BELGIUM. 



55 



The receipts and expenditures for 1875 were 

 as follows : 



RECEIPTS. 



I. Ordinary receipts : Franca. 



1. Taxes 146,399,595 



2. Tolls 8,018,842 



8. Stocks and rentes , 88,138,645 



4. Reimbursements 3,370,456 



5. Extraordinary resources, applied to the gen- 



eral needs of the state . 2,552,241 



II. Special receipts 80,181,808 



Total receipts 278,711,587 



EXPENDITURES. 



I. Ordinary expenditures : 



1. Publicdebt 62,704,772 



2. Dotations 4,421,730 



8. Justice 15,279,650 



4. Foreign affairs 1,591.244 



5. Interior 18,785,184 



6. Publicworks '. 81,944,736 



7. War 46.066,304 



8. Finances 1<95S,347 



9. Outstanding debts and reimbursements.. . . 1,306.045 

 II. Extraordinary expenditures 45,164^484 



Total expenditures 292,222,496 



Excess of expenditures over receipts 13,510,909 



The public debt at the close of 1876 was as 

 follows: 



LOANS. j Francs. 



Two and one half per cents 219,959,632 



Four and one half per cents : 



1st series, conversion of 1844 55,364,182 



2d series, emission of 1844 67,483,000 



8d Penes (1853) 141,284,900 



4th series (1S57 and 1860) 65,846,400 



5th series (1865) 58,581,000 



6th series (1867. 1869, 1870, 1S71) 



Four per cents (1871) 



'1 hree per cents (1873) 



Three per cents (1874) 



Floating debt 



rr,57S.2oo 



56,894.900 



283,085,000 



1,409,635 



19,450,000 



Total 1,046,936,849 



The standing army is formed by conscription, 

 to which every able-bodied man who has com- 

 pleted his nineteenth yearis liable. Substitution 

 is allowed. The legal term of service is eight 

 years, but two thirds of this time are generally 

 spent on furlough. The strength of the army 

 is to be 100,000 men on the war footing, and 

 40,000 in times of peace. In 1876 the army 

 was composed as follows : 



The civic militia, or national guard, numbers 

 125,000 men without, and 400,000 with, the 

 reserve. Its duty is to preserve liberty and or- 

 der in times of peace, and the independence of 

 the country in times of war. A royal decree, 

 dated October 20, 1874, divided the kingdom 

 into two military circumscriptions, one em- 

 bracing the provinces of Antwerp and West 

 and East Flanders, and the second the others. 



The imports in 1875 amounted to 1,307,100,- 



000 francs, the exports to 1,101,800,000 francs, 

 and the transit trade to 1,005,800,000 francs. 

 The special commerce with the different for- 

 eign countries in 1875 was as follows, in francs: 



The commercial navy in 1875 consisted of 

 59 vessels,' of 50,186 tons. 



The aggregate length of railroads in opera- 

 tion on December 31, 1876, was 3,589 kilome- 

 tres (1 kilometre = 0'62 mile), of which 2,105 

 kilometres were state railroads and 1 ,484 kilo- 

 metres belonged to private roads. The aggre- 

 gate length of the lines of electric telegraph 

 on January 1, 1877, was 5,086 miles; that of 

 wires, 22,081 ; the number of telegraph offices, 

 613; the number of telegrams sent in 1876, 

 2,910,687, of which 1,952,686 were inland, 723,- 

 298 foreign, and 234,703 transit dispatches. 



In March, a committee appointed for that 

 purpose reported to the Chamber on the intro- 

 duction of the Flemish language into the ad- 

 ministrative affairs of the country. According 

 to this report, there are in Belgium 2,256,860 

 people who speak French, 2,659,890 who speak 

 Flemish, 38,070 who speak German, 340,770 

 who speak French and Flemish, 22,700 who 

 speak French and German, 1,790 who speak 

 Flemish and German, and 5,490 who speak all 

 three languages. From this it will be seen that 

 the inhabitants who do not understand the offi- 

 cial language of the country are in a major- 

 ity, and for that reason the Committee recom- 

 mended that the Flemish language be accorded 

 equal rights with the French. The report of 

 the Committee was adopted by both the Cham- 

 ber and the Senate. 



On April 12th the Chamber passed, by a vote 

 of 80 to 24, a bill for increasing the number of 

 members of the Chambers in accordance with 

 the increase of population. The original bill 

 fixing the additional number at fourteen depu- 

 ties and five senators was amended in conse- 

 quence of the efforts of the Left, and, after a 

 long discussion, the number was reduced to 

 eight deputies and four senators. The session 

 of the Chambers closed on May 29th. 



On June llth the elections of one half of the 

 members of the Senate (thirty-one) and of the 

 Chamber of Eepresentatives (sixty-two) took 



