for a very long period. Some one having curiosity asked how long they had been there, and "these brave folks,” thinking that some inheritance was coming to them, searched their old papers and found that these lands had passed from father to son for four hundred years. All the papers had been saved concerning the rent of their farm. The lady adds that in the good old times lands were rented for one hundred years, but now ordinarily for ten. This lady, whom I call Miss Maulevert, says that the farmer can put by five hundred francs a year. He can put it into the bank or with the notary, who gives him three per cent. A farmer who wants to buy land, say of the value of one thousand francs, and has only five hundred, can go to the notary, who will lend him the sum wanted at six per cent.; the borrower can then pay in small sums, the notary keeping the papers until all is paid. Most of the notaries are trustworthy; but, says Mr. Pulmann, "sometimes there is one who will take the money and go to see you in America, madame." "Almost all our rogues go there," says Mrs. Willems. "What part of America are you from?" says Mr. Pulmann. "North America; and where do these people go?" "To Brazil." Mr. Pulmann has retired from business. He was a West India merchant, but never went thither himself: he did not like the water. He and his sister-in-law come nearly every day to visit the farm. There is upon it a pavilion or long plain building of wood and glass, where they can entertain their friends, having a petroleum stove in the building, and bringing their two servants with provisions.

The most profitable crop grown here is wheat, but the great reliance of the people is upon potatoes. Mr. Pulmann says that when this crop misses all goes wrong or goes backward. There is only one hog at this farm,

and I begin to ask whether I shall ever see more than

one.

We learn of Mr. Pulmann or his sister that of three sons he has two ecclesiastics belonging to a religious order. If they are monks, I suppose the expression is not strictly correct, but I asked Mr. Pulmann whether his sons wished to become curés, and I understood him to answer thus: "Yes, they had an instinct for study." He does not think that they had to study without fire, as in the department of the north. They made their preparatory studies at Antwerp and went to the University of Louvain. The theological seminary is at Mechlin. Madame Willems afterwards says that Miss Maulevert was speaking to her about a Norwegian church at Antwerp. Although Lutheran, it has, she said, the Virgin Mary and child in one of the painted windows. Miss Maulevert added, says Mrs. W., that before fifty years almost all the world will be Catholic,England and Norway, but not Germany; they are too bad.

crop.

We e see buckwheat growing, and Mr. Pulmann tells me that the country-people make cakes and also thicken milk with it, but there is not much raised,-it is not a profitable Mr. P. tells me that the country-people eat fried potatoes, that bacon and lard are sold in great quantities in Antwerp; he does not know where they come from, but one of Mrs. Willems' sons says that they come from America, and one of her daughters says that the country-people fry a bit of bacon, add salt and pepper to the fat, and when it is cold spread it upon their tartine, or slice of bread, in place of butter. She adds that she likes it herself.

The present king of Belgium is a relative or near connection of Queen Victoria. When the Belgians established

their independence in 1830 or 1831, the crown was offered to his father, Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, a Protestant, whose first wife was the Princess Charlotte, of England. He afterwards married the daughter of Louis Philippe, of France, and their son, the present king, is Catholic. His silver wedding was approaching when I was in Belgium, and the women were raising a contribution to make a present to the queen. The subscription was not to exceed five sous, and I was told that they had already raised one hundred thousand francs, and all the subscriptions were not in. It was proposed to buy a crown and a train of lace. There was one commune that sent back the paper blank, the burgomaster saying, that the women in his village were too poor, which Mrs. Willems interprets thus: she says that the nobility and the members of the political Catholic party are not giving because the king has made some decisions that favor the liberals; and that in the village mentioned, the seigneur was probably opposed to the king or to the liberal party, and also the burgomaster. The seigneur could go into the houses himself and speak to the people, or send his servant, or have the curé to preach in the church. If the curé is not on friendly terms with the seigneur, he can do nothing, because the peasants are dependants of the seigneur.

After the Revolution of 1830, which drove the Bourbons out of France, the Belgians revolted from the king of Holland and set up a government of their own. England, Russia, Austria, and the other great powers of Europe established them as an independent kingdom, and made of them a neutral nation, not obliged to join in any of their wars; which has succeeded so well that, with a

population of less than six millions, they have sixty thousand soldiers to support. Belgium also has, as one of her sons tells me, to maintain defensive works to an absurd extent. England once forced Belgium to build enormous forts around Antwerp to protect her from France and Germany, and now Germany obliges Belgium to build more forts to protect her against England and France. Mr. Pulmann, whose farm we visited, said that the expenses for fortifications are eating up their ears.

Belgians who desire to do so can pay money to the government in order to provide substitutes for the army or volunteers. In advance, before the conscription, you put in your request for a substitute, paying at the same time two hundred francs. If you are drawn, you must make the sum up to sixteen hundred francs; but if not drawn, your two hundred are returned to you. The volunteer or substitute who accepts this sixteen hundred francs must serve eight years. Those drawn in the conscription must serve in the cavalry four years, in the infantry two, but they are always liable to be called on, if there is need, for eight years, dating from the conscription. After retiring from active service they become the reserve. The Belgian soldiers are more coarsely dressed than the French. They receive about three and a quarter pounds of bread for two days, and about half a pound of meat daily, also a portion of potatoes or other vegetables. They also receive one sou a day.

Another excursion which Mrs. Willems and I make is to the great village of B., with a population of eight thousand,

having a Catholic church and chapel. The village is mostly agricultural, but there are two tanneries, five breweries, and a dozen manufactures of lace. Two thousand persons are said to be working at lace, so that the farmers have much trouble in hiring women to work in house and field. It is in this village that I see boys with a basket, boys with a wheel-barrow, picking up the horse-manure in the street. The person whom we go to visit this day holds an office of some consequence, and has about one hundred and seventy acres, part of which is polder, or alluvial land, near Antwerp, reclaimed from the river Scheldt. It furnishes excellent pasture. About twenty of Mr. V.'s cattle were out on the polder when we were there. Mr. V. may be called a model farmer. He lives in the village, but has excellent buildings on the farm. He has over forty medals, received at agricultural expositions within eight years; they are of gold, of silver gilt, of silver, etc. I learn that some of his flax-stalks measure not far from a yard and a half in height, and I saw a specimen of oats measuring about five feet six inches. He says that this oat-field will bring him ninety bushels to the acre, and oats this year are worth sixty-six cents a bushel (ten francs the hectolitre). Mr. V. also tells me that the potato is their best crop, but they still suffer from rot; the heats of summer, followed by heavy autumnal rains, spoil the crop. Every year Mr. V. loses some, and last about two and a half acres. year When potatoes produce about two hundred and ninety bushels to the acre they are very good. I learn from Mr. V. that there are no insects here which injure wheat in the fields: something which he calls cancre eats it in the barn. Nor are there insects here that injure plums, but sparrows eat plums and cherries. Perhaps they are north of the range of the