GHENT AND COURTRAI.
The market-day at Ghent--The peasants--The linen-market--The
Book-stalls--_Courtrai_--The Lys--_Denys_--Distillation in
Belgium--AGRICULTURE IN FLANDERS--A Flemish farm--Anecdote of
Chaptal and Napoleon--Trade in manure--_The Smoor-Hoop_--Rotation
of crops--CULTIVATION OF FLAX--Real importance of the crop in
Belgium--Disadvantageous position of Great Britain as regards
the growth of flax--State of her importations from abroad and
her dependency upon Belgium--In the power of Great Britain
to relieve herself effectually--System in Flanders--_The
seed_--Singular fact as to the Dutch seed--Rotation of
crops--Spade labour--Extraordinary care and precaution in
_weeding_--_Pulling_--THE ROUISSAGE--In Hainault--In the Pays
de Waes--At Courtrai--The process in Holland--The process in
the Lys--_A Bleach-green_--The damask manufacture in Belgium--A
manufactory in a windmill--Introduction of the use of _sabots_
into Ireland--_Courtrai_, the town--Antiquities--The Church
of Notre Dame--Relic of Thomas à Becket--THE MAISON DE FORCE
AT GHENT--The System of prison discipline--Labour of the
inmates--Their earnings--Remarkable story of Pierre Joseph
Soëte--Melancholy case of an English prisoner--_A sugar
refinery_--State of the trade in Belgium--Curious frauds
committed under the recent law--_Beet-root sugar_--Failure of the
manufacture--A tumult at Ghent--_The New Theatre_--Cultivation
of music at Ghent--Print works of M. Desmet de Naeyer--Effects
of the Revolution of 1830 upon the manufactures of
Belgium--Opposition of Ghent and Antwerp to a separation from
Holland--M. Briavionne’s exposé of the ruin of the trade in
calico printing--Smuggling across the frontiers--Present
discontents at Ghent--Number of insolvents in 1839--General
decline of her manufactures.
This being the market day for linen, we went early to the Marché de
Vendredi where it is held. The winter, however, is the season in which
the market is seen to the greatest advantage, as the farmers are not
then prevented by their agricultural employments from attending to the
weaving, and bringing of it to town for sale in December and January;
so many as 2000 pieces have been sold in the course of a morning. The
appearance of the peasantry was particularly prepossessing, their
features handsome, their dress and person neat in the extreme; the
women generally wearing long cloaks, made of printed calico, and the
men the blouse of blue linen, which has become almost the national
costume of Belgium.
The sellers of linen were arranged in long lines, each with his webs
before him resting on a low bench, whilst the police were present to
preserve order, and see that every individual kept his allotted place.
The webs had all previously been examined by a public officer, who
affixed his seal to each, not as any mark of its quality or guide to
its price, but merely to testify that it was not fraudulently made
up--that it was of the same quality throughout as on the outer, fold,
and that the quantity was exactly what it professed to be; any fraud
attempted, in any particular, exposing the offender to the seizure and
forfeiture of the web.[21]
The other articles for sale in the market were vegetables and fruit
of the ordinary kinds, (with a profusion of Mirabelle plums, the trees
of which we saw, repeatedly, planted in hedge-rows), woollen cloth,
cutlery, household furniture, and pottery of a very rude description,
together with numerous stalls of books. The latter were chiefly
religious, but amongst the others were a number of the old popular
histories, which seem to be equally favourites in England and Flanders,
such as “_Reynaert den Vos_;”--“_de schoone historie van Fortunatus
borsen_;”--“_de schoone historie van den edelen Jan van Parys_;”--“_de
Twee gebroders en vroome riddens Valentyn en Oursen den Wilden
men_;”--“_Recretiven Droomboek_.” &c., &c.
After breakfast we went by the railroad to Courtrai, a distance
which the train accomplishes in a little more than two hours. My
object, in the excursion, was to see the process, which is peculiar
to this district, of steeping flax in the running waters of the
Lys. This river, which rises in the Pays de Calais, and forms one
of the boundaries between France and Belgium, derives its name, in
all probability, from the quantity of water-lilies which flourish
in its sluggish current, and which are said to be the origin of the
fleur-de-lys in the royal arms of France. The road passes through
Denys, Waereghem and Haerlebeke, three towns which are the chief
in Communes of the same name, and are all bustling little places,
combining with agricultural industry, a considerable trade in linen
which is the great staple of the district. At Denys, there are also
extensive distilleries of Geneva which enjoys a considerable reputation
in Belgium, where the spirit produced by distillation is invariably
bad, except in the provinces of Limbourg and Luxembourg, where it
approaches somewhat to the character of the Dutch. This remarkable
difference between the produce of two countries, so similar in almost
all their resources for the manufacture, is, perhaps, to be found in
the almost total absence of any duty of excise upon distillation, which
it was found essential to reduce to a mere nominal sum since 1830, in
order to protect the agriculture of Belgium, and which, consequently,
brought the trade into the hands of the very lowest class, both of
distillers and consumers.
The entire surface of the country, between Ghent and Courtrai, is one
unbroken plain, which, though less rich and luxuriant than the alluvial
soils of Holland and of England, exhibits, in all directions, the most
astonishing evidence of that superiority in agricultural science for
which the Flemings are renowned over Europe. The natural reluctance
of their thin and sandy soil has been overcome by dint of the most
untiring labour--an attention to manuring, which approaches to the
ludicrous in its details, and, above all, by a system of rotation, the
most profoundly calculated and the most eminently successful.
