line and a reserve of 30,000, while the opposition leader asserts that a mobilization would not produce more than 80,000 men. Of 26 bridges across the Meuse only seven remain unprotected by the new fortifications; and of 19 railroads only three, and two of these lead from Holland. With the protection of the têtes-depont of Liége and Namur, the Belgians expect to be able to reach without danger any point where an invading army should attempt to cross the river, and resist the passage or force the invaders to detach large forces and delay their march until troops could arrive from France or Germany.

Commerce. The general commerce in 1884 amounted to 5,450,200,000 francs. The special commerce consisted of 1,425,700,000 francs of imports and 1,337,500,000 francs of exports. The chief articles of import were breadstuffs of the value of 275,007,000 francs; wool and woolens, 101,479,000 francs; metals and minerals, 99,636,000 francs; textile fabrics, 90,149,000 francs; hides and skins, 73,693,000 francs; live animals, 63,118,000 francs; oilseeds, 47,666,000 francs; cotton, 52,743,000 francs; timber, 45,307,000 francs; coffee and sugar, 31,583,000 francs; chemicals, 38,076,000 francs; butter, 21,597,000 francs; flax and hemp, 16,227,000 francs. The chief exports were yarns, valued at 131,962,000 francs; breadstuffs, 105,157,000 francs; machinery, 80,353,000 francs; stones, 98,839,000 francs; coal, 76,581,000 francs; wool, 76,481,000 francs; textiles, 70,398,000 francs; hides, 63,368,000 francs; iron, 50,050,000 francs; glass, 48,406,000 francs; zinc, 41,022,000 francs.

France leads in the import trade with 276,858,000 francs, the Netherlands coming next with 187,530,000, and then Germany with 185,423,000, Great Britain with 184,856,000, the United States with 160,673,000, and Russia with 123,873,000 francs. Of the exports 411,964,000 francs went to France. 252,142,000 to Great Britain, 236,240,000 to Germany, 176,205,000 to the Netherlands, and 39,559,000 francs, the next largest amount, to the United States.

Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs.-The railroads of Belgium have a total length of 4,410 kilometres, or 2,758 miles. There are 3,166 kilometres worked by the state and 1,244 kilometres by companies. The receipts of the state lines in 1885 were 119,772,557 francs, the expenses 70,097,356 francs; the receipts of the companies' lines 37,229,787 francs, the expenses 20,333,582 francs. The capital expended on the state lines up to 1886 was 929,697,462 francs, besides annuities of the capital value of 319,798,631 francs for the purchase of lines already constructed.

The post-office in 1885 transmitted 91,498,150 private letters, 13,917,560 official letters, 26,539,334 postal-cards, 51,473,000 circulars, etc., and 103,559,000 journals. The revenue amounted to 14,393,081 francs and the expenses to 8,609,871 francs.

The length of telegraph lines in 1885 was 3,800 miles, with 17,713 miles of wires; the number of dispatches, 6,807,772; the receipts, 2,666,736 francs; the expenditures, 3,587,659. Navigation.-Belgium had on Jan. 1, 1885, a commercial navy numbering 64 vessels, of 80,592 tons, including 51 steamers, of 74,667 tons. There were 324 vessels, of 11,474 tons, employed in the fisheries. The aggregate tonnage of vessels entered at Belgian ports during 1884 was 4,072,987, and the total tonnage cleared 4,060,612.

Revenue and Expenditure. The ordinary receipts of the treasury according to the budget estimates for 1886-'87 amount to 319,625,109 francs, of which 118,897,000 francs represent the railroad receipts, 39,128,000 francs the excise duties, 25,507,100 francs the customs duties, 23,860,000 francs the registration fees, 23,699,700 francs the land-taxes, 19,320,000 francs the succession duties, and 19,100,000 francs the personal taxes. The total ordinary expenditure was estimated at 316,663,411 francs, 102,532,547 francs being the interest on the public debt, 87,245,471 francs the expenses of the railways, posts, and telegraphs, 45,624,100 francs the military budget, and 22,005,421 francs the appropriation for public instruction, etc. The total revenue for 1887-'88 is estimated at 313,661,559, and the expenditure at 307,743,123 francs.

The public debt in 1887 amounted to 1,874,510,824 francs, besides annuities requiring the payment of 12,243,000 francs. The debt was mainly contracted for public works, and large as it is, representing a burden of $75 per capita, the revenue from the railroads alone is more than sufficient to pay the interest.

Cattle Duties.-The Clerical party brought forward in the Chamber a long contemplated protectionist measure imposing high duties on foreign cattle and meat. The Premier himself took strong grounds against the bill. While it was under discussion the price of meat rose 30 per cent. in the retail market. Although meat is too dear a luxury for most Belgian workingmen, the proposed law produced a ferment throughout the masses of the people, and when disturbances resulted, the Premier proposed the adjournment of the debate, on the ground that it would be improper to reject the bill as a concession to threats and outrages. The majority were not influenced by the popular excitement, and after adopting an amendment exempting cattle sent through Belgium for re-exportation, carried the bill on May 10 by a vote of 69 to 54, the Premier and the Minister of Railways voting with the minority against their own party. The measure increases the duties on cattle, sheep, and all fresh meat fifty or sixty per cent., The Senate passed it on June 1 by a vote of 36 to 23, after a declaration of the Minister of Agriculture that the ministry would demand the repeal of the duties if any considerable rise in the price of meat resulted. The Chambers also in

creased the import duty on vinegar, and abolished the stamp-tax on insurance policies.

