having 
 lost but few of his men. It was not till 1585 that 
 Parma, busily occupied at Ghent, attacked and cap- 
 tured Brussels. Curiously enough the records mention 
 that a Scottish regiment took part in the defense with- 
 out giving any particulars of its name or composition. 
 A brighter future dawned for Brussels in the year 
 1599 when the Archduke Albert of Austria and the 
 Infanta Isabella of Spain made their "joyous entry" 
 into the city. It was inaugurated with what was 
 deemed a happy omen. From the time of the Cru- 
 sades crossbowmanship had been one of the popular 
 games of Belgium, and the new chief was expected 
 to draw a bolt at a flying bird. Mary of Burgundy 
 had sped a shaft with unerring aim. So had Philip 
 the Fair and his son Charles V. Isabella was among 
 the fortunate who brought down the quarry, from 
 which a bright future was augured. Even to the pres- 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 53 
 
 ent day the guilds of the Crossbowmen of Hainatit 
 and Brabant are important and prosperous. How im- 
 portant they were in the Middle Ages may be inferred 
 from the fact that the Guild of the Crossbowmen 
 founded in 1304 the Church of Notre-Dame des Vic- 
 toires, which exists today under the name of the 
 Sablon. 
 
 On the whole, Brussels flourished during the seven- 
 teenth century, at least until it approached its close. 
 Among the greatest of its civic chiefs was Frederic le 
 Marselaer, Baron de Perch, who was seven times Bur- 
 gomaster in the first quarter of that century and whose 
 lineaments will be known as long as the canvas of 
 Vandyke endures. The same artist's portrait of the 
 worthy Burgomaster's wife, Margaret de Baronaige, 
 also exists, but his group of twenty-three members of 
 the counsel presided over by Marselaer, which was one 
 of the ornaments of the Hotel de Ville, was destroyed 
 when Villeroi bombarded Brussels in 1695. 
 
 The Brussels of which we are speaking had not 
 changed since the Middle Ages, and probably reached 
 its prime about the year 1650, when Conde, sulking 
 like Achilles in his tent during the Fronde, took shel- 
 ter there from Richelieu. We have a contemporary 
 description of the city from the pen of a French offi- 
 cer, Colonel Duplessis l'Ecuyer, who was in his suite, 
 that will admit of being quoted: 
 
 "Brussels is one of the finest, largest, and best 
 situated cities, not only of Brabant, but of the whole 
 of Europe. The old quarters, which have an aspect 
 
54 BELGIUM 
 
 so singularly picturesque with their sloping and tor- 
 tuous streets, the fine hotels of darkened stone sculp- 
 tured in the Spanish fashion, and the magnificence of 
 the Place of the Hotel de Ville, are buried behind an 
 enceinte of walls pierced by eight lofty gates flanked 
 with one hundred twenty seven round towers at al- 
 most equal distance from each other like the balls of 
 a crown. At a distance of less than a mile commenced 
 the forest of Soignes with great numbers of stags, 
 red and roe deer, that were hunted on horseback even 
 under the ramparts of the town. On the promenade 
 of the Court there circulated in a long file ceaselessly 
 during fashionable hours five or six hundred carriages, 
 the servants in showy liveries. In the numerous 
 churches the music was renowned. Under the win- 
 dows of the Palace stretched the park, open all the 
 year to respectable people and twice a year to the pub- 
 lic, a park filled with trees of rare essences and the 
 most delicious flowers so artistically disposed and so 
 refreshing to the eyes that M. de la Serre declared on 
 leaving that if he had seen there an apple tree he 
 would assuredly have taken it for an earthly Para- 
 dise." 
 
 This very pretty picture, drawn by a Frenchman, 
 was sadly interfered with by one of his countrymen 
 some forty years later. Marshall Villeroi appeared on 
 the heights of Anderlecht with an army of 60,000 
 men in August, 1695, and forthwith proceeded to bom- 
 bard the city with red-hot bullets. His object was to 
 compel William III to abandon the siege of Namur, 
 which was on the point of surrender. Villeroi carried 
 on the bombardment for forty-eight hours (August 
 13-15) and during this time an enormous amount of 
 damage was caused. Sixteen old and interesting 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 55 
 
 churches, all the ancient buildings on £he Grand' 
 Place, with the exception of the Hotel de Ville tower, 
 and 4,000 houses were laid in ruins. Brussels did not 
 begin to rise from its ashes until after the end of the 
 War of the Spanish Succession. When its citizens did 
 take heart to rebuild, the old Mint was replaced by the 
 first Theater of "la Monnaie." 
 
 In 1731 Brussels again suffered heavily from fire, 
 when the famous Palace of the Netherlands was des- 
 troyed through the carelessness of some cooks pre- 
 paring sweetmeats. The fire continued for two days, 
 the Archduchess Marie Christine barely escaped with 
 her life, and many of Rubens' masterpieces perished 
 in the flames. No attempt was made to restore this 
 palace, and for the rest of the period of Austrian rule 
 the residence of the Governor-General was fixed in 
 the old Nassau Palace. Villeroi's bombardment does 
 not stand alone. Marshal Saxe fired on the city in 
 February, 1746, but more considerate than his prede- 
 cessor, he aimed at the wall and not at the public 
 buildings. After this occurrence Brussels remained 
 in the possession of the French for three years and 
 received two visits from Louis XV, who resided in the 
 palace of the Duke d'Arenberg, of which Egmont had 
 built the first portion in 1548. 
 
 Two further incidents may be referred to in con- 
 cluding this chronicle. After the treaty of Utrecht the 
 Netherlands passed to Austria, and Prince Eugene 
 was appointed Governor-General. Unfortunately for 
 
56 BELGIUM 
 
 Belgium he was too much employed with his work as 
 generalissimo to take up personal charge, and he ap- 
 pointed as his nominee the Marquis de Prie. De Prie 
 set himself to the task of establishing a rigid 
 autocracy, and he came into collision with the civic 
 authorities who strove to uphold their charters and 
 constitution. The champion of the city was Francis 
 Anneessens, one of the syndics, and he set the example 
 in refusing to take the oath until the old constitutional 
 rights had been confirmed. De Prie arrested Annees- 
 sens and three of his brother syndics. They were put 
 on their trial and in a summary manner Anneessens 
 was sentenced to death and the others to banishment. 
 The execution took place on the Grand' Place on Sept. 
 19, 1719, and through petty spite De Prie refused his 
 victim Christian burial, but his remains were collected 
 by his friends and admirers and given a burial in a 
 secret but secure grave of the Church of La Chapelle. 
 
 The later Austrian governors were more consid- 
 erate in their dealings with the Belgian people, and 
 Prince Charles of Lorraine, who represented the Em- 
 press Maria Theresa for forty years at Brussels, was 
 one of the most popular rulers the Belgians ever had. 
 It was he who planted the avenues of lime trees which 
 still adorn the upper boulevards of the city. 
 
 During the Brabant revolution of 1789 Brussels 
 was captured, as the saying went, "by its own citizens." 
 There was, however, very little fighting and less blood- 
 shed. It is said that 60,000 shots were fired and no 
 
THE STORY OF BRUSSELS 57 
 
 one was killed, for "those who knew how to shoot did 
 not want to kill, and those who wished to kill did not 
 know how to shoot." The old capital on the slope 
 and summit of Michael's Mount has held its own in 
 the struggle for existence among great European 
 cities during the eight centuries that have elapsed since 
 a monkish chronicler called it "the delice and glory of 
 Brabant. ,, 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE STORY OF ANTWERP 
 
 *T^ HE records of Antwerp are meager in compari- 
 * son with those of the other cities, but as its 
 burning by the Norman pirates in the year 836 is an 
 historical fact, it must then have existed at the least 
 for a century or more. In the Frank period a castle 
 named Andhunerbo is marked on the site, and this 
 brings us to the explanation of its name. The castle 
 was built here to protect the approach by the Scheldt, 
 and to prevent robbery either by foreign plunderers, 
 or by foreign traders introducing goods without pay- 
 ing toll to the sovereign of the land. The general 
 European punishment for theft in those days was to 
 cut off the thief's right hand. It is still the practice 
 in uncivilized Africa and in Afghanistan. On the 
 Scheldt the infliction of the penalty had a sequel. The 
 cut off hands were thrown into the river, hence the 
 origin of the name — Andhunerbo in mediaeval Latin 
 or Antwerpen in Flemish, i. e., the place of hand- 
 throwing. On the arms of the city to this day appear 
 the castle and two severed hands. 
 
 A suggestion has been made, and naturally Motley, 
 who rather lays himself out for ponderous joking at 
 everything mediaeval and feudal, favors it, that the 
 
 58 
 
THE STORY OF ANTWERP 59 
 
 name Antwerp is nothing more than "an t' werf" (in 
 Flemish, "on the wharf"). It is rather curious that so 
 skilful a compiler of facts should overlook the point 
 that this really fantastic etymology does not explain 
 the origin of the older name of Andhunerbo, which 
 can only have one meaning. Besides, Antwerp was 
 not a place of trade until a much later period. It was 
 a castle guarding an approach to the country by a 
 river, and proof of this is furnished by the fact that 
 the Emperor Otho, on creating the fief, made it a 
 Marquisate — that is to say, a frontier countdom. 
 Among the holders of this title the most famous was 
 Godfrey of Bouillon, but if a herald were to recite the 
 full titles and dignities of the Head of the House of 
 Hapsburg there would appear among them that of 
 Marquis of Antwerp. 
 
 The commercial importance of Antwerp dated 
 from the beginning of the decline of Bruges through 
 the silting up of the Zwyn. It must be remembered 
 that the approach of this calamity was visible half a 
 century before it became complete, and the desertion 
 of Bruges by traders was gradual. The patronage of 
 the Burgundian Court also staved off the blow till the 
 last possible moment. But none the less the com- 
 mercial importance of Antwerp was well established 
 in the earlier half of the fifteenth century. In the year 
 1450 the Antwerp records show that the Place de Meir 
 was paved with stone for the first time. This was the 
 
60 BELGIUM 
 
 year also when the famous Cathedral, which was com- 
 menced a hundred years before, was brought practi- 
 cally to completion. In 1490 the foreign merchant 
 Guilds or Nations transferred their headquarters from 
 Bruges to Antwerp which at once became the principal 
 center of trade for the whole of the Netherlands. Its 
 position was far superior in every way to that of 
 Bruges. Seated on a tidal river, navigable by the 
 largest ships, it was most advantageously placed for 
 communication by various waterways with the central 
 and eastern provinces of Belgium. 
 
 The period of Antwerp's greatest splendor was 
 between the years 1550 and 1560, when it contained 
 the houses of not fewer than a thousand foreign mer- 
 chants. These houses were divided among six nations, 
 viz., the Spaniards, the Danes and the Hansa together, 
 the Italians, the English, the Portuguese, and the Ger- 
 mans. In 1560 more business was done in one month 
 at Antwerp than in two years at Venice, although that 
 city was still one of the chief places of trade in the 
 world. Every day nearly 500 vessels entered and left 
 the great port on the Scheldt, and two thousand wag- 
 ons entered the city every week from France or Ger- 
 many. Between 1550 and 1577 the total of the popu- 
 lation fluctuated between one hundred fifty and two 
 hundred fifty thousand persons. During this period 
 of her greatest splendor Antwerp acquired her most 
 famous buildinsrs after her churches. The Hotel de 
 
THE STORY OF ANTWERP 61 
 
 Ville, the Bourse (burnt down in 1858 and rebuilt), 
 the Vieille Boucherie, the Musee Plantin all date from 
 this epoch. 
 
 Bruges fell by the work of nature; Antwerp de- 
 clined by the act of man. Antwerp has no reason to love 
 the names of Spain and Alva. In 1567 Alva placed a 
 Spanish garrison in Antwerp, and his first task was to 
 build a citadel with the money of its citizens. Walls 
 and fortified gates had always been the chief demand 
 of the cities ; the construction of a castle or citadel in 
 the interior of the city had always been the first step 
 in subjecting it to unrestrained autocratic power. Ant- 
 werp had escaped the troubles of the feudal period. 
 Her day of trouble had arrived. The bastions of 
 Alva's citadel were so solid that it took the French 
 siege artillery three weeks to destroy part of them in 
 1832. 
 
 Beyond providing the means of its downfall, Ant- 
 werp did not suffer at the hands of Alva. The great 
 blow was dealt by the mutinous Spanish garrison, 
 which, having long arrears of pay to receive, decided 
 to repay itself by sacking the city over which it was 
 supposed to keep guard. The Spanish Fury, as it was 
 called, raged through three days of the month of No- 
 vember, 1576. More than six thousand men, women, 
 and children were butchered, eight hundred houses 
 were destroyed by fire, and damage was done to the 
 extent of ten millions of our present money. That 
 was the direct loss ; the indirect was greater, for a 
 
62 BELGIUM 
 
 considerable number of the citizens at once took refuge 
 in England. The next blow that fell on Antwerp was 
 the treacherous attempt of Anjou to seize the city in 
 1583, but the French Fury, as it was called, unlike the 
 Spanish, ended in the triumph of the citizens. 
 
 It was Parma, the greatest of the Spanish leaders, 
 who dealt Antwerp its coup de grace. In 1584 he be- 
 gan its siege in a deliberate fashion by cutting off its 
 communications. The city was held by a strong gar- 
 rison under Marnix de Ste Aldegonde, but so close 
 was the investment that by the summer of 1585" the 
 besieged were on the verge of starvation and Marnix 
 was obliged to capitulate. The victory was stained by 
 no act of cruelty, but in the eighteen months covered 
 by the siege, the population of Antwerp fell from 
 85,000 to 55,000 persons. This decline was, of course, 
 largely due to the voluntary emigration of those who 
 elected to follow the new religion. 
 
 Here again, as is so often the case in human affairs, 
 the indirect consequences were more serious than the 
 direct loss. Antwerp passed finally under the rule of 
 Spain, and its legitimate successors. That signified its 
 complete severance from the revolted northern prov- 
 inces, which had acquired the command of the sea. 
 To the great joy of its commercial rivals in Amster- 
 dam and Rotterdam, the blockade of the Scheldt was 
 established, and the prosperity of Antwerp vanished 
 like a dream. This blockade lasted during the better 
 part of three centuries. From an act of war it passed 
 
THE STORY OF ANTWERP 63 
 
 into an international condition embodied in a succes- 
 sion of treaties. One of the most prized possessions 
 of the Dutch was the right to close and keep closed 
 the navigation of the Scheldt. The effect of this ex- 
 clusion from the sea on the prosperity of Antwerp is 
 recorded in statistics that cannot be challenged or re- 
 futed. The city which contained after Parma's con- 
 quest a population of 55,000, had no more than 45,000 
 inhabitants in 1780, and of these one-third received 
 charitable relief. The cause is as clearly revealed as 
 the result. The port, which in 1555 had seen 2,500 
 ships at anchor in its roadstead, and 500 ships sail or 
 arrive in a single day, received in the year 1761 only 
 four vessels. 
 
 Antwerp enjoyed a glimpse of its early prosperity 
 during the French occupation from 1794 to 1814. The 
 closure of the Scheldt was declared to be "a survival 
 of feudal tyranny and a violation of the rights of 
 man." When France made a treaty with Holland as 
 the Batavian Republic in 1795, she exacted the free- 
 dom of the Scheldt, and for the first and only time the 
 Dutch waived their right. Despite the English com- 
 mand of the seas, as many as 3,000 ships came up to 
 Antwerp in 1813. After the withdrawal of the French, 
 Belgium was joined to Holland as the Kingdom of the 
 Netherlands, and it was, of course, impossible for the 
 Dutch to enforce old treaty right against their fellow- 
 subjects. But after the Belgian revolution, this claim 
 to close a neighbor's river was revived, and once more 
 
64 BELGIUM 
 
 the European Powers ratified a preposterous preten- 
 sion. On this occasion, however, it was given a new 
 form. The Dutch were no longer to have the right to 
 close the river by firing upon and sinking any ship 
 that entered it; but they were authorized to exact 
 what was practically speaking a prohibitive toll — pro- 
 hibitive in the sense that it only admitted of a moder- 
 ate traffic, and forbade all expectation of its free ex- 
 pansion. 
 
 The situation thus created between Belgium and 
 Holland was really intolerable, and no friend of the 
 two States could find a word to say in favor of its 
 continuance. But old privileges and treaty rights are 
 not easily abandoned, and in this particular the Hague 
 Government resembled every other. The toll of 73 
 cents per ton was rigorously levied, and the Belgian 
 Government, which had voluntarily taken the burden 
 on its own shoulders, found the charge irksome and 
 irritating. Among other consequences it rendered it 
 loth to stimulate the trade of Antwerp. 
 
 A way out of the difficulty was discovered through 
 the patient and persistent efforts of the late Baron 
 Lambermont, of the Belgian Foreign Department. 
 The question of river navigation in Europe had been 
 thoroughly discussed at the Congress of Vienna, where 
 the clearest and soundest principles for its complete 
 freedom from all hindrances had been laid down. The 
 arrangements under the Twenty-four Articles for the 
 Scheldt were really an infringement of those princi- 
 
THE STORY OF ANTWERP 65 
 
 pies, and it is to the credit of Lord Palmerston that 
 he strove hard to mould them in a more liberal spirit. 
 His example was an encouragement to the Belgian 
 statesman, who set himself to the task of emancipating 
 his countrymen from an unjust and offensive limita- 
 tion of their own freedom and independence. 
 
 The case of the Scheldt, although the most arbi- 
 trary, did not fortunately stand alone. There were 
 others less involved with national prejudice which 
 called for settlement, and the solution of which could 
 not but hasten that of the major and more difficult 
 problem. The case of the Sound and the Two Belts 
 was the first to present itself. Denmark had there the 
 same right of tolls as Holland possessed on the 
 Scheldt. A conference met at Copenhagen in 1856 to 
 put an end to the exaction. At Baron Lambermont's 
 instigation, Belgium negotiated a special convention 
 with Denmark, by which Denmark acquitted Belgium 
 from paying any quota to the sum raised to free the 
 Danish straits in return for Belgium's engagement, 
 that in the event of the capitalization of the tolls on 
 the Scheldt she would pay whatever there might fall 
 on Denmark. Thus two principles were very adroitly 
 introduced. First, that the tolls of the Scheldt were 
 just as susceptible of being bought up as those of the 
 Sound, and secondly, that each navigating State was 
 liable for its quota. 
 
 A second case of a similar kind arose in 1860, when 
 the State tolls levied by the Hanoverian Government 
 
66 BELGIUM 
 
 o'i the Elbe were capitalized at the suggestion of the 
 British Government. Baron Lambermont availed him- 
 self of this fresh opportunity by opening negotiations 
 with the Hanoverian Government, and in 1861 a 
 Belgic-Hanoverian convention was signed on the same 
 lines as that with Denmark. 
 
 Armed with these two precedents, the Belgian Gov- 
 ernment then asked the Dutch Government the plain 
 question whether it would admit or not the possibility 
 of capitalizing the Scheldt tolls. For the first time 
 since the privilege had been asserted to the detriment 
 of the people of Belgium, the Dutch made a consid- 
 erate reply by giving a cordial assent to the new prin- 
 ciple. There remained only the practical point of de- 
 ciding the quotas to be contributed by the respective 
 navigating Powers. In this part of the matter, Eng- 
 land, whose tonnage on the Scheldt was the largest, 
 became the most important factor in the problem. 
 
 The quota could not be fixed by the simple rule of 
 a comparison of the tonnage under each flag, for by 
 such an arrangement Belgium, the chief beneficiary, 
 would have got off for a trifling contribution. The 
 Belgian diplomatist avoided this pitfall. He recom- 
 mended his Government to take upon itself the re- 
 sponsibility of providing one-third of the total capital, 
 or six times the amount that it would have had to pay 
 by a mere comparison of tonnage. These points set- 
 tled, the British Government was approached, for its 
 co-operation as the largest contributor of all was es- 
 
THE STORY OF ANTWERP 67 
 
 sential to success. Our policy had always been favor- 
 able to the removal of trade impediments, and no dif- 
 ficulty was experienced in London. There remained 
 only to conclude a formal treaty with Holland prior 
 to the summoning of a general conference for the 
 ratification of these separate arrangements and their 
 embodiment in a single act. Twenty-one Powers took 
 part in the conference at Brussels in July, 1863, which 
 finally freed the Scheldt. Belgium contributed alto- 
 gether $2,665,600, but if the toll had continued to 
 be levied, it has been computed that she would have 
 $114,904,663.40. In modestly describing the signifi- 
 cance of his own work, Baron Lambermont wrote : "In 
 leanding its concurrence to the purchase of the Scheldt 
 tolls the conference will undoubtedly render a service 
 to trade generally. It will complete to the benefit of all 
 nations the work commenced in the Sound and con- 
 tinued in the Elbe. Nor is this all. The foreign 
 States will, by aiding Belgium in an enterprise which 
 is known to be its legitimate desire and ambition, by 
 giving this country and its venerated head a striking 
 mark of sympathy, and by coming forward to sanction 
 by their co-operation the henceforth perfect freedom 
 of the Scheldt, bring a new consecration to the estab- 
 lishment of our nationality, and they will attach to it 
 in some manner the imprint of universal solidarity. " 
 
68 BELGIUM 
 
 The freeing of the Scheldt removed the fetters that 
 had hindered the development of Antwerp since the 
 days of its prime in the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. Since that event, the city has burst its barriers, 
 stretching out in every direction, and trebling its popu- 
 lation. It has become not merely the chief outlet of 
 Belgium, but one of the principal seaports of Europe. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE STORY OF BRUGES AND GHENT 
 
 THE story of the sister cities Bruges and Ghent 
 may be told together, and as it forms the best- 
 known part of Belgian history, a brief summary of 
 the leading incidents will suffice. 
 
 The story of Bruges begins with the Foresters of 
 Flanders, the officers entrusted by Charlemagne with 
 the guard of that part of his kingdom who eventually 
 became Counts of Flanders. Bruges itself, at the 
 commencement, was known as Flanders (Vlaenderen). 
 It was Baldwin Bras de Fer who gave it a separate 
 name, and that no more high sounding than the place 
 of a bridge. His son, the second Baldwin, fortified it, 
 Ghent, Courtrai, and Ypres at the same time, thus 
 founding together the four famous Flemish com- 
 munes. Baldwin II married Elstrud, the daughter of 
 Alfred, thus establishing the first link between Eng- 
 land and Flanders. The first mention of Ghent is 
 slightly earlier than that of Bruges. It was one of 
 Charlemagne's naval arsenals — the other being Bou- 
 logne — and on one occasion the Norman pirates came 
 up the Scheldt in their light draught snekkars and 
 burnt his ships. 
 
 If the erection of walls was the first step in the 
 
 69 
 
70 BELGIUM 
 
 growth of cities, the more important incident in the 
 life of those of Flanders was the establishment of 
 cloth markets in or about the year 960. These mar- 
 kets were established round the principal church, and 
 were distinguished by the name Kerkmesse (Kirk, 
 church, and messe, market). The word soon became 
 "kermesse," and is still in use as the popular name for 
 a Fair. The creation of all Flemish towns was marked 
 by three phases. The building of a church was the 
 first phase. This occurred, as a rule, in the seventh 
 and eighth centuries. The next was the construction 
 of a wall and fortified gates, which may be assigned to 
 the ninth century. The concluding phase was the 
 opening of the cloth markets in the tenth century. 
 The Flemish people thus turned at an earlier period 
 than any other race in northern Europe from agricul- 
 ture to industry. 
 
 A century after the opening of the cloth markets, 
 the citizens who had laid the basis of a sound and ex- 
 panding prosperity began to talk of and clamor for 
 their rights. Their first triumph was the acquisition 
 of the privilege of erecting a belfry to be used for the 
 purpose of summoning the citizens to public meeting. 
 Up to that moment the only bells had been those in 
 the churches, and the acquisition of a separate belfry 
 was as hard to win as it was highly prized. But the 
 first distinct civic charter was granted neither to 
 Bruges nor to Ghent, but to a town specially created 
 for the purpose of being ruled by a new law by Bald- 
 

 THE STORY OF BRUGES AND GHENT 71 
 
 win VI in the year 1068. This was Grammont, a place 
 which otherwise never obtained fame, and which is to- 
 day a town of the fifth order. None the less the 
 Charter of Grammont is "the most ancient written 
 monument of civil and criminal laws in Flanders." It 
 established trial by jury, it exempted the citizens from 
 church law except in matters of religion, and it intro- 
 duced a system of fines in lieu of the almost uniform 
 death sentence. Bruges and Ghent were naturally in- 
 disposed to leave Grammont a monopoly of such privi- 
 leges. 
 
 Having won their charters from their Counts, the 
 people of Bruges and their allied communes were in 
 danger of losing them at the hands of the French 
 King, who invaded and occupied a great part of Flan- 
 ders in the first year of the fourteenth century. This 
 foreign occupation did not last long. The French 
 garrison was massacred during what was known as 
 the Bruges Matins. A few months later this success 
 was completed at the battle of Guinegate or "of the 
 spurs" outside Courtrai on July 11, 1302, a memorable 
 date in the history of Flanders. Although this great 
 victory put an end to the fear of a French conquest, 
 it was followed by a struggle between the Counts and 
 the communes that went on for two centuries, and 
 that only ended in the time of the Emperor Charles V. 
 
 The "heroic epoch" of Flanders reached its cul- 
 minating point with the Arteveldes. The elder, James, 
 was not merely the leading tribune of Ghent, but he 
 
72 BELGIUM 
 
 was the one Belgian who, prior to the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, might be called a great national statesman. His 
 conception of Flanders was that of a great "neutral 
 state" strong enough to repel all assailants, and there- 
 fore able to devote its attention to the accumulation 
 of wealth and the enjoyment of industrial prosperity. 
 To accomplish this required an efficient military or- 
 ganization and the expenditure of money. His views 
 were too large for his age. He was accused of wast- 
 ing the public treasure, and massacred by his brother 
 citizens. Unwittingly the citizens by declining to fol- 
 low a national policy, had struck the first blow at the 
 continuance of their own commercial existence. The 
 result proved the truth of the saying that "a house 
 divided against itself cannot stand." The assassina- 
 tion of James van Artevelde occurred on July 17, 
 1345 ; the people of Ghent expiated their crime on 
 November 27, 1382, when their forces, led by his son 
 Philip, were routed on the field of Roosebeke by their 
 Count and his French allies. 
 
 The highest point of Bruges' prosperity was 
 reached soon after the establishment of the Burgun- 
 dian rule, and the third marriage of Duke Philip the 
 Good in the year 1430 may be fixed upon as its apogee. 
 It was an incident of special interest for several rea- 
 sons. The same summer witnessed the Duke's capture 
 of Joan of Arc, and his handing her over to the tender 
 mercies of the Bishop of Beauvais, and also the found- 
 ing of the most famous order of the Golden Fleece, 
 
THE STORY OF BRUGES AND GHENT 73 
 
 named in double honor of the mythological quest, and 
 of the source of local prosperity. Philip's third bride 
 was Isabel of Portugal, greatgranddaughter of John of 
 Gaunt, and she became the mother of Charles the Bold. 
 The Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V, had mar- 
 ried Anne, sister of Philip, and owing to English de- 
 feats it had been arranged that Bedford should resign 
 to his brother-in-law the Regency of France which 
 the hero of Agincourt had placed in his charge. From 
 many points of view the occasion was a memorable 
 one, but the one fact that endured longest was the 
 creation of the order of the Golden Fleece. 
 
 There seems good reason to believe that the Golden 
 Fleece was founded by the Duke of Burgundy out of 
 a spirit of emulation. He was a Knight of the Garter, 
 established by Edward III three-quarters of a century 
 earlier, and he resolved to have his own Order and to 
 endow it with features peculiar to himself. The Gar- 
 ter was a chivalric order with a decoration and a 
 badge ; the Fleece was a distinct power in the land with 
 its members immune from the general law. A Knight 
 of the Golden Fleece could only be tried by the Chap- 
 ter of his order. When Alva caused Egmont and 
 Horn to be executed, the worst crime he committed 
 in the eyes of many was in violating the rules of the 
 Order to which he also belonged, and in ignoring the 
 privileges of two brother Knights. 
 
 The Order was ostensibly founded in honor of the 
 new bride, and so intent was the Duke on its mainte- 
 
74 BELGIUM 
 
 nance that lie passed on its wreretgnty to the husband 
 of the bit heiress of his family, Tim timely pre- 
 •deuce fared die Order from extraction on more than 
 one occasion. The nm motto chosen for die Order 
 wa§ essentially applicable to the marriage: "Aultre 
 tfaray, Dame Jsabeau tant que vtvray" As it waf hit 
 third venture in the matrimonial lifts, he thought it 
 proper to pre the young pr'mct** tome pledge, but 
 this motto was not long m use. In a few rears it 
 was fttperfeded by the motto of the Borgtrndian fam- 
 ily, "/* fay etnprins"—"l hare undertaken." The 
 Order, which was ded i cate d to the Virgin and St 
 Andrew, the patron faint of Burgundy, was hunted 
 to the sovereign and twenty- four knights. At first the 
 archives and treasury of the Order were preserved 
 at Bruges, where the knight* had their stalls in the 
 Church of Notre Dame ; but die Archduke, afterwards 
 Emperor Maximilian, removed them to Ste Gudule in 
 Brussels, When the French Revolution broke out they 
 were taken for safety to Vienna, where they still re- 
 main. In 1725 the Order was divided into two 
 branches, the Golden Fleece of Austria and the Golden 
 Fleece of Spam, 
 
 The marriage of Philip the Good was celebrated 
 when Bruges was at its prime, A century earlier a 
 Queen of France on visiting it had been so struck by 
 the rich costumes of its ladies, that she exclaimed, "1 
 thought I was the only Queen here, but 1 see a thou- 
 sand around me." At that time Bruges was the lead- 
 
THE STORY OF BRUGES AND GHENT 
 
 bag financial city in Western Europe, or as it was put 
 in those days, north of the Alps. The prices on its 
 OKhangc ruled thOM e!>e\\ here, [1 was said that more 
 trading slupa WCW to he soon in its harbor at ll.innic 
 than in any other port save Venice. The Hansa, Eng- 
 lish, and Italian merchants had their resident agencies 
 and counting houses. But a great national disaster 
 was impending, with which neither the skill nor the 
 resources of the men of the age could cope. 
 
 The prosperity of Bruges was based on its access 
 to the sea, but even at the moment of the marriage 
 fetes it was known that the navigable channel from 
 the sea to Damme was silting up, and that before many 
 more years had passed it would be permanently closed. 
 This stage was reached in the year 1490. The Zwyn 
 became merged in that tract of unfathomed sand ex- 
 tending from Knocke to Terneuzen, which represents 
 the Dutch possessions south of the Scheldt today. The 
 merchants and the Guilds left the thus isolated city, 
 transferring their headquarters to Antwerp, and 
 Bruges entered upon its long sleep as a place of enter- 
 prise. Only in the twentieth century has it begun to 
 show signs of returning vitality through the construc- 
 tion of the ship canal that connects it with the North 
 Sea. 
 
 The prosperity of Ghent rested on a surer basis 
 than that of Bruges, or perhaps it would be nearer 
 the truth to say that it was less dependent on the co- 
 operation of foreigners. The decline of Bruges in- 
 
76 BELGIUM 
 
 creased the importance of Ghent, which was for a 
 century after the marriage of Philip the Good, the 
 center of the political life of Flanders. It carried on 
 a fierce struggle for its constitutional rights during 
 that period, and it was only when the Emperor Charles 
 V, banding together all the forces at his disposal, 
 came down upon it with heavy hand in 1540, and im- 
 posed his memorable chastisement, that it succumbed. 
 Some idea of the stubborn and never- failing cour- 
 age of the people of Ghent during the last century of 
 its existence as a political entity may be formed from 
 a brief summary of the events that preceded the final 
 humiliation in 1540. The story commences in 1453 
 with the terrible battle of Gavre — "the red sea of 
 Gavre" — when twenty thousand citizens were slain. 
 Philip the Good seemed touched by the slaughter, for 
 he exclaimed, "These were my subjects/' but none the 
 less he hung all his prisoners, including some English 
 archers, who were hoisted to the loftiest trees. Among 
 the penalties imposed were the imposition of a heavy 
 fine, and the suppression of the trained bands of the 
 guilds known as the White Hoods. Yet, in 1467, 
 Charles the Bold, in the midst of a turbulent populace 
 uttering threats on the very day of his inauguration 
 as Count of Flanders, found himself obliged to restore 
 all the privileges his father had confiscated fourteen 
 years before. "Wait ten years," he exclaimed, "and 
 we shall see who is master." Ten years later he fell in 
 the battle of Nancy. 
 
THE STORY OF BRUGES AND GHENT 77 
 
 His successor, his only child and daughter, Mary 
 of Burgundy, was left face to face with the citizens, 
 who took full advantage of her troubles. Before they 
 would allow her to be proclaimed they compelled her 
 to sign a new charter embodying all the old privileges. 
 Then only would they permit her to ring the .bell 
 known as Roland. Nor were the citizens satisfied un- 
 til they had executed the principal ministers of their 
 last Duke. The atrocities of the individual ruler are 
 treasured up by the historian, those of the masses or 
 the mob are consigned to an indulgent oblivion. 
 
 What the citizens of Ghent wrested from the last 
 Duchess of Burgundy they kept under her youthful 
 son, Philip the Fair. They held him as a hostage 
 against his father, the Archduke Maximilian, who 
 overran much of the Provinces with a German army. 
 One of the incidents of the struggle was when the 
 citizens of Bruges locked Maximilian up in the 
 Craenenburg, and kept him there for three months. 
 He was only released on giving his promise by oath 
 to abstain from further interference in the govern- 
 ment, and to leave his son in the hands of the Flem- 
 ings. It is not surprising that Maximilian took the 
 oath to recover his freedom, but it is surprising that 
 he was believed. No sooner had he got to a safe dis- 
 tance than he repudiated his promises, and he re- 
 turned in a few months with a large German army to 
 besiege Ghent, which had thrown in its fortunes with 
 Bruges. 
 
78 BELGIUM 
 
 This was the turning-point in the history of the 
 great Flemish communes. In bad as in good fortune 
 they had up to this managed to hold their own in the 
 struggle with their feudal and hereditary rulers. But 
 they were now confronted by a more formidable mas- 
 ter, who had behind him the big battalions of the 
 German Empire. The citizens did not appreciate the 
 change until it was too late. Bruges and Ghent were 
 compelled to pay enormous fines, and by the treaties 
 of Damme and Cadzand they surrendered their privi- 
 leges. The wounded dignity of Maximilian for his 
 imprisonment was further appeased by the execution 
 of a considerable number of the leading citizens of the 
 two cities. 
 
 Such was the situation at the dawn of the sixteenth 
 century, when the citizens of Ghent, laving aside their 
 political ambitions, applied themselves to the develop- 
 ment of their trade and industry. The pacific rule of 
 Margaret of Austria, sister of Philip the Fair, acting 
 in the name of her young nephew who became Charles 
 V, was highly favorable to their designs, and it was 
 freely said that the prosperity of Ghent had never 
 been greater than it was in the first half of the six- 
 teenth century. In the hour of their greatest prosper- 
 ity the people of Ghent brought down upon themselves 
 the wrath and punishment of their prince. Some con- 
 temporary writers declared that there had been a decay 
 in the manners and character of the citizens — one of 
 them wrote: "The old represent that everything is 
 
THE STORY OF BRUGES AND GHENT 79 
 
 changed in the customs of our citizens, and they com- 
 plain that instead of simple, frank, loyal, courageous, 
 robust, and tall men a generation has succeeded cor- 
 rupted by vice, idleness, ambition, and pride." 
 
 In 1536 the Emperor, for the purposes of war 
 with France, demanded a subsidy from Flanders, and 
 the city of Ghent was called upon to provide a third 
 of the total. The citizens refused to pay, and finding 
 that the prince had no available means to compel them 
 to do so, they grew defiant. They formed an associa- 
 tion among themselves to carry on the government of 
 their city, and they invited Francis of France to aid 
 them against their liege lord. Unfortunately for them 
 that monarch had just signed a ten years' peace with 
 his old rival, and he dismissed their envoys with cold 
 comfort. Still the citizens were full of confidence in 
 themselves, and to show their contempt for the Em- 
 peror they executed his chief representative, Lieven 
 Pym, who told them with his dying breath they would 
 be sorry when "too late." They acted thus recklessly 
 in the belief that as the Emperor was in Spain, and 
 had many things to attend to, it would certainly be a 
 long time before he could think of them. 
 
 All their expectations were falsified by the act of 
 the French King, who sent Charles a pressing invita- 
 tion to travel through France so that he might be able 
 to promptly chastise his mutinous subjects. The offer, 
 unusual in those days, was accepted, and in February, 
 1540, Charles appeared before Ghent at the head of a 
 
80 BELGIUM 
 
 chosen army. Resistance would have been futile; 
 none was attempted. Having occupied the city with 
 his troops, Charles made a solemn entry at the head 
 of his generals and courtiers. A formal indictment 
 was drafted, and Ghent was placed on its trial. The 
 verdict was delivered with all the proper observances, 
 and after due deliberation the Emperor solemnly rati- 
 fied it. Seven — not nineteen, as Motley says — of the 
 men who judicially murdered Lieven Pym were exe- 
 cuted, but that was the full extent of the bloodshed. 
 The Emperor's sentence was directed against institu- 
 tions and not men — but in its way it could not have 
 been more severe. The sentence began by depriving 
 the town "body and community" of all its privileges 
 in perpetuity. It was deprived of municipal govern- 
 ment, and the guilds as well as the city lost their 
 charters. All sheriffs and magistrates were to be ap- 
 pointed by the Emperor alone. Public property, in- 
 cluding artillery, was to be ceded to the Emperor, and 
 the famous Roland, which had so often given tongue 
 to the discontent of the land, and summoned the people 
 to arms, was cast down and sentenced to eternal si- 
 lence. In addition, the city had to pay not only the 
 refused subsidy, but a heavy fine. Finally, the chief 
 citizens had to make humble penitence in their shirts 
 barefooted, and with halters round their necks. Thus, 
 after five centuries, ended the special privileges and 
 political importance of Ghent, the city associated in 
 the English mind with the names of James van Arte- 
 velde and John of Gaunt. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE STORY OF LIEGE 
 
 AT many periods, notably during the troubles of 
 the sixteenth century, Liege lay outside the gen- 
 eral stream of Belgian life, and enjoyed an independ- 
 ent existence. The separate story of the Liege prin- 
 cipality is certainly the least-known part of Belgian 
 history, and no doubt this is to be attributed to the 
 fact that in the Middle Ages events in Flanders and 
 Brabant had rarely any influence on the future of 
 Liege. It was the one division of Belgium not in- 
 cluded in the Burgundian Union. The single incident 
 of the capture of the city by Charles the Bold, told by 
 Scott in "Quentin Durward" with magnificently auda- 
 cious plagiarism from the pages of Commines, prob- 
 ably exhausts the ordinary reader's knowledge of a 
 State which existed for the better part of a thousand 
 years. 
 
 In the tenth century a great prelate, equally ener- 
 getic as social reformer and as curber of the feudal 
 barons for the exaltation of the Church, founded the 
 clerical State which existed more or less separately 
 from its neighbors down to the French Revolution. 
 It was long a saying among its people: "Liege owes 
 Notger to Christ, and everything else to Notger." 
 
 81 
 
82 BELGIUM 
 
 But three centuries before Notger, Liege was the 
 capital of the Dukes of Austria, and Charlemagne was 
 the first to transfer it to Aix-la-Chapelle. 
 
 Once established in the seat of authority, the bish- 
 ops showed their capacity for administration. Ani- 
 mated by a single purpose, free of the petty rivalries 
 which were the bane of the feudal system, they car- 
 ried on a deliberate and continuous policy. What one 
 bishop left half done his successor completed, and the 
 Bishopric of Liege, which had been regarded as a place 
 of retreat for penitent or invalid Austrian dukes, soon 
 became a power in the land. Indeed, at the dawn of 
 the twelfth century it looked quite possible that the 
 whole of Belgium might fall into its sphere. 
 
 The Crusades gave the bishops a favorable chance 
 of aggrandizement, and they availed themselves of it. 
 For that remote expedition money was necessary, and 
 as the laws forbade the ordinary citizen from dealing 
 in money which was restricted to Lombards and Jews, 
 there was none available among the classes from which 
 the expeditions were drawn. But the Church was in- 
 dependent of the law — or rather its law was supreme 
 — and in its hands the gifts of many generations of 
 pious donors had accumulated. It had become the 
 great if not the only capitalist. 
 
 The sinews of war for the first and second Cru- 
 sades were provided then by the Church, and by no 
 branch of that great organization more largely than by 
 the Bishopric of Liege. But it has never been the 
 
THE STORY OF LIEGE 83 
 
 practice of men, whether marked by a tonsure or not, 
 to give without receiving an equivalent. The bishops 
 helped Godfrey of Bouillon to equip his forces, but 
 they took from him his castle and the feudal rights he 
 enjoyed as Marquis of Antwerp and Lord of Malines. 
 They also helped the Count of Hainaut, but it was at 
 the price of his placing his county under the suzer- 
 ainty of Liege. But powerful as was the Bishop of 
 Liege, he was not powerful enough to stand alone. 
 He had to lean on somebody, and Notger's successor 
 at the dawn of the eleventh century had been pro- 
 claimed Prince of the Empire on recognizing the tem- 
 poral sovereignty of the Emperor of Germany. The 
 aggrandizement, therefore, of the bishopric entailed 
 an extension of German influence, but ultimately Liege 
 became the least German and most intensely French 
 of all the divisions of Belgium. This characteristic 
 was never more noticeable than it is today. 
 
 The triumph of the bishops over the nobles has 
 been noted ; there remains now to summarize the long 
 struggle for power between the bishops and the peo- 
 ple. It must, however, be recorded that the first popu- 
 lar rights and privileges at Liege were conferred by 
 the Bishop on the people. These were embodied in 
 the famous "tribunal of peace" which formed the 
 charter of the citizens of Liege for over four cen- 
 turies. This Court sat in the Cathedral, the burgesses 
 beside the Bishop, and dispensed summary justice on 
 
84 BELGIUM 
 
 all alike — only priests and princes being exempted 
 from its jurisdiction. 
 
 As a court of law the Peace tribunal answered its 
 purpose very well, but the growth of civic liberty and 
 rights could not be restrained. The guilds and cor- 
 porations took on themselves more and more the func- 
 tions of political power, and the clerical position was 
 sometimes weakened by the tyranny of a bad bishop 
 like Henry of Gueldres. 
 
 The citizens aimed chiefly, however, at the over- 
 throw, not of the Bishop, but of the aristocratic fami- 
 lies who had seized all the civic posts and made them 
 hereditary, and in the struggle the Bishop often sided 
 with the people. It reached a crisis in the year 1312 
 when, on the death of the Bishop, the nobles chose 
 one regent and the citizens another. Five hundred 
 armed nobles entered the city hoping to carry all be- 
 fore them. Instead they were vanquished by the su- 
 perior numbers of the citizens, driven into the ancient 
 church of St. Martin, and destroyed with the sacred 
 edifice by fire. A new law was made to the effect that 
 all city officers were to be chosen by the people from 
 the people. 
 
 The peace of Fexhe (1315) embodied this and 
 much more in its articles. It prescribed an appeal to 
 the people in the event of any serious difference or 
 doubt, and was long known as the great charter of 
 Liege. Speaking of this period, M. de Villenfagne, 
 the historian of Walloon Belgium, has written: "The 
 
THE STORY OF LIEGE 85 
 
 principality of Liege, comprising Condroz, Hesbaye 
 the countdom of Looz, the marquisate of Franchimont, 
 the lordship of Bouillon, and of the territory between 
 the Sambre and Meuse, formed at this time (1390) a 
 sort of Federal Republic. The ruling power having 
 belonged first to the aristocracy and then to the Bishop, 
 passed into the hands of the people as represented by 
 the three Estates of the country." 
 
 Having gained all the privileges of a free city, the 
 people of Liege became arrogant, and thought they 
 could defy the House of Burgundy which had just 
 welded the whole of Belgium, with the exception of 
 the part subject to Liege itself, into a united State, 
 including Holland and a large part of northern and 
 eastern France as well. The power of the Government 
 as represented by the Duke had never been so pre- 
 ponderant, and Liege should have taken warning from 
 the recent fate of Ghent at the battle of Gavre. Un- 
 fortunately for them the citizens were rather carried 
 away by the belief that French aid would be forth- 
 coming, and, therefore, their replies to Philip the Good 
 and his son Charles the Bold were couched in haughty 
 and defiant language. Even a minor defeat at Morte- 
 naeken in 1465 did not bring them to their senses, and 
 when the real struggle began in the following year, 
 the citizens were still sanguine of success. The first 
 incident of this was the siege and capture of Dinant, 
 where a population numbering 60,000 was wiped out. 
 
86 BELGIUM 
 
 In the following year Liege, after one defeat in the 
 field, signed an ignominious treaty recognizing the su- 
 premacy of the Duke by allowing his representative to 
 reside in the city. But this humility was assumed, for 
 in 1468 they again defied him and imprisoned his rep- 
 resentative. The incident occurred, as described in 
 "Quentin Durward," while Louis XI was the guest of 
 Charles the Bold at Peronne. Louis, to save his life, 
 agreed to accompany Charles on his expedition of pun- 
 ishment, and was present at the capture and sack of 
 Liege when 40,000 of the citizens are said to have been 
 slaughtered, many of the women being thrown into 
 the Meuse from the Bridge of Arches. It is declared 
 that every building was demolished with the exception 
 of the churches and convents. Finally the city made 
 "renunciation for all its liberties" by a humble dele- 
 gation of its chief citizens to Brussels. Thus was an 
 end put to the rule of the citizens of Liege, which a 
 little earlier had been called a "Federal Republic." 
 
 Soon after these events evil days fell on Burgundy. 
 Granson, Morat, and Nancy followed in quick succes- 
 sion, and the dream of founding a third kingdom in 
 northwest Europe that should be the equal of France 
 crumbled in the dust. The power of the Bishop of 
 Liege revived. Louis of Bourbon, supported by the 
 Pope, succeeded in restoring some order to the city's 
 affairs, and might have done better if he had not been 
 assassinated by William de la Marck, 'the wild boar 
 of the Ardennes." During the reign of Charles V 
 
THE STORY OF LIEGE 87 
 
 Liege did not assert itself, but prosperity was gradu- 
 ally returning, and the city succeeded in keeping the 
 combattants during the religious wars outside its boun- 
 daries. When Alva and William the Silent were com- 
 ing to close quarters in the Meuse Valley, Bishop 
 Groesbeck maintained his neutrality by warning off 
 the belligerents. 
 