The general aspect of a Flemish farm; the absence of hedge-rows, or,
where they are to be found, their elaborate training and inter-texture,
so as to present merely a narrow vegetating surface of some two or
three feet high, and twice as many inches in thickness; the minute
division of their fields into squares, all bearing different crops, but
performing the same circle of rotation, and the total disappearance of
all weeds or plants, other than those sought to be raised; all these
show the practical and laborious experience, by which they have reduced
their science to its present system, and the indomitable industry
by which, almost inch by inch, these vast and arid plains have been
converted from blowing sands into blooming gardens. Here draining
and irrigation are each seen in their highest perfection, owing to
the frequent intersection of canals; whilst the same circumstance,
affording the best facilities for the transport of manure, has been one
of the most active promoters of farming improvement. Chaptal relates,
that having traversed one of the sandy plains of Flanders in company
with Napoleon, the Emperor, on his return to Paris, adverted to the
circumstance of its gloomy barrenness with an expression of surprise
as well as regret, when the practical philosopher suggested, that the
construction of a canal across it would, within five years, convert the
unproductive waste into luxuriant farms. The experiment was tried, and
proved triumphantly successful. The canal was opened, and in less than
the time predicted, the results anticipated were more than realized in
its effects.
To fix the flying sands of Belgium, the main and permanent expedient
has been the application of manures; the preparation and care of this
important ingredient has been, in Flanders, reduced to an actual trade,
and barges innumerable are in constant transit on the canals, conveying
it from its depôts and manufactories in the villages and towns to the
rural districts, where it is to be applied. Servants, as a perquisite,
are allowed a price for all the materials serviceable for preparing
it, which they can collect in the house and farm-yards, and the value
of which often amounts to as much as their nominal wages. Pits and
a tank, called a _smoor-hoop_, or smothering heap, are attached to
every farm, and tended with a systematic care that bespeaks the
importance of their contents. Into these, every fermentable fluid is
discharged, and mixed with the refuse of vegetables; the rape-cake,
which remains after expressing the oil, wood-ashes, soaper’s waste,
grains from distilleries, weeds from the drains, and, in short, every
other convertible article collected in the establishment; and often,
in addition, plants such as broom are sown in the lands, expressly
for the purpose of being ploughed in when green to increase their
fertility, or to be cut for fermentation in the _smoor-hoop_. This
latter is constructed with bricks, like a tan-pit, and covered with
cement to avoid escape or filtration; and its contents, at the larger
establishments, are sold to the farmers at from three to five francs a
hogshead, in proportion to the quality.
The circle of rotation is observed with equal precision and scientific
skill, and generally consists of four or five crops and a clean fallow,
but varies, of course, according to the nature of the soil and the
articles in demand. The season was too advanced for us to see the
majority of the crops upon the ground, the grain being mostly housed;
but those which were still in the field were of the most luxuriant
quality. Pasturage, there was comparatively little; but clover, the
chef-d’œuvre of Flemish husbandry, whence it was introduced into
England, we saw in high perfection. Some plants which are not usual
in Great Britain were to be seen in great abundance; large fields
of tobacco, hemp, colza or rape-seed, which is largely sown for
crushing, buck-wheat or _sarrasin_, (probably another importation of
the Crusaders) from which they make a rich and nutritious bread. Beans
and feeding crops, especially carrots, which the sandy lands produce
luxuriantly, and turnips, appeared to be favourites especially near the
villages.
But the important article, and that which I was most desirous to see,
was the _flax_, which, however, had been almost all pulled before
my visit, so that I could only see the _rouissage_ or process of
watering--which, in the district around Courtrai, is performed in a
manner almost peculiar to themselves; indeed, I may say altogether
so, so far as success is concerned; for although the same practice
prevails in the Department du Nord, in France, in the vicinity of St.
Amand and Valenciennes, it is with a much less satisfactory result: and
in Russia, where it is practised to some extent, the flax produced is,
in every way, of inferior quality. It seems, in fact, to be a question
whether, in addition to the slow and deep current of the Lys, and its
remarkable freedom from all impurity, it be not possessed of some
peculiar chemical qualities, which account for its efficiency for this
purpose, whilst identically the same process utterly fails in other
streams with no perceptible difference in the quality of their waters.
It is impossible to over estimate the importance to Great Britain of
such an immediate improvement in the process of flax cultivation at
home, as will place her on an equality with her rivals abroad. At
present, it is an incontrovertible and uneasy fact, that with her trade
in yarn and linen hourly encreasing, she is in the same proportion
becoming more and more dependant upon foreign countries for the supply
of the raw material. The cultivation of flax in England, is, in all
probability, diminishing in amount, whilst year after year, our imports
from Holland, Belgium and Prussia, are rising in a remarkable manner.
Only look to the following facts. The great increase in our manufacture
of linen yarn, both in England, Scotland and Ireland has taken place,
since the year 1820; we then imported largely from the continent, and
spun only for our own weavers at home, we have since then ceased to
import yarn spun by machinery altogether, except a very small portion
of the very finest for cambrics; and actually export to France, and
elsewhere, to the value of £746,000 per annum. Our exports of British
and Irish linen have increased in the mean time, from 36,522,333 yards
in 1820, to 60,954,697 in 1833, and 77,195,894 yards in 1838, and what
has been the case as regards the importation of flax? The import duty
upon foreign flax, both dressed and undressed, was at the commencement
of this period, £10. 14_s._ 6_d._ per cwt.; as our manufacture
increased, and our home supply fell short, that duty was, in 1825,
reduced to _four pence_; when the import increased from 376,170 cwt.
to 1,018,837 cwt. In the year following, the necessity still becoming
more pressing, and no relief arising from home, it was further reduced
to _three pence_; the year following to _two pence_, and in 1828 to
_one penny_. The importation, all this time, has been going on steadily
increasing, showing an average on the five years, from 1830 to 1835,
of 751,331 cwt., and amounting, by the last printed returns of the
House of Commons, for 1838, to 1,626,276 cwt.[22] It is manifest, that
a trade so valuable to us as our linen manufacture, can never be said
to be safe, so long as we are thus dependant for the very means of its
support upon those whose manifest advantage it is to destroy it.
