I have the honor to be, with great respect, your most obedient
servant,
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Translation.]
Gentlemen: It was my desire to meet again
the representatives of the nation where I received scarcely a year
ago so sympathetic a welcome. The entire population in each of our
patriotic provinces has joined in these touching demonstrations;
they are connected with the memory of the venerated monarch whose
beneficent reign will leave imperishable traces in the existence of
Belgium.
It is with great satisfaction that I notice the excellent state of
our relations with foreign powers. In the midst of the grave events
which have disturbed a large portion of Europe, Belgium has remained
calm, confident, and impressed with the rights and duties of a
neutrality which she will maintain in the future, as in the past,
sincerely, loyally, and firmly.
If the public security has not been shaken, if our internal situation
has remained relatively satisfactory, Belgium, nevertheless, has not
been exempt from the fatal malady which has desolated other
countries.
Thanks to the devotedness of the local authorities and of all classes
of the population, the effects of the scourge, now almost entirely
disappeared, have been happily mitigated. Let us offer commiseration
to those who have suffered, and gratitude towards those who have
shown devotedness. These disasters, let us not forget, have
particularly affected our working classes. It is the duty of us all
to continue to occupy ourselves with all that can favor the material
and moral improvement of the laboring population.
Among the preventive measures which science and experience point out
to us as most efficacious, the sanitary improvement of unhealthy
neighborhoods ranks first, and preoccupies justly the attention of
the government and the communes.
The same solicitude is due to the education of the working classes.
The Chambers will never fail to co-operate with the government in
attaining this useful and noble object, towards which every people
jealous of its liberty, and wishing to remain worthy of it, should
always strive.
The result of the harvest has not fully responded to the hopes of our
cultivators. Agriculture has not receded in the way of progress in
which it is rapidly advancing.
The energetic measures adopted by my government have contributed to
circumscribe and to paralyze the effects of the cattle plague, which
has raged elsewhere with great intensity.
Independently of the labors which the Chambers have still to
complete, divers measures will be submitted to their deliberations,
to wit: Revision of the law of 1858 on exportations; suppression of
imprisonment for debt; amelioration of the laws touching preventive
confinement and extradition; abolition of the act of 1781 of the
civil code; revision of the military penal code; liberty of
manufacture and traffic of gold and silver articles; fluvial
fisheries; reapprisal of landed property values with the view of a
more just distribution of the real estate tax. These are the bills
which will be successively brought forward in the course of this
session, and which I recommend to the enlightened examination of
Parliament.
My government has concluded with Japan a treaty of friendship,
commerce, and navigation, which, with our last convention with
China, is destined to open to Belgium new relations with the
countries of the extreme east, in assuring to our commerce
international guarantees which have hitherto been wanting.
The civic guard and the army continue to fulfil their mission with
the zeal and patriotism which has ever distinguished those two great
institution.
The “tir-national” has furished our citizen militia the occasion to
fraternize with the militia of neighboring countries. Belgium will
be happy to renew upon her patriotic soil those pacific conflicts
where reciprocal relations of esteem and friendship are formed,
destined to be still further extended in the future. To these
natural productions, which are the wealth of the country, our
artists, the recent exhibition which proved it, co-operate with
distinction in works which are its glory.
I trust that all Belgium laborers will strive by redoubled efforts to
occupy an honorable rank in the universal competition which a great
friendly power is about to open to all nations.
May Belgium continue to distinguish herself by an energetic and
fruitful activity, by respect for order, and by the wise practice of
her liberties. May the elements of prosperity she contains be more
and more developed under the aegis of our liberal laws It is my
dearest wish, it is the object of our common aspirations. To
accomplish the task which pertains to it, my government, gentlemen,
has need of your loyal and generous aid, and at the commencement of
this new reign may all hearts remain united in love for the country
and its institutions.
