BELGIUM. 



upon which the American fathers sought to 

 erect a government for themselves and their 

 posterity. This limitation was to be secured 

 by the distribution of governmental powers, 

 and the entire independence of each of the 

 various departments in its separate sphere. 

 The idea was always carefully kept in view 

 in arranging the lines of State and Federal ju- 

 risdictions ; and therefore Mr. Bayard would 

 conceive the true American republican to be 

 one who most closely legislates by the light 

 and guidance of this idea, as set forth and 

 contained in the Constitution of the United 

 States. This political creed may seem nar- 

 row in these days to the sonorous champions 

 of indefinite human progress and expansion, 

 but its wisdom and safety grow plainer as the 

 difficulties thicken about the pathway of the 

 Government. 



The speeches and acts of Mr. Bayard show, in 

 all that he has said or done in public life, that 

 constitutional liberty the civil and religious 

 liberty contemplated by the Constitution has 

 been the object of his anxious and solicitous 

 defense. These remarks correctly describe all 

 that he has said and done as a public man, 

 and therefore are descriptive of the man him- 

 self. 



His father's family were originally French, 

 and being Huguenots fled from France at the 

 time of the massacre of St. Bartholomew (1585), 

 first to Ireland, and soon after to New York. 



The two brothers (Nicholas and Balthazar) 

 came to New York, and one went soon to 

 Cecil County in Maryland, and from that branch 

 he sprung. 



His mother was a Philadelphian of the Fran- 

 cis and Willing families, who were early colo- 

 nial settlers there, of English extraction. 



BELGIUM, a kingdom of Europe. Leopold 

 II., King of the Belgians, was born April 9, 

 1835, son of King Leopold I., former Duke of 

 Saxe Coburg; ascended the throne at the death 

 of his father, December 10, 1865 ; was married 

 August 22, 1853, to Marie Henriette, daughter 

 of the late Archduke Joseph of Austria, born 

 August 23, 1836. Offspring of this union are 

 three daughters. Heir-apparent to the throne 

 is the brother of the King, Philip, Count of 

 Flanders, born March 24, 1827, Lieutenant- 

 General in the service of Belgium ; married 

 April 26, 1867, to Princess Marie of Hohen- 

 zollern-Sigmaringen, born November 17, 1845; 

 offspring of the union is a son, Baldwin, born 

 July 3, 1869. 



The area of the kingdom is 11,373 square 

 miles ; population, according to the last cen- 

 sus, taken in 1866, 4,737,833 ; according to an 

 official calculation of December, 1873, 5,253.- 

 821. Of this population, 54 per cent, belong 

 to the Flemish and 44 to the Walloon-French 

 nationality. The following table exhibits the 

 population of each province of the kingdom 

 on December 31, 1872, as well as the number 

 of arrondissements and communes into which 

 each province is divided: 



The number of Belgian workmen who emi- 

 grate to France and thrive there is considera- 

 ble. There is one class, however, who migrate 

 there yearly, and after a few months' work re- 

 turn to their homes with their earnings to start 

 again the ensuing year. They are the straw- 

 hat makers, and every February about 8,000 

 start from Belgium and take up their quarters 

 in a suburb of Paris and form a little colony 

 there. Most are married, but all leave their 

 wives and children at home. An experienced 

 man can make at least eight francs a day, and 

 therefore, by exercising a little economy, they 

 can easily save 30 francs a week, or about 

 500 francs during their four months' stay. 



Of the four universities of Belgium, the free 

 Catholic University of Louvain had, in 1872, 

 the largest number of students (901) ; the free 

 (Liberal) University of Brussels had 583, the 

 State University of Liege 436, and the State 

 University of Ghent 210; the Koyal Academy 

 of Fine Arts at Antwerp, 1,576 students. 

 There were, besides the Antwerp Academy, 

 72 other academies of design and drawing 

 schools, with 9,447 pupils ; a Conservatory of 

 Music at Brussels, with 675, and another at 

 Li6ge with 789 pupils. 



Nearly the entire population of Belgium is 

 nominally connected with the Roman Catholic 

 Church, at the head of which is the Archbishop 

 of Malines, and five bishops. The other ec- 

 clesiastical benefices consisted, December 31, 

 1872, of 156 deaneries, 232 cures (parishes of 

 the first class), 2,772 succursales (parishes of 

 the second class), 180 chapels, 1,730 vicariates, 

 110 coadjutors, 29 annexes, 706 oratories and 

 chapels of hospitals, colleges, etc. The num- 

 ber of religious communities of men, in 1866, 

 was 178, with 2, 991 inmates; that of religious 

 communities of women, 1,144, with 15,205 in- 

 mates. The number of mutual aid societies 

 recognized by the state was 98 ; their aggre- 

 gate revenue, 207,203 francs ; expenditures, 

 180,447 fr. ; capital, December 31, 1871, 475,- 

 895 fr. ; the number of mutual aid societies 

 not recognized by the state is larger ; capital, 

 December, 1871, 511,692 fr. 



In the budget for 1874, the receipts were 

 estimated at 229,643,000 francs; the expendi- 

 tures at 236,417,402, fr. ; the public debt on 

 May 1, 1874, amounted to 1,059,446,000 fr. 



The number of electors registered for the 

 year 1874-'75 was 111,135, or 2.11 per cent, of 

 the population. The most numerous class of 