 As time went on Groesbeck's successors, who were 
 chiefly Bavarian princes, experienced increasing diffi- 
 culty with the citizens who, having secured the nom- 
 inal revival of the old charters, sought to give them 
 their full ancient significance. More especially did 
 they claim that all the city affairs should be controlled 
 by the council of "thirty-two," to which the the bur- 
 gesses elected twenty-six and the Bishop only six mem- 
 bers. One of the striking episodes of this struggle 
 was the assassination of La Ruelle, the burgomaster 
 and a friend of the French connection. He was be- 
 trayed by a fellow-plotter, the Count de Warfusee, who 
 did not benefit by his treachery, for he was torn in 
 pieces by the people of Liege as soon as they discov- 
 ered his crime. The Bishop then invoked the Em- 
 peror's aid and a large German force captured the 
 city. The burgomasters and many of their colleagues 
 were executed in front of the Hotel de Ville. It was 
 then that the Bishop caused the Citadel to be built on 
 the summit of St. Walburga's Mountain. 
 
 From time to time the citizens had expressed sym- 
 pathy with France. This was much diminished by the 
 
88 BELGIUM 
 
 exactions of the French army, which occupied Liege 
 from 1670 to 1676. On leaving, they destroyed the 
 citadel, and the citizens believing that with it had also 
 disappeared the Bishop's power, resumed their rights. 
 This step proved more than ever disastrous. The 
 Emperor lent the Bishop an army to recover his posi- 
 tion. Such resistance as the citizens attempted was 
 easily overcome, and their leaders were executed on 
 the public place. The old charters were cancelled, all 
 political power was revoked from the guilds, which 
 became simply artistic or industrial associations. To 
 further consolidate the Bishop's power, the Citadel 
 was to be rebuilt, and a new fort constructed half way 
 across the Bridge of Arches. It was not many years 
 after this event that an English army under Marl- 
 borough attacked and captured the citadel, but the 
 English troops did not occupy the city. 
 
 At the end of another century Liege witnessed a 
 fresh attempt by the people to recover their rights, 
 and it had rather a curious origin. A dispute as to the 
 distribution of the profits of the Spa gambling tables 
 ended in the citizens naming two of their order as 
 Chief Magistrates, and in the flight of Bishop Hoens- 
 broeck to Treves. The citizens claimed a free national 
 assembly, but the German Court of Wetzlar ordered 
 them to return to their obedience, and sent a German 
 army to enforce it. On this occasion the triumph of 
 the Bishop by the aid of German arms was not long- 
 lived. But a few months later the French overrun and 
 
THE STORY OF LIEGE 89 
 
 conquered Belgium. For over twenty years Liege 
 formed part of France; indeed the connection only 
 terminated with the arrival of a Prussian force in 
 January, 1814. After Napoleon's escape from Elba, 
 Blucher made his headquarters at Liege during the 
 spring of 1815, and it was there that he narrowly es- 
 caped being shot at the hands of some mutinous Saxon 
 soldiers, by jumping out of the window of his hotel. 
 Whatever else it had failed to do, the French Revo- 
 lution certainly killed the Prince Bishopric of Liege. 
 It had found it a sort of Power in Europe, it left it 
 without any prospect of revival. Europe then placed 
 Liege in the hands of the King of the Netherlands 
 with the rest of Belgium. 
 
 The people of Liege contributed to the success of 
 the Belgian revolution of 1830 more than any other 
 city excepting Brussels. They had fought for cen- 
 turies for civic rights, they now had the chance of 
 fighting for national independence, and they took it. 
 Without any outside assistance they captured from 
 the Dutch garrisons the Citadel and the Chartreuse 
 fort. They sent to Brussels the Volunteer Battalion 
 which distinguished itself in the four days' fighting 
 with the Dutch army in the Park. Finally, they fur- 
 nished three of the heroes of the whole movement, 
 Charles Rogier, Joseph Lebeau, and "the wooden- 
 legged gunner," Charlier. 
 
 There is one little matter affecting the name of the 
 place that may be dealt with here in a few lines. The 
 
90 BELGIUM 
 
 accenting of the "e" in the name has given rise to a 
 considerable diversity of practice, and whether because 
 it is easier to be wrong than to be right, the erroneous 
 practice has prevailed. It has been the universal prac- 
 tice in England to mark the "e" with the accent 
 "grave," thus, Liege. In former days many French 
 writers did so, and some Belgians. It is just to Bouil- 
 let, Littre, and other sound etymologists to say that 
 they did not fall into the error. They give it correctly 
 with the accent aigu as Liege. Now what is the sig- 
 nificance of the difference for the ordinary reader ? It 
 is simply that the correct pronunciation is as two 
 clearly distinct syllables — "Lee-aje." This approxi- 
 mates most nearly to the Walloon (the local dialect) 
 name, which is "Le-ege." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE BELGIAN CONSTITUTION 
 
 SOME dates and facts as to the way in which the 
 Belgian Constitution was drafted and passed into 
 law will be of use to the general reader. 
 
 In 1815 the Vienna Congress declared that the 
 South or old Spanish Netherlands were to be joined 
 to Holland, and to form the Kingdom of the United 
 Netherlands under the sovereign rule of the House 
 of Orange Nassau. This union lasted for fifteen years. 
 Various grievances developed during that period, and 
 the Belgians considered that they were treated with 
 some harshness by the Dutch. The French Revolution 
 of July, 1830, when the absolutist Bourbon monarchy 
 was superseded by the constitutional Orleanist regime, 
 greatly increased the confidence of the Belgians in 
 themselves and their cause by leading them to think 
 that the French nation would sympathize with and sec- 
 ond their efforts to achieve their own independence. 
 The first disturbance occurred in Brussels during the 
 night of August 25-26, 1830, after a performance at 
 the opera of the "Muett de Portia," when Massaniel- 
 lo's appeal for the emancipation of his country in- 
 flamed the audience and set fire to the aspirations of 
 the public. Opinions differ as to whether the scene 
 
 91 
 
92 BELGIUM 
 
 had been carefully prepared, or whether it was one of 
 those impromptus that constitute the eternal fitness of 
 things. At any rate, the night was passed in plunder- 
 ing and destroying the houses of some of the Min- 
 isters and others identified in the public mind with the 
 Dutch regime. The Belgian revolution then began. 
 
 Its second and more important phase covered the 
 four days, September 23-26. The Dutch decided to 
 recover Brussels by force, and sent an army to cap- 
 ture it. The troops succeeded after some severe street 
 fighting in reaching the Park facing the Royal Palace, 
 but they had marched into a trap. Instead of crush- 
 ing the citizens and recovering the city, they found 
 themselves besieged in the Park, and more or less cut 
 off from their communications. The incidents of the 
 fighting that went on for four days showed that regu- 
 lar troops have little superiority over armed citizens 
 in street fighting, and on September 26 the Dutch ex- 
 tricated themselves from their false position by re- 
 treating during the night, leaving however, 1,500 
 killed behind them. The Belgian revolution, which 
 most observers outside the country had affected to 
 regard as of trivial moment, then became a matter of 
 European importance. 
 
 A week after the withdrawal of the Dutch troops 
 the Provisional Government which had been carrying 
 on the administration in Brussels, issued the Decree 
 of Independence. Its terms deserve quotation: 
 
THE BELGIAN CONSTITUTION 93 
 
 "Art I. The province of Belgium detached by 
 force from Holland shall constitute an Independent 
 State. 
 
 "Art. II. The Central Committee will occupy it- 
 self as soon as possible with the draft of a Constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 "Art. III. A National Congress representing all 
 the interests of the Provinces shall be convoked. It 
 will examine the bill drafted for a Belgian Constitu- 
 tion, modify it as it thinks proper, and then will make 
 it the definitive Constitution of force throughout Bel- 
 gium." 
 
 The drafting of the Constitution was entrusted to 
 a special commission, and at its first meeting the im- 
 portant question was raised and decided as to the form 
 the new government should take. There had been 
 some irresponsible talk of creating a Belgian Republic. 
 The commission decided that the government should 
 be a hereditary constitutional monarchy, and when the 
 point was raised before the National Congress some 
 weeks later, it was promptly decided in the same sense. 
 
 The commission took three months in accomplish- 
 ing its task, and at the end of January, 1831, it pre- 
 sented the Congress with the draft of a Constitution 
 consisting of 139 Articles. As the Congress had dis- 
 cussed and decided what may be called the vital prin- 
 ciples underlying the Articles of the Constitution con- 
 currently with the labors of the commission, the draft 
 bill did not require alteration, and after a week's 
 formal discussion it was passed into law on February 7. 
 
94 BELGIUM 
 
 The Constitution bill contained 139 Articles, one of 
 which (No. 31) provided for the right to revise it 
 should a future occasion arise to make it desirable or 
 necessary. Having denned the character of the mon- 
 archy to be established, and the administrative divi- 
 sions of the kingdom which by ancient tradition con- 
 tained nine provinces, the law proceeded to set forth 
 the constitutional functions of the respective powers 
 in the State. The King was relieved of responsibility 
 by the simple regulation that all his acts had to be 
 countersigned by one of his ministers, who thereby 
 became responsible for what was done. The King had, 
 however, one or two privileges that do not fall, as a 
 rule, to the constitutional monarch. He could dis- 
 solve the Chambers, and he could also initiate legisla- 
 tion by decreeing that a draft bill (projet de hi) 
 should be prepared on any specific matter of an urgent 
 character. The King was also declared commander- 
 in-chief of the army and navy, the latter of which dTd 
 not and does not yet exist. When Leopold I read the 
 constitution law through before accepting the crown, 
 he made the caustic remark: "You seem to have left 
 your King very little to do." 
 
 The executive and legislative powers in the State 
 were divided between the King, the Chamber of "Rep- 
 resentatives, and the Senate. The Chamber of Rep- 
 resentatives originally consisted qf 102 members 
 chosen by the duly qualified electors of the country, 
 who, until 1894, were few in number. In that year 
 
THE BELGIAN CONSTITUTION 95 
 
 the Representatives had increased to 152. A general 
 election had to be held every four years, and at the 
 end of two years half the members had to seek re- 
 election. Of course, Ministers had the right, in com- 
 mon with the King, of dissolving the Parliament at 
 any time and appealing to the country, but the right 
 has been very sparingly used. Members of the Cham- 
 ber must be not less than twenty-five years of age, and 
 since 1894 they have been paid a salary of $800 
 on the stipulation of regular attendance. They are 
 also furnished with a free railway pass from the seat 
 of their constituency to the capital. 
 
 The strength of the Senate or Second Chamber 
 was originally fixed at fifty-one members, but in 1893 
 the total was raised to 102, seventy-six being elected 
 by the qualified electors, and twenty-six being nomi- 
 nated by the Provincial Councils. A senator sits for 
 eight years. He receives no payment, and no one is 
 eligible for a seat in the Upper House under the age 
 of forty. It may be mentioned, as a distinctive feature 
 of the Belgian system, that Ministers who may be 
 taken indiscriminately from either the Senate or the 
 Chamber of Representatives, have the right of speak- 
 ing in both Houses as occasion may arise. The King's 
 sons or other Princes of the Royal Family become by 
 right members of the Senate on reaching the age of 
 eighteen, but they have no vote until they are twenty- 
 five years old. A bill must be approved of by both 
 Houses before it can be submitted to the King for the 
 
96 BELGIUM 
 
 necessary Royal decree to make it law. Consequently, 
 the possibility of an unseemly collision between the 
 two Chambers in so far as it would threaten to in- 
 volve the name or person of the King is eliminated 
 by the Belgian constitution. No Belgian minister 
 could talk of inviting or compelling the Sovereign to 
 be the ally or tool of the Lower House in coercing the 
 Upper, and a proposal to flood an ancient Chamber 
 with new immigrants would be derisive when the total 
 number of occupants is fixed by law. There are some 
 good points to be borrowed from the young Belgian 
 constitution. 
 
 At the time of the passing of the constitution into 
 law, in February, 1831, no sovereign had been selected 
 for the Belgian throne. Five months later Prince Leo- 
 pold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was inaugurated as King 
 of the Belgians in Brussels, thus founding the Coburg 
 dynasty which still occupies the throne. The consti- 
 tution provided that the crown was to be vested in the 
 male line to the perpetual exclusion of females, but in 
 the event of the failure of all male heirs the King was 
 to have the right of nominating his successor with the 
 consent of the Chambers. Should he not have made 
 such a nomination, the throne would be "declared va- 
 cant" on his death, and the Chambers elected in 
 double strength for the occasion would then proceed 
 to elect a new ruler. 
 
 At one period it seemed not impossible that such 
 an occasion might arise. Leopold I, who at the time 
 
THE BELGIAN CONSTITUTION 97 
 
 of his accession was a widower (having married in 
 1816 the Princess Charlotte of England, who died in 
 childbirth the following year), married in 1832 the 
 Princess Louise of Orleans, daughter of Louis 
 Philippe, King of the French, and by her had a fam- 
 ily of three sons and one daughter. The eldest son 
 died when he was less than a year old. The second 
 son, Leopold, born in 1835, succeeded his father in 
 1865, the second of his name, and reigned for nearly 
 forty-five years. His death took place in December, 
 1909. The third son was Philip, Count of Flanders, 
 born in 1837 and died in 1905, and the only daughter, 
 Charlotte, the unhappy Empress of Mexico, is still 
 living. Leopold II, who married in 1853 the Arch- 
 duchess Marie Henrietta of Austria, had only one son, 
 who bore the title of Duke of Brabant, and died in 
 1869 in his tenth year. The reversion to the throne 
 thus passed to the Count of Flanders, who had mar- 
 ried in 1867 the Princess Mary of Hohenzollern- 
 Sigmaringen. The issue of this marriage was two 
 sons and two daughters. As the Salic Law prevails, 
 it is unnecessary to say anything either of these prin- 
 cesses or of the three daughters of Leopold II, all of 
 whom survive. 
 
 The two sons of the Count of Flanders were named 
 Baudouin (Baldwin) and Albert. Prince Baudouin, 
 who was extremely popular with the people, died sud- 
 denly in 1891 without having married. There re- 
 mained only his brother Albert to prevent the Belgian 
 
98 BELGIUM 
 
 royal family from extinction in the male line. For 
 some years the situation gave rise to considerable 
 anxiety, but Prince Albert's marriage in 1900 to the 
 Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the late Duke Charles 
 Theodore of Bavaria, followed by the birth of two 
 sons named Leopold and Charles, removed all ground 
 for apprehension, and assured the succession in the 
 male line. In December, 1909, Prince Albert succeeded 
 his uncle *&s Albert I, and he and his wife, Queen 
 Elizabeth, who is renowned for her charitable deeds, 
 have begun what promises to prove a new era in Bel- 
 gian history. Their sons are now known by the his- 
 toric titles of Duke of Brabant and Count of Flanders 
 respectively. 
 
 But the Belgian Constitution did a great deal more 
 than found and define a constitutional monarchy. It 
 provided for the liberties of a people in a manner then 
 almost without example in Europe. It is rare indeed 
 to find legislators more animated by the principles of 
 true freedom for individuals as well as the community 
 than were the framers of the Belgian Constitution in 
 1830-31. The modern politician seems bent on devis- 
 ing new forms of tyranny which are more irritating 
 than those favored by the most absolute sovereigns. 
 The Belgian Solons displayed a remarkable tolerance 
 not only for their own views, but for those of their 
 fellow citizens. For instance, Belgium was a Catholic 
 country — in the old constitution the Church had been 
 one of the States — the overwhelming majority of the 
 
THE BELGIAN CONSTITUTION 99 
 
 people were devoted followers of the Church of Rome. 
 Yet one of the Articles of the Constitution separates 
 church and state, and lays down the law that all cults 
 are equal and free. Another ordains that no one was 
 to be interfered with or disqualified for public service 
 or office on account of his religious opinions. These 
 provisions for religious tolerance and equality were all 
 the more remarkable because no popular movement 
 existed to force or induce the Legislature to adopt 
 them. They might be styled voluntary efforts in the 
 quest of supposed perfection or at least of unfettered 
 liberty. It may be added that the establishment of re- 
 ligious equality has not led to any change in the re- 
 ligion of the people. A Protestant propaganda has 
 never had any chance of success in the Southern 
 Netherlands. 
 
 Although the influence of the Church did not avail 
 to prevent its deposition from the privileged place it 
 had enjoyed in the State from time immemorial, it was 
 felt that it would not be in accordance with the fitness 
 of things to allow of a non-Catholic prince ruling a 
 Catholic people, and it was consequently stipulated 
 that the King should be of the Catholic religion. But 
 here again the extraordinary broad-mindedness of the 
 Belgian legislators was revealed, for during the first 
 thirty-five years of its national independence, Belgium 
 was ruled by a Protestant King because Leopold I de- 
 clined to change his religion. His children were, how- 
 ever, brought up as Catholics in accordance with the 
 
100 BELGIUM 
 
 Constitution and also with the marriage contract 
 signed at Compiegne on the occasion of his marriage 
 with the French Princess. 
 
 Among the salient vital principles embodied in the 
 Constitution were freedom of the press, of the person 
 and of the right of meeting. Nowhere has the press 
 been more free and nowhere has the individual citizen 
 been more secure against press attack than in Belgium. 
 The sensational journalism to which we have grown 
 painfully accustomed is unknown in Belgium. No 
 Belgian citizen is ever accused or exposed in the pa- 
 pers until he has been condemned and sentenced by a 
 court of justice. The accused and their relations are 
 spared by the adoption of asterisks and initials instead 
 of names. It may be due to the smallness of the coun- 
 try, but at least Belgian procedure is considerate of the 
 feelings of the innocent bearers of an unusual name. 
 Among other important changes introduced by the new 
 Constitution was the abolition of the forfeiture of 
 civil rights and of the confiscation of property. The 
 right of public meeting, which includes that of street 
 processions, is absolute with the sole reservation that 
 during the session of the Legislature there is a pro- 
 hibited area round the Parliament House and Royal 
 Palace. 
 
 Everybody knows that Belgium is a neutral State, 
 but contrary to what seems to be generally supposed, 
 this neutrality was not a condition imposed by the Bel- 
 gians on themselves. There is not a word in the Con- 
 
THE BELGIAN CONSTITUTION- i*? a j\:W»' 
 
 stitution on the subject. It was a condition imposed 
 on Belgium by the Great Powers as the price for their 
 recognition of her existence. The Belgians were quick 
 to see the advantage of the new arrangement which 
 would save their country from again being turned into 
 the cockpit of Europe, and far from raising any ob- 
 jection on the ground of its being an interference in 
 their internal affairs, they welcomed the proposal. 
 Now the Powers were not thinking of the Belgians 
 when they came to this decision, but of themselves; 
 and the problem in their own mind was how to com- 
 pose their own rivalries and discords so that the bal- 
 ance of power might be preserved. A few facts as to 
 how this arrangement was brought about, and as to its 
 precise meaning may be appropriately added here to 
 the description already given of the Constitution, for 
 the neutrality of Belgium is an essential feature in its 
 political existence. 
 
 When the Belgians revolted, and showed that they 
 were likely to bring their revolution to a successful 
 issue, the Five Powers (England, France, Austria, 
 Prussia, and Russia) at once came together and 
 opened the London Conference. The first decisions 
 as to the future status of Belgium in Europe were con- 
 tained in the document known as the "Eighteen Ar- 
 ticles," which was signed in London on June 26, 1831. 
 The 9th and 10th Articles defined what was the first 
 view and intention of the Powers on the subject of 
 Belgian neutrality, and the following is their text: 
 
102 BELGIUM 
 
 "Art. 9. Belgium within the limits traced in con- 
 formity with the principles laid down in the present 
 preliminaries shall form a perpetually neutral State. 
 The five Powers, without wishing to intervene in the 
 internal affairs of Belgium, guarantee her that per- 
 petual neutrality as well as the integrity and inviola- 
 bility of her territory in the limits mentioned in the 
 present Article. 
 
 "Art. 10. By just reciprocity Belgium shall be 
 held to observe this same neutrality towards all the 
 other States and to make no attack on their internal 
 or external tranquility whilst preserving the right to 
 defend herself against every foreign aggression." 
 
 The pasages in italics show that in June, 1831, the 
 Powers were disposed to guarantee Belgium against 
 attack and invasion as a sort of return for imposing 
 on her a condition of permanent neutrality. 
 
 But events led to the abandonment of the Eighteen 
 Articles, and to the substitution in their place of the 
 Twenty- four Articles, which were eventually embod- 
 ied in the binding treaties. The definition of Bel- 
 gium's neutrality (although none the less fettering on 
 her action) in the later instrument is far less clearly 
 defined or binding on the Powers than it was in the 
 earlier. One brief Article was deemed sufficient, and 
 read as follows: 
 
 "Art. 7. Belgium, within the limits specified in 
 Articles 1, 2, and 4 shall form an independent and 
 perpetually neutral State. She shall be bound to ob- 
 serve this same neutrality towards all other States." 
 
 While pundits in international law will keenly dis- 
 cuss the significance of the very marked difference in 
 
THE BELGIAN CONSTITUTION 103 
 
 language employed in the two sets of Articles, there 
 remains clear the one essential fact — that Belgium 
 was deemed in the eyes of the Powers, and had to 
 accept as the price of their recognition of her exist- 
 ence the statute of, a "perpetually neutral State." 
 
 Belgium's neutrality in international law comes 
 under the heading of "imposed" or "obligatory" neu- 
 trality as contradistinguished from the "voluntary 
 neutrality" of Switzerland. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PARTY POLITICS IN BELGIUM 
 
 BEFORE dealing with the question of Party Poli- 
 tics in Belgium and the attitude of the several 
 parties in the State towards each other, it will be well 
 to give some statistics and other essential particulars 
 as to the composition of the legislature, the system of 
 election, the electorate, and the various changes that 
 have from time to time been introduced into the politi- 
 cal government of the country. 
 
 By the original Constitution of the country drafted 
 in 1830-31, the legislative powers were vested in the 
 King, the Chamber of Representatives, and the Sen- 
 ate. By the law of March 3, 1831, there were to be 
 102 Representatives and fifty-one Senators, and the 
 rule that there were to be twice as many of the former 
 as of the latter was observed through all the changes 
 until that of 1893, when the Senate was increased in 
 proportional numerical strength by the addition of 
 twenty-seven permanent provincial members. In 
 June, 1839, the principle of one representative per 
 40,000 of the population was introduced with the con- 
 sequence that the Chamber was reduced to ninety-five 
 members and the Senate to forty-seven. A law hav- 
 ing to be passed on each occasion of an increase in 
 
 104 
 
PARTY POLITICS IN BELGIUM 105 
 
 the Chambers, it may be interesting to record what 
 they have been. In 1847, the number was raised to 
 108 representatives and 54 senators; in 1859 to 116 
 and 58 respectively ; in 1866 to 124 and 62 ; in 1878 to 
 132 and 66; in 1882 to 138 and 69; in 1892 to 152 and 
 76; in 1893 to 152 and 102; and in 1902 to 166 and 
 110. Once the principle is understood, it is easy to 
 follow the fluctuations by comparison with the growth 
 of population. 
 
 With regard to the system of election and the body 
 of the electorate, a general election for the Chamber 
 of Representatives must at the longest interval take 
 place every four years and for the Senate every eight 
 years, the Sovereign having the power with or with- 
 out the assent of the Premier to dissolve the Chambers 
 and compel an appeal to the country at any time. At 
 the commencement of a new reign a dissolution takes 
 place automatically. There is another point, half the 
 Chamber has to be re-elected at the expiration of two 
 years from any general election, and half the Senate 
 at that of four years. 
 
 The number of electors was extremely limited 
 from 1831 to 1892. In 1832 there were 45,000 voters, 
 in 1848, 80,000, and in 1892 the electorate only num- 
 bered 136,775 in a population of six and a half mil- 
 lions. By the new law passed in 1893 the number of 
 electors was increased to 1,354,891, who, by the plural 
 vote passed at the same time held 2,085,605 votes. 
 
106 BELGIUM 
 
 These numbers had increased to 1,472, 953 voters and 
 2,269,414 votes in 1900. 
 
 The Belgian legislature was created in a time of 
 national peril, and in face, as it were, of the enemy. 
 At such a moment it might be said with truth that 
 "none were for a party, but all were for the State." 
 Political parties did not exist. The executive mem- 
 bers were chosen more or less from both sides, and 
 formed what was called the party of Union. This 
 happy condition of things could not be expected to last 
 longer than the circumstances which rendered it pos- 
 sible. The passing of the national peril revived the 
 ceaseless turmoil of faction fighting. Some one has 
 said that popular assemblies only exist for the purpose 
 of useless and unedifying broiling in which words take 
 the place of lethal weapons, and then has added as an 
 after-tribute to their utility, "but they let off danger- 
 ous steam." For all the useful work that is done a 
 council of six wise men would do far better. For this 
 reason the first fifteen years of Belgian independence 
 were full of wise and beneficent public measures as 
 well as free from party discord 
 
 The note of change was struck in 1846, when the 
 first Liberal Congress was held in Brussels. The 
 Liberal party was then provided with a definite pro- 
 gram and an efficient organization. Having thus got 
 the start of the Catholics or Conservatives, it was not 
 surprising that the Liberals should be returned with 
 a great majority at the general election of 1847, and 
 
PARTY POLITICS IN BELGIUM 107 
 
 they remained in office with two intervals, one brief 
 and the other longer, until 1884. For the first half of 
 that long period the Liberal leader was M. Charles 
 Rogier, a true patriot who had done as much as any 
 individual to make the Belgian Revolution successful. 
 His successor in the second half of the period was M« 
 Frere-Orban, a brilliant orator and the chief of the 
 "doctrinaires." The revolution of 1848 found Bel- 
 gium controlled by Liberal influences, and it was one 
 of the few Continental States that escaped the cata- 
 clysm of that trying and critical epoch. 
 
 The partial election of 1852 was less favorable to 
 the Liberals than they had expected, and as they were 
 divided amongst themselves, it provided an opportu- 
 nity of once more forming a mixed administration 
 without any definite party color or aggressive pro- 
 gram. It held the balance between the extremists on 
 the difficult question of religious instruction in sec- 
 ondary schools, and when the general election of 1854 
 resulted in the return for the first time of a Catholic 
 majority, it seemed as if the period of calm might not 
 be interrupted. 
 
 The new premier was M. Pierre de Decker — a 
 Catholic of moderate views and the first Fleming to 
 appear among Belgian politicians — -and his brief ten- 
 ure of power is chiefly memorable because it witnessed 
 an exceedingly bitter encounter between Catholics and 
 Liberals. This was the more remarkable because 
 there can be no question of his moderation, and the 
 
108 BELGIUM 
 
 violence of the attack on his measures was due, not 
 to their purport, but to the opinion among the Liberal 
 leaders that in this way alone could they return to 
 office. The Catholic party had a majority in the 
 Chamber, therefore M. Frere-Orban appealed to the 
 masses. The threat of a revolution was made, and for 
 the first time in the history of constitutional Belgium 
 street demonstrations were the order of the day. It 
 was so well known that these were engineered by those 
 desirous of returning to office that the agitation was 
 called "the kid-gloved revolution." However, the 
 Premier lost his nerve and resigned. The Liberals 
 returned to office in 1857, and remained there with- 
 out a break till 1870. 
 
 The elections of 1860 and 1864 were remarkable 
 for the first appearance of the advanced Liberals, who 
 wished to give legislative effect to the extreme argu- 
 ments used when Frere-Orban was in opposition and 
 only thinking how best to get back to office. But 
 Frere-Orban was quite a different person as Minister, 
 and turned a deaf ear to all proposals to eliminate 
 religious instruction from the school curriculum. The 
 extreme left, led by M. Verhaegen in these years, 
 was the precursor of the Socialist Party which has 
 played so prominent a role in more recent days. By 
 the time that the general election of 1870 was reached 
 it had become clear that old party lines were breaking 
 down, and that soon the Chamber would be divided 
 among three parties. What was not expected was that 
 
PARTY POLITICS IN BELGIUM 109 
 
 the swing of the pendulum towards Radicalism would 
 bring the Catholic party into office. The electors of 
 the country returned Conservative representatives 
 with a clear majority over the two sections of the 
 Liberal party. 
 
 This defeat at a moment when they fully counted 
 on complete victory filled the Liberals with wrath, and 
 they determined to make the position of the Catholic 
 Ministry as uncomfortable as possible. The session 
 of 1870-71 was particularly stormy, both inside and 
 outside the Chamber. While prominent politicians 
 spoke loudly of violations of the Constitution, bring- 
 ing in the King's name, the mob demonstrated in the 
 streets to cries for a republic, and serious events oc- 
 curred in Brussels and Antwerp. In a certain degree 
 these demonstrations were not without result. The 
 Premier, an advanced Catholic, resigned in favor of 
 one less extreme, and M. Jules Malou became Minis- 
 ter of Finance with a definite program for the im- 
 provement of labor conditions, the increase of the 
 electorate, and the introduction of the ballot. As the 
 Catholic party possessed a majority of twenty-two, 
 the bitterness of party strife became somewhat allayed 
 during the next two sessions, and in November, 1873, 
 the King felt himself able to state that "calm and 
 prosperous, Belgium in 1873 may be proud of the past 
 and look at the future with serene confidence." At 
 the general election of 1874 the Catholics found their 
 
110 BELGIUM 
 
 majority reduced to fourteen. The partial elections 
 cf 1876 further reduced it to twelve. 
 
 The year 1877 was remarkable for three impor- 
 tant political events. Voting by ballot was introduced, 
 the Chamber was increased by ten representatives and 
 the Senate by five, and the first avowedly Socialist 
 meeting was held at Ghent. The first election under 
 the new system was held in June, 1878, when the 
 Liberals secured a majority of twelve, and M. Frere- 
 Orban returned to power. The Catholic party had 
 done quite well enough during its eight years' tenure 
 of office to remove the reproach that had often been 
 made against it, that it did not know how to govern. 
 During the. critical period of the Franco-German War 
 it had upheld the honor and neutrality of Belgium, 
 and in the region of domestic affairs it had given the 
 elector security in voting and ameliorated the condi- 
 tions of the labor classes. 
 
 With the return of the Liberal party to power 
 began one of the stormiest periods in Belgian history. 
 The new Ministry resorted to a policy of what was 
 called action, and which was really a course of aggres- 
 sion against everything their opponents held dear. 
 They began by removing several Catholic governors 
 of the provinces, diminishing the powers of the "Com- 
 missions Permanentes" (the highest division in the 
 system of local self-government in Belgium), and 
 flooding the civil and more especially the educational 
 service with their own nominees. Having thus pre- 
 
PARTY POLITICS IN BELGIUM 111 
 
 pared the way, they brought in their Education Bill, 
 which was avowedly intended to deal a fatal blow to 
 the Church by eliminating all religious instruction 
 from primary schools. The measure was passed into 
 law, and for five years "State instruction was placed 
 under the exclusive control of the civil authorities." 
 In consequence of this law one-third of the children 
 left the primary State schools to join those which the 
 Church established wherever they had the means. A 
 rupture with the Vatican followed, and the bitterness 
 of the strife between the Catholics and Liberals was 
 shown by the refusal of the Church to take any part 
 in the national festivities held in 1880 to celebrate the 
 fiftieth anniversary of Belgian independence. 
 
 Notwithstanding the efforts made by the Catholic 
 party under the able and energetic direction of M. 
 Malou to improve their organization and rouse the 
 country, the partial elections of 1880 increased the 
 Liberal majority by four votes. The Liberals, how- 
 ever, had troubles of their own. Far as M» Frere- 
 Orban had gone, he had not gone anything like far 
 enough to satisfy the extreme wing of his followers. 
 During the session of 1881 M. Janson and his band of 
 Radicals demanded Universal Suffrage and threatened 
 to upset the government unless it brought in a bill to 
 that effect. M. Frere-Orban refused to give way on 
 this point, and as a "doctrinaire" favored a restricted 
 instead of an enlarged franchise. The utmost conces- 
 sion he would make was the granting of a vote for 
 
112 BELGIUM 
 
 an educational qualification to be established by public 
 examination. The Radical section, finding its position 
 less strong than it had imagined, withdrew its de- 
 mand, but from that moment dated the bitterness of 
 the relations between the two sections of the Liberal 
 party. It was said with some truth that much as they 
 hated the Catholics, they hated each other more. 
 
 Under these conditions the time arrived for hold- 
 ing the general election of 1884. The Liberals never 
 doubted that their triumph was assured and that they 
 had the country behind them in their education policy. 
 They were destined to experience a rude disillusion. 
 They went to the country with a majority that had 
 gradually swelled in six years from twelve to twenty. 
 They returned in a minority of thirty-four. Eighty- 
 six Catholics were elected as against fifty-two Lib- 
 erals of all sections. M. Malou again became Pre- 
 mier, and his first act showed his determination to 
 undo the measures of the fallen administration. He 
 suppressed the separate post of Minister of Public 
 Instruction, adding his functions to those of the Min- 
 ister of the Interior. In the Senate the "doctrinaire" 
 party still possessed a majority, and before organic 
 changes could be made it was necessary for the Catho- 
 lics to have a sure majority there also. The Senate 
 sits for eight years, as already explained, and in 1884 
 the period of its re-election had not arrived. It was 
 necessary for it to be dissolved for re-election, and the 
 
PARTY POLITICS IN BELGIUM 113 
 
 result of this was that the Catholics obtained in the 
 new Senate a majority of seventeen. 
 
 Having thus insured the passing of its legislative 
 measures, M. Manlou's government proceeded to ab- 
 rogate the education law passed by its predecessors, 
 and to introduce a new one leaving primary education 
 in the hands of the Communes. In this way religious 
 instruction was restored in the schools which received 
 State subsidies. The passing of this measure into law- 
 was accompanied by some sensational incidents. 
 There were riots in Brussels and even talk of civil 
 war. M. Malou retired from office as a calming meas- 
 ure, and was succeeded by M. Beernaert, who was less 
 identified with the Church than his chief. Thus was 
 the brief interregnum of purely secular instruction in 
 Belgium terminated, and the system of education 
 based on communal control has gone on undisturbed 
 for twenty-five years and seems now to be firmly es- 
 tablished. 
 
 The success of the Catholic party did not prove, 
 as many expected it to be, ephemeral. The partial 
 election of 1886 confirmed its triumph by raising its 
 majority from thirty-four to fifty-six. In 1888 the 
 moderate Liberals proposed to the advanced Radicals 
 that they should combine for the purpose of the gen- 
 eral election, but the offer was rejected with the result 
 that the Catholic party achieved a more considerable 
 triumph than it had on first coming into power. There 
 
114 BELGIUM 
 
 was another consequence. The internal feuds in the 
 Liberal party became more bitter. 
 
 The political situation in the country was not as 
 serene as the overwhelming majority of the Conserva- 
 tives made it in the Chamber. The masses betrayed 
 great discontent with their position and clamored for 
 the redress of grievances, many of which were only 
 too real. In no industrial country of the first rank 
 was labor then less remunerated or carried out under 
 harsher conditions than in Belgium. Undoubtedly the 
 working classes occupied an intolerable position, and 
 the redress of their hardships provided the only means 
 of averting a revolution. Every year from 1886 to 
 1890 witnessed serious strikes and collisions between 
 the strikers and the civil authorities. On more than 
 one occasion the military had to be called out and 
 bloodshed ensued. In one encounter near Charleroi 
 as many as seventy men were killed. It was also no- 
 ticed that every year the Socialist party showed better 
 organization, and that its attacks in both the Cham- 
 ber and the street were becoming more menacing. 
 Thus it was high time to think of remedies. A com- 
 mission was appointed to inquire into the state of labor 
 and to provide remedies for popular grievances. It 
 will suffice to say here that it did good work by rais- 
 ing the scale of pay, diminishing the hours of labor, 
 and restricting the employment of women and chil- 
 dren. The second of the remedies concerns us more 
 
PARTY POLITICS IN BELGIUM 115 
 
 particularly in a sketch of party politics, for it re- 
 lates to the franchise. 
 
 The Catholic party decided that they could no 
 longer avoid an extension of the franchise. The Bel- 
 gian Constitution was exceedingly liberal in its princi- 
 ples, but this did not alter the plain fact that Belgium, 
 with a population of six millions in 1890, had only 
 134,437 voters. In the year just named the Chamber 
 passed by a general vote a motion to the effect that 
 Article 47 of the Constitution (the one fixing the 
 qualification of electors) required revision. The next 
 thing was to discover how it could be carried out. 
 The Government wished to raise the total to 600,000 
 voters based on a small property qualification, but it 
 was found impossible to find a minimum that would 
 satisfy the exigencies of the case. Under these cir- 
 cumstances there was. no practical remedy but giving 
 all citizens a vote on the basis of an age minimum and 
 residential qualification. This measure, if left alone, 
 would have gone very near to the universal suffrage 
 demanded by the Socialists. The balance was re- 
 dressed by the invention of the plural vote, which 
 added one or two votes for each elector possessing 
 special defined qualifications. Before describing the 
 new franchise it may be appropriate to give the King's 
 speech in opening the session which saw the passing 
 of this great legislative reform: 
 
 "The Belgian Constitution is today the most an- 
 cient of the Continent. It has brought our dear coun- 
 
116 BELGIUM 
 
 i:ry a long succession of years of peace and fruitful 
 development. Like you, I have more than once pro- 
 claimed its wisdom. 
 
 "But the works of men have only their period ; in- 
 stitutions must be appropriate to their surroundings; 
 and thanks to the progress accomplished, our institu- 
 tions, which were noteworthy for their liberal features 
 half a century ago, can today be made better and re- 
 juvenated. 
 
 "This has led you in accordance with my govern- 
 ment to the decision that there is room to examine 
 several points of our political organization ; and in the 
 formal and special consultation prescribed by our 
 fundamental pact, the electoral body of today has just 
 given you a mandate to carry out a large extension 
 of the right of suffrage. 
 
 "Other problems of the same order are attached 
 thereto, and to solve them will be the essential object 
 of the coming session. 
 
 "In subordinating the revision of the Constitution 
 to the vote of an exceptional majority our fathers 
 wished that it should not be possible for it to be the 
 work of a party. It is in that spirit, Gentlemen, that 
 proposals will be made to you by my government. It 
 is in the same spirit, I do not doubt, that you will ex- 
 amine them, and the patriotic sentiments which ani- 
 mate your assemblies each time that a great national 
 interest is at stake are a sure guaranty that the revised 
 Constitution will be another work marked by concord, 
 wisdom, and progress. 
 
 "There are in the life of nations historical hours 
 when the decisions to be taken may exercise a decisive 
 influence on their destinies. Such is the present mo- 
 ment for Belgium. 
 
 "You will bring to the examination of the problems 
 placed before you a profound love of your country, 
 
PARTY POLITICS IN BELGIUM 117 
 
 and the generous views more than ever demanded by 
 the incessant progress of modern ideas." 
 
 It was not until the session of 1893 was well ad- 
 vanced that a definite scheme was elaborated and 
 passed into law. The new qualifications are set forth 
 in the following statement, and it only remains to add 
 that they are those which are at present in force. 
 
 "One vote for every Belgian citizen on reaching 
 the age of twenty-five, and who has resided for one 
 year in the same commune. 
 
 "One extra vote for every elector on reaching the 
 age of thirty-five who is married, or if a widower who 
 has legitimate descendants provided that he pays one 
 dollar of direct taxation, or shows that he is exempt 
 from such payment. 
 
 "Two extra votes for every elector who is proprie- 
 tor of real estate with a minimum cadastral revenue 
 of $9.60, or who shows that he derives the sum of 
 $20 yearly from an investment in the State Stocks or 
 Savings Banks. 
 
 "(or) Two extra votes for every elector (1) hold- 
 ing diplomas of various descriptions enumerated in 
 Art. 17; or (2) holding government posts or public 
 dignities enumerated in Art. 19. 
 
 "Maximum number of votes for any elector is 
 three." 
 
 In addition to the creation of the plural vote a 
 further defense for society was formed in the in- 
 crease of the Senate in numbers and by importing into 
 it a more permanent element. The numbers of the 
 Senate as fixed by the original law were to be half 
 those of the Chamber, and the law of 1893 made no 
 change in this respect. These members were elected 
 
,118 BELGIUM 
 
 'for eight years, half retiring for re-election at the 
 expiration of four years. But the new law, introduced 
 a new element. The Provincial Councils were to dele- 
 gate twenty-seven representatives to the Senate, and 
 these nominees of the Nine Provinces sit independ- 
 ently of all elections. 
 
 It was computed that the new law created 1,200,000 
 electors who would possess 1,900,000 votes. Notwith- 
 standing the ingenious innovation of the plural vote 
 the Conservatives naturally regarded with no little 
 trepidation the possible outcome of this surrender to 
 the demands of the democracy. The election of 1892, 
 under the old system, had given a return of ninety- 
 tRree Catholics to fifty-nine Liberals of all shades. 
 Curiosity was naturally felt as to the results of the 
 election of 1894 with the new franchise. It resulted 
 in the return of 104 Catholics, twenty Liberals and 
 Radicals, and twenty-eight Socialists. The old "doc- 
 trinaire" party was practically wiped out. The par- 
 tial elections of 1896 further increased the Catholic 
 majority, which then reached its highest point. The 
 new Chamber contained 112 Catholics, only twelve 
 Liberals, and twenty-eight Socialists. 
 
 The authors of the new franchise had conceived 
 that it would greatly favor the Liberals, and as a fur- 
 ther precaution for the protection of minorities M. 
 Beernaert had proposed to supplement the plural vote 
 with a measure of "proportional representation." His 
 party would not support him, and therefore he re- 
 
PARTY POLITICS IN BELGIUM 119 
 
 signed in 1894. The overwhelming Catholic majority 
 in the Chamber, which was in excess of all proportion 
 to the votes recorded for the several parties, was in 
 itself an incitement to the attacks of their political 
 adversaries. The Socialists, who had only twenty- 
 eight seats for nearly half a million votes, clamored 
 loudly for universal suffrage, while the Liberals and 
 the moderate Catholics demanded the introduction of 
 "proportional representation," which would certainly 
 equalize the chances of all parties. It was amid riot- 
 ous scenes in both the Chambers and the streets that 
 the new reform was passed into law in 1899. 
 
 By the system of proportional representation Bel- 
 gium is divided into a fixed number of electoral dis- 
 tricts, and each district has the number of its members 
 apportioned in accordance with the total strength of 
 each party in it. As a rule, there are only three par- 
 ties, but the presence of a Catholic Democrat would 
 raise the total to four. The number of seats to be 
 filled is divided by the number of parties, and then 
 distributed in the proportion of the total votes re- 
 corded for each. By this system the smallest minority 
 is certain of one seat. The following instance will per- 
 haps make the system clear. An electoral district with 
 40,000 recorded votes returns seven members. Four 
 parties contest it with the result that the total votes 
 are: Catholics, 25,000; Liberals, 8,000; Socialists, 
 5,000; and Catholic Democrats, 2,000. The seven 
 seats would then be distributed as follows : one to the 
 
120 BELGIUM 
 
 Catholic Democrat, one each to the Liberals and So- 
 cialists, and four to the Catholics. 
 
 Just as it had been anticipated that the new fran- 
 chise would greatly favor the Liberals in 1894, so was 
 it reckoned in 1899 that the introduction of propor- 
 tional representation could not fail to be followed by 
 a marked movement towards an equalization of par- 
 ties. The estimate of the Liberals of the result of the 
 1900 election was a total of eighty Catholics as against 
 seventy-two Liberals and Socialists, the two sections 
 of the Left having sunk their differences for a time 
 in the hope of shortening the term of Catholic power. 
 Fourteen new seats had also been created, raising the 
 total to 166. The result of the election showed ninety- 
 five Catholics, thirty-five Liberals, thirty-four Social- 
 ists, and two Catholic Democrats, the Catholic major- 
 ity being still twenty-four. As this majority has been 
 steadily reduced at each subsequent election, the Lib- 
 eral prophecy was not so far out as it at first appeared. 
 In 1904 the majority fell to twenty, in 1906 to twelve, 
 in 1908 to eight, and in 1910 to six, which is the 
 present figure. The composition of the House is 
 eighty-six Catholics, forty- four Liberals, thirty-five 
 Socialists, and one Catholic Democrat. Lest it might 
 be thought that a government possessing a majority 
 of six is necessarily doomed to speedy extinction, it 
 may be pointed out that for the Belgian legislature it 
 forms a good working majority which only a sudden 
 epidemic would cause to disappear. The payment of 
 
PARTY POLITICS IN BELGIUM 121 
 
 the members (who since 1894 receive a salary of 
 $800 a year) insures regular attendance because 
 it is the condition of receiving the stipend; the 
 deliberateness with which business is carried on and 
 the fact that there are no night sittings eliminate the 
 risk of surprise motions and snap divisions; and 
 therefore, provided no split takes place in the party 
 itself, a majority of six is just as effective as one of 
 sixty. 
 
 Reference has been made to the break-up and dis- 
 union of the Liberal party that went on for a long 
 time after the fall of the doctrinaire party, and it is 
 only right to say that the Liberals and Socialists have 
 a common working program today which gives them 
 equal chances at the hustings. Whether it would avail 
 to enable them to form a joint administration should 
 they succeed in beating the Catholics in 1912 is a 
 question that had better be left till the event has oc- 
 curred. A curious phenomenon in Belgium's political 
 life is the appearance of a new section in the Catholic 
 party, known as the Young Right. These politicians 
 are far more liberal than the older Clericals, and their 
 influence is for the moment in the ascendant. But it 
 cannot be doubted that internal differences in what has 
 so long been the solid phalanx of the Catholic party, 
 are likely to bring sooner to an end the long tenure 
 of power that it has enjoyed since 1884. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE ARMY 
 
 AS the Belgian army by the new law is passing 
 through a transition stage, it is inevitable that 
 part of the following description must apply more to 
 what will be than to what is. The following words 
 spoken by the present King Albert in the course of a 
 speech he made in Brussels on Jaunary 7, 1910, will 
 serve as a suitable introduction to what follows: 
 
 "The year that has just closed witnessed the pass- 
 ing into law of a great measure of reform, one that 
 we had called for with all our hearts. By suppressing 
 the principle of pre-emption, all classes of society are 
 now equally engaged in the performance of the same 
 sacred duty, viz., the defense of our native land. For 
 the future a really national army, both solid and nu- 
 merous, will form for poor and rich alike a healthy 
 school of patriotism. Belgium will be able to count 
 on it for the preservation of her inviolable independ- 
 ence." 
 
