BELGIUM. 



Baptists of the Netherlands. The Baptists 

 of the Netherlands began to hold general meetings 

 about 1880, and now have a regular organization 

 called the Union of Churches of Baptist Chris- 

 tians in the Netherlands. They have 13 churches, 

 and the annual meeting of 1901, which was held 

 at Sneek.. was attended by 20 pastors and dele- 

 gates, and about 30 visitors from Germany, South 

 Belgium, and England, as well as ironi Holland. 

 Two additional churches had joined the union 

 during the year. About $300 had been contrib- 

 uted for missions, and the money was sent to the 

 German Baptist missions in Cameroons, on the 

 Congo, and in North Africa. About $500 had 

 been contributed to home mission work. The 

 union decided to begin colportage work in Bel- 

 gium and in parts of northern France. 



Baptist Conference in Sweden. The first 

 Baptist church in Sweden was founded in 1848, 

 with 6 members. The conference of 1901 was 

 held at Orebro, in the province of Nerike, in Sep- 

 tember. The statistical reports represented 19 dis- 

 trict associations,, with 566 churches, 390 houses 

 of worship, 7 new ones having been built during 

 the year, 753 preachers, of whom 250 gave all 

 their time to ministerial labor, 41,101 members, 

 1,704 baptisms during the year, 663,133 kroner 

 contributed for church and missionary purposes, 

 and church property valued at 3.159.033 kronor, 

 against which stood 962,784 kronor of indebted- 

 ness; and 934 Sunday-schools, with 3,482 teachers 

 and 46,172 pupils. "The Committee for Foreign 

 Missions reported 4 missionary stations in the 

 Russian Empire, 1 in Spain, 1 in China, and a 

 missionary family on the Congo working in con- 

 nection \vith the American Baptist Missionary 

 Union, which is sustained by Swedes. The mis- 

 sion in China had not suffered by the riots of the 

 war, but was reported as prosperous, with a new 

 church built at Kiaw-Chew, and several Chinese 

 baptized by the missionaries. Several of the 

 Swedish Baptists were expecting to visit the 

 United States in 1902 to participate in the celebra- 

 tion of the fiftieth anniversary of the organiza- 

 tion of the first Swedish Baptist church here, 

 Sept. 26, 1852. 



BELGIUM, a constitutional, representative, 

 and hereditary monarchy in western Europe. The 

 legislative power is vested in the Senate and the 

 Chamber of Representatives: Senators are elected 

 for eight years, half of them being replaced every 

 four years. The number is half that of the Cham- 

 ber, which is regulated according to the census 

 in the ratio of 1 Deputy to 40,000 inhabitants. 

 The Chamber of Representatives in 1901 contained 

 152 members, the Senate 76. Of the Senators 26 

 are elected by provincial councils, the rest directly 

 by the people. Candidates for popular election 

 must be taxpayers to the amount of 1,200 francs, 

 or possess real estate worth 12,000 francs a year. 

 Members of the Chamber of Representatives are 

 elected for four years, half of them being renewed 

 every two years. Every citizen over twenty-five 

 years of age, possessing full civil rights, and dom- 

 iciled for one year in his district,, has one elect- 

 oral vote, and can cast a supplementary vote if 

 he is thirty-five years of age, married or a widower 

 with legitimate issue, and pays 5 francs of direct 

 taxes, or if he possesses real property of the 

 value of 2,000 francs or investments in public 

 funds yielding 100 francs a year. If he is a 

 graduate of an institution of higher education or 

 holds or has held public office or holds any posi- 

 tion implying the possession of education he can 

 cast two supplementary votes. The number of 

 votes for members of the Chamber in 1900 was 

 2,239,621, cast by 1,452,232 electors; the num- 



ber for Senators was l,9!)4,lf>3, cant by 1,227,720 

 electors. 