In order to remedy this evil, it seems to me, to require only a
vigorous exertion on behalf of our own farmers, and those whose
direct interest it is to give them encouragement to lead to such an
improvement in our process of cultivation and dressing, as would
speedily render our flax of equal quality with that of our rivals in
the Low Countries; we may thus safely rely on its augmented value
in the market, to ensure its production in sufficient quantity to
meet our demands, and relieve us altogether from a dependance upon
foreigners. For the landed proprietor and the farmer, not less than
the manufacturer, there is a mine of unwrought wealth to be secured in
this important article, and my earnestness upon this point arises from
the fact that from all I have seen myself, or can possibly learn from
others, the field is equally open to England as to the Netherlands--she
obtains the seed from the same quarter, her soil and her climate are
equally suitable; the plant up to a certain stage, is as healthy and
promising with us, as with them, but there the parallel ceases, and
in all the subsequent processes, the superior system of the Belgian
gives him a golden advantage over us. Still notwithstanding all our
disadvantages, Irish flax, for the strong articles, to which alone it
is suited, produces a firmer, and in every respect, a better thread
than Flemish or Dutch of the same character.
One source of superiority which the farmer of Holland and the
Netherlands enjoys, is derived from the fact of his _saving the seed_
of his own flax. In the first instance, he imports, as we do from Riga,
seed which yields a strong and robust plant, during the first year;
its produce is then preserved and sown a second time, when it becomes
more delicate in its texture, and the seed then obtained, is _never
parted with_ by the farmer, but produces the finest and most valuable
plant. As this, however, in time deteriorates, it is necessary to keep
up a constant succession by annual importation of northern seed, which
in turn become acclimated, refined, and are superseded by the next in
rotation. The sagacious Hollander thus obtains for himself a seed for
his own peculiar uses, of twice the value of any which he exports; an
advantage of which England cannot expect to avail herself, till the
process of saving the flax-seed for herself, becomes more generally
introduced, instead of annually importing upwards of 3,300,000 bushels,
as we do at present.
In Flanders, where the cultivation is so all important, the _rotation_
of all other crops, is regulated with ultimate reference to the flax,
which comes into the circle only once in seven years, and in some
instances, once in nine, whilst, as it approaches the period for saving
it, each antecedent crop is put in with a double portion of manure. For
itself, the preparation is most studiously and scrupulously minute, the
ground is prepared rather like a flower-bed than a field, and _spade
labour_ always preferred to the coarser and less minute operation of
the plough, every film of a weed is carefully uprooted, and the earth
abundantly supplied, generally with liquid manure, fermented with rape
cake. The seed is then sown remarkably _thick_, so that the plants may
not only support one another, but struggling upwards to the light,
may throw out few branches, and rise into a taller and more delicate
stem. The _weeding_ is done, whilst the plant is still so tender and
elastic as that it may rise again readily after the operation, and it
is a remarkable illustration of the studied tenderness with which the
cultivation is watched, that the women and children who are employed to
weed it, are generally instructed to do so against the wind, in order
that the breeze may lift the stems as soon as they have left them,
instead of allowing them to grow crooked, by lying too long upon the
ground. Again, in order to give it a healthy support during its growth,
_stakes_ are driven into the ground at equal distances, from the top of
which, cords, or thin rods are extended, dividing the field into minute
squares, and thus preventing the plants from being laid down by any but
a very severe wind.
The time of _pulling_ depends upon whether the farmer places most
value upon the seed or the fibre of the particular field. If the
former, he must wait till the plant is thoroughly ripe, its capsules
hard, its leaves fallen, and its stem yellow; but in this case, the
stalk is woody and the fibre coarse and hard; whereas, if the fineness
of the fibre be the first object, it is pulled whilst the stalk is
still green and tender, and before the fruit has come to maturity. At
Courtrai and its vicinity, the flax when severed from the ground, after
being carefully sunned and dried, is stored for twelvemonths before it
is submitted to the process of watering. In the Pays de Waes, however,
this practice does not obtain, the steeping taking place immediately on
its being pulled, and I find the inclination of opinion to be in favour
of the latter mode, as the former is said to render the flax harsh and
discolored, whilst that immersed at once is soft and silky, and of a
delicate and uniform tint.
It is remarkable that although the process of _rouissage_ or watering
is felt to be one of the utmost nicety and importance, the ultimate
value of the flax being mainly dependent upon it, no uniform system
prevails throughout the various provinces of Belgium. In Hainault and
around Namur, where an impression is held that the effluvia of the
flax, whilst undergoing the _rouissage_, is injurious to health, it is
interdicted by the police, and it is consequently dew-riped, simply
by spreading it upon the grass, and turning it from time to time,
till the mucilaginous matter, by which the fibre is retained around
the stem, is sufficiently decomposed to permit of its being readily
separated from the wood. In the Pays de Waes, the flax is steeped in
still water as in Ireland, except that in the latter country, a small
stream is contrived, if possible, to pass in and out of the pit during
the process.[23] The system of the Pays de Waes is that which has
met with the most decided approbation in Belgium; it is recommended
officially to the farmers in the instructions published by the Société
Linière, an association instituted for the purpose of promoting the
cultivation of flax, and its various manufactures.[24] The system at
Courtrai, consists in immersing the flax, after being dried and stored
for twelvemonths, in the running water of the Lys; an operation, which
in their hands, is performed with the utmost nicety and precision, and
for which it is so renowned that the crops for many miles, even so far
as Tournai, are sent to the Lys to undergo the _rouissage_.
