Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/69

CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT.

33

province one-sixth, and the commune four-sixths of the expen- diture. There is no compulsory law of education in Belgium.

It appears from official returns, based upon a recent examination of the National Guards, or Civic Militia of the kingdom, that about 30 per cent, of the grown-up population are unable to read and write. The following is the proportion in the nine provinces : — Antwerp, 4,260 National Guards, of whom 1,085 illiterate ; Brabant, 7,329 — 2,190; Western Flanders, 5,787 — 1,904; Eastern Flanders, 7,343 — 2,870; Hainault, 7,817 — 3,057; Liege, 5,105 — 1,207; Limbourg, 1,941 — 539; Luxembourg, 2,089 — 133; Namur, 2,752 — 415; — showing 13,400 illiterate to 44,423 educated men. In 1868 the sum paid by the state for public education amounted to 6,800,000 francs, or 272,000/. — (Report of the Royal government to the Statesman's Year-book).

Revenue and Expenditure.

The public income and expenditure of Belgium has averaged for the last few years the sum of 150 millions of francs, or 6 millions sterling. In the thirty years 1831 to 1860, the total expenditure of the state amounted to 3,769,601,475 francs, or 150.784,059/. ; making an average expenditure of 128,875,264 francs, or 5,155,010/., per annum. The lowest expenditure was in 1835, when it amounted to only 87,104,005 francs, or 3,484,160/.

The gross revenue and expenditure of Belgium, for each of the ten years 1861 to 1870 — actual tor the first eight, and estimated for the last two periods — is shown in the subjoined table : —

Years

Revenue

Expenditure

£

£

1861

5,945,167

5,671,059

1862

6,128,579

5,807,055

1863

6,237,871

6,004,813

1864

6,313,512

6,099,321

1865

6,360,513

6,175,011

1866

6,561,731

6,343,170

1867

6,641,852

6,670,961

1868

6,776,131

6,876,466

1869

6,975,040

7,061,000

1870

7,006,943

7,059,127

The following table gives the details of the budget estimates of revenue and expenditure for each of the years 1869 and 1870 : —

D