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or naturalization, or to have resided six years in Belgium. "2. To be at least twenty-five years of age.

"3. To pay the proportion of contributions which the usages of the several towns and districts have appointed, according to the respective localities, for admission to the electoral colleges.

"4. To form the electoral census, spoken of in the preceding article, there shall be reckoned to each elector the direct taxes which he pays throughout Belgium.

"The taxes paid on account of a wife shall be reckoned in favour of the husband; those which his mother shall have deputed to him in favour of the son of a widow; and in favour of a father, shall be reckoned the taxes on the property of his children under age, of which he shall have the enjoy

ment.

"5. Imposts and taxes shall be reckoned to an elector, according to the scale of their imposition for the year 1830, and previously to the date of the present decree.

"6. The electoral census shall be verified, either by an extract from the list of taxes, or by the receipt of the current year, or by the information of the receiver of taxes, or by enrolment upon the last electoral list.

"7. The following are in like manner, electors, without any electoral census being required of them, provided they fulfil the two first conditions of Article 3:counsellors, judges of the tribunals, justices of peace, advocates, attornies, notaries: doctors of law, in science, in letters, and philosophy, of medicine, surgery, or midwifery.

8. The elections shall take place by administrative districts.

"9. The electors shall assemble at the elections in the administrative district where they have their actual domicile.

Of Eligibles.

"10. Every citizen, of at least twenty-five years complete, a Belgian by birth, or having obtained the right of naturalization, may be a Deputy to the National Convention, if he is a resident of Belgium. All strangers who had established their domicile in Belgium previously to the formation of the ci-devant kingdom of the Netherlands, and who have continued to reside therein, are considered as natives.

"11. It is not required, that the deputy shall have his domicile in the province for which he shall be elected.

Particular Regulations.

12. The administrations of towns shall furnish, without delay, and upon the basis of the present decree, the lists made in 1830 for admission to the electoral colleges.

"13. The administrations of rural communes shall, in like manner, furnish lists of the citizens of their communes, who, in pursuance of this decree, fulfil the conditions required of electors.

14. All citizens who possess a right to be electors, are invited, in the name of their country, to take the necessary steps in the local administrations of their actual domiciles, in order that they may be enrolled on the lists, or to assure themselves that they have been officially inscribed.

"15. The local administrations shall complete the lists by the 20th inst., and publish them on the same day; they shall receive appeals during the four fol

lowing days, and decide upon
them, so that the lists may be
closed on the 25th of October.
16.
A decree will speedily
fix the number of deputies to be
elected by each administrative dis-
trict, the day of election, and the
course of electoral proceedings.
Period of Elections, Course of
Proceedings, and Day of the
Opening of the Congress.

"The Central Committee, on the report of the Commission of the Constitution, seeing that the decree of the 10th of October, 1830, declares that the number of deputies to be elected in each administrative district, and the course of electoral proceedings, shall be established by a particular decree, hereby decrees:

"ART. 1. The elections shall take place throughout all Belgium on the 27th of October inst,, the electoral proceedings shall commence at nine o'clock in the morning.

"2. The number of deputies to be appointed in each district is fixed as follows:-for Southern Brabant, 27; Limbourg, 17; Eastern Flanders, 35; Western Flanders, 28; Mons, 30; Namur, 10; Antwerp, 18; Luxembourg, 16.

"3. The electors of each administrative district shall assemble in one or more sections, as local convenience may require, and at the principal town in the district.

"4. There shall be a bureau in each section. This bureau shall be composed of a president, a vice-president, two scrutineers, and a secretary.

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5. The magistrate of the district in the principal town of which the election takes place is of right

president; the burgomaster of the principal town is vice-president; the two youngest counsellors of the regency, or members of the council, are scrutineers; and the secretary of the commune of the principal town is the secretary of

the bureau.

electors of the same adminis"6. In every place where the trative district are divided into several sections, the persons mentioned in the preceding article will form the principal bureau, and appoint the citizens who will compose the other bureaux.