The flax, tied up in small bundles, is placed perpendicularly in wooden
frames of from twelve to fifteen feet square, and being launched into
the river, straw and clean stones are laid upon it till it sinks just
so far below the surface of the stream as to leave a current both
above and below it, which carries away all impurities, and keeps the
fibre clean and sweet during the period of immersion. This continues
for seven or eight days, according to the heat of the weather and the
temperature of the water, and so soon as the requisite change has taken
place in the plant, the frames are hauled on shore, and the flax spread
out upon the grass to sun and dry it previously to its being removed to
undergo the further processes. The _rouissage_ at Courtrai is usually
performed in May, and again in the months of August and September;
after which the flax merchants of Brabant and the north send their
agents amongst the farmers, who purchase from house to house, and, on
a certain day, attend at the chief town of the district to receive the
“deliveries,” when the qualities of the crop and the average prices are
ascertained and promulgated for the guidance of the trade.
From the flax grounds which lie close by Courtrai, on the right bank of
the Lys, we crossed the river to the bleach-green on the opposite side
of the river, and if we might judge from the extent of the buildings,
which were not larger than a good barn, the process must be a very
simple one in Flanders, or the employment very limited at Courtrai. The
most important establishments of this kind, however, are at Antwerp,
Brussels and Tournai.
The cloth on the grass was principally diaper made on the spot and at
Ypres (whence it derives its name, _d’Ypres_,) but it was coarse, and
the designs ordinary and inartificial. The manufacture of the article
in which Belgium formerly excelled so much as to supply the imperial
household during the reign of Napoleon, was ruined by his fall and
the breaking up of the continental system. At one time not less than
3000 workmen were employed in this branch alone, but the separation
of Belgium from France in 1815, and the simultaneous imposition of
an almost prohibitory duty on her damask has reduced the trade to a
mere cypher, not above three hundred workmen being now employed at
Courtrai, the great seat of the manufacture.
Close by the bleach-green, we entered a windmill for grinding bark, and
at a short distance from it, another of the same primitive edifices
was at full work, crushing rape oil. I never saw such a miniature
manufactory--in one little apartment, about ten feet square, the entire
process was carried on to the extent of a ton of seed, yielding about
thirty-six gallons of oil per day. In one corner, the seed was being
ground between a pair of mill-stones; in another, pounded in mortars by
heavy beams shod with iron, which were raised and fell by the motion of
the wind; the material was then roasted in an iron pan over a charcoal
fire, till the oil became disengaged by the heat, and was then crushed
by being inclosed in canvas bags enveloped in leather cases, and placed
in grooves, into which huge wooden wedges were driven by the force of
the machinery; the last drop of oil was thus forced out by a repetition
of the process, and the residue of the seed which came forth in cakes
as flat and as hard as a stone, were laid on one side to be sold for
manure and other purposes.
A manufactory of _sabots_ was attached to the back mill, and sold for
five-pence and six-pence a pair for the largest size, and half that
amount for those suited to children. Surely the introduction of these
wooden shoes would be a great accession to the comforts of the Irish
peasantry, as well as a new branch of employment in their manufacture.
An expert Flemish workman can finish a pair within an hour, and with
care they will last for three months. Four pair of thick woollen socks
to be worn along with them costs eighteen-pence, so that for four
shillings, a poor man might be dry and comfortably shod for twelve
months. In winter, especially, and in wet weather, or when working in
moist ground, they are infinitely to be preferred, and although the
shape may be clumsy, (though in this respect, the Flemish are superior
to the French), it is, at least, as graceful as the half-naked foot
and clouted shoe of the Irish labourer. I doubt much, however, whether
the people, though ever so satisfied of their advantages, would get
over their association of “arbitrary power and brass money” with the
use of “wooden shoes.”
Courtrai itself is a straggling, cheerless-looking town, and possesses
few objects of any interest. Outside the gate is the field on which
was fought the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302, and a little
chapel still marks the spot which was the centre of the action. Its
large market for flax and linen has made its name familiar abroad,
but it has little within itself to detain a stranger in search of
the picturesque. Its only antique buildings are the Town Hall and
the church of Notre-Dame, the former contains two richly carved
mantel-pieces, evidently of very remote date. The latter was built by
Count Baldwin, who was chosen Emperor at Constantinople in the fourth
Crusade, and contains, amidst a host of worthless pictures, a Descent
from the Cross, by Vandyck. Amongst the curiosities in the sacristy,
is a sacerdotal dress of Thomas a’Becket, of most ample dimensions,
which the saint left behind him on returning to England after his
reconciliation with Henry II. At either extremity of the bridge which
crosses the Lys in the centre of the town are two vast circular towers,
called the _Broellen Torren_ which were built in the fifteenth century,
and still serve as the town prisons. The chief support of the town is
still derived from its linen weaving, which unlike the usual practice
in Belgium, is done in large factories, at which the workmen attend as
in England. The production of linen of all kinds at Courtrai is about
30,000 pieces a year. There is also a considerable manufactory of
thread.
* * * * *
We this morning accompanied Count d’Hane to visit the celebrated
prison of Ghent, the _maison de force_, which received the applause
of Howard himself, and has been the model for most of the improved
penitentiaries of Europe. It was erected in 1774, under the auspices
of Maria Theresa, whilst the Spanish Netherlands were still attached
to the House of Austria, and for its present state of completion and
perfected system, it is indebted to the care and munificence of the
late King, William I. of Holland. It, at present, incloses upwards
of 1,100 prisoners, divided and classified into various wards, and
employed in various occupations according to the nature of their crimes
and the term of their punishment. Of these, two hundred were condemned
to perpetual labour, and one to solitary confinement for life, the
remainder for temporary periods.
In Ghent there has not been more than _three_ capital executions since
the year 1824, and as Belgium has no colonies to which to transport
her secondary offenders, they are condemned to imprisonment in all its
forms in proportion to the atrocity of their crimes.
Labour enters into the system in all its modifications, and as
the rations of food supplied to the prisoners are so calculated as
to be barely adequate to sustain life, they are thus compelled, by
the produce of their own hands, to contribute to their own support.
