months the new Chambers must assemble, which provide definitively for the succession.

The power of making laws is vested in the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate, the members of both houses being chosen by the people. The sittings are public, and by the decision of the majority either Chamber may form itself into a private committee. No person can at the same time be a member of both Chambers, and no member can retain his seat after obtaining a salaried office under the Government, except on being re-elected. No member can be called to account for any votes or opinions he may have given in the performance of his duties. No member can be prosecuted or arrested during the session without the consent of the Chamber of which he is a member, except in the case of being taken in flagranti crimine. Each Chamber determines the manner of exercising its own powers, and every session nominates its president and vice-president, and forms its bureau. No petition can be presented personally, and every resolution is adopted by the absolute majority, except in some special cases, when two-thirds of the votes of the members are required for its acceptance; in the case of an equality of votes the proposition is thrown out. The Chambers meet annually in the month of November, and must sit for at least forty days; but the king has the power of convoking them on extraordinary occasions, and of dissolving them either simultaneously or separately. In the latter case a new election must take place within forty days, and a meeting of the Chambers within two months. An adjournment cannot be made for a period exceeding one month without the consent of the Chambers.

The Chamber of Representatives is composed of deputies chosen directly by all citizens paying direct taxes to the annual amount of 43 francs, or 17. 15s. Under this qualification, the electoral lists, at the general election of 1878, contained the names of 119,765 electors, the right of suffrage being with 22 in every thousand of the population, or about one-thirteenth of the adult male population. The number of deputies is fixed according to the population, and cannot exceed one member for every 40,000 inhabitants. In the year 1878 they amounted to 136, elected in 48 electoral districts. To be eligible as a member, it is necessary to be a Belgian by birth, or to have received the 'grande naturalisation;' to have attained the age of twenty-five years, and to be resident in Belgium. The members not residing in the town where the Chamber sits receive, during the session, an indemnity of 430 francs, or 171. 58., each per month. The members are elected for four years, one-half going out every two years, except in the case of a dissolution, when a general election takes place. The Chamber has the parliamentary initiative and the preliminary vote in all cases relating to the receipts and expenses of the State and the contingent of the army.

The Senate is composed of exactly one-half the number of members comprising the Chamber of Representatives, and the senators are elected by the same citizens who appoint the deputies. The senators are chosen for eight years; they retire in one moiety every four years; but in case of dissolution the election must comprise the whole number of which the Senate is composed. The qualifications necessary for a senator are, that he must be a Belgian by birth or naturalisation; in full possession of all political and civil rights; resident within the kingdom; at least forty years of age; and paying in direct taxes not less than 847. sterling. In those provinces where the list of citizens who possess this lastmentioned qualification does not reach to the proportion of one in 6,000 of the population, that list is enlarged by the admission into it of those citizens who pay the greatest amount of direct taxes, so that the list shall always contain at least one person who is eligible to the Senate for every 6,000 inhabitants of the province. The senators do not receive any pay. The presumptive heir to the throne is of right a senator at the age of eighteen, but he has no voice in the proceedings until twenty-five years of age. All the proceedings of the Senate during the time the Chamber of Representatives is not sitting are without force.

The Executive Government consists of seven departments, viz.:— 1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs.-Hubert J. W. Frère-Orban, born April 24, 1812; studied law, and entered the journalistic career in 1830; Minister of Finance 1846-47, and again 1848-52, 1857-61, and 1868-70. Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the Council of Ministers, June 20, 1878.

2. The Ministry of Justice.-Jules Bara, born 1830; Minister of Justice, 1865-70. Re-appointed Minister of Justice, June 20, 1878. 3. The Ministry of Public Works.-M. Sainctelette, appointed September 9, 1879.

4. The Ministry of War.-General Gratry, appointed Nov. 7, 1880. 5. The Ministry of the Interior.-G. Rolin Jacquemyns, appointed June 20, 1878.

6. The Ministry of Finance.-Charles Graux, appointed September 9, 1879.

7. The Ministry of Public Instruction.-Professor Van Humbeeck, appointed September 9, 1879.

Besides the above responsible heads of departments, there are a number of 'Ministres d'Etat,' without portfolio, who form a privy council called together on special occasions by the sovereign. acting ministers, as such, do not form part of the privy council.

