# 1861 in Belgium

Events in the year 1861 in Belgium.

## Incumbents

    Monarchy of Belgium: Leopold I
    Head of government: Charles Rogier

## Events
### January

* 1 January – Franco-Belgian Tirailleurs renamed Papal Zouaves.

### February

* 7 February – François Robyn (Br Hugo in religion) sentenced to death at the Court of assizes in Mons for arson at Scourmont Priory the previous October.

### May

* 1 May – Commercial treaty with France modelled on the Anglo-French commercial treaty of 1860.
* 19 May – Association "Vlamingen Vooruit!" organises mass meeting in Brussels
* 27 May – Commercial treaty with France ratified.

### June

* 1 June – Commercial treaty with France comes into effect.
* 11 June – Partial legislative elections of 1861

### July

* 20 July – Signing of Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation between Belgium and Mexico negotiated by Auguste t'Kint.

### October

* 1 October – Commercial treaty between Britain, France and Belgium comes into effect.
* 10 October – Commercial treaty with the Ottoman Empire signed at Constantinople by Gaston Errembault de Dudzeele for Belgium and by Esad Safvet and Mohammed Djemil for the Sublime Porte.

## Publications
### Periodicals

* Annuaire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 27
* La Belgique Horticole, vol. 11.
* Bulletin de la Fédération des Sociétés d'Horticulture
* Bulletin Usuel des Lois et Arrêtés, 1539–1813 (Brussels)
* Collection de précis historiques, vol. 10, edited by Edouard Terwecoren S.J.
* La Tribune du peuple (Brussels) begins publication
* Revue belge et étrangère, 12
* Het Vlaemsch Verbond begins publication

### Reports and pamphlets

* Bulletin administratif du Ministère de l'Intérieur, series 1 (1830–1847), vol. 1 (1830-1831).
* Recueil des lois et arrêtés royaux de Belgique, vol. 48 (Brussels, Imprimerie du Moniteur Belge)
* Charles Le Hardy de Beaulieu, L'Espagne et son avenir commercial: Des relations à créer entre la Belgique et l'Espagne (Brussels: A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven et Cie.)

### Literary and historical writing

* Adolphe Borgnet, Histoire des Belges à la fin du XVIIIe siècle
* Charles De Coster, Contes brabançons
* Gustave Oppelt, Histoire générale et chronologique de la Belgique, de 1830 à 1860 (Brussels, M. Hayez)
* Auguste Scheler, Trente années de la littérature belge (Brussels: Aug. Schnée)
* J.L.D. Sleeckx, Beschryving der Provincie Braband (Ghent: I.S. Van Doosselaere)
* William Henry James Weale, Notes sur Jean van Eyck (Brussels: A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven et Cie; London: Barthes & Lowell)

### Music

* Barthélemy-Antoine Bauwens, Le plain-chant mis à la portée de tout le monde (Paris and Brussels: Casterman)
* Henri Vieuxtemps, Violin Concerto No. 5

## Births

* Elisabeth Wesmael, graphic artist (died 1953)
* 6 January – Victor Horta, architect (died 1947)
* 11 March – Francis Dhanis, colonial administrator (died 1909)
* 2 April – Ernest van Dyck, singer (died 1923)
* 20 April – Arthur Van Gehuchten, anatomist (died 1914)
* 5 July – Fernand Cocq, politician (died 1940)
* 12 July – Eugène Broerman, painter (died 1932)
* 13 August – Fernand Brouez, magazine publisher (died 1900)
* 16 August – Diana Coomans, painter (died 1952)
* 27 August – Aloïs de Beule, sculptor (died 1935)
* 1 September – Louis Bernheim, general (died 1931)
* 3 September – Ursmer Berlière, historian (died 1932)
* 9 October – Privat Livemont, artist (died 1936)
* 21 October – Charles van Lerberghe, poet (died 1907)
* 3 November – Louis Ruquoy, soldier (died 1937)
* 6 November – Germain Morin, patrologist (died 1946)
* 10 December – Guillaume Van Strydonck, painter (died 1937)

## Deaths

* 5 April – Ferdinand de Meeûs (born 1798), politician
* 8 April – Édouard Wacken (born 1819), poet and dramatist
* 24 September – Michael Joseph François Scheidweiler (born 1799), horticulturalist
* 27 October – Marcellin Jobard (born 1792), photographer
* 3 December – Henry Voordecker (born 1779), painter
* 25 December – Jacobus Josephus Eeckhout (born 1793), painter