BEL 



1S2 



BEL 



The sums contributed in 1834 out of the public treasury 

 for the purposes of education amounted to 743,200 francs 

 or 29,7287. About one-half of this sum (384,900 francs) 

 was applied to the support of the three universities, and 

 242,000 francs were assigned tp the elementary schools ; the 

 remainder was divided among the ' Athc5nees.' 



Manufactures. The manufacturing industry of Belgium 

 has very much declined in modern times as compared with 

 the extent to which this was carried on in the fourteenth 

 century. Much earlier than this, under the Romans, se- 

 veral Flemish cities were celebrated for producing woollen- 

 cloths. Extensive manufactures of woollens and linens 

 were carried on in the time of Charlemagne, chiefly in 

 Lii'-are. The making of thread-lace originated in Flanders, 

 :inil, up to a recent period, Brussels and Mechlin have car- 

 ried on a large trade in that article : in the former city more 

 than 12.000 persons were once employed for its production. 

 Early in the fourteenth century Lbuvain contained 4000 

 looms for woollens; and Brussels and Antwerp had together 

 as large a number. At a date not quite so remote Ghent 

 employed between 30,000 and 40,000 looms for the weaving 

 of woollen and linen goods. It is mentioned that the 

 weavers of that city onre mustered 16,000 men in arms 

 under the banners of their respective trades. The city <n 

 Antwerp, at the time of its capture in 1585 by the Dul.e <>t 

 Parma, governor of the Spanish Netherlands contained a 

 large population employed in manufacturing woollen and 

 silk goods ; but at that time, through the tyranny of its con- 

 querors, the artisans were driven away, and many of them 

 took refuge in England, where their example and instruc- 

 tion were of great use for the improvement of the English 

 silk manufacture. The woollen manufacture is now pro- 

 secuted, but to a much smaller extent than formerly, at 

 Verviers, Charleroy, Tournay, Mons, and some other towns 

 Cotton -spinning and weaving are carried on in Brussels 

 and some towns in Limbourg. Liege and Maastricht con- 

 tairi large tanneries. At Antwerp, Ostend, and Ghent, 

 there are some sugar-refineries, cutlery is made at Namur, 

 and fire-arms in considerable quantities at Liege : breweries 

 are likewise numerous and extensive in most of the prin- 

 cipal towns throughout the kingdom. Earthenware is 

 made of good quality in several places, and the manufacture 

 of nails has been carried on for a very long period in the 

 provinces of Liege and Hainault. These provinces used 

 formerly to supply a large quantity of nails to foreign mar- 

 kets, but this branch of their trade has greatly fallen oil 

 since the great reduction in the price of iron ard in the 

 charges of manufacture in England, which have not been 



:|ianicd by corresponding reductions in Belgium. 

 Trade. The external trade of Belgium has suffetcf' 

 greatly from the revolution by which it has been separatcii 

 from the northern provinces of the Netherlands. Holland 

 retains all tho colonies which belonged to the kingdom o! 

 the United Netherlands, and monopolizes the trade witli 

 them. Antwerp, the principal mercantile part of the new 

 kingdom, which in 1829 received 995 ships, of 145,881 ton: 

 burthen, received in 1831 only 382 ships of 49,368 tons 

 burthen. The proportions of these ships which were em- 

 ployed in tlic trade with England were, in 1829, 212 vessels 

 of 3.1.306 tons burthen, ami in 1831, 169 ships of 21,670 

 tons burthen : the trade with America has fallen off much 

 more ( ni'-i'li-rnbly, having been 113 ships of 30,31 fi tons 

 burthen in 1829. and only 20 ships of 3057 tons in 1831. 



Many ship-owners who, up to the time of the revolution, 

 were established in Belgium, then transferred themselves 

 to Holland, and put their ships under the Dutch flag, in 

 order that they might not be excluded from participating 



in the colonial trade in which they had previously been em- 

 ployed. 