Church and Education.

The

The Roman Catholic religion is professed by nearly the entire population of Belgium. The Protestants do not amount to 13,000,

while the Jews number less than 1,500. Full religious liberty is granted by the constitution, and part of the income of the ministers of all denominations is paid from the national treasury. The amount thus granted in recent annual budgets was 4,568,200 francs, or 182,7281., to Roman Catholics; 69,336 francs, or 2,7721., to Protestants, and 11,220 francs, or 4481., to Jews.

The kingdom is divided into six Roman Catholic dioceses, namely, the Archbishopric of Malines and the Bishoprics of Bruges, Ghent, Liége, Namur, and Tournay. The archbishopric has three vicars-general and a chapter of twelve canons, and each of the bishoprics two vicars-general and a chapter of eight canons. In each diocese is an ecclesiastical seminary. There are few endowments, and the clergy derive their maintenance chiefly from fees and voluntary gifts. The salaries paid by the State are comparatively small, being 21,000 francs, or 8407. to the archbishop; 16,000 francs, or 6407. to each of the five bishops; 2,000 francs, or 80l. to canons, and from 600 to 800 francs, or 241. to 321. to the inferior parish clergy. At the last census, there were 1,322 convents in Belgium, of which number 178, with 2,991 inmates, were for men, and 1,144, with 15,205 inmates, for women.

The Protestant Evangelical Church, to which belong the greater number of the Protestants in the kingdom, is under a synod composed of the clergymen of the body, and a representative from each of the congregations. It sits in Brussels once a year, when each member is required to be present, or to delegate his powers to another member. The English Episcopal Church has eight ministers, and as many chapels, in Belgium-three in Brussels, and one in each of the towns of Antwerp, Bruges, Ostend, Spa, and Ghent. The Jews have a central synagogue in Brussels; three branch synagogues of the first class at Antwerp, Ghent, and Liége, and two of the second class at Arlon and Namur.

There are four universities in the kingdom, three of them with four facultés,' or branches of study, and one, Louvain, nursery of the clergy, with five. The following table gives the number of students attending the various facultés' in each of the four universities in the session of 1877–78:

Education is at present almost entirely the monopoly of the Roman Catholic clergy, and to a great extent in that of the order of the Jesuits. Elementary education is not yet generally diffused among the people, and the existing schools are supported by the communes, the provinces, and the State combined; the Government paying one-sixth, the province one-sixth, and the commune foursixths of the expenditure. There is no compulsory law of education in Belgium.

It appears from official returns, based upon recent examinations of the National Guards, or Civic Militia of the kingdom, that nearly one-fifth of the grown-up population are unable to read and write. Luxembourg contains the smallest proportion of illiterate persons, and the other provinces come in the following order as regards instruction: Namur, Antwerp, Liége, Brabant, Limbourg, Hainaut, West and East Flanders. In the year 1878, there were 47,957 young men called out for military service, and of this number 8,222 could neither read nor write; 1,957 could read only; 21,509 could simply read and write, and 15,669 possessed a superior education. The sum devoted by the State to public education amounted in 1881 to 18,501,872 francs, or 740,0741.

Revenue and Expenditure.

The public income and expenditure of Belgium in recent years have mostly been balanced, with an occasional surplus. The actual revenue for the year 1878-the last of which the accounts were published, in 1880-amounted to 264,435,260 francs, or 10,577,4081., and the actual expenditure to 272,341,317 francs, or 10,893,6521., leaving a deficit of 17,906,057 francs, or 716,2401.

The gross revenue and expenditure of Belgium, for each of the ten years 1872 to 1881-actual for the first five, and estimated for the last five, years-are shown in the subjoined table :

The following table gives the details of the budgets for each of the years 1880 and 1881:

The deficits were to be covered by an increase of taxation.

The following table shows the total amount of the national liabilities of the kingdom on the 1st of January 1880:

3,488,200

3,420,600

1,187,000

1,322,000

278,818,548

289,844,702

11,152,741

11,593,788