The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1882-09-23
What Belgium owes to its Kings.
From the Belgium Neus Of July 29.)

AEIOiA the 0ctSIuH -NtNS u chi9 -S-y
II there is one county in Europe which may
be said TO owe everything 10 the monarchial
regime, that country is certainly Belgium 1t
can boast of having had, during the space of
nifty years, two kings not only devoted 10 the
interests of the country which the first Leopold
adopted as his own, but whose penetrating and
far-seeing minds were capable of understanding
what It's interests are, and of forming plans
which they knew how TO carry out with q patient
perseverance which could bend before obstacles,
but was never cast down. The object which
Leopold /. set before him was to consolidate the
young kingdom, to secure its neutrality, and
gain for 1t the esteem and support of the great
Powers, while teaching the nation to value their
newly acquired Independence, and by his wis
dom, tact, and personal influence he succeeded
beyond expectation. The present King felt his
mission 10 be to awaken in his people the spirit
OF enterprise, which, in former times, made of
the great cities of Belgium the principal mart of
T. Continent. An industrious and frugal
l. pie, they had during more than two cen
tr-les of commercial inactivity entirely lost the
energy for which their forefathers were famous.
They were hard-working at home, but their
horizon did not extend beyond the frontiers of
their country, and they were content to depend
upon others to find markets for their manufac-
lures. Twenty-Five years ago, the Duke of
Brabant, now King of the Belgians, lately re-
turned from a voyage round the world, made, in
the Senate, a speech which created a great SEN
sation. His Royal Highness had found other
countries represented wherever he went, but
Belgium OWNERS and Belgian produce was I'M
known on markets where it ought to find IA
ready sale.
In this remarkable speech, the first public
revelation of the talent that so eminently fitted
him for the exalted position to which in the
course of nature he would succeed, His Royal
Highness expressed the wish that II credit should
be voted for the purpose of promoting the estab-
lishment of exhibitions of Belgian produce ON
important but distant markets where Belgium
was scarcely known, and that manufacturers
should be encouraged to send abroad samples of
their wares, and to seek out, and as it were,
select purchaser in foreign countries, instead of
waiting for chance to bring them to Belgium.
He also suggested the foundation of a prize to
be given every five years for the best work on
the means of developing manufactures and COM
merce.
Since his accession to the throne His Majesty
has never lost sight of what he has made the
distinctive feature of his reign, the development
of Belgian commerce. The colossal works now
in course of completion of Antwerp, the projects
for bringing Bruges and Client, Brussels,
Malines and Louvain into direct communication
with the sea, the multiplication of lines of rail
ways, and other costly works, show that the
Belgians are sensible of the necessity of taking
every advantage of the exceptional position
Belgium occupies on the Continent. They are
also beginning to understand, and to take tC
heart the Importance of making their country
known beyond the seas, snd thus at last profit
ing by the wise counsels that has often been inn
pressed upon them by the first citizen of Bel,
GUM"