CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



hyacinths, lilies, dahlias, and other garden flowers, 

 for which the country around Haarlem has long 

 been celebrated. 



Of the inhabitants, about three-fourths are Hol- 

 landers or Dutch, speaking that dialect of Low- 

 German which, of all modern Teutonic tongues, 

 has retained most of the primitive characteristics ; 

 the Frisians, also a Low- German race, whose 

 -speech was anciently spread over almost the 

 whole country, but is now confined to parts of 

 North Friesland ; the High-Germans in Luxem- 

 burg and Limburg, and Walloons in Limburg. 

 As to religion, the majority of the people are 

 Calvinistic Protestants ; the minority consisting 

 mainly of Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Jews. 

 There is, however, no dominant sect in the 

 country : all forms of faith and ritual are alike 

 tolerated ; the clergy are indiscriminately main- 

 tained by the state ; the universities are upheld in 

 the same manner, and these are open to students 

 of all sects, whose theological studies are con- 

 ducted under professors of their own creed. Edu- 

 cation is spreading rapidly throughout the king- 

 dom, through the operation of the Primary In- 

 struction Law of 1857, but even yet it is calculated 

 that in the rural districts one-fourth of the men 

 and one-third of the women can neither read nor 

 write. According to the government returns in 

 1880, the number of pupils in the public schools 

 .amounted to 408,000, and in the private schools 

 to 137,000. There are about 100 secondary 

 schools. A new university has been founded at 

 Amsterdam; and the universities of Leyden, 

 Utrecht, and Groningen, once famous, are again 

 .attracting the notice of Europe by the liberality 

 and learning of their professors. 



Industrially and commercially the Dutch have 

 long been celebrated. The nature of their agri- 

 cultural produce has been already adverted to ; 

 and the careful, cleanly style in which they culti- 

 vate the soil and manage their dairies, as well as 

 the manner in which they embank and drain their 

 low plots or polders, are beyond all praise. The 

 chief manufactures are those of woollen, in 

 Leyden and Utrecht ; silks, in Utrecht, Haarlem, 

 and Amsterdam ; calicoes, shirtings, drills, table- 

 cloths, and dimities, in the town of Overyssel ; 

 tobacco-pipes at Gouda ; and paper, leather, 

 sugar-refining, painters' colours, and cordage, at 

 various other places. The distilling of gin is ex- 

 tensively conducted at Schiedam. Delft, and Rot- 

 terdam ; and ship-building at the ports of Rotter- 

 dam and Amsterdam. The trade of the Nether- 

 lands is chiefly carried on with Germany and 

 Great Britain, and is rapidly increasing year by 

 year. In 1867, its imports were valued at 

 j44j5oo,ooo, and its exports at .36,400,000 ; in 

 1880, they had risen respectively to over 

 ^69,000,000 and .52,000,000. 



The government, since the establishment of 

 peace in 1815, has been a constitutional hereditary 

 monarchy. The legislative power is vested in the 

 sovereign and the States-general, which consists 

 of two chambers the first, of thirty-nine members, 

 elected by the provincial assemblies ; the second, 

 of a representative for every 45,000 inhabitants, 

 which, in 1881, gave 86 members, all of whom are 

 paid. Population in 1881, 4,114,000; the revenue 

 of late years has averaged about ,9,000,000; the 

 expenditure has generally been a little less. In 

 1882, the national debt was /78,5oo,ooo; the 



220 



army at the same date was 62,000; the navy 

 consisted of 103 steamers, of which 17 were iron- 

 clads. Capital, Amsterdam, with (1885) a popu- 

 lation of 366,000. 



BELGIUM. 



Belgium, another of the lesser kingdoms of 

 Europe, is situated between lat. 49 27 and 51 

 31' north, and long. 2 33' and 6 5' east ; and is 

 bounded on the north by Holland ; east, by 

 Rhenish Prussia, Dutch Limburg, and Luxem- 

 burg ; south, by France and Germany ; and 

 west, by the German Ocean. Area, 11,372 square 

 miles. 



Superficially, the northern and western prov- 

 inces of Belgium, in their flatness, fertility, dikes, 

 and canals, may be regarded as a continuation of 

 Holland with this difference, that in no part 

 does the surface fall beneath the level of the sea. 

 The south and east provinces have an opposite 

 character ; they are generally more thinly peopled, 

 less cultivated, and exhibit an irregular hilly 

 surface, with tracts of marshy land and extensive 

 forests. The country is intersected by numerous 

 streams the affluents of the navigable rivers 

 Meuse, Sambre, Dender, Scheldt, Lys, &c. The 

 chief mineral products of Liege, Namur, Hainault, 

 and Luxemburg are coal, iron, lead, copper, and 

 zinc ; besides which may be mentioned manganese, 

 calamine, alum, various kinds of stone, slate, 

 marble, whet-hones, and porcelain clay. Of the 

 mineral springs arising from these formations, the 

 most celebrated are those of Spa. 



The climate resembles that of the south-east of 

 England, but is, on the whole, more humid and 

 variable ; some districts, moreover, as Flanders, 

 being at certain seasons rendered unhealthy by 

 noxious exhalations from the water-courses and 

 low polder-lands. The vegetation, both natural 

 and cultivated, is the same as that of England 

 and the north of France. 



Of the inhabitants, about two-thirds, inhabiting 

 the northern provinces, are Flemings, an offshoot 

 of the great Teutonic stem, and speaking a 

 language resembling Dutch. The south-eastern 

 provinces are inhabited by Walloons, who are 

 Celts like the French, and speak dialects (Walloon 

 and Picard) of the French language. French is 

 the language of the educated classes. In regard 

 to religion, nineteen-twentieths of the people are 

 Roman Catholics. There are not more than 

 1 5,000 Protestants, and perhaps about 3000 Jews. 



Education is almost entirely in the hands of the 

 Jesuits. The colleges of that order have more 

 pupils than the royal athenaeums and other upper 

 and middle class schools ; while the Roman 

 Catholic university of Louvain has twice as many 

 students as the two state universities put together. 

 Elementary education is not yet generally diffused, 

 but is growing. 



At present, the industry of Belgium is happily 

 distributed between agriculture, mining, and manu- 

 factures. The Belgian or Flemish system of agri- 

 culture is well known over Europe for its minute 

 and careful management ; and no people under- 

 stand better the method of collecting and prepar- 

 ing every species of manure, without which much 

 of their sandy soil would be next to worthless. 

 Half the surface of the country is under tillage. 

 The mines of Belgium are an important source of 