 During the life of Leopold I the army was his 
 
 first thought. He was never happy unless a hundred 
 
 thousand well-trained troops could be put in the field 
 
 with the promptitude required for the preservation of 
 
 the country's neutrality ; and before 1870 the presence 
 
 of such a force sufficed to inspire the neighbors of 
 
 Belgium with respect. After the death of the first 
 
 122 
 
THE ARMY 123 
 
 king, the military machine got a little rusty, and in 
 1870 the paper strength of 97,000 men on a war foot- 
 ing produced only 85,000 in reality. Some increase of 
 numbers, especially in artillery and engineers, was 
 sanctioned, and in 1880 the paper strength had been 
 raised to 109,000 men, which is was hoped would give 
 100,000 efficients. But owing to the enormous in- 
 crease in the armies of France and Germany, where 
 standing armies had been abandoned for "armed na- 
 tions," the Belgian army of 100,000 men had become 
 by the course of events relatively valueless as com- 
 pared with those of its neighbors. 
 
 The Belgians themselves were fully conscious of 
 the change, and gradually created a small reserve 
 which raised the total paper strength on a war footing 
 to 163,750 in 1900. In 1904 the total was brought up 
 to 171,508. The peace effective, however, was in the 
 latter year less by 3,500 men than it had been in 1870, 
 and many of the battalions on parade were described 
 as skeletons. If exception were made for the fortress 
 artillery, the Belgian army in 1904 would have been 
 pronounced far weaker and less efficient than it had 
 been thirty-four years before, while the armies of its 
 two principal neighbors had increased nearly tenfold. 
 
 The demand for army reform and an increased 
 contingent had been going on all the time in the coun- 
 try, and several War Ministers had resigned because 
 the Government would not support their proposals. 
 One reform was loudly called for before every other 
 
124 BELGIUM 
 
 because it was aimed at a vicious principle. The mili- 
 tary law of the land was conscription, that is to say, 
 the annual contingent was obtained by the drawing of 
 lots by all young men on reaching the age of nine- 
 teen. But when a well-to-do conscript drew what was 
 called a bad number, he merely paid a sum of about 
 $340, and a substitute was provided by the State. 
 This was the much-canvassed and unpopular right of 
 pre-emption. The consequence was that only the 
 poor and needy class served in the army. It was not 
 until 1909 that this privilege was abolished, and hence- 
 forth all classes alike will have to pay what is called 
 the blood tax. The effect of this change will only be 
 perceptible after a few more years of trial and reor- 
 ganization. 
 
 The new army is to have a fixed peace strength of 
 42,800 men, exclusive of officers, who in 1904 num- 
 bered 3,473. The strength on a war footing is to be 
 gradually raised to 188,000. The real change of im- 
 portance is that the 145,200 men called to the colors 
 will be fully trained soldiers and young, whereas the 
 old reserve consisted to a large extent of middle-aged 
 men, married and loth to leave their homes. The 
 term of service with the colors has also been reduced 
 as much as possible with regard to the speedy attain- 
 ment of the minimum total felt to be necessary by the 
 Government for the defense of Belgium. For the 
 different branches of the service it is fixed as follows: 
 
THE ARMY 125 
 
 Infantry, Fortress Artillery, specialized companies 
 of Artillery, Engineers and specialized com- 
 panies of ^Engineers 15 months 
 
 Cavalry and Horse Artillery 2 years 
 
 Field Artillery and Train 21 months 
 
 Administrative Battalion \2y 2 months 
 
 As soon as the total required has been obtained, it 
 is proposed to reduce the term by one-third in the case 
 of all conscripts who have shown their capability by 
 qualifying for the rank of corporal or brigadier. 
 
 The infantry is divided into nineteen regiments in 
 all, named as follows: One regiment of Grenadiers, 
 one regiment of Carabiniers, three regiments of Foot 
 Chasseurs, and fourteen Line regiments distinguished 
 by their numbers. All these regiments have three act- 
 ive and two reserve battalions each, with the exception 
 of the Carabiniers which has four active and three re- 
 serve battalions. The Belgian infantry is consequently 
 represented by fifty-eight active and thirty-nine re- 
 serve battalions. The defect of this distribution is 
 that the fifty-eight active battalions average less than 
 400 men apiece. There are 2,000 officers serving with 
 the battalions, which is a strong proportion. 
 
 Of cavalry there are only eight regiments. They 
 are two of Guides, two of Horse Chasseurs and four 
 of Lancers. Each regiment on the peace establish- 
 ment numbers about forty officers and 400 men; but 
 it is not easy to follow how the total strength of the 
 cavalry, which on mobilization will number 9,600 men, 
 is to be distributed among only eight regiments. The 
 two Guides regiments are always quartered in Brus- 
 
126 BELGIUM 
 
 sels, and somewhat resemble our household cavalry, 
 their officers being to a large extent members of the 
 noble families of the Netherlands. They are, how- 
 ever, light and not heavy cavalry, and their uniform 
 — cherry trousers, green jackets and busbies — al- 
 though exceedingly pretty, is not imposing in the sense 
 that those of our Life Guards, the former Imperial 
 Cent Gardes and the German Garde du Corps are or 
 were. The undress green kepi of the officers is even 
 more becoming than the busby. 
 
 The Lancer and Chasseur regiments also wear at- 
 tractive uniforms, the Lancers wearing the old Polish 
 lancer headdress and the Chasseurs a high kepi of 
 black water-proof leather. The regiments are all well 
 mounted, but whether there is a sufficiency of horses 
 available for the demand on mobilization is not known. 
 Although the material is excellent, there is reason to 
 doubt whether the training of the cavalry is adequate 
 for the exigencies of modern warfare. There is a 
 dearth of suitable training grounds for cavalry. The 
 riding-school at Ypres is formed on the model of the 
 French similar school at Saumur, but it is admitted 
 to stand in need of reorganization. It must be rec- 
 ognized that a great deal more attention has been paid 
 by Belgian officers to riding of late years than was 
 formerly the case. 
 
 Belgium possesses a very fine corps of heavy cav- 
 alry in the gendarmerie. This force has been gradu- 
 ally increased in strength. In 1870 it consisted of 
 
THE ARMY 127 
 
 forty-five officers and 1,442 men; in 1904 it numbered 
 sixty-seven officers and 3,079 men. The force is dis- 
 tributed throughout the kingdom and divided into 
 three divisions. It patrols the high roads, is employed 
 in arresting malefactors, and keeps a watch on smug- 
 glers and spies. These duties make it more of a police 
 than a military force. But it has military functions 
 as well. On State occasions a few gendarmes are al- 
 ways on show in their full dress uniform of doeskin 
 riding-breeches, jack-boots, blue tunics and bearskins, 
 which make them resemble our Scots Greys or the old 
 French Grenadiers a Cheval. As they are men picked 
 for their physique from the army, they are quite a 
 corps d' elite, and in the event of invasion they would 
 bear the first shock. They are also specially charged 
 with the execution of the order of mobilization. 
 
 In 1899, during the worst phase of the Socialist 
 riots, the Division of Brabant, Hainaut, and Namur 
 was concentrated in Brussels, and took a very active 
 part in putting down the street disturbances. In fact, 
 the Socialists for the first time had some experience 
 of rough handling, and with them the gendarmes be- 
 came very unpopular. They called them the Pandours, 
 but none the less they had received a salutary lesson, 
 to which M. Vandervelde, the Socialist leader, gave 
 point by remarking that their revolvers did not place 
 them on an equality with men armed with Mausers. 
 This corps is also exceedingly well mounted, and the 
 
128 BELGIUM 
 
 horses are kept in rather harder condition than with 
 the regular cavalry regiments. 
 
 The Artillery has always been well organized in 
 Belgium, more especially that branch of it which is 
 designated Siege or Fortress. There are seventy bat- 
 teries of this class on a peace footing. Its training 
 ground is at Braschaet, near Antwerp, where there is 
 a polygon for testing the newest kinds of heavy ord- 
 nance. Within the last ten years the artillery in the 
 forts of Antwerp, Liege, and Namur has been com- 
 pletely renovated, and is now quite up-to-date. The 
 field artillery consists of thirty batteries on a peace 
 footing, but there are only four batteries of Horse 
 Artillery. All these batteries have been armed with 
 a new quick-firing gun. In thirty-four years the 
 strength of the personnel of the artillery has more 
 than doubled. In 1870 it numbered 380 officers and 
 13,062 men on a war footing; in 1904 the correspond- 
 ing totals were 565 officers and 29,798 men. 
 
 The total of the Engineer force is 163 officers and 
 1,484 men on the peace establishment and 6,808 on 
 mobilization. The "other corps" number 670 officers 
 and 2,068 men on the peace establishment, which are 
 increased to 11,538, when the reserves are called out. 
 Among these are included the officers of the Head- 
 Quarter Staff, the military train, the administrative 
 staff, and the military schools in which young men 
 are being trained either as officers or as non-commis- 
 sioned officers. 
 
THE ARMY 129 
 
 Now that the reform of the Belgian army has 
 been taken seriously in hand a marked improvement 
 may be expected in its appearance and real efficiency. 
 With regard to the physique of the men, there should 
 soon be a noticeable change, more especially as gym- 
 nastics on the Swedish system have recently been in- 
 troduced into the army. For many years the Belgian 
 officers have labored for the improvement of the 
 army under very discouraging conditions. Many Bel- 
 gian politicians used to declare that the country re- 
 quired nothing more than a police force, and even 
 those who did not go quite so far as this were per- 
 suaded that the Guarde Civique supplied an adequate 
 reserve for the regular army. It is now generally 
 admitted by most Belgians that an efficient army is 
 essential for the preservation of their national inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 No mention having been made of the Garde 
 Civique, it may be stated that this civic force came 
 into being at the time of the Belgian Revolution, and 
 the role assigned to it was the maintenance of order 
 in the towns. It was also intended that it should co- 
 operate with the regular troops in their defense in the 
 event of hostile attack or invasion. After the war 
 with Holland was over the Garde Civique fell into 
 neglect, and although over 38,000 men were on the 
 rolls in 1892 they were found to be of little use dur- 
 ing the serious Socialist troubles and strikes of that 
 period. One of the consequences of those incidents 
 
130 BELGIUM 
 
 was that the authorities took up the serious reform 
 of the Garde Civique. All citizen householders were 
 enrolled and required to attend a weekly muster held 
 on Sundays. They were also supplied with Mauser 
 rifles, and in 1905 there were 35,700 more or less well- 
 trained men available to support the civil power in 
 any emergency. Besides the Garde Civique, but closely 
 akin to it are the Volunteers. These are corps that 
 have possessed a distinct existence from an older 
 date, and include a considerable proportion of cav- 
 alry and artillery, whereas the Garde Civique is com- 
 posed of infantry alone. The Volunteers consist of 
 2,466 artillery, 668 cavalry, 4,809 infantry or foot 
 chasseurs, and 599 fire brigade, making a total of 
 8,542. The total of the combined corps exceeds 44,000 
 strong. It is scarcely necessary to say that service in 
 one of the volunteer corps exempts from liability for 
 the ordinary Guard Civique. Since this force was 
 finally reorganized in 1899 there have been fewer 
 street demonstrations, and no repetition of the serious 
 riots of that year when for a few days Brussels 
 seemed to be passing through a revolution. 
 
 Although the Belgian army has not got a very ex~ 
 tensive war record, there is no reason to doubt that 
 under anything like fair conditions it would give a 
 very good account of itself against any opponent. 
 The old fiction that the Belgians ran away at Water- 
 loo has been exploded. In the war with the Dutch in 
 1830-31 the Belgians did exceedingly well, and if the 
 
THE ARMY 131 
 
 ten days' campaign in August, 1831, was unfortunate, 
 the conditions under which it was carried on almost 
 precluded success. Since that period Belgian troops 
 have not fought on their own soil. But they furnished 
 contingents for the war in Portugal and the expedition 
 to Mexico, and in both they served with credit. Their 
 best opportunity has been found in Central Africa, but 
 here it must be stated that no Belgian troops ever 
 fought in a body. The conquest of the Congo State 
 and the protracted campaign for the destruction of 
 the Arab slave dealers' power were carried out by 
 Belgian and other officers leading black troops. The 
 courage and constancy of these men, of whom the 
 late Baron Dhanis was the chief, gave a favorable 
 impression of the army to which they belonged. 
 
 In conclusion, a brief description may be given of 
 the system of fortifications on which the defense of 
 Belgium may be be said to be based. After Waterloo, 
 Belgium was endowed with twenty-four fortresses, 
 all intended to protect the country against French 
 invasion. They were built in accordance with the 
 best principles of the day under the personal super- 
 vision of Wellington, and the French taxpayer had 
 the dubious privilege of paying the cost of this barrier 
 against his country. Those were the days when every 
 one was mortally afraid of French aggression. One 
 little consideration had been overlooked. How was 
 Belgium to provide troops to garrison all of them in 
 time of peace? The plan of defense was really an 
 
132 BELGIUM 
 
 absurd anachronism, and Leopold I exposed its de- 
 fects. In 1832 the number was reduced by five, after 
 negotiations that threatened to produce a European 
 war. In 1858 the nineteen others remained in exist- 
 ence. In that year the Belgian Government took up 
 the question for itself in connection with the forti- 
 cation of Antwerp. The nineteen were then reduced 
 to five, and all the useless second- or third-rate for- 
 tresses along the French frontier were suppressed and 
 dismantled. The five that were preserved were Ant- 
 werp, Namur, Liege, Diest, an Termonde. The only 
 one of these to be improved was Antwerp, where a 
 new enceinte and eight detached 'forts were con- 
 structed; the others remained exactly as they had 
 been in the time of the Dutch regime. 
 
 After the great war of 1870 an immense and far- 
 reaching change took place in the range and destruc- 
 tive power of siege artillery. All the Belgian for- 
 tresses, including even the fine new works at Antwerp, 
 were rendered useless. In 1886 the question was 
 pressed home to the conscience of the Belgian people 
 by the efforts of General Brialmont, who had just 
 made a great reputation by his elaborate scheme of 
 fortification at Bucharest. The Belgian Chambers 
 were induced to vote the necessary funds for the mod- 
 ernizing of the fortress of Antwerp, and for the erec- 
 tion of new positions or tetes de pont at Liege and 
 Namur, thus further reducing the total of Belgian 
 fortresses to three. At Namur the old citadel, famous 
 
THE ARMY 133 
 
 for its sieges in the time of Louis XIV, was aban- 
 doned, and a ring of nine new forts at distances of 
 four or five miles from the town was substituted. 
 These forts are cupola-shaped and bomb-proof. The 
 guns in them are raised and lowered automatically, 
 and have a range of ten miles or even more. At Liege 
 there are twelve new forts; two of the strongest of 
 them at Fleron and Chaudfontaine command the rail- 
 way and road from Germany. There is no doubt that 
 the Namur and Liege positions are exceedingly strong, 
 but both require larger garrisons than is generally as- 
 sumed for the defense of the intervals. For instance, 
 the fort of Evegnee, at Liege, was captured in theory 
 during some recent Belgian manoeuvres, and the loss 
 of one of the detached forts would seriously compro- 
 mise the security of the others. 
 
 The question of the fortifications at these places 
 is of such great importance that it may be useful to 
 give fuller particulars as to the detached forts. Of 
 the twelve forts at Liege six are on the right bank of 
 the Meuse and six on the left. The interval between 
 each of them averages two and a half miles, and the 
 total of the circumference is thirty-one miles. The 
 six forts on the right bank of the Meuse are in their 
 order from north to south (forming an eastern curve), 
 Barchon, Evegnee, Fleron, Chaudfontaine, Embourg, 
 and Boncelles. Fleron and Chaudfontaine command 
 the main railway line from Germany. The six forts 
 on the left bank, taking the western curve, are Pon- 
 
134 BELGIUM 
 
 tisse, Liers, Lantin, Loncin, Hollogne, and Flemalle. 
 The whole constitutes a position which, if held by a 
 sufficient garrison, would be very difficult to capture. 
 The Meuse, which is unbridged at this point, con- 
 stitutes an element of weakness for both Pontisse and 
 Barchon. 
 
 The nine forts round Namur are St. Heribert, 
 Malonne, Suarlee, Emince, Cognelee, Gelbressee, 
 Maizeret, Andoy, and Dave. They are placed at an 
 average interval of two and a half miles, and the per- 
 imeter in this case is twenty-one miles. The twenty- 
 one forts together cost four millions sterling. 
 
 While the work to be done at Namur and Liege 
 was brought to completion, that at Antwerp, the as- 
 sumed place of final stand for Belgian liberty, was 
 left half finished. A second outer ring of fifteen de- 
 tached forts was to have been provided, but after five 
 had been constructed, all the money was gone and 
 work was suspended. In 1900 two of the missing ten 
 were completed, and at last in 1907, in consequence 
 of the serious international outlook, the completion 
 of the fortification of Antwerp was taken in hand and 
 has now been brought to completion. Part of the 
 scheme, which was received with mixed feelings when 
 it was first broached, is the demolition of the fine 
 enceinte constructed in 1859. This was done to ad- 
 mit of the freer expansion of the city, but some lighter 
 and less costly protection will have to be provided 
 
THE ARMY 135 
 
 against attack by cavalry and horse artillery or other- 
 wise the security of Antwerp will be compromised. 
 
 The important point in all these changes is that 
 the number of places to be defended by the Belgian 
 army has been brought well within the capacity of its 
 numerical strength. It is even estimated that with 
 180,000 effective troops Belgium will be able to place 
 an army of 100,000 men in the field to co-operate with 
 the armies of her friends. 
 
 At Beverloo, not far from Hasselt, in the north- 
 east corner of Belgium, there is a military camp some- 
 what resembling Aldershot, where the infantry regi- 
 ments are sent in rotation during the summer and 
 autumn to perfect their drill. In most years also 
 autumn manoeuvres are held, and, as a rule, the val- 
 ley of the Meuse between Namur and Liege is chosen 
 for their scene. The most instructive lessons derived 
 from these experiments are those that relate to the 
 defense of the intervals between the detached forts 
 guarding the important crossing places over the Meuse 
 at Liege and Namur. It is also noticeable that no at- 
 tempt has been made to defend the approach from 
 Dalheim. The late General Brialmont always con- 
 sidered that to perfect the positions of Liege and 
 Namur a fort d' arret was required at St. Trond. If 
 he were living now, he would probably stipulate for 
 one at Diest as well. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 POPULATION AND SOCIAL MATTERS 
 
 THE official returns for the year 1908 gave Bel- 
 gium a population of 7,386,444 persons. In 
 1831 the same extent of territory had 3,785,814 in- 
 habitants. In seventy-seven years the population has 
 increased by 3,600,630, or in other words, nearly 
 doubled. In the same peirod there has been a large 
 migration of Belgians into the neighboring countries, 
 notably into France, and it does not seem an exaggera- 
 tion to say that half a million Belgians reside out of 
 their own country. Indeed, some authorities think 
 that these returns are very incomplete, and that there 
 are more than that number of Belgians in France 
 alone. 
 
 As Belgium contains 29,445 square kilometers, the 
 density of population in 1908 was 250.9 to the square 
 kilometer, or 649.5 to the square mile. This density 
 is only exceeded in Saxony, a kingdom half its size. 
 The following table shows the population at the end 
 of the years stated : 
 
 Population in Years Named 
 
 1831 1846 1856 1866 1876 
 
 3,785,814 4,337,196 4,529,560 4,827,833 5,336.185 
 
 1880 1890 1900 1908 
 
 5.520,009 6,069,321 6,693,548 7.386,444 
 
 136 
 
POPULATION AND SOCIAL MATTERS 137 
 
 Dividing the poulation among the Nine Provinces, the fol- 
 lowing are the returns for each of them in 1908: 
 
 Antwerp 559,218 
 
 Brabant 1,454,363 
 
 Hainaut 1,229,103 
 
 East Flanders 1,111,001 
 
 West Flanders 871,636 
 
 Liege 894,938 
 
 Limburg 269,442 
 
 Luxemburg 232,254 
 
 Namur 364,489 
 
 Total 7,386,444 
 
 The average annual increase in the population 
 during the last forty years has been one per cent. 
 The increases in the three decennial periods that fol- 
 low were: 
 
 1866-76 10.53 per cent 
 
 1880-90 9.95 per cent 
 
 1890-1900 10.28 per cent 
 
 The increase for the eight years alone from 1900 to 
 1908 has been at the rate of 10.35, and by the end of 
 1910 it seemed likely to reach 12, which would place 
 Belgium as a growing country on a level with Ger- 
 many and Italy. The increase in population varies in 
 the different provinces. It has been greatest in Ant- 
 werp, which increased by 17 per cent between 1890 
 and 1900, and in Brabant, where the increase was 
 14.23. Between 1846 and 1900 the population of 
 Antwerp doubled, whereas for the whole kingdom 
 the increase was only 54 per cent. Among the towns, 
 Ostend, Antwerp, and Brussels in their order show 
 the largest increases. In 1856 and again in 1866 there 
 
138 BELGIUM 
 
 were more men than women in Belgium. In 1908 
 
 there were nearly 50,000 more women. 
 
 1856 1866 1908 
 
 Men 2,271,783 2,419,639 3,669,022 
 
 Women 2,257,777 2,408,194 3,717,422 
 
 With regard to the Belgians living in foreign 
 
 countries, the following are the totals given for the 
 
 seven most important countries. They are the latest 
 
 returns available in all cases, but they do not relate 
 
 to the same year: 
 
 Belgians by birth resident in 
 
 France 395,498 
 
 Holland 14,950 
 
 Germany 12,421 
 
 Great Britain and Ireland 4,588 
 
 Grand Duchy, the 3,891 
 
 United States, the 29,848 
 
 Argentina 5,634 
 
 The population of the cities and towns with over 
 
 100,000 inhabitants was as follows (1908) : 
 
 Brussels and its eight communes 637,807 
 
 Antwerp 391,600 
 
 Liege 175,870; with Seraing 218,508 
 
 Ghent 163,763 
 
 Bruges had 53,897 as against 48,673 in 1856, a 
 
 very small increase, but Courtrai had 34,977 as against 
 
 22,216. In the same period Ostend rose from 16,118 
 
 to 42,606 (out of the season). Among the historical 
 
 places the following may be named: 
 
 Town Population in 1856 Population in 1908 
 
 Louvain 30,765 42,001 
 
 Malines 31,371 59,218 
 
POPULATION AND SOCIAL MATTERS 139 
 
 Mons 26,061 . . 27,349 
 
 Tournai 30,824 37,640 
 
 Charleroi 10,702 27,415 
 
 Namur 24,716 32,047 
 
 Ypres 16,698 17,542 
 
 Verviers 27,115 48,583 
 
 The increase in the urban population has only been 
 remarkable in a few places. At Mons and Ypres it 
 has been infinitesimal. 
 
 Considering the growth of the Belgian population, 
 it is curious to note that it has been due not so much 
 to an extraordinarily high birth rate as to a low death 
 rate. In 1908 there were 24.89 births per thousand 
 of the population, but in Germany the ratio was 32; 
 France, 20.2 ; England, 26.5 ; Scotland, 27.2 ; Italy, 
 33.6; Holland, 29.7; Austria, 34.5; Hungary, 36.3; 
 and Russia, 48.1. The total births in the year named 
 were 183,834, and the total deaths were 121,964. The 
 death rate was as low as 16.51 per thousand. For 
 purposes of comparison the rates in the other coun- 
 tries named in the same order were: Germany, 18; 
 France, 19; England, 14.7; Scotland, 16.1; Italy, 
 22.2; Holland, 15; Austria, 22.4; Hungary, 26.3; and 
 Russia, 30. In Belgium the male deaths are 52 per 
 cent and the female 48 of the grand total. 
 
 The number of marriages rose from 26,484 in 
 1830 to 57,564 in 1908. The proportion in the former 
 year was 6.50 per thousand inhabitants and in the 
 latter 7.79. The highest proportion reached was 8.70. 
 This occurred in the year 1901. The total for the 
 
140 BELGIUM 
 
 year 1908 showed for the first time a slight diminu- 
 tion as compared with the previous year, when the 
 number was 58,660. 
 
 The number of illegitimate children is decreasing, 
 and of those subsequently legitimatized increasing. 
 In 1880 there was one illegitimate birth to 12.89 legi- 
 mate; in 1908 one illegitimate to 15.23 legitimate. 
 There was an average annual increase of 29 per cent 
 in the number legitimatized for the period 1891-1900 
 as compared with 1881-90. On the other hand, di- 
 vorce and suicide showed a marked increase. In 1840 
 there was only one divorce to 1,175 marriages, and 
 in 1865 one in 739, but in 1908 the ratio had risen 
 to one in 65. It is only right to say that the increase 
 has occurred chiefly in Brussels, Antwerp, and Liege. 
 In the two Flanders there does not appear to be any 
 increase at all. So also with suicides. In 1880 there 
 were 441 suicides, an average of one per 12,146 of 
 the population. In 1908 there were 970 suicides, or 
 one per 7,616 of the inhabitants. 
 
 Since the year 1867 the total number of immi- 
 grants has for every ten years exceeded that of emi- 
 grants; since 1890 this has been true of every year 
 without exception. Although there has been a nota- 
 ble diminution in the emigration figures, the majority 
 still go to France — 54 per cent of a total emigration 
 of 32,294 souls in 1908. The immigrants in that year 
 numbered 38,155, of whom 16,984, or 44 per cent, 
 came from France. 
 
POPULATION AND SOCIAL MATTERS 141 
 
 The decline in the comparative total of emigrants 
 must be attributed to the high state of prosperity in 
 Belgium as much as to the stay-at-home sentiments of 
 the Belgian peoples. The Walloons rarely emigrate 
 with the fixed intention of not returning. The bulk 
 of Walloon emigrants are those who are attracted by 
 the high wages offered them at Gladbach and other 
 German manufacturing towns, and they always return 
 sooner or later. The Flemings are more adventurous, 
 and in both Flanders the emigrants still exceed the 
 immigrants. 
 
 In the twenty-five years ending in 1908 the num- 
 ber of lunatics almost doubled as compared with an 
 increase of 33 per cent in the population. The totals 
 in 1833 were 4,454 men and 4,309 women (total, 
 8,763), and in 1908, 8,975 men and 7,959 women 
 (total, 16,934). 
 
 Since 1890 great ameliorations have been effected 
 in the status of the working man. In that year there 
 were only 373 mutual societies for his relief in illness 
 and accident, or for the benefit of his dependents 
 after death. In 1908 the number recognized by the 
 State had increased to 7,945. The number of mem- 
 bers rose from 227,581 in 1900 to 605,670 in 1908, 
 and their contributions from $580,052.20 in the pre- 
 vious year to $1,748,749.60 in the latter. The majority 
 of these societies are affiliated to the State Savings 
 Bank. 
 
142 BELGIUM 
 
 In 1892 new regulations were made for the provi- 
 sion of improved workmen's dwellings with State aid. 
 Under them advances are made on the recommenda- 
 tion of the societies for the purchase or building of 
 sanitary houses for the working classes. These be- 
 come the occupiers' property on a sliding scale of 
 repayment combined with life insurance. In 1908 
 $20,000,000 were advanced in one form or other by 
 the Savings Bank for the amelioration of the homes 
 of the working classes, or for the benefit of the pen- 
 sion and death funds of the societies. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE COURT AND SOCIETY 
 
 THE Court of Belgium, although it was created 
 under what might almost be called popular in- 
 fluences, has established as severe an etiquette as 
 exists at larger and older courts with historical asso- 
 ciations and an inherited ceremonial. This tendency 
 was certainly increased under the influence of the two 
 successive queens, Marie Louise of the House of 
 Orleans, and Marie Henriette of that of Hapsburg. 
 The first King was a great upholder of the monar- 
 chical dignity, and, during a long period of his reign, 
 showed it by keeping himself in a state of seclusion 
 from his Ministers. He was never easily accessible 
 to any one. Such a charge cannot be brought against 
 his son, King Leopold, who was sometimes accused 
 of being too easily accessible, because he wished to 
 see men with his own eyes, and to judge them and 
 the public questions with which they were connected 
 for himself. But, notwithstanding this personal con- 
 descension, the regulation of Court ceremonial was 
 just as strict under the Second Leopold as under the 
 First. The policy of "the new King and Queen so 
 
 143 
 
144 BELGIUM 
 
 far seems to be a happy medium between too much 
 aloofness and too much familiarity. 
 
 The seat of the Belgian Court is the Palace of 
 Brussels, facing the park, at the opposite extremity 
 of which stands the Palais de la Nation and some of 
 the Government offices. Between the Palace of the 
 King and the Palace of the Nation stretches the park 
 which once formed the private grounds of the Palace 
 of the Netherlands, and which was the scene of the 
 fighting in 1830. That famous royal residence which 
 witnessed the abdication of Charles V was burnt down 
 in 1731, and its more modest successor was erected by 
 the Archduchess Marie Christine in 1782. It served 
 as the royal residence under the Dutch King William 
 I and the two Belgian Leopolds. No attempt to 
 change its external appearance was made till towards 
 the close of the reign of Leopold II. The State rooms 
 were fine, but the fagade was poor, and gave a rather 
 mean appearance to the whole. At the end, too, was 
 the Bellevue Hotel, which was held under a lease 
 dating from the time of the Empress Maria Theresa. 
 A private hotel did not add to the dignity of the pal- 
 ace to which it was attached, but at least it was kept 
 in good repair and looked better than the old Hotel 
 d'Assche at the eastern extremity, which was used 
 as the office of the Civil List. 
 
 About the year 1903 it was decided to embellish 
 the Palace by giving it a new front, and as a begin- 
 ning the Bellevue Hotel was acquired. Belgian opin- 
 
THE COURT AND SOCIETY 145 
 
 ion is very sensitive in matters of personal associa- 
 tion. The Bellevue Hotel had played a part in the 
 revolution of 1830. From its roof a Belgian sports- 
 man had shot twenty-one Dutch grenadiers, and a 
 protest was raised that even for a new palace front 
 this historic landmark should not be removed. This 
 was not the only protest of the kind. The new fagade 
 which was to be protected by a railed terrace, en- 
 croached to such an extent on the parvis or open 
 square in front of the palace that it was found nec- 
 essary to cut off a strip of the park. This caused 
 much commotion, not because it diminished the ex- 
 tent of a public park, but because it threatened the 
 existence of the historic pits in which the Dutch 
 buried their slain in September, 1830. Assurances 
 had to be given on both these points before the work 
 could be taken in hand. The Bellevue Hotel was to 
 be embellished, but left intact in its main aspect, and 
 the pits were not to be filled in. Public opinion was 
 thus conciliated with regard to the changes necessi- 
 tated by the new Palace. 
 
 It must be admitted that the new Palace is a very 
 great improvement on the old. It has quite an impos- 
 ing front in Belgian stone with a fine dome crown- 
 ing the center. At either extremity is a columned 
 terrace or belvidere gallery. The public is also ex- 
 cluded from the walk passing under the palace win- 
 dows, and kept at a more respectful distance by an 
 enclosed terraced garden. All State dinners and re- 
 
146 BELGIUM 
 
 ceptions are given in this palace, and no doubt the 
 new King and Queen, being young, will entertain 
 much more than their predecessors. Notwithstanding 
 the improvements effected at this Palace and the in- 
 creased accommodation furnished by the addition of 
 another story, Brussels is never likely to supplant 
 Laeken as the residence and home of the Belgian 
 royal family. 
 
 Before passing on, it may be mentioned that the 
 Bellevue Hotel has been converted into a private 
 residence for the Princess Clementine, youngest 
 daughter of Leopold II, who is now married to 
 Prince Napoleon, the head of his family. Some of 
 these days it seems safe to assume that both it and 
 the Hotel d'Assche, which has also been left intact, 
 will be incorporated in the Palace to which they are 
 attached. 
 
 Laeken, which lives in history as the place from 
 which Napoleon wrote his order for the Russian ex- 
 pedition, is situated on the northern side of the city, 
 at a distance of about four miles from the Park. The 
 old chateau was burnt down in 1889, but it was 
 promptly rebuilt on the old lines, and largely added 
 to by the late King between 1903 and 1907. It was 
 the favorite residence of both the Leopolds, and is 
 famous for its orangery (part of the original build- 
 ing), its gardens and conservatories. A costly Chi- 
 nese pagoda and a pavilion were among the embel- 
 lishments added by Leopold II. At Laeken the sover- 
 
 / 
 
THE COURT AND SOCIETY 147 
 
 eigns have been accustomed to give the garden parties 
 which closed the Court season, and no doubt this prac- 
 tice, which was discontinued after the death of Queen 
 Marie Henriette, will be resumed by the new King 
 and Queen. Although not without a certain stateli- 
 ness in its ceremonial, the Belgian Court has never 
 been a very gay one, various circumstances of more 
 or less public notoriety having overshadowed its life. 
 The Belgian monarchy being of modern creation and 
 founded under what are known as popular conditions, 
 there is not much scope for its attaining the brilliance 
 of older Courts, but at least it may be made brighter 
 and more in evidence than has been the case for the 
 past forty years. 
 
 In Belgium, the society that would be deemed 
 eligible for attendance at Court is divided into three 
 principal sections — the nobility, the official world, 
 and the most prominent individuals among the mon- 
 eyed, literary, and artistic classes. The members of 
 the Legislature have a right, subject to the Sover- 
 eign's pleasure and convenience, to be received at the 
 Palace by the Sovereign on New Year's Day, but 
 sometimes this ceremony has been omitted. They 
 have no right to attend the regular Court receptions 
 in their character of legislators, and if any of them 
 are invited, it is because they possess what are held 
 to be the suitable qualifications. 
 
 With regard to the nobility, it is extremely exclu- 
 sive, and not very numerous if it be counted by the 
 
148 BELGIUM 
 
 separate families. The Belgian lizre d'or is supposed 
 to, and practically does, take no note of titles created 
 since 1830. The noble class may be subdivided 
 among the holders of titles of the Holy Roman Em- 
 pire (that is to say, prior to the cessation of Austrian 
 rule in 1794), a few of the Emperor Napoleon's crea- 
 tion, and a slightly larger number of creations by the 
 Dutch King William I between 1815 and 1830. The 
 Belgian kings since 1831 have the right to confer the 
 titles of count and baron (provided the decree is 
 countersigned by a Minister), but it has been very 
 sparingly used. As a rule, the recipients have well 
 deserved the honor, but its conference does not secure 
 admission within the charmed circle of the classe 
 noble. 
 
 There are a few historic families among the noble 
 class of the southern Netherlands, such as the De 
 Lignes, the D'Arenbergs (now also Le Lignes), the 
 Croys (pronounced Cro-ees), the Chimays, de 
 Merodes, de Lalaings, de Lannoys, D'Assches, D'Ur- 
 sels, and D'Oultremonts. Members of these families 
 have played their part in history since the time of the 
 Crusades, and some of them are better known in 
 Vienna or Berlin than in Brussels. In any case, they 
 occupy a place quite apart, and are entirely independ- 
 ent of all Court favor. Their indifference to the sov- 
 ereign's favor is a curious feature in Belgian social 
 life, not perhaps to be paralleled elsewhere. Leopold I 
 once expressed the opinion however, that "What we 
 
THE COURT AND SOCIETY 149 
 
 have of the old nobility is very patriotic." Below 
 these nine or ten families come perhaps thirty more, 
 whose names would be practically unknown to the 
 English reader, although they possess the full privi- 
 leges of the golden book. Then we have the few 
 French or Dutch creations, and that contsitutes the 
 highest circle in Belgian society. 
 
 It is not very easy to describe it as a wealthy aris- 
 tocracy or the reverse, but great landed estates are 
 rare, and the resources accumulated in the last cen- 
 tury are due to strict economy and careful husband- 
 ing. A safe description would be to describe is as 
 comfortably off, and free from ostentation. The no- 
 bility are not at all given to extensive entertaining 
 among themselves, and the principal entertainments 
 are held in common at a Nobles' Club, which gives 
 three or four balls during the season. The code of 
 the aristocracy has been rigid on the point that its 
 members must not take up with commerce, trade, or 
 finance, and formerly even the official service was 
 taboo. Owing, no doubt, to the increase of numbers, 
 the latter point has been waived and an increasing 
 number of cadets find their way into the chief Gov- 
 ernment departments. Until this change came into 
 operation, the army and the church offered the only 
 available professions. The officers of the two Guides 
 regiments come mainly from this class and latterly 
 there has been a tendency to join the Lancer regi- 
 ments and even the Grenadiers. 
 
150 BELGIUM 
 
 With regard to the purely official world it has 
 always enjoyed a favored position in Belgium. The 
 Palace has ever looked with a friendly eye on the 
 bureaucrats as a sort of buffer against the politicians. 
 The new titles have been principally granted among 
 permanent officials. All officials above the junior 
 grades in the five principal ministries, viz., Foreign 
 Affairs, War, Finance, Interior, and Public Works, 
 could rely on an invitation to Court functions pro- 
 vided they wished it, and at least they would be pres- 
 ent at the annual reception of the Civil Service which 
 followed upon that of the legislature. In the social 
 life of Brussels the heads of departments, usually 
 called General Secretaries, are received everywhere, 
 because all the world likes to get official information, 
 even when it is a thin dilution of truth, or specially 
 made up to mislead. The noble class has been averse 
 to replenish or strengthen the public service, but it 
 receives as a welcome and honored guest the official 
 who has the time and inclination to pass through their 
 salons. Prominent among such officials was the late 
 Baron Lambermont, long the permanent secretary at 
 the Foreign Office. < 
 
 We now come to the third class in the composition 
 of Court life, the magnates of finance, and the leaders 
 of the literary and art worlds. The first-named were 
 the last to gain admission, but they are now the most 
 prominent of all. La haute finance (high finance, as 
 we call it) has a firm foothold in Brussels, and has 
 
THE COURT AND SOCIETY 151 
 
 sapped the old exclusive position of the noblesse. 
 The Quartier Leopold is moving with the times. The 
 Jewish colony is one of the most important even in 
 that exclusive faubourg, and it dispenses a hospitality 
 not to be met with among any other set in Belgium. 
 Next to the financier, who is with some rare excep- 
 tions a Jew, come the great industrials who have risen 
 to prominence with the development of Antwerp and 
 Liege, Ghent and Brussels. These men are chiefly 
 Belgians, the Jews only coming into prominence in 
 the world of pure finance; the old laws of Belgium, 
 curiously enough, provided that money matters should 
 be the concern of Jews and Lombards alone. In this 
 section of Belgian society, also, a more cosmopolitan 
 and less exclusive manner is observable. 
 
 Fifty years ago literary and artistic merit filled a 
 larger place in the estimation of the temporal powers 
 of Belgium than it has now done for some time past. 
 In the days of Henri Conscience and Lavelaye (who 
 had other qualifications) letters were a surer passport 
 to the throne-room at the Palace than great wealth. 
 Nowadays it is different. Perhaps it is due to the 
 circumstance that literature in Belgium furnishes a 
 very poor career, or it may be that there are no lit- 
 erary giants today. Writers, pamphleteers, and press- 
 men took the most prominent part in organizing the 
 revolution of 1830, the revolution itself was followed 
 by a great literary revival, and a galaxy of literary 
 talent ornamented the reign of Leopold I. But the 
 
152 BELGIUM 
 
 times have become more materialistic in Belgium. 
 Literature is slighted if it has not lost caste. There 
 are no longer the same men. The writers who appear 
 now at Court are there for some other reason. They 
 are priests or judges, or at the least one of the popular 
 instructors called conferenciers. The same observa- 
 tion applies to art. The bureaucratic and moneyed 
 classes have ousted the purely intellectual, and so far 
 as can be seen there is no likelihood of the balance 
 being readjusted. The noticeable defect in Bel- 
 gian life is that the ideal and purely intellectual has 
 been swamped and driven out by the materialistic 
 tendencies of a mainly industrial and strictly money- 
 making state of society. 
 
 With regard to the official world, apart from its 
 relations with the Court, there is every reason to be- 
 lieve that it is thoroughly efficient, fully capable of 
 dealing with the matters that come before it in the 
 course of duty, and free of all suspicion of being 
 amenable to bribery. This is the more creditable be- 
 cause the salaries and rewards are framed on a low 
 scale, the active service is for a much longer period 
 of life than with us, and the conditions of the pension 
 list are somewhat vigorous and elusive. The induce- 
 ments to retire are so few that men remain on the 
 active list to the very last possible moment, and there 
 is no civil service in Europe with such a large pro- 
 portion of old men in the higher ranks. Under new 
 regulations that are adopted in principle, if not yet 
 
THE COURT AND SOCIETY 153 
 
 applied in practice, there will be compulsory retire- 
 ment at the age of seventy. These observations apply, 
 of course, only to the staff of the great Departments 
 of State and not to the minor posts filled by em- 
 ployees of the Government throughout the country, 
 such as railway clerks and tax collectors. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 BURGHER LIFE IN BRUSSELS 
 
 I^HE typical life of the Belgian people is perhaps 
 to be found best revealed in the household of 
 the Brussels citizen. Leaving aside the very small 
 stratum of what may be called Society, the mode of 
 life among the great body of citizens, above the work- 
 ing classes, is very much the same, notwithstanding 
 the differences of income, occupation, and education. 
 Whether the head of the household be a lawyer or a 
 trader, a manufacturer or a shopkeeper, who is well 
 enough off to live away from his shop, there is less 
 class difference, so far as the daily routine of life 
 goes, than would be found in any other European 
 community — in fact, middle-class life in Belgium 
 very much resembles that of America. The explana- 
 tion is that at heart the Belgians are a simple people, 
 whose chief characteristic, strengthened by hard ex- 
 perience for many years, is thrift. There is a com- 
 plete absence of all ostentatious display. It would 
 be as impossible to estimate a man's income from 
 the exterior of his house as it would be to assign his 
 profession or business from his appearance in the 
 street. This appearance of equality is very largely 
 due to the two not disconnected facts, that the first 
 
 154 
 
BURGHER LIFE IN BRUSSELS 155 
 
 object with every Brussels citizen is to become pro- 
 prietor of his own house and that the houses of Brus- 
 sels are built very much after the same pattern. This, 
 of course, does not apply to the fashionable boule- 
 vards or the Avenue Louise, but in all the by-streets 
 and suburbs now spreading out in every direction, 
 houses are being run up, lofty and narrow, all seem- 
 ingly fashioned by the same architect. The Beligans 
 have an aversion to being mere tenants, regarding the 
 payment of rent as so much loss of money; and a 
 house or the money to purchase one, is considered 
 the best kind of a dot that a young woman can bring 
 to her husband. The price of a house containing 
 seven rooms, besides kitchen, runs from $5,000 in 
 the fashionable suburbs like St. Giles, to $2,500 in 
 the outer suburbs like Etterbeck. There is, in addi- 
 tion, a tax of ten per cent payable to the commune, 
 with a share to the State, on the conclusion of the 
 purchase. Having paid the price, the proprietor is 
 practically relieved from all annual payments for the 
 taxes to the commune are exceedingly low, and do 
 not amount to more than six per cent on the estimated 
 rent, which is about one-eleventh of the purhcase 
 sum. Ten per cent will pay the commune, the supply 
 water, and that of gas as well, and for this reason 
 Brussels has been called the paradise of the small 
 householder. There is no doubt that the free pos- 
 session of a house lies at the root of the Belgian 
 citizen's comfort, and explains how, with a very small 
 
156 BELGIUM 
 
 income, he can occupy a decent house which exter- 
 nally does not differ materially from one the occupant 
 of which may have ten times his income. 
 
 It is only on entering these houses that some idea 
 can be formed of the status of the occupant. Among 
 those families whose income is not in proportion to 
 the exterior of their residence, the interior will re- 
 veal the fact by its bareness and absence of decora- 
 tion, whereas those who are comfortably well off will 
 spend large sums on painting and gilding. The Bel- 
 gians are noted for their good taste in the way they 
 decorate the inside of their houses, and as the house 
 is really theirs, they do not mind spending very con- 
 siderable sums in this way. It is the same with the 
 furniture, which is always as good as the owner can 
 afford in the reception rooms. Every Belgian house 
 has what may be called its show-rooms, and their 
 contents will give the clue at once to the degree of 
 prosperity the family has attained. There may be 
 $5,000 worth of furniture and objets d'art in the 
 room, or there may be only $50 worth. In either case 
 it is the best that the owner can show. 
 
 There is one thing that these rooms have in com- 
 mon, no matter what the position of the occupant, 
 and that is the air of being rarely used. It is more 
 like the model room into which the furniture merchant 
 invites his customer for the purpose of deciding the 
 style in which he proposes to furnish, than an actual 
 living-room. The Belgian's first investment is to buy 
 
BURGHER LIFE IN BRUSSELS 157 
 
 his house, and his second is to lay in a stock of fur- 
 niture. As both are intended not merely to last a life- 
 time, but to be handed down in the family, the most 
 scrupulous care is taken in selecting every article. 
 A shade of anxiety may be traced on the worthy 
 owner's face if a visitor moves in a chair or brushes 
 past a table. Sometimes these good people let off a 
 floor, often to English visitors, with the view of sav- 
 ing something for a holiday, or through some needed 
 economy; and if the rooms are well-furnished, the 
 urgent request is made not to spoil the furniture ('il 
 ne faut pas abimer les meubles'). I knew of a case 
 where the iteration of this injunction became so irk- 
 some that the English tenants left twenty-four hours 
 after the entry, because they were afraid to sit on the 
 chairs. . .3^ 
 
 Into the regular living-rooms no stranger is al- 
 lowed to penetrate, but the casual opportunities af- 
 forded during long residence in the country enables 
 one to see that they are very bare and plain. As a 
 rule, the dining-room is in close proximity to the 
 kitchen, so that the necessary domestic service is re- 
 duced to a minimum. There is, of course, in most 
 houses a dining-room upstairs, but this is only used on 
 the very rare occasions when an entertainment of some 
 sort is given. The Belgians are not prone to the 
 display of much hospitality among themselves. They 
 do not dine often at one another's houses. The mem- 
 bers of the same family meet occasionally, but, as a 
 
158 BELGIUM 
 
 rule, their dinners in common are to celebrate some 
 family event, such as a marriage, or an engagement, 
 or a first communion. The case is practically un- 
 known of taking a friend home to have "pot-luck." 
 To do so would seriously disconcert the lady of the 
 house, who is probably in neglige until she goes for 
 her afternoon promenade. 
 
 The life of the house, like the life of the whole 
 country, begins at an early hour. By eight o'clock 
 probably every family in Brussels will have finished 
 their breakfast, and if they are near the markets in 
 the lower town or in the communes, each of which 
 has its market, they will have purchased their provi- 
 sions as well. This early rising is indispensable, as 
 all the offices, and in fact the whole business of the 
 city, commence work at nine punctually. This means 
 that the person engaged must leave his house be- 
 tween eight and half-past eight, in accordance with 
 the distance he has to travel ; but as there are electric 
 trams now in all directions, the journey, from even 
 the outer suburbs, can generally be accomplished with 
 much rapidity. The Belgians take only a light break- 
 fast, which is almost universally cafe au hit, rolls and 
 butter; but of late years the doctors have been rec- 
 ommending a more substantial meal after the Eng- 
 lish fashion. Those who are not too pressed in the 
 morning by their occupations are now adding to their 
 breakfast one or two dishes, but such luxuries, as they 
 
BURGHER LIFE IN BRUSSELS 159 
 
 are called, are taken by but a very small number of 
 persons. 
 