"7. The electors shall meet in the town-hall of the principal town of the administrative district, or in any other place appointed for that purpose.

"8. The local administrations shall present the lists of electors which they have drawn up in virtue of their office, or on the demand of citizens, to the president of the bureau, on the 26th of October next at the latest.

"9. The bureau shall have the regulation of the assembly. It shall decide provisionally upon all difficulties which may arise in the course of the proceedings, subject to the definitive decision of Congress. The members of the bureau cannot vote unless they fulfil all the conditions which attach to electors.

"10. The electors shall vote by ballot.

"11. The name of each elector who deposits his vote in the urn shall be inscribed by one of the members of the bureau in a list, which will show the number of voters.

12. The scrutiny shall take place in the current sitting, and openly.

"13. The president likewise

shall declare the result of the scrutiny at the current sitting.

"14. In the districts where there are several sections, each bureau shall conduct its scrutiny. The result of all the scrutinies shall be laid before the principal bureau.

"15. No one is elected at the first taking of the scrutiny, if he has not an absolute majority of

votes.

"16. If all the deputies to be elected in the district have not been appointed at the first taking of the scrutiny, the bureau shall make out a list of the persons who have obtained the most votes. This list contains twice as many names as there are still deputies to be elected. The votes at the second taking of the scrutiny can be given only to those whose names are in this list, and the election will be decided by the majority of votes.

"17. In every case in which there may be either at the first or second taking of the scrutiny an equality of votes, the preference shall be given to the eldest candidate.

"18. The members of the bureau will draw up a procès verbal of the election, and transmit it directly to the committee of the interior.

19. The National Congress will assemble on the 3rd of November next, at nine o'clock in the morning, in the Chamber of the ci-devant States General at Brussels. The Congress will instal itself under the presidency of the oldest deputy. The four youngest deputies will execute provisionally the functions of secretaries. After verifying their authority, the Congress will appoint these officers definitively.

"20. In the communes and chief towns of the districts in which the authorities may neglect to fulfil the obligations which the present decree, and that of the 10th of October, impose upon them, the electors are directed to supply the defect, (Signed)

"DE POTTER. "SYLVAIN VAN DE WEYER. "C. ROGIER. "GENDEBEIN. "Brussels, Oct. 12."

"Having received the decree of the 10th of October, which fixes by the 3rd Article the census for the election of the members of the National Congress;

"In consideration of the demands made by a great number of inhabitants of the country respecting the quality of the electoral census;

"Considering that these demands are well founded; that the towns being, by the 3rd Article aforesaid, assimilated with respect to direct election to the country, there is no ground for keeping the census of the country at so high a rate as before, and that these changes will require a prorogation of the law;

"Decrees

"ART. 1. The electoral census is reduced by one-half in the country. Consequently, to be an elector, it is sufficient for an inhabitant of the country to pay in direct taxes:-1. In South Brabant, 50 florins; 2. In the Limburg territory, 25; 3. In the province of Liege, 37.20; 4. In East Flanders, 75; 5. In West Flanders, 75; 6. In Hainault, 50; 7. In the province of Namur, 25; 8. In the province of Antwerp, 37.50; 9. in the province of Luxembourg,

25.

"2. The delays fixed by the decrees of the 10th and 12th of October are propagated as follows: The list of electors will be closed on the 30th of October; the elections are to be held on the 3rd of November, and the Congress will take place on the 8th of the same month. (Signed)

"DE POTTER. “GENDEBEIN.

"SYLVAIN VAN DE WEYER. "C. ROGIER.

"COUNT FELIX DE MERODE. "(By Ordinance)

“VANDERLINDEN, Sec." "Brussells, Oct. 16."

Liege will name 9 deputies to the National Congress; Verviers, 5; Huy, 3; and Waremure, 2: in all 19 for the province.

SPEECH of the PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT of BELGIUM, at the OPENING of the SESSION of the NATIONAL CONGRESS,

Nov. 10, 1830.

