68 



BELGIUM. 



This makes 89 persons eligible for the office 

 of senator for every 10,000 inhabitants in the 

 kingdom. 



The receipts and expenditures for 1874 were 

 as follows : 



RECEIPTS. 



I. Ordinary receipts : Frnc. 



1. Taxes 154,590,822 



2. Tolls 7,973,040 



8. Stocks and rentes 88,665,253 



4. Reimbursements 2,186,309 



5. Extraordinary resources, applied to the 



general needs of the State 1,707,509 



II. Special receipts 70,751,939 



Total receipts 815,874,872 



EXPENDITURES. 



I. Ordinary expenditures : 



1. Publicdebt 69,611,886 



2. Dotations 4,828,080 



8. Justice 15,871,929 



4. Foreign affairs 1,581,805 



5. Interior 17,863,479 



6. Public works 88,422,664 



7. War 44,064,996 



8. Finances 14,174,157 



9. Outstanding debts and reimbursements.. 1,124,538 

 II. Extraordinary expenditures 60,599,201 



Total expenditures 801,642,785 



Excess of receipts over expenditures 14,232,137 



The public debt at the close of 1875 was as 

 follows : 



LOANS. Franct. 



Two and one-half per cents 219,959,682 



Four and one -half per cents. : 



1st series, conversion of 1844 65,864,182 



2d series, emission of 1844 67,488,000 



8d series (1853) 141,284,900 



4th series (1857 and 1860) 65,846,400 



5th series (1865) 68,581,000 



6th series (1867, 1869, 1870, 1871) 77,578,200 



Four per cents. (1871) 50,835,000 



Three per cents. (1873) 243,250,000 



Three per cents. (1874) 1,409,635 



Floating debt 25,000,000 



Total 1,006,092,149 



The standing army is formed by conscription, 

 to which every able-bodied man who has com- 

 pleted his 19th year is liable. Substitution is 

 allowed. The legal term of service is eight 

 years, but two-thirds of this time are gener- 

 ally spent on furlough. The strength of the 

 army is to be 100,000 men on the war footing, 

 and 40,000 in times of peace. In 1875 the 

 army was composed as follows : 



The civic militia, or National Guard, numbers 

 125,000 men without, and 400,000 with, the re- 

 server ~It duty is to preserve liberty and order 

 in times of peace, and the independence of 

 the country in times of war. A royal decree, 

 dated October 20, 1874, divided the kingdom 

 into two military circumscriptions, one em- 



bracing the provinces of Antwerp and West 

 and East Flanders, and the second the others. 



The imports in 1874 amounted to 1,292,500,- 

 000 francs ; the exports to 1,114,640,000 francs, 

 and the transit trade to 955,600,000 francs. 

 The special commerce with the different for- 

 eign countries in 1874 was as follows: 



The commercial navy in 1875 consisted of 

 59 vessels of 50,186 tons. 



The aggregate length of railroads in opera- 

 tion on December 31, 1875, was 3,490 kilome- 

 tres (1 kilometre = 0.62 mile), of which 655 kilo- 

 metres were state railroads, and 2,844 kilome- 

 tres belonged to private roads. The aggregate 

 length of the lines of electric telegraph was, in 

 1872, 4,430 miles; that of wires, 15,802; the 

 number of telegraph offices was, in 1871, 478 ; 

 the number of telegrams sent in 1875 was 

 2,871,890, of which 1,929,945 were inland, 

 708,716 foreign, and 233,229 transit dispatches. 



The Chambers assembled after the Christ- 

 mas holidays on January 16th. The President 

 of the Ministry, Malou, introduced the bill se- 

 curing personal liberty at the elections, in ac- 

 cordance with a promise made to the Liberals 

 at the beginning of the session. The bill, how- 

 ever, was considered not only inadequate, but 

 as actually augmenting the objections it was 

 intended to remove. Popular demonstrations 

 occurred at Antwerp and Ghent, and demands 

 for the dismissal of the clerical ministry were 

 made from all quarters. The King, however, 

 refused to consider them. In April, the Bel- 

 gian bishops petitioned the Government to 

 take active measures to improve the situation 

 of the Pope. Before this petition had been an- 

 swered, resolutions of inquiry on the same 

 subject were introduced in both Chambers. 

 M. Malon, in reply, said that he believed it to 

 be the Government's duty to protect the in- 

 terests of all Belgian subjects, but that it could 

 not violate the duties imposed upon it by law, 

 and therefore the Government neither desired 

 nor was able to proceed in this matter. The 

 Electoral Law was passed in June, and produced 

 great dissatisfaction among the Liberals. It 

 was returned by the Senate to the Chamber of 

 Deputies in the beginning of July for a recon- 