 The offices close at twelve, and all business is 
 stopped at that hour for the purpose of dining. The 
 men who have rushed off in the morning to be at 
 their posts in good time, rush back to their houses 
 at a still greater speed to enjoy the chief meal of the 
 day. By this time the stimulating effect of the morn- 
 ing coffee has long worn off, and the bread-winners 
 are simply faint and famishing. It is perilous to 
 protract an interview with a Belgian official when the 
 clock hand points to ten minutes to twelve. Polite- 
 ness will scarcely prevent his displaying the anxiety 
 and displeasure with which he begins to apprehend 
 that some minutes of his cherished two hours are 
 going to be poached from him. The best business in 
 the country is done before eleven o'clock in the 
 morning. After that hour it is no exaggeration to 
 say that the needs of exhausted nature begin to assert 
 themselves. 
 
 The midday meal, which commences, as a general 
 rule, at half-past twelve, is the most substantial of 
 the whole day. It is always a hot repast and always 
 opens with soup. The Belgians are hearty, not to 
 say great, eaters, and it takes a good hour to allay 
 their hunger. The general drink is beer — wine is 
 drunk rarely and sparingly — and a cup of black cof- 
 fee is taken at the end as a digestive rather than as a 
 stimulant, and then the journey is made back to the 
 
160 BELGIUM 
 
 office or business, which resumes work at two o'clock. 
 The work of the afternoon is done more leisurely 
 than that of the morning, and chiefly consists of the 
 correspondence resulting out of the transactions of 
 the morning. The offices work late, always till six, 
 and often till seven or after. Then the more or less 
 weary toiler returns home to his supper, which is a 
 simple meal, probably the remains of the dinner, as- 
 sisted with something purchased on the way back 
 from a charcutier. Having to get up so early, the 
 Brussels citizen always goes to bed in good time. 
 Very soon after nine o'clock all the lights are out in 
 the ordinary household five nights out of seven. The 
 Belgian is not a reader; the morning and evening 
 newspapers satisfy all his wants in that direction; 
 hence there is nothing to keep him from his well- 
 earned repose. 
 
 The life an restaurant is a far less marked feature 
 in Brussels than in Paris. It is rather expensive, even 
 at the cheapest restaurants, and the family man will 
 only indulge in it occasionally. Those whose work 
 lies in the lower town, where the bourse and business 
 offices are, sometimes are obliged to take their din- 
 ner in one of the numerous second-class restaurants 
 off the Boulevard Anspach. In any of these a hot 
 plat, with beer and coffee afterwards, can be obtained 
 for thirty cents. In the same quarter of the town, 
 but chiefly round the Grand Place and the square of 
 the Monnaie theater, are some of the first restaurants 
 
BURGHER LIFE IN BRUSSELS 161 
 
 of the city: the Filet de Sole, the Riche, the Etoile, 
 no longer what it was in the reign of M. Dot, the 
 Gigot de M out on, etc. Fashion and excellence vary, 
 suddenly and without aparent reason ; but perhaps the 
 best cooking in Brussels is now to be had at the Filet 
 de Sole and the Provencaux, while at the Globe, 
 which is far less expensive than either, the cuisine is 
 surprisingly good. But if the Brussels paterfamilias 
 does not habitually patronize the restaurant, he makes 
 a great effort to dine out on Sunday evening, and to 
 take the grown-up members of his family with him. 
 He may not, in the majority of cases, be able to do this 
 more than once a month, but during the summer he 
 will probably patronize every week one or the other 
 of the cafes encircling the Bois de la Cambre, and 
 take his Sunday supper with his family al fresco. 
 Even if the repast is limited to one dish for himself 
 and his wife, tartines or gauffres for the children, he 
 will sit there the whole evening drink ' .g not immod- 
 erately light beer. It is a significant indication of the 
 prevalence of the same views of life throughout the 
 nation, that while the humble citizen is enjoying him- 
 self in the less pretentious cafes, Society is doing very 
 much the same thing on the terrace of the fashionable 
 Laiterie in the Bois, or farther off at Groenendael, 
 which is reached by a delightful drive through part 
 of the old forest of Soignies. Then the concerts 
 given in the Vauxhall Gardens by the orchestra of the 
 opera are an additional attraction, and on Sundays 
 
162 BELGIUM 
 
 in particular bring together a large audience outside 
 the enclosure. To get an idea of the real life of 
 Brussels, one must go about the Boulevards and to the 
 popular resorts on Sunday evenings. Then the people 
 can be seen enjoying themselves in their own quiet, 
 undemonstrative way, and if there is some music 
 going on their contentment is complete. A band is 
 maintained by the municipality, and plays daily in the 
 park fronting the palace. Military bands also play 
 there occasionally, and in the Bois. The band of the 
 regiment of Guides is first-rate and has been heard in 
 London and Paris. 
 
 One of the most marked predilections of the Bel- 
 gian character is his enthusiasm for music. Most 
 nations are ruled by laws, but it would be easier to 
 govern the Belgians by music. Every commune, not 
 merely in Brussels but throughout Belgium, has its 
 band or symphonic, and most of those of any size or 
 importance have two, for politics come into question. 
 There will be the Catholic Band and the Liberal Band, 
 and even the Socialists — with a program destructive 
 of everything else that is national — conform to the 
 popular feeling and march to the sound of drums and 
 trumpets. The chief, or at least the most frequent, 
 occasion for the public appearance of these bands is 
 for the funeral of some old or prominent resident, 
 when the symphonie commttnale will attend and lead 
 the procession to the strains of the Dead March. 
 
BURGHER LIFE IN BRUSSELS 163 
 
 But in their own halls they always give one or two 
 concerts in the course of a year. 
 
 Bearing in mind this trait, it is not surprising that 
 the opera is exceedingly popular. The Theatre de la 
 Monnaie is an opera house, not a theater, and is noted 
 for the excellence of its orchestra and general man- 
 agement. It has a remarkably long season, beginning 
 in October and going on without interruption to May. 
 A very fair company is attached to the theater, and 
 occasionally singers with a European reputation are 
 engaged for a time. This is especially the case after 
 Easter. Formerly, debutantes of exceptional promise 
 rather inclined to the Monnaie as the scene for their 
 first appearance, because they might feel sure that, 
 if they had the least claim to merit, the appreciative 
 Brussels audience would give them a cordial greet- 
 ing; and in the event of failure none would be more 
 indulgent. 
 
 Brussels is well known in the musical world for its 
 excellent College of Music, and, indeed, the facilities 
 for studying music in all its branches are great, and 
 to be enjoyed at a very reasonable charge, any Bel- 
 gian student of promise paying nothing at all. For 
 this reason many English and other foreign families 
 take up their residence in Brussels and send their 
 sons or daughters to the Conservatoire, in the Rue de 
 la Regence, where they have to pay only $40 a year. 
 This institution enjoys a State subsidy, and is more or 
 less under State direction, showing that the Govern- 
 
164 BELGIUM 
 
 ment recognizes the importance music has in the es- 
 timation of the public. The concerts given by the 
 students at the end of each term, in connection with 
 the distribution of prizes, are attended by great 
 crowds. Owing to the large number of persons in- 
 terested, tickets are only distributed to the relatives 
 of the students attending the college. A large number 
 of Conservatoire certificate-holders have become sub- 
 sequently famous in the ranks of musicians and sing- 
 ers. Concerts are given occasionally by well-known 
 performers at the Salle d'Harmonie, at the bottom of 
 the Montagne de la Cour; and when that hall is too 
 small for the audience expected, in the large theater 
 called the Alhambra. There is not a house exclusively 
 reserved for light opera in Brussels, but the Monnaie 
 has of late years somewhat extended its program from 
 its old restricted cultivation of the grand opera. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE MINERS OF THE BORINAGE 
 
 ONE of the most remarkable centers of national 
 life is to be found in the coal-mining districts 
 known as "le Borinage," which signifies the place of 
 boring. Here is to be found a state of society that 
 does not exist in any other part of the country, and 
 tha miners are a type quite distinct from the rest of 
 their countrymen. It would be unfair to judge other 
 Belgians by the mining population, which has been 
 allowed to sink — not merely by the character of their 
 work, but by the deficiencies of education- supple- 
 mented by the poisonous effect of the fiery and dele- 
 terious beverages which the miners too freely imbibe 
 — into a state of physical and mental decay. 
 
 The Borinage district lies south of Mons, but it 
 extends westward as far as Quievrain, on the line to 
 Valenciennes. The mines now extend further north 
 than the original Borinage district, and the railway 
 from Tournai to Charleroi, passing by Mons and 
 Marchienne, traverses for a great part of the distance 
 the mining district, the trollies passing from the col- 
 lieries to railway trucks, or canal barges overhead, as 
 the train glides along. The whole of the southern 
 portion of the province of Hainaut is given up to 
 
 165 
 
166 BELGIUM 
 
 mining operations, and more than 100,000 persons 
 are actually employed there. Some idea of the impor- 
 tance of this industry may be gathered from the fact 
 that whereas the output sixty years ago was only two 
 million tons a year, it now exceeds twenty-four million 
 tons. The mines are owned by joint-stock companies ; 
 there are no royalties to land-owners, and the State 
 has waived any claim to participate in the profits, 
 because the main object has been to develop national 
 industry. The mines of Hainaut have, therefore, been 
 exploited to exceedingly great profit by the small body 
 of capitalists who became interested in them in the 
 first place, and who tried to keep them a close preserve 
 until the shares were got rid of at high premiums on 
 the Bourse. The halcyon days of the mine-owners 
 were those before the organization of labor. Then 
 the Belgian miners toiled for as many hours under- 
 ground as he would have done above, and he received 
 a wage which, in the most favorable case, did not reach 
 $5 a week. That is many years ago, but it had been 
 the general practice during more than two generations, 
 and it has left a deep if not indellible mark on the old 
 mining families. Among these it seems as if there 
 had sprung up a fresh race of dwarfs, men under 
 four feet eight inches, women shorter still, and chil- 
 dren who look as if they never will reach even this 
 height. They are stunted and emaciated, and they are 
 easily distinguishable from the rest of the population 
 as the third and fourth generation of the old mining 
 
THE MINERS OF THE BORINAGE 167 
 
 population. At Frameries and Paturages, where min- 
 ing has been in existence for a century, this type is 
 very obtrusive. 
 
 In no country of Europe did the miners have a 
 harder battle to fight in order to obtain more indul- 
 gent treatment and a fairer living wage than in Bel- 
 gium. The extreme ignorance and illiteracy of the 
 miners left them more or less at the mercy of their 
 masters, and outside sympathy and support were long 
 arrested by the grave assurance that, if the miners 
 were to work fewer hours and to receive more wages, 
 the Belgian mines could not compete with foreign 
 mines, and would have to close altogether. Of course, 
 there was not the least ground for this assertion, but 
 it served its turn, and enabled the owners to remain 
 for a longer time masters of the situation. This state 
 of things could not have endured as long as it did 
 but for the extremely small sum upon which a Bel- 
 gian workman can maintain his family and himself. 
 
 There comes an end, however, to any system that 
 does not take into account the actual necessities and 
 the natural aspirations of the men who support it. 
 Capital had ruled the roost in Belgium for so many 
 years that it looked as if its position were inexpung- 
 able, and as if the miners were consigned to perform 
 the part of helots to the end of the chapter. But the 
 labor party had been growing steadily in influence 
 and organization long before its members possessed a 
 vote, and the spread of Socialism was, it must be ad- 
 
168 BELGIUM 
 
 mitted, strengthened by the legitimate grievances of 
 the labor classes. The movement of the Parti Ouvrier 
 reached its height in the year 1892, when a general 
 strike was carried out, and after intense suffering the 
 mining population rose in what was practically armed 
 rebellion the following year. At Charleroi, and 
 throughout the Borinage generally, riots occurred and 
 even when the military were called out the result was 
 left doubtful. A more serious calamity indeed seemed 
 not impossible, as the loyalty of the young troops was 
 called in question. At this juncture the mine-owners 
 gave way under pressure from the Government, and 
 a new scale of payment was introduced which, if not 
 all that the men desired, was fair and reasonable. 
 By this scale the average miner's wage was raised to 
 between twenty-five and thirty-five shillings ($6.25 
 and $8.75), and that of women and boys from $3 to 
 $5. The maxima might, indeed, be greater but for 
 the protective measures adopted by the miners them- 
 selves in the restriction of the output. The labor party 
 organized a scale of production which, while it re- 
 stricts the maximum earnings of any workman, en- 
 sures the prolonged existence of the mines themselves. 
 The limit thus placed on the output of any single 
 mines has rendered it more necessary to discover fresh 
 mines both in Hainaut and elsewhere. And the great 
 increase in production in recent years is due to the 
 new fields discovered in a region known as the Cam- 
 pine. This tract of country is a barren moorland in 
 
THE MINERS OF THE BORINAGE 169 
 
 the province of Limburg, and the town of Hasselt 
 may be taken as its central point. The discovery that 
 coal could be worked here in paying quantities was 
 made in the year 1900, but before the State would give 
 the license to exploit it the question of the rights in 
 new mines had to be discussed in the Chamber, and 
 fresh legislation passed on the subject. A fresh na- 
 tional asset had been revealed, but for a time it looked 
 as if the Government did not know how to deal with 
 it. The rights of the discoverer, the land-owner, and 
 the State had to be defined, and the miners were pro- 
 pitiated by new laws restricting the hours of labor to 
 eight below ground. It was not until 1909 that all 
 these matters were settled* and the first joint-com- 
 panies were formed to work the new mines. Several 
 shafts have been sunk, and it is understood that the 
 mines are promising, but no statistics are yet avail- 
 able as to the output. 
 
 A visit to the Borinage is not a pleasant experience, 
 and the closer the acquaintance made with the life of 
 the mining population the less attractive does it appear. 
 All mining work, apparently, must be accompanied 
 by a deterioration in the moral as well as the phys- 
 ical qualities of the population so engaged, and this 
 must be especially marked where the education of the 
 people has been notoriously backward and neglected 
 for generations. In Hainaut the majority of the 
 miners are illiterate, and this condition of things will 
 not be altered until the State makes education com- 
 
170 BELGIUM 
 
 pulsory, and places restrictions in the way of the in- 
 discriminate employment of children in the mines; 
 for their non-employment underground is no real 
 remedy. No one has interested himself in the moral 
 and intellectual development of this class of the popu- 
 lation, because the State, in carrying out its theory of 
 perfect liberty, does not concern itself with such mat- 
 ters, and leaves the whole responsibility to the com- 
 mune and the parent, while the Church having lost 
 all influence over the mining population, is only too 
 glad that these hostile classes should be left in a con- 
 dition of almost utter ignorance. 
 
 But the most potent of all the reasons which pro- 
 duce this result is that boys and girls, as soon as they 
 have physical strength, which is supposed to be at 
 twelve years of age, are taken on the mining estab- 
 lishment and employed above ground. They thus be- 
 come bread-winners, and the smattering of learning 
 that they may have acquired as infants is soon reduced 
 to the capacity of signing their names. The employ- 
 ment of children of tender years lies at the root of the 
 ignorance of the people of the greater part of a large 
 province. It is this practice which has led to the 
 gross immorality among the mining population — es- 
 pecially that immorality that takes the form of girl- 
 mothers. It has always been the concomitant of the 
 close employment of the two sexes in mines and min- 
 ing operations, and if it seems somewhat worse in 
 Hainaut than in our own mining districts, it is because 
 
THE MINERS OF THE BORINAGE 171 
 
 the mining population of Belgium is so completely 
 detached and cut off from the rest of the community. 
 To the proprietors, with rare exceptions, the miners 
 are mere beasts of burden, in whom they do not effect 
 to feel the least interest. No steps whatever are taken 
 to improve the lot of the miners, to elevate their 
 ideas, or even to provide them with amusement or 
 recreations. There are no clubs, except the cercles 
 of the Socialists, and the only places of resort are the 
 estaminets and cabarets that are to be found in prac- 
 tically every third or fourth house. A premium is 
 placed on illegitimate children. The miner seeks as 
 a wife the woman who has had the greatest number 
 of illegitimate children, because they will contribute 
 to the household expenditure. It is quite a common 
 thing to find in a miner's house a married man with 
 one or two children of his own, and four or even 
 more sons and daughters of the wife by different men 
 in the prenuptial state. It is scarcely going too far 
 to say that morality does not exist in the Borinage; 
 but the greatest curse in this community is the large 
 number of immature mothers, and the consequent in- 
 separable deterioration of the whole race. The evil 
 has been allowed to reach such a pass that the success 
 of any remedies must now be slow and uncertain, and 
 as yet none are even talked of. But certainly some- 
 thing could be done to improve education and to re- 
 strain the employment of children. No doubt the 
 miners themselves would at first be most determined 
 
172 BELGIUM 
 
 opponents of any such change, because the existing 
 evils are mainly due to their own selfishness and evil 
 habits. The consequent diminution in the earnings 
 of the family could, however, be made up by the 
 increased exertions of the men. 
 
 Ignorance and immorality explain the low condi- 
 tion to which the mining population has sunk, but 
 even these causes would not have been supplemented 
 and aided by the prevalence of drunkenness. As there 
 is no restriction on the sale of drink, every house can 
 retail intoxicating liquors, and in many places where 
 it is procurable there is no external appearance of the 
 place being a drinking shop. The room of the cot- 
 tage will contain a few chairs and benches, besides a 
 table, and the liquor comes from a cupboard or an 
 inner room. In warm weather the table and chairs 
 are placed outside, and on Sundays and feast days 
 there is not one of these houses which will not be 
 crowded with visitors. The only amusement known 
 to these people is to drink and get drunk. There are 
 no abstainers or half abstainers among them. The 
 only distinction between beer-drinkers and spirit- 
 drinkers, the beer-drinkers are the more reasonable 
 drunkards of the two. Having soaked themselves 
 with faro, they sleep it off. Not so the spirit-drinkers, 
 for when they have finished their orgies they are half 
 mad with the poisonous alcohol which they have im- 
 bibed, and the greater number of crimes are perpe- 
 trated by this class among the miners. Crime of all 
 
THE MINERS OF THE BORINAGE 173 
 
 kinds is prevalent, and the reports of the Hainaut 
 assizes are not pleasant reading. The true explana- 
 tion of the evils that follow this spirit-drinking is to 
 be found in the character of the spirit itself. In 
 name it is gin or geniezre, but it bears little or no 
 trace of that origin. What it is, no one outside the 
 place of manufacture — which appears to be unknown 
 — can correctly declare, but by the smell it would 
 seem to be mainly composed of paraffin oil. This 
 beverage, called schnick, is the favorite spirit with the 
 miners. It is sold at one penny for a large glass and 
 one-half penny for a small glass, and official statistics 
 show that a large majority of the miners drink a pint 
 of this stuff every day of their lives, while it is com- 
 puted that there are not less than fifty thousand who 
 drink a quart. In the latter total are no doubt in- 
 cluded many who are not miners, but the majority of 
 them are. In Belgium the drink question is aggra- 
 vated by the poisonous nature of the intoxicant and 
 by the admitted inability of the Government to devise 
 any means of preventing adulteration. Lest the reader 
 should imagine that there is some exaggeration in the 
 figures just given, it may be mentioned that the total 
 consumption of spirits in the country during a year 
 exceeds fifty quarts per head of the population. This 
 being the case, it will not appear surprising that an 
 extreme toper consumes a quart of the spirits a day. 
 The consequence of this excess are to be seen in the 
 increasing number of lunatics and alcohol-maniacs 
 
174 BELGIUM 
 
 confined in the State asylums, and it is observed that 
 of late years the proportion of women has been largely 
 increasing, so that it is now not much short of one 
 to two. 
 
 The Government of Belgium is, of course, aware 
 of these facts, and a visit to the Borinage will quickly 
 convince the most skeptical of the extent of the mis- 
 chief already done, which becomes more glaring every 
 year. But it has been afraid to grapple with the dif- 
 ficulty by passing' for instance, a law to oblige all 
 places where drink is on sale to have a license. The 
 absolute immunity of the drink-shop from all control, 
 the tacit permission given to every house to be at the 
 will of its occupant a public-house, and the fact thai 
 there is in existence one drinking-place for every five 
 adults, explain the situation. The State has refrained 
 from interference so long, through its regard for the 
 liberty inscribed in its Constitution, which includes its 
 citizens' liberty to get drunk, that the difficulty has 
 assumed appalling proportions. To interfere with a 
 practice in which every one can put forward some 
 evidence of a vested interest is a perilous step. 
 
 On the other hand, the Government is confronted 
 with the prospect that if the evil is allowed to con- 
 tinue unabated, the deterioration of the race which 
 has become marked in certain districts like the Borin- 
 age, must bring about a national decline that will con- 
 stitute a grave peril to the country. If the Govern- 
 ment is afraid to diminish the number of houses by 
 
THE MINERS OF THE BORINAGE 175 
 
 imposing licenses, it might well grapple with the 
 minor problem of arresting adulteration, and putting 
 an end to the consumption of pernicious substitutes 
 for gin. Unless it does something practical for the 
 mitigation of the evil, it will be confronted one of 
 these days with a peril that may overtax its resources, 
 and that must damage its reputation. Ignorance, im- 
 morality, and drunkenness have made the mining dis- 
 tricts of Belgium a black spot in the national life, 
 and the sooner an era of reform is commenced the 
 better. 
 
 Besides the coal mines in Belgium, there are ex- 
 tensive quarries of limestone, red sandstone, granite, 
 and marble. They are to be found in the Ardennes 
 (Luxemburg), the Condroz district (Meuse Valley), 
 the district between Sambre and Meuse, and parts of 
 Hainaut. The Ambleve Valley is remarkable for its 
 red sandstone range. Slate quarries abound in the 
 southern parts of Luxemburg. Lime is largely worked 
 in the valley of the Meuse, and the cement industry 
 is one of the most important in Belgium. 
 
 One of the most interesting quarries in Belgium 
 is that of St. Remy, from which a beautiful red mar- 
 ble is excavated. This quarry has been worked at for 
 centuries, and is still in full use. It originally be- 
 longed to the famous Abbey of St. Remy, which lies 
 about a mile north of the town of Rochefort, and was 
 long the burial place of the Counts of that name who 
 were ruling princes, coining their own money. Little 
 
176 BELGIUM 
 
 of the Abbey remains owing to the ravages of time 
 and of the sans cuhttes in 1795, and the Trappists, 
 who had it some years ago, contented themselves with 
 using it as a farm and brewery. Lately it has passed 
 into the possession of the Benedictines, who are en- 
 gaged in restoring the Abbey to something approach- 
 ing its original form. The quarry lies about half a 
 mile north of the Abbey, and has been cut out of the 
 side of the rock. Curiously enough it is only at this 
 particular spot that the marble is found. Many other 
 quarries have been opened in the neighborhood with 
 the object of penetrating into the same mountain from 
 different sides, but on finding no trace of marble 
 these have, one after another, been abandoned. The 
 quarry which, before the French Revolution, was the 
 property of the monks, has long been worked by a pri- 
 vate company. The stone is not merely of a rich 
 color, but is beautifully grained, and has been largely 
 used for the interior decoration of Belgian churches. 
 In 1908 Belgium exported from her quarries of all 
 kinds stone of the weight of 1,477,058 tons of a total 
 value of $8,121,500. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE MiANUFACTURING CENTERS 
 
 TO a very great extent, the prosperity of Belgium 
 is revealed in the commercial activity of Ant- 
 werp, and the commercial -classes of that city form a 
 community which more nearly resembles our own than 
 any other in Belgium. The pursuit of over-sea com- 
 merce has broadened the view of the merchants and 
 shippers of the great port on the Scheldt, and there 
 is less of the communal, or as we should say parochial, 
 spirit about them than any other section of the Bel- 
 gian people. They are stationed at Belgium's window 
 to the outer world, and they realize better than the 
 rest of their countrymen the precise place filled by 
 their small country. They know, for instance, that 
 the affairs of this planet are not bound up in the petty 
 questions that engross the attention of professional 
 politicians in the Rue de la Lou Consequently they 
 keep aloof from politics and concentrate their energies 
 on making money. 
 
 The activity of Antwerp is largely due to the de- 
 velopment of the manufacturing centers throughout 
 the country. If Ghent, Liege, and Seraing did not 
 exist, the exports of Belgium, of which we have 
 treated of elsewhere in this volume, could not have 
 
 177 
 
178 BELGIUM 
 
 reached their present imposing figures. The pros- 
 perity of Belgium is the result of the productive 
 capacity of its citizens, and this is shown in the sphere 
 of manufacture more than elsewhere. Large por- 
 tions of Belgium seem to be given up as completely to 
 factories as Flanders is to vegetable fields, and the 
 Borinage coal-mines. The coal and iron of Hainaut 
 are the gifts of nature, but the products of Ghent, 
 Seraing, Verviers, and other places too numerous to 
 name, are due to the ingenuity and toil of man alone. 
 Of all Belgian cities, Ghent has the best associa- 
 tions for the English people, and is the home of some 
 of the most interesting bits of history familiar to all. 
 It was the home of John of Gaunt, and this once 
 proud city contains much of, if not all, the pathos and 
 tradegy of the Belgian epic. Until the pacification of 
 1540, Ghent was a Power in itself. It fell because it 
 did not realize that its pre-eminence among Flemish 
 communes was no proof that it could beard the ruler 
 of a great empire with impunity. It retained the in- 
 solence of power long after it had lost the substance, 
 and its fall was both ignominious and irretrievable. 
 In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Ghent 
 suffered in special degree from the blight which fell 
 generally upon Flanders. The gfass grew in its 
 streets, the canals were unused, and the population 
 steadily declined. From being the rival of potentates 
 and States, Ghent sank into the position of a second 
 rank provincial town. The city that had once boastec| 
 
THE MANUFACTURING CENTERS 179 
 
 of its quarter of a million inhabitants, and of how with 
 its dependent towns it could put 80,000 combatants 
 in the field, contained less than 40,000 citizens when 
 the French occupied the country in the Revolutionary 
 period. At that time the principal occupation of the 
 citizens of Ghent, and the main source of such pros- 
 perity as they possessed, was horticulture, and Ghent, 
 which had been famous for its gloves, became better 
 known for its flowers. It has not lost this reputation 
 today, and the flowers from the glass-houses of Ghent 
 are in much demand, and sold all over the country; 
 but at the same time it has discovered new and more 
 profitable industries in the last century. 
 
 The first and main cause of the return of pros- 
 perity to Belgium was, it must be admitted, the estab- 
 lishment of peace. It ceased in 1795 to be the cock- 
 pit of Europe, and even during the Waterloo cam- 
 paign a hostile force was on Beligan soil for no more 
 than five days, and Charleroi, then a small place of no 
 importance, was the only one of its towns to undergo 
 military occupation. The cessation of strife, waged 
 by foreign armies on its territory, was the first and 
 main cause of the revival of Belgian industry. Men 
 were able to turn their attention to more remunerative 
 work than the cultivation of the fields with some rea- 
 sonable prospect of enjoying the fruits of her own 
 labor. While a larger area was brought under cul- 
 tivation, commerce, however timidly, began to appeal 
 
180 BELGIUM 
 
 to the townspeople. The population, long stationary, 
 commenced to show signs of expansion. 
 
 Ghent was the first place to feel the new influence. 
 Admirably situated for purposes of trade by means 
 of its water communication in many different direc- 
 tions, Ghent was able, in the days before the railways, 
 to despatch its wares by the cheap and sufficiently 
 expeditious transport provided by canal and river 
 barges. It thus found convenient markets in Brus- 
 sels, which always enjoyed a certain prosperity as the 
 residence of a Court, and in Antwerp, which was 
 largely dependent on the country lying at its back. 
 In the old days the weavers and fullers of Ghent had 
 made its prosperity. It was, therefore, natural that 
 when the revival of the place commenced, its citizens 
 should turn in the same channel. The first factory 
 set up in modern Ghent was one for cloth, during 
 the French occupation, and it was busily employed in 
 turning out a large part of the material used in pro- 
 viding Napoleon's soldiers with their uniform. Dur- 
 ing the Dutch rule, which extended from 1815 to 
 1830, the manufacture of cotton goods was intro- 
 duced; but this did not become at all general until 
 after the year 1839, when the independence of Bel- 
 gium was rendered more assured by the recognition 
 of the fact by Holland. After that event, cotton and 
 woolen manufactures became a staple industry in 
 Ghent, and the output increased every year, so that it 
 
THE MANUFACTURING CENTERS 181 
 
 seemed no undue exaggeration to speak of it as the 
 Belgian Manchester. The prosperity of Ghent re- 
 ceived a rude interruption in 1861 through the out- 
 break of the American Civil War, which cut off the 
 supply of cotton, and produced the greatest distress. 
 The suffering was increased by a serious outbreak of 
 cholera, and for a time it seemed as if Ghent had 
 only risen to fall again. After the conclusion of the 
 struggle in the United States, the enterprise that had 
 been interrupted reasserted itself, and the cholera hav- 
 ing led to many sanitary improvements, the city took 
 on a new lease of life. The lace and embroidery in- 
 dustry, which had been carried on in a modest way in 
 the houses of the workpeople themselves, was trans- 
 ferred to the factories, and was developed with all the 
 appliances of capital and science. An entirely new 
 business was introduced by the opening of works for 
 the construction of engines and agricultural imple- 
 ments. There is, therefore, no doubt as to the activity 
 of the business life of the city. No proof, indeed, 
 can be clearer than that its population now exceeds 
 160,000. Ghent, besides being an active commercial 
 and manufacturing center, is also a fine city, and a 
 pleasant place of residence. It contains some very 
 interesting monuments of its medieval grandeur, and 
 although the bell of mighty Roland is heard no more 
 in the land, there is an effective carillon of forty-four 
 bells in the belfry, from which it used to give forth 
 "victory" or the "alarm for fire." 
 
182 BELGIUM 
 
 In striking contrast to Ghent is Seraing, where 
 the greatest foundry and engine works of Belgium 
 were established by an Englishman two years after 
 Waterloo. This was Cockerill, who fixed upon 
 Seraing as the best spot for his enterprise, in which 
 he had the cordial support of King William I of the 
 Netherlands, who subscribed half the capital. The 
 site of the works, which now cover 260 acres, and 
 employ 15,000 workpeople, was happily chosen at an 
 old chateau with extensive grounds, which had once 
 been the summer residence of the Prince-Bishops of 
 Liege. The chateau is still used as the house of the 
 resident director, and as a library. Formerly the spot 
 was one of the most picturesque in the environs of 
 Liege. Now both banks of the river are lined with 
 furnaces and factories, for Jemeppe, Ougree, Seles- 
 sin, and Tilleur are imitators of Seraing. The valley 
 is also carboniferous, and there are numerous coal- 
 mines. The Liege collieries rank next to those of 
 Hainaut in importance, and some authorities think that 
 they will be productive for a longer period. 
 
 Seraing is situated five miles above Liege on the 
 right bank of the Meuse. There is communication 
 between the two places by river steamer, tramway, 
 and railway. By the last census its population ex- 
 ceeded 38,000, and it may be assumed that every one 
 resident in the town is connected with or dependent 
 on the Cockerill establishment. In 1831, after the 
 separation of the two countries, Cockerill repaid King 
 
THE MANUFACTURING CENTERS 183 
 
 William his share of the capital, and remained sole 
 proprietor until his death in 1840. The concern was 
 then turned into a company, with the modest capital 
 of $2,500,000. In 1871 the capital was increased, and 
 the descendants of Cockerill having died out or re- 
 tired, the business became exclusively Belgian. The 
 record of the Seraing works is a very remarkable one, 
 especially in the construction of railway and other 
 steam engines, of which close on 60,000 have been 
 turned out since the commencement of that branch 
 in 1835. With its present staff it can construct an- 
 nually 150 locomotives, 2,000 engines, steam and hand, 
 and 300,000 quintals (or 15,000 tons) of font for 
 bridges, etc. The iron casements for the new forts 
 at Namur and Liege itself were cast in the Seraing 
 foundries. Seraing may be compared in some respects 
 to the Armstrong works at Elswick and the Krupp 
 works at Essen, and it is well to remind the Belgians 
 that their country owes this now national undertaking 
 to the capital and enterprise of an Englishman. 
 
 Seraing is, in a certain sense, only an annex of the 
 important city of Liege close by. In many respects 
 Liege is the most remarkable place in Belgium, re- 
 markable for its magnificent position, for the activity 
 of its citizens, and for its history, which has, in a 
 certain sense, been detached from that of the rest of 
 the country. Liege is the natural and typical capital 
 of the Walloon country, just as Ghent is of the Flem- 
 ish. Both cities are now at the height of their pros- 
 
184 BELGIUM 
 
 perity, and contain about the same population. If, 
 however, Seraing and Chenee were included as sub- 
 urbs of Liege, which they are in reality, Liege would 
 have a very marked superiority over Ghent. There 
 is probably more wealth in Liege than in Ghent, but 
 there is also more misery. The poor quarters of the 
 town on both banks of the river are very repulsive, 
 and the old delapidated lofty houses, built up against 
 the side of the mountain on which stands the citadel, 
 are not worse than the new tenements across the river 
 at Bressoux. The staple industry at Liege, upon which 
 its prosperity depends, is the manufacturing of arms, 
 and this fact has led to its being called the Birming- 
 ham of Belgium. There is one distinctive practice 
 which brings out the marked difference between the 
 two countries and peoples. The Birmingham gun- 
 smiths work in shops where weapons are turned out 
 by the thousands. In Liege the individual works in 
 his own abode, and takes each single weapon on com- 
 pletion to the gunshop for sale. It is said there are 
 forty thousand working gunsmiths in Liege and its 
 suburbs. It would appear a risky means of liveli- 
 hood, for each piece is carefully inspected and tested 
 before acceptance at the warehouses, and the least 
 defect is said to cause summary rejection. Opinions 
 differ as to the quality of Liege firearms, but there 
 is one point in which they beat all competitors, and 
 that is in lowness of price. An enormous business 
 is done in single-barreled guns, that are sold at $375 
 
THE MANUFACTURING CENTERS 185 
 
 apiece. As this class of gun has a rapid and sure 
 sale, the preparation of first-class weapons has grown 
 less attractive for the workman, who thinks only of 
 earning his living in the easiest and surest way, and 
 who seems to be quite content when he makes $5 a 
 week. With a view of arresting this tendency, and 
 preventing the loss of an important branch of the 
 trade, several factories for the manufacture of rifles 
 have been opened of late years, and there is also a 
 cannon foundry. The last named and one of the 
 rifle factories belong to the State. It may be ndded 
 that the former is now busily occupied in casting the 
 new guns for the Belgian artillery. At all times the 
 citizens of Liege have been noted for their independ- 
 ent, and it might even be said quarrelsome, spirit. The 
 fact that each man is more or less his own master has 
 greatly contributed to keep alive the sentiment of in- 
 dependence, and the wonting classes are organized 
 by leagues, societies, and clubs. The Socialists are 
 very powerful, but there is also a genuine Catholic 
 party among them. 
 
 Among other manufacturing centers less widely 
 known than Ghent and Liege, which are springing 
 into importance, are Gembloux, Ath, Renaix, and 
 Diest. At Gembloux the state railways have estab- 
 lished their engine and carriage works, which employ 
 several thousand hands. There is also a factory for 
 excellent cutlery at this place. Ath, on the Dender, is 
 the center of the important lime manufacture, and 
 
186 BELGIUM 
 
 being in direct water communication by river and 
 canal with most parts of Belgium, it is able to deliver 
 this article by the most economical mode of transport. 
 Renaix has developed an important cloth industry, 
 and Diest is the center of the brewing enterprise of 
 the country, and might be compared to Burton-on- 
 Trent. Malines is still famous for its lace, although 
 Grammont, interesting as the first of the communes 
 to receive a charter, is running it hard in the matter 
 of "point." Tournai produces most of the carpets to 
 which Brussels gives its name. Artistic carpets are also 
 produced at Termonde, where there are also extensive 
 oil works. Verviers, a large town east of Liege, 
 flourishes on a considerable manufacture of woolen 
 goods and of glass. Within the last few years the 
 competition of German works at Eupen has been so 
 keen that several of the Belgian glass companies have 
 suspended operations. A new industry is being devel- 
 oped in cement and a composition that serves as an 
 excellent pavement. In no manufacturing district of 
 Belgium are the vicissitudes of trade through exter- 
 nal competition greater or more sudden than at 
 Verviers. 
 
 The condition of the artisan classes in Belgium 
 is probably better than in France, although it falls a 
 long way below that of English workmen, especially 
 in respect of hours of labor. These are unquestion- 
 ably long to excess, and are really fixed by the will of 
 the employer. The language of the law on the em- 
 
THE MANUFACTURING CENTERS 187 
 
 ployment of children is very instructive. No child 
 can be employed in a factory or a warehouse until he 
 is twelve, which means that all children of the work- 
 ing classes begin their life of toil at twelve. This ex- 
 plains the stunted appearance of the population of 
 the larger towns and manufacturing districts. The 
 law says, in the second place, that no child under six- 
 teen is to be kept at work for more than twelve hours 
 a day. If the young can work this length of time, 
 it will be understood that an adult is assumed to be 
 capable of doing more. At the same time, the long 
 hours do not hang as so great a burden on the Bel- 
 gian working man as they would on Americans. The 
 race has always been accustomed to early hours, and 
 as there are no great distractions except fete days, 
 the Belgian takes his pleasure in his work. 
 
 From a careful estimate made by a Belgian statis- 
 tician the average earnings of the Belgian artisan are 
 $165 a year. This average includes child-labor, which 
 partially explains the lowness of the figure. Personal 
 inquiry showed me that in Liege and Ghent the work- 
 men expect to earn a minimum eighty cents a day, 
 or about $5 a week. They seem to be perfectly con- 
 tented if they can earn a dollar a day, but besides the 
 earnings of the man of the house are those of his 
 wife and children. And they get along fairly well on 
 this income. The Belgians are not great meat-eaters, 
 and the Belgian wife is usually an economic and good 
 cook. A nourishing soup forms the basis of the food 
 
188 BELGIUM 
 
 in a Belgian home, and the bread they use is of the 
 whole grain and much more substantial than our 
 bread. 
 
 The daily life of the factory operative is not as 
 easily described as that of the miner, who lives under 
 special conditions which differentiate him from the 
 regular community, and which are treated of else- 
 where in this volume. The mill-hand, the potter, or 
 the lace-maker will pursue the mode of living agree- 
 able to himself, in complete obliviousness of what 
 his fellow workers may do, except in regard to points 
 of common trade interest. The bond that links him to 
 his class is that not of his work, but of his commune, 
 which is the chief source of Belgian unity. Hence, 
 any attempt to give an account of the daily life of all 
 factory operatives, as something fashioned in the same 
 pattern, would be incorrect and misleading. At the 
 same time, there are some points about the Belgian 
 artisan which may seem of interest. His condition of 
 life and general well-being furnish no inexact index 
 to the national welfare, and, speaking relatively, they 
 may be pronounced quite as high as in any country 
 of Europe. The Belgian operative has command of 
 all the necessaries of life, and he has also a surplus 
 left for some of its luxuries, or, at least, some of its 
 relaxations. His hours of labor may be many, but 
 they are lightened by some hours of amusement, and 
 a not infrequent holiday. If the cafe does not suffice 
 for his leisure hours, there is always the cercle — 
 
THE MANUFACTURING CENTERS 189 
 
 Catholic, or Liberal, or Socialist; and the cercle will 
 have its band of music, its dances, and other annual 
 or more frequent celebrations. The life of the opera- 
 tive is consequently by no means dull or unvaried. 
 It is no dreary round of labor; there is ample time 
 for pleasure, and the Belgian character, whether Wal- 
 loon or Flemish, is not prone to take its pleasures 
 sadly. 
 
 There is another feature in the life of the Belgian 
 workingman that is interesting. He has his political 
 associations and clubs. The Parti Ouvrier is organ- 
 ized throughout the kingdom for political agitation 
 and the attainment of universal suffrage. But, in ad- 
 dition, certain co-operative societies have been formed 
 for retailing to their members practically all the arti- 
 cles of which they have any need. These exist in all 
 the large towns, but the two largest are those known 
 as the Maison du Peuple in Brussels and the Vooruit 
 in Ghent. At these stores everything is sold at the 
 cost of production, plus five per cent for the adminis- 
 tration, from a loaf of bread to the furniture of a 
 house. An excellent loaf of bread weighing nearly 
 two pounds and a half is sold for twopence, and at 
 the Maison du Peuple in Brussels over 160,000 such 
 loaves are sold each week. As there are 16,000 mem- 
 bers, the average consumption is ten loaves a week. 
 Of late years, these societies have taken an active part 
 in the struggle with drunkenness by excluding spirits 
 and beer from their lists, and in the refreshment room 
 
190 BELGIUM 
 
 attached to their stores coffee and lemonade are the 
 only beverages sold. Although I have only men- 
 tioned two of these societies, there are in Belgium 
 about four hundred of the same nature. 
 
 There are also saving- and sick-fund branches at- 
 tached to most of these societies. The basis on which 
 they are formed is a monthly payment of sixty cents 
 to the former and twenty cents to the latter. For 
 these subscriptions a member is guaranteed medical 
 attendance and twenty cents a day during illness, and 
 his annual savings are practically doubled by the ad- 
 ditions made to them under the law by the State and 
 also by the provinces, while there is a further volun- 
 tary grant by the society itself. As the most staid 
 Belgian workman deems that he has the moral right 
 to spend twenty cents a day on his drink, it does not 
 seem to be asking him to practice much self-denial to 
 put by twenty cents a week for a rainy day. It is right 
 to mention that there are no grounds for supposing 
 that he grumbles at having to do so. There is a new 
 State Pension Bill that is calculated to encourage 
 thrift. It came into effect in 1900, and by it the Gov- 
 ernment undertakes to pay every working man in need 
 after he is sixty-five an annual pension of $13 a year. 
 
 Taking a comprehensive view of the position of 
 the working classes in Belgium, it will compare not 
 unfavorably with that of those in any other country. 
 In one particular only is there pressing need of ame- 
 lioration, and, as we have seen, that is in the length of 
 
THE MANUFACTURING CENTERS 191 
 
 hours of labor. It is probable that a reform would 
 already have taken place in this matter but for the 
 fact that political questions have become mixed up 
 with social problems. The agitation is not one for 
 eight or nine hours a day as the regular spell for the 
 working classes in factories, but it is one for universal 
 suffrage, the abolition of the plural vote, and the fet- 
 tering of capital by the enforcement of Socialist the- 
 ories of distribution and joint participation. It is un- 
 fortunate that these political matters have been con- 
 nected with labor questions, and that natural conces- 
 sions have been deferred by the fear of what those 
 to whom they were made might do afterwards. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 COUNTRY LIFE IN BELGIUM 
 
 AS considerably more than half the population of 
 Belgium resides outside the towns, the condi- 
 tions of country life form quite as important a part 
 of the nation's existence as those of the bourgeois 
 classes. There are parts of the little kingdom, such 
 as Luxemburg and Campine, where the population is 
 sufficiently sparse to leave something like the accepted 
 conditions of genuine country life; but in Flanders, 
 Hainaut, and Brabant, the population is so dense that 
 the farms and cottages occupy practically every avail- 
 able spot that can be utilized for a building without 
 diminishing the area of the cultivable ground. Leav- 
 ing aside the mining districts, the western provinces 
 of Belgium present in the main the appearance of 
 vast market-gardens without a hedge or a wall. The 
 boundaries are marked by nothing more than an 
 insignificant trench. The cultivation of wheat and 
 cereals generally is being increased; but this is due 
 more to the absorption of new land reclaimed from 
 forest or heath than to the abandonment of vege- 
 tables. In Flanders, which was formerly given up 
 exclusively to the cultivation of roots, however, it is 
 not uncommon to see nowadays part of a half-acre 
 
 192 
 
COUNTRY LIFE IN BELGIUM 193 
 
 plot assigned to a wheat crop, and the rest to cab- 
 bages. 
 
 If one wished to study the agricultural system of 
 Belgium, and to see what has been accomplished 
 there, a visit should certainly be paid to the district 
 called Pays de Waes. This district lies west of the 
 Scheldt, and southeast of Antwerp, and extends al- 
 most to Ghent. Its chief town is St. Nicholas, and 
 Lokeren, another town of the Waes country, is 
 scarcely less important. In 1839, the whole of the 
 district was a wild, uncultivated tract. Now it is an 
 unbroken expanse of gardens and fields, sustaining a 
 resident population of five hundred persons to the 
 square mile. There has been no such transformation 
 scene in any part of Europe, and it would be a good 
 experiment to tempt some Belgian agriculturists to 
 see what they could do in some other countries — 
 Ireland, for instance, or the abandoned land in our 
 New England States. 
 
 Throughout the two Flanders, which produce more 
 than half the total crops of the country, there are no 
 large landed proprietors, and the soil is parcelled out 
 in small lots among the peasants themselves. The 
 farmer class in these provinces exists only to this ex- 
 tent, that where the commune owns the lands it has 
 chosen to sublet them to a farmer with the means to 
 work several hundred acres instead of dividing the 
 land into allotments. But in Flanders the farmer is 
 the exception, and the small proprietor of anything 
 
194 BELGIUM 
 
 up to five acres is the rule, while in Hainaut and Bra- 
 bant it is different. There the farmer class is in the 
 ascendant. A historical cause lies at the root of this 
 difference. Up to the French occupation in 1795, the 
 soil of Belgium was the property in the main of the 
 representatives of the aristocracy, civic as well as 
 feudal, and of the Church. The religious orders were 
 the chief proprietors, owning more than double the 
 cultivated land possessed by the nobles. This was 
 explained by the fact that the Church owned lands 
 to make them revenue producing, and possessed the 
 capital to do so. The nobles were not rich in capital, 
 and a very large proportion of their territorial pos- 
 sessions consisted of forest and unreclaimed land. As 
 they kept these possessions for the chase, they did not 
 even think of developing them. When the French 
 Republic annexed Belgium, all the lands possessed 
 by churchmen and nobles were at once made forfeit, 
 and the actual occupiers and tillers of the soil came 
 into possession. At that time Flanders was just as 
 much an agricultural country as it is today. But in 
 the other provinces the same conditions did not pre- 
 vail. Only a small portion of the soil was under cul- 
 tivation, the population was scanty, and with local 
 exceptions there were no peasants eager to take over 
 estates that had fallen vacant and that were at their 
 disposal. Moreover, the land had to be cleared and 
 won over for cultivation, which required capital. For 
 these reasons a race of peasant proprietors was not 
 
COUNTRY LIFE IN BELGIUM 195 
 
 created in Brabant and Namur as had been done in 
 accordance with easily discoverable natural laws in 
 Flanders. When the heat of the republicans were 
 cooled down, there is no doubt that many of the for- 
 mer proprietors recovered their possessions partly by 
 occupying what no one else claimed, and partly by re- 
 purchase from the State or the commune on nominal 
 terms. This tendency became more marked under the 
 Emperor Napoleon, and especially after he made his 
 peace with the Pope. After his overthrow there was 
 a general recovery of territorial possessions by the 
 aristocracy, subject to the recognition of the rights of 
 occupation that had accumulated in twenty years. 
 But in Flanders nothing of the sort took place. There 
 the new rights entirely displaced the old title-deeds. 
 The class of great landed proprietors in Belgium 
 is exceedingly small, and there are many of the old 
 noblesse without any land at all. Those who are more 
 fortunate possess, as a general rule, not more than a 
 thousand acres round their country residence, and the 
 only great estates are to be found in the Ardennes 
 and Campine, where land possessed but little value 
 until a quite recent period. The history of the estate 
 of the Duke of Wellington, as Duke of Waterloo, in 
 Belgium furnishes an instance of what took place 
 when the representatives of the ancient owners recov- 
 ered the non-productive portions of their estates. The 
 Duke was granted, as a reward for his great victory 
 in Belgium, a portion of the old forest of Soignies. 
 
