BELGIUM. 



47T 



far as respected criminal cases, by a majority of sixty- 

 six to thirty-one ; and in trials for offences against 

 the press by a majority of fifty-seven to forty (these 

 majorities included Belgians). 6. A revision of the 

 laws respecting the press, in order to bring them into 

 accordance with article 227 of the fundamental law. 

 It seems that a mitigation of the fines and other 

 punishments for abuses of the press, was demanded, 

 which did not, however, take place until March 21, 

 1829. 1. A law for establishing a system of educa- 

 tion, which thus far had been regulated merely by 

 ordinances of the government. The clergy, irritated 

 by the establishment of the philosophical college at 

 Louvain, which had taken the place of the smaller 

 seminaries dependent upon the bishops, had pro- 

 moted the institution of a number of private schools, 

 of which, however, the greater part were pretty obvi- 

 ously under the influence of the Jesuits. When, 

 therefore, these were also closed by the government, 

 the Catholics, who saw in this measure only a politi- 

 cal movement of the Protestants, demanded the re- 

 moval of restraints on instruction, and, as we have 

 already said, the liberals made common cause with 

 them. These two parties soon became united also 

 on all other points, though they had long appeared 

 to be irreconcilable enemies. 8. A law to settle the 

 questions of competency between the courts and the 

 departments of the administration. 9. Diminution 

 of the taxes. Most of the cities complained particu- 

 larly of the tax on slaughtering. Mons, with 23,000 

 inhabitants, paid more than a fourth part of this tax 

 for the province of Hainault, which contained 570,000 

 inhabitants. The flour tax was also a subject of 

 much complaint. It was, of course, much more 

 severe in Belgium, an agricultural and manufacturing 

 country, than in Holland, which depends mainly on 

 commerce. 10 and 1 1 . The better application of the 

 fund for the encouragement of industry, which was 

 employed in making advances to manufacturers. 

 The Belgians wished to substitute premiums on ex- 

 ports. Holland, as a commercial state, desired free- 

 dom of trade and low duties. Belgium, a manufac- 

 turing state, asked for high duties on manufactured 

 goods, and obtained them ; from which circumstance 

 (Be most violent contest of the Dutch and Belgians 

 originated. Among the other complaints are, 14 

 and 15, respecting the restrictions on the liberty of 

 election, which were also disliked in Holland, and 

 on the representation of the country being very dis- 

 proportioned to the population of Belgium ; but this 

 was owing to the express provisions of the constitrf- 

 tion, which, to prevent one part from giving law to 

 the other, had assigned an equal number of repre- 

 sentatives to each part ; and this the more readily as 

 Holland had the greater population, if the colonies 

 were included. 



Whether the evils of which Belgium complained 

 were real or imaginary > it certainly increased in wealth 

 and population during the fifteen years of its connexion 

 with Holland, which is particularly true of Antwerp, 

 Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, and Brussels. When, at last, 

 after so many petitions, the royal message of Dec. 11, 

 1829, appeared, confirming the system of administra- 

 tion hitherto followed, and a law was proposed 

 against the licentiousness of the press, the animosity 

 rose still higher. The ministers, particularly the 

 minister of justice, Van Maancn, were attacked with 

 fanatical fury, by the chief organs of the apostolic 

 and liberal parties, the Courricr de la Meuse and the 

 Courricr des Pays-Bas, the former of which recom- 

 mended, in October, 1829, a universal refusal to pay 

 taxes. Political societies were formed, and impartial 

 observers pronounced that a revolution was at hand. 

 Nothing inflamed the Belgians, at that time, so much 

 as the trial of De Potter, the editor of the Cottrrter 



des Pays-Bus, and his friends, for treason. De Pot- 

 ter, who had been, until 1827, a most decided anti- 

 Catholic, had now placed himself at the head of the 

 union of the liberals and ultramontanists. He drew 

 up a plan of a national subscription for the patriots 

 who should lose their places and pensions, or who 

 had lost them, or who suffered from legal prosecutions. 

 He also proposed a national act of union, by which 

 the members obliged themselves to resist the govern- 

 ment in every manner not inconsistent with the law. 

 On account of their participation in this project, De 

 Potter, Tielemans, Bartels, and De Neve were, in 

 May, 1830, banished, the first for eight, the second 

 and third for seven, and the last for five years. De 

 Potter now wrote, from Paris, to the king : " Sire, 

 save Belgium ; there is yet time." He advised him 

 to substitute for his anti-national ministers popular 

 men, beloved by the nation, and responsible to it, 

 who would give up the clumsy and unjust system so 

 long followed. The king could do nothing. What 

 De Potter advised, the Dutch and Van Maanen 

 rejected. Libry Bagnano, in a ministerial paper 

 (Le National), declared that the malcontents ought 

 to be muzzled like dogs, and receive the discipline of 

 the whip. 



Aflairs stood thus, when the news of the French 

 revolution arrived in Belgium. One dynasty had 

 been overturned, and another had been raised to the 

 throne by the people of Paris. Brussels, always 

 ready to imitate Paris, caught the same spirit. The 

 24th of August, 1830, the birth-day of the king, was 

 to have been celebrated by fire-works and an illumi- 

 nation. Both were omitted. But, on the twenty- 

 fifth the opera of Massaniello, so long, with other 

 liberal pieces, excluded from the stage, was per- 

 formed. This was the torch which lighted the flame. 

 After the play, a mob hurried to the office of the 

 National and to the house of Libry Bagnano. Every 

 thing was demolished. Another mob seized upon 

 the arms in the workshop of an armourer. The 

 palace of justice, the hotel of Van Maanen, and the 

 house of the director of police, De Knyff, were more 

 or less injured. The commandant of Brussels and 

 the gendarmes could effect nothing: the garrison 

 took up arms ; but the mob became more and more 

 furious, and the palace of the minister Van Maanen 

 was at last set on fire. When the day broke, the 

 troops fired. Many of the people fell ; but the riot 

 continued. Many houses and manufactories in the 

 environs were burned or demolished. Some of the 

 burghers now hastened to the mayor, and demanded 

 arms and the removal of the troops, with promises to 

 pacify the people if their demands were granted. 

 But they were too weak to effect this. The populace 

 also called for arms, and, notwithstanding the oppo- 

 sition of the troops of the line, forced the arsenal. 

 The burghers entered with them : every one armed 

 himself. Amidst this confusion, a national or civic 

 guard was organized, and towards eleven o'clock in 

 the evening, placards were posted up, declaring tliat 

 the troops had retired to the barracks, and that the 

 flour tax was abolished. 



During the following days, the 27th and 28th, the 

 civic guards, who had chosen baron Emanucl van der 

 Linden-Hoogvorst their commander, succeeded in 

 restoring peace, and preventing the commission of 

 further outrages. On the 27th, however, the royal 

 arms were torn down. The royal troops contented 

 themselves with guarding the royal palace. The 

 Brabant flag now floated over Brussels, and a society 

 of burghers was formed, which elected baron de 

 Secus, member of the states-general, president, and 

 Sylvian van de Weycr secretary. The insurrection 

 of Brussels produced similar explosions of popular 

 hatred in other cities of the Southern Netherlands ; 



