1936 On the Continent

a friendly hand at you as you pass; for we are an affectionate people. This artless salute you will answer without a doubt, for having spent a few days among these simple, kindly people you will have grown to like Flanders and those who live and toil there.
    Ten centuries of toil, ten centuries of tumult have passed over this soil … all the armies have known it.
    Despite the armies and invasion, despite new conquerors and new governments, Flanders has remained true to itself—simple and true. Of her past only the fine things have remained; the deathless beauty of finely wrought things, the magnificent strength and genius of long buried architects, and the ever new wealth of its soil, with its proudly waving corn and its carpet of flowers. Flanders, the immortal song of your poets is still ringing in your quiet paths, and your very language, so harsh to those who do not understand, so soft to those who love it, carries with it the spirit of glorious years and the grandeur of a whole race.
    Here the ploughshare was abandoned when the sword was needed to defend hearth and home, and once the sword was lowered, the ploughshares rose again furrowing the brown and generous earth.
    Ten centuries of toil, ten centuries of tumult have passed over this soil.
Brussels
    “I was impatient to see Brussels,” said Muriel. “What is its population?”
    “About a million. Roughly the eighth of the entire population of Belgium. Brussels is our capital. This is where the King resides, and where Parliament sits. The various ministries are in Brussels too, as well as the National Bank and all the administrative offices.”
    “I see you’re dying to talk politics again. It certainly makes a great many things clear to one. I lend you my ears.”
    “It’s almost impossible to get a real insight into the character of a people, or to respond to the atmosphere of a country if one has no notion as to its government, the great popular ideals, and the general trend of its opinion.”
    “Spare your eloquence for half a moment. We’re snowed under with luggage, you know. Hotel first. Lessons afterwards.”
    “Very well, madam. What hotel shall I advise? The Gallia, a quiet and distinguished hotel where you will meet many English people (2, Rue Joseph II), or the Metropole,a more imposing hotel, a cosmopolitan concern with a café below, restaurant and concert-room? There is Scheers, too, comfortable and middle-class, or the Atlanta and Plaza, the most modern and luxurious.”
    When a hotel had been chosen, we went to the park first of all. Brussels is peppered with parks. Thirty of them, some of which are really remarkable—the Parc Josaphat, for instance, or the Tervueren Parc, the Laeken Parc, the Parc of the Cinquantenaire, the Egmont Parc, where stands the statue of Peter Pan, and also the Royal Parc, where we are now.
    A concert is being given every afternoon in summer. These concerts have their special devotees, a few hundred regular listeners, and the birds in the branches who gather here in greater numbers than in the other parks.
    It is in this garden that the Belgians fought for their independence in 1830.
Politics
    On one side of the garden you will see the King’s Palace, which was built not very long ago and which is, despite its size, of little architectural interest. The flag is hoisted only when the King is in Brussels. Opposite the Palace; on the other side of the Parc, are the Parliament buildings—Chamber of Deputies and Senate. You will doubtless wish to visit them, and so learn where it is that our laws are made. They have been swelling in numbers these last years. Generally, when things go wrong, laws spring up on every hand. Some people say that it is the other way round, and that the more laws that are made, the worse matters become.
    In Belgium individual liberty is much appreciated—the Belgian is an individualist. Everything that appears to curtail his freedom weighs upon him, and it is extremely unlikely, despite the efforts of certain political adventurers, that dictatorship be ever established here. The democratic government which is ours, however much it is criticised and whatever its shortcomings, seems to be the one most suited to our character. Our members of Parliament are elected every four years. Men only have the right to vote, and they must be of age.
    “And the women?” asked my companion.
    “Women are not allowed to vote, and I agree with you that we should protest against this state of