According to the nature of their offences, the proportion of their
earnings which they receive is more or less liberal; they are separated
into three classes:--1st. The _condamnés aux travaux forcés_, who
receive but three tenths of their own gains; 2nd. the _condamnés
à la réclusion_, who receive four tenths; and 3rd. the _condamnés
correctionellement_, who receive one half. The amount of these wages
may be seen to be but small, when the sum paid for making seven pair of
_sabots_, or seven hours’ labour, is but one penny. Of the sum allotted
to him, the criminal receives but one half immediately, with which he
is allowed to buy bread, coffee, and some other articles at a canteen
established within the prison, under strict regulations, and the other
moiety is deposited for his benefit in the savings’ bank of the jail,
to be paid to him with interest on his enlargement. A prisoner,
notwithstanding his small wages, may, after seven years’ confinement,
have amassed one hundred and twenty francs exclusive of interest.
The labour of the prison consists, in the first place, of all the
domestic work of the establishment, its cleansing, painting and
repairs, its cooking, and the manufacture of every article worn by the
inmates; and secondly, of yarn spinning, weaving and making shirts for
the little navy of Belgium,[25] and drawers for the soldiers, together
with other similar articles suited for public sale. Prisoners who have
learned no trade, are permitted to make their choice, and are taught
one. The cleanliness of every corner is really incredible, and such
are its effects upon the health of the inmates, that the deaths, on an
average, do not exceed, annually, one in a hundred. After paying all
its expenses of every description, the profits of the labour done in
the prison leaves a surplus to the government, annually, to an amount
which I do not precisely remember, but which is something considerable.
Amongst the prisoners, one very old man was pointed out to me, named
Pierre Joseph Soëte, seventy-nine years of age, sixty-two of which he
had spent within the walls of this sad abode. He was condemned, at
the age of seventeen, for an atrocious offence; in a fit of jealousy,
he had murdered a girl, to whom he was about to have been married, by
tying her to a tree and strangling her. He entered the jail when a
boy, and had grown to manhood and old age within its melancholy walls;
and the tenor of his life, I was told, had been uniformly mild and
inoffensive. Five years since, the father of our friend, Count D’Hane,
who was then Governor of Ghent, had represented the story to King
Leopold, and the unfortunate old man was set at liberty; but in a few
weeks, he presented himself at the door of the prison, and begged to be
permitted to enter it again, and to die there as he had lived. I asked
him why he had taken this extraordinary resolution, and he told me
that the world had nothing to detain him; he had no longer a relative
or a living face within it that he knew; he had no home, no means of
support, no handicraft by which to earn it, and no strength to beg,
what could he do, but return to the only familiar spot he knew, and the
only one that had any charms for him! Poor creature! his extraordinary
story, and his long life of expiation, rendered it impossible to
remember or resent his early crime, and yet I could not look at such a
singular being without a shudder.
Another, but a still more melancholy case, was pointed out to me. I
asked the physician, Dr. Maresca, if there were any foreigners in the
jail, and he told me there were several from Germany and France; and
one, an Englishman, who had been confined some years before for an
attempt at fraud, and who, between chagrin and disease, was now dying
in the hospital. I went to see him, and found him in bed in the last
feeble stage of consumption. His story was a very sad one--his name
was Clarke, he seemed about thirty-five or thirty-six years of age,
and had come over with his wife to seek for work as a machine maker at
one of the engine factories in Ghent. He was disappointed--he could
get no adequate employment--he saw his young wife and his little
children perishing from hunger in a strange land, and, in an evil hour,
he forged a document for some trifling sum to procure them bread. He
was detected, tried and condemned to five years’ imprisonment in the
_maison de force_. What became of his family he no longer knew; they
had, perhaps, returned to England, but he could not tell. The physician
told me that his conduct had all along been most excellent, so much
so, that the government reduced the term of his imprisonment from five
years to four, and he had now but eighteen months to remain. But he
was dying, and of a broken heart through sorrow and mortification. The
physician had tried to obtain a further reduction of his term; but it
was not thought prudent at the time to accede to his representations,
and now it was too late to renew the application. Dr. M. thought he
would now be liberated if the application were repeated, but it was
more humane, he said, to leave him as he was, as he had every attention
he required; the hospital was comfortable, and the rules of the prison
had all been relaxed in his favour, so that he had books and every
indulgence granted to him, and a few weeks would soon release him
from all his sorrows. Poor fellow! I hardly knew whether he seemed
gratified or grieved by our visit; but his situation, surrounded by
foreigners, to whose very language he was a stranger, far from home and
England, and without a friend or relation to watch his dying bed was a
very touching one, and it was rendered, perhaps, more so, by the very
sympathy and kindness which seemed to be felt for him by all around him.
On the opposite side of the canal, we visited the sugar refinery of
M. Neyt. This is a trade of much importance to Belgium, and, like
almost every other department of her manufactures, at present in a
very critical condition. The establishment of M. Neyt, though of great
extent, being calculated to work twenty-five tons of sugar in the week,
is not greater than some others in Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels. The
machinery is all of the newest construction for boiling _in vacuo_,
upon Howard’s principle, with some recent improvements by, I think,
M. Devos-Maes; which, though expensive in the first instance, tends
materially to diminish the cost by accelerating the completion of the
process.
All the sugar we saw in process was from Java and Manilla, and vessels
were loading in the canal in front of the works with purified lump for
Hamburgh. This branch of Belgian commerce has been retarded by a series
of vicissitudes, and seems still destined to perilous competition,
not only from Holland, which already disputes the possession of the
trade with her, but from the states of the Prussian League in which
there are eighty-four refineries of sugar already. Holland and Belgium
have, for many years, enjoyed a large revenue from this most lucrative
process for the supply of Germany and for export to the Mediterranean;
a manufacture in which they have been enabled to compete successfully
with England, owing to their being at liberty to bring the raw material
from any country where it is to be found cheapest, whilst Great Britain
has necessarily been restricted to consume only the produce of her own
colonies by the protective duty imposed upon all others. Holland has,
however, by her recent treaty with Prussia, taken steps to preserve her
present advantageous position as regards the supply of Germany, whilst
her bounties to her own refiners afford an equal encouragement with
that held out by their government to those of Belgium.
