BELGIUM. 



77 



The movement of the special commerce of 

 'ljjiiim during the years 1876 and 1877 was 

 - follows, expressed in millions of francs: 



The following table gives in millions of 

 francs the movement of the general and spe- 

 cial commerce of Belgium from 1860 to 1877, 

 and compares it with the commerce in 1830 : 



The Chambers reassembled in January, and 

 on the 21st the Government introduced a new 

 law on elementary instruction, designed to 

 take the place of the law of 1 842. It required 

 every community to establish a school in a 

 proper locality, tuition to be free for poor 

 children. The school-books to be used are to 

 be examined by the school council, and to be 

 approved by the Government. The clerical 

 supervision is to cease. The teachers shall bo 

 appointed by the Communal Council, but 

 must be native or naturalized Belgians, and 

 possess a certificate of their ability to teach. 

 The instruction is to comprise morals, reading, 

 writing, arithmetic, object-teaching, the rudi- 

 ments of the French, Flemish, or German lan- 

 guage (according to the locality), geography, 

 Belgian history, drawing, gymnastic exercises, 

 music, and needlework. Article IV. is as fol- 

 lows : " Religious instruction shall be left to 

 the care of the families and of the ministers of 

 the different denominations. A room in the 

 school is to be placed at the disposal of the 

 latter in order to give religious instruction to 

 the school - children before or after school- 

 hours." 



A royal decree was published on February 

 23d, which ordered that, in the state normal 

 schools for the instruction of elementary school- 

 teachers, the principles of constitutional and 

 administrative law shall be taught, embracing 

 a history of the political institutions of the 

 country, a knowledge of the Constitution and 

 the laws relating to it, and the elementary 

 school law. This instruction is to be given by 

 a professor specially appointed for that pur- 

 pose, who shall if possible be a doctor of laws. 

 In April the Minister of Public Instruction ap- 

 pointed a committee of seventeen to prepare 

 a plan for the improvement of the secondary 

 schools. 



The discussion on the new elementary school 

 law in the Chamber of Deputies led to violent 

 scenes and severe recriminations. M. Woeste, 

 one of the leaders of the Clerical party, at- 

 tempted to show that lay teachers were not 

 fit for their work. For this purpose he cited 

 fifteen cases of teachers who had since 1859 

 been convicted of improper conduct with their 

 pupils. The Minister of Public Instruction in 

 reply stated that only three of this number 

 had come from state normal schools, which, 

 however, had been under clerical supervision ; 

 while the remaining twelve had graduated 

 with high honors from episcopal seminaries. 

 Of 5,393 lay teachers in the public schools, fif- 

 teen had committed offenses against morality 

 in twenty years. In the same time, however, 

 of 452 clerical teachers, not less than eighteen 

 had committed similar offenses, who indeed 

 had not all been punished, because some had 

 disappeared. 



In May the Minister of Finance submitted 

 a bill abolishing the hearth tax introduced by 

 the laws of 1821 and 1822, and increasing the 

 rent, door, and window taxes. The object of 

 the bill was to put an end to numerous elec- 

 tion abuses which had occurred under the old 

 order of things. 



The bill on primary education was passed 

 by the Chamber of Deputies on June 6th by a 

 vote of 67 to 60, all but two members being 



S resent. In the Senate the bill was passed on 

 une 18th by a vote of 33 to 81, after a bitter 

 speech by the President, Prince de Ligne, who 

 is a member of the Left, in which he denounced 

 the law as an unfortunate law and a war mea- 

 sure. Immediately upon the passage of the 

 school law hi the Senate, the bishops of Bel- 

 gium issued a common pastoral letter con- 

 demning it. They declared that the school 

 system which the Government wished to in- 

 troduce was u dangerous in itself, that it pro- 

 moted infidelity and indifference, and that it is 

 an attack on the faith, the piety, and the re- 

 ligioue rights of the Belgian people." No par- 



