Belgium

bel'ji-um, a small kingdom of western Europe. It has about forty-two miles of seacoast. Its neighbors are France and Germany, with brave little Holland on the north. The area is 11,373 square miles,--not so large as Maryland. The population in 1902 was 6,896,079 or 589 to the square mile. It is the most densely populated and the most carefully cultivated country in Europe. The people are almost wholly Catholic, and are pretty nearly divided between those who speak French and those who speak Low German. Religious freedom is granted by the Catholics.

The southern part of the kingdom is rough, and is covered in part with natural forests in which the wild boar and wolf may yet be found. The oak is a prominent feature in these forests, and supplies large quantities of tan bark and timber. About one-sixth of the entire country is devoted to forests. Two-thirds of the entire area is under cultivation. Wheat, barley, oats, rye, potatoes, sugar beets, tobacco, and hops are the chief field crops. A large part of the country is underlaid by coal measures and veins of iron. A half more people are engaged in quarries and in coal mines, and in ore and iron works than are engaged in agriculture. The coal and iron ore are so near together that Belgium is one of the greatest iron producing countries in the world. There are also lead, silver, and zinc mines, yielding about $20,000,000 worth of the three metals a year. A million dollars' worth of herring are brought home by the fishing fleets.

The merchants of Belgium send us rubber goods, glass, steel, jewelry, linen, lace, embroidery, and dyes, in exchange for wheat, meats, cotton; oil cake, kerosene, and tobacco. Large numbers of eggs, poultry, and rabbits are shipped to London. Eggs alone fetch $4,000,000 a year. The government owns the railroads. Brussels is the capital. The battlefield of Waterloo is in Belgium.

Belgium and Holland were for a time united; that is to say, the Congress of Vienna, 1815, added Belgium to the kingdom of Holland; but the French, Catholic, mining, and manufacturing south soon broke away from the Dutch, Protestant, and commercial north. The two parts of the country were too different in language, religion, and commercial interests for their representatives to get on well on the floor of their parliament. The separation came in 1830.

Belgium is a constitutional monarchy. The present constitution was adopted in 1831. The rights of the people are guarded with care. The crown passes from father to oldest son, or to the next male heir. The legislative power is vested in a Senate and a Chamber of Representatives. The senators, 111 in number, are elected for eight years. The representatives, not to exceed one for each 40,000 inhabitants, sit for four years. Repeated agitation resulted in 1893 in the passage of a peculiar franchise law based on wealth, age, and education. Every man, even the poorest, casts one vote. An elector of thirty-five years of age, who is the head of a family, or who may possess wealth, is given two votes; while three votes are given to men who have had a superior education, or who have held public office.

A fight had been going on for some time between what may be termed church and state. A radical element wished to separate the public schools entirely from church influence, as is the case in the United States. It was expected that separation would follow a general franchise law, but the result was otherwise. At the election of the succeeding year, 104 clericals, out of a total of 152 members, were elected to the Chamber. In 1895 an act was passed providing state support for the church schools, and placing the public schools under the supervision of the church.

In 1899 still another innovation was made. The plan of minority representation was adopted. In the United States a party that has two-thirds of the votes may elect all of the representatives. Under the plan of minority representation, the majority party is given a majority of the representatives, but not all of them. In this respect, Belgium is much more democratic than the United States.

STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest to be had from trustworthy sources:

See Brussels; Bruges; Antwerp; Ghent; Netherlands