uis Philippe, the King of France, and asked him to be their King.
But England would not hear of this, so his father told him to refuse.
Then the Belgians were advised to choose that Prince Leopold of
Saxe-Coburg who had married Princess Charlotte. She was now dead, and
he had been living in England ever since. They took this advice, and
in 1831 he accepted the offer they made him, and was crowned at
Brussels as Leopold I., King of the Belgians.

Thereafter he married a daughter of Louis Philippe, and reigned till
the year 1865, when he died, and was succeeded by his son, Leopold
II., who is the present King. This is how the southern provinces of
the Netherlands were made into the little, independent kingdom of
Belgium.

Since then the trade and commerce of Belgium have grown. Antwerp has
become a huge seaport; Brussels flourishes. The industries of Ghent
are prosperous. Throughout the Walloon country, from the busy forges
of Liege to the coal-mines round Mons, there is a hard-working and, on
the whole, successful people. Even fallen Bruges has lately been
struggling to rise again.

But, unfortunately, there is another side to the picture. You have
often heard it said that "as the twig is bent, the tree grows." It is
the same with mankind. The character and manners of grown-up people
depend on how they have been trained when young. If a child is
bullied, and passed from one master to another, ill-treated and
frightened, it is apt to grow up timid and untruthful. The same thing
may be seen in nations. To this day the lower classes in Belgium bear
traces of the long period of subjection, and the race has not
recovered from the time when the Spaniards turned so many famous towns
into dens of thieves and beggars. They are very often cunning, timid
though boastful, and full of the small tricks and servile ways which
are natural in a people which once had all manliness and courage
crushed out of it.

Another unlucky thing for the Belgians is that they quarrel dreadfully
among themselves about public questions. In all countries there are
quarrels of this sort, but in Belgium these disputes poison the whole
life of the country. They are divided into Catholics and Liberals, and
the best interests of the State are lost sight of in the squabbling
which goes on between these two parties. By the laws of Belgium all
religions are equal. There is no Established Church. The Parliament
each year finds money for the Catholic clergy,