NETHERLANDS (HISTORY) 



181 



eminent was also forced to put a stop, in 1825, to 

 the influx of the French missionaries into Belgium. 

 On the other hand, the pope issued a bull of ex- 

 communication against the schismatics or against 

 the Jansenist bishops and archbishops of Utrecht, 

 Haarlem, and Deventer, who had taken the oath 

 of allegiance to the king. The relations of the 

 Netherlandish government to the Roman court ap- 

 peared, however, to be finally established, after 

 long negotiations, by the concordate signed at Rome, 

 June 18, 1827, by the Netherlandish ambassador 

 count de Celles and the plenipotentiaries of the 

 holy see, which concordate was ratified at Brussels, 

 July 25, 1827. By it, the concordale concluded by 

 Pius VII. with Napoleon, July 15, 1801, became 

 valid in the northern provinces of the kingdom, as it 

 had previously been in the southern. Each diocese 

 had its chapter and its seminary. The chapter of a 

 vacant see was to propose candidates from the Nether- 

 landish clergy ; those to whom the king should object, 

 were to be struck from the list ; the chapter was then 

 to choose from the approved list the bishop or arch- 

 bishop, whom the pope was immediately to confirm, if 

 he should find him properly chosen. But the execution 

 of this concordate, which did not meet with the ap- 

 probation of a great part of the nation, was attended 

 with new difficulties ; the government, though desir- 

 ous of retaining tiie philosophical college founded at 

 Louvain (q. v.), in 1825, as a useful institution for all 

 theologians, was obliged to abolish it in 1830. To 

 the five bishoprics (Mechlin the metropolitan 

 Liege, Namur, Tournay, Ghent) three new ones 

 (Bruges, A msterdam, and Hertogenbosch) were added. 

 Another cause irritated the Belgic people in partic- 

 ular the prohibition of the French language. As 

 the difference of language rendered the union of the 

 southern anil northern Netherlands into one nation 

 difficult, the government, while it allowed the use of 

 the French as well as the Dutch in the proceedings 

 of the slates-general, abolished, by the ordinance of 

 July 11, 1818, the use of the French language in 

 judicial proceedings, and by the public authorities, 

 only allowing advocates to make use of it for a cer- 

 tain period. Another royal edict, of September 15, 

 1819, required that in Limburg, East and West Flan- 

 ders, and in Antwerp, no other but the national lan- 

 guage, the Flemish-Dutch, should be used in public 

 business: this rule, indeed, it became subsequently 

 necessary to soften ; but, October 26, 1822, it was 

 ane- ordered, that the national language alone, the 

 Dutch or Flemish, should be used in schools, as well 

 as in all public transactions. January 1, 1823, this 

 rule was introduced in all the courts of justice, even 

 in Brussels. The French language, nevertheless, 

 remained prevalent there in society, and it was found 

 necessary, till the end of 1825, to allow the advo- 

 cates who had never yet spoken before court in 

 Dutch, to argue their causes in French. In the 

 chamber*, especially in the second, speakers were 

 heard in three different languages, who, perhaps, in 

 many cases, did not understand each other ; the Bel- 

 gic deputies speaking French, the ministers and the 

 ministerial party, partly Dutch, partly Flemish. The 

 suppression of the French language, therefore, made 

 two opposite parlies the secret friends of France the 

 Catholic Belgians, apprehensive for their church, be- 

 cause they believed that the object was to propagate 

 the Protestant faiih by means of the prohibition of 

 French ; and the Brabanlers and Flemings, adhering 

 to France from old predilection. Thus notwithstand- 

 ing the prohibition of the French and German lan- 

 guages in public life, the bonds of national unity 

 were by no means tightened. On the contrary, be- 

 sides the diversity of language and religion, other 

 causes separated the southern provinces from the 



northern. The administration of justice was to be 

 regulated by a new civil code. This code was drawn 

 up in the council of state, and for several years sub- 

 mitted to a strict examination in the sessions of the 

 states-general. The settling of the national finances 

 was the most difficult problem for legislation. The 

 greatest obstacle lay in the uniform levying of taxes. 

 Belgium, a manufacturing, agricultural country, wish- 

 ed to place the burdens on articles of export and 

 import ; while Holland, to spare its own commerce, 

 wished to impose them on real estate. The budget, 

 therefore, always employed a great part of the time 

 of the states-general, who convened in October of 

 each year, alternately at the Hague and at Brussels. 

 The proceedings in the chambers were often exceed- 

 ingly turbulent. The new finance law created such 

 dissatisfaction among the people, especially what 

 related to the meal tax, that in the grand duchy of 

 Luxemburg, in January, 1823, disturbances arose, 

 which it was found necessary to quell by force. After 

 deducting the deferred debt, which bears no interest, 

 the true debt amounted, in 1823, to 593,578,900 

 Dutch guilders, or over 237,000,000 dollars. To 

 promote the unity of the administration, a ministerial 

 council was organized, September 10, 1823, to ex- 

 amine all bills proposed for legislation. In 1819, the 

 army was diminished to 40,000 men, a force appar- 

 ently hardly sufficient to garrison forty-seven for- 

 tresses. A civil militia of 25,000 men was therefore 

 introduced. In May, 1822, the government abolished 

 in the army the punishment of flogging, and estab- 

 lished for criminals disciplinarian battalions. The 

 construction of the frontier fortresses, to which the 

 military payments of France were appropriated, was 

 diligently prosecuted, and the duke of Wellington 

 several times visited the frontiers of Belgium to 

 supervise these operations. In 1827, the second son 

 of the king, prince Frederic, was minister of war. 

 The government did a great deal for every branch of 

 public education, especially for the public schools ; it 

 protected the diffusion of information, and was de- 

 terred by no expense. In^vain did the government 

 of the Roman church endeavour, in 1825, to with- 

 draw the Catholic institutions for instruction in 

 Belgium from the inspection of the state authorities. 

 For supplying the deficiencies in the history of the 

 Netherlands, a royal commission was appointed, 

 which published imprinted manuscripts. July 3, 

 1826, the king also established a commission for the 

 statistics of the kingdom. The state of agriculture 

 may be learned from the Brussels monthly periodical, 

 Journal d? Agriculture, d' Economic Rurale et des 

 Manufactures du Royaume des Pays- lias (since 

 1816). Several attempts were made to reconcile 

 the conflicting interests of the southern Provinces, 

 which contain upwards of 3,175,000 inhabitants ex- 

 cluding 225,000 in the grand-duchy ot Luxemburg, 

 and those of the northern provinces, which contain 

 above 2,100,000 inhabitants. The royal ordinance of 

 June 28, 1818, recommended the formation of agri- 

 cultural societies in each province of the kingdom. 

 We ought in particular to mention the reclaiming of 

 the marshes, and the cultivation of wild tracts by the 

 establishment of pauper colonies (see Colonies, Pau- 

 per), &c. The establishment of these colonies, at Fre- 

 dericsoord, in the northern, and at Wortel (since 

 1822),in the southern provinces, is worthy of imitation. 

 Formerly, 10,000,000 guilders were annually appro- 

 priated to the poor. This sum is not only mostly 

 spared, but an important addition is made to the 

 country. The number of poor, moreover, diminishes, 

 who formerly constituted, in several provinces, one 

 sixth of the population. In 1823,682,000 persons 

 were computed to stand in need of aid. A bank was 

 established at Brussels, in 1823, with a capital of 