The false policy of the system of bounties has, however, operated in
Belgium, as it has invariably done elsewhere, to give an unreal air of
prosperity to the trade, whilst it opened a door to fraud, the never
failing concomitant of such unsound expedients. To such an extent was
this the case, that on its recent detection and suppression, a reaction
was produced in the manufacture, that for the moment threatened to be
fatal. The duty on the importation of raw sugar amounts to 37 francs
per 100 kilogrammes, and a drawback was paid down to 1838 on every
55 kilogrammes of refined sugar exported. This proportion was taken
as the probable quantity extractible from 100 kilogrammes of the raw
article, but the law omitted to state _in what stage_ of refinement, or
of what precise quality that quantity should be. The consequence was,
that sugar which had undergone but a single process, and still retained
a considerable weight of its molasses, was exported, and a drawback
was thus paid upon the entire 75 to 80 kilogrammes, which, had the
process been completed, would only have been demandable on fifty-five.
The encouragement designed to give a stimulus to improvement, thus
tended only to give an impulse to fraud, and vast quantities of half
refined sugar were sent across the frontiers, and the drawback paid,
only to be smuggled back again for a repetition of the same dishonest
proceeding. The attention of the government being, however, awakened
by a comparison of the relative quantities of raw sugar imported, and
of refined exported, on which the drawback was claimed, a change was
made in the law in 1838, by which the drawback was restricted to a per
centage on nine tenths only of the raw sugar imported, thus securing a
positive revenue upon the balance, and at the same time some practical
expedients were adopted for the prevention of fraud for the future.
These latter were found to be so effectual, that four establishments in
Antwerp discontinued the trade altogether immediately on the new law
coming into force, and this example was followed by others elsewhere.
There are still between 60 and 70 refineries in Belgium, and in 1837
and 1838, the importations of raw sugar and the exports of refined were
as follows:
RAW SUGAR IMPORTED.
In 1837. 20,128,618 kilogrammes.
In 1838. 16,814,940 kilogrammes.
REFINED SUGAR EXPORTED.
In 1837. 8,484,097 kilogrammes.
In 1838. 8,113,897 kilogrammes.
An amount, which whilst it shows the general importance of the trade,
seems to indicate that it is not increasing. The home consumption of
Belgium as compared to England, is as 2 kils. per each individual to
8. In France the quantity used per head, is 3 kils. and in the rest of
Europe about 2½. But to the Belgians, this export trade is the vital
object at the present moment, and any alteration of our law which would
permit the import of foreign sugar into England, at a diminished duty,
or encourage the growth of beet-root for the manufacture of sugar,
would be fatal to the trade of the Netherlands, and to Holland, not
less than to Belgium.
In the latter country, the production of sugar from beet-root,
notwithstanding the encouragement given to it by Napoleon, was never
very extended nor successful. It disappeared almost entirely in 1814,
and was not revived for twenty years, till in 1834, a fresh impulse
was given to the Belgians to renew the experiment from witnessing the
example of its success in France and some establishments were erected
in Brabant and Hainault. But the vast advantages derived by the
refiners of foreign sugar from the facility for fraud afforded by the
defective state of the law, completely extinguished the attempt. Even
now the expense of the process, which renders the cost of the beet-root
sugar nearly equal to that extracted from the cane, together with the
inferiority for every purpose of the beet-root molasses, holds out
but little prospect of its ever becoming a productive department of
national manufacture.
On the evening of our arrival, a considerable tumult was excited around
the front of the _Hotel de la Poste_ where we staid, which we found
arose from the eagerness to obtain admission to the new Theatre,
which stands next door to the Hotel, and which was that evening to be
opened for the first time. Some soldiers were stationed to keep off the
crowd, but as their impatience increased, the orders of the military
were but little regarded, till, at length, the struggle came to an
open rupture with them, and the officer on guard after going through
all the preliminaries of intimidation, expostulation and scolding, at
length, fairly lost all temper, and commenced boxing “the leader of
the movement!” A ring being made for the combatants, the officer was
beaten, and walked off to his quarters, and the pressure of the crowd,
being by this time relieved, the spectators hurried into the theatre.
The new building is very magnificent; a new street having been formed
to open at a suitable site for it, one side of which it occupies
exclusively. The centre of the front, projects in the form of a wide
semi-circle, so that carriages drive right under the building to set
down their company at the foot of the grand staircase. Besides the
theatre itself, there is a suite of halls for concerts, capable of
containing two thousand persons, and the entire is finished internally
in the style of Louis XIV, with a prodigality of colours, gilding, and
ornamental carving that is quite surprising. It is certainly the most
beautiful theatre I have seen, as well as one of the most spacious.
The “_spectacle_” and the opera are still amongst those necessaries in
the economy of life in Belgium, which late dinner hours and fastidious
taste have not as yet interfered with. Ghent has long been eminent for
its successful cultivation of music. A few years since, the _chefs
d’orchestre_ in the four principal theatres in the kingdom were all
natives of Ghent, and the names of Verheyen, Ermel and Angelet, all
born in the same place, are familiar to every amateur of the science.
The _Société de St. Cecile_, a musical association, is the most eminent
in the Netherlands, and at a concert at Brussels in 1837, where all
the musicians of the chief cities of the kingdom competed for a prize;
the first honours, two golden medals were given by acclamation to those
of Ghent.
