Sir James Emerson Tennent

“ Almost every house is furnished with an espion, a small plate of looking-glass fixed outside the window, at such an angle, that all that is passing in the street is seen by those inside, without their appearing themselves.
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Here and there upon the quays and in the narrower streets, there are to be found the gloomy old residences of the “Men of Ghent,” now converted into inns or ware-rooms, with their sharp tilted roofs, high stepped gables, abutting on the street, fantastic chimneys, and mullioned windows, sunk deep into the walls. ”

“ In the new town there are the palaces of the King and the nobles, the park, the public promenades, the chambers of the Senate and the Commons, the splendid hotels of the Place Royal, and the libraries and museums that occupy the château which was once the residence of the Austrian viceroys; whilst in the old town, there are the churches of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with their superb oak carvings, stained windows and statuary, the Hôtel de Ville, the gloomy old mansions of the past race of nobles, and all the characteristic memorials of the ancient capital. ”

“ Those who regret the expulsion of the King of Holland, look upon King Leopold merely as his involuntary successor, and whilst they condemn the incapacity of his ministers, and the violence of the party in the house and in the country by whom they are controlled—all seemed to regard the King as only borne upon a tide of circumstances, which he is equally unable with them to resist or direct. ”

“ Above these, usually rises a rock, or a mass of foliage and flowers, on which are perched birds and other accompaniments, and on this rests the shell of the pulpit, the whole is then surmounted, either by a canopy sustained by angels and cherubims, or by the spreading branches of a palm tree, so arranged as to overshadow the whole. Almost every great church and cathedral in Belgium contains one of these unique productions of an art which is now almost extinct, or, at least, possessed of no practitioners at all qualified to cope in excellence with these ancient masters. ”

“ But if the necessities and weakness of Belgium, render it impracticable for her to continue as she is, and if national independence be irreconcilable with her prosperity, the question which occupies the thoughts of her discontented subjects, is to what quarter she shall turn for relief from without. To attach herself again to Austria, as before the French revolution, is a matter impracticable and could be productive of no advantage, even if it were otherwise. ”

“ The experience of fifteen years has proved to us, in the most evident manner, that is to the free and mutual exchange of produce, that we are indebted for reciprocal prosperity. The advantages that navigation derives from the colonies, the increasing outlets that these same colonies constantly offer to the produce of our industry, are irrefragible proofs, that any separation would not only be fatal to this province, but to the commercial industry of all Belgium. ”

“ Thus provided and thus encouraged, speculating upon capital supplied lavishly by their government, equipped with the most valuable English tools, inspected by English artisans, and working from English models, the Belgians have now far outstripped all the rest of Europe in the manufacture of machines of every description, and in all but the cost of construction, and that beauty of finish which matured skill can alone achieve, they at present bid fair to rival England herself in her peculiar and hitherto undisputed domain. ”

“ To produce successfully by machinery, it is indispensible to produce extensively; but Belgium, apparently unconscious of this important truth, proceeded to contract, instead of enlarging, her limits; and her powers of production, thus cribbed and restrained, without the opportunity of exercise, have pined and wasted away and are now on the brink of decay.
The two banks, east and west of the Rhine, present at this moment a singular and striking illustration of the opposite effects of the cultivation or neglect of this principle in modern manufacture. ”

“ It is incontestible, that if the happiness and welfare of a nation had depended on the laborious exertions and unremitting devotion of the sovereign to commercial affairs, then Belgium ought to have been as contented as it was prosperous, and its sovereign the most popular monarch in Europe. [31]
Under the auspices of such a sovereign, Belgium, during the fifteen years of its connexion with Holland, attained a height of prosperity which no human being presumes to question. ”

“ But toleration and freedom of opinion are the very essence of the reformation, and the Roman Catholic clergy had the discernment to perceive that no more effectual system could have been established for the silent but ultimate subversion of their church, than by reducing it to an equality with every other, thus lending the authority of the state in ascribing to many the possession of that saving faith, which it is fatal to the very spirit of catholicism to have attributed to any but one—and that one, herself. ”