"In the name of the Belgian people, the Provisional Government opens the Assembly of the Representatives of the nation.

"The nation has confided to these representatives the august mission of founding, on the broad and solid basis of liberty, the edifice of the new social order, which will be the principle and the guarantee of durable happiness to Belgium.

"You know, Gentlemen, that at the time of our union with Holland, a Fundamental Law was presented to an assembly of notables chosen by the government, not to examine, discuss, modify, and, lastly, accept it, and to make it the condition of a compact between the people and the head of the state, but solely and implicitly to submit to it, or totally to reject it. It was rejected, as might have been expected from the good sense and integrity of the Belgians, but by an unparalleled subterfuge it was declared to be accepted, and a constitution imposed by Holland oppressed our country.

"If at least this Fundamental Law had been sincerely executed

in all its parts, with time, perhaps, and by the aid of the progress which the arbitrary conduct of ministers compelled us daily to make in the career of constitutional opposition, it might have become the hope of Belgian liberty.

"But, far from this, conscience violated, instruction fettered, the press condemned to be nothing more than an instrument of Government, or forced to silence, the arbitrary substitution of the regime of decrees (arrétes) to the legal system established by the social compact, the right of petition disregarded, the confusion of all powers which were become the property of one, the despotical imposition of a privileged language-the power of removing (amovibilité) the judges degraded to act the part of commissioners of government - the complete absence of the guarantee of publicity, and of that of the jury-an enormous debt and expenditure, the only portion which Holland brought us at the time of our deplorable union-taxes overwhelming by their amount, and still more by the manner in which

they were apportioned, which was wholly unpopular, wholly bearing on the indigent classes-laws always voted by the Dutch for Holland only, and always against Belgium, represented so unequally in the States-General-the seat of all the great constituted bodies, and of all important establishments, fixed in Holland-the scandalous misapplication of the funds specially destined to favour manufactures - and lastly, the most offensive partiality in the distribution of civil and military employments, by a government in whose eye the name of Belgium was a disgrace;-in a word, all Belgium treated as a conquered province, as a colony-every thing, Gentlemen, rendered a revolution necessary and inevitable, and hastened its approach.

"Such just and real grievances could not but ensure the result of it.

"We had risen against despotism to reconquer our rights, and we were treated by tyranny as rebels. Our cities burnt-the most barbarous treatment, even of old men and of women-the rights of humanity, the laws of war, trampled under foot, testify the ferocity of our enemy, and call down blessings on the victory of the people, which has cleared our territory of them.

"The fruit of this victory was independence. The people has declared it through us. As the organ of its wishes, the Provisional Government has called you together, Gentlemen, to consolidate it for ever.

"But, till you could come to perform this task, a centre of action was necessary to provide for the first and most urgent wants of VOL. LXXII.

the state. A Provisional Government was established, and made up, for a time, for the absence of all authority. The necessity for a government of some kind justified its mission, and the assent of the people has confirmed it.

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Every thing was to be doneevery thing was to be created. It was necessary to re-organize the internal administration, the judicial authority, the army, the finances, and the citizen guards, who will henceforth be the support of modern empire. It is for you, Gentlemen, and for the na tion, to judge whether, with the few means that were at our disposal, we have succeeded in preparing for Belgium a future course of strength and prosperity.

"Our acts are known to you, Gentlemen, and the nation, we hope, has ratified them; the odious tax of the abattage abolished; the proceedings in the criminal courts rendered entirely public; the institution of the jury promised, and new guarantees secured to persons tried before the courts of assize; the abolition of the degrading punishment of the bastonade; the popular election of the burgomasters and regencies (city magistracy); the direct election of the deputies of the national congress; no more general boards of police; no more high police; the enfranchisement of the dramatic art; the abolition of the lottery; the publicity of the accounts and the budgets of the communes; and lastly, full and entire liberty of the press, of instruction, of associations of all kinds, and of opinions and forms of religious worship, henceforth delivered from all fears of persecution, and from all danger of 2 C

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