The print works of M. De Smet de Naeyer are situated in the _Faubourg
de Bruges_, and, like almost all in the Netherlands, exhibit no
division of labour; the cotton being spun, woven, and printed upon
the same premises. In the latter department, their productions are
of a very ordinary description, and their designs in a very inferior
class of art. The machinery was partly French and partly Belgian, of
a cumbrous and antiquated construction, compared with that in use in
England; but, as the recent improvements in Great Britain have all been
conceived with a view to the speediest and cheapest production to meet
a most extensive demand, their introduction into Belgium, where the
market is so extremely circumscribed, would only be an augmentation of
expense, without any correspondent advantage. The works were idle at
the moment of our visit.
This important department of manufacture is reduced to the lowest
ebb in Belgium by the effects of the revolution of 1830. Previous to
this event, the Belgian calico printer being admitted to the markets
of Holland and her colonies, had an outlet for his produce, quite
sufficient to afford remunerative employment for all his machinery; but
when, by her separation from Holland, Belgium was excluded from the
Dutch possessions, both in the East and West Indies, and restricted
to the supply of her own population, she suddenly found the number of
her consumers reduced from between _fifteen_ and _sixteen millions_
to something less than _four_. In articles which are universally
produced by the unaided labour _of the hand_, a limitation on the
gross consumption cannot, as a general rule, effect any very material
alteration in the individual price, where fair competition shall
have already reduced and adjusted it by a remunerative standard. But
when it comes to an active competition _with machinery_, the case is
widely different; the outlay for apparatus and the cost of labour
being almost the same for the production of one hundred pieces as for
ten, it is manifest that the man who has a market for one hundred,
can afford to sell each one for a much less sum than he who can only
dispose of ten--even without including in the calculation the interest
of the capital embarked, which must, of course, be ten times the amount
upon the small production that it is upon the large. It is her almost
unlimited command of markets, and the vast millions of consumers who
must have her produce, in her various colonies and dependencies, that,
combined with her matchless machinery, places the manufactures of
England almost beyond the reach of rivalry as regards the moderation
of their price; and thus gives them, in spite of duties, that, in any
other case, would amount to a prohibition, a lucrative introduction
into those countries themselves, which are fast acquiring her
machinery, but look in vain for her limitless markets.
The merchants of Antwerp and the manufacturers of Ghent, had the
good sense, probably purchased by experience, to recognize this
incontrovertible principle, and foreseeing, clearly, the ruin of their
pursuits in the results of the Repeal of the Union with Holland, they
loudly protested against the proceedings of the revolutionists of
1830.[26] But, as “madness ruled the hour,” their protestations were
all unheeded--they were overborne by numbers; and, as the patriots
of Ireland, in rejecting the advantages held out to them by Great
Britain in the celebrated “commercial propositions” of 1785, adopted
as their watchword “_perish commerce_, but live the constitution;” so
the patriots of Belgium, in their paroxysm of repeal, reproached their
less frenzied fellow-countrymen with “allowing the profits on their
cottons, or the prices of their iron, to outweigh the independence of
their country!” The revolution was accomplished in their defiance, and
the ruin of their trade was consummated by the same blow.
With respect to the very branch of manufacture which has led to these
observations, the printing of calicoes and woollens, M. Briavionne,
an impartial historian, and so far as political inclination is
concerned, strongly biassed in favour of the revolution, thus details
its immediate effects upon it. After describing the rapid decline of
the cotton trade in general, since 1830, he goes on to say, “In the
department of printing, the results have not been more satisfactory;
many of the leading establishments of Ghent, and of Brussels have been
altogether abandoned, or their buildings dismantled and converted to
other purposes, and their utensils and machinery sold off by public
auction. Ghent, in 1829, possessed _fifteen_ print-works--in 1839 she
had but _nine_; in Brussels, at the same time, and in Ardennes and
Lierre, there were _eleven_ houses of the first rank, of these _six_
have since closed their accounts. Other establishments there are, it is
true, that have sprung up in the interim, but, in the aggregate, the
number is diminished. In prosperous years, the production of Belgium
might have amounted, before the revolution, to about 400,000 pieces.
Ghent, alone, produced 300,000 in 1829, but its entire production, at
present, does not amount to 20,000, nor does that of the largest house
in Belgium exceed 45,000 pieces.
Nor is this to be ascribed to any want of ability in the Belgian
mechanics; on the the contrary, they are qualified to undertake the
most difficult work, but they can only employ themselves, of course,
when such are in actual demand. They are, in consequence, limited to
the production of the most low priced and ordinary articles; fast
colours and cheap cloth are all they aspire to. High priced muslins
they rarely attempt, and although they have ventured to print upon
mousseline-de-laine, they have been forced almost altogether to
abandon it. In fact, the double rivalry of France, on the one hand,
and England on the other, keeps them in continual alarm, and renders
them fearful of the slightest speculation or deviation from their
ordinary line of production. France, on the contrary, enters their
market relying upon the elegance and originality of her patterns; and
England notwithstanding her heavy and unimaginative designs, conceived
in inferior taste, still maintains her superiority by means of her
masterly execution and the lowness of her price. Thus, whilst French
muslins sell readily for from two to three francs an ell, England can
offer hers for forty-five centimes, or even less, and those of Belgium
vary from sixty centimes to a franc and a quarter per ell; not only so,
but for that which she can now with difficulty dispose of for sixty
centimes, she had, thirty-five years ago, an ample demand at two francs
and a half.
This destruction of her home trade by the competition of foreigners,
she has sought in vain to retrieve by her shipments abroad; she
has exported to Brazil and to the Levant, to the South Sea and
Singapore, and finally, she has turned to Germany and the fairs of
Francfort-on-the-Maine--in short, she has tried every opening, and
found only loss in all. The only market in which she has contrived to
hold a footing is that of Holland, and even this is every day slipping
from her, although, before the revolution of 1830, it consumed one half
of her entire production.