The reigning sovereign is Leopold II, born April 

 9, 1835, who on Doc. 10, 1865, succeeded his father 

 Leopold I, a prince of Saxc-Coburg, who was 

 elected the first King of the Belgians by a Na- 

 tional Congress on .June 4, 1831, after the seces- 

 sion of Belgium from the Netherlands. Jiy the 

 treaty of London, signed on Nov. 15, 1831, Aus- 

 tria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia guaran- 

 teed the perpetual neutrality of Belgium. The 

 heir to the throne is Philippe, Count of Flanders, 

 born March 24, 1837, the King's only brother, who 

 has one son living, Prince Albert, born April 8, 

 1875. The Council of Ministers appointed on 

 Aug. 5, 1899, was composed as follows: President 

 and Minister of Finance and Public Works, Count 

 de Smet de Naeyer; Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

 P. de Favereau; Minister of the Interior, M. de 

 Trooz; Minister of Justice; M. van den Heuvel; 

 Minister of War, Gen. Cousebant Alkemade; 

 Minister of Agriculture, Baron van der Bruggcn; 

 Minister of Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs, M. 

 Liebart; Minister of Industry and Labor, Baron 

 Surmont de Volsberghe. 



Area and Population. Belgium has an area 

 of 11,373 square miles. The population on Dec. 

 31, 1899, was estimated at 6,744,532, composed of 

 3,363,436 males and 3,381,096 females. The num- 

 ber of marriages in 1898 according to the corrected 

 reports was 55,444; of births, 190,921; of deaths, 

 117,457; excess of births, 73,464. The decennial 

 census of Dec. 31, 1900, shows a population a little 

 over 6,800,000. 



The number of immigrants in 1899 was 26,364 

 and of emigrants 22,957, showing a net immigra- 

 tion of 3,407. 



Finances. The ordinary revenue of the Gov- 

 ernment in 1898 amounted to 439,282,000 francs, 

 and expenditure to 426,012,000 francs. In 1899 

 the ordinary revenue was 466,728,000 francs. The 

 budget presented for 1901 makes the ordinary rev- 

 enue 488,429,760 francs, and the ordinary ex- 

 penditure 488,047,973 francs. Of the revenue prop- 

 erty taxes were expected to yield 26,144,000 francs, 

 personal taxes 21,289,000 francs, trade licenses 

 8,600,000 francs, mines 2,200,000 francs, customs 

 43,120,166 francs, excise taxes 65,450,500 francs, 

 various taxes 2,902,000 francs, registration and 

 other fees 30,200,000 francs, succession duties 19,- 

 720,000 francs, stamps 8,700,000 francs, fines, etc., 

 913,000 francs, rivers and canals 2,030,000 francs, 

 railroads 206,000,000 francs, telegraphs 9,640,000 

 francs, the post-office 15,783,620 francs, pilotage 

 1,460,000 francs, domains and forests 3,537,000 

 francs, bank and other profits 15,871,800 francs, 

 and repayments 4,868,174 francs. Of the 'total 

 ordinary expenditure the interest and sinking 

 fund of the debt absorbed 130,730,570 francs, the 

 civil list and dotations 5,047,990 francs, the Min- 

 istry of Justice 26,544,900 francs, the Min- 

 istry of Foreign Affairs 3,159,168 francs, the Min- 

 istry of the Interior and Public Instruction 30,- 

 563,950 francs, the Ministry of Agriculture 11,967,- 

 309 francs, the Ministry of Industry and Labor 

 16,250,150 francs, the Ministry of Railroads, Posts, 

 Telegraphs, and Telephones 164,560,412 francs, 

 the Ministry of War 55,339,316 francs, the Min- 

 istry of Finance and Public Works 34,652.345 

 francs, the gendarmerie 7,155.863 francs, repay- 

 ments, etc., 2,076,000 francs. 



The capital of the public debt on Jan. 1, 1900, 

 was 2,604,255,114 francs, comprising three series 

 of 3-per-cent. rentes and Belgium's share of 219,- 

 959,632 francs in the old debt of the Netherlands. 

 The 3-per-cent. rente of 84.798 francs a year under 

 the head of military obligations has a capital 



