BELGIUM. 



59 



elaborated by the Liberals. The Flemish peasant 



\ote would strengthen thill section even more 

 tllitll till 1 labor Vole \\ould benefit tllr 1 Radicals 



ill Brussels and the industrial and mining dis- 

 tricts. The old political chiefs and the moder- 

 ate -ed ions of lioth the Liberal and tht; ('on- 

 sen alive parties have consistently upheld the 

 s\stein of a bourgeois aristocracy, perpetuated 

 li'y the narrowest franchise in Kurope. The Con- 

 servatives have hitherto opposed any extension 

 of the franchise; while the Liberals, who have 

 discussed the subject for twenty years, have not 

 been able to unite on a plan. The opposition of 

 Freiv-Orban, the aged leader of the once power- 

 ful Liberal party, to any electoral reform going 

 lx>vond u moderate diminution of the property 

 restriction and the recognition of a certain edu- 

 cational qualification, has disrupted the party 

 and converted most of his old followers into 

 Radicals. The Constitution of 1830 established 

 as a sole condition of the franchise a property 

 qualification, the cense being based on the pay- 

 ment of direct taxes varying, according to local- 

 ity, from 13 to 150 guilders. The proposition to 

 confer the right of suffrage on university gradu- 

 ates was rejected, as well as the plan of having 

 the Senators nominated by the King. The Sen- 

 ate was made a select edition of the Chamber, 

 with a higher property qualification for electors 

 and for members, and thus a purely plutocratic 

 principle was made the foundation of the whole 

 system of government. The persons who have a 

 stake in the country having been constituted the 

 only source of political power, the liberty of con- 

 science, of instruction, of the press, and of asso- 

 ciatioii were guaranteed in a fuller measure than 

 in any other country. In 1848 the differential 

 impost was done away with, and an amendment 

 made in the Constitution making the payment 

 of 20 guilders of annual taxes the uniform con- 

 dition of the electoral franchise. 



The organized and violent agitation of the 

 woridngmen, culminating in the general strike 

 of 1890, and the stoppage of production and com- 

 merce as a demonstration in favor of universal 

 suffrage, convinced the Government of the dan- 

 ger of longer withholding the reform, and sub- 

 ject ing the country to the risk of revolution. 

 The Conservatives, from a party standpoint, were 

 not afraid of granting universal suffrage ; for 

 with the rural vote they expected to be able to 

 retain their present two-third majority. The 

 strike was brought to an end only when the 

 (iovernment gave pledges that the question of 

 revision would be taken up. The motion of 

 Janson, the Radical leader, in favor of revision, 

 was supported by the ministers, who acted at 

 the King's request, and was carried in Novem- 

 ber, 1890. by a large majority. The committee 

 of the Chamber discussed methods of reform for 

 many months with no tangible result, and when 

 the Chamber took up the matter in February, 

 1 s ''.'. M. Janson's proposal was made the basis 

 of the discussion and was followed by other pro- 

 posals emanating from the Government. M. 

 lanson had proposed only a revision of Articles 

 XI. VII. LI 1 1, and LVI of the Constitution, which 

 deal with the franchise. The Constitution forbids 

 act ion to be taken by the constituent Chambers 

 on any articles not specially submitted to it by 

 the Parliament which decides that revision shall 



take place. The King and his ministers found 

 anomalies and discrepancies to be removed in 

 order to bring the Constitution into harmony 

 with actual conditions. A clause in Article I 

 makes a reserve in regard to the relations be- 

 tween the Belgian part of Luxembourg and the 

 Germanic Confederation, which have ceased 

 because that Confederation no longer exists. 

 While correcting this point, it was thought de- 

 sirable that the constituent Assembly should 

 make provision also for the regulation of the 

 status of the native population of the Congo 

 Free State, which is to become Belgian territory 

 if present plans and arrangements are carried 

 out. The provision contained in Article L1I, 

 which allows a remuneration of 200 florins a 

 month to members of the Chamber who live out- 

 side the limits of the town where Parliament 

 meets, while those living in Brussels receive 

 none, is a relic of the times when there were no 

 railroads. The Government suggested, as a nat- 

 ural concomitant of a democratic extension of 

 the franchise, that not only the Deputies but 

 the Senators should receive a sufficient remu- 

 neration. The law which makes each house the 

 judge of the credentials of members, contained 

 in Article XXXIV, has given rise to abuses and 

 contentions which would be avoided by having 

 questions of contested seats nassed upon by a 

 legal tribunal. Articles XLVIII, LI, and LVI1I 

 bear upon the organization and powers of the 

 Chambers. The Belgian Senate has been a use- 

 less and superfluous body, and the legislative 

 functions have been monopolized by the Cham- 

 ber of Deputies. When M. A. Demeur in 1870 

 made a stirring appeal which opened the battle 

 for electoral reform, he showed that there were 

 only 480 men in Belgium who paid 1,000 guild- 

 ers in direct taxes, and were therefore qualified 

 to sit in the Senate ; that the 20-guilder limita- 

 tion for voters conferred the right of suffrage 

 upon only 110,000, while it shut out 1,400,000 

 adult male Belgians. The Government advo- 

 cated turning the Senate into a Chamber rep- 

 resenting diverse interests, like the upper House 

 in Austria, except that in Austria the repre- 

 sentatives are either hereditary proprietors, bish- 

 ops, princes, etc., or are selected by the Govern- 

 ment; whereas in Belgium all but a very few 

 would be elected by the interests to be repre- 

 sented. The King desired to have Article L VIII 

 altered, so as to allow all the princes of the royal 

 house to enjoy the privilege accorded by the old 

 Constitution to the heir-presumptive, of sitting 

 in the Senate from the age of eighteen, and of 

 voting as Senators when they reach the age of 

 twenty-five. He asked also that the wording of 

 Articles LX and LXI should be altered, so as to 

 grant him the right that was conferred on the 

 first Leopold, his father, of naming, in default 

 of male heirs in the regular succession, the suc- 

 cessor to the throne, subject to the approval of 

 the Chambers, and also the power to prevent the 

 heir-presumptive and other princes in the line 

 of possible succession from making unsuitable 

 marriages. An important proposition to secure 

 the representation of minorities in the Chamber 

 was also submitted. The most novel and the 

 most momentous proposal of the King, and that 

 which excited the strongest opposition, was the 

 introduction of the referendum. The ministers 



