The German barons who ruled cared little
for their own tongue: how should they have manifested interest in that
of their Belgian subjects? The subsequent French domination was no
improvement. On the 13th of June, 1803, it was decreed by the
Republic,--"In a year, reckoning from the publication of this present
ordinance, the public acts, in the departments once called Belgium,
... in those on the left bank of the Rhine, ... where the custom of
drawing up acts in the language of those countries may have been
preserved, are henceforth to be written in French." The Bonaparte rule
was not of a nature to restore former privileges. In spite of the
feeble remonstrances that were urged against such arbitrary measures,
an imperial decree of 1812 enjoined that all Flemish papers should
appear with a French translation.
Under the rule of King William, vigorous measures were employed to
reinstate the native idiom. At first warmly seconded, Government soon
met with an unaccountable opposition even from its subjects. The Dutch
was combated by those connected with education. It was ridiculed by
the Walloon population. Since the independence of Belgium, the
_mouvement flamand_ has been felt more than once by the would-be
French rulers. In 1841, a Congress was held in Ghent, where all the
members of the Government spoke in Flemish; energetic protests were
addressed to the Chamber of Representatives, all with little avail. At
present, though the language is nominally on a par with French, it
meets with little encouragement.
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