BELGIUM. 



BELOOCHISTAK 



fered, and the scuffle was unattended by any 

 important consequences. Throughout the day, 

 however, there were large assemblages of peo- 

 ple in the streets, and the crowd took up a 

 threatening attitude, standing armed with 

 sticks in front of the Athenaeum. The stu- 

 dents, on leaving, had to be escorted by the 

 police. In the evening the crowd was im- 

 mense. The streets were guarded and barred 

 by detachments of police. The windows of 

 the Athenaeum were broken, and there were 

 individual fights in different places. The bur- 

 gomaster and sheriffs were present on the 

 scene, and it was reported that several arrests 

 were made. 



On May 24th an International Conference 

 between Great Britain, France, Holland, and 

 Belgium, was opened at Brussels, with the 

 view to the abolition of bounties on the ex- 

 portation of sugar. The representative of the 

 French Government, who was called upon 

 first, declared the intention of France to sus- 

 tain the system of excise in the refineries as 

 being the surest protection against frauds. He 

 presented a scheme upholding this view. The 

 Dutch and Belgian representatives next gave 

 their opinions. Holland, although disposed to 

 accept the French plan, would alter some of 

 the conditions, and reserved the right of point- 

 ing out certain measures which, without in- 

 terfering with the industry of the, country, 

 would be equally useful in protecting the Gov- 

 ernment against fraud. The Belgian Govern- 

 ment peremptorily rejected the excise system, 

 as much from a political as from an economical 

 point of view ; but at the same time it pointed 

 out several plans which, in it^ opinion, would 

 be just as efficacious against fraudulent prac- 

 tices. England, having abolished the sugar 

 duties, supported the excise system, which is 

 energetically demanded by British sugar-re- 

 finers, who hope to find in it the best remedy 

 against the export bounties, to which practice 

 the increased competition of foreign refiners 

 is mainly due. The differences of opinion ex- 

 pressed at the conference bear upon the means 

 of control to be employed in order to make 

 competition among the four countries as fair as 

 possible. There was a unanimous feeling in 

 favor of coming to an international under- 

 standing on the subject. The Governments 

 have shown themselves ready to examine all 

 systems likely to lead to this result. 



Belgium lost, in 1875, one of her most dis- 

 tinguished men, by the death of M. d'Omalino 

 d'Halloy. He was born at Liege on the 16th 

 of February, 1783, and was already, in 1815, 

 governor of a province, and afterward a coun- 

 cilor of state under the Dutch Government. 

 In 1848 he entered the Belgian Senate, of 

 which he was for many years a vice-president. 

 Politically he belonged to the Liberal Catho- 

 lics of the old school, who believed the dogmas 

 of their Church to be reconcilable with modern 

 civilization. As a man of science he acquired, 

 however, much greater eminence than as a 



politician. By his numerous works on geol- 

 ogy, of which the first was a remarkable " Geo- 

 logical Description of the Countries situated 

 between the Pas-de-Calais and the Rhine," 

 published in 1808, he became one of the found- 

 ers of that science. Many other works relating 

 to statistics, physics, ethnography, and other 

 branches of science, testify to his unceasing 

 labor and wide range of knowledge. At the 

 Anthropological Congress held at Brussels in 

 1872, he acted as president, and the members 

 of that Congress were surprised at the aston- 

 ishing activity of mind and body which he then 

 still possessed. He was a member of the Bel- 

 gian Royal Academy, a correspondent of the 

 French Academy of Sciences, a member of the 

 Geological Society of Paris, and a grand-officer 

 of the Order of Leopold. His death leaves a 

 void in the ranks of Belgian men of science, 

 of whom, next to the late M. Quetelet, he was 

 probably the most eminent and most widely 

 known. 



BELOOCHISTAN, a country of Asia, bound- 

 ed north by Afghanistan, east by British India, 

 south by the Indian Ocean, and west by Persia. 

 The government is under several rulers, of 

 whom the Khan of Kelat is the most promi- 

 nent. After deducting the territory in the 

 west, which has been ceded to Persia, the area 

 amounts, according to the latest calculations, 

 to 106,750 square miles. The population was 

 estimated by Dieterici in 1859, under the suppo- 

 sition of a density of twelve inhabitants to the 

 square mile, and an area of 165,800 square miles, 

 at about 2,000,000.* For an area of 106,750 

 square miles the same density would give a 

 population of only 1,250,000. Major-General 

 Obrutches, however, estimates the total popu- 

 lation in 1868 at only 1,000,000, which gives a 

 density of about nine to the square mile. Ac- 

 cording to Major Ross ("Proceedings of the 

 Royal Geographical Society," vol. xvi., 1871- 

 '72, p. 139), the most densely populated part 

 of Beloochistan seems to be a strip of land ex- 

 tending twelve miles through Mekran from 

 east to west, and including Kedj. Kedj, with 

 an area of thirty-six square miles, has 10,000 in- 

 habitants. In Saharawan (five to one square 

 mile), Dsh'halawan (1.5 to the square mile), 

 in Lus, and on the coast, the density of popu- 

 lation is very low. Since 1843, the year in 

 which the province of Sinde was annexed to 

 British India, the security of the border toward 

 Beloochistan could only be gained by the erec- 

 tion of numerous strong outposts, on the nar- 

 row strip of land near the border, which for 

 miles was covered with low underbrush. The 

 troops for these posts were partly obtained 

 from the police force, and partly by the forma- 

 tion of a body of irregular cavalry, called the 

 Sindriders. Among the strongest of these out- 

 posts are Sunri and Guranari. After the con- 

 quest of the Sikhs in 1849, each tribe was held 

 strictly responsible for any robberies committed 

 by any one of the tribes. The chiefs were 

 forced to appoint guards for the frontier, which 



