The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-11-09
written Specially for The Catholic
Bulletin by Rev. n. v. Van
WalIeghem.)


August Beernaert, the wellknown
| former Premier of Belgium, died at
the age of eighty-three, at Lucerne,
Switzerland, on October 6. He had
more than one claim to be called Bel
gums Grand Old Man." but his fame
had reached far beyond the narrow
limits of his native country. There
| fore it may not be amiss to give
brief sketch of his career even for
those who were not his fellow country
| men,
August Beernaert was born at
Ostend, Belgium, in 1929, exactly one
year before Belgium, which owes him
so much, took it's rank among the
European countries as an independent
nation. His father was an officer of
the abstract and registration depart
ment. Young Beernaert made brilliant
studies in law at the Catholic Univer-
| sity of Louvain, Belgium. Having won
scholarship in government exam
ination open to the different Belgian
| universities, he went abroad and took
a postgraduate course at the Univer-
sites of Paris, Berlin and Heidelberg.
He took up the practice of law and
soon became the foremost lawyer of
the Courts of Appeal and Cessation at
at Brussels. In 1874 he was elected
deputy to Parliament, of which he re-
mained member till his death, thirty
eight years later AS an orator he at
once took his place amongst the
leaders of the Belgian Parliament.
The then Catholic Premier, Malon,
soon discovered in him a man of ex-
ceptional ability and made him Minis
ter of Finance in his cabinet in which
capacity he showed that statesman
like grasp of affairs which was to be
one of his life's characteristics.
In 1879 the Malon ministry fell and
was succeeded by liberal ministry of
the most pronounced anti-Catholic ten
dencies. The diplomatic relations be-
tween Belgium and the Holy See were
severed; a school law very objection
able to Catholics was enacted; the
country's finances were dissipated;
strife and unrest were felt all over the
country; true Kulturkampf ensued.
August Beernaert led the opposition so
successfully that in 1884 the Catholic
Party carried the day at the polls and
since that time it has held power un-
interruptedly.
His Work as Premier.
On the fall of the Liberal ministry
Beernaert became the head of the gov
ernment as Premier and Minister of
Public Works. In this capacity he
remained for ten years-ten years of
a magnificent political strengthening
of the Catholic Party, of beneficial So
cial legislation, of constitutional
progress and colonial experiences
His first important task was to re-
pair the ruin wrought by the defunct
Liberal ministry. The relations be-
tween Belgium and the Holy See were
resumed. The goddess school law was
repealed and replaced by legislation
which respected the liberty of con-
science of all Belgians. The annual
deficits of the preceding government
were replaced by annual loans.
MCduWAllC IAC NOOlCOS SCAOOlS vi
the Liberal regime had borne evil
fruits, amongst which was the rapid
spread of Socialism, unknown before
in Belgium, mainly in the Belgian
mining centers, which threatened revo-
luton To August Beernaert belongs
the honor of having been first of all
European statesmen to inaugurate a
program of social legislation and re-
form, which afterwards was pursued
by his successors at the head of the
Government in Belgium, and which,
taken as whole, constitutes the most
complete code of Christian social
legislation in the world. What energy,
what superiority of views on the part
of Belgium's Premier was needed to
meet the new order of things and
make such a program triumph twenty
years ago. Another crisis threatened
Belgium i'm the early nineties, when a
movement arose for the extension of
suffrage. August Beernaert success
fully met it when he threw his in
f1uence on the side of progress and
democracy by causing law to be
enacted that extended the electoral
franchise tenfold and embodied uni
versal and plural suffrage.
Belgium is a small country whose
independence is theoretically guaran-
teed by the great European powers.
But her statesmen have always con-
strued this guarantee to mean that
Belgium's duty is to make every pos
80 Epnfrn q \ I