54 



BELGIUM. 



privileges which it did not grant to anybody 

 else. The Government, he said, would know 

 how to make the laws respected; and the 

 struggle of the Right against the seculariza- 

 tion of public instruction adopted as it was 

 now in all civilized countries would only ex- 

 pose them to the ridicule of all Europe. M. 

 Mulon, the leader of the opposition, announced 

 the intention of his party, in case it should re- 

 gain power, to abrogate the new law of pub- 

 lic instruction and substitute the confessional 

 school subsidized by the state for the neutral 

 and lay school. A proposal was adopted on 

 the 23d of March for the appointment of a 

 Parliamentary commission of inquiry into the 

 state of elementary instruction. A commis- 

 sion of eight Clerical and seventeen Liberal 

 members was selected on the 5th of May to 

 pursue the designated inquiry. The members 

 of the Right declined to serve upon the com- 

 mission, and the appointment of members to 

 fill their places was thrown upon the officers 

 of the Chamber. The commission, having been 

 organized, published a statement in June, defin- 

 ing the scope of its inquiry, and inviting all 

 persons who could assist it with evidence to 

 cooperate with it, and proceeded to its work. 



The question of maintaining the legation at 

 the Vatican was discussed in March. The Pre- 

 mier on the 3d assured the Chamber that no 

 concession had been made, and no particle of 

 the rights of the kingdom had been alienated 

 by the continued residence cf its envoy at the 

 Holy See. The Minister of Foreign Affairs de- 

 clared on the 9th that no foreign government 

 had made any communication to him on the 

 subject, and that it was well understood that 

 the Chamber would have to pronounce upon 

 the matter every year, and that no decision 

 definitely committing the country could ever 

 be made respecting it. The Chamber decided 

 in favor of maintaining the legation by a vote 

 of ninety-seven yeas to eight nays and two 

 abstentions. Several Liberal members voted 

 for the measure in order to avoid dividing their 

 party. 



The bill to prolong the existing law relative 

 to the treatment of foreigners in Belgium was 

 adopted in May, and was accepted by the Sen- 

 ate on the 12th. During the debate upon it, 

 M. Bara, the Minister of Justice, said that the 

 line of conduct of the Government toward the 

 French Jesuits, should they come to Belgium, 

 would be precisely the same as had been adopt- 

 ed toward the members of religious bodies ex- 

 pelled from Germany. The laws of the state 

 would be enforced as toward them. If they 

 did not trouble the internal and external secu- 

 rity of the country, no measure would be taken 

 against them; but, if they came to Belgium to 

 do what was forbidden to them in France, the 

 Government would prevent them. 



The Cardinal- Archbishop of Malines and 

 the Bishop of Bruges had made provision be- 

 fore the year began for giving religious instruc- 

 tion to the pupils of the communal schools 



within their dioceses. The Archbishop of Ma- 

 lines, in his pastoral for Lent, condemned the 

 public schools, and advised the faithful not to 

 send their children to them. The bishops 

 afterward, upon consultation, decided to allow 

 the children to take their first communion, 

 without raising any objections with reference 

 to the schools they might attend, and to in- 

 struct the parish priests to further the religious 

 instruction of the children in their parishes. 

 The Cardinal-Archbishop received a letter from 

 the Pope, in April, approving the position 

 which the bishops had assumed, and commend- 

 ing their efforts to open and iound new Catho- 

 lic schools, "in order to prevent, or at least to 

 diminish, the disastrous consequences of the 

 new school law, which is completely opposed 

 to the principles and prescriptions of the 

 Catholic Church." "When asked the meaning 

 of this letter, the Pope replied that he had not 

 in it intended any hostility to the Belgian 

 Government. The payment of salaries irom 

 public funds to the curates of parish priests, 

 whose nomination had not been submitted to 

 the Minister of Justice for approval, was sup- 

 pressed. The expressions of the bishops be- 

 came more moderate, and their opposition to the 

 secularized schools assumed a less decided form 

 after the elections for the renewal of the Cham- 

 ber in June, and they appeared desirous to avoid 

 the rupture between the Government and the 

 Vatican which was threatened. Orders had, 

 however, already been sent, on the 5th of June, 

 to the Baron d'Anethan, the envoy, to give 

 notice to Cardinal Nina that the Belgian lega- 

 tion to the Holy See was withdrawn. In his 

 letter conveying the orders the Premier said : 

 " The maintenance of the Belgian legation was 

 possible, and even useful, so long as the Pope 

 remained neutral in the conflict created in Bel- 

 gium by the opposition of the clergy to the 

 laws and institutions of the country, and so 

 long as his Holiness used his influence to mod- 

 erate the struggle. The legation, however, be- 

 came useless from the moment that the Pope 

 encouraged resistance to the laws of the state. 

 After declaring the measures taken by the 

 bishops, with regard to the educational law, to 

 be excessive and inopportune, the Pope, by an 

 unheard-of change of attitude, approves the in- 

 structions given by the bishops to the clergy. 

 Under these circumstances the Government 

 considers it to be its duty to recall the lega- 

 tion." The Belgian envoy left Rome immedi- 

 ately after receiving his recall. Notice of the 

 rupture was given to the Papal Nuncio at 

 Brussels on the 28th of June. A memoran- 

 dum respecting the difficulty was published by 

 the Holy See, which began by stating that the 

 rupture of diplomatic relations had produced 

 so painful an impression on the minds of Cath- 

 olics, and had attracted so greatly the attention 

 of all parties, that the Pope felt it a duty im- 

 posed upon him by his dignity to make a clear 

 and public exposition of the facts which pre- 

 ceded it. The Belgian Minister of Foreign 



