BELGIAN POLITICS, VIEWED BY AN ENGLISH HOLYDAY-MAKER.
Bruges, 9th Aril. In London, I believe, you constantly hear Belgium spoken of as if it were destined to perform its ancient function of being the Cockpit of Europe." Persons whom I met in the London streets, a fortnight ago, spoke confidently of a French army crossing the Belgian frontier, as though said army were already on its march. After such omens I expected to find something like a state of agitation in the Belgian cities ; but I can safely affirm, that after a to- lerably close survey of Antwerp, Brabant, and Flanders, I can perceive nothing but a people careless to everything except its own enjoyments; of which the ceremonies of the Catholic Church, abundant at this season, form no small share.
That you may have a positive as well as a negative proof of this tranquil state of things, I would call your attention to the fact,. that the political ar- ticles in the Belgian newspapers are almost exclusively confined to acrid dis- cussions on a pamphlet recently published by M. de Gerlache, President of the Court of Cessation, and one of the sommitis of the clerical party, which is regarded as a manifesto against the Liberals, now in power. I have read the pamphlet which has already reached its second edition, and which, thong ably written, consists of a string of such mere com- monplaces, at the attention it has excited is only to be accounted for by the high position of its author. Belgium is shown to be in the same po- litical condition as France was in '89; Liberalism is shown to be the preour- nor of Infidelity- and C,ommunism ; and to check the horrid state of things which is now approaching, the clergy must have more control over the edu- cation of youth, and the press must be " tant soit peu " curbed of its liberty. The only 'feature which gives the brochure a distinctive character from that of the fifty thousand essays which have been written for similar ends, arises from the religious condition of Belgium itself. It will doubtless be remembered, that in the struggle of 1830 the Catholics were amongst the most active opponents of the Dutch Monarch, whom they hated as a Protestant oppressor. This enables M. Gerlache in his attack on the Liberals to assume a tone of nationality, and even to ac- cuse them of " Orangeism." It is to her rigid Catholicism that Belgium owes her political existence ; without it, she would merge into the territories of some potent neighbour. Another advantage is afforded by the fact, that in Belgium the battle for religious liberty cannot be fought, as in England and America, on the ground of a great variety of important sects. The Bel-
gian Protestants are too insignificant to form the basis of a tarty ; and M. . . Gerlache has acutely perceived that he can argue as if all re glen were on his side, and all infidelity on that of his adversaries.
Discussions of this kind are not of the sort in which free journals indulge when they suppose a foreign enemy thundering at their gates.
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