“ One thing, in Belgium, I cannot but allude to as characteristic—the unrestrained freedom with which every individual discusses politics, and the unreserved candour and frankness with which each details his views and strictures. ”

“ Holland, on the contrary, with her hands fully employed by her shipping and her trade, and possessing no mines of iron or coal, had never either the inducement or the temptation to become a manufacturing country, so that nothing could apparently be more happy, than the union of one producing nation all alive with machinery, with its neighbour proportionably rich in shipping; and to open to both an extensive colonial territory, whose population the merchantmen of the one could supply with the produce of the other. ”

“ I never met with less bigotted politicians, and I have not seen a single individual, whom I would designate a party-man, in the English acceptation of the term, that is one who finds all right, or all wrong, precisely as the party with whom he sympathises be censured or lauded by the inference. But the fact is, there are no “optimists” in Belgium as yet, and there is so much that is unsatisfactory in every department, that the consciousness of it forces itself upon the conviction, if not the admission of every individual. ”

“ The religious grievances of the nation are, it is too much to be feared, beyond his reach to correct, and the evils which beset and endanger its internal prosperity, arising out of the circumscribed resources of the nation, must look in vain to them for redress. The fundamental defect is the want of an adequate consumption for the produce of the national industry, and for this the ingenuity of the government has been ineffectually tortured to discover a remedy. ”

“ Roads, canals and means of communication were constructed with surprising rapidity; sound and practical education was universally diffused, in short, every element of material prosperity became fully developed, and what rendered the progress of the nation the more important, was the fact that it was not intermittent or capricious, but exhibited one steady march in its ascent in each successive year, from the period of the union to the hour of its disruption. ”

“ If the further experience should unfortunately decide finally against the permanence of Belgium as an independent nation, the only practical expedient which remains, and that which has already received the sanction of all the great powers of Europe, would be a return to the disposition made by the Congress of Vienna, and the reincorporation of Holland and Belgium, to form again the united kingdom of the Netherlands. ”

“ And turning some sudden corner in a narrow passage obstructed by lumbering waggons, drawn by oxen, one finds himself in front of some huge old tower, or venerable belfry, covered with gothic sculpture, and stretching up to the sky till he has to bend back his head to descry the summit of it. One singular old building on the Quai aux Herbes, remarkable for its profusion of Saxon arches and stone carvings, was the Hall of the Watermen, whose turbulent insurrection under John Lyon, is detailed with quaint circumstantiality in the pages of Froissart. ”

“ Twenty years ago, the manufacturers of the Netherlands were altogether dependant upon France and England, for everything except the most ordinary pieces of machinery, which were used in the simplest processes—but the refusal of Great Britain, to permit its exportation upon any terms, naturally left them no alternative, but either to abandon their manufactures, or to apply their own ingenuity to the construction of machinery for themselves. ”

“ Without ships, colonies or commerce, and encumbered by an army, which never fights, and fortresses destined for demolition, it is merely the jibe and the laughing stock of Europe * * * The very authors of the revolt of 1830, blush for their own handiwork, and those who were then the most zealous apostles of revolution, now preach only contrition and repentance. ”

“ It is unlike any place that one has been accustomed to before, and is certainly the most perfect specimen of a town of the middle ages on this side the Rhine. Its houses have not been rebuilt in modern times, and with their ample fronts, vast arched entrances and sculptured ornaments, and fantastic gables, are all in keeping with our stately impressions of its feudal counts and affluent but turbulent burghers. ”

“ Belgium is of all countries in Europe the best calculated for railroads; its vast alluvial plains, hardly presenting a perceptible inequality. From Ostend to Ghent, I scarcely noticed a single cutting or an embankment, the rails being laid upon the natural surface of the ground, and the direction as straight as the flight of an arrow, without the necessity of a curve or inclination, except to approach some village station on the road.
The old mode of conveyance by the Trekschuit, on the Canal de Bruges, though not discontinued, is comparatively deserted for the railroad. ”

