Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/815

BELGIUM. November and adopted three principles: (1) Belgian independence; (2) hereditary monarchy, with representative institutions; (3) exclusion of the House of Orange. They then proceeded to frame a constitution. The citadel of Antwerp was still held by a Dutch garrison under the intrepid General Chassé. Meanwhile the London Conference of the Powers had assembled to consider this breach of the treaties of 1815, and after mature deliberation recognized the independence of Belgium as a fait accompli (December 10). During 1831 the Conference arranged the terms of the separation, and in 1832 Belgium was neutralized and its neutrality was guaranteed by the Concert. Meanwhile the Belgian Congress had elected as King a son of Louis Philippe; but he declined under pressure from England, and after the brief regency of Baron Surlet de Chokier, Prince Leopold (q.v.) of Saxe-Coburg was elected King, June 4, 1831, and subscribed to the Constitution. This prince proved himself a wise monarch. Holland refused to acknowledge the validity of the decision of the London Conference, and sent an army against the Belgians, who were defeated in August, 1831. A French army under Marshal Gérard advanced to arrest the progress of the Dutch. England gave a note of warning, and the Dutch forces were withdrawn. Holland, however, still refused to abide by the decrees of the London Conference, and England and France proceeded to renewed coercion. The coast of the Netherlands was blockaded, and Marshal Gérard laid siege to the citadel of Antwerp. On December 23, 1832, General Chassé surrendered, and the liberation of Belgium was completed. Holland made peace with England and France at London, on May 21, 1833. A definitive settlement between Holland and Belgium was not effected until 1839, when it was agreed that Luxemburg and Limburg should be divided between the two kingdoms.

The government of Belgium was of the parliamentary type, the people, as represented by the electorate, being regarded as the source of power. As soon as independence was achieved and recognized by Europe, the Liberal and Clerical parties, which had united against outside influence, fell into their natural opposition. The Liberals declared the encroachments of the Catholic religion to be "dangerous and continually hostile to civil society." The King studiously avoided organizing a party Ministry, and the Minister of Justice declared that "the division into Catholics and Liberals is without meaning in the presence of the great principles of liberty consecrated by the Constitution." The Education Act of 1842 made moral and religious instruction compulsory in the public schools, and intrusted it to the Church, under Government supersivion. This brought the school question permanently into Belgian politics, where, with the suffrage, it has since held the leading place. The elections of 1847 at last brought to a close the system of government in subservience to the Church. A new Liberal Ministry was formed by Rogier and others, whose programme promised' the maintenance of the independent civil authority. The institution of numerous agricultural and commercial schools, normal ateliers, popular libraries, and other means used for raising the working class, were followed by most beneficial results. The revolutionary movement which swept over Europe in 1848 menaced the tranquillity of the country, but the King declared himself ready to retain or to surrender the Crown of Belgium, according to the decision of the people. This declaration strengthened the party of order, while it disarmed even those most disaffected to the Crown. Leopold I. died in 1865, and was succeeded by his son, Leopold II., the present sovereign. Leopold II. (q.v.). a shrewd business man, who will be chiefly remembered in history for the support given by him to the International African Association, resulting in the establishment of the Congo Free State (q.v.), of which he was chosen sovereign. By a will executed in 1889, King Leopold bequeaths his new dominions to the Belgian State. In 1890 a convention was entered into by Belgium and the Congo Free State, by which Belgium, in consideration of a subsidy of 25,000,000 francs to the Congo Free State, received the right to annex that country at the end of ten years. This right is still continued under an act of August 10, 1901. The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 threatened the neutrality of Belgian soil, causing something of a panic, which was intensified on the publication, by the Prussian Foreign Office, of a secret proposal made some time previously by Napoleon III. to Prussia, involving the annexation of Belgium to France. But the written assurance of both the French Emperor and the Prussian King, to the effect that Belgian neutrality would be scrupulously respected, served to restore tranquillity; and these personal assurances were formally embodied in a treaty between England, France, and Prussia in the same year.

Protected by its neutrality and governed by kings whose ambition has been to maintain order and a business-like administration, Belgium has prospered and enjoyed tranquillity, disturbed only by the labor and socialistic agitation incidental to Nineteenth-Century life in a manufacturing country with such a dense population. The agitation has taken form politically in the movement for universal suffrage. Before 1870 the Liberals were in power a greater part of the time. After that the pendulum began to swing to the other side, and since 1884 the Catholics, recruited by those whose conservatism feared the radical tendencies of the socialists, have controlled the government. Political strife has centred mainly about the suffrage; in 1890 the agitation for universal suffrage culminated in a monster popular demonstration, which led the Ministry to promise in November of the same year an immediate consideration of the question. The Constitution as revised in 1893 embodies the results of this struggle. The suffrage was conferred on all male Belgian citizens above the age of 25; but to counterbalance this sudden increase in the power of the lower classes, one or two supplementary votes were allowed in certain cases. (See section on ) Under this provision, 1,452,232 voters disposed of 2,239,621 votes in the year 1900. Its adoption gave the Catholic party a very large majority. The old Liberal party practically disappeared, the opposition being represented by a radical Socialist party. To regain something of its former power, the Liberal party, aided by the Socialists, instituted an agitation for the establishment of the principle of proportional representation, in accordance with which repre-