68 



BELGIUM. 



General Baptist Association could be combined, 

 resulted in recommendations that the General 

 and Particular Baptists in the counties of Notts, 

 Derby, Leister, and Lincolnshire should unite 

 and form a new association; that in the other 

 districts the General Baptist churches should 

 unite with the existing local associations; and 

 that when local circumstances make it desirable, 

 each church should be free to take its own course 

 as to the association it should join. A plan for 

 the union of the Foreign Missionary Society 

 with that of the Particular Baptists, to be sub- 

 ject to the regulations of the latter, was agreed 

 upon by the society and adopted by the associa- 

 tion ; and the desire was expressed that the pro- 

 posed union be completed by June, 1891. 



The General Baptist churches are situated 

 principally in the midland counties of England, 

 and were reorganized to form the present " New 

 Connection " in the year 1770. The association 

 has a closer connectional cohesiveness than the 

 Particular Baptists possess. The several insti- 

 tutions, missionary, and benevolent societies are 

 so many departments of the general body ; while 

 with the Particular Baptists, the Foreign Mis- 

 sionary Society, the ministerial colleges, the 

 building fund, and other similar societies are in- 

 dependent and self-managing. 



VIII. General Baptist Assembly. The two 

 hundred and thirty-seventh General Baptist As- 

 sembly, which includes both orthodox and Uni- 

 tarian churches, was held in London in October. 

 A paragraph was inserted in the constitution de- 

 claring that the churches " believe that the gates 

 of any sectional part of Christ's Church should 

 be as wide open as the gate of his universal 

 Church, and, therefore, that all his churches may 

 gladly receive into membership any persons who 

 shall confess their personal faith in Christ and 

 avow their determination to obey him according 

 to their light." It also adopted resolutions con- 

 demning the policy of the Government in Ire- 

 land, favoring free education, and expressing 

 sympathy with the labor movement. 



BELGIUM, a constitutional monarchy in 

 western Europe, declared neutral and inviolable 

 in the treaty of London in 1839. Leopold II, 

 son of the first King, Leopold I, and of the Prin- 

 cess Louise, daughter of Louis Philippe, King of 

 the French, was born on April 9, 1835, and as- 

 conded the throne on Dec. 10, 1865. Members 

 of the House of Representatives are elected by 

 the direct suffrage of all citizens paying 40 francs 

 in direct taxes, in the proportion of one deputy 

 to every 40.000 of population. Members of the 

 Senate are elected under the same conditions for 

 eight years, or double the term of service in the 

 lower house. The executive authority is exer- 

 cised through a Council of Ministers consisting of 

 the following members, as constituted after the 

 general election in 1884 : President of the Council 

 and Minister of Finance, A. Beernaert ; Minister 

 of Justice, J. Lejeune ; Minister of the Interior 

 and of Instruction, J. Devolder ; Minister of War, 

 Gen. C. Pontus ; Minister of Agriculture, Indus- 

 try, and Public Works, L. Debruyn ; Minister of 

 Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs, J. H. P. Van- 

 denpeereboom ; Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

 Prince de Chi may. 



Area and Population. The area of the 

 kingdom is 29,457 square kilometres, or 11,373 



square miles. The population, as estimated at 

 the beginning of 1889, is 6,030,043, comprising 

 3,008,444 males and 8,021,599 females, showing 

 an annual increase of 1'15 per cent, since 1880. 

 The number of marriages in 1888 was 42,427; of 

 births, 175,493; of deaths, 121,097; the surplus 

 of births over deaths, 54.390. The number of 

 emigrants in 1888 was 21,213 : of immigrants, 

 23,041 ; the excess of immigration, 1,828. The 

 most populous cities are Brussels, with 469,317 

 inhabitants on Jan. 1, 1889, including its suburbs : 

 Antwerp, with 215,778 ; Ghent, with 150,656 ; and 

 Liege, with 142,657. 



Education. At the end of 1888 there were 

 5,491 primary schools, with 604,068 pupils; 

 1,644 elementary schools for adults, with 05,300 ; 

 947 infant schools, with 99,296 ; 49 primary nor- 

 mal schools, with 3,783 ; 7 superior normal 

 schools, with 487; 89 intermediate schools for boys 

 with 14,385 ; 40 for girls, with 7,079 ; and 35 

 royal colleges and athenaeums, with 7,361. The 

 universities in 1889 had the following numbers of 

 students : 



There are besides 913 students in the schools 

 of engineering, art, mining, and manufactures 

 connected with the universities. The Royal 

 Academy of Fine Arts at Antwerp had 1,346 

 students* in 1888 ; the various schools of design, 

 13.014; schools of music, 12.220. In the budget 

 for 1890 the sum of 1,644,900 francs is appropri- 

 ated for superior education, 3,784,048 francs for 

 intermediate schools, and 10,725,288 francs for 

 elementary education. Out of 55,585 recruits 

 called into the military service in 1889 there 

 were 18,678 who had a good education, 27,566 

 who could merely read and write, 1,575 who 

 could only read, and 7,329 without the rudiments 

 of education. 



Commerce. The total value of the general 

 commerce in 1888 was 3,087,246,500 francs of im- 

 ports and 2,800,025,000 francs of exports. The 

 imports by sea amounted to 1,302,495,900 francs 

 and the exports to 1,220,919.000 francs. The im- 

 ports for home consumption were of the total 

 value of 1,534,300,000 francs; the exports of do- 

 mestic products, 1,243,700,000; the transit trade, 

 1,556,300,000 francs. The values, in francs, of 

 the imports for home consumption of the princi- 

 pal articles are as follow : Cereals, 263,315,000 ; 

 textile materials, 186,782,000 ; vegetable sub- 

 stances, 84,210,000 ; timber, 69,688,000 ; chemi- 

 cals, 68,579,000: live animals, 67,240,000; min- 

 erals, 66,680,000 ; resinous substances, 65,373,000 ; 

 hides and skins, 61,410,000 ; textile manufactures, 

 52,663,000; coffee, 44,449,000; butter and eggs, 

 32.961,000; metals, 32,439,000 ; animal products, 

 30,378,000; yarns, 27,321,000; wine, 22,710,000; 

 rice, 19,885.000 ; meat, 19,072,000; manure, 18,- 

 293,000; oils, 17,753,000; fish, 11,260,000. 



The values, in francs, of the largest exports of 

 domestic products are as follow : Yarns. 135,- 

 368,000 ; textile materials, 79,485,000 ; coal, 78,- 