“ Neither the social nor the material prosperity of Belgium, affords anything encouraging to the hopes of those who can profit by the experience of others; and as, in Ireland, the materials in which the vital experiment must be made are similar, the results to be anticipated must be the same. With Popery, merely as a complexion of Christianity—as a distinctly marked form of religion—a legislator has no further concern, than as regards the question of enlightened toleration. ”

“ The entire surface of the country, between Ghent and Courtrai, is one unbroken plain, which, though less rich and luxuriant than the alluvial soils of Holland and of England, exhibits, in all directions, the most astonishing evidence of that superiority in agricultural science for which the Flemings are renowned over Europe. ”

“ Antwerp and the districts on the Dutch frontier, if assigned to Holland, would have no longer employment for their capital and ships, and would again sink under the more favoured rivalry of Amsterdam and Rotterdam; and as Hainault and the fortresses along the Meuse and the Sambre would necessarily fall to the lot of France, a measure so menacing to the future security of Europe, would not be tolerated by her courts, unless these strongholds were garrisoned by the allies, an expedient which would be equally opposed by the pride and ambition of the French. ”

“ With the abdication of Charles V, that most remarkable incident in the history of kings, which took place in the church of St. Gudule at Brussels, and the accession of Philip II, arose the reign of terror in the Netherlands, when Alva and his bloodhounds ravaged Flanders, and their successors, for twenty years, rendered her cities abattoirs of Europe. ”

“ Such a system is pregnant with evils, but it is in vain to attempt its alteration so long as we have England for our rival, with her great experience, her vast command of capital, and her firm possession of the trade. ”

“ The home consumption of Belgium as compared to England, is as 2 kils. per each individual to 8. In France the quantity used per head, is 3 kils. and in the rest of Europe about 21⁄2. But to the Belgians, this export trade is the vital object at the present moment, and any alteration of our law which would permit the import of foreign sugar into England, at a diminished duty, or encourage the growth of beet-root for the manufacture of sugar, would be fatal to the trade of the Netherlands, and to Holland, not less than to Belgium. ”

“ During the fifteen years of the Dutch connexion, the population, the wealth and the prosperity of Ghent never ceased to increase; manufactures were multiplied, streets enlarged, public buildings erected, and large and beautiful houses constructed; in short, Ghent had become a great commercial city. The revolution of 1830 at once arrested this career of improvement, and Ghent, whose prosperity was the offspring of peace and of her connexion with [184] Holland, now seems to protest, by her silence, against a change which she finds to be fraught to her with ruin. ”

“ One source of superiority which the farmer of Holland and the Netherlands enjoys, is derived from the fact of his saving the seed of his own flax. In the first instance, he imports, as we do from Riga, seed which yields a strong and robust plant, during the first year; its produce is then preserved and sown a second time, when it becomes more delicate in its texture, and the seed then obtained, is never parted with by the farmer, but produces the finest and most valuable plant. ”

“ The city itself, though of remote antiquity, has nothing very antique in its first appearance, and, in fact, it is only in the narrow alleys and passages of the lower quarter that the mansions and municipal buildings of the former nobles and burghers of Brabant are to be discerned. Even here there are fewer architectural traces of the magnificence of the middle ages than in almost any other of the great cities of Belgium. ”

“ Agriculture, recovering from the sad effects of war, and receiving an [237] augmented impulse from the demand created by the commerce of Holland, speedily attained the highest possible point of prosperity—mines were opened, coal, iron and all other, mineral wealth extensively explored; manufactures and machinery were multiplied to an extent beyond belief, and the trade of Antwerp even outstepped that of Holland in exporting the produce of Belgium. ”

“ Nor is this all—their market is systematically beset by smugglers across the frontiers of France and Holland, who, inundating it with French and English goods, exempt from duty, have reduced the price of Belgian production to an ebb utterly incompatible with any hope of remuneration. This is an evil, however, to which not their peculiar branch alone, but every protected manufacture in the country is equally liable, and for redress of which they have vainly invoked the interference of their legislature—the mischief is of too great magnitude to be grappled with or remedied. ”