The results of this system were not slow in developing themselves in Belgium; one by one they began to strain, break, and give way; distrust was every hour growing blacker, when the bank of Belgium, which had been similarly formed in 1835, with a capital of twenty millions of francs, and had encouraged the establishment of some twenty or thirty other joint-stock speculations, with a capital of fifty millions more, suddenly suspended payment in 1838, and universal dismay and confusion followed; bubbles burst in all directions, those concerns which were unsound exploded at once, and others more substantial suspended their operations, and resorted to fresh calls and loans to enable them to proceed. In the mean time, prices and the wages of labour had been fluctuating like the waves of the sea under this financial tempest, at one time raised to the highest pitch by the demand for machinery created by such vast simultaneous exertions, and anon reduced below a remunerative level by the ardour of their competition with each other. Several of these companies still survive, but almost universally struggling with the difficulties in which they have involved not only themselves, but those private individuals whose steady and lucrative trade they had invaded in the rage of their speculations.
From Verviers to Eupen, the Prussian frontier, the road is high and uninteresting; it speedily leaves the charming valleys of the Vesdre behind, and comes within sight of the ruins of Limbourg, one of the most melancholy scenes of desolation I have seen—it stands lonely and apart upon the summit of a rocky eminence, the remains of what had once been a city, now a wilderness. Its rugged walls covered with green moss, scarcely a roof visible, and the remnants of its shattered fortifications flung, like a torn banner, across the sky. It has still, however, a few wretched inhabitants, who are engaged in the zinc mines in its vicinity. It seems incredible that this stranded wreck, was once the capital of a duchy and the residence of a sovereign.
It is impossible to turn one’s back upon this most interesting and enterprising country without emotions of deep anxiety as to its future destiny. Its political fortunes would require something more than ordinary foresight to predict, and the recent possibility of an European war, elicited the avowal of how slightly France would regard the treaties of 1831 or 1839, did Belgium stand for one moment in the way to obstruct her designs, either of aggression or defence. But those for whose future lot the strongest sympathy is excited, are her skilful artisans and her energetic and adventurous manufacturers and merchants. Merchants, indeed, she has but few, for nature and providence seem to have combined to render Belgium a workshop rather than a warehouse. Austria, by the base desertion of her shipping interest, in becoming a party to the closing of the Scheldt at the treaty of Munster, compelled her to turn her attention inwardly upon herself, and to seek to replace by the loom and the hammer, that which she had lost by the annihilation of the sail and the helm. Under France, and with the all-powerful protection of Napoleon, her capabilities were developed to the fullest extent of her capital and her means, all Europe affording a market for her commodities, and creating a demand almost beyond her power to supply.
With the events of 1815, and her annexation to Holland, that vast outlet was contracted to a narrower space, and the King, on assuming the direction of his affairs, found a nation of mechanics, whom it became his province to provide with profitable employment. In the attempt to do this, it is questionable whether he did not overstep the bounds of prudence, and lead, by the system he adopted, to the further development of powers which were already simply sufficient for their functions;
As worldlings do, giving the sum of more
To that which had too much—
Individual enterprise was superseded rather than assisted; and the expedients of the government tended to injure it in one respect by relieving it from the effects of its own errors, feeding it with capital, and carrying off its surplus production through societies which purchased at a handsome price to export at a loss. Even with all these appliances, her resources and powers were developed beyond the legitimate means of their employment, and the 15,000,000 of her population and colonies, whom Holland, compelled to give a preference to her productions, were inadequate to their consumption. What then must have been her condition, when in 1830, those 15,000,000 were reduced to something more than three, whilst her machinery and powers of production remained the same as before?
The new government, it must be admitted upon all hands, in spite of the murmurs of those, the evils of whose condition lay too deep for superficial remedies, such as the ministry had it in their power to apply, have left no practical expedient untried to afford them relief, but as yet in vain; and the history of one year seems but to afford a painful contrast with the greater prosperity of that which preceded it. Money, so far as it was available, has in no case been spared. Mechanical and commercial education, both theoretical and practical, has been duly attended to; prizes and honours have been awarded to successful industry; and communications, both by highways, railroads, and canals, have been lavishly provided to invite consumption and demand; but no government can possibly afford the Belgians or procure for them, that which alone can be a fundamental remedy—a market proportionate to their machinery.
In every thing that is the offspring of manual labour brought to bear upon native produce, their manufactures are successful; but so soon as they are either obliged to bring their raw material from abroad, or to come into competition with the machinery of more populous countries, their advantages suddenly disappear. Thus in iron work in general, cutlery, ordinary machinery, and hardware, they excel; as well as in the production of lace and of linen yarn, in distillation or brewing, in the manufacture of furniture and paper, and, in short, in all the indispensable requisites of a home consumption. On the other hand, their coal and their iron, though abundant, lie deeper and dearer than those of their most formidable rivals in Great Britain; and copper, which is equally essential to extensive operations in machinery, they have none. Their trade would lose its pre-eminence could the Irish be once induced to adopt their processes for the preparation of flax; their cotton manufacture is in the agonies of dissolution, and their silk has already departed. Their woollens, their sugar refiners, and other once fruitful fields of enterprise and wealth, are no longer to be relied on; and, in a word, the whole frame-work of their system is labouring under a plethora, for which no ingenuity has yet sufficed to invent an effectual relief.