The articles which Belgium supplies to England are oak- 

 bark, flax, madder, clover-seed, spelter, and sheens' wool . 

 in return for which we send various kinds of East India and 

 I ndia produce, tobacco, and cotton wool, besides British 

 and Irish produce, and manufactures to the value of nearly 

 one million annually, consisting principally of brass and 

 copper manufactures, cotton manufactures and yarn, hard- 

 ware, earthenware, salt, sheeps' wool, woollen and w, 

 yarn, and woollen manufactures. A great part of the cot- 

 ton-yarn and cloths, and the tobaeco, which are exported 

 hence to Belgium, are not intended for consumption i 

 but are smuggled across the French frontier by means of 

 il ogs trained lor the purpose, by being pampered in Frame 

 and half starved and otherwise ill-used in Belgium. 



Government. Belgium is called a limited constitutional 

 monarchy. The Mii-cc-.si->ii is limited to the direct malo 

 line, to the perpetual exclusion of females and their dcs< 

 ants. In default of a male heir, the king, with the con- nt 

 of the legislative chambers, may nominate his successor. 

 and in further default of such nomination the throne is de- 

 clared vacant. 



The legislative power is vested in the king and two cham- 

 bers the Senate and House of Representatives. The mem- 

 bers of these chambers are elected by citizens paying not 

 less than twenty llorins (about thirty-five shillings) an- 

 nually of direct taxes. The members are elected for certain 

 divisions or places, but by one of the articles of the constitu- 

 tion it is expressly declared that the deputies and senators 

 shall consider themselves as representing the whole nation, 

 and not simply the provinces or divisions from which they 

 are sent. The number of deputies is fixed with rcte- 

 to the amount of population, so that the proportion of one 

 deputy for 40.000 inhabitants must in no case be exceeded. 

 Each representative must be a Belgian by birth or natu- 

 ralization, in the full enjoyment of all civil and political 

 rights, of at least twenty-live years of age, and having his 

 permanent residence within the kingdom. The meml-rs 

 of the representative chamber are elected for four years, 

 renewable one half every two years. The king has tin- 

 power to dissolve the chambers, either simultaneously or 

 separately. The decree or act of dissolution must contain a 

 provision convoking the electors within forty days, and the 

 new chambers in two months. 



Tlie Senate is composed of exactly one-half the number 

 of jnenibers in the Chamber of Representatives, and the 

 ted by the same citizens who elect to that 

 chamber. Tim senator-; are elected for eight years; they 

 . ie i'd mie-halt every lour years: but in case of disso- 

 lution, off-nurse the election must comprise the whole num- 

 ber of which the Senate is composed. The qualifications 

 requisite fur a senator are, that he must be a Belgian by 

 birth or naturalization, in full possession of all political and 

 civil rights, domiciled within the kingdom, at least forty 

 years of Kiio, and paying at least 1000 florins of direct i 

 (847. sterling). In those provinces where the list of citizens 

 who possess this last mentioned qualification does not reach 

 the proportion ofone in 6000 of the population, that list is 

 enlarged by the admission into it of the names of those 

 citizens who pay the greatest amount of direct taxes, so 

 that the list shall always contain at least one person win i- 

 eligible to the Senate for every 6000 inhabitants of tin- 

 province. 



The meml>ers of the House of Representatives are paid 

 for their services at the rate of 200 florins monthly ( 1 <">/- 1 liO 

 during the continuance of the session. The senators do not 

 receive any pay. The presumptive heir to the throne is of 

 right a senator at the age of eighteen, but he has nut any 

 voice in the proceedings until twenty-five years of ap-. All 

 proceedings of the Senate during the time when tin- 

 Chamber of Representatives is not sitting are without 

 force. 



Each branch of the legislature may originate laws, with 

 this exception, that every law relating to the receipt or ex- 

 penditure of money for public purposes must be first voted 

 by the Chamber of Representatives. The ordinary sittings 

 of both chambers are held in public; but each chamber, on 

 the demand of the president or often members, may form 

 itself into a secret committee, and when so formed it rests 

 with the majority of the chamber to decide whether or tint 

 the sitlniL's shall e mtimio to he secret. If a member of 

 either of the legislative houses accepts an office of emolu- 



