NEWS OF THE WEEK.
AKIND of revolution has occurred in Belgium. Last week the Chamber and the Senate, as we recorded, rejected all plans for reducing the present restricted franchise, under 'which only twenty persons in a thousand are permitted to vote, and the total electorate numbers only one hundred and fifty thousand. The Labour party instantly ordered all labour to stop, and though the order was only partially obeyed, great masses of labourers ceased working, rioting began in the prin- cipal cities, and in two or three—Mona especially—bloody collisions occurred between the populace and the Civic Guard. The civic dignitaries were especial objects of hostility; M. Buis, Burgomaster of Brussels, being nearly killed ; and the agitation grew wilder daily. The Chamber on Tuesday, 'therefore, by 119 votes to ft, accepted a compromise offered by M. Nyssen, establishing manhood suffrage, but granting two votes to every man over thirty-five, or married, and a double vote to certain classes of property-holders. The Labour leaders, while maintaining their principle of "one man one vote," accepted this offer, and ordered the strike to cease, a command which was generally obeyed. The incident is unfortunate, because the Chamber gave way before violence; but the pre- sent franchise is absurd, and the main feature of the com- promise, as we show elsewhere, is both original and effective. For the first time, a franchise has been invented which moderates universal suffrage, yet does not depart in the slightest from rigid democratic principle.
