BELGIUM. 



1807 he was appointed Professor of Greek 

 Literature in the University of Berlin, and 

 three years later he resigned in order to visit 

 Paris and devote himself to the examination 

 of the Greek manuscripts in the Imperial 

 Library. He returned to Germany in 1812, 

 and commenced the publication of Anecdota 

 Graca, in three volumes, and his magnificent 

 edition of the writings of Plato, in 10 volumes. 

 Both works were completed between 1814 and 

 1821. Meantime he had been elected a mem- 

 ber of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and 

 had been deputed by it to make a second visit 

 to Paris to examine the papers of Fourmont, 

 and to prepare a Corpus Inscriptionum G-rm- 

 coruni, a work often previously attempted but 

 never satisfactorily accomplished. After a 

 thorough exploration of the Parisian libraries 

 for this purpose, he and his colleague, Goes- 

 chen, went to Italy and visited successively 

 Rome, Florence, Venice, Mont Cassin, Cesina, 

 Milan, Turin, etc. At Verona they discovered 

 a palimpsest manuscript containing a complete 

 copy of the "Institutes of Gaius," which Nie- 

 buhr had previously unearthed in an imper- 

 fect condition. Goeschen now returned to 

 Berlin, but Bekker continued his explorations 

 in England, in Holland, and in North Ger- 

 many. On his return to Berlin, about 1820, 

 he was immediately called to resume the pro- 

 fessorship he had resigned in 1810. In the 

 fifty years that followed his works were as 

 numerous as they were important. He may 

 be said with truth to have been the last of 

 that eminent school of philologists to which 

 Wolf and Heine, Munk and Bopp, and so many 

 others who have died within the past four or 

 five years, belonged. He had, in contrast with 

 the others, devoted himself almost exclusively 

 to one language (the Greek), and to the dialects 

 which had sprung from it ; but in his thorough 

 mastery of every thing belonging to Greek 

 science, literature, and philology, he had no 

 peer either in Germany or anywhere else. 

 Among his works, besides those already men- 

 tioned, were: "The Attic Orator," 5 vols. 

 (1823), republished at Oxford in 7 vols.; 

 " Thucydides," 4 vols. (1821-1824); "The 

 Library of Photius," 2 vols. (1824); "Aris- 

 tophanes," 3 vols. (London, 1825) ; " Scholia 

 for the Iliad," 3 vols. (London, 1826-'27); 

 "Sextus Empiricus," 1 vo.1. (Berlin, 1842); 

 and critically edited editions of all the Greek 

 poets. He had also revised carefully the text 

 of all the principal Greek and Latin historians^ 

 and had made a collection of the works of 

 most of the Byzantine historians in 24 vols. 

 under the title of Corpus Scriptorum Histories 

 Byzantium. He had occupied himself of late 

 years with an investigation of the Provencal 

 and Venetian philosophies, and had been pub- 

 lishing a series of essays on the most remark- 

 Able philosophical works of the writers in these 

 languages in the middle ages. 



BELGIUM, a kingdom of Europe. King, 

 Leopold II., born April 9, 1835 ; succeeded his 



father, Leopold I., on December 10, 1865. 

 Heir-apparent, the brother of the King, Count 

 Philip of Flanders, born March 24, 1837; 

 married April 25, 1867, to Princess Maria of 

 Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen ; has one son, Bald- 

 win Leopold, born June 3, 1869. A new 

 ministry was appointed on July 1, 1870, as 

 follows : President, Minister of State and of 

 Public Works, Count d'Anethan ; Minister of 

 Justice, Cornesse ; Minister of Finances, Ja- 

 cobs ; Minister of War, Guillanme ; Minister 

 of the Interior, Kervyn de Lettenhove ; Min- 

 ister of Public Works^ Wasseige (appointed Sep- 

 tember 12, 1870). Mr. Russell Jones was ac- 

 credited minister resident of the United States, 

 at Brussels, July 14, 1869, while Belgium is 

 represented at Washington by its minister resi- 

 dent, Mr. M. Delfosse. 



The area of Belgium is 11,37S square miles, 

 with a population, according to the official 

 calculation of December 81, 1869, of 5,021,336 

 inhabitants. Nearly the entire population of 

 Belgium are Roman Catholics, the Protestants 

 being estimated by Heuschling, in 1862, at 

 10,000, and the Jews-at 2,000 ; the greater half 

 of the Protestants and Jews live in the prov- 

 inces of Antwerp and Brabant. According to 

 the census of 1866, 2,406,491 inhabitants spoke 

 the Flemish language, and 2,041,784 the 

 French; nevertheless, the French language 

 has thus far been the official. 



The population of the large cities was, on 

 December 31, 1869, as follows : 



Malines . 36.090 



Verviers 31,92T 



Louvain 33,731 



Tournay 31,002, 



Bruges 47,621 



The public debt of Belgium, on May 1, 1869, 

 amounted to 706,446,214 francs. Although 

 heavy sums have been expended for railroads 

 and other public works, the aggregate indebt- 

 edness of the country is steadily diminishing, 

 as will be seen from the following statement : 



Brussels 171,277 



Antwerp 126,668 



Ghent 121,469 



The budget for 1870, as approved by the 

 Chambers, fixed the revenue at 176,725,000 

 francs, and the expenditures at 176,812,837 

 francs. The standing army numbers, accord- 

 ing to a decree of April 5, 1868, 100,000 men 

 in time of war. 



The exports and imports of Belgium in 1868 

 and 1869 were as follows (value expressed 

 in francs) : 



