M 



BHLGIt M. 



diency of the change to be r 



v A : ; :ipiill"l It. 



for lawvers of U.ih nationalities and |H.|in.-al 

 camp* were agreed that tin- adoption of th 

 language* would needlessly complicate and cncum- 

 rm of legal M well M parliamentary 



procedure in II. IUMUIII ami that the translation of 

 ..mili was frangfa! with 



many difficulties. The effect* UJN.II tin- etanding 

 and taiMawt of the Belgian state MM U|H.II UM 

 opportunities of it- . iti/.ens were the subject .-f 

 ^ The act would accentuate the dual 

 DftUonnlr n people an<l tend i 



noiig them. F.\ery Wal- 

 loon inhabitant would be OOnpeUed to learn to 

 read ami o|wak Finnish under i-nalt\ 

 ill-Urn I from _' any official post in hi- 



TV. while tin- i would ma need, as 



htfatofoa 1 . to INT., mo j.erfect masters of French. 



, knowledge of Flemish serves no purpose out- 

 side of the- lit tli- area where it is read and tpokea 

 (hi the other hand, by maintaining the official po- 

 'i. tin- '(invrrnninii would render it 

 | Flemish youth to be- 

 ooroe proficient in a language that is not .nl\ 

 ken by every educated member of the community, 

 bt nerves as apassport in most parts of the <i\i- 

 lixed world. Flemish as a language of affairs ami 

 legislation has yet to be created. (!< -iiuine Flem- 

 ish, the literary form of the language, i* ii"t 

 spoken in Belgium, where each village ha- it- own 

 rude and untranslatable dialect. Tin- Walloons 

 are entirely ignorant f Flemish except in the hnr- 

 di-r district where they can converse in the pnhn* 

 of tl -rs as well as in their own. North 



of this narrow district tin- Flemish dialects are 

 uniformly heard, and south of it the Walloon dia- 

 lects, but everywhere French is the common lan- 

 guage of educated people, the language of polite 

 onne, of literature and the press, of science. 

 of law, and of commen -. All th. -e considerations 

 were brought out in the debate in the Senate, which 

 war led to recognize that it was a proceeding 

 fraught with ^-riotis and far-reaching consequences 

 nctly bilingual stamp upon the ad- 

 ministration of the country. The only clause that 

 finally passed the Senate, on F.-b. ''. was one enact- 

 ing that all arts of Parliament should henceforth 

 be promulgated both in French and in Flemish. 

 The friend- "f the hill would not accept this solu- 

 tion of the fjue-tioti. They withdrew the bill, de- 

 termined to continue the agitation and press for 

 the official and integral equality of the two na- 

 tional tongues in another year. 



Legislation. The Government on Jan. 1 ac- 

 cepted an arrangement presented by the French 

 Minister regulating the relations of Belgian) with 

 Franc*- in Tunis. Parliament enacted a bill for 

 suppressing gambling operations on the -N, ( k ex- 

 change. A plan of the works that will convert 

 -Is into a seaport was finally adopt,,) l.y the 

 TV. the municipal authorities, and the' 

 mission of maritime installations on Jan. 4. The 

 course of the cannl will pass through the plain of 

 and Taxi*, tlm* brinsring the new dock- near- 

 ly into the heart of the capital. The law atithori/- 

 ing the police authorities to ex|*-l foreigners, which 

 wasoritnnnlly framed in IWlTiand would expire on 

 *i>7, was continued in force l.v a v.,t.- of 

 61 to .V in the Chamlier mi Jan. 21. T 

 Government demanded redres* for I',en 'fillet t. the 

 labor organizer, who came to ,\ntw rmec- 



tinn with the d and was expelled by order 



of the Minister of Justice in 1WKJ : but the ft. 