Labor Strikes.—The vote of the Chamber was the signal for strikes among the workinen all over the country, which had for their object the redress of political grievances. By quitting work the laboring-class not only intended an imposing political demonstration, but expected to force their employers to join them in their demands. Chief among these was universal suffrage, or a wide extension of the franchise. This reform they wished to have immediately accomplished by the dissolution of the Chambers and the convocation of a Constituent Assembly. Another urgent demand was a general amnesty for all who were convicted for offenses connected with the labor disturbances of the year before. The abolition of substitution in the army was also desired, and an income tax instead of duties on consumption, the removal of the high property qualification for the Senate and other reforms were urged. The strikes began in the coalmines, and spread to the metal-workers of Louvain, Centre, Brussels, and other places, the carpenters, tailors, painters, and other mechanics of Brussels, the quarrymen at Tournai, and the iron-workers in the large foundries of the Seraing, Charleroi, and other districts. Collisions with the gendarmes occurred at La Croyère, where two miners were killed and several wounded; La Louvière, where dynamite was used by the strikers in an attempt to blow up a cafe, and against workmen who would not join them; and Brussels, where dynamite outrages occurred, and where several policemen and rioters were wounded. Later severe collisions between troops and strikers occurred in Ghent, and dynamite outrages were perpetrated in the Centre district and elsewhere. Many agitators, including a French anarchist named Jahn, were arrested. Troops were stationed at Seraing and other places, and two classes of reserves were called out. At Morlanwelz the coal-mine proprietors agreed to unite with their workmen in demanding the adjournment of the cattle-tax project by the Senate, the pardon of the convicted rioters of 1886, and the establishment of councils of conciliation and a laborer's benefit fund. The French authorities closed the frontier within the Department of the Nord, and arrested and conducted to Paris the Belgian socialist leader, de Fuisseaux. Fauviaux, a noted socialist, was arrested at Quaregnon, and a leader named Loor in the mining districts. After two or three weeks the strikes subsided, and by the 1st of June nearly all had returned to work.

The Progressist and Radical associations in a congress at Brussels on May 29 adopted a programme embodying modification of the senatorial tax qualification, lay education, separation of Church and State, equal military burdens, an income-tax instead of taxes on consumption, responsibility of employers for accidents, councils of arbitration, professional syndicates,

an invalid fund for workmen, the democratic organization of credit, equality of the French and Flemish languages, and the right of voting for all who can read and write. In July the Chamber voted down a proposal for obligatory military service, upon which the Opposition moved a revision of the Constitution for the extension of the electoral franchise. The proposal, which is the third one of the kind since the Constitution was framed, was rejected by 83 votes against 33, all the Liberals voting for it, and all the Clericals in the negative. Labor Legislation.-A new law for the suppression of drunkenness prescribes the punishment of fine and imprisonment for persons found drunk on the streets and for liquor-sellers who furnish drink to intoxicated persons or to children, and abolishes the right to recover debts incurred in a liquor-shop. An act regulating the payment of workmen's wages provides that two fifths of the pay of workingmen and of clerks' salaries, not exceeding 1,200 francs, are inalienable, and one fifth is exempt from seizure by legal process. The Chamber passed a bill, introduced by M. Frère-Orban, instituting councils of industry for the reconciliation of the interests of employers and laborers in cases of conflict. The truck system was abolished by a bill providing for the payment of wages in cash.

Fishery Riots. Belgian fishermen have for years carried on a warfare against the English steam-trawlers by cutting their nets with grapnels. Finding that their better-equipped competitors were ousting them from their own market, they felt aggrieved because, while foreign fishermen have free access to the Belgian markets, they themselves must pay heavy duties in France, and are excluded from the London market by a combination of middlemen. A British cruiser which was stationed on the fishing-grounds to protect the English boats from piratic outrages was unable to capture the users of the submarine cutting-apparatus; but evidence was produced before Belgian tribunals on which some of the misdemeanants were convicted and fined, a result which further inflamed the minds of the fishing population. The British Government subsequently increased the naval force in the North Sea to five steamers and four sailing cruisers. August 23, when the crew of three English smacks were landing their cargoes at Ostend a crowd gathered, destroyed a part of the fish, and broke the windows of a proprietor of English fishing-boats. The gendarmerie interfered, and were beaten off, but came again in greater force, and charged the rioters with their bayonets, wounding many of them and killing three. The civic guards were called out, but during the next day fishermen attacked some English smacks in row-boats, and would not leave them in obedience to a formal summons, whereupon the artillery fired, killing two and fatally injuring three. The women took an active part in the disturbances, and

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