MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS.— TOWNS. 403 



other whenever an opportunity offered. Merchants, in accordance with a law laid 

 down by the guilds, were bound to go armed when they visited a neighbouring 

 town, in order that they might at all times be ready to defend the honour of their 

 city and corporation. Conflicts took place on the slightest provocation ; even 

 children formed themselves into military bands, and in 1488 two of these fought a 

 battle in the streets of Bruges, when five combatants were left dead on the pavement. 

 The monopolies claimed and enforced by the various guilds contributed in a large 

 measure to undermine the prosperity and patriotism of the citizens. At Tournay 

 there were separate guilds of "butter porters," "charcoal porters," and "manu- 

 factured goods porters ; " and woe to him who carried an article not intended for 

 his shoulders. Similar regulations prevailed in most other towns, and even at 

 the beginning of the present century there existed at Bruges a corporation of 

 kraanenkinders, or tapsters, whose members enjoj^ed the privilege of drawing wine, 

 and wore their traditional costume on high holidays. 



The Dukes of Burgundy, when they made themselves masters of the country, 

 profited by the dissensions amongst the Flemish cities. The industry of the citizens 

 augmented the splendours of their court, but the cities themselves began to decay. 

 Revolts were suppressed with vigour, and no opportunity of humbling the pride of 

 the citizens was lost. In 1468 Liège was almost entirely destroyed, and 40,000 

 of its inhabitants massacred. In the preceding year Charles the Bold had taken 

 away the standards of the guilds of Ghent, and suspended them in the churches of 

 other towns, as trophies of victory over the people. Charles Y., thougli a native 

 of Ghent, destroyed the municipal liberties of that town, removed its great bell 

 " Roland," and condemned the most energetic of the citizens to the scaffold or exile. 

 During the reign of Philip II. a silence of terror dwelt in the cities, and 

 even the speechifiers at public festivals became objects of suspicion. Many of 

 them were hanged, and Van Halen, the burgomaster of Antwerp, who had 

 organized the famous festivities of 1561, died on the scaffold. Industry fled the 

 towns, the latter decreased in population and became impoverished, and even in the 

 country around them large tracts were abandoned by the cultivators. Thousands 

 left the country, and this emigration, even more than massacres and wars, explains 

 the mental apathy of the nation during the ensuing centuries. 



The old municipal spirit has not, however, died out altogether. It still mani- 

 fests itself on the festival days of patron saints, when processions march through 

 the streets of the town as they did in the Middle Ages. At Courtray and Furnes 

 these processions symbolize the mysteries of Christianity, whilst the " cavalcades " 

 of Malines, Tourna}^, Ghent, and Brussels are mostly designed to illustrate, 

 sometimes allegorically, past events in the history of the city. 



Towns.* 



Basin of the Meuse (Maas). — Arlon (6,700 inhabitants), the capital of 



Belgian Luxemburg, is the only large town in the basin of the winding river 



* The population is for Dec. 31st, 1876, and in many instances embraces the countrj' districts in the 

 vicinity of the towns named. 