-nnu-nt cited precedent.* for its action. The 

 Rritih Foreign Ofl : roposed arbitr 



and, Belgium acceding, a French jurist was se- 



i to arbitrate the matter. A . i om- 



eeC, OOmDOSed of delegates ivpn-entilli; rlerks, 



salesmen, artisans, persons in Govemment empi,.\, 



and the mass of wage earner- who do nt l-l..n- to 

 the laboring class, met at hru . -U .-n Feb. 7 with 

 the ol .liinu' common action with a \ [| 



bringing before Parliament 1 1: iin-ir 



class, and i-rpini/.-d a sy>t.-m of 1,,,-al unions and a 

 central league whose dull it -l.ould )> t<> 

 from parliamei pledp- t.> . 



their i He Chamber, which heivtofore i, as 



had no stricter code of discipline than the sim- 

 ple call to ord. :!- rules a-ain-l lh. 



f the whole Left for th< >urpose of 



curbini: the So.-iali-t-. who have introduced into 

 thed. 'hates an unaccii-tomed laxity an>: 



for parliamentarv eti.|uetie. 



Tlie LiLeral Opposition -upported the mi 

 authorities in the demand for army reorganisation, 

 which the ('!' iliinet took up 



and then abandoned or deferred because the minis- 



>oulil not p-t their democratic follow.- 



agree to submit to the enforce. 1 milit.i 



that it would entail. The Liberal- Insisted that 



the reform should embrace the ivorirani/Hti. 



the Civic (Juard. Societies of retired o|lici-r> and 



military men of all grades, including veteran- of 



1880, representatives of the Libei.i . and 



di'ler;at ions from communal council- and ->t her <-<.r- 



bodje-. assembleil in Urns- el- on Jui 

 and in a monster procession, with (Jen. Hrialmmit 

 for their spokesman, presented an address to the 

 Kin- in favor of army reform, to which King Leo- 

 pold, who is a Convinced advocate of the introduc- 

 tion of conscription into Hel^ium. replied with a 

 powerful plea for the urgent nece-sily of strength- 

 ening the military defense of the conn 

 that he was too solicitous for the security 'and 

 eventual defense of the country not to desire that 

 the principle of personal sen !<' should be the base 

 of the military system, and that it would be at the 

 mercy and ha/ard of event- unle-s it orpini/ed it- 

 defenses solidly, modeling its military in-tilutions 

 on those of the surrounding nations, with tactical 

 units composed, armed, and trained in conditions 

 analogous to those of it- neighbor-. The King's 

 out-pokeii utteraiie,-- on the military question cre- 

 ated a widespread sensation in I'el^ium and 

 occasion for an interpellation in the Chamber. 

 The bill for the ivori;ani/atioii of the Civic (iuard 

 was passed by the ( 'hamb.-r at the end of July after 

 a long discussion. The Socialist I>embl.n pr>- 

 : again-t the clause providing for the admin- 

 istration of the oath of allegiance, and delivered a 

 violent attack on the King, incurring thereby a 



Vote of cell-ll!' 17. With <' 



ab-tention-. The Chaml- ; bill compelling 



all foreigners who have resided in Belgium for a 

 \ear to en p !! th.-m -d ve- in the Cjvic (iuard. This 



ure \\a- the re-ult of the great increase of late 

 in the foreign colonies of Bni cN and Ant 



'ion- airain-l t lie enforcement of thi- la\\ 

 inter|M)s<-d by the Briti-h and American diplomatic 

 r.-pr -tion (pf army reform took 



II other matter- in the 'public mind. 

 DM- original bill to enforce universal conscription 

 and put iin end to the privilege of purchasing sub- 

 stitutes enjoyed by the wealthy classes was with- 

 drawn by the (Jovernment on : the meet- 

 in:: "f the Chambers in -:;. and in coii- 

 se.|iien< e (ien. Brji^iiie rc-i-ne<l the Mini-try of 

 War. The actual strength of the Belgian armv N 

 the lowe-t of any country in Europe, and the mili- 

 tary 1 '" i- a third of that of France 

 or Great Britain, fniversal lialiility to serviei: 

 was exceedingly popular in the Walloon half of the 

 kingdom. Even a section of the Socialists in their 



