EVOLUTION AND DEGENERATION OF INSTITUTIONS 93 



put an end to this archaic condition of things. 

 Private property has encroached upon collective 

 property, and taxes and duties are now substi- 

 tuted for the revenue which was formerly derived 

 from land alone. 



This modification was of a progressive nature, 

 the extended requirements of the population de- 

 manding a corresponding augmentation of the com- 

 munal revenue. Degeneration, however, is exhibited 

 in the disappearance of the collective land of the 

 communes and of the attendant administrative 

 institutions. 



The monographs of Paul Errera and the docu- 

 ments collected in 1875 by the Statistical Commis- 

 sion relating to the expenditure and receipts of the 

 communes, demonstrate the various stages of this 

 degenerative evolution : 



1. The vestiges of the old system may be 



observed to decrease in number and im- 

 portance on approaching the North-West 

 from the South. The proportion of re- 

 ceipts from land compared with those 

 derived from taxes and duties is greatest 

 in Upper Belgium ; then follow those of 

 Condroz, Hainault, Brabant, Campine, and 

 finally, of the two Flanders. 



2. The constitution of the two Flanders passed 



through the following stages: 

 (a) In certain localities round about Bruges the 

 old and the new system co-exist. Side by side, for 