196 BELGIUM 
 
 It was about five thousand acres in extent; but the 
 only income the great Duke ever derived from it was 
 from the timber, which must have been quite insig- 
 nificant. Upon his death his son and successor was 
 confirmed in the possession of this estate, after some 
 persons had represented that it was only granted for 
 the life of the first duke. He then expressed the 
 opinion to some Belgian officials that the estate about 
 which so much stir was being made was really value- 
 less, whereupon Baron Lambermont advised him to 
 place it in the hands of the regisseur or manager of 
 the Due d'Arenberg, who had vastly improved the 
 estates of that nobleman at Enghien and elsewhere. 
 The advice was followed, and in a few years the tim- 
 ber was all cut down and sold, and on his part of the 
 old forest a number of farms were created. The 
 estate then for the first time brought in an income; 
 but the story is merely told here to illustrate the 
 process which went on generally in Belgium outside 
 of Flanders after Waterloo, and in a still more marked 
 degree after the establishment of an independent 
 kingdom. 
 
 The conditions of life among the agricultural 
 classes of Flanders would be considered intolerably 
 hard by the agricultural laborer in England or Amer- 
 ica, and even the sense of possessing the land on 
 which they toil would not atone for them. The Flem- 
 ish peasant, or proprietor, labors all day, and his day 
 is the long one from sunrise until long after sunset. 
 
COUNTRY LIFE IN BELGIUM 197 
 
 Any one who has lived in the Belgian provinces has 
 seen gray figures moving along the roads or across the 
 fields, while gleams of light alone showed the dawn 
 of the coming day. They wish to be at their work, 
 discontinued late the night before, as soon as there is 
 sufficient light to enable them to resume it. They are 
 working for themselves, and very likely they would 
 grumble if they were asked to do it for a master. 
 But it is not only the men, but also the women who 
 work thus. There are, of course, household duties 
 and work at home to be performed; but these do not 
 prevent the women and girls from toiling in the fields 
 as well. Market-gardening carried on in the fashion 
 of the Continent, where nothing is wasted, cannot be 
 considered an altogether pleasant or even healthy oc- 
 cupation. It is certainly not calculated to elevate those 
 who take part in it in intelligence, and as a matter of 
 fact the vast body of Flemish laborers in the fields 
 are sunk in a state of extraordinary ignorance for the 
 twentieth century. Their education is practically noth- 
 ing at all, but they are sound Catholics, and it is not 
 thought to be to the interest of the Church, or the 
 party that claims that designation, that they should 
 progress in worldly knowledge. 
 
 To judge the people of Flanders plains by a cur- 
 sory inspection, the conclusion come to would prob- 
 ably be that they must be exceedingly miserable and 
 unhappy, and it requires a far more intimate knowl- 
 edge than most foreigners are ever likely to take the 
 
198 BELGIUM 
 
 trouble to acquire to discover that such is not really 
 the case. Their workaday clothes are not of a char- 
 acter to impress the observer with a perception of any- 
 thing in their favor. They are certainly not pictur- 
 esque, and they are generally very dirty. They all 
 wear the wooden sabot, yellow in color and clumsy 
 in form. Their stockings are always coarse worsted 
 and grey. Their short trousers are always tied with 
 a ribbon above the calf, and they wear a linen smock. 
 The usual headgear of the men is a cap with a peak, 
 and the women have linen bonnets with a kind of 
 hood over the forehead. If their dress is plain, their 
 living is still plainer. Their breakfast consists of no 
 more than coffee and rye bread, their midday meal of 
 bread and butter, or grease — tartine — with which they 
 sometimes have cheese or a little cold bacon, and their 
 supper of soup and bread. On Sundays and fete 
 days they have hot bacon, and occasionally rabbits or 
 fish. Fresh meat never comes their way, and is prac- 
 tically unknown. On the other hand, they eat great 
 quantities of vegetables, cooked and uncooked, and 
 dandelion salads are the luxury of the Belgian peas- 
 ant. It is somewhat difficult to get at an idea of the 
 results of their toil; but the average amount of the 
 produce of the land has been reckoned at $100 the 
 half acre. On this sum a Flemish family will con- 
 trive to live, having no rent to pay, and supplementing 
 the produce of the field with a pig and poultry. There 
 
COUNTRY LIFE IN BELGIUM 199 
 
 are 650,000 men and boys employed in agriculture 
 alone. 
 
 In order to correct the depressing effect of the 
 spectacle of these peasant proprietors in their week- 
 day costumes, when they strike the observer as mere 
 drudges bound in misery, it is as well to take a glance 
 at the same people on Sundays going to or returning 
 from mass. The whole population goes ; there are no 
 non-attendants here, except from illness and those 
 who are bedridden. And what do we see? All the 
 men wearing respectable black suits and boots; the 
 women are well dressed and carry themselves well, 
 and there are bright-colored parasols to protect from 
 the sun the girls and young women who have been 
 toiling in the fields all the week with no protection 
 save a linen hood. It is difficult to realize that these 
 are the same people; but it is quite clear from their 
 animated conversation and laughter that they are far 
 from unhappy or dissatisfied with their lot. 
 
 In the Walloon country the conditions of agricul- 
 tural life are quite different. The country population 
 is scanty, and the cultivation of the land is in the 
 hands of farmers who have rented it from the landed 
 owners or from the communes. The inhabitants show 
 a tendency to gather in little towns, and not to spread 
 over the country in detached cottages close to their 
 work, but separated from their fellow-beings. When 
 the outskirts of a townlet or large village are passed, 
 not a house will be met with along the road until the 
 
200 BELGIUM 
 
 next village is reached. Now in Flanders the cot- 
 tages are scattered all over the country, and dot the 
 chaussee, or high-road. There is another marked 
 difference. In Flanders the country house with any 
 extent of garden or park-land attached, is quite a 
 rarity. There are still a few old manor houses left, 
 but they have only a small piece of ground round 
 them. But in Liege, Limburg, and Luxemburg it is 
 different. There are still a certain number of old 
 chateau and chalets left, and rich manufacturers from 
 the cities have built a good many new country 
 houses. All these have gardens and coverts at- 
 tached to them. Some of the old houses are singu- 
 larly picturesque and striking, such as the chateau of 
 Mirwart; and the chateau of Dave, with its forest of 
 many thousand acres, is quite imposing. The ma- 
 jority of the old country houses resemble a manor 
 house or mediaeval farm in England. They are al- 
 most uniformly built in a yellowish-brown stone, 
 which is taken from the Luxemburg quarries. They 
 have generally farm buildings attached, sometimes in 
 unpleasant proximity to the residence. These old 
 houses harmonize with the landscape, and suggest the 
 existence of a country life which might be compared 
 with that of our own land. But none of the members 
 of the petite noblesse, to which they mainly belong, 
 have much income, and consequently their mode of 
 living is conducted on lines of the strictest economy. 
 They are also very exclusive, not so much perhaps 
 
COUNTRY LIFE IN BELGIUM 201 
 
 from family pride — for the history of these families 
 is quite provincial, and the majority of their names 
 have never been heard of outside of their little circle 
 — as from the dislike to being eclipsed by the wealthy 
 newcomers from the towns. They keep to themselves 
 and their own set, giving a few dinners in the course 
 of the year to their relatives, and inviting a few of 
 their neighbors whom they regard as equals. These 
 dinners are always held at one o'clock, and the after- 
 noon is passed in testing the quality of the host's 
 Burgundy, the favorite wine of the Belgians, 
 which is nowhere found in greater perfection than in 
 the cellar of an Ardennes connoisseur. All these 
 country gentlemen call themselves sportsmen, but 
 there is very little game on which they can exercise 
 their skill, owing to the absence of any system of pre- 
 serving. Rabbits alone can be described as being 
 plentiful. It is the fashion, however, for a certain 
 number to club together and rent a chassee in one or 
 other of the forests owned by the communes. Here a 
 certain amount of game of a miscellaneous nature is 
 to be had, and during the season a subscriber may 
 hope to get as his share some venison and a little wild- 
 boar. Pheasants are only to be found on the well- 
 stocked preserves of the Count de Limburg Stirum, 
 and a few other noblemen. Teal and wild-duck still 
 abound, however, on the upper courses of the Ourthe, 
 and woodcock and snipe are also plentiful throughout 
 the Meuse Valley. During part of the season every- 
 
202 BELGIUM 
 
 body is allowed to snare these birds at their pleasure. 
 In striking contrast with these old houses, repre- 
 senting the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, are 
 the modern villa or chalet, which the manufacturer or 
 shop-keeper, having made a competence, constructs 
 as his mats on de campagne. These are always built 
 in some brick or stone of glaring colors, white, red, 
 and yellow are the favorite colors, with green 
 verandas and window frames, and gray or blue slate 
 roofs. It is, in fact, the favorite town-house trans- 
 ported bodily into the country, and to which covered 
 balconies for the purpose of enjoying the air and the 
 view have been added. They are evidence of the lik- 
 ing that the Belgians have for country life, although 
 they do not add to the beauty of the landscape. There 
 must always be something incongruous in the appear- 
 ance of a yellow match-box-like house, rising out of 
 the wooded crest of a hill, that presents in itself a 
 charming and perfect bank of verdure. At the same 
 time it must be allowed that this attraction of wealthy 
 families from the towns to the country is a benefit for 
 the inhabitants of those provinces where there has 
 never been much wealth or any rich class of residents 
 to develop them. Every favored spot in the region 
 named has its well-to-do resident from Liege or Brus- 
 sels, and as soon as one settles down others follow at 
 no long interval. The La Roche Valley, for instance, 
 is overlooked by a considerable number of these vil- 
 las, and many Liege manufacturers permanently re- 
 
COUNTRY LIFE IN BELGIUM 203 
 
 side in their country houses on the banks of the Vesdre 
 and the Ambleve. These newcomers, although they 
 evince a partiality for the country by fixing their 
 residence in it, do not take up the pursuits of the 
 country. They really live a town life in the country. 
 They do not drive much in the sense of traversing 
 distance, and they walk less. They only saunter about 
 their places, if the phrase may be used. Even garden- 
 ing, in which they take most interest, is done in a 
 languid fashion. They pass a great part of the day 
 in the open air, sitting on their balconies admiring the 
 view which they have been specially built to com- 
 mand, and which their owners see every day without 
 palling on them. In fact, they have raised the habit 
 of doing nothing in the open air to the level of a 
 science. 
 
 The houses of the Walloon peasantry are more 
 substantial and attractive-looking than those of Flan- 
 ders. They are generally built of stone, and slates are 
 easily obtainable from the numerous slate quarries; 
 while in Flanders the houses are brick covered with 
 stucco, which is generally painted, or rather washed, 
 with a yellow mixture. The ground floor usually con- 
 sists of one large room that is both sitting-room and 
 kitchen, while at the back there is a wash-house. Two 
 or three bedrooms overhead and a loft under the roof 
 usually complete the accommodation. There is often 
 a cellar and a penthouse for the storage of wood ; for 
 the collection of undergrowth in the forests is un- 
 
204 BELGIUM 
 
 restricted, and at the commencement of winter there 
 is a free distribution of firewood by the communes. 
 Poultry and the small vegetable garden supplement 
 the earnings of the householders, and during the sum- 
 mer months at least there is plenty of work going on 
 through the large influx of visitors from other parts 
 of Belgium and from foreign countries. The Wal- 
 loon is just as restricted in his diet as his Flemish co- 
 nationalist. He lives on meager fare, and flourishes 
 on it; but he does not work as hard as the Ftemings 
 do. He is more easily contented and spends a good 
 deal of his day in gossip. The Walloons of Liege 
 are, however, different from those of Luxemburg. 
 They are a bigger and a burlier race, probably because 
 they are meat-eaters, and they are the most impressive 
 type among the Belgian nationalities. 
 
 Country life in Belgium is pleasant enough during 
 the fine weather of summer and autumn, but in the 
 winter it requires all the available philosophy of those 
 who have to remain in the provinces. There is prac- 
 tically nothing to be done. Those who have to gain 
 their own living depend during the winter on what 
 they have put by in the summer. If it has been a 
 good season, they are comfortable; if visitors have 
 been few, they are pinched, and relieved when the 
 spring brings fresh hope. Those who have not the 
 care of daily existence upon their shoulders pass 
 through the winter months in a state of stagnation, 
 or overpowered at last by ennui, rush off to Brussels 
 
COUNTRY LIFE IN BELGIUM 205 
 
 or Liege. As has been said, rural Belgium is merely 
 a repetition of town life; there is no genuine country 
 life at all. A Belgian goes into the provinces to move 
 at his ease, to enjoy the open air when it is fine, and 
 to hurry back to his city as soon as the leaves are off 
 the trees, and the November mists and snow begin to 
 put in an appearance. The less fortunate country 
 gentleman, who has no town residence, has to put up 
 with things. The only excitement he will be likely to 
 have is when the wild-boar are driven by the cold to 
 leave the forest for the farms in search of food, and 
 then a great battue is organized, in which he will take 
 a leading part. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 RELIGION AND EDUCATIONAL ASPECTS 
 
 THE religious question in Belgium requires very 
 careful handling, more especially as it has be- 
 come mixed up with party politics. But it will clear 
 the ground to mention that while there is no state 
 religion in modern Belgium, there is only one religion 
 in the country and that is the Catholic, or, as we say 
 for distinction, the Roman Catholic. In a population 
 now approaching eight millions there are said to be 
 10,000 Protestants (French and English churches) 
 and 5,000 Jews. Flemings and Walloons alike are 
 Catholics. There is, of course, a difference in the 
 intensity of their faith and fervor, and, speaking 
 broadly, irreligion and free-thought are somewhat 
 marked characteristics of some classes among the Wal- 
 loons, while they must be considered as totally non- 
 existent among the Flemings. Among those practic- 
 ing a religion there is no difference between Walloons 
 and Flemings. 
 
 This being the case, it will be interesting to explain 
 how it is that there is no State religion in Belgium, 
 and that in the eyes of the law the faith of the whole 
 people counts no more than the cults of a small minor- 
 ity, chiefly aliens. 
 
 206 
 
RELIGION AND EDUCATION 207 
 
 Before the French Revolution the Church ranked 
 among the States with the nobility and the citizens. 
 When the States or National Parliament were sum- 
 moned, the dioceses sent their bishops, deans, and ab- 
 bots to the assembly. Liege and Stavelot did not send 
 to the States, but they had their own separate consti- 
 tutions based on the supremacy of the Church, and 
 more or less dependent on the Pope. The French 
 Revolution ended this system, and after the downfall 
 of the Empire it was not restored. The explanation of 
 this may be found in the fact that the creation of the 
 kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815 was based on the 
 supremacy, tacit if not expressed, of a Protestant 
 dynasty. Catholic bishops and deans could not expect 
 much consideration from the House of Orange. They 
 received even less than they expected. By Articles 
 190-6 of the Fundamental Law of 1815 all creeds alike 
 were promised protection, and there was to be perfect 
 freedom of conscience. A still ruder blow was dealt 
 by the refusal to sanction even a partial restoration 
 of the lands confiscated in 1794, for the Church found 
 itself almost stripped of its possessions, and without 
 the means of organizing the defense of what remained 
 of its ancient privileges. During the whole of the 
 Dutch regime the Church was in a languishing condi- 
 tion, and only in Ghent and Bruges did its leaders con- 
 tinue the struggle with an unfriendly Government. 
 
 Such was the position of affairs so far as the 
 Church was concerned when the Belgian revolution 
 
208 BELGIUM 
 
 broke out in August, 1830. The revolution was in a 
 certain sense the sequel of the July revolution in 
 France which dispossessed the Legitimist Bourbons 
 for the Constitutional Orleanists. It was certainly 
 brought about to a large extent by French influences 
 which at that moment were non-clerical. It was also 
 not at all clear what would be put in the place of the 
 deposed Dutch administration. For these reasons and 
 also on account of its own internal difficulties the 
 Church did not take a prominent part in the Belgian 
 insurrection, and when the National Congress was 
 summoned, the Clerical party was the least numerous 
 and influential section in the assembly. Besides, 
 French ideas as well as language prevailed. No one 
 would have the audacity to speak in Flemish, and 
 Flanders was even then the stronghold of the Church. 
 No one in Belgium would have proposed that the 
 Church lands refused in 1815 should be restored in 
 1830-31. 
 
 This situation explains how it was that in a Con- 
 gress composed of Catholics no one protested when 
 the Constitution framers recommended the separation 
 of Church and State. But the Church itself betrayed 
 unusual apathy in not making some effort to recover 
 at least part of its ancient rights and position. The 
 overthrow of the Protestant Dutch Government did 
 not entail any difference in the religious clause of the 
 fundamental law. All cults were to be free and equal 
 in the eyes of the law ; no one was to be disqualified 
 
RELIGION AND EDUCATION 209 
 
 from public office on account of his religious opinions. 
 One reservation only was made. It was stipulated 
 that the Sovereign of the country should be a Cath- 
 olic, but the condition had to be waived in the case of 
 Leopold I, who refused to change his religion. His 
 children were, however, brought up in the old faith, 
 and the clause of the Constitution stipulating that the 
 Sovereign must be a member of the Catholic Church 
 may now be regarded as possessing full and perma- 
 nent force. 
 
 Since the reign of Philip II, when the Pope first 
 created the dignity and conferred it on the celebrated 
 Cardinal Granvelle, the Archbishop of Malines has 
 been Primate of Belgium. The number of bishops 
 dependent on him has varied at different periods, but 
 since modern Belgium came into existence they have 
 been limited to five. They are Liege, Ghent, Bruges, 
 Tournai, and Namur. The last official return shows 
 that the total number of the clergy in the six dioceses 
 amounts to 190 of the rank of deans and 5,602 of the 
 inferior ranks of the hierarchy. All these ministers 
 receive a salary from the State. The Archbishop is 
 allowed $4,500 a year and each Bishop $3,000 a year. 
 
 Each diocese is divided into a certain number of 
 cures, and each cure receives $410 a year and is pro- 
 vided with a house. The vicaires, who correspond to 
 curates with us, rarely receive more than $150 a year, 
 but they reside in the cure's house. In measuring the 
 importance of these salaries it must be remembered 
 
210 BELGIUM 
 
 that the clergy are all celibates. Besides in each 
 church or chapel there are special collecting boxes for 
 the support of the clergy, and a part of the general 
 offertories goes to the up-keep of the Church, which 
 necessarily includes the sustenance of its clergy. The 
 regular clergy are consequently far more comfortable 
 and well cared for than the small official salary would 
 seem to convey. All receipts go into a common fund, 
 and it is breaking no secret to say that they live very 
 well. Good food and plenty of it is still an ideal of 
 Belgian life, and the priests are no exception to the 
 rule. They are also very hospitable, and when they 
 detain a friend to dinner, a bottle of Burgundy will 
 not fail to be forthcoming. In the provinces the house 
 of the cure has always a vegetable garden, and gen- 
 erally a wall for fruit, and for the favored guest 
 there will follow a choice dessert as well. 
 
 Besides the regular clergy there are the various 
 religious orders which have always been prominent 
 and prosperous in Belgium. Before the French Revo- 
 lution it was computed that they owned half the land 
 in Belgium, and it is still the practice of the Socialists 
 to denounce them, because by the mere fact that they 
 are better organized than ordinary individuals their 
 wealth accumulates, and their possessions by growth 
 attract more notice. 
 
 The following statistics show their exact strength 
 and position in the country. In the year 1900 (the 
 latest for which these statistics were published) there 
 
RELIGION AND EDUCATION 211 
 
 were 2,474 separate religious houses in the country. 
 These were divided into 291 for men and 2,183 for 
 women. They were inhabited by 6,237 priests or 
 brothers, and 31,668 nuns and sisters. Of the former 
 4,597 were born in Belgium and of the latter 26,368. 
 It follows that 1,690 men and 5,300 women of the 
 total conventional population of Belgium were for- 
 eigners. 
 
 The greater number of these orders are devoted 
 to practical objects. There are 389 houses devoted 
 to the care of the sick, 1,248 to education, and only 
 178 to an exclusively religious ministration; 47 com- 
 bine nursing and religious contemplation, and 263 
 teaching and religious contemplation. Over 17,000 
 nuns and sisters are engaged in some form or other 
 of female instruction. Most of the nursing in Bel- 
 gium is done by the religious orders, and some of 
 them have taken up the profession in full conformity 
 with the rules and requirements of modern science. 
 This is especially the case in the large cities. 
 
 In 1907 the Government grant to the Catholic 
 clergy amounted to $1,250,000 for the year, and a 
 further sum of $180,000 was allocated for Church 
 buildings. Other expenses figured at $10,000. The 
 reader will be able to form an opinion for himself as 
 to the relative position of the several creeds in Bel- 
 gium when it is stated that the grants to Protestants 
 and Jews together amounted to no more than $29,400. 
 It is impossible to give any idea of the total value of 
 
212 BELGIUM 
 
 the Church possessions in Belgium, but perhaps $250,- 
 000,000 is not an overstatement. 
 
 Although the Church of Rome then is not the 
 State Church in Belgium, it possesses an unquestioned 
 predominance that no one could dispute. When mod- 
 ern Belgium was formed, it happened to be in a lan- 
 guishing and embarrassed condition. For many years 
 it possessed no efficient organization and the spoils 
 of power remained with the party which was anti- 
 Catholic. But fifty years ago the Catholics decided 
 to make their influence felt, and they, too, began to 
 organize as their opponents had been doing for thirty 
 years before in the press and among the public. This 
 they did with such consummate skill that they ousted 
 the Liberals from office in 1884, and they have re- 
 tained the administrative power ever since. The hold 
 which they have established on the mass of the peo- 
 ple is not altogether due to cleverness and skill. It 
 has been effected and strengthened by the great serv- 
 ices the clergy have rendered and are rendering to the 
 people of Belgium. It is impossible to ignore the fact 
 that they do their best to assist their congregations 
 in every way, and the credit of all the best work in 
 Belgium for the relief of the poor and the suffering 
 must go to them. The so-called Liberal organization 
 is purely political. It is not marked by any beneficent 
 work, it aims wholly at the placing of a particular 
 party in power. 
 
 It would be impossible to give even a skeleton of a 
 
RELIGION AND EDUCATION 213 
 
 list of the Catholic institutions in Belgium which are 
 engaged in beneficent work. But the Benedictine 
 Abbey of Maredsous combines the utilitarian and the 
 aesthetic in such a superb degree that it may be chosen 
 as an example. Over Belgium are strewn the remains 
 of ancient and mediaeval abbeys that were the pride of 
 Christian Europe. Orval and Villers in their way have 
 never been surpassed. Maredsous is not the legacy 
 of the past. It is a recreation of the Middle Ages, 
 dating no farther back in its origin than 1782, but 
 here the early builders of the Church might find cause 
 of envy. The admirer of pointed Gothic might find 
 it difficult to choose between the modern abbey of 
 Maredsous (in Entre Sambre and Meuse) and any 
 of its prototypes. Here, thanks in the first place to 
 the philanthropy of a rich Belgian of Tournai, the 
 Benedictine order of Beuron in Suabia (a noble or- 
 der) established itself and has flourished marvelously. 
 The Benedictines are the intellectual propagandists 
 of their Church. They claim the best teachers in Bel- 
 gium. They are ready to take up any work that may 
 be imposed upon them. But at Maredsous they have 
 a special and beautiful mission. Nowhere else are 
 pupils trained to such perfection in the pure Gregorian 
 chant. To hear Salve Regina chanted among the 
 aisles of the abbey of Maredsous is a treat for the 
 senses not to be enjoyed out of St. Peter's at Rome. 
 The Abbey of Maredsous is a magnificent modern 
 achievement, and the contrast may be found close at 
 
214 BELGIUM 
 
 hand in the ruins of Montaigle. It is true that it is 
 somewhat remote, lying on the branch line from 
 Tamines to Dinant, but the trouble of getting there 
 will be amply rewarded. The Benedictine brothers 
 are very hospitable to those who have any claim to 
 expect it, and for those who have not there is an ex- 
 cellent hotel at Emmaus, almost at the gates of the 
 abbey's domain. 
 
 The system of education in force in Belgium is 
 simple, comprehensive, and free. No one has to pay 
 for the education of his children if he cannot afford 
 to do so. The instruction given by the State includes 
 practical as well as theoretical subjects. For instance, 
 girls are taught to cook and sew, and youths are in- 
 culcated in the rudiments of agriculture or some in- 
 dustrial pursuit. At the universities degrees can be 
 taken in the several schools at fees that bring them 
 within the most moderate means. 
 
 State education is divided into three categories — 
 primary, secondary, and superior. Primary education 
 is based on the fundamental law of 1842 which made 
 education compulsory and free, but left religious in- 
 struction in the hands of the different churches — that 
 is to say, for nine-tenths of the population the Church 
 of Rome. The law required each commune to main- 
 tain at least one free school. The old law was modi- 
 fied in 1879 (abrogated), and again in 1884, 1895, and 
 1910; but the effect of these subsequent enactments 
 has not been to modify the essential provisions of the 
 
RELIGION AND EDUCATION 215 
 
 original law, That of 1910 is the most radical, for it 
 will possibly lead to the substitution of Flemish for 
 French as the vernacular language in many of the 
 schools of Brabant and Hainaut. In the year 1908 
 there were 914,709 pupils in primary schools subject 
 to State inspection, and of these only 50,861 paid any 
 fees. There were in the year named 7,355 schools 
 divided between 4,629 communal and 2,726 "adopted" 
 schools. The adopted schools are those recognized 
 as existing at the time of the passing of the law of 
 1842. They are chiefly Church schools, and with re- 
 gard to female education they are more numerous 
 than those belonging to the commune. The total cost 
 of these schools in 1907 is given at about $10,600,- 
 000, of which the State provided nearly 21, the 
 commune nearly 27, the provinces 2^2, and parents 
 1^4, all in million francs, the balances coming from 
 minor sources. The total number of teachers in the 
 year 1908 was 19,707. These may be subdivided into 
 8,313 male lay teachers, and 795 priests, and 5,113 
 female lay teachers, and 5,486 sisters of the different 
 religious orders. This, in its way, furnishes proof 
 that the Church has a closer hold on female than male 
 education. 
 
 Primary education is not confined to children. 
 There are primary schools for adults whose educa- 
 tion has been neglected or never commenced. In 
 1908, which showed an enormous increase in the 
 system as compared with previous years, there were 
 
216 BELGIUM 
 
 4,473 of those schools with a total attendance of 
 227,220. The communal schools had 71,433 males 
 and 14,159 females inscribed on their lists, while the 
 totals for the adopted schools were 53,673 males and 
 87,955 females. The grand total of persons receiving 
 primary education is over 1,142,000. 
 
 According to the law primary education is sup- 
 posed to continue till the age of fourteen, but as a mat- 
 ter of fact it ceases at twelve unless it is intended that 
 the pupil shall pass into a secondary school. These, 
 of course, are a comparative minority and consist 
 chiefly of candidates for Government posts. 
 
 Secondary education is divided into two grades, 
 preparatory and superior. Of preparatory schools 
 there are over 78 State, 6 communal, and 5 under 
 priests' patronage for boys, and 34 State and 10 com- 
 munal for girls. In 1909 the numbers of pupils at the 
 former, taken in their order, were 15,375, 2,662, and 
 623 ; and for girls 6,207 and 2,665 respectively. 
 
 The superior grade schools are 20 Royal Athenae- 
 ums, 7 Communal Colleges, and 8 Colleges under pri- 
 vate patronage. In 1909 the Athenaeums had 6,047 
 pupils, the Communal Colleges 724, and the patronized 
 1,133. The Athenees, or Athenaeums, which are called 
 Royal, because they are under the direct patronage of 
 the King, are the nearest approach to the British 
 Grammar School. Classics and mathematics form part 
 of the regular curriculum, and it is assumed that most 
 of the scholars will proceed to one of the Universities. 
 
RELIGION AND EDUCATION 217 
 
 The majority of the pupils are non-resident, but the 
 masters are allowed to take in boarders. The twenty 
 Athenees are situated at Antwerp, Malines, Brussels, 
 Ixelles, Louvain, Bruges, Ostend, Ghent, Ath, Char- 
 leroy, Chimay, Mons, Tournai, Huy, Liege, Verviers, 
 Hasselt, Tongres, Arlon, and Namur. 
 
 In 1907 the State contributed $862,229.40, and 
 the communes $434,289.80 towards secondary educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Superior or High education in Belgium is given 
 at the four Universities: Ghent, Liege, Brussels, and 
 Louvain, the two first named being State, and the 
 latter Free Universities. Special Schools are attached 
 to the Universities, but these are more important at 
 the State Universities than the others. The follow- 
 ing are the number of the students in 1908-09, dis- 
 tinguishing between the regular faculties and the 
 Special Schools: 
 
 Name of University Faculties Schools Total 
 
 Ghent 443 640 1,083 
 
 Liege 1,670 970 2,640 
 
 Brussels 845 369 1,214 
 
 Louvain 2,075 250 2,325 
 
 Grand Totals 5,033 2,229 7,262 
 
 It may be mentioned that at Ghent the principal 
 special course is for Civil Engineering, at Liege for 
 Mining and Electrical Engineering, at Brussels for 
 social and political science, and at Louvain for The- 
 ology and Agricultural Science. 
 
 Notwithstanding the excellence of its laws on pub- 
 
218 BELGIUM 
 
 lie instruction, there is more illiteracy in Belgium than 
 would be expected. Some writers have placed it as 
 high as 30 per cent, but although that is excessive, it 
 is not easy to say what is the correct proportion. It 
 is easier to explain the cause of it. The teachers in 
 the primary schools do not possess sufficient qualifica- 
 tions for their mission, and what is learnt before 
 twelve is very easily forgotten when no subsequent 
 occasion to turn it to account or stimulus to fresh 
 exertions presents itself. 
 
 Teachers in the Primary Schools are selected from 
 those who pass through the Secondary Schools, and 
 the selection is made by the Communes. There were 
 in 1908 nineteen normal male and thirty-five normal 
 female establishments, at which there were 2,180 and 
 2,575 persons of the two sexes in training respectively, 
 as teachers in the Primary Schools. Of these 470 and 
 563 received the necessary diploma of efficiency in the 
 year named, but the supply far exceeds the demand. 
 
 The pay of the school teacher is, according to our 
 ideas, very low. The law stipulates that it shall never 
 be less than $200 per annum, and leaves everything 
 else in the hands of the commune. The headmaster 
 of a school receives from $240 a year in a small, to 
 $480 a year in a large commune. He also has an 
 allowance for a house ranging from $40 to $160 per 
 annum. Finally, an annual increment at the rate of 
 $5 per annum is allowed for a period of twenty-four 
 years. 
 
RELIGION AND EDUCATION 219 
 
 Although the State does not take an active part 
 in the management of the schools, it exercises a cer- 
 tain control over them by inspection. Subject to the 
 Ministry of the Interior and Education, are District 
 Inspectors who are supposed to visit every school in 
 their district twice a year, and to preside at a meeting 
 of all the teaching staff once a quarter. These officials 
 receive a salary of from $600 to $900 a year. Above 
 these are nine chief Inspectors, one for each Province, 
 at a salary of $1,500 per annum. They are supposed 
 to visit every school once in two years, and they report 
 direct to the Minister in Brussels. 
 
 A few words may be said in conclusion about a 
 certain number of special educational institutions 
 which do not come under the regular routine of the 
 educational laws. These exist for technical training 
 purposes. 
 
 There are sixty-eight commercial schools run by 
 different communes with an attendance (in 1908) of 
 4,950; 183 free schools with an attendance of 19,004. 
 There are eighty-one industrial schools subject to the 
 communes with an attendance of 23,418, and eight 
 free, attended by 1,686 students. Special schools of 
 a higher grade are to be found at Antwerp, Liege, 
 Mons, and Ghent. Among them may be named the 
 Superior Commercial Institute and the St. Ignatius 
 Institute, both at Antwerp, the High Commercial 
 Schools at Liege and Louvain, both intended for 
 training consular agents, the Manufacturers' School 
 
220 BELGIUM 
 
 at Mons, and different technical schools of minor 
 importance at Ghent (brewing and distilling), Ver- 
 viers (textiles), and Virton (arts and trades). There 
 are also seventy-nine schools for special training in 
 household work and duties with an inscribed list of 
 2,865 attending. In addition to the schools there are 
 195 special household classes with an attendance of 
 6,947 attached to different elementary schools. 
 
 There are two special schools for military educa- 
 tion. They are the Ecole Militaire in Brussels, and 
 the School of Cadets at Namur. The former is far 
 the more important, and the scholars number on an 
 average 240. Formerly it was located in the old 
 Abbey of the Cambre near the Bois of that name, but 
 the position was unhealthy, and a fine new school near 
 the Pare du Cinquantenaire and the Avenue de Ter- 
 vueren now accommodates the scholars, who wear a 
 military uniform. On State occasions the Ecole 
 Militaire take the lead of all the troops present. 
 
 The Cadets School at Namur dates only from 1897, 
 and there were, in 1908-09, 108 civil and eighty-three 
 military cadets on its list. The military cadets supply 
 the army with non-commissioned officers, and the 
 civil cadets are supposed to be intended for some 
 branch of the public service. 
 
 In the same way, it does not follow that all the 
 cadets at the Ecole Militaire enter the army. The 
 educational course there being highly esteemed, many 
 parents decide to send their sons to this school in 
 
RELIGION AND EDUCATION 221 
 
 preference to an Athenee, the tone of the place being 
 higher. But the best of all the schools in Belgium is 
 that kept by the Jesuit order in Brussels, near the 
 Palais de Justice. Only Catholics of good family are 
 received, and the order aims at turning out gentlemen 
 as well as scholars. In the same way, the highest 
 class schools for young ladies are those attached to 
 Convents. One of the most famous of these is at 
 St. Hubert. 
 
 Special schools exist for educating the blind and 
 deaf mutes. In 1908 there were in the kingdom 
 3,218 of the former and 4,036 of the latter, and with 
 comparatively few exceptions they are returned as 
 susceptible of receiving instruction. Of these 1,145 
 males and 972 females were receiving primary educa- 
 tion in nineteen schools endowed by the State. 
 Finally, there are three training-schools for the mer- 
 cantile marine. They are at Ostend, Antwerp, and 
 Nieuport with 160, ninety- five, and eight pupils re- 
 spectively in 1908. A training-ship has also been 
 commissioned, but its cruises are somewhat rare, and 
 since the mishap to the training-ship Smet de Naeyer, 
 named after a recent Premier, there has been a lull 
 in the effort to endow Belgium with the cadre for a 
 navy. 
 
 Free public or popular libraries exist in many of 
 the communes. There are 913 libraries in the 2,629 
 communes. There were nearly 3,322,644 readers, and 
 1,535,523 volumes were borrowed. These figures do 
 
222 BELGIUM 
 
 not include the returns of the Brussels Library, which 
 corresponds to our British Museum. In 1908, 40,997 
 persons used the reading-room, these showing an 
 average daily attendance of 137. In addition 1,245 
 students attended the MSS. room, and 8,956 persons 
 made use of the room set aside for periodicals. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 
 
 1^ HE laws of Belgium are contained in a collection 
 called the "Codes Beiges." They are a sort of 
 grafting of the old laws of the Nine Provinces on the 
 Code Napoleon which was effected under the charge 
 of a special commission, appointed after the establish- 
 ment of national rule. The commission completed its 
 labors in the year 1835, when the Codes were pub- 
 lished. Of course, many new laws have been added 
 since, but the principles laid down in the first statute- 
 book have never been departed from. For instance, 
 capital punishment remains on the statute, and mur- 
 derers are still sentenced to death in Belgian courts, 
 although no one has been executed for over half a 
 century. 
 
 We are rather given to say in this country that 
 everything is decided by precedent, but in Belgium 
 the adherence to rule is even more strict. The high- 
 est of all the Courts in Belgium, that is the Cour de 
 Cassation, has indeed no other role than to supervise 
 judgments, and see how far they conform with the 
 principles and penalties laid down in the Code. Only 
 when a Minister of State has to be tried is the Cour 
 de Cassation used as a Court of open trial. This 
 
 223 
 
224 BELGIUM 
 
 Court consists of only one judge, who has under him 
 a body of revisors, and the President of the Court 
 enjoys the position of being the best-paid judge in 
 Belgium, with a salary of $4,000 per annum. The 
 salaries of the judges is evidence of the low scale on 
 which salaries run in Belgium. A Judge of Appeal 
 gets $2,000 a year. A Juge de Paix, of whom there 
 are 222 in the country, receives from $800 to $1,100 
 per annum. 
 
 For civil justice there are three Appeal Courts or 
 groups of courts in the country. They are at Brus- 
 sels, Ghent, and Liege respectively, and dependent on 
 these are the Juge de Paix courts, each of which marks 
 a canton. Reporting to the Brussels Courts are eighty- 
 three cantons, to Ghent sixty-five, and to Liege sev- 
 enty-four. Immediately under the three Appeal 
 Courts are the Courts of First Instance, in which all 
 civil cases are heard before they can be carried to the 
 Appeal Courts. Statistics show that about one case in 
 eight reaches the Appeal Court. These Courts of 
 First Instance are to be found in all the towns of 
 importance and number twenty-six for the whole 
 kingdom. They are supplemented by tribunals of 
 commerce in Antwerp, Ghent, and Liege. In 1908 
 there were 517 commercial failures and 390 distraints 
 of goods. 
 
 In the last-mentioned cases the object of the Juge 
 de Paix is to arrange the matter to the satisfaction of 
 everybody, and this explains why 80 per cent of the 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 225 
 
 cases are settled without a formal judgment being 
 given. Criminal cases are tried before three orders 
 of courts — Assize, Correctional, and Police Courts. 
 
 Here again the same desire to inflict moderate 
 penalties and thus to prevent bad blood between the 
 accusers, the accused, and their relations may be dis- 
 covered in the large number of fines imposed, which 
 in the police courts rarely exceed one dollar. There 
 has been a marked diminution in the amount of crime 
 in Belgium. Sixty years ago the average number of 
 persons sentenced to death was forty in each year, 
 and they were executed into the bargain. Today the 
 extreme cases average five a year, but it must be re- 
 membered that commutation in these instances does 
 not mean to ordinary imprisonment for life, but to 
 perpetual seclusion and silence. 
 
 There are two classes of prisons, distinguished as 
 central and secondary. In the former, the principal 
 of which are at Louvain and Ghent, the number of 
 prisoners of both sexes undergoing a term of im- 
 prisonment at the end of 1908 was 734. It is not at 
 all easy to analyze the returns of the secondary 
 prisons through which the great majority pass in and 
 out every few days. The average population on any 
 day in 1908 is given at 3,797 men and 378 women. 
 About 140 boys and girls were detained in reforma- 
 tories, and there are agricultural colonies for those 
 who are deemed reclaimable. The most noteworthy 
 of these establishments is at Merxplas in the north 
 
226 BELGIUM 
 
 of Belgium, where the detained, some 2,000 in num- 
 ber, are allowed their liberty within a certain area. 
 
 There are two institutions in Belgium of a quasi- 
 judicial character that claim mention. They are the 
 "Depots de Mendicite" and the "Maisons de Refuge." 
 The distinction is one well worth imitating in this 
 country. The "Maisons de Refuge" are shelters pro- 
 vided for the really deserving poor and "out of work," 
 who through no fault of their own have no home to 
 sleep in, and are in danger of starvation. There is no 
 legal disadvantage or penalty in the eyes of the law 
 in having been the inmate of a "Maison de Refuge." 
 It is for "the wrecks of the high road" and those who 
 have gone under in the battle of life. 
 
 It is otherwise with the "Depots de Mendicite," 
 which are the receptacles for the professional and 
 worthless beggar, the man who has made his liveli- 
 hood out of begging. The official definition of those 
 consigned to a depot is "able-bodied individuals who 
 instead of working for their sustenance seek the aid 
 of the charitable as professional beggars, or those who 
 through laziness, drunkenness, and debauchery live in 
 a condition of vagabondage." Felons sentenced to less 
 than a year's imprisonment may on release from prison 
 be consigned to a depot. In plain English the Belgian 
 law differentiates clearly between those in need and 
 those who beg through laziness and aversion to work. 
 The average daily population of the depots was 5,421 
 in 1908, and of the Maisons de Refuge 1,279. The 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE , 227 
 
 student who wishes to compare the social condition 
 of different countries may profitably study the returns 
 of our workhouse population in contrast with these 
 figures. 
 
 The judges are chosen from the members of the 
 bar, who are called "avocats" or barristers. They are 
 appointed by the King, are practically irremovable, 
 but in cases of misconduct or mental incapacity can 
 be deprived of their office by the unanimous vote of 
 their brother judges. Such a case does not appear to 
 have arisen. 
 
 Barristers are recruited from students who have 
 taken the degree of Doctor of Laws at one of the 
 universities, and who then notify their intention to 
 plead in the courts. The fees for admission to the 
 bar are little more than nominal. Barristers do not 
 work in the Juge de Paix Courts. Their principal 
 practice is in the Appeal Courts and the Tribunaux 
 de Commerce. On the criminal side they appear in 
 the Assize and Correctional Courts alone. The fees 
 are small, but the leaders in the Appeal Courts receive 
 payments approximating to our own scale. One of the 
 best-paid posts open to the bar is that of Procureur 
 du Roi, that is, Crown Prosecutor, and as the work 
 is heavy and the holder of the substantial appointment 
 may be otherwise engaged, he has the right to name a 
 substitute among his brother barristers. To simplify 
 the transaction of business a list is kept at each court 
 of barristers eligible to act as Procureurs du Roi. 
 
228 BELGIUM 
 
 Although a barrister may be instructed by his 
 client direct, and it is usual to do so, there are also 
 solicitors in Belgium. They are called avoues. They 
 must have taken a degree in law at one of the uni- 
 versities, and obtained a diploma authorizing them to 
 practice their profession. It is not very easy to under- 
 stand how the avoue obtains a sufficiency of work, 
 seeing that the most profitable functions of the pro- 
 fession are discharged by the "notaire." This may 
 explain why there are so few avoues and these only 
 in the most important cities. 
 
 But the notaire is everywhere. He is the indis- 
 pensable man of business, through whom every one 
 in Belgium possessing any property at all transacts 
 his or her affairs. His public duties consist exclu- 
 sively of receiving and confirming affidavits. To that 
 extent he is a Commissioner of Oaths; the civil mar- 
 riage is also performed in his presence at the Hotel 
 de Ville, or the Maison Communale. But the bulk 
 of his work is done as agent or representative for his 
 clients, and it is very profitable work, the general 
 opinion being that a notaire ought to make a fair 
 retiring fortune in twenty years. Many decayed es- 
 tates among the provincial noblesse have been restored 
 by marriage with the daughter of a notaire. 
 
 The notaire is also the man of business. All sales 
 and purchases of estates and house property are ef- 
 fected through him. He generally keeps the family 
 deeds and securities, and as branches of banks are very 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 229 
 
 rare in Belgium, he is to a large extent the local 
 banker, always it must be understood for his clients 
 alone and not for the public at large. While the 
 notaire discharges certain legal business, he is not a 
 man of the law, and holds no legal degree or other 
 qualification. He is a man of business and finance. 
 It is not easy to ascertain the exact number of notaires, 
 but there is at least one for each canton, and in great 
 cities there are, of course, as many as think they can 
 find a living. As a rule, a Belgian will only go to 
 law after he has first consulted his notaire on the 
 subject at issue. The notaires as a body are highly 
 honorable men, but sometimes the handling of their 
 clients' money induces them to speculate on the bourse, 
 and when they come to grief there is almost as much 
 suffering as arises from the failure of a savings bank 
 here. 
 
 The machinery of the law in Belgium for civil 
 actions is simple and far from costly to put in motion. 
 The number of cases entered also proves that the peo- 
 ple are by no means averse to litigation, and for some 
 time past complaints have been rife as to the law's 
 delay. The large number of cases not reached at the 
 end of each year is proof that the courts are over- 
 worked. This result is tending to diminish the eager- 
 ness formerly shown in going to law, and much of the 
 work that now falls on avocats and avoues is done in 
 attempting to arrive at settlements out of court. The 
 only court which shows an increasing amount of busi- 
 
230 BELGIUM 
 
 ness is the divorce court. In Belgium, civil marriage 
 being the legal one, the courts can dissolve the mar- 
 riage tie without the intervention of the Church. 
 
 On the criminal side of justice the tendency is to 
 minimize rather than exaggerate the gravity of an 
 offense. This remark does not apply to the old of- 
 fender, and it may even be held that he does not get 
 much consideration. To have offended once against 
 the law is regarded almost as proof positive of guilt 
 in regard to any fresh charge. In Belgium every 
 citizen is on the register of the Etat Civil at the Hotel 
 de Ville of a city, or the Maison Communale of a 
 commune. In addition to this registration all persons 
 employed in domestic service or in shops and restau- 
 rants are supplied by the police with a little book 
 called indifferently "livret" or "carnet," in which not 
 merely their names and family history are given, but 
 also all changes of employment. These books have to 
 be shown at the postoffice with each change of place, 
 and as the last employer inscribes the reason for leav- 
 ing, there is a complete history of the individual's 
 life with information as to his or her character. In 
 any dispute or trouble with an employee, the very 
 first question the police agent asks is, "Give me your 
 livret." The servant has a bad time and will be cer- 
 tainly fined if neglect has been shown in keeping up 
 the record. 
 
