Belgium

( Originally Published 1915 )

WHEN Belgium was separated from Holland, to which country she had been arbitrarily united in 1814, she set up an extremely liberal Constitution.

This constitution, promulgated on the 7th of February, 1831, made Belgium a representative monarchy, under a hereditary ruler whose title is " The King of the Belgians " (not " the King of Belgium "; there is a distinction).

Administratively speaking, Belgium is divided into nine provinces. The province of Brabant whose chief city, Brussels, is also the capital of the kingdom is the heart of the organism. Around it lie the provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liége, Namur, Hainault, and East Flanders. The two remaining provinces

Luxemburg and West Flanders lie in the south-east and the north-west of the kingdom respectively.

Considered from the standpoint of its area merely, Belgium is a very small country.

Her surface measures, indeed, only 10,340 square miles, or rather less than one-eighteenth of Germany or France, her two powerful neighbours to the east and the south.

Belgium is smaller than Denmark; smaller even than Holland, her northern sister. To cross the country by rail along its greatest diameter, from Arlon to Ostend, that is, from the south-east to the northwest, requires only four or five hours.

Yet the soil of this little country presents a most remarkable variety of aspects.

To begin with, there are the mountainous, wooded Ardennes; the banks of the Meuse, with an infinite variety of wild landscapes; the fertile table-lands of Coudroy and the Sambre-et-Meuse; the rolling, verdant landscapes of La Hesbaye and Brabant; the rugged Borinage or " Black Country " with its sullen slag-heaps; and, on the other hand, the melancholy Campine, with its heaths and pine-woods and sheets of water; and, lastly, bordered by a strip of sand-hills which protect them from the sea, the fertile plains of Flanders, traversed by the majestic Scheldt and the tiny Yser.

If in place of considering her territorial dimensions we judge Belgium by the number of her inhabitants, we must at once assign her a more important position among the countries of Europe.

Her population, in short, on the 31St of December, 1913, numbered 7,65 8,000 souls.'

From the ethnical point of view there is, it is true, a distinction between the Flemings and the Walloons. But in spite of all that has been said of this distinction, and in spite of a duality of language, common aspirations and common destinies have given them one single soul. When the vital interests of the country are at stake, all hearts beat in unison, and then, according to the happy expression of a national poet, " Fleming and Walloon are only baptismal names: Belgian is our family name."

The same love of industry actuates the two races. Both display in an equal degree the energy of action and the persevering determination which are the predominant qualities of the Belgian people.

Again, if we consider Belgium from the economic point of view, we shall see that she bulks still larger; indeed, this time the increase will be prodigious.

We shall find that the country is covered by a network of railways, covering a total length of 2,899 miles, over which before the 3rd of August, 1914 several thousands of trains ran daily, carrying annually nearly 100 millions of passengers.

We shall find that beside this principal railway system there are numerous railways of secondary importance, covering a total of 2,608 miles, and in connection with our rivers and navigable waterways there are many canals.

We shall find that Belgium is full of factories, workshops, foundries, etc., which consume 2,500,000 h.p., provided by 30,000 engines. We shall find that the Belgian coal-mines yield about 25 million tons of coal each year, while the annual production of cast-iron is more than 2,500,000 tons.

We shall find that the ever increasing movement of shipping in the port of Antwerp the commercial metropolis of the country amounted, in 1913, to more than 16 millions of tons, so that Antwerp is one of the leading ports of the world.

Finally, we shall find that the national trade of Belgium that is, the sum of her imports and exports (through freights being deducted)amounted in 1913 to £350,000,000, or £46 5S. 7d. per inhabitant, which was proportionately three times the trade of France or of Germany: an enormous figure, which gives Belgium the fifth place in the statistical table of the world's commerce.

Yes; from the absolute economic standpoint little Belgium stands or rather stood, in 1913-14 immediately beneath England, Germany, the United States, and France. From this point of view, then, Belgium is quite one of the " Great Powers."

This sketch would be too rudimentary did I not add a few data by which I shall attempt to define the soul of my country.

Here, to begin with, is an essential trait: the Belgians' love of liberty.

If we go back to the origins of the Belgian people, and follow its history down to modern times, we shall often behold it in arms, but we shall find that it was always fighting for liberty.

From the time of Caesar, who declared the Belgians to be the most valiant among the Gauls, throughout the course of the centuries, it was for independence and liberty alone that the Belgians fought. Sometimes it was to preserve rights already acquired; sometimes it was to obtain some additional franchise; but it was never to increase their territory or to dominate their neighbours.

In all times the Belgians have loved liberty with a fervour which has often inspired them to deeds of the noblest heroism.

The wonderful Hôtels de Ville (I),with their stately towers, which our ancestors have bequeathed to us what are they but temples raised to liberty?

Here is another trait of the Belgian character: the love of the arts, the worship of the Beautiful. Always the Belgians have loved the arts and have excelled in them.