Belgium has not, like England, manufacturers, who, devoting themselves
to the supply of the foreign market alone, and bestowing upon it
their undivided study and attention, attain a perfect knowledge and
command of it in its every particular; but here, every printer looks to
exportation only as an expedient to get rid of his surplus production,
after satisfying the demand of his home consumption. Such a system is
pregnant with evils, but it is in vain to attempt its alteration so
long as we have England for our rival, with her great experience, her
vast command of capital, and her firm possession of the trade.”[27]
The information which I received from M. De Smet, M. Voortman, M. de
Hemptine and others, more than confirmed, in its every particular,
this deplorable exposé of M. Briavionne. Belgian prints are constantly
undersold by from 10 to 15 per cent by English goods, imported
legitimately into their market, notwithstanding a duty of a hundred
florins upon every hundred kilogrammes, an impost which being assessed
by weight, falls heavily on that class of goods which are the great
staple of England, and amounts to about _six shillings_ upon a
piece of the value of _fourteen_. Nor is this all--their market is
systematically beset by smugglers across the frontiers of France and
Holland, who, inundating it with French and English goods, exempt
from duty, have reduced the price of Belgian production to an ebb
utterly incompatible with any hope of remuneration. This is an evil,
however, to which not their peculiar branch alone, but every protected
manufacture in the country is equally liable, and for redress of which
they have vainly invoked the interference of their legislature--the
mischief is of too great magnitude to be grappled with or remedied.
The only relief which their government has attempted, has been by the
deplorable expedient of themselves supplying capital to sustain the
struggle. A manufactory, however, which they undertook to support,
at Ardennes-on-the-Meuse, constructed with machinery upon English
models, and conducted by English managers, became an utter failure
and was abandoned; and in like manner, an association which they had
encouraged to attempt an export trade, after numerous shipments to
Portugal, the Mediterranean, the East Indies, South America, and the
United States, became utterly insolvent, and involved the government
in a loss of 400,000 francs. In the mean time, England and France
monopolise the most profitable portions of their trade, the latter
supplying them, almost exclusively with the more costly articles of
ornament and fancy, and the imports of medium goods from the former
having been, in the first six months of the present year, upwards of
17,000 pieces more than in 1839.
This is one illustration, and I regret to say, only one out of many
of the ruinous effects of the “Repeal of the Union,” In Ghent, from
its peculiar position and the active genius of its population, its
results have been felt with more severity than elsewhere, though
its influence is discernible, to a greater or less degree, in every
quarter of Belgium. The merchants of Ghent, however, make no secret of
their dissatisfaction, and exclaim boldly against the indifference or
incompetence of the ministry to adopt measures for their redress. In
an especial degree, their dissatisfaction manifests itself against the
present minister of the interior, M. Liedtz, who having been a lawyer,
is presumed to be imperfectly acquainted with commerce, and is said to
be as unjustly partial to agriculture, as he is coldly indifferent to
trade. One gentleman complained bitterly that having, some time since,
accompanied a deputation to an interview with the minister on the
subject of the decline of the cotton trade, M. Liedtz abruptly ended
the conference, almost before they had opened their grievances, by
exclaiming:--“Come, now we have heard enough about cotton--how are your
cows?”
In Ghent, business has always been conducted, not only upon an extended
scale, but upon the most solid and steady basis; bank accommodation and
discounts are unknown, in fact, in Belgium, and a bill, if drawn at
all, is, as a general rule, held over to maturity, and collected by the
drawer. This may, in a great degree, account for the trifling balances
which suffice to produce a suspension of business. In an annual
document, published officially, I presume, I perceive that although the
number of failures in Ghent for the year 1839, amounted to twenty, the
amount of their united deficiencies did not exceed 198,000 francs.[28]
The sufferings of Ghent seem to be so generally admitted, and so
unequivocally ascribed to the operation of the revolution, that
no scruple or delicacy is observed by the press or the public in
ascribing them to its proper cause. A curious illustration of this, we
observed in a volume entitled, “_Le Guide Indispensable du Voyageur
sur les Chemins de Fer de la Belgique_,” sold at all the stations on
the government railway, and in the case in which I bought my copy,
by persons in the government uniform. In a short notice of Ghent, it
contains the following passage of plain speaking upon this point.
“During the fifteen years of the Dutch connexion, the population,
the wealth and the prosperity of Ghent never ceased to increase;
manufactures were multiplied, streets enlarged, public buildings
erected, and large and beautiful houses constructed; in short, Ghent
had become a great commercial city. _The revolution of 1830 at once
arrested this career of improvement, and Ghent, whose prosperity was
the offspring of peace and of her connexion with Holland, now seems
to protest, by her silence, against a change which she finds to be
fraught to her with ruin._ The citadel was only taken when all hope had
disappeared of maintaining the supremacy of King William; but,” adds
the author, “it is to be hoped that, little by little, the influence
of new institutions may rally the hopes of the Gantois, and, at last,
reconcile them to the consequences of the Belgian revolution.”[29] And
the new institution which is to achieve such a triumph, is to be, of
course, _the railroad_ from Ostend to Cologne.
Our stay at Ghent had been somewhat longer than our original intention,
but we found it a place abounding in attractions, not only from its
hereditary associations, but from the enterprising and ingenious
character of its inhabitants, and the progress which they have achieved
in their multifarious pursuits. Besides, it is always a matter of
the deepest interest to observe the success or failure of a great
national experiment, such as is now in process in Belgium, where,
after an interval of upwards of two centuries, during which they
have formed a portion of another empire, its inhabitants are testing
the practicability of restoring and supporting their old national
independence, notwithstanding all the changes which two hundred years
have produced in the policy, the commerce, and the manufacturing power
of Europe--changes not less astonishing than those which, almost within
the same interval, the discovery of printing has produced in the
diffusion of learning, or that of gunpowder in the system of ancient
warfare.