 The agents de police, who are only to be found in 
 the great cities, are an admirable body of men, and if 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 231 
 
 we omit the qualification of regulating street traffic, in 
 which they have no experience, need not fear com- 
 parison with any other civil force in the world. They 
 carry a small sword in a leather sheath, but it is very 
 rarely drawn, practically speaking never in the day- 
 time save on the occasion of Socialist disorders. At 
 night they also carry a revolver, but except in no- 
 toriously bad quarters, like the rue Haute in Brussels, 
 armed collisions rarely occur. As all foreigners have 
 to notify their presence in Belgium through their 
 landlords to the police, it naturally follows that crimi- 
 nals from other countries try to evade this regulation, 
 and resort to possible devices for the purpose. 
 
 The police have an ingenious way of running down 
 these evaders of the law. The agents report from 
 their several beats that they have noticed some sus- 
 picious-looking persons about whom they did not 
 know by sight. Note is made of the fact at the cen- 
 tral bureau, and about the same time information 
 comes, generally from Paris or Lille, that some noto- 
 rious criminals have disappeared from those places. 
 Thereupon the Brussels police organize a night hunt 
 (it is called a "rafle" or "sweeping off') and in the 
 small hours of the morning they descend upon the 
 drinking and sleeping places favored by the thieving 
 fraternity, and arrest all those whose papers are not 
 in order, or who, in the case of foreigners, have not a 
 "permis de sejour." In this way many criminals are 
 traced who were not known to be in the country. 
 
232 BELGIUM 
 
 The agent de police is just as popular with all law- 
 abiding citizens in Belgium as the police are with us, 
 and this is the best proof that he does not abuse his 
 authority. He never thinks of interfering with the 
 respectable citizen whom he seems to appraise intui- 
 tively, but he has the eyes of a lynx for a member of 
 the criminal classes. I have seen instances of this in 
 the park at Brussels, where a great crowd assembles 
 in summer afternoons to hear the music. Hundreds 
 of people will be seated on the chairs under the shade 
 of the trees behind which on a raised terrace is the 
 bandstand. A solitary agent walks up the gravel path 
 at a fair pace. One would imagine his thoughts were 
 with his family and not his work, when suddenly he 
 slackens his pace, looks fixedly at one of the seats, 
 and just raises his little finger. A woman gets up 
 shamefacedly and walks out of the park. She is a 
 well-known pickpocket, let us say, but perhaps no one 
 else has seen the occurrence. The Brussels "agent" 
 has a fine "flair" for his professional duty, and is very 
 much to be admired in his simple uniform of black 
 broadcloth and smart kepi. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 
 IN proportion to the size of her territory and the 
 number of her people the commercial activity of 
 Belgium can only be described as immense. But it is 
 sometimes classed greater than it really is, owing to 
 the statistics on the subject requiring explanation. 
 Belgium, owing to its geographical position, forms 
 part of the transport route for goods to and from 
 other countries. The transit charges benefit Belgian 
 railways, but the articles conveyed have nothing to 
 do with either the national resources or the commer- 
 cial activity of Belgium. 
 
 In 1908 Belgium's own exports amounted to about 
 $565,400,000, and her imports to $501,280,000. 
 
 These figures represent the true state of Belgian 
 commerce, but in addition it may be stated that the 
 transit trade amounted to $404,207,000. The three 
 largest contributants to the transit trade in their order 
 of importance were Germany, France, and England. 
 
 Returning now to the country's own proper trade, 
 we find that in the matter of imports France comes 
 first, Germany second, and England third, whereas in 
 exports Germany takes the first place, and France 
 only the second. In imports the United States, Ar- 
 
 233 
 
234 BELGIUM 
 
 gentina, and Holland occupy the next places, the first 
 named being not much below this country. In ex- 
 ports Holland stands fourth, and all the other coun- 
 tries have only low places. 
 
 The principal articles of Belgian trade in respect 
 of exports, confining the list to those reaching a total 
 value of not less than five million dollars in the year 
 1908, are the following: 
 
 (1 
 
 (2 
 
 (3 
 
 (4 
 
 (5 
 
 (6 
 
 (7 
 
 (8 
 
 (9 
 
 (10 
 
 (11 
 
 (12 
 
 (13 
 
 (14 
 
 (15 
 
 (16 
 
 (17 
 
 (18 
 
 (19 
 
 Foods of all kinds, Vegetables included $53,009,400 
 
 Iron and Steel, manufactured 29,461,000 
 
 Other Metals 30,698,800 
 
 Leather and Hides 24,651,200 
 
 Cotton, Linen, etc 27,468,000 
 
 Engines and Machines 38,713,400 
 
 Minerals (unwrought) 16,238,800 
 
 Raw material (textiles) 38,630,000 
 
 Raw material (animal) 12,636,400 
 
 Rubber, raw and manufactured 11,047,000 
 
 Arms 5,220,600 
 
 Horses (26,012 in number) 5,948,200 
 
 Paper 6,467,000 
 
 Stone 8,127,200 
 
 Chemicals 11,532,200 
 
 Resin and bitumen 9,722,800 
 
 Tissues 18,197,000 
 
 Glassware 13,779,000 
 
 Dyes and Colors 7,372,500 
 
 The exports of coal and coke from Belgium are 
 balanced by a slightly larger import. The exact fig- 
 ures being: 
 
 Exported 
 
 Coal, 4,754,000 tons Value $16,260,000 
 
 Coke, 917,000 tons " 4,476,200 
 
 Imported 
 
 Coal (including briquettes), 5,589,209 tons, Value $19,169,600 
 Coke, 287,037 " " 1,400,800 
 
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 235 
 
 The receipts from customs are shown in the fol- 
 lowing table: 
 
 Year 1850 1860 1870 1880 
 
 $2,220,800 $3,152,200 $5,712,200 $5,121,600 
 1890 1900 1908 
 
 $6,353,200 $10,236,400 $11,465,400 
 Up to 1886 the receipts were on a free trade tariff ; 
 
 after that year protection became the State policy. 
 Wine pays no import duty since 1887. On the other 
 hand, it is subject to a heavy excise, part of which 
 is attributed to the communal revenue. In 1908 the 
 excise brought in a total sum of $22,828,400, of 
 which amount $6,135,800 was handed over to the 
 communes, leaving $16,692,600 for the State. The 
 State, therefore, derives nearly six millions sterling 
 from customs and excise, and in addition there is 
 about $6,000,000 for local expenditure from excise. 
 The following table shows the principal occupa- 
 tions, omitting agriculture, mines, and metal factories 
 already treated of in other chapters, of the popula- 
 tion in 1896 which gives the latest classified returns: 
 
 Textiles 169,778 persons 
 
 Clothing 137,966 
 
 Building 93,577 
 
 Food 90,443 
 
 Wood, Furniture, etc 88,457 " 
 
 Hides and Leather 57,702 
 
 Conveyance 41,873 " 
 
 Specialized industries 24,435 " 
 
 Glass 22,797 
 
 Chemicals 20,715 
 
 Book trade 14,049 
 
 Tobacco 12,034 " 
 
 Paper 9,448 
 
 China Ware 28,977 
 
236 BELGIUM 
 
 The hours of labor at these industries range from 
 
 eight to twelve hours a day. The following table 
 
 dealing with a total of 504,304 (410,279 men and 
 
 94,025 women) shows — 
 
 Number 
 Working 8 hours per day 19,138 
 
 8 to 9 " 34,741 
 
 9 to 10 " 172,012 
 
 10 to 10y 2 " 77,854 
 
 10J4 to 11 " 88,166 
 
 11 to 11J4 " 70,898 
 
 11J4 to 12 " 30,951 
 
 12 " 10,544 
 
 Total 504,304 
 
 The bulk of the industrial population work, therefore, 
 between nine and twelve hours a day. 
 
 Joint-stock Companies in Belgium are regulated 
 by the law of May 18, 1873, which was modified and 
 amplified by that of May 22, 1886. In 1908 there were 
 1,365 such companies, and in 1909 the total had in- 
 creased to 1,500. They are classified in the follow- 
 ing list, but the amount of capital invested in them 
 is not stated: 
 
 Assurances 28 
 
 Banks and Finance 87 
 
 Commercial 499 
 
 Industrial 653 
 
 Telephone and Electric 24 
 
 Shipping 13 
 
 Light Railways 1 
 
 Tramways 3 
 
 Transport 24 
 
 Public Works 66 
 
 Unspecified 102 
 
 1,500 
 
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 237 
 
 The industrial population has a higher proportion 
 to the rest in Hainaut than in any of the nine prov- 
 inces, and stands lowest in Luxemburg and Limburg. 
 The totals in each province and the ratio to the whole 
 of the industrial class are as follows — those engaged 
 in the mines and factories being included : 
 
 Hainaut 269,300 or 23.83 per cent 
 
 Liege 190,000 or 16.81 
 
 Brabant 185,200 or 16.39 
 
 East Flanders 171,000 or 15.13 
 
 West Flanders 109,500 or 9.69 
 
 Antwerp 109,200 or 9.66 
 
 Namur 55,800 or 4.94 
 
 Luxemburg 20,400 or 1 .82 
 
 Limburg 19,600 or 1.73 
 
 Totals 1,130,000 or 100 per cent 
 
 The ^reat commercial activity of Belgium is shown 
 by the heavy work performed by the special courts- - 
 Tribunaux de Commerce — dealing with such matters. 
 In 1907-08, the last judicial year dealt with, 59,588 
 cases were entered for trial. Of these, 31,054 were 
 decided by the Courts, 10,981 were struck out, aban- 
 doned or arranged, and 17,753 were not reached. 
 
 There remains to give some particulars of Bel- 
 gium's national debt. The first loan was raised in 
 1832 at 5 per cent, and since 1840 it has increased 
 from $51,166,224 to $687,383,570. In addition to 
 this consolidated debt the State issues as occasion re- 
 quires Treasury Bonds. This floating debt amounted 
 in 1908 to $33,902,000. With the exception of one 
 old loan, bearing only 2^ per cent interest, the debt 
 is at the uniform rate of 3 per cent. The total in- 
 
238 BELGIUM 
 
 debtedness of Belgium in 1908, therefore, was $721,' 
 285,570. This would have seemed an incredible bur- 
 den to the Belgians of 1830 or even 1860. The serv- 
 ice of the debt, interest and sinking fund, required 
 $33,376,660 in 1907. The main asset against the debt 
 apart from the interests of the State is the railways, 
 which showed a profit to the Government of forty 
 million francs or $8,000,000 in 1907. The price of 
 Belgian Consols in 1908 ranged from 92.25 to 96 per 
 cent, averaging 94. The 2^ per cent averaged 80.20. 
 Before the Socialist troubles in 1892 Belgian Consols 
 averaged 101 or 102. 
 
 In addition to the State debt there is that of the 
 Provinces and Communes. In 1908 this amounted to 
 an existing total of $7,361,544, but between 1830 and 
 1880 the Communes had borrowed $116,282,934. As 
 the loans are for short periods and are frequently 
 amortized, the provincial debt is in a continuous state 
 of flux and change. A large part of the debt went 
 in the construction of schools after the new Education 
 Act placed their control in the hands of the Com- 
 munes. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM 
 
 IN one particular modern Belgium presents a strik- 
 ing contrast to the mediaeval States that filled its 
 place, and the contrast is in this instance based on 
 progress. The Flemish communes represented the 
 summit of industrial and financial success and pros- 
 perity, but theirs was a material and not an intellectual 
 triumph. The age of Van Artevelde disclosed no lit- 
 erary genius. The Burgundian period was sterile in 
 the field of letters, save for a few chroniclers who 
 wrote in French, like Froissart and Commines, and 
 whose achievements in the field of letters were done 
 in Paris and not in Ghent or Brussels. It is true that 
 the Flemish Text Society unearthed some mediaeval 
 ballads in Flemish, of which no one outside Flanders 
 had ever heard, but these, however interesting and 
 suggestive, could never have been regarded as of suffi- 
 cient importance to constitute a literature. It is also 
 the fact that Willems thought he had discovered an 
 original Flemish version of the famous Renard le Fox, 
 and trumpeted it abroad as a proof of early Flemish 
 literary genius. A little examination sufficed to show 
 that it was nothing more than a Flemish translation 
 from the French. 
 
 239 
 
240 BELGIUM 
 
 If the Flemings produced nothing remarkable in 
 the way of literature during their political and indus- 
 trial prime, they certainly did nothing during the three 
 dark centuries that preceded the French occupation to 
 establish a claim to intellectual pre-eminence. They 
 had their schools of rhetoric, in which students were 
 incited to declaim some of the old national ballads and 
 thus save them from dying a natural death by being 
 forgotten. But one fails to find any evidence of even 
 literary interest. All the energy of the race was ab- 
 sorbed in the effort to keep alive and not to disappear 
 from the family of nations. It is one of the wonders 
 of history that a Belgian nationality, retaining its two 
 component parts in the Flemish and Walloon commu- 
 nities, both at least 1,200 years old, should have sur- 
 vived to emerge as a single and stable State in the 
 nineteenth century. The mind of the race was op- 
 pressed with the hard facts of its position; it had no 
 time to indulge in flights of the imagination. The 
 foreign yoke was so overwhelming that neither the 
 patriot nor the poet could raise himself to such a 
 flight of fancy as to imagine deliverance within the 
 range of possibility. 
 
 It is consequently all the more remarkable that the 
 attainment of her independence should have been fol- 
 lowed in Belgium by one of the most striking literary 
 revivals that Europe witnessed in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. In subjection her voice had not been heard, but 
 on the morrow of her liberation she became articulate. 
 
LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM 241 
 
 The first manifestation of literary genius came from 
 Flanders. It was no doubt evoked by the aspersion 
 cast on the Flemish tongue by those who assumed too 
 confidently that French would be the language of the 
 new State. Besides, the Walloon section of the nation 
 enjoyed the possession of French literature, a satisfy- 
 ing repast for the Belgian public before, in a later 
 generation, it furnished a stimulus to fresh and origi- 
 nal exertions of their own. 
 
 Reference has been made in the chapter on The 
 Two Races of Belgium to the works of Henri Con- 
 science and Ledeganck, the Walter Scott and Byron, 
 as they are called, of Flanders. These men of genius 
 proved that, although Flemish might be in the phrase 
 of a French writer "one of those languages that have 
 had troubles," it was still a tongue in which the noblest 
 thoughts of humanity could find expression. Lede- 
 ganck, although an ardent Fleming, was intensely 
 national. He was all for the large Belgium, which in- 
 cluded the brother people. Conscience was more pro- 
 nouncedly Flemish. He had taken on his shoulders 
 the propagandist role bequeathed by Willems, but un- 
 der his direction Antwerp superseded Ghent as the 
 center of the movement. Here Conscience founded a 
 school which not merely exists, but gives abundant 
 proof of activity today. Antwerp even produced its 
 own poet as a rival to Ledeganck in Van Beers, who 
 may be compared to Shelley or Keats. Other leaders 
 of the Antwerp school were Theodore Van Ryswyck 
 
242 BELGIUM 
 
 (father of the late burgomaster of Antwerp, who 
 was one of the most brilliant of public orators), Pol 
 de Mont and the Sisters Loveling. The last-named 
 ladies were contemporaries of George Eliot and wrote 
 somewhat in her style. 
 
 It might have been expected that this literary ac- 
 tivity would have exhausted itself with the first im- 
 pressionist movement, and that the leaders would have 
 found no successors capable of giving the movement 
 a fresh impetus. The national spirit that glorified the 
 deeds of the Flemish communes could not but exhaust 
 itself with the recitation of the deeds themselves. 
 They did not admit of repetition. The first writers 
 had appropriated and worked out the subject. Under 
 such conditions it would not have been surprising if 
 the Flemish literary movement, after blazing up, had 
 burnt itself out. It was its striking feature that it 
 experienced a second revival. What Conscience and 
 Ledeganck did in the first phase, Maeterlinck and 
 Verhaeren achieved in the second. 
 
 Maurice Maeterlinck, a student and then a pro- 
 fessor at Ghent University, revealed himself to the 
 world about twenty-five years ago. He wrote in 
 Flemish, and his theme was not the narrow one of 
 Flemish aspirations, but the broad and limitless one of 
 human nature and human passion. Just as the theme 
 was so wide, did he find Flemish too narrow and con- 
 fined as the implement of his labor. He abandoned 
 Flemish for French, and he left Ghent for Paris, thus 
 
LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM 243 
 
 consummating what might be called by his fellow 
 citizens "the grand treason." 
 
 Like Conscience and Ledeganck, Maeterlinck had 
 his affinity and complement in Emile Verhaeren. 
 Twin stars shone together at each epoch in the Flem- 
 ish firmament. Maeterlinck, as his "Douze Chansons'' 
 well proves, indulged his genius in the play of poetry, 
 but was at heart romanticist, philosopher, and mor- 
 alist. Verhaeren, who condescended at times to the 
 use of prose, was essentially poet. In him the Flem- 
 ish landscape, the bare bleak sea-driven stretch of the 
 dunes, the mirage-like fields of the polders, found 
 their Wordsworth, with more than Wordsworth's 
 force, and a daring in word pictures where he was 
 timid. "Les campagnes hallucinees," "Les vagues des 
 dunes," "Toute la Flandre," will prevent critics from 
 pronouncing dull and uninteresting those lands of 
 Flanders whose mystery he has fathomed and of which 
 he offers the reader the key in his melodious verse, 
 seemingly produced without more effort than a human 
 sigh. But Emile Verhaeren, too, appeals to the wider 
 public he can reach through the medium of the French 
 language. The ambition of the individual in both 
 these illustrious cases has proved too strong for the 
 separatist inclinations of the born Fleming. In litera- 
 ture it is not true to say that it is more satisfying to 
 be king in one's own village than an ordinary citizen 
 of Rome. 
 
 If the Flemings provided what may be called the 
 
244 BELGIUM 
 
 first sensations in Belgian literary activity, the Wal- 
 loon movement which followed at an interval, has 
 been scarcely less significant or meritorious. The 
 Walloon writers of the three troubled periods — the 
 Brabant Revolution of 1789, the transition period after 
 the fall of the Empire in 1814, and the Belgian Revo- 
 lution of 1830-31 — were among the most prolific and 
 active pamphleteers that have ever been known. 
 "Shoot me some of those pamphleteers," exclaimed 
 an irritated Austrian Minister in 1789, and it would 
 be difficult to discover a publicist who did more in 
 preparing a revolution with the pen than Louis de 
 Potter before 1830. The pamphleteer is only the his- 
 torian in embryo whose mission will not allow of his 
 waiting to write in extenso. It was, therefore, only 
 natural that the establishment of peace should be fol- 
 lowed by a marked development of historical study, 
 elucidation and description. There was a natural ex- 
 planation for this. Belgium had just been born, but 
 although a new kingdom, it was an old country, and 
 history had to be searched and described to explain 
 the tardiness of its birth. It was under these circum- 
 stances that Gachard, Schayes, T. Juste, Kervyn de 
 Lettenhove, Villenfagne, and others too numerous to 
 name, explored the recesses of Belgian history, and 
 set forth the sad national experiences of the hardest 
 treated race in Western Europe. Vanderkindere, one 
 of the latest and the ablest of these searchers after 
 truth, has informed his countrymen in a bitter sen- 
 
LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM 245 
 
 tence that they could not expect to come back from 
 those wanderings in subterranean regions without 
 some of their plumage being burnt, and something of 
 their pristine virtue left behind. 
 
 If Flemish writers produced the romance and 
 poetry of the nation, it was the French-speaking com- 
 munity that provided the historians, the political writ- 
 ers, and the scientists. They were a band of highly 
 meritorious scholars and Teachers, although none 
 reached the higher level of genius. They had none 
 of the stimulus provided by a definite mission of 
 political or racial propaganda. Their principal object 
 was to unearth historical documents, to group them 
 in a harmonious whole, so as to convince the world 
 that Belgium had existed with an almost unbroken 
 thread of national life from the olden time. Their 
 subject alone was interesting in their eyes. It never 
 occurred to them that there was need to establish 
 the superiority of prose set down in French to that 
 expressed in Flemish, or to prove the greater fertility 
 of Walloon intellect to that of the men of Flanders. 
 The idea of comparison, competition, and contrast 
 never entered their minds. 
 
 But the Flemish movement had always been ag- 
 gressive in its character, and it was scarcely surprising 
 that the productions of several men whose real genius 
 could not be challenged in any assembly of intellect, 
 should have imparted some measure of arrogance to 
 the Flemish attitude towards the other race in the 
 
246 BELGIUM 
 
 Union. It became a favorite phrase in the Flemish 
 papers to declare that the Walloon intellect was sterile, 
 and that it was satisfied to let France provide it with 
 such literature as it might require. The Flemish 
 attitude was provocative and a challenge. It gave rise 
 to the Walloon movement which, in its way, has 
 proved as remarkable as the Flemish, and may still 
 be regarded as in the full swing of its vigor. 
 
 The Walloon movement has been double-winged. 
 There has been a general effort, and it is still in 
 progress, to preserve and revive the Walloon tongue, 
 which is as old as the flemish, and which was in use 
 at the Court of Pepin and probably of Charlemagne. 
 The other side of the movement has been to enrich 
 French literature by the great achievements of more 
 than a few Walloon writers. Liege, the capital of 
 Walloonia, took the lead in this movement just as nat- 
 urally as Ghent and Antwerp had done in regard to 
 the Flemish. Defrecheux and Vrindts supplied the 
 Walloons with the popular ballads that the Flemings 
 found in Ledeganck and Van Beers. More even than 
 their Flemish colleagues are these singers the poets 
 of the people. The poems of Vrindts, for instance, 
 give in epitome the life of the stout Walloon race 
 which has preserved its national characteristics amid 
 the rivalry of the Empires by which Liege was sur- 
 rounded. 
 
 While the movement at Liege remained pre- 
 eminently and distinctively Walloon, the second 
 
LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM 247 
 
 branch of the reaction against Flemish arrogance and 
 aggression concentrated its forces in Brussels. The 
 Belgian capital became the center of the revival of 
 national literature, expressed in the French tongue. 
 The movement cannot be traced here in all its details. 
 The first writers like Van Hasselt were swayed by the 
 influence of Victor Hugo. The second and more nu- 
 merous group, of which Camille Lemonnier, Georges 
 Rodenbach, and Edmond Picard were the bright and 
 particular stars, were largely influenced by the natu- 
 ralistic tendencies of the modern French school. 
 Poets such as Giraud, Gilkin, Mockel, and Severin 
 have proved that the Belgian mind can soar to the 
 heights of Parnassus, while M. Chainaye, a strenuous 
 fighter against the aggressions of the "Mouvement 
 Flammingant," has gone to the root of things in his 
 "L'Ame des Choses." M. Maurice Wilmotte, less 
 partisan than Chainaye, has taken his place as a leader 
 of the French movement by his captivating sketch of 
 the moral and political aspects of independent Bel- 
 gium. 
 
 Of all these writers, however, one alone, it may be 
 admitted, has passed the final test of literary fame, the 
 acquisition of a European reputation, Camille Lemon- 
 nier. He is one of the finest stylists in any language, 
 and his prose reads with the lilt of a song. For that 
 reason translations of his best works are impossible. 
 Those that have been attempted read harsh, and his 
 metaphors defy transference to another scene. This 
 
248 BELGIUM 
 
 is especially the case in his description of the Borinage 
 and in his great novel "Le Male." The brutalities and 
 coarseness of industrial life have never been brought 
 out with a bolder hand, while behind them are por- 
 trayed the blurred features of our common humanity. 
 Walloon as he is, Lemonnier has done full justice to 
 Flanders in his "Contes Flamandes" and his monu- 
 mental sketch of "La Belgique," which developed out 
 of his contributions to Le Monde Illnstre. Enough 
 has been done by this chosen band of "Young Bel- 
 gium" to show that there is no truth in the Flemish 
 aspersion as to the sterility of Walloon intellect; and 
 it may even be predicted that the French revival in 
 Belgium, having a wider audience, is likely to prove 
 more enduring than the Flemish. Some proof of this 
 might be found in the abandoning of Flemish for 
 French by the two leading writers of Flanders. 
 
 Belgium possesses a very active and influential 
 press. The papers published at Antwerp and Ghent 
 are printed in Flemish, and those in Brussels, Liege, 
 and Louvain in French. Of course, there are a few 
 French papers in Flanders and a few Flemish in 
 Brussels, but the rule is as mentioned. The principal 
 role of each paper is to advocate the cause of the 
 political party to which it adheres, and the original 
 matter is confined to political propaganda. Political 
 views in Belgium are extreme — there is no Central 
 Party — and the press does not lag behind the dema- 
 gogue in giving the freest vent to vituperation of the 
 
LITERATURE AND JOURNALISM 249 
 
 adversary. The rival party is denounced as devoid of 
 all virtue, and as no moderation is expected from the 
 other side, it is deemed weak to display it oneself. 
 When the Belgian journalist becomes tired of attack- 
 ing his own countrymen, he relieves his feelings by 
 criticizing the people of other countries. The Second 
 Empire was one of its favorite butts, so was England 
 during the South African War. But during the last 
 two years there has been evidence of greater restraint. 
 The general European situation has inspired anxiety, 
 and Belgian publicists have displayed a proper sense 
 of their higher duties and responsibilities. 
 
 In Brussels there are several excellent dailies. 
 The Independance Beige, the Journal de Bruxelles, 
 and the Etoile Beige are all first-class papers to which 
 able writers contribute. They also receive official in- 
 formation, and endeavor to instruct their readers as 
 well as to promote the cause of the political party to 
 which they are attached. M. Roland de Mares of the 
 Independance is a publicist of European reputation. 
 Among specialist papers the military weekly, La Bel- 
 gique Militaire, takes a foremost place. Under the 
 able editorship of M. Leon Chome, it rr j advocated 
 the cause of army reform during the last thirty years, 
 and is entitled to much of the credit for the changes 
 brought about in the system of army recruitment. 
 
 The periodical press is of a somewhat spasmodic 
 character. An incident or the commencement of a 
 commercial movement will be heralded by the produc- 
 
250 BELGIUM 
 
 tion of an illustrated journal or magazine, and for a 
 time a very interesting periodical appears. The in- 
 cident passes off, the movement fizzles out, whereupon 
 the publication is dropped. Such was the case of La 
 Chine et Sibcrie a few years back. The Congolese 
 publications have also diminished in number. Among 
 all the periodicals the most valuable is the Journal of 
 the Royal Society of Belgium. In this have appeared 
 the best works of historical writers like Gachard, 
 Pirenne, Borchgrave, etc. 
 
 Closely connected with literature and journalism 
 is the literary club. In Brussels there is a rather ex- 
 clusive club located in the Park (near Vauxhall), 
 known as the "Cercle Artistique et Litteraire," but 
 beyond allowing an occasional conference or exhibi- 
 tion of pictures in its rooms it does not take a very 
 active part in promoting either the status or the in- 
 terests of literature. The Cercle Africain, held at the 
 picturesque Hotel Ravenstein, is nominally intended 
 for the use of those who have served in Africa, but 
 it has a literary side also, and is the center of the 
 propagandist movement in Colonel matters which 
 finds expression in the Congo Illustre. As a rule, 
 however, cercles or clubs meet at their chosen restau- 
 rant, and in this sense there is scarcely a town in 
 Belgium without its little society. It would be more 
 correct to say that each town has two rival "cercles," 
 the Catholic and the Liberal, thus reflecting in social 
 life the political divisions of the State. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 MUSIC, ART, AND THE DRAMA 
 
 WHATEVER else he may be or may not be, the 
 Belgian is intensely fond of music. Concerts 
 are the most popular form of entertainment. There 
 is not a commune that does not keep up a band or 
 rather two, for there are pretty certain to be rival 
 Catholic and Liberal bands wherever one goes, and in 
 no other country are greater facilities provided by the 
 Government for those desirous of studying vocal or 
 instrumental music in any form. There seems to be 
 an average of not fewer than 20,000 permanent stu- 
 dents passing through the conservatories at any given 
 time. State help is given to these institutions because 
 public opinion demands it, and not with the object of 
 spreading a love of music. The love of music is a 
 national trait. The Government is, therefore, expected 
 to provide those who wish to earn their living by the 
 profession with the suitable means and facilities of 
 becoming experts and virtuosi. 
 
 The four royal conservatories are situated in Brus- 
 sels, Antwerp, Ghent, and Liege. Each institution 
 is divided into classes covering the whole range of 
 harmony, and at Antwerp and Ghent there are sepa- 
 rate classes for French and Flemish declamation. The 
 
 251 
 
252 BELGIUM 
 
 following table shows the total of inscribed students 
 at each of these institutions in 1908: 
 
 Name Male Students Female Students Total 
 
 Antwerp 949 978 1,927 
 
 Brussels 481 405 886 
 
 Ghent 580 601 1,181 
 
 Lie'ge 742 461 1,203 
 
 Grand Total 5,197 
 
 In addition to the four royal conservatories there 
 are sixty-five other conservatories and schools of 
 music in the country. Of these fifty-six are in 
 Hainaut, Brabant, and Flanders. The total of in- 
 scribed students was 14,115 (7,033 males and 7,082 
 females). Among the famous musicians turned out 
 by the Belgian schools of music may be named Cesar 
 Franck and Ysaye, whose reputations are European. 
 The chief merit lies, however, in turning out annually 
 a large number of qualified musicians of all kinds 
 whose influence on the life of the country and the 
 character of its people is not inconsiderable. 
 
 The opera is very popular in Brussels, and has a 
 particularly long season at the Theatre de la Monnaie. 
 During the three months that the opera house is 
 closed the orchestra plays in the open air every eve- 
 ning at Vauxhall, in the Bois, except when it rains. 
 The conductors are doctors of music who have quali- 
 fied at one of the royal conservatories, and the or- 
 chestra is now recruited exclusively from the national 
 schools of music. There are fine concert halls in Brus- 
 sels besides the hall of the Conservatoire, which is sit- 
 
MUSIC, ART, AND THE DRAMA 253 
 
 uated in the rue de la Regence. One of these is in the 
 room called La Grande Harmonie, at the top of the 
 rue de la Madeleine. Great interest is taken in the 
 competition among the students of the Conservatoires, 
 but on these occasions only the parents or other near 
 relatives to the number of two apiece are allowed to 
 be present to hear the concours at which the relative 
 merit of the student is announced. At the repetition, 
 however, it is possible for outsiders to be present, 
 and the search for new talent is not the least practical 
 errand of the visitors who include many impresarios. 
 Great pride is taken in organizing the communal 
 bands which are composed of trained musicians. They 
 are called out to attend the funeral of any prominent 
 resident, and in the smaller communes any funeral, 
 provided the deceased belonged to the right political 
 party. They thus acquire special skill and harmony in 
 Handel's or Chopin's funeral march. On fete days 
 and national holidays they play popular music in the 
 principal square or "Grand Place," winding up with 
 the national anthem of La Brabanconne. The military 
 bands are also first rate, especially those of the two 
 Guide Cavalry regiments, which are always quartered 
 in Brussels. One of these bands plays in the park 
 every afternoon during the summer. The city band 
 of Brussels also plays there, and throughout the 
 country similar arrangements are carried out in all the 
 garrison towns. Whatever shortcomings he may note, 
 the visitor to Brussels and Belgium will have no rea- 
 
254 BELGIUM 
 
 son to complain of a lack of good music. The au- 
 dience at the Monnaie, while retaining their right to 
 criticism are particularly susceptible to the claims of 
 new-comers of evident talent, and many a famous 
 prima donna dates her first European success from 
 the acclamations of a Belgian audience in their his- 
 toric theater. The Belgian revolution of 1830 origi- 
 nated with the ebullition of popular enthusiasm 
 aroused by Massanniello's famous song invocating the 
 spirit of patriotism. 
 
 Art not less than music enjoys official support. 
 The principal institution for the cultivation of the 
 Fine Arts finds its home naturally enough at Antwerp 
 associated with the memories of Rubens and Vandyke. 
 This is styled the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and 
 dates from the year 1850. All the well-known artists 
 of Belgium in the last half-century have passed 
 through this Academy, and many others as well who 
 have not followed their profession in Belgium. 
 Among the latter the most distinguished is the great 
 Belgian artist, Sir L. Alma-Tadema. So far as mere 
 numbers go the institution reached its prime in 1880, 
 when there were as many as 1,692 students as com- 
 pared with 941 in 1908. The decline seems the more 
 considerable when it is stated that female students 
 were admitted for the first time in 1890. 
 
 Besides the Royal Academy at Antwerp there were 
 eighty-six drawing academies and schools in the king- 
 dom attended by 16,137 students of both sexes. Many 
 
MUSIC, ART, AND THE DRAMA 255 
 
 of these students are trained as architects, gilders, en- 
 gravers, etc., as well as those who enter the courses 
 of drawing and painting. There was even a class of 
 naval architects at Antwerp, but this was given up in 
 1885. So far as the different fine art exhibitions al- 
 low of an opinion to be formed from the total num- 
 bers of exhibitors there were about 600 painters of the 
 male sex and 100 of the female actively practicing 
 their profession as artist-painters in 1903. * 
 
 The modern school in Belgium, dating from 1835, 
 was chiefly historical. Impressed by the events of the 
 period of liberation, the artists found their inspiration 
 in the incidents of Netherlands' history Biefve, 
 Gallait, DeKeyser were the leaders in the revival of 
 Belgian art, and their historical works are to be found 
 on the walls of the Museum of Modern Art in Brus- 
 sels. But the interest of such works soon passed off, 
 and for a time Belgian art languished or waned in 
 the choice of a new bent. After some uncertainty a 
 new school of landscape painters, racy of the soil, has 
 come into existence, making present-day Belgian art 
 a real and living fact. Instead of our own it will be 
 best to give M. Edmond Pic ard's vi ews on the de^ _ 
 velopment of modem Belgian arr^ They are set forth 
 in the following passage which is taken from one of 
 his lively causeries on "t he artistic psyc hology of 
 Belgium ." We may only pretend to give M. Picard's 
 sense and not his style, which baffles the translator's 
 efforts : 
 
256 BELGIUM 
 
 "In order to be the artist, to transform one's im- 
 pressions into the beautiful, it is necessary before 
 everything to be true to one's own home and sur- 
 roundings ; art must be impregnated with national 
 thought, ambition, and tendencies. At the beginning 
 of our history Belgium had no national soul, because 
 the sense of a nationality did not exist. Across that 
 land of mist, where each knew not his neighbor unless 
 it was to combat him, there bloomed no flower of 
 idealism. While in the Greek and Roman civilizations 
 gods walked on earth, while Paganism gave free vent 
 to its streams of eternal beauty, with us all was void. 
 The night, during which intellect with us slept, began 
 to break about the year 1000, when in churches and 
 monasteries the aesthetic awakening was revealed by 
 barbarous and coarse decoration and constructive work 
 which were still expressive of the Roman art. Out 
 of this sprang Gothic art which in emotional force, if 
 not in the power of its harmonious beauty, surpassed 
 Greek art itself. With the House of Burgundy ap- 
 peared the first form of national unity, thus really cre- 
 ating Belgium, and thenceforth national sentiment 
 found its noblest expression in an independent and 
 original art. The national soul is manifested with strik- 
 ing intensity in the works of Memling and Van Eyck, 
 in which may be found across the centuries the same 
 characteristics as are observable in our art today — the 
 love of the picturesque, the research in detail, the de- 
 sire to provoke emotion. After the House of Burgundy 
 came the eclipse of our individuality, and with it of 
 our art — the eclipse lasted during nearly three cen- 
 turies. It may be objected that the reign of Albert 
 and Isabella saw the striking genius of Rubens. But 
 Rubens was not Belgian. He was one of those super- 
 natural men like Shakespeare and Micheal Angelo, 
 who, when they disappear, leave all in darkness after 
 them. And then we arrive at the day of our inde- 
 
MUSIC, ART, AND THE DRAMA 257 
 
 pendence. At first our artists seek to follow in the 
 track of Rubens, and we get the mediocre productions 
 of de Keyser and Slingeneyer. But other artists rose 
 with the courage to look about them. It is in land- 
 scape, in the representation of the native soil that the 
 renaissance begins; Artan, Boulenger, Baron and a 
 crowd of others who scatter over their works the light 
 whose marvelous beauty they have appreciated. Then 
 came that great artist Constantin Meunier, whom we 
 may describe as of the school of Quentin Metsys, 
 Laermans who may be compared to Breughel, Alfred 
 Stevens and De Groux to Vermeer and Snyders. All 
 these have created for us a new, striking and vigorous 
 art because they realized that it must be not merely 
 beautiful, but true to our national and familiar life." 
 
 Modern Belgium can boast of having produced 
 some very fine sculptors, among the principal being 
 Eugeen Simonis, the brothers Geefs, Jehoth, Fraikin, 
 and more recently Jacques de Lalaing. The finest 
 product of the art of a Belgian sculptor is undoubtedly 
 the colossal equestrian statue of Godfrey of Bouillon, 
 which occupies the center of the Place Royale. The 
 British Waterloo monument in the Evere cemetery 
 may be mentioned as an original piece of work due 
 to the talent of Count J. de Lalaing. 
 
 There is no national theater in Belgium as in 
 France, and up to the present time no special training- 
 school for the stage has been established. The utmost 
 that has been done in any form of State, and that 
 under the pressure of the Flemish party, has been the 
 building of special theaters for Flemish plays at Ant- 
 werp, Ghent, and Brussels. After the Monnaie, which 
 
258 BELGIUM 
 
 has been referred to as the house for opera, the 
 principal theaters in Brussels are the Pare, the Mo- 
 liere, the Galleries, and the Alhambra. The most 
 fashionable of them is the Pare, where it is usual to 
 give the latest success from Paris with French actors 
 and actresses. Classical plays are given from time to 
 time, and matinees of plays to which young ladies 
 can be taken have recently become the vogue. 
 
 If the Pare is the playhouse for society, the Mo* 
 Here, which is also a house for French plays, appeals 
 to a more general public. The theaters in the lower 
 town go in for light comedy, operetta, and burlesque. 
 Their greatest successes are scored when they put on 
 the boards a "risky" piece like "La Dame de chez 
 Maxim." Its success was phenomenal, not greater, 
 however, than that of the drama "Cyrano de Ber- 
 gerac." If there is a national school of actors in the 
 French tongue, it is still largely in the making, and 
 the Belgian stage must be described as cosmopolitan 
 with a majority of the performers claiming French 
 birth. 
 
 It is, of course, different with the Flemish thea- 
 ters, where the company is necessarily exclusively 
 Belgian. But the Flemish theaters can boast of no 
 large repertoire, and the heroic popular play of 
 "Uylenspiegel" was written originally in French by 
 its author, Charles de Coster. It is, however, a sure 
 draw with the Flemings, for it deals with the heroic 
 period of the communes, and is frequently put on the 
 
MUSIC, ART, AND THE DRAMA 259 
 
 stage. As a drama it somewhat resembles the "Dead 
 Heart," but the most remarkable point about it is the 
 opportunity it affords of studying a Flemish audience. 
 The royal theater at Antwerp is used as both an opera 
 house and for plays, but here the language used is 
 French. It resembles the Monnaie with the exception 
 that its season is shorter — September to April — and 
 that it only opens its doors on certain days in the 
 week. The most fashionable audience collects for the 
 Sunday matinees. The Antwerp citizens are more 
 staid than those of Brussels, and their dramatic fare 
 has to be selected accordingly. The Flemish Theater, 
 known as the Schouwburg, may be described as the 
 home of Flemish drama, and sometimes Flemish trans- 
 lations of Shakespeare's plays are put on the stage. 
 At Ghent there is another Flemish Theater also called 
 the Schouwburg, which resembles in character those 
 already described. Near it is the French theater, but 
 its season is short and, as a rule, it only opens its 
 doors twice or thrice a week. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 KERMESSES, FETES, AND LEGENDS 
 
 THE first buildings of any permanent construction 
 in Belgium were churches, or in the Flemish 
 tongue, "kerks" ; round these clustered the wattle huts 
 of the people. When trade commenced to occupy the 
 time and attention of the inhabitants of the land, mar- 
 kets, or "messes" were held under the church's shadow 
 and protection. The church and the market-place sup- 
 ply the origin of the compound name of "kermesse," 
 which has come to mean in the course of centuries, a 
 fair. The Flemings were given to pollity, and they 
 enjoyed themselves in the days of their prosperity 
 with high living, somewhat boisterous games, and 
 "all the fun of the fair." Nor have they changed, as 
 any one may discover by a visit during the Carnival, 
 more especially to Binche on Shrove-Tuesday. Ker- 
 messe is essentially a Flemish institution, and is not 
 to be met outside of the Flemish-speaking provinces 
 which includes Brabant. In the Walloon part of the 
 country, where "free-thought" and unbelief are al- 
 leged to have made great progress, all the popular 
 fetes have a religious basis, and are immune from the 
 noisy licence that seems to characterize the kermesse. 
 In Brussels no one would discover any difference 
 
 260 
 
KERMESSES, FETES, AND LEGENDS 261 
 
 between a kermesse and an English country fair, and 
 the only matter that appears strange is that a great 
 city should see in its midst the celebration of a coun- 
 try fair with booths, merry-go-rounds, menageries, 
 and stalls for the display of much tinsel and gawds. 
 As each commune of Brussels holds its own kermesse, 
 and a fair generally lasts a week, the air seems to be 
 impregnated for a good portion of the summer with 
 their influence, and if one's domestic returns home 
 late or not at all, the cause is alleged to have been the 
 kermesse. The fairs are held in some open place like 
 the Boulevard Jamar, near the "gare du Midi," so as 
 to interfere as little as possible with the general traffic. 
 The kermesse fete of the city of Brussels concen- 
 trates its effect on a procession through the streets 
 and boulevards of the lower town to the Grand Place. 
 The famous statuette known as the Mannikin Pis 
 is taken down from its pedestal, dressed up in a fancy 
 costume as a Gard Civique, and paraded in triumph. 
 Gigantic figures of Gog and Magog follow in the cor- 
 tege at a respectful distance, but all the honors of the 
 day are reserved for the Mannikin, who has been called 
 "the oldest citizen of Brussels." This statue, the work 
 of Duquesnoy, dates from 1619, and is said to be only 
 a freak of its author. The uniform in which it has 
 always been dressed for the fete has changed with 
 each form of government, and its wardrobe now num- 
 bers eight separate costumes, the person who has 
 charge of them receiving a salary of $40 a year. 
 
262 BELGIUM 
 
 The most characteristic of all the kermesses is that 
 celebrated every year at Binche on Shrove-Tuesday. 
 It has more of the spirit of the old kermesse and less 
 of the modern fair than perhaps any other still held 
 in Belgium. Binche is a small town of Hainaut with 
 a population of about 12,000 people, situated about 
 half-way between Mons and Charleroi. As it is situ- 
 ated on a branch line, it is seldom visited by the Eng- 
 lish tourist. The fetes of Shrove-Tuesday are said to 
 have originated with Mary of Burgundy, who cele- 
 brated them for the first time in the year 1477, on the 
 occasion of her establishing a hunting seat in the 
 neighborhood. They have consequently been held for 
 433 years. Additions were made under her succes- 
 ors, notably the regents Margaret of Austria and 
 Mary of Hungary; but the fundamental idea of the 
 fete, viz., disguise, was supplied by the young 
 Duchess, who, it may be supposed, proposed it as the 
 only way in which she could take part in it. The 
 consequence is that no one may appear in their ordi- 
 nary clothes on this occasion. The ;'cung men and 
 women of the place appear as Pierrots and Pierrettes, 
 while a special band figures as "Gilles." The precise 
 origin of this name is obscure; by some it is consid- 
 ered a reference to St. George, and by others a term 
 for a silly fellow. But in any case the Gilles of 
 Binche are a select society, and apparently member- 
 ship is hereditary. The costumes are valuable, and 
 
KERMESSES, FETES, AND LEGENDS 263 
 
 include a plumed hat which is estimated to cost not 
 less than twenty pounds. 
 
 The participants in the fray that follows, for the 
 feature of the affair is the pelting of onlookers at the 
 windows or balconies with oranges instead of con- 
 fetti, are not merely disguised, but generally put on 
 false noses and hunchbacks. The Gilles Society has 
 its own band, which plays its own special music, and 
 the mad dances of the Gilles and the Pierrots down 
 the long high street to the gardens where the Carnival 
 ball takes place, savors of pandemonium. All the time 
 the dancers are pelting the windows and people in 
 them with the oranges carried in straw baskets. It is 
 not etiquette to pelt any one in the streets, but those 
 in the houses are considered fair game. At Binche 
 one sees the kermesse pure and simple combined with 
 the orgy of the Carnival, but free of all the acces- 
 sories of the fair. It is usual for as many as twenty 
 thousand visitors to come into the place from the 
 neighboring towns of Hainaut and France, but pru- 
 dent residents close all their shutters, and take their 
 chance with the crowd in the streets. The festivities 
 begin on the Monday evening and do not terminate till 
 the sun is up on the Wednesday morning. 
 
 The nearest approach to what may be called the 
 wild kermesse at Binche is the parade of Lumecon, 
 which takes place at Mons on Trinity Sunday. These 
 fetes are familiarly known as those of "doudou," but 
 no one can give any better reason for the name than 
 
264 BELGIUM 
 
 that it rhymes with "chou, chou," the familiar term 
 for driving or chasing something or somebody which 
 is used as the cry of those marching in the procession. 
 Lumecon is the Walloon of the French word limagon 
 (a snail), but the snail of Mons is a dragon which is 
 carried at the head of the procession in effigy. This 
 is a gilt dragon over thirty feet in length, and when 
 the legend on which the parade is based is critically 
 examined, it turns out to be nothing more or less than 
 our old friend of the nursery, St. George and the 
 Dragon. It is impossible to assign a date to the first 
 celebration of this fete, but it was certainly anterior 
 to the battle of Crecy, at which a contingent from 
 Mons fought on our side with much distinction. It 
 has always been said that they took with them into 
 the battle an enormous cannon which was brought 
 home to Mons, and ever afterwards, as long as it held 
 together, it figured in the procession, and when it 
 came to pieces a wooden facsimile was provided. 
 For some time, however, the cannon does not seem 
 to have figured in the procession. The fete ends on 
 the Grand Place with the slaying of the dragon by the 
 modern representative of St. George, who is called 
 Gilles de Chin in the local history. 
 
 While the fete at Mons and Binche are annual 
 affairs, those at Hasselt, in Limburg, are held only 
 once in seven years, and consequently they gain in 
 elaborateness. The religious element is also more 
 prominent. The celebration takes place on the day 
 
KERMESSES, FETES, AND LEGENDS 265 
 
 of the Assumption (August 15th), which is not only 
 a great day for the Church, but also one of the three 
 national holidays established by law in Belgium. The 
 last fetes were held in 1905, so that the next fall due 
 in 1912. 
 