The Hôtels de Ville, the belfries, the guild-halls and market-houses, the ancient churches (3) , and all those stirring records of the past with which our native soil is covered, are so many masterpieces of the art of architecture.

And what inestimable jewels in these superb caskets what wonders too in our museums ! The works of the brothers Van Eyck the inventors of oil-painting; of Van der Weyden, Memling, Quentin Matsys, and other masters of the primitive Flemish school; the works of the fertile enchanter Rubens, of the graceful Van Dyck, and of the Breughels a long and glorious line of painters; the works of Jordaens and Teniers, eloquent of the joy of life, which again is one of the characteristics of the Belgian soul; the works of De Vos, Snyders, and of many another master, whose famous names no Belgian can pronounce unmoved. How many other specimens of national art: tapestries, laces, stained-glass windows, household furniture, altar-screens, and what not; how many more specimens, carefully treasured up, which make Belgium one of those corners of the world in which is collected the greatest abundance of artistic wealth !

As for music, here again as a learned German writer upon music has very truly said " this little out-of-the-way corner of the north-west of Europe, this land of alluvial deposits, a land of laborious industry and flourishing commerce, is the veritable home of the most bewitching of all the arts." Polyphony was of Belgian origin. Ludwig van Beethoven was of Flemish origin. " We must not overlook this fact," says Romain Rolland, " if we wish to understand the fiery independence of his character, and many peculiarities which are not properly German." Grétry was born at Liége.

Ancient though it is, Belgian art has not degenerated. It remains worthy of its noble and most ancient traditions.

The pictorial art of Leys, Charles Degroux, Stevens, Boulenger, Courtens, Gilsoul, Frédéric, Baertsoen, Claus, Van Rysselberghe, and I know not how many more; the sculptural art of Constantin Meunier, Jef Lambeaux, Victor Rousseau, and George Minnie, to name only these; the musical art of Gevaert, Peter Benoît, and César Franck, shine in the first rank amid the productions of contemporary art. And all those ,who follow the movements of international literature will also place in the front rank the work of Georges Rodenbach, Camille Lemonnier, Emile Verhaeren, and Maurice Maeterlinck.

In the domain of the sciences many Belgians have distinguished themselves, in the past as well as in the present. We may mention Mercator, who invented mathematical geography, and whose system of projections is still employed for the preparation of marine charts; Ortelius, who made the first geographical atlas; Vesalius and Van Helmont, who created anatomy and physiology respectively; Stévin, who invented the decimal calculus; Minckelers, who invented coal-gas in its application to lighting purposes; all these were Belgians. Nearer our own days are other Belgian names radiant with the purest scientific glory: Quételet, Plateau, Stas, Houzeau de Lehaye, Renard, the Van Benedens, etc. I am speaking only of the dead, and not all of them ; but among these illustrious Belgians I must mention Brialmont, who was incontestably the greatest military engineer of the second half of the nineteenth century.

Let us note also that for a long time Belgium has applied herself with victorious activity to " maturing the formula of international law, and instituting laboratories of jurisprudence. Did she not dream of creating for the peoples a common intelligence, a human patrimony, a res communis omnium? The Institute of International Law was born of the initiative of an eminent Belgian, Rolin Jacquemyns. The International Law Association was founded in Brussels in 1873. Two Belgians A. Beernaert, the illustrious statesman, and M. Louis Franck were present at the beginning of the conference on maritime law. The Institute of Comparative Law, more recently, has made it its business to give juridical studies a peculiar breadth, introducing an original and more profound method."

There are in Belgium two State Universities, one at Liége and one at Gand, as well as three private universities : the Catholic University at Louvain, the Free University in Brussels, and the New University in Brussels. Besides these universities there are various scientific institutes and technical colleges, as well as schools of art and musical conservatories, and the majority of these establishments are attended by numbers of foreign students, which is the best proof of the excellence of their teaching.

A very old Flemish proverb, which is found also in Scotland : Oost, West, t'huis best " East, West, hame's best " proclaims the Belgian's love of his home and his country.

Flemings or Walloons, the Belgians are a domestic, stay-at-home people. And although they have distinguished themselves in many overseas enterprises such as the creation, in Central Africa, of a colony eighty times larger than the mother country, the organisation of the public services in Persia, and the construction of important railways in China as a general thing they do not often emigrate, and when they do so it is rarely without the intention to return.

Life in Belgium, moreover, is or was pleasant, and it was for this reason, and because they were cordially welcomed, that so many foreigners have settled in the country. There were in Belgium, at the time of the last ten-yearly census (31St of December, 1910), 248,562 foreigners, of whom 80,765 were French, 70,950 Dutch, 57,010 German, 6,974 English, 5,927 Austro-Hungarian, and 26,936 of other nationalities.

To close this chapter I will make one more remark, to which present circumstances give especial interest.