Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/539

Rh general ; and by a royal procurator with substitutes before each of the tribunals of primary instance and courts of assize and appeal. Councils of war are held in the chief place of each province, with the exception of Limbourg, which is joined to Liege, and of Luxembourg, which is united with Xamur. They decide in crimes and misdemeanours committed in their provinces by the military of a rank not higher than captain. The military court for the whole of Belgium has its seat at Brussels. It is composed of five members, one of whom is a councillor of the appeal court of Brussels, delegated annually to preside ; the rest are general or superior officers chosen by lot every month. All officers of a grade superior to that of captain are amenable to this court. It also decides on appeals from the provincial or other military courts. Besides the ordinary police, there are commissaries of police, royal procurators, juges d instruction, &c. The com missaries of police, and in the communes where these are wanting the burgomasters or delegated aldermen, are specially charged with searching out and proving all con traventions of the police laws. The royal procurators are charged with discovering and prosecuting for all offences coming within the jurisdiction of the courts of assize or the correctional tribunals of police. There is at least onejuge d-instruction, or examining judge, in each arrondissement who is specially charged with the collection of evidence, and with bringing the culprit before the tribunal. There is a council chamber composed of at least three judges, including the juge d-instruction, for the preliminary examination of culprits. The prisons are of three kinds (1), central prisons ; (2), houses of surety ; and (3), houses of arrest. The central prisons are (1), the central penitentiary at Ghent for different classes of criminals ; (2), the penitentiary at Louvain, on the solitary system, for prisoners condemned to more than one year s imprisonment, except those con demned to imprisonment for life; (3), the penitentiary and reformatory for young criminals at Xamur ; (4), the penitentiary and reformatory at St Hubert for young delinquents belonging to the rural population, acquitted but put at the disposal of Government ; (5), the branch penitentiary and reformatory at Namur for young criminals and young delinquents, acquitted, belonging to the town populations. The number in the prisons in 1873 was 1568, in the reformatories 751. The houses of surety are established in the capital of each province, where there is a court of assize, and the houses of arrest are in the capital of each arrondissement, the seat of a court of primary instance, where there is not already a house of surety. In these houses are confined the prisoners whose term does not exceed six months if the prison is a common one, and three years if on the solitary system. The number of prisoners in these prisons in 1873 was 2437. In connec tion with many of these, schools, workshops, and circulating libraries have been established. The prisoners are employed in various kinds of work. Those condemned to compulsory labour receive no remuneration, but those condemned to solitary or correctional imprisonment receive a part of the produce of their labour, which in the case of the latter is frequently applied in mitigation of their punishment. Premiums are also given for good conduct, zeal, and progress in their labours. Since 1830 the agricultural state of the country has been much improved. A superior council of agriculture is specially charged with the promotion and superintendence of the agricultural interests of the country ; and in each of the provinces a commission of practical men is nomi nated to encourage the introduction of improvements in the different branches of agriculture and report annually upon the state of agriculture in their provinces. Every five years a grand agricultural exhibition of horses, cattle, agricultural implements, and produce is held in Brussels, at which a number of gold and silver medals, &c ., are given as prizes. Local exhibitions are also held frequently in the various districts. The agriculturists above twelve years of age, including female servants, form one-fourth of the entire population. Females are extensively engaged in agricultural work, being to the males as 61 to 100. In 1866 the number of horses was 283,163 ; of cattle, 1,242,445; sheep, 586,097; swine, 632,301. To improve the breeds of horses a Government stud of stallions is maintained at Tervueren. The cultivated land of Belgium amounts to 2,663,753 hectares, or 6,582,123 acres, of which 1,339,795 hectares are in the hands of the proprietors, and 1,323,958 are let to tenants. In West Flanders four-fifths are in the hands of tenants ; in Luxembourg nearly five-sixths are in the hands of the proprietors; and in most of the other provinces about one-half is let to tenants. The land is divided into numerous and mostly small patches (nearly 600,000). Of these 43 per cent, do not exceed 50 ares; there are 12 per cent, not exceeding one hectare, or 2^ acres, 29 per cent, not exceeding 5 hectares, 7

Belgium is rich in various kinds of minerals, as coal, iron, calamine, &c., which form a valuable source of employment to many thousands of its inhabitants. The coal may be divided into two great basins. The western basin is the most important, and has an estimated extent of 90,051 hectares (or about 222,400 acres), 75,725 in the province of Hainault, and 14,326 in Namur. The extent of the eastern bed is estimated at 44,062 hectares, 41,745 in the province of Liege, and 2317 in 