 The celebration is really in honor of the Virgin 
 Mary, and is called that of Virga Jesse — the patois 
 for Virgin and Jesus. It seems to be as old as Hasselt 
 itself, and the origin of the legend is thus described. 
 Hasselt derives its name from hazel-bosch (hazel 
 wood), and was situated in old days in the center of 
 an immense hazel wood. The town began with a 
 shrine to the Virgin, which, as some say, was at- 
 tached to a large tree at cross roads in the heart of 
 the forest. Travelers were so rejoiced at getting thus 
 far in safety that they made offerings for the happy 
 termination of their journey. In this way the shrine, 
 to which before long a chapel was added, became rich, 
 and in a clearing of the forest a town gradually 
 sprang up which is the modern Hasselt. The shrine 
 with the Virgin's statue was transformed from the 
 wood to the church, where it may still be seen black 
 with age. On the occasion of the celebration the 
 statue is taken down, dressed in costly robes, and 
 crowned with a jeweled crown given by one of the 
 Popes, and carried under a canopy through the streets. 
 
 That is the religious side of the ceremony, but the 
 popular is still more obtrusive. In the first place the 
 streets are lined with hazel trees placed in buckets, 
 
266 BELGIUM 
 
 and the houses are embowered in branches and fo- 
 liage gathered by the young from the neighboring 
 woods. This is to recall the time when Hasselt itself 
 was a wood, and the practice is said to date from the 
 fourteenth century. Indeed, the fetes were held an- 
 nually down to the eighteenth century, and it was only 
 under French and Dutch rule that they were restricted 
 to a septennial celebration. 
 
 The embowering of Hasselt may be termed the 
 preparation of the scene for what follows. The first 
 inhabitant of Hasselt is supposed to have been a coun- 
 tryman named Hendrich, who lived there in a hut 
 with his pigs and his goats. He and his wife and his 
 animals are carried in triumph through the streets, 
 but his modern representative is allowed to smoke his 
 pipe, which would have somewhat astonished the orig- 
 inal Hendrich of the tenth or eleventh century. There 
 also figures in the procession the knight who has lost 
 his way in the forest and is led by the Virgin to Hend- 
 rich's hut. This incident has a very important bear- 
 ing on the fortunes of Hasselt, for the knight kills 
 the giant, or ogre, who dwelt in the recesses of the 
 forest and rendered the routes unsafe for the peace- 
 ful traveler. 
 
 The reader will have no difficulty in concluding 
 that of all the personages in the procession the one 
 that attracts most popular interest is the Giant him- 
 self. He is called the "Lounge Man," the long or 
 tall man. He is so big and tall that his part in the 
 
KERMESSES, FETES, AND LEGENDS 267 
 
 play cannot be filled, and he is therefore carried in 
 effigy. He is shown in armor, seated on the trunk of 
 a tree, placed in a wagon, or chariot, drawn by four 
 horses. So far the procession can be interpreted in 
 all its detail, but for the final touch in the arrange- 
 ments no reasonable explanation has ever been offered. 
 In the car behind the Giant is an immense barrel with 
 a tap and an attendant. He serves all who wish, 'and 
 who present basins, with thick pea-soup! Why it 
 should be pea-soup no one has ever attempted to ex- 
 plain beyond suggesting that it might be intended as 
 an object-lesson in the practice of sobriety. Be that 
 as it may, the fetes of Hassalt enjoy an immense 
 popular success, and are attended by as many as 30,000 
 curious visitors from Holland and Dutch Limburg. 
 The fetes of the Walloon region are even more 
 distinctively religious than those of Hasselt. They 
 are based, as a rule, on a miracle, and partake of the 
 character of a pilgrimage. Typical of these may be 
 chosen for a brief description the procession once in 
 seven years from Rochefort to Foy Notre-Dame, near 
 Dinant. The history of this procession is fairly well 
 authenticated, and dates no further back than the 
 early years of the seventeenth century. The country 
 was then visited with the plague. Many deaths had 
 occurred, and failing the remedies of science those of 
 faith alone offered. It was reported that some one 
 who had made an offering at the Virgin's shrine at 
 Foy Notre-Dame had been cured of the disease, 
 
268 BELGIUM 
 
 whereupon the Count of Rochefort led his people in 
 solemn procession to the shrine, which lies about fif- 
 teen miles out of Rochefort. The plague was stayed, 
 and there does not appear to have been any further 
 outbreak at Rochefort since that time, but the proces- 
 sion is still faithfully kept up. 
 
 Every year devout persons pay their homage at 
 the miraculous shrine at Foy, but it is only once in 
 seven years that the processional march is held. 
 Long preparations and much drilling precede the ex- 
 pedition, which is made in military order. Those who 
 are selected for the responsible position of the Count's 
 bodyguard are carefully trained by an ex-soldier, not 
 merely in the goose-step, but in the use of firearms, 
 for a good deal of firing is indulged in on the return. 
 The local worthy who represents the Count de Roche- 
 fort is very proud of himself, as clothed in armor he 
 takes his place at the head of the procession on a 
 spirited horse. He, too, has been carefully trained for 
 his important role, for not every one accustomed to 
 broadcloth can wear armor without making himself 
 ridiculous. However, thanks to the careful prepara- 
 tion, all goes off very well. 
 
 The date of the procession is Whit-Monday, and 
 it will next take place in 1913. As the distance is 
 considerable, for the majority in the procession walk 
 the whole way there and back, a start is made shortly 
 after the sun rises. The Count heads the procession, 
 then comes his bodyguard, followed by the Catholic 
 
KERMESSES, FETES, AND LEGENDS 269 
 
 band playing religious and secular music. Then ap- 
 pear the clergy resplendent in chasuble and attended 
 by acolytes, but they only attend the cortege to the 
 limits of the town. The procession includes farmers 
 on horseback, townsmen and villagers on foot, women 
 and children in carts, wagons, and vehicles of all de- 
 scriptions. The old women are even more keen to be 
 present than the young, and count up the number of 
 processions they have attended in the course of their 
 lives. Sometimes the procession is quite a mile in 
 length, and on that day Rochefort is left practically 
 empty. 
 
 At Foy the procession is received by the local 
 clergy and a crowd of curious sightseers from Dinant. 
 A special service is held in the church, offerings are 
 made at the shrine, and then the processionists picnic 
 in the neighboring woods. Late in the afternoon the 
 order of march is re-formed, and the party return to 
 Rochefort. Darkness has long set in before they 
 reach it, buf the little town is lit up in their honor. 
 The priests are again there to receive and bless them 
 before they disperse, and as a final honor an old can- 
 non is brought out from its hiding-place and fired 
 several times on the approach to the old castle. It is 
 said that the Count was thus received on his return 
 from the original procession in 1610. There are many 
 other pilgrimages or marches of a similar character 
 carried out today in the region between the Sambre 
 and Meuse. Llere, if anywhere in Belgium, may be 
 
270 1 BELGIUM 
 
 found the old folk-lore of the Belgian division of an- 
 cient Gaul. Chimay, Couvin, and Mariembourg are 
 samples of mediaeval townlets not to be seen in any 
 other part of the country. 
 
 Belgium is the home of legend. There is that of 
 John of Nivelles and his dog. John was a Mont- 
 morency, and the ancestor of Count Horn. There is 
 the story of Caracol and Bristecol (the history of 
 Punch). But the most popular of all is the story of 
 Aymon and his four sons and the wonderful horse 
 Bayard. The Duke Aymon was one of the rebellious 
 vassals of the Emperor Charlemagne, and when he 
 was summoned to attend his sovereign to the wars, 
 he sent a curt refusal, believing that his castle of 
 Aigremont was so strong and inaccessible that the 
 Emperor could never take it. This castle in the 
 Houyoux valley of the region called Condroz exists 
 today, partly as an imposing ruin and partly as the 
 residence of the Counts D'Oultremont. It looks now 
 inaccessible enough ; no wonder it seemed to its owner 
 in the ninth century beyond the reach of the most 
 powerful assailant. Charlemagne having conquered 
 his external foes, decided to chastise his vassal, and 
 directed a host to level Aigremont with the ground. 
 The defenders were overmatched. Aymon was taken 
 prisoner and carried off to Aix-la-Chapelle, and his 
 brother Buves was slain. 
 
 But Aymon's four sons escaped by mounting all 
 together on the wonderful horse Bayard, which flew 
 
KERMESSES, FETES, AND LEGENDS 271 
 
 like the wind and soon outdistanced all pursuers. 
 They took refuge in the Ardennes forest, where they 
 built a stronger fort than Aigremont at Montfort on 
 the Ourthe, and here again they defied the Emperor. 
 The four sons were named Renault, Allard, Guichard, 
 and Richard. They were all of gigantic stature, 
 Renault, the biggest, being sixteen feet high, and 
 Bayard was his personal property, having been a gift 
 from his cousin Maugis, the son of Buves. Although 
 the castle was surrounded by a triple wall, it fell to 
 the Emperor's arms, and again the brothers had to 
 mount Bayard and flee. They are next heard of in 
 Gascony where they fought for King Yon, who, little 
 grateful for their aid, surrendered them to Charle- 
 magne. They succeeded in escaping, but their subse- 
 quent adventures are obscure. Renault entered the 
 cloister at Cologne, and was one of the first architects 
 of the cathedral. He is said to have been thrown into 
 the Rhine by some of his masons whom he had of- 
 fended. If this could be accepted as fact, it would be 
 the first "strike" on record. He was eventually can- 
 onized, and there is a fine monument to him at Dort- 
 mund, in Westphalia. 
 
 Of the other brothers there is little to tell, but re- 
 port says they were all killed at different times and 
 places. The last of them let Bayard loose, and he 
 rushed into the forest, for the party had returned to 
 the Ardennes. After a time Bayard himself was 
 caught and brought before Charlemagne, who thus 
 
272 BELGIUM 
 
 apostrophized him: "You have often upset my plans 
 and now you shall do so no more. ,, He ordered a heavy 
 stone to be attached to his neck and then that he 
 should be driven from the cliff at Dinant into the 
 Meuse. The exact scene is supposed to have been at 
 the Rocher Bayard, near Dinant. But when the gal- 
 lant horse was forced over the cliff, he succeeded in 
 ridding himself of the stone, and swimming across 
 the river, escaped into the woods, and was never more 
 seen by mortal eye. The old belief was that the steed 
 was immortal, and in some of the villages within 
 recent times, when the wind blew loudly at nights and 
 children were querulous, they were silenced by being 
 warned to listen to the noise of the steed Bayard as 
 he raced through the village. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 SPORTS, OLD AND NEW 
 
 THE Netherlands have always been the home of 
 sport. Their nobles were great huntsmen, and 
 the forest of the Ardennes abounded in wild animals, 
 including the wolf, until the close of the eighteenth 
 century. Mary of Burgundy died from a fall from 
 her horse out hawking, and the legends of the Ar- 
 dennes revolve round the chase of the wild boar. The 
 earliest popular sport was probably shooting at a 
 mark with a crossbow, for the crossbowmen of Flan- 
 ders were as famous as the archers of England. Wil- 
 liam Clito and Richard Cceur de Lion were both vic- 
 tims of the prowess of a crossbowman (arbaletrier) 
 of Flanders. It is a remarkable proof of how old 
 customs that have lost all utility survive to find a 
 guild of crossbowmen still at Bruges; there used to 
 be a guild of St. George, of which our Charles II was 
 a member, flourishing in Hainaut. The first act de- 
 manded of a ruler after making his "joyous entry" 
 was to shoot at the popinjay, and favorable auguries 
 were drawn from his hitting the mark. Great was 
 the joy, for instance, when the Infanta Isabella scored 
 at the first trial on her arrival to establish what was 
 expected to prove a national dynasty. 
 
 273 
 
274 BELGIUM 
 
 Archery was very much practiced in Hainaut in the 
 Middle Ages, but whether the long bow was intro- 
 duced into England from Hainaut, or whether the 
 Hainauters borrowed it from their English comrades 
 on many a stricken field may be left for the investiga- 
 tion of those who have leisure to make the necessary 
 research. We have only to note that "confreries" of 
 archers still exist at Mons, Qiuesnoy, and other towns 
 of Haniaut, and that it is no unusual sight to see on 
 Sundays and fete days members of these societies at- 
 tired in a jerkin and buskin with the plumed hat 
 associated here with Robin Hood and carrying the old 
 six-foot longbow. Curiously enough, archery as a 
 pastime does not seem to exist in Belgium. Modern 
 Belgium, among the numerous games and sports it 
 has borrowed from England, has not taken up this 
 particular and picturesque game of skill. 
 
 Perhaps among the people the jeu de bal is as old 
 as any game in Europe. It is played all over Belgium 
 in the public squares, and even in the open streets of 
 provincial towns. It is nothing more than hitting a 
 small ball backwards and forwards between two play- 
 ers. The feature of the game is that each player 
 holds a wooden bat or glove into which his hand is 
 inserted. The weapon is called a glove (gant). As 
 the material for this game is practically nothing at 
 all it is not surprising to find it in general use. On 
 fete days or at the different kermesses there are com- 
 
SPORTS, OLD AND NEW 275 
 
 petitions for experts at the jeu de bal to which the 
 commune and even the State give money prizes. 
 
 Another very old sport, still in general indulgence 
 throughout Belgium, is pigeon-flying. Indeed, there is 
 no sport more generally followed or more attractive 
 to the masses. In some parts of the country it is said 
 the Belgian working man divides his wages into three 
 parts, one for the family, one for himself, and the 
 third for his carrier pigeons. The extent to which the 
 practice is indulged may be gathered from the fact 
 that the railways receive $600,000 a year for the car- 
 riage of the panniers (baskets) conveying pigeons to 
 and from the places of meeting. Large prizes are of- 
 fered by the different societies, and during the year 
 considerable sums of money are won and lost in bets. 
 The freeing of the birds at an important competition 
 is a remarkable sight. At one held during the late 
 Brussels Exposition it was declared that as many as 
 100,000 birds were let loose at the same moment from 
 the baskets of their owners. 
 
 In old days contests between rival parties mounted 
 on stilts were a feature of life at Namur. The use of 
 stilts there seems to have arisen from the prevalence 
 of floods, and from the fact that by their means it was 
 possible to cross the river Sambre when the stream 
 was low. The old town of Namur was situated in 
 the fork of the two rivers, and the new town was that 
 which sprang up on the left bank of the Sambre. 
 There was a keen rivalry between the two, and the 
 
276 BELGIUM 
 
 opponents were called cchasseurs because their bat- 
 tles were fought on stilts (echasses). To put a curb 
 on the practice of constant irregular fighting, it was 
 arranged by the town authorities to hold a joust once 
 a year on the Place St. Remy (now the Place d'Armes) 
 facing the Town Hall. The two factions, called the 
 Melans for the old town and Avresses for the new, 
 sent their chosen champions to the fray wearing dis- 
 tinctive costumes and colors, yellow and black for the 
 Melans, and red and white for the Avresses. As a 
 rule, the contestants were so skilful in either upsetting 
 their opponents or falling themselves that they escaped 
 any serious injury, but when the French revolution- 
 ists overran the country, these jousts were abolished 
 as a survival of feudalism and as not comporting with 
 the gravity of the times. 
 
 We come now to the introduction of what were 
 essentially English sports into Belgium. About thirty 
 years ago young Belgium in the great cities, such as 
 Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruges, took up foot- 
 ball, hockey, and amateur competitions on the running- 
 ground. It was done in a modest and diffident sort 
 of way at first, and some supercilious English critics 
 said of the early football teams that they were not 
 sure what the game was. But that initial stage has 
 passed away, and whatever his skill or success there 
 is one characteristic common to all Belgian athletes. 
 He is in real earnest. No hour is too early for him 
 to get up and begin training; he is ever ready to join 
 
SPORTS, OLD AND NEW 277 
 
 in a game or a trial. In fact, he displays the old 
 sporting spirit and go which were the monopoly of 
 Englishmen. The contrast is furnished in Brussels 
 by the young Englishmen who happen to reside in 
 Brusesls. They pass most of their time at the cafes 
 and smoking cigarettes. It would be impossible today 
 to get together in Brussels or the whole of Belgium 
 an English side that could hold its own at either foot- 
 ball or hockey with any of the leading Belgian college 
 or club teams. This was not the case even fifteen 
 years ago. Owing to the absence of suitable playing 
 fields cricket has not yet caught on in Belgium, but 
 at the new club grounds in the Avenue Longchamp 
 several first-rate pitches have been laid down and the 
 game finds a few enthusiastic followers. But cricket 
 is never likely to become as general in Belgium as 
 football or hockey. 
 
 It is in boating, however, that young Belgium has 
 made the most sensational progress, but in this par- 
 ticular matter Ghent must be regarded as standing for 
 Belgium. Two boating clubs, the Cercle Nautique de 
 Gand and the Royal Club of Ghent, were founded in 
 the Flemish capital about twenty-five years ago, and 
 the services of English trainers were engaged. The 
 Scheldt at Ghent is a little superior to the Cam as a 
 river and a little inferior to the Isis. The sport or 
 recreation rapidly became very popular among the 
 young Flemings, and under clever coaching they made 
 great progress. About twenty years ago they began 
 
278 BELGIUM 
 
 to compete with the Dutch at Amsterdam and the 
 Germans at Hamburg. They began by holding their 
 own, and after a time they scored some successes. 
 These preliminaries instilled confidence into them, and 
 at last, in 1898, they sent a crew to take part in Hen- 
 ley regatta. 
 
 This was thought rather audacious on their part, 
 and, to tell the truth, the contestants thought so them- 
 selves, but "nothing venture nothing have." During 
 the first few years of their appearing at Henley the 
 Belgians gained no successes, but some observers re- 
 marked that each time they came they were gradually 
 getting nearer. At last in 1905 they got into the final 
 heat for the Grand Challenge Cup. In 1906 they scored 
 their first victory, carrying off the cup to Ghent, where 
 the victors were received with a public triumph. In 
 1907 they won again, and the cup was again carried 
 off to the banks of the Scheldt. The Olympic games 
 of 1908 witnessed the next struggle, and on this occa- 
 sion a picked crew of the Leander Club wrested the 
 cup from the Belgian visitors after a hard contest. 
 But at the regatta of 1909 the Belgians were again 
 victorious, no special effort having been made in this 
 country to resist the invaders. In 1910 the Ghent 
 clubs professed their inability to send a representative 
 team and the cup was returned to England. Even if 
 Belgium never scored again at Henley her represen- 
 tatives did enough for glory and to show that in what- 
 ever they take up they are doughty adversaries. 
 
SPORTS, OLD AND NEW 279 
 
 Swimming has long been a popular relaxation and 
 swimming baths are to be found in most of the towns. 
 The rivers are also utilized for floating baths. Fenc- 
 ing is also much in vogue, and cercles d'escrime are 
 numerous. The Belgians are not quite on a level with 
 the French or possibly the Italians, but they are better 
 than all other nations. Swedish gymnastics have lat- 
 terly been introduced and are now compulsory in the 
 army. A still more recent importation is golf, and 
 first-rate links have been laid out ne#r Antwerp. 
 Speaking generally, sport and athletic games have 
 been taken up with greater avidity and pursued with 
 more energy and perseverance by the Flemings than 
 the Walloons, but of course in the upper strata of 
 society race does not tell at all. The temperament of 
 the Walloon does undoubtedly make him more averse 
 to great exertion than is the case with the Fleming. 
 
 This reservation does not apply, however, to any- 
 thing that has to do with shooting game or riding 
 horses. The Ardennes are part of the Walloon country, 
 and here every one is more or less of a sportsman. For 
 the magnate there are extensive preserves in which 
 pheasants, wild duck, woodcock, and deer of all kinds 
 abound; for the rich there are the shooting rights in 
 the communal woods, which can be rented; and for 
 the people there is the free right in the river valleys 
 to snare woodcock and snipe at certain periods. The 
 principal delight of the sportsman is the wild boar 
 battue which goes on through the winter. In the 
 
280 BELGIUM 
 
 Campine region black game and patridge are found 
 in large quantities, and in the late autumn the deli- 
 cious tasting "grives" are captured by the thousand. 
 There is a royal chasse at Villers sur Lesse, near 
 Ciergnon, another at the chateau of the Amerois, and 
 as King Albert is a good shot, like his father, the late 
 Comte de Flandre, and his grandfather Leopold I, it 
 is possible that the Ardennes will see more royal bat- 
 tues in the near future than they have at any former 
 period. The provincial noblesse are rather conserva- 
 tive in their methods. For deer and boar they prefer 
 a charge of slugs to the single bullet of a small bore 
 rifle. 
 
 The Belgians generally take great pride in their 
 horses. At Antwerp the heavy Flemish breed pre- 
 dominates, and iron-greys are rather in favor for pri- 
 vate carriages. In Luxemburg and Liege, the Arden- 
 nais, a smaller breed than that of Flanders, but ex- 
 tremely handsome when pure bred, is most often met 
 with. At Brussels English thoroughbreds and Irish 
 hunters are most in demand. A Belgian gentleman 
 is very dissatisfied if he cannot keep one horse, and 
 most of the houses in the fashionable quarter have 
 the porte cochere, which denotes that there is a stable 
 in the rear. A house is then entitled to use the 
 grander designation of a hotel. 
 
 Within the last twenty years horse-racing has been 
 introduced into Belgium. It began at Ostend and Spa 
 as fashionable watering-places, with the view of at- 
 
SPORTS, OLD AND NEW 281 
 
 tracting foreign visitors. After a time two race- 
 courses were laid out for Brussels, one at Boitsfort, 
 near the Bois de la Cambre, the other at Groenendael, 
 in the forest of Soignes. Both these places are pic- 
 turesquely situated and well arranged. The fashion- 
 able world goes to Boitsfort in particular during the 
 summer season, and the Avenue Louise is crowded 
 with carriages, and latterly with motor-cars as well, 
 on the occasion of the principal meetings. These are 
 always held on Sundays, and as the prizes have been 
 greatly increased in value, many sportsmen attend 
 from Paris, and even from London. It is said that 
 horse-racing has taken a strong hold on the Belgian 
 mind, and that it has become a national pastime. But 
 this is by no means certain. The majority of those 
 who attend the races at Boitsfort go there simply to 
 meet their friends and show off their dresses, and 
 probably never make a bet. A subscription is taken 
 for the whole season which reduces the charge of ad- 
 mission to each meeting to a very low figure. There 
 are other race-courses in different parts of the coun- 
 try, but they are of minor importance and have no 
 attractions for society. A large proportion of the 
 horses were formerly imported from England, but 
 the native-bred horse is coming to the front, and Bel- 
 gium has started its own stud book. 
 
 Horse-racing in Belgium has as many opponents 
 as here, and the reformers who put down gambling 
 in the casinos and clubs with a ruthless hand often 
 
282 BELGIUM 
 
 declaim against the evils of the new importation. Al- 
 though they are not likely to succeed in putting an 
 end to horse-racing altogether, it seems probable that 
 they will succeed in preventing its extension, and the 
 number of meetings is not likely to increase. There 
 is, besides, a stronger reason. The greater prizes to 
 be gained on the French turf will always draw off 
 the most ambitious and successful of owners of race- 
 horses in Belgium. 
 
 Enough has been written to show that sport in all 
 its branches and phases is in vigorous life and con- 
 stant progression among all classes of the Belgian 
 people. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS AND CUSTOMS 
 
 MOST foreign visitors to Belgium give a very 
 unflattering description of Belgian character, 
 and fix upon some national traits or habits to make 
 them subjects of ridicule. This was not the impres- 
 sion I formed of the people during the several years 
 I resided in the country, mixing with all classes of 
 society and visiting parts rarely if ever visited by 
 tourists. There are, of course, disagreeable persons 
 in Belgium as in every other country, but I brought 
 away the most agreeable opinion of the good qualities 
 of the people as a whole, and in saying this I make 
 no distinction between Walloons and Flemings. Both 
 have their attractive side, although the latter are per- 
 haps, on the whole, the most agreeable people to deal 
 with. Leaving for others the unpleasant task of criti- 
 cism, I only wish to dwell here on some of the popular 
 types as they struck me in a favorable manner. 
 
 If I were asked what class of men, taken as a 
 whole, impressed me most favorably in Belgium, I 
 should have to reply, the postman, or the facteur as 
 he is called. The Belgian facteur has raised the 
 science of delivering letters to the level of a 
 fine art. He works with his head as well as his fin- 
 
 , 283 
 
284 BELGIUM 
 
 gers. He has mastered the first secret of the profes- 
 sion. The important fact on the envelope is not the 
 address, but the name of the person. His object is to 
 find that person. An error in number does not baffle 
 him. There may be no street on the address. The 
 name is called out to the assembled facteurs in the 
 sorting-hall at the Grandes Postes, and the man who 
 goes out to St. Giles or Etterbeck exclaims: "There 
 is a person of that name at such and such an address ; 
 give it to me and I will see if it is for him." If the 
 person cannot be found this way, the register at the 
 bureau de police is searched. If the name is not there, 
 then only is it returned to the dead-letter office. I have 
 had letters delivered to me which only had the name 
 Brussels, and I was a stranger in the land. 
 
 There is another art that the facteur has learnt. 
 He is always cheerful of aspect, as if he were the 
 bearer of nothing but good news, and when he brings 
 a registered letter, he quite beams. I have once or 
 twice, however, seen a grave sternness displace the 
 smile, when the dull foreign tourist, ignorant of the 
 general custom, omitted to give him the three or four 
 sous that is the usual reward for a lettre chargee. 
 It is little omissions of this sort that explain a good 
 deal of our unpopularity on the Continent. The Bel- 
 gian postman not only delivers the letters, but also 
 the newspapers to subscribers, and I never recollect 
 a paper going astray in the course of three years. 
 Perhaps he is seen at his best on the occasion of the 
 
CHARACTERISTICS AND CUSTOMS 285 
 
 New Year, when it is the custom to send one's visiting 
 card to all one's friends and acquaintances. Then he 
 works like a Titan to distribute the three million bits 
 of pasteboard in Brussels alone. 
 
 It may be admitted that the Brussels facteur 
 would never be able to get through his work, or to do 
 it so well, but for the electric trams, which carry him 
 from one end of the town to the other. These are 
 used for another purpose in the matter of correspond- 
 ence. A letter box is to be found at the end of each 
 car, into which an express letter, bearing _an extra 25 
 centimes, or 2-cent stamp, may be dropped, and it 
 will then be delivered as rapidly as possible, not only 
 in Brussels, but throughout the kingdom. Telegraph 
 boys are waiting at all the chief stopping-places to 
 open these boxes, examine the letters, and take out 
 those for places near at hand. If for the provinces, 
 the letter is taken out at the station, sent off by the 
 next train, and delivered by telegraph boy, or if the 
 postoffice is closed, by the station porter. No doubt 
 this system works better because the railways are 
 owned and managed by the State. Express letters are 
 in common use in Belgium, and, as worked on the 
 uniform charge of five cents, no matter what the dis- 
 tance may be, are undoubtedly a great public con- 
 venience. 
 
 The tram-car employees are also a deserving body. 
 They work very hard during long hours, and yet they 
 always seem fresh and up to the mark. The cars are 
 
286 BELGIUM 
 
 divided into first and second class, the difference being 
 that in the former there are cushions. The recezeurs, 
 or collectors, are often the recipients of a little per- 
 quisite. Where the change would often be a centime 
 of halfpenny, the fare will often not accept it, where- 
 upon the receveur politely raises his cap. These lit- 
 tle favors, especially during the summer time, total 
 up to a considerable addition to the meager wages 
 paid by the tram companies. I cannot remember see- 
 ing a tram-car collector rude or disobliging to any one, 
 and when a passenger rises too late to stop the car at 
 one of the arrets facultatifs, he will generally express 
 his regret at having got too far to make it possible. 
 Accidents are not as numerous as might be expected, 
 but pedestrians have to be on their guard, especially 
 in passing behind a stationary car on to the opposite 
 line of traffic. 
 
 The railway officials are another class who come 
 a good deal under one's observation in traveling about 
 the country. If the best side of them is to be seen, 
 they require a little management, and some considera- 
 tion must be paid to their dignity as State officials. 
 The tourist is rather prone to address the red-capped 
 chef de gare as if he were a porter at home, appointed 
 for the express purpose of giving bewildered travel- 
 ers information. That is not included among the 
 duties of a station-master in Belgium. His function 
 is to look after the trains, not the travelers. On the 
 other hand, if the traveler approaches him in the cor- 
 
CHARACTERISTICS AND CUSTOMS 287 
 
 rect manner, which means by raising his hand to his 
 hat, he at once unbends, and will do everything he can 
 to assist him. The railway guards and ticket-collectors 
 also have nothing whatever to do with luggage, and 
 it is beneath their dignity to help to take it out of the 
 carriage. The porters are few in number, and their 
 duties of taking the luggage out of the van, etc., 
 monopolize their time, so they, too, are unable to as- 
 sist travelers. As all these functionaries wear some 
 sort of uniform, it is to them that the tourist looks 
 for aid which he never receives, and consequently he 
 or she feels aggrieved at the indifference with which 
 the demand for a porter is received. 
 
 If, however, the traveler should utter the word 
 Commissionaire, there would be no lack of ready 
 hands to carry the baggage, as on every platform a 
 good supply of these men stand ready for a job. They 
 can easily be distinguished by their linen shirts or 
 smocks, and generally have a badge, either on their 
 cap or on their arm. These are the railway porters, 
 in our sense of the term, but they have no authority 
 in the station, and must not do anything else but carry 
 luggage. They are to be found outside the station 
 also, but at Brussels a penny ticket has to be taken 
 for them to secure their admission to the platform, 
 even when carrying travelers' luggage. 
 
 The Brussels policeman has often been held up to 
 ridicule, but it is altogether undeserved. A recent 
 cartoon in Punch pictures a small representative of 
 
288 BELGIUM 
 
 the law trying in vain to get a big Flemish ouvrier 
 out of a beer-shop and finally ending the colloquy by 
 saying, "Then stay where you are." The cartoon is 
 not more true to life than such skits generally are. 
 In the first place, the Brussels policeman is not so very 
 small, but his loose and comfortable costume does not 
 give him the stiff and imposing appearance of our 
 guardians of the law. He is really a very active 
 individual, and his courage is beyond question. It 
 must be remembered that the criminal class with 
 which he has to deal is far more dangerous than ours, 
 apart from the alien element in some of our large 
 cities, which is giving our police authorities a taste of 
 Continental conditions. Brussels criminals always 
 carry revolvers, and know how to use them, and as 
 they generally work in couples, a solitary policeman 
 has to be always on his guard. The newspapers are 
 seldom without an account of an affray in which re- 
 volver shots are exchanged, but it is very rarely that a 
 criminal escapes the hands of justice. The Brussels 
 policeman is not, however, assumed to be at the serv- 
 ice of every pedestrian in search of information. 
 Still, if asked a question with sufficient politeness, he 
 will reply to the extent of his knowledge with equal 
 civility. But his engrossing duty is to watch the 
 crimnial classes, and to prevent them doing much mis- 
 chief. This duty he discharges in an efficient manner, 
 considering that the force to which he belongs is nu- 
 
CHARACTERISTICS AND CUSTOMS 289 
 
 merically weak, and that the criminal class is propor- 
 tionally large. 
 
 Passing to a higher class in society, I wish to say 
 a good word for the Belgian officer. He, not less than 
 the Brussels policeman, is made an object of carica- 
 turists, and very unjustly. I have known or met a 
 great many of them, and I have found them intelli- 
 gent, earnest, and devoted to their profession, although 
 its prospects are not very seductive, and the chances 
 of earning any glory in it seem remote. This is the 
 more remarkable, because the greater number of Bel- 
 gian officers come from the body of the people. They 
 represent not a separate class or caste, but just the 
 ordinary citizens of the country, and many of them 
 have risen from the grade of soiis-ofticers. The noble 
 class only enters the Guides, and to a less extent the 
 Grenadiers, Lancers, and Carabiniers. Outside the 
 Guides there is also a complete absence of what we 
 call "side." The Belgian officer is a quiet, inoffensive 
 fellow, rather inclined to take the small affairs of his 
 barrack life a little too seriously, but entitled to spe- 
 cial credit for the attention he pays to the wants of 
 his men, and to preserving good relations with them. 
 It is not his fault if so little fighting has fallen to his 
 lot, and if his reputation in real warfare has still to 
 be made. 
 
 The official class in Belgium presents what we 
 should consider the most favorable type of the Bel- 
 gian gentleman. An official is always extremely cour- 
 
290 BELGIUM 
 
 teous (I speak of the representatives of the higher 
 administration), and rather a stickler for formality. 
 The pith of his remarks may be small, but he will 
 cover it with a number of polite phrases, expressed 
 in classic French. The staff of each cabinet, or the 
 inner private office of a Secretary of State, or director 
 of a department, is carefully recruited from the most 
 promising candidates, who are selected for their per- 
 sonal appearance and family connections as well as 
 their attainments. They have also to undergo, after 
 appointment, qualifying examinations to prove their 
 fitness to pass into the higher grades. In the Foreign 
 Office, the highest level of excellence is maintained. 
 In speaking of the characteristics and customs of 
 the Belgians, one should not omit to mention the 
 women of Belgium, who are noted for their thrift, 
 cleanliness, and capacity for work. Even visitors 
 from other countries, who are prejudiced against 
 everything foreign, and who have not a word to say 
 in behalf of the men, are impressed in their favor. 
 There is a complete absence of that tawdriness which is 
 so obtrusive and offensive among our working classes, 
 and the neat and tidy way in which all the women 
 in Belgium, without exception, arrange their hair is 
 a striking contrast with the dishevelled locks or flount- 
 ing chignons of their English and American sisters. 
 A case of a Belgian woman wearing any hair but her 
 own is not to be found. The first impression formed 
 in the country is that the women do all the work, 
 
CHARACTERISTICS AND CUSTOMS 291 
 
 which brings the reflection in its train that the men 
 must have an easy time of it. On the latter point this 
 is corrected by greater knowledge of the subdivision 
 of labor; but the opinion that the female half of the 
 community works as hard as the male will not in any 
 way be modified. Women manage all the shops, from 
 the small groceries and greengroceries up to business 
 of importance, and it is only in the largest establish- 
 ments that men take their place. They will be helped 
 in this task by their children or, if there is one, by 
 their grandfather; but it is considered somewhat 
 undignified for an active man to mind a shop. He 
 will often seek and obtain employment outside the 
 business which his wife stops at home to conduct. 
 All the purveyors and carriers of milk are women, 
 and their little carts drawn by dogs with their bright 
 brass cans, are one of the sights of Brussels, espe- 
 cially when they are all assembled on the Grand Place 
 for inspection. 
 
 As between Flemish and Walloon women it is dif- 
 ficult for an outsider to draw a just comparison. In 
 appearance the Flemings are shorter and slighter than 
 their half-sisters. They are also a fair-haired race, 
 with bright complexions and pink cheeks. The Wal- 
 loon is far taller and big in proportion, generally dark, 
 with pale face and very marked features, although 
 tradition declares that she should be fair, and assigns 
 for dark-haired women a Spanish or even a Roman 
 origin, which is going rather far back. It is not at 
 
292 BELGIUM 
 
 all uncommon to meet a flaxen-haired woman of grand 
 physique among the Walloons of Liege and Luxem- 
 burg, and this is especially the case among some of 
 the old noble families. But, as a rule, the Walloon 
 woman is dark, just as the Flemish is fair. There is 
 more energy about the Fleming and more dignity 
 about the Walloon. The former works harder and 
 calls the latter lazy; the latter is a better manager, 
 and requires a higher grade of comfort in her domes- 
 tic life, and is disposed to regard her Flemish sisters 
 as being somewhat behind the day and not quite on the 
 same plane of culture as herself. There may be some 
 foundation for this, and if we were to apply the test 
 of cooking, Walloon cooks are pronounced superior 
 in every way to Flemish. It is said that the Flemings, 
 despite their clean and natty appearance in the streets, 
 are not so scrupulously clean in their domestic ar- 
 rangements as is desirable, and as is undoubtedly the 
 case throughout the Walloon country. Both have a 
 marked partiality for fine clothes and bright colors, 
 and those who have only observed the people in their 
 workaday clothes would not recognize the same per- 
 sons as they go to mass on Sundays. The Walloons 
 dress in better taste than the Flemings, and as they 
 are considerably taller, they carry their clothes more 
 gracefully and with greater effect. The art of dress- 
 making has been carried to a higher point of per- 
 fection among them, and most Walloon girls can cut 
 out their own clothes and make them in the latest 
 
CHARACTERISTICS AND CUSTOMS 293 
 
 fashion. It is quite remarkable to notice the degree to 
 which the art of dressing well is carried among the 
 Walloon women of all classes, especially as there is 
 no corresponding movement among the men. While 
 the men in their Sunday clothes are just ordinary 
 provincials, their wives and daughters might easily be 
 mistaken for Parisennes. 
 
 The characteristics which mark the people at large 
 are also found among the leisured and well-to-do 
 classes. The Belgian lady has very much the same 
 views of life as her humbler sister. Money means 
 practically finer clothes, more visits to the theater, a 
 longer vacation at the seaside or in the country, but 
 the objects that constitute her ideas of a pleasant life 
 are practically the same. Society passes its time with 
 a certain lazy indifference and a complete absence of 
 the exciting whirl of entertainments that constitutes 
 life in New York, London, or Paris. There is a con- 
 siderable amount of visiting, afternoon teas, the daily 
 drive to the Bois, and there are occasional charity 
 bazaars; but these must all form part of the regular 
 existence anywhere of those who have no obligation 
 to work for a living. The chief feature of Belgian 
 society, as of Belgian life generally, is its domesticity. 
 The family and its affairs form the pivot upon which 
 the whole social system turns. It is very creditable 
 and homelike, if the charge cannot be avoided that the 
 result is a trifle dull. 
 
294 BELGIUM 
 
 In Luxemburg there is still a quaint custom main- 
 tained, in the celebration of the "dancing procession." 
 Not long after the death of Bishop Willebrod, Lux- 
 emburg was visited by a cattle plague, and it was a 
 popular belief in those days that the only way to re- 
 store the animals affected was for the men and women 
 to imitate them by dancing and jumping about. The 
 plague on this occasion was not arrested by these 
 steps, and then it was proposed that a chosen band 
 of "holy dancers" should proceed to St. Willebrod's 
 shrine and make an offering. The result of this pro- 
 ceeding was considered to be the staying of the plague 
 and the practice has been followed ever since, for 
 over 1,100 years. 
 
 The dancing procession in its modern dress, which 
 distinguishes it from the more austere presentment of 
 the Middle Ages, is one of the prettiest sights that 
 could be imagined. The participants reveal sometimes 
 the fatigue natural from their severe physical exercise, 
 but none of the frenzy of religious zeal in a high state 
 of exaltation. The procession is formed on Prussian 
 territory, across the bridge over the Sure, and many 
 participants come from the Eiffel, where the people are 
 as good Catholics as in the Duchy. All that region 
 was subject to the Luxemburg princes centuries before 
 Prussia was thought of, and St. Willebrod's fame is 
 not restricted by present-day frontiers. 
 
 About nine in the morning of Whit-Tuesday, those 
 
CHARACTERISTICS AND CUSTOMS 295 
 
 who intend joining the procession form up on the east- 
 ern side of the bridge, the clergy await them on the 
 western, and when the signal is given, the priests, with 
 their attendant acolytes, lead the way. The bridge and 
 its approaches are fifty yards across, from the bridge 
 to the Church of St. Pierre through the main street of 
 the town 1,200 metres (1,310 yards nearly) have to 
 be traversed, and the dancers have to move three steps 
 forward at a time and then take two backwards. For 
 each five steps they take then they move forward only 
 one; for the 1,200 metres they come 6,000. The pro- 
 cession is formed seven in a line, and the dancers keep 
 together by holding pocket-handkerchiefs or scarves 
 between them. Along the route, which is crowded, 
 firemen are stationed to pick up those who fall, and 
 the spectators exhort the dancers to persevere to the 
 end. 
 
 The end is the hardest part of the ordeal, for the 
 Church of St. Pierre stands on a slight eminence 
 which is reached by sixty-two steep steps. Even here 
 the processionists, after mounting three steps, have to 
 retrace two, and the steps are worn and hollowed by 
 the countless pilgrims of many centuries. The proces- 
 sion ends in front of the Saint's shrine, and by that 
 time the dancers, who include persons of all ages from 
 youth to old age and members of both sexes, are quite 
 exhausted by their four miles of hopping. After the 
 ceremony a popular fete is held for the amusement of 
 
296 BELGIUM 
 
 the twenty thousand visitors who flock into the town 
 on these occasions. The pilgrimage, or procession, 
 is probably the oldest of its kind still existing in Eu- 
 rope, and the fervor of the participants, like the in- 
 terest of the spectators, shows no sign of abatement. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS 
 
 ALTHOUGH canals in Belgium are not so ob- 
 trusive as they are in Holland, yet they are far 
 more important and numerous than the visitor to the 
 country might imagine. The question of the internal 
 waterways, which may be subdivided into rivers, 
 canalized rivers, and canals, of the country has always 
 been of national import. The guilds of the watermen 
 (bateliers) were, in the days of the communes, among 
 the most important at Ypres, Bruges, and Ghent; it 
 was on a matter of rivalry between their boatmen 
 that Ghent fell upon Ypres and shattered its power in 
 1383. At the present time, despite the advent of rail- 
 ways, communication by water is of the greatest 
 value to the economic system of Belgium, and a new 
 policy has been inaugurated of constructing new ship- 
 canals or enlarging old ones for the passage of ocean 
 steamers into the heart of the country. 
 
 The rivers used as waterways for commerce are 
 the Meuse, the Scheldt, the Lys, the Dendre, and the 
 Dyle. The importance of the Scheldt may be judged 
 from the fact that three great cities, Antwerp, Ghent, 
 and Tournai, are situated upon it, and that boats paid 
 toll on it at Tournai in the tenth century. The Meuse, 
 
 397 
 
298 BELGIUM 
 
 the Lys, and the Dendre have been canalized in dif- 
 ferent parts of their courses, and the question of the 
 more effective control of the Meuse below Maestricht 
 is one in which the Belgian public apparently takes 
 more interest than the Dutch. Further reference will 
 be made to this matter. 
 
 In the official list kept in the office of the "Ponts et 
 Chaussees" fifty-two separate canal systems are rec- 
 ognized among the national waterways. They have a 
 total length of 1,637 kilometres, or a little over 1,020 
 miles. The total tonnage of goods carried by ordinary 
 boats on these waterways in 1908 reached the enor- 
 mous total of 1,111,773,961 tons. Of this only a small 
 part related to foreign countries. The imports into 
 Belgium by water in the same year amounted to 
 6,228,815 tons and the exports to 7,128,390. 
 
 In addition to the fifty-two canals, etc., enumerated 
 there are five ship-canals, viz. : 
 
 Length in Kilometers Tonnage 
 
 Brussels to the Rupel 27.3 4,807,029 
 
 Ghent, Bruges, Ostend 23.3 267,723 
 
 Ghent to Terneuzen 17.5 22,898,308 
 
 Louvain to the Dyle 30.6 8,280 
 
 Bruges to Zeebrugge 16 475,810 
 
 114.7 28,457,150 
 
 These figures establish the importance to Belgium 
 of her canals and riverways. Canal life in Holland is a 
 more picturesque affair than in Belgium, but it may 
 be questioned whether the amount of traffic is as great 
 in the Northern Netherlands as it has become in the 
 
WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS 299 
 
 Southern. The following are the details of the goods 
 conveyed by the internal canals: 
 
 Combustibles 319,656,095 tons 
 
 Minerals, etc 108,881,739 " 
 
 Building Materials and Metals 211,016,193 " 
 
 China and Glass 88,066,579 " 
 
 Wood 36,191,028 " 
 
 Agricultural Produce 165,146,470 " 
 
 Industrial Produce 52,004,753 " 
 
 Merchandise 130,811,104 " 
 
 Total 1,111,773,961 " 
 
 In a recent year the ordinary expenses on canals 
 and waterways amounted to $477,234.40, and the re- 
 ceipts from tolls to $419,519.60. But in 1907 and 1908 
 a capital expenditure of nearly $10,000,000 on the im- 
 provement of canals and rivers as waterways was 
 sanctioned. This shows the importance attached to 
 their development. 
 
 It was Drusus, it will be recollected, who first in- 
 troduced a system of canalization into the Netherlands 
 by giving a new arm to the Rhine, and there is evi- 
 dence that the canals from Ostend to Bruges, with a 
 prolongation towards Ghent, and from Brussels to the 
 Rupel and the Scheldt, existed in the fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries. When Charles of Lorrain com- 
 pleted the Bruges-Ghent canal 150 years ago, it was 
 especially recorded that it had been commenced in 
 1379. When the Willebroek canal was enlarged in 
 the sixteenth century, it enabled William the Silent to 
 perform the whole journey by water from Antwerp to 
 Brussels. In mediaeval Flanders the Lys provided 
 
300 BELGIUM 
 
 Ghent with a natural water route to Courtrai and, 
 incidentally, to Ypres as well, and the Scheldt one to 
 Audenarde and Tournai. Further east the Dender 
 connected Termonde with Alost and Grammont, while 
 the Ruppel and the Senne linked Brussels with the 
 Scheldt. 
 
 In many respects the Meuse, which is partly a 
 French and partly a Dutch river, is the most impor- 
 tant of all Belgian waterways. In its upper course it 
 is linked with some of the most important French 
 canals (the canal des Ardennes among others), giving 
 access to the heart of the old provinces of Champagne, 
 Lorraine, and Burgundy. The wine of these provinces 
 is imported by water the whole way to Dinant, Namur, 
 and Liege, and this mode of conveyance explains why 
 the wines of Burgundy have always been especially 
 excellent in Belgium. There is another reason for 
 the superexcellence of Burgundy in the Meuse valley. 
 The cellars are cut in the rock, and at certain seasons 
 of the year when the river is in flood the water is 
 admitted, and when the tide falls it leaves the bottles 
 clothed in mud which is said to invest them with a 
 special and stimulating protection. In old days wine 
 and wood were the principal articles conveyed on the 
 Meuse, but since 1880 the most important import has 
 been iron from the famous iron-field of the Vosges. 
 This is sent direct to Liege, or branches off at Namur 
 to proceed up the Sambre to Charleroi. Thanks to 
 this cheap water conveyance, French iron competes 
 
WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS 301 
 
 successfully with that from Germany or the Grand 
 Duchy, which can only reach the Liege market after 
 a more or less costly railway journey. Since the ex- 
 haustion of the home iron mines between the Sambre 
 and Meuse, Belgium has been entirely dependent on 
 the supply from foreign sources, and cheap transport 
 necessarily forms an important point in the degree of 
 profit with which this mineral can be ultilized. 
 
