No. 49.
Mr. Goodloe
to Mr. Evarts.
Brussels, July 24, 1879. (Received August 6.)
Sir: In my No. 58, after speaking of the excitement in political and religious circles concerning the much-talked-of withdrawal of the Belgian legation from Borne, I closed my dispatch with the remark that I would not be surprised if Baron d’Anethan, who had been in Brussels all the winter, never returned to his post. I was, however, to be very soon surprised, for Baron d’Anethan reached Rome before my dispatch did Washington. This solution of a question which had from the beginning been surrounded by a Belgian fog, was the culmination of a coquetry between His Holiness and the Belgian premier, which had lasted through the winter.
The ministers, prior to the election, having pledged a suppression of the Roman legation in case of success, most persons looked naturally to a fulfillment of their promises, and the more extreme wing of the Liberals clamorously demanded immediate action. The excitement and violent opposition occasioned by the introduction of the common school bill (now a law), eliminating from secular education all priestly interference, was as much, probably, as the ministry felt inclined at onetime to combat. It looks very much as if the concessions from Rome hinted at, but not defined by the minister of foreign affairs, were made in the vain hope of defeating the school bill. And, on the other hand, the temporary forbearance of the Belgian Government toward that of His Holiness * * * was perhaps but an expedient to lessen somewhat the violence of clerical opposition to the school bill, which was, after all, the great question between the parties.
The final passage of this bill seemed to have aroused the worst blood in the land. The priesthood promulgated a manifesto directing Catholics to withdraw their children from such schools, else, forewarning them that perdition would be their lot. The wealthy members of the laity avowed their determination to build school-houses and supply teachers of their own. The more violent announced publicly their determination to refrain from any participation whatever in the festivities of 1880 in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Belgian independence, for the reason given that the country was no longer entitled to their regard.
When, however, such brave talk was brought to the test, as was foreseen by cooler heads, every position has in succession been abandoned.
Catholic children, or rather children whose parents belong to or sympathize with the Catholic political party, do not withdraw from the public schools; wealthy Catholics have been slow to respond to the appeals for pecuniary aid; and Catholics who are now teachers in the public schools refuse to give up their situations unless they are secured in every advantage they now have, and are given 500 francs in addition. Among the other securities they require is a pension equal to that guaranteed by the government.
The refusal to participate in the festivities of next year was so manifestly absurd, working, as it would, injury only to those who held aloof, that it has been wholly abandoned.
[Page 66]The violence of party language and the heat of religious discussions, however little pure religion was involved, has, as might have been expected, culminated in all sorts of idiotic and insane threats against the life of the King; the man above all others in the kingdom, perhaps, who has had the least to do with the enactment of the school law. It is true that, in order to be effective, it required his signature, but that was given exactly as he would sign its repeal to-morrow were the Catholics again in power.
Undue attention has been given outside of Belgium to irresponsible threats of violence against the King, and the publicity that has followed has given rise doubtless to the belief that his life is in serious and continual jeopardy. It is true that the King may at any time be slain by a madman, but certainly there is nothing here that would indicate the possibility of such a crime coming from any other source. The Catholics as a party are as free from the contemplation of such a crime as any other like number of His Majesty’s subjects, and it looks very much as if some of those opposed to them were using for political purposes the fact that placards had been posted in a few places threatening the King’s life. There was a man arrested about ten days ago who was heard by several openly threatening the King, but after the shortest examination he was at once declared to be insane. Another was arrested, however, a few days since—an ignorant and uneducated man—who admits that he posted placards threatening the life of the King, and declares that he was paid and instigated by an inmate of the Jesuit College here in Brussels. Of course this charge occasions unusual remark when it is known that the superior of this college is Père Malou, the only son of the Catholic party’s leader, and recently minister of finance and chief of the cabinet. Certainly the word of Père Malou, and that of his subordinates, one of whom was specified as the guilty party, who deny ever having heard of the man before, should outweigh the unsupported testimony of the arrested person. Furthermore, a thorough search of the house by the police failed to find any paper or other thing in anywise implicating Père Malou or any of his household.
Other notices have been placarded in several towns of the kingdom in the past twenty-four hours, all breathing the same spirit of vengeance against the King. If His Majesty should unfortunately receive any violence it could only, in my judgment, proceed from someone whose brain has been overheated by constantly hearing and reading of threatened assassination. From all other sources he is as safe as any one. The King’s early retirement to his country seat, his absence from the fête of Long Champs and from his frequent and accustomed rides on the Boulevards, all, of course, are the subject of gossip and comment. A stranger, on the contrary, would only remark the freedom with which the King moves among his people, and the frequency of his rides to the “Bois,” notwithstanding his summer palace is on the extreme opposite side of the city.
I have, &c.,