BELGIUM. 



287 



father's congregation gave him a most hearty in- 

 vitation to be the colleague and successor of 

 their venerable pastor. But it never ceased to be 

 true of Dr Belfrage, that he was best liked by 

 those who knew him best. He was his father's 

 colleague for four years, a circumstance which 

 must have been of advantage to the young divine ; 

 for he was only twenty years of age when he was 

 ordained. During the forty-one years he lived in 

 the discharge of the duties of the ministerial office, 

 he was an example of all blamelessness and of many 

 excellencies. His congregation was large, and 

 scattered over a considerable extent of country, 

 yet every year he visited ministerially every mem- 

 ber of it, and also had regular diets of catechising. 

 The sick were never forgotten by him, especially 

 if 'they were poor. His advice, his prayers, his 

 purse, were never withheld on any proper occasion. 

 From his father he inherited the estate of Coliston, 

 in Kinrosshire, and perhaps seldom was property 

 in the possession of one more qualified by nature 

 and habit to make a proper use of it. To all that 

 concerned the intellectual, moral, and religious im- 

 provement, and the temporal interests of his fellow- 

 men, both rich and poor, he was ever willing to 

 contribute time, labour, or money, as might be 

 required. 



As an author, Dr Belfrage has acquired consid- 

 erable celebrity among the religious community, 

 both of England and Scotland. Indeed, his name 

 is fully as familiar to the dissenters and orthodox 

 churchmen of the former country, as it is in the 

 latter. His Life of Dr Waugh of London has gone 

 through a number of editions. Most of his other 

 works (which in a collected form make twelve 

 vols.) are altogether of a practical nature ; yet his 

 exposition of the shorter catechism shows him to 

 have been a master in the school of dogmatic the- 

 ology. His Sacramental Discourses were among 

 the earlier of his publications, and they still con- 

 tinue to enjoy a great popularity. It was in de- 

 livering such discourses that he appeared to most 

 advantage as a public speaker. In 1824, without 

 any solicitation on his part, but through the inter- 

 ference of his distant relative, the late Rev. Sir 

 Henry Moncrief, he received the degree of D.D. 

 from the university of St Andrews. He died on 

 the 16th of December, 1835. A memoir of him 

 has since been published by the Rev. John M'Ker- 

 row and the Rev. John M'Farlane. 



BELGIUM (a.). The present king of the Bel- 

 gians, formerly prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, 

 was born 16th Dec. 1790. In May 2, 1816, he 

 married Charlotte, daughter of George IV, then 

 prince regent, who died in child-bed, Nov. 6, 

 1817. Leopold was elected king of the Belgians, 

 June 4, 1831 ; took the oath to the constitution, 

 July 21, 1831, and married, August 9, 1832, Louise, 

 daughter of Louis Philippe, king of the French, by 

 whom he has had Leopold Louis Philip Maria Vic- 

 tor, prince royal, born April 9, 1835, and Philip 

 Ferdinand Eugene George, born March 24, 1837. 

 The government is a constitutional hereditary 

 monarchy. The legislature is composed of a sen- 

 ate and chamber of representatives or deputies. 

 The number of deputies is apportioned to the 

 population, and cannot exceed the proportion of 

 one deputy to 45,000 inhabitants, and the number 

 of senators is equal to half the number of deputies. 

 The deputies are elected for four years, and the 

 senators for eight years. The chambers assemble 

 by their own right, every year, on the second 



Tuesday of November, unless convoked earlier by 

 the king. Belgium has four universities, two of 

 which, those of Ghent and Liege, are supported by 

 the government. The ancient university of Lou- 

 vain is suppressed ; but a new Catholic university, 

 lately founded with the sanction of the pope, has 

 been established there. The free university of 

 Brussels is founded by private individuals. The 

 great mass of the inhabitants are Catholic, the 

 number of Protestants being only from 15,000 to 

 20,000 ; but all religions are tolerated. The Ca- 

 tholics are under the charge of one archbishop and 

 five bishops. The salaries are paid out of the 

 public treasury. The following table exhibits the 

 population, electors, representatives, and senators 

 of Belgium in 1835, including the grand-duchy of 

 Luxemburg. 



Provinces. 



Pop. 



Antwerp 353,963 



S. Brabant 566 809 



W. Flanders 51o,904 



E. Flanders 747,569 



Hainault 676,942 



Lieee 380,189 



Limburg 326,737 



Namur 220,332 



Luxemburg 316,504 



Electors. Repres. Senators. 



4440 9 4 



5889 14 7 



6608 15 8 



9606 18 9 



6327 1* 8 



3726 9 5 



3359 9 4 



2960 5 3 



4934 8 4 



Total 



4,154,922 



47,853 



102 



51 



The superficial extent of Belgium is about 12,000 

 English square miles. Its vast continuous plains 

 are covered with the finest pasturage and the rich- 

 est harvests, traversed by excellent roads and deep 

 canals, and strewed with flourishing villages, towns, 

 and cities. In the most westerly provinces, and on 

 the banks of the Meuse, vineyards are abundantly 

 sprinkled on the hill-sides, and refresh the eye, 

 fatigued with the monotony of the green fields in 

 the plains; presenting thus, at one view, the 

 mingled character of the valley of the Rhone, and the 

 richest cantons of Normandy. Belgium, however, is 

 not solely agricultural; she possesses beds of coal and 

 iron mines, the former superior to any on the Eu- 

 ropean continent. In the basin of Mons, for in- 

 stance, we find from a hundred and ten to a hun- 

 dred and twenty strata, or layers of coal, disposed 

 one above another, all workable, and all wrought. 

 The four principal collieries of Mons, Marimont, 

 Liege and Charleroi, yield annually 3,200,000 tons 

 of coal. Nor is Belgian industry less striking as 

 regards iron than it is with respect to coal. It is 

 remarkable, that, to this day, no attempt for the 

 fabrication of iron after the English fashion that 

 is, by extracting it from the iron-stone or ore has 

 succeeded in France, though many districts abound 

 in natural advantages for the purpose. In Bel- 

 gium, on the contrary, the undertaking has been 

 accompanied with the most marked success. In 

 1830, some capitalists at Charleroi erected a fur- 

 nace, where they treated the mineral of the dis- 

 trict with the coal which likewise exists there. 

 From that time till this, establishment has followed 

 establishment so rapidly, that, in the district of 

 Charleroi alone, there are, at this day, twenty-five 

 coke-furnaces in action, producing annually 75,000 

 tons of metal, without reckoning furnaces where 

 wood is employed. In 1834, the iron produce of 

 all France, from the combustible mineral as in Bel- 

 gium, amounted only to 47,000 tons; the French 

 castings in the same year, of every kind, amounted 

 in whole to 269,000 tons. So rich in iron and coal, 

 Belgium could not fail to have flourishing manu- 

 factures; the woollen stufis of Verviers, and the 

 flaxen goods of Flanders, are familiar to the world. 



