BELGIUM. 



83 



tion to the recommendations in the report of the 

 Royal Commission on the Licensing Laws with 

 regard to Sunday closing and the sale of drink to 

 children, and urged the churches to use every 

 means in their power to influence legislative opin- 

 ion on the lines of the minority report. In an ad- 

 dress before a public meeting the Rev. Dr. Mac- 

 laren laid down as the "quaternion " of great 

 principles that underlie every one of the free 

 churches: The supremacy of Scripture and its 

 sole authority in the doctrines and practices of 

 every Christian church; the spirituality and con- 

 sequent freedom of Christ's Church; faith, and 

 faith only, the band of union between Christ and 

 his people and the channel of spiritual life and 

 spiritual blessing ; and the universal priesthood of 

 believers, carrying with it the privilege of direct 

 access to God. At a meeting in behalf of the 

 Missionary Society approval was given to a sug- 

 gestion in favor of Sunday schools assuming the 

 support of individual missionaries; and it was 

 shown that 6 put of 24 missionaries and 70 out of 

 89 evangelists independently maintained were 

 maintained by Sunday schools. The subject of 

 interest in missions was also presented at the 

 young people's meetings. 



At the meeting of the Baptist Union of Ire- 

 land in June Mr. H. H. Graham, of Belfast, pre- 

 siding, it was represented that the membership 

 had doubled in ten years from 1,400; 5 self-sup- 

 porting churches had been increased to 9; contri- 

 butions for home-mission work had risen from 

 450 to 1,000 per annum; and 20,000 had 

 been spent in the erection of new chapel build- 

 ings. An effort was resolved upon to raise a 

 twentieth century fund with the aid of England, 

 Scotland, Wales, and the United States, and more 

 than 4,000 of subscriptions were already re- 

 corded. The number of baptisms during the year 

 was given as 268. 



Baptists in Jamaica. At the annual meeting 

 of the Baptist Union of Jamaica in March a net 

 decrease of 317 members was returned. This re- 

 sult was attributed to the stringent condition of 

 general affairs in the colony. The whole number 

 of members was 33,638, and 24,000 pupils were 

 enrolled in the week-day and Sunday schools. 

 The findings of the Education Commission had 

 not been well received. 



BELGIUM, a constitutional, representative, 

 and hereditary monarchy in western Europe. 

 The Senate contains half as many members as 

 there are in the lower chamber, and in addition 

 two, three, or four from each province, accord- 

 ing to the population, who are elected indirectly. 

 The others are elected directly for eight years 

 by citizens thirty years old or over. The mem- 

 bers of the Chamber of Representatives are 

 elected directly for four years by all citizens 

 over twenty-five years old. Those possessing real 

 property worth 48 francs a year, or having in- 

 vestments in the Belgian funds or money de- 

 posited in savings banks yielding an income of 

 100 francs, can vote twice; also those over 

 thirty-five years of age who have legitimate issue 

 or those who have diplomas from the higher 

 educational institutions or have practiced one 

 of the professions or filled public offices. Any 

 one possessing three or more of these qualifica- 

 tions is entitled to cast three votes. The number 

 of electors in 1897 was 1,401,951, possessing 

 2,141,041 votes. 



The reigning sovereign is Leopold II, King of 

 the Belgians, born April 9, 1835. The Cabinet of 

 Ministers in the beginning of 1899 was composed 

 of the following members: President of the Coun- 

 cil and Minister of Finance, M. De Smet de Naey- 



er; Minister of Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs 

 and Acting Minister of War, J. H. P. van den 

 Peereboom; Minister of Foreign Affairs, P. de 

 Favereau; Minister of Justice, V. Begerem; 

 Minister of the Interior and Public Instruction, 

 M. Schollaert; Minister of Agriculture and Pub- 

 lic Works, L. de Bruyn ; Minister of Industry and 

 Labor, M. Nyssens. 



Area and Population. The area of Belgium 

 is 11,373 square miles. The population on Jan. 

 1, 1898, was 6,586,593, comprising 3,285,543 males 

 and 3,301,050 females. On Jan. 1, 1899, the total 

 was 6,669,732. The number of marriages in 1897 

 was 54,198; of births, 190,987; of deaths, 113,502; 

 excess of births, 77,485. The number of immi- 

 grants in 1897 was 26,878, and of emigrants 21,- 

 830. The population of Brussels at the end of 

 1897 was 551,011, including suburbs; of Antwerp, 

 271,284; of Liege, 167,305; of Ghent, 161,125. 



Finances. The revenue of the Government, 

 ordinary and extraordinary, in 1896 was 480,- 

 940,000 francs, and the expenditure 437,608,000 

 francs. The budget estimate of receipts from 

 all sources for 1899 was 435,037,428 francs. The 

 ordinary receipts for 1898 were estimated at 388,- 

 298,598 francs, of which taxes on property were 

 expected to produce 25,456,000 francs; personal 

 taxes, 20,085,000 francs; trade licenses, 7,400,000 

 francs; mines, 600,000 francs; customs, 36,246,632 

 francs; excise, 52,420,297 francs; succession du- 

 ties, 19,940,000 francs; registration duties, 19,- 

 900,000 francs; stamps, 6,500,000 francs; various 

 indirect taxes, 5,771,000 francs; river and canal 

 tolls, 1,590,000 francs; railroads, 154,000,000 

 francs; telegraphs, 6,880,000 francs; the post 

 office, 13,160,020 francs; pilotage and navigation 

 dues, 1,430,000 francs; domains and forests, 

 2,718,000 francs; amortization fund, securities, 

 and national bank, 10,051,900 francs; repay- 

 ments, 4,149,749 francs. The total ordinary ex- 

 penditure was estimated at 385,278,702 francs, 

 of which 114,152,253 francs were for interest and 

 sinking fund of the national debt, 4,930,200 

 francs for the civil list and dotations, 21,517,990 

 francs for the Ministry of Justice, 2,757,065 

 francs for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 116,- 

 337,880 francs for the Ministry of Railroads, 26,- 

 378,070 francs for the Ministry of the Interior 

 and Public Instruction, 21,773,694 francs for the 

 Ministry of Agriculture and Public Works, 48,- 

 320,375 francs for the Ministry of War, 19,514,515 

 francs for the Ministry of Finance, 4,917,100 

 francs for the gendarmery, 2,743,560 francs for 

 the Ministry of Industry and Labor, and 1,896,- 

 000 francs for repayments. 



The debt of Belgium was raised almost ex- 

 clusively for the construction of useful public 

 works, especially railroads, and all the loans are 

 being extinguished by means of a sinking fund. 

 The amount of debt outstanding in 1898 was 

 2,346,593,476 francs, all funded at 3 per cent. 

 In addition to this there is an old debt of 219,- 

 959,632 francs, paying 2| per cent, interest, which 

 was assumed by Belgium as her share upon the 

 partition of the former kingdom of the United 

 Netherlands. The total liabilities of the Gov- 

 ernment are therefore 2,566,593,476 francs. 



The Army. The army is recruited mostly 

 by conscription, every Belgian being liable to 

 serve from the age of nineteen. A part of the 

 troops are still obtained by voluntary enlistment. 

 The strength of the army on the peace footing 

 was in 1898 as follows: Infantry, 1,745 officers 

 and 27,900 men; cavalry, 304 officers and 5,760 

 men; artillery, 534 officers and 8,214 men; en- 

 gineers, 146 officers and 1,860 men; gendarmery, 

 59 officers and 2,831 men; general staff, adminis- 