 The most important question relating to the Meuse 
 is as to the possibility of establishing communication 
 for ocean steamers to as high up as Liege. This is 
 rather a Belgian grievance, as the Dutch authorities 
 have been accused of apathy and indifference. The 
 matter requires a little careful consideration. 
 
 When it became clear, after the Belgian Revolu- 
 tion, that Dutch rule was ended in what used to be 
 called the Spanish Netherlands, the Dutch clung to 
 the possession of the town of Maestricht for senti- 
 mental reasons as the scene of the heroism of their 
 race, and the indulgent Powers accepted and sup- 
 ported the claim. Maestricht is, however, of not the 
 slightest practical value to Holland. At the same 
 time that Maestricht was left to the Dutch the part of 
 Limburg lying on the right bank of the Meuse was 
 ceded to Holland as compensation for what it lost in 
 Luxemburg. This, roughly speaking, consists of the 
 cantons of Sittard and Ruremonde. While these ces- 
 sions of territory were made for the benefit of Hol- 
 land, it was expressly laid down that the use of all 
 
302 BELGIUM 
 
 canals was to be free and common for both countries. 
 It may be useful to quote the precise stipulations of 
 the treaty, for this question of the Middle Meuse is 
 very likely to become important if only for the inter- 
 esting and difficult engineering problems connected 
 with it. The following is the text of the special 
 Articles relating to the matter: 
 
 "Art. 10. — The use of the canals which traverse 
 simultaneously both countries shall continue to be free 
 and common to their inhabitants. It is understood 
 that the enjoyment thereof shall be reciprocal, and on 
 the same conditions, and that on both sides there will 
 be on the canals only moderate navigation dues. 
 Art. II. — Commercial communications by way of the 
 town of Maestricht and that of Sittard shall remain 
 entirely free and shall not be impeded on any pretext 
 whatsoever." 
 
 The importance of this strip of Dutch territory to 
 Belgium is that it intercepts Belgian communications 
 with Germany, while Holland is bound not to impose 
 more than moderate tolls on goods passing to and 
 from Germany by either road or canal. The most 
 important canal in the region is the South William 
 Canal which connects Maestricht with Bois le Due, 
 passing through a certain portion of Belgian territory. 
 This canal is used chiefly because it saves the wide 
 bend of the Meuse by Venlo, but if the Meuse itself 
 were canalized below Vise, there is no doubt that Bel- 
 gian traffic would favor the main river. 
 
 At the present time Venlo marks the limit of up- 
 stream navigation for steamers. There is a regular daily 
 
WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS 303 
 
 packet from Rotterdam to this place, but the Dutch 
 have made no attempt to improve the river above that 
 town for the reason, as they admit, that it would bene- 
 fit Liege. In anticipation of something being done 
 by the Dutch the Belgians have canalized the Meuse 
 below Liege to the frontier at Vise, and expend a 
 certain sum annually in its up-keep by dredging. But 
 the state of the river below Vise has rendered this a 
 useless expense. Small pleasure steamers ply in the 
 summer between Liege and Maestricht as they do 
 above Namur to Dinant and Waulsort, but these 
 have no commercial value. 
 
 Belgium's possession of the left bank of the Meuse, 
 interrupted by the enclave of Maestricht, continues 
 below the circumference of that town to a point al- 
 most equidistant between Masseyck and Ruremonde. 
 The whole of this strip of the Meuse of which Hol- 
 land holds the right bank, is uncanalized and of no 
 use to commerce beyond what may be conveyed in 
 barges. Moreover, the river in flood is dangerous 
 for navigation even by them, and between Ruremonde 
 and Venlo, where Holland holds both banks, the floods 
 are aggravated by the addition of the equally uncon- 
 trolled waters of the river Roer, which flows into the 
 Meuse at Ruremonde. Both the Belgians and the 
 Dutch citizens of Limburg consider it a grievance that 
 nothing has been done in this matter, and lay the 
 chief blame at the door of the Hague Government. 
 The people of Ruremonde in particular grumble a 
 
304 BELGIUM 
 
 good deal because it is impossible for excursion steam- 
 ers to come as high as that place. It would be dif- 
 ferent, they have been heard to say, if we belonged to 
 Belgium. 
 
 A Dutch-Belgian commission has, however, been 
 considering the question of late, and something may 
 soon be done. The Belgian Government is quite 
 prepared to undertake its share of the work and the 
 expenditure, and that of Holland without committing 
 itself has recently displayed more interest than it has 
 ever done on any former occasion. The canalization 
 of the Meuse between Vise and Venlo would no doubt 
 be a costly affair, but the reclamation of the land now 
 subject to inundation would go far towards meeting 
 the whole expenditure. 
 
 Another great question with regard to the im- 
 provement of Belgian waterways is that of rectifying 
 the course of the Scheldt just below Antwerp. The 
 river here takes a wide sweep to the westward, and 
 it has been proposed to obviate this by cutting a new 
 bed for the river across the neck of the promontory. 
 This scheme is known as "la grancie coupure" and has 
 had as many opponents as supporters. But there 
 seems no reason for doubting that it is practically 
 decided on, and that as soon as the removal of the 
 enceinte, now in progress, has been effected, this task 
 will be taken in hand. No other hypothesis will ex- 
 plain the postponement of work on the two forts in- 
 tended to defend the river approach to the great city. 
 
WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS 305 
 
 The adoption of the "grande coupure" will not merely 
 give a direct entrance to the existing quays (thus 
 saving a curve of at least six miles), but it will also 
 allow of their extension northward for a distance of 
 two miles. It must also be remembered that the lower 
 Scheldt is in a special degree liable to visitations of 
 fog, and the straighter the river course becomes the 
 more is the risk of accident diminished. For the mo- 
 ment the weak point in the defenses of Antwerp is 
 to be found on the side of approach from the sea 
 owing to the deferred settlement of the "grande cou- 
 pure' problem. 
 
 The reported intention of the Dutch Government 
 to fortify the mouth of the Scheldt at Flushing has 
 raised considerable discussion in Belgium, where the 
 Scheldt is regarded as essentially a Belgian river. In 
 1831-39 Europe very foolishly gave Holland both 
 banks of the Scheldt from a short distance below 
 Lillo, but at the same time it established the common 
 rights (that is to say joint and equal) of Belgium and 
 Holland in the navigation of the river. A Dutch 
 fortress at the mouth of the river might seriously 
 interfere with and, indeed, close the access to Ant- 
 werp from the sea. Under certain contingencies this 
 might mean all the difference between national salva- 
 tion and perdition. It is not surprising then if Bel- 
 gian opinion is seriously disturbed at the outlook. 
 
 Belgium was the first Continental State to take up 
 a system of railway construction under the auspices 
 
306 BELGIUM 
 
 of the Government. Immediately upon his arrival in the 
 country King Leopold I ordered the appointment of 
 a commission to prepare a plan, and two competent 
 engineers, Messrs. Simons and De Ridder, were en- 
 trusted with the task of surveying the country with 
 special reference to such a design. The hostilities with 
 the Dutch and the uncertainty as to Belgium's own 
 future no doubt explained how it was that the elabora- 
 tion of the plan required three years. The report 
 recommended that Malines should be selected as the 
 central point, and that through it should pass a line 
 north and south from Antwerp to Brussels and Na- 
 mur, and east and west from Ostend to Bruges, 
 Ghent, Louvain and Liege. The report was adopted, 
 and in May, 1835, the first train ran from Malines to 
 Brussels. In the following year communication was 
 established with Ghent and Liege. M. Charles Rogier 
 was the minister who carried out the King's wishes, 
 and the seventeen speeches he delivered on the sub- 
 ject in a single season contained a remarkable prog- 
 nostication as to the influence railways would exer- 
 cise on the development of the country. 
 
 Encouraged by the success of the Government 
 main lines, a large number of public companies were 
 formed for the purpose of constructing special local 
 lines that seemed to be needed, and at one time these 
 represented a greater mileage than the State-owned 
 lines, but these, as was always the intention, have, with 
 very few exceptions, been bought up. At the end of 
 
WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS 307 
 
 1908 the distribution of the different lines of railway 
 is shown in the following table, the mileage being 
 approximate : 
 
 Mileage 
 
 Railways built by the State 637 
 
 Railways built for the State and taken over by it 443 
 
 Railways built by Private Companies and bought up by 
 
 the State 1,430 
 
 Railways worked by the State in conjunction with the 
 
 Companies 150 
 
 Total mileage under State control 2660 
 
 There are also seven small private railway companies 
 with a total mileage of 250 miles, but portions of 
 these lines are on Dutch and French territory. 
 
 The total cost of constructing the State-controlled 
 lines is given at a little over five hundred million dol- 
 lars, or at the rate of $200,000 per mile. The num- 
 ber of persons employed on these railways was in the 
 year named 70,500, and there were 1,557 stations and 
 minor halts. These are all included in an official guide 
 called the Indicateur Beige, or Guide Official, published 
 three times a year at the price of threepence. Fares 
 are based on a fixed charge per kilometre, and season 
 tickets are issued for short or long periods available 
 over the whole of Belgium. The season tickets bear 
 a photograph of identity and require a deposit of five 
 francs, returnable at the close of the period for which 
 the ticket is taken. The short-term tickets — five or 
 fifteen days — are especia 1 ly suitable and convenient 
 for tourists. The total number of travelers on all 
 Belgian railways in 1908 was nearly 177 millions. 
 
308 BELGIUM 
 
 As the state is responsible for accidents and has 
 to indemnify for death or injury, the following sta- 
 tistics are interesting. Out of the 177 million passen- 
 gers in 1908, forty-seven were killed and 1,015 injured. 
 Out of the 70,500 employees fifty-one were killed and 
 549 injured. In addition to these, seventy-eight per- 
 sons described as neither traveling at the time of the 
 accident nor employed on the railways were killed and 
 seventy-four wounded. Included in this total were 
 suicides and persons killed -at level crossings. 
 
 In addition to her heavy railways Belgium is en- 
 dowed with an extensive system of light railways 
 which have been immensely developed and extended 
 within the last twenty years. In 1890 there were only 
 705 kilometres constructed, but in 1908 the total had 
 risen to 3,260 kilometres, or nearly 2,040 miles, and 
 each year witnesses the construction of some more of 
 these useful feeders. These light railways have 
 proved very profitable. 
 
 Statistics are not available as to the total number 
 of passengers on light railways, but the return of 
 accidents shows among passengers nine killed and sev- 
 enty-two injured, among employees two killed and ten 
 injured, and among other persons forty-two killed and 
 forty injured. The high number of accidents to out- 
 siders will not be surprising to those who know that 
 these railways are quite unprotected, and that the 
 track passes through woods where it is often diffi- 
 cult to see the train's approach. The trains on these 
 
WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS 309 
 
 lines are restricted to a speed of sixteen miles an hour. 
 The carriages are small, and each is divided by a glass 
 door into two compartments, one for smokers and the 
 other for non-smokers. The platform at each extrem- 
 ity is available for passengers, and is specially coveted 
 when the route happens to pass through pretty scen- 
 ery, as is the case between Paliseul and Bouillon. The 
 season tickets mentioned above are available also on 
 the majority of the light railways. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE COLONIAL QUESTION 
 
 BELGIUM having been provided with a magnifi- 
 cent colony in the vast Congo region, not by her 
 own merit or efforts, but by the cleverness, courage, 
 and pertinacity of her great ruler, Leopold II, there 
 are two points of view from which her position as a 
 Colonial Power may be regarded. The first is as to 
 her capacity to retain what she did not acquire by 
 national merit or achievement, and the second is as to 
 how far an African dependency can be successfully 
 governed by a small parent State which has been com- 
 pelled by the force of opinion and pressure from out- 
 side to accept conditions of perfection far in advance 
 of what I would call the chronometrical stage that has 
 been reached in the development of the African 
 problem. 
 
 I must clinch this point to make the differentiation 
 in my argument clear. Belgium is a small Power, 
 she cannot escape from the position under any con- 
 ceivable circumstances. The meaning of this applied 
 to practical affairs is that she will be held more rigidly 
 than others to the literal execution of her own pro- 
 gram defined by the principles of somebody else. I 
 foresee grave troubles ahead for Belgium in this direc- 
 
 310 
 
THE COLONIAL QUESTION 311 
 
 tion, and so far as I have means of judging, Belgian 
 authorities do not appreciate them. A Great Power 
 like England may have the finest principles placed at 
 the head of her African program, but who is to con- 
 trol her if she interpret them in her own way? Bel- 
 gium has adopted those principles, but she will be kept 
 to them. Her range of license and liberty in judgment 
 and action are restricted. However, let us serious 
 students of that dark and menacing African problem 
 only rejoice that for a time at least the Congo con- 
 troversy has been laid at rest and that one may write 
 the name without fear of being denounced as a par- 
 tisan. 
 
 We have been told that the Belgians are not a 
 colonizing people. It might be rejoined that in the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when colonizing 
 by the European Powers began, the Dutch took good 
 care • that they should not become one. In the 
 eighteenth century the debut of the Ostend Company 
 was so promising that its English rival took very ef- 
 fective measures to cut short its life. About sixty 
 years ago Leopold I began to point out that Belgium 
 was growing so fast at home that she must look about 
 for possessions across the oceans. She was exhorted 
 to look about not merely for fresh markets, but for 
 points of vantage that would secure fresh markets 
 eventually. She made attempts in Guatemala, For- 
 mosa, and elsewhere. Nothing, however, came of 
 them. In 1875, ten years after the second Leopold 
 
312 BELGIUM 
 
 came to the throne, Belgium was without a colonial 
 possession, and her flag was unknown outside French 
 and English harbors. 
 
 The change that then took place was due to the 
 happy inspiration of the King of the Belgians to 
 concentrate his attention on the African slave trade 
 question which had been brought to the front by the 
 efforts of Sam Baker, Richard Burton, and David 
 Livingstone. But at that moment nothing was known 
 of the heart of Africa, and more particularly as to how 
 it might be reached from the West Coast. It was, 
 therefore, a very appropriate subject for a Geograph- 
 ical Conference, and King Leopold seized the oppor- 
 tunity to invite the qualified authorities to hold it in 
 Brussels. That was the first stone on the road to an 
 African dominion. The second was the securing and 
 monopolizing of the services of Stanley when he at- 
 tempted in vain to interest a jaded England in the 
 discovery of the great river which furnished a water 
 highway across the breadth of Africa. King Leopold 
 was neither tired nor obtuse. He secured Stanley's 
 services till the end of the century by a handsome 
 retainer. It is needless to dwell on the untiring en- 
 ergy with which he created a chain of stations across 
 the Congo valley, and obtained from the native chiefs 
 treaties ceding to him their sovereign rights to whose 
 validity a British Commissioner in 1884 was con- 
 strained to give reluctant testimony. 
 
 When the African Conference met at Berlin to- 
 
THE COLONIAL QUESTION 313 
 
 wards the end of that year the Powers were con- 
 fronted with a fait accompli. King Leopold had con- 
 structed a sort of dominion. He was at least the man 
 in possession. Who was going to turn him out? 
 Prince Bismarck and the French Government were 
 determined that it should not be England. The Con- 
 ference ended then with the legalizing of the Belgian 
 ruler's position in the international sense, and by clever 
 negotiation with the neighboring States he extended 
 that position over a vast area of Africa far beyond the 
 widest limits explored by either Stanley or any Bel- 
 gian lieutenant. In less than eight years Leopold II 
 had acquired a colony as large as Europe, omitting 
 Russia. He acquired it almost without firing a shot, 
 and the diplomatists, dazed by his audacity, left the 
 Prussian capital with the secret solace, "Well, he will 
 never keep it!" They were wrong; he did. 
 
 The King's achievement was too great for his own 
 subjects. In Brussels the gift of a ready-made colony 
 was received with fear and anxiety. Had it been a 
 little one, it might have been accepted on the ground 
 that it did not mean much, that its possession could 
 not possibly offend any one, and that in the course of 
 time the Belgian people might adapt themselves to the 
 new situation. But this colony, brought back by the 
 King's plenipotentiaries in their portfolio, was almost 
 a continent, a pearl of great price among Tropical 
 lands, and a recent bone of contention among the 
 Great Powers. The Belgians of 1885 would have 
 
314 BELGIUM 
 
 nothing to do with the gift. Their Constitution was 
 passed for home use. They preferred the freedom 
 from anxiety without a colony, to unknown trouble 
 and worry with one. They candidly admitted their 
 ignorance in the matter, and professed no avidity to 
 learn. The most they would do was to assent to their 
 King taking the problem on his own shoulders as 
 Sovereign of the Congo, and in that capacity he ruled 
 it from 1885 to 1908. 
 
 It would be quite outside the purpose of this chap- 
 ter to describe even in summary those twenty-three 
 years of personal rule. What concerns our present 
 topic is to note that Belgian opinion underwent a com- 
 plete change on the subject in that period. Three 
 main causes contributed to modify the views of 1885, 
 and to convert the indifference of that year into the 
 pride and pleasure of owning a valuable possession 
 which was the dominant sentiment in 1908. These 
 causes were the sacrifice of many noble Belgian's lives 
 in the Arab campaigns, the sinking of a considerable 
 sum of money by the several grants in aid made by 
 the Belgian Government to the Congo, and the evi- 
 dence acquired as to the great wealth of the African 
 possessions in vegetable and mineral produce. For 
 these reasons the Belgian public were not merely will- 
 ing but in a hurry to take off their King's hands the 
 Colony at which they had looked askance a quarter of 
 a century before. Not British criticism but Belgian 
 pressure compelled King Leopold to surrender the 
 
THE COLONIAL QUESTION 315 
 
 separate role of absolute monarch in Africa which in 
 his closing years he undisguisedly hoped to retain 
 with life. 
 
 When the Belgian Government and Parliament in 
 1908 took over the Congo State, they became for the 
 first time a Colonial Power, and as they introduced at 
 once a new system and new principles, the experiment 
 was invested with double interest. While some critics 
 have been complaining, unreasonably as every candid 
 person will admit, that the new system has not been 
 introduced with sufficient rapidity to please them, I 
 would draw attention here and also in Belgium to 
 some practical matters that in moments of keen con- 
 troversy escape notice. The first matter is the prob- 
 ability of Belgium's succeeding as well in her colo- 
 nizing mission under the new laws as King Leopold 
 did by his own will in defiance of everybody. If she 
 does not succeed in her mission, she will place her 
 colony in graver jeopardy than it was in, let me say, 
 in 1904, when the British Government was inclined 
 to push matters to extremities. For the Belgian peo- 
 ple the motto should be "Success at all costs." 
 
 For running a colony successfully during the stages 
 when it is admitted that it can not pay its way on its 
 own resources two things are necessary — men and 
 money. Under King Leopold an equilibrium had after 
 the first fifteen years of recurrent deficit, been estab- 
 lished by the profits made by the concessionaire com- 
 panies, and in the, let us say, last ten years of per- 
 
316 BELGIUM 
 
 sonal rule a large surplus had been derived from the 
 produce of the Congo plantations. But the conces- 
 sions have been cancelled, the companies have dis- 
 appeared, and the Government finds at its immediate 
 disposal a very limited as well as uncertain revenue. 
 This revenue is for the present quite disproportionate 
 to the work that has to be performed. As Belgian 
 public opinion had to be coaxed and propitiated in 
 every way to make the taking over of the Congo as 
 nearly unanimous as possible, one of the official as- 
 surances given was that it would cost the country 
 nothing. The Congo was a sound going concern with 
 a good surplus. At the moment when this was said 
 the statement was perfectly true, but the institution 
 of reforms has eliminated, as we shall see, some of 
 the most profitable and easily garnered sources of 
 revenue. 
 
 The new Colonial Minister, M. Renkin, whose zeal 
 in the cause of reform on the Congo deserves full 
 recognition, realized the position, and his first budget 
 was remarkable for the boldness with which, ignoring 
 the possibility of a deficit, he sanctioned an expendi- 
 ture far exceeding anything attempted by his prede- 
 cessors. As the reward of his courage the price of 
 rubber rose on the international market by over sixty 
 per cent, thus averting the necessity of issuing a new 
 Colonial loan. 
 
 The Budget for 1909 was fixed at $7,223,907, but 
 as this was a transition year, the finances of the new 
 
THE COLONIAL QUESTION 317 
 
 regime really commence with the year 1910. The or- 
 dinary expenditure for 1910 was estimated in the 
 Budget at $8,074,162, and the extraordinary at $6,703,- 
 355. The extraordinary expenditure was to be pro- 
 vided for by the issue of Treasury Bonds running for 
 a period of not more than five years. It was estimated 
 that the ordinary revenue would bring in $7,941,061, 
 thus leaving only a small deficit. The principal items 
 of regular expenditure are set forth as follows: 
 
 Administration in Africa $1,406,882 
 
 Public Force (military) 1,442,440 
 
 Marine (transport) 404,776 
 
 Health 165,240 
 
 Public Works 188,900 
 
 Customs and Fiscal Service 426,719 
 
 Agriculture 328,389 
 
 Mines 233,010 
 
 Upkeep of Domain 1,049,256 
 
 Justice 368,096 
 
 Service of the Debt 1,306,016 
 
 The items of the extraordinary expenditure in- 
 clude the following: 
 
 Creation of Agricultural and Breeding Establish- 
 ments $ 400,000 
 
 Divers Public Works 3,385,580 
 
 Katanga Subsidy 300,000 
 
 Occupation of lands in Katanga 800,000 
 
 New Battery at Shinkakassa 400,000 
 
 New Boats 345,330 
 
 Second Annuity of Special Fund for $10,000,000 to 
 
 King Leopold 660,000 
 
 With regard to the last-named item, King Albert, 
 
 declining to derive any personal benefit therefrom, 
 
 caused the first annuity to be treated as the nucleus of 
 
 a Pension Fund for those who have served on the 
 
 Congo, which was greatly needed, and the second to 
 
318 BELGIUM 
 
 be applied in the purchase of steamers. The principal 
 
 items of revenue were the following: 
 
 Customs $1,411,311 
 
 Ivory (sale of) 629,200 
 
 Rubber (sale of) 2,679,500 
 
 Rubber (tax on) 259,000 
 
 Mines 504,000 
 
 Native taxes 400,000 
 
 As compared with the figures of 1909, mines and 
 ivory show an increase, and rubber, despite its higher 
 market value, a decrease. Customs, show a rise of fif- 
 teen per cent, and the new export duty promises to 
 prove a valuable addition to the revenue. For the 
 first time, too, a tax paid by the natives in cash figures 
 in the record. 
 
 The public debt of the Congo in 1910 amounted to 
 $24,167,040 (bonds actually issued), and the interest 
 for the year to about $920,000, while $386,016.20 fig- 
 ured for redemption. 
 
 Allowing for the fact that several of the sources 
 of revenue are of an expanding order and that the as- 
 sets left by the late administration are likely to prove 
 of great value, the financial outlook for the Congo 
 Colony is bright and encouraging. It ought not to be 
 very long before the Government will be able to raise 
 the sum expended in Africa to ten million dollars 
 per annum. 
 
 We come now to the question of the men. In 1909 
 the total staff of officials in Africa numbered 1,636. 
 Thev were subdivided as follows: 
 
THE COLONIAL QUESTION 319 
 
 Governor-General 1 
 
 Vice-Governor-Generals 3 
 
 State Inspectors 4 
 
 Commander of Public Force 1 
 
 Secretaries 5 
 
 Magistrates 60 
 
 Commissioners, etc 31 
 
 Chiefs of Zone 55 
 
 Officers of Force 175 
 
 Engineers 20 
 
 Doctors, etc 47 
 
 Postal Services 41 
 
 Captains of Steamers 51 
 
 Forest Service, etc 54 
 
 Unspecified 1,088 
 
 Total 1,636 
 
 In addition to the strictly State service 213 were 
 employed on the Great Lakes railways, and seventy-six 
 under the Katanga Special Committee, which is in 
 political charge of the province. These officials are 
 not exclusively Belgians. This will be understood 
 when it is stated that there were in all only 1,722 Bel- 
 gians in the whole of the Congo in 1908, and included 
 in this total are at least 322 priests, sisters of mercy, 
 women and children. The proportion of Belgians to 
 non-Belgians seems to be about sixty per cent. For 
 instance, of the sixty magistrates in the last table 
 thirty-five were Belgians, eleven Norwegians, nine 
 Italians, one Dane, one Roumanian, one French, and 
 two Swiss. 
 
 The slow and slight increase in the white popula- 
 tion of the Congo is a disturbing and discouraging 
 fact. The following table gives the number of Bel- 
 gians and non-Belgians in the years named: 
 
320 BELGIUM 
 
 Year Belgians Non-Belgians Total 
 
 1900 1,318 886 2,204 
 
 1901 1,465 881 2,346 
 
 1902 1,417 948 2,365 
 
 1903 1.442 1,041 2,483 
 
 1904 1,410 1,101 2,511 
 
 1905 1,501 1,134 2,635 
 
 1906 1,587 1,173 2,760 
 
 1907 1,713 1,230 2,943 
 
 1908 1,722 1.217 2,939 
 
 Among non-Belgians the numerical order of na- 
 tionalities was — 
 
 Swedes 190 
 
 Italians 181 
 
 Portuguese : 143 
 
 Dutch 119 
 
 English 118 
 
 Swiss 90 
 
 Germans 63 
 
 Americans 55 
 
 Russians 55 
 
 French 51 
 
 Norwegians 48 
 
 Danes , . 29 
 
 Grand Duchy 29 
 
 Greeks 11 
 
 Austrians 9 
 
 Australians 8 
 
 Canadians 8 
 
 Transvaalers 5 
 
 Turks 1 
 
 Servians 1 
 
 Mexicans 1 
 
 Bulgarians 1 
 
 Argentina 1 
 
 1^217 
 
 Of these the British subjects and the Americans 
 
 are either missionaries, or engineers and prospectors. 
 
 There are none in the State service. The Portuguese, 
 
 Germans, Greeks, and minor divisions are traders. 
 
THE COLONIAL QUESTION 321 
 
 The Swedes, Italians, Norwegians, Danes, and 
 Swiss are exclusively in the State service — so 
 are the majority of the Dutch, French, and Luxem- 
 burgeois. At one time there were over 500 Italian 
 officers in the State service, but the pay was low and 
 there was no chance of promotion, so the majority 
 resigned and retired on the expiration of their first 
 engagement. The point of these statistics is that at 
 least forty per cent of the 1,636 functionaries, from 
 the highest to the lowest grade, are non-Belgians and 
 have to be recruited where they can be obtained. It 
 has always been the practice of the Belgians to refrain 
 from engaging either French or Germans, and al- 
 though Englishmen were utilized in the early years, 
 none have been employed for a very long time, and 
 it is unlikely that any will be engaged in the future. 
 The idea is that citizens of small States are the most 
 suitable for another small State to employ, and the 
 services rendered by the Scandinavians, Danes, and 
 Swiss have been invaluable and beyond all praise. 
 
 The Congo having become a Belgian colony, it is 
 natural that one of the principal objects of the new 
 administration should be to make the service more and 
 more exclusively Belgian, and with this object in view 
 the salaries for those serving in Africa have been 
 raised to an amount sufficient to attract fully-qualified 
 men. The new pension scheme is also another attrac- 
 tion. While the special services, like the transport, 
 can be left to non-nationals (the captains of the steam- 
 
322 BELGIUM 
 
 ers are exclusively Scandinavians), the tendency to 
 place the general civil and military administration in 
 the hands only of Belgians will become more marked. 
 The officers of justice are, however, likely to remain 
 of mixed nationalities as at present, for it is consid- 
 ered that this intermixture gives the Courts a greater 
 appearance of impartiality. At all events, the re- 
 morseless critic cannot get up an agitation against 
 Belgian judges in the Congo when they sit with a 
 Norwegian or an Italian beside them. 
 
 Another great reform is the careful selection of 
 the volunteer for the Congo before he is allowed to 
 proceed to Africa. Formerly a man had only to offer 
 to go out to be accepted and shipped off at once. It 
 is quite certain that such a candidate possessed no 
 special aptitude for work in the Tropics, and it was 
 a miracle if he turned out to be any good at all. This 
 description applies to the rank and file, and not to the 
 comparatively few officers of the Belgian army who 
 went out on "special mission" and helped to raise the 
 tone of the service generally. It is now hoped to 
 raise the standard all round to a level with the special 
 men under the old system. There is another improve- 
 ment. Formerly the men sent out were untrained ; 
 if it were the case of a second engagement and the 
 applicant had a good record, it was a cause of much 
 rejoicing, for it was realized that some one useful 
 had been secured. 
 
 But now this loose system has been radically al- 
 
THE COLONIAL QUESTION 323 
 
 tered ; yet it is only fair to say that the change began 
 under the late King who founded, in the last years of 
 his rule, the School of Tropical Medicine in Brussels, 
 the Colonial College, the Colonial Museum at Ter- 
 vueren, and the World-School, which was to have been 
 at the same place. All these institutions, with the ex- 
 ception of the last named, which has been temporarily 
 dropped, are in active work. No doctor or veterinary 
 surgeon is allowed to go to the Congo until he has 
 passed through the School of Tropical Medicine, in 
 connection with which there is a hospital at Water- 
 mael for invalids from the Congo. The student has 
 therefore training in practice as well as in theory. 
 There were forty doctors at this school in 1909, of 
 whom twenty-three were Italians, thirteen Belgians, 
 two Norwegians, one English, and one French. Their 
 special study is the treatment of the terrible malady 
 called "sleeping sickness." 
 
 In the year named the course at the Colonial Col- 
 lege was followed by twenty-five commissioned offi- 
 cers, eighty-three clerks and former agents, and nine- 
 teen non-commissioned officers. The consequence of 
 this improved system is not merely that trained men 
 are now sent out in lieu of untrained, but that the 
 candidates themselves take a more serious view of 
 their mission. Formerly men went to the Congo to a 
 large extent to escape from debt; now it is to begin 
 a fine career. Evidence of the change is already vis- 
 ible in the returns of mortality among officials. The 
 
324 BELGIUM 
 
 percentage of deaths is little more than half what it 
 was a few years ago — the figures being 4.60 per cent 
 in 1908 as against 79 in 1901. The tours of King 
 Albert and M. Renkin through the Congo were spe- 
 cially intended to demonstrate that a visit to Central 
 Africa did not cut short one's life, and their example 
 could not fail to embolden the timid. 
 
 The Colonial Museum at Tervueren is a splendid 
 monument of the successful work accomplished on the 
 Congo. The building is a magnificent structure placed 
 in one of the most charming spots round Brussels, and 
 the collection gives a complete picture of the ethnol- 
 ogy, fauna, and natural products of Central Africa. 
 Admirably arranged by its distinguished Director, 
 Baron de Haulleville, author of the best work on the 
 colonizing aptitudes of his fellow-countrymen, the 
 student of the development of the Dark Continent will 
 find here the most instructive object-lesson that could 
 be desired. The Annates, or journal, published period- 
 ically under the Director's editorship, contain informa- 
 tion of a high scientific value. 
 
 There is one question connected with the Belgian 
 Congo of great interest. Can it be made a White 
 Man's Colony ? For the greater part of the territory 
 which is subtropical the idea is not entertained, but in 
 the southern provinces, notably Katanga, the condi- 
 tions of climate and surroundings approximate to 
 those of Rhodesia. Here the discoveries of great 
 mineral riches provide an attraction to the immigrant 
 
THE COLONIAL QUESTION 325 
 
 that does not exist in any other part of the Belgian 
 colony. The pioneers of the mining movement have 
 never ceased to represent that Katanga could maintain 
 a large white resident population, but the Government 
 has been obliged to proceed with great circumspection, 
 more especially because there is one undeniable peril. 
 This is the presence of the tse-tse fly. Even the parts 
 of Katanga where it is not found are often rendered 
 inaccessible by being environed by tse-tse infected dis- 
 tricts through which cattle could not pass. The Gov- 
 ernment has established some experimental farms in 
 districts immune from the scourge, and has lately sent 
 out a small colony composed of constabulary to form 
 the nucleus of a white settlement. But it is a question 
 that can only be settled by care and caution, and per- 
 haps not at all until the tse-tse fly has been extermi- 
 nated or cattle successfully inoculated against its at 
 present deadly sting. 
 
 The following are the statistics of trade for 1909 
 and the previous five years. This table shows only the 
 "commerce special/' that is to say, exports of Congo 
 produce and imports for use or consumption in the 
 Congo. There is in addition a large transit trade, 
 chiefly to the French Congo, with which we need not 
 trouble the reader. 
 
 Year Imports Exports 
 
 1904 $4,668,800 $10,378,200 
 
 1905 4,015,000 10,606,400 
 
 1906 4,295,600 11,655,600 
 
 1907 5,036,400 11,779,000 
 
 1908 5,317,200 8,674,400 
 
 1909 4,425,398.80 11,233,400 
 
326 BELGIUM 
 
 The decline in the exports of 1908 was due to the 
 fall in the market value of rubber, and the recovery 
 in 1909 to the rise in price to its old figure or even 
 higher. Belgium provided or took herself in 1909 
 $2,101,338 of the imports and $10,417,139.80 of the 
 exports. Taking a general view of the commercial 
 situation over a period of the last six years, the prog- 
 ress is minute, but this should be regarded as evidence 
 not of the limited resources of the Congo colony, but 
 of the deliberate purpose of the Belgian authorities 
 under both regimes to proceed with great care and 
 caution. Those who have studied the colonial prob- 
 lem in Belgium hold the opinion that the success so 
 far achieved has been due to the guiding principles 
 of not attempting too much. Still the weak points in 
 the situation remain (1) the small white colony all 
 told, (2) the uncertainty as to the revenue, (3) and 
 the apparent non-expansion of trade. 
 
 Under the new conditions created by the cancel- 
 ing of the charters of the Concessionnaire Companies, 
 the abolition of forced labor, and the substitution of 
 payment in money instead of payment in goods to 
 the blacks, it will be more difficult Lo establish an equi- 
 librium in the finances. The surest way of doing so 
 is to multiply the resources of the colony, which can 
 only be accomplished by the introduction of foreign 
 capital into the country. The Belgians, whose success 
 up to the present has been far greater than any one 
 could have ventured to predict in 1884, have now to 
 
THE COLONIAL QUESTION 327 
 
 decide whether they will encourage outside co-opera- 
 tion in dealing with the development of Central Af- 
 rica, or continue to run it on the old exclusive lines. 
 The opening of the several zones to free trade, which 
 will be completed in another year, is an indication that 
 co-operation will be invited and no longer repelled. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 EIGHTY years have elapsed since Belgium be- 
 came by her own efforts in the first place, and 
 with the support of England and France in the sec- 
 ond, an independent, self-governing, and clearly de- 
 fined kingdom, occupying a position of transcendant 
 importance for all concerned in the maintenance of 
 the balance of power in Western Europe. For Eng- 
 land in particular the preservation of the national 
 integrity of the Netherlands is a vital necessity. Un- 
 der no circumstances must Belgium and Holland be 
 allowed to pass into the hands or under the control 
 of Germany. Antwerp might be made a pistol directed 
 at the heart of England, said Napoleon, and if this 
 was true in the days of sailing ships, it is incalculably 
 more true in an age of steam, electricity, and aero- 
 nautic achievement. 
 
 In those eighty years Europe has greatly changed, 
 but the general change is small compared to that in 
 Belgium herself. The Belgium in which Leopold I 
 was invited to rule was an undeveloped country pos- 
 sessing little capital and inhabited by a people ren- 
 dered so cautious by long and bitter experience that 
 they might be described as timid. It made its national 
 
 328 
 
CONCLUSION 329 
 
 debut under the protection of the two Western Pow- 
 ers, and a state of tutelage is not the one most calcu- 
 lated to develop heroic qualities in a people. But 
 there were other perils to national progress from the 
 agreement of the Five Great Powers (Italy not then 
 having been born) to leave Belgium outside the range 
 of their ambitions. The sense of being protected by 
 the solemn pledge of Europe might have bred ease 
 and laziness. The citizens of the new State might 
 have been so rejoiced with the novelty of independence 
 as to enjoy the present in oblivion of the future. They 
 might have reveled in the long freedom without think- 
 ing of the duty and difficulty of preserving it. For- 
 eign guarantees are transient, the only sure bulwark 
 of the existence of a nation, great or small, is its own 
 resolution backed up by careful and wise preparations 
 for the evil day of peril during the long years of peace. 
 This reproach cannot be addressed to the Belgian 
 people. They concentrated their attention on the de- 
 velopment of their little country, and they labored with 
 set purpose and a single mind to place it in the van 
 of European industrial and intellectual progress. At 
 first the movement was slow — too slow some impetu- 
 ous critics observed — and the attention and efforts of 
 the people were concentrated at home. No foreign 
 adventure would have tempted the generation which 
 died out with the first king. The present of an El 
 Dorado as a colony would have been rejected, al- 
 though a few enlightened minds were beginning to 
 
330 BELGIUM 
 
 realize that some day or other the country would need 
 outlets for its rapidly increasing population. But the 
 development of Belgium came first. Not till its plains 
 presented an unbroken expanse of cultivation, and its 
 workshops and factories were working at full pressure 
 did Belgians generally begin to think that some atten- 
 tion should be paid to expansion beyond the limits of 
 their narrow borders. 
 
 • By that time Belgium had accumulated no incon- 
 siderable amount of capital. Her financial leaders 
 took their place in the influential fraternity which con- 
 trols the money markets of the world and which has 
 been designated "la haute finance" The national sav- 
 ings were invested with some losses, but on the whole 
 with great profits in South America, Russia, and 
 China (to mention only a few of Belgium's spheres 
 of interest). The growth of capital led to closer rela- 
 tions with Paris, and Brussels has become almost an 
 agency or branch of the French metropolis in finan- 
 cial matters. It is sometimes said that French influ- 
 ence in Belgium has declined (and I for one am far 
 from denying the truth of the assertion), but it is 
 supreme in the circles of "la haute finance/' 
 
 The acquisition and accumulation of capital, the 
 participation in important World affairs chiefly in 
 combination with France and Russia, and finally the 
 possession of a great colonial territory, which has ap- 
 parently excited the envy of onlookers, all these have 
 produced a change in Belgian character and ways of 
 
CONCLUSION 331 
 
 looking at things that is not generally allowed for. 
 It is no longer safe or prudent to speak of the Belgian 
 nation as timid, self-diffident, and afraid to accept 
 responsibility. It would be nearer the truth to say that 
 they have become a trifle venturesome, a little over- 
 bold, and not afraid to enter into competition with 
 the great ones of the earth. Perhaps they have gone 
 a little too far in this direction, but the Government 
 that attempts to treat them de haut en bos will soon 
 find itself thwarted in its designs by the aroused sense 
 of dignity of the governing classes in modern Bel- 
 gium. The worst consequence of the assumption that 
 Belgium has stood still since the days of the London 
 Conference is that there are always other Govern- 
 ments ready not merely to flatter, but also to promise 
 support in the event of aggression. The confidence of 
 the Belgian Foreign Office in itself is great enough, 
 but it is renderd infinitely greater by the conviction 
 that it does not lack friends, and the most serious con- 
 sequence of all, resulting from miscalculation in polit- 
 ical effort, and from wilful blindness to the magnificent 
 progress of Belgium in all the essentials of prosperity 
 and stability, is that it is driven to take its friends 
 from the wrong quarters. 
 
 With regard to the home politics of Belgium a 
 foreign observer must be careful in expressing any 
 sweeping opinion. Party passion runs undeniably 
 high, and the gulf separating Catholic and Socialist 
 is very wide and deep. At times revolution seems in 
 
332 BELGIUM 
 
 the air, and with revolution would come such a change 
 in the condition of things in the country that it might 
 lose its integrity and independence. But many Bel- 
 gians who speak with full knowledge and authority 
 warn outsiders from forming what may seem logical 
 conclusions about the conflicts of Parties in their 
 country. They admit that political feuds become bit- 
 ter, that the partisans are noisy — it is admittedly a 
 Belgian characteristic — and that sometimes violence 
 seems imminent; but they add these Belgians know 
 just when to stop. They will draw back when they 
 see peril from their clamor and excess to the national 
 existence. That assurance is worth bearing in mind, 
 although it does not cover all the possibilities of the 
 situation. It meets the case while the Catholic party 
 remains in office, but it is not at all clear what would 
 follow from the advent to power of a Liberal-Socialist 
 ministry, and the majority now behind the party in 
 power is very small. 
 
 Looking beyond the question of party contests it is 
 probably true that the precautions taken against a 
 Socialist upheaval, with which the Legislative Cham- 
 ber is periodically threatened, have been sufficient to 
 assure the preservation of society, and no doubt the 
 new army organization will also contribute to the 
 same result. But at the same time there is almost as 
 much danger in the Catholic party retaining a monop- 
 oly of office as there is from the other side coming in. 
 The Belgian system of electing representatives is one 
 
CONCLUSION 333 
 
 of the fairest that has been devised by human skill, 
 but its merits are obscured by the indisputable result 
 that it has given one side a long and unbroken lease 
 of power. This fact alone weakens its claims to per- 
 fection and strengthens the demand for the change to 
 the simple procedure of "one man one vote" or "uni- 
 versal suffrage." The abolition of the plural vote will 
 be a serious blow to Conservatism, and its effects will 
 only be mitigated by extending the suffrage to women 
 whenever the change takes place. Even on the Cath- 
 olic side of the Chamber the view is beginning to pre- 
 vail that in the next political crisis, which is probably 
 not far off, the plural vote in its present form will 
 have to go. 
 
 But to the outsider the recent developments in the 
 Flemish movement seem more alarming as a menace 
 to the stability of Belgium than the feuds of Catholic 
 and Socialist deputies. So long as the Flemish de- 
 mands were confined to redress of their own griev- 
 ances, and to the establishment of their own position 
 on a footing of equality with the Walloons there was 
 no serious objection to be made, but all this was gained 
 half a century ago and ratified by a second triumph 
 twenty-five years later. The latest efforts of the 
 Flemish party are offensive and not merely defensive. 
 They are seemingly bent on a campaign of aggression 
 into Walloon or quasi- Walloon territory, the reasons 
 of which are still obscure. And this forward move- 
 ment has raised a volume of irritation and indignation 
 
334 BELGIUM 
 
 among the Walloons that would not be credited by 
 any one who had not seen a meeting of French-speak- 
 ing Belgians discussing the latest Flemish demands. 
 
 Whatever the advocates of minor races may say 
 to the contrary, language is the true connecting link 
 of a realm, and the attempt to revive half or wholly 
 dead languages, if they were ever anything better than 
 dialects, becomes a menace to the State in proportion 
 as the language in common use is weakly or strongly 
 established. In Belgium there are the two languages 
 which have hitherto been on a fairly equal footing so 
 far as numbers were concerned. But the Flemings 
 are increasing at a greater rate in numbers and pros- 
 perity than the Walloons, and the swing of the pen- 
 dulum will be increasingly in their favor. They are 
 now displaying an intention to make the most of this 
 superiority and to show their adversary no quarter. 
 It is not surprising that the Walloons are up in arms 
 and are showing resentment. The champions of Flem- 
 ish, which is only low German, and which in the course 
 of a few generations might be converted by a German 
 Government into a very passable high German, have 
 now embarked on an undertaking aiming apparently 
 at absorbing the populous parts of Belgium hitherto 
 included in Walloon Belgium, and if the plain brutal 
 truth must be told, their success seems far from im- 
 possible. 
 
 There is no doubt something more behind the 
 Flemish movement than meets the eye. If it is only 
 
CONCLUSION 335 
 
 a party move to increase the Conservative forces in a 
 country where the disruptive forces of Republicanism 
 and Socialism are in active operation, the stability of 
 the kingdom may be rather increased than diminished 
 by it. But it is possible that there is another and more 
 sinister explanation. German statesmen have always 
 carefully watched and taken the greatest interest in 
 the Flemish movement. German influence has long 
 been in the ascendant in Antwerp, and the sympathetic 
 attitude of the Berlin Cabinet in the Congo contro- 
 versy has not failed to make a considerable impression 
 in bureaucratic circles in Brussels. Belgian ministers 
 are probably not aware that Prussia expects to be paid 
 for services rendered and with interest ; but as no de- 
 mand has yet been made of this nature the grateful 
 sense remains unalloyed. The Flemish movement is 
 in its essence an anti-French movement, and if it suc- 
 ceeds in weakening French influence in Belgium it 
 must to that extent promote and strengthen the inter- 
 ests and influence of Germany. 
 
 There are two reasons for the outburst of an anti- 
 French feeling in Belgium. The first of these is the 
 new religious laws, which amount to a persecution of 
 the Church, and have made the French Government 
 most unpopular among the true Catholics of Flanders. 
 Nobody in this country or in France seems to realize 
 the new sentiment of dislike for France and French 
 ideas that has sprung up in Flanders within the last 
 ten years. The dread of the spread of French influ- 
 
336 BELGIUM 
 
 ence was always a sort of bugbear in Flanders ; it has 
 now given place to aversion and, the word must be 
 written, contempt. 
 
 If the religious question has moved the masses, it 
 is political considerations that sway the minds of those 
 in power. There is a "Republican Party in Belgium. 
 It must exist and take itself seriously when M. Van- 
 dervelde shouts the fact in the presence of his King, 
 but a Republic could only exist in Belgium as a kind 
 of satellite of that of France. If Belgian Republicans 
 look to France, it is only natural that those Belgians 
 who are not Republicans should look elsewhere, and 
 that means to Germany. The situation has not yet 
 become acute, but unless the feud between Flemings 
 and Walloons can be arrested, serious consequences 
 threatening if not the very existence of, at least the 
 present order of things in, Belgium must follow within 
 no remote future. 
 
 If there has been a deeper purpose in these pages 
 than to describe a country and people among whom I 
 have lived and for whom I have the highest admira- 
 tion and regard, it is to do what may be done by indi- 
 vidual effort towards drawing the attention of the 
 British public to the affairs of Belgium with the view 
 of increasing mutual sympathy. The national alliance 
 between the peoples of Flanders and England is the 
 oldest in Europe. There are no two people more alike. 
 Their most cherished institutions, those of civic lib- 
 erty, are the same. The English character has been 
 
CONCLUSION 337 
 
 leavened by considerable immigration of Flemish set- 
 tlers since the twelfth century. Clouds have arisen 
 from time to time on the horizon of their relations, 
 but they have cleared away. The truest of Belgian 
 patriots, whether he be Walloon or Fleming, knows 
 in his heart of hearts that England — apart from the 
 efforts of himself and his fellow-countrymen — is the 
 one sure bulwark of Belgium's independence. The 
 appreciation of that great responsibility should on both 
 sides of the Channel stifle criticism and promote 
 regard. 
 
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