f Belgium's wealth, have brought
many wars upon this country. Again and again it has been Europe's
battle ground. Whenever France and Germany have gone to war against
each other it has always been a question which one would get at the
other first--through Belgium. And then through it lies the shortest
road to rich and proud Albion.

A change for the better seemed to have come for the little kingdom
as a result of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. At its outbreak both
of the belligerents reaffirmed the treaty of London of 1831 and
1839, by which they as well as Great Britain, Austria, and Russia
were bound to respect Belgium's neutrality and integrity, and to
Great Britain it is that Belgium was especially indebted for this
promise. For the island kingdom made it plain to both Russia and
France that it could not and would not stand by idly if Belgium were
invaded. After the end of the war had come, Russia, France, and
Great Britain signed a new agreement by which they arranged to
respect forever Belgium's neutrality, and if one of the signatories
should break the arrangement the other two were to combine for the
protection of Belgium. Although this pact has been kept officially
ever since, it seems in the light of recent discoveries in Belgian
archives as if Belgium itself had placed itself outside of it by
arriving at a secret understanding with both England and France that
both of these countries should be permitted certain privileges in
case of war with Germany. How much truth there is to these claims
history will undoubtedly discover and announce.

The fact remains that, secure in its guaranteed neutrality, Belgium
has prospered and grown. In spite of its smallness it has become one
of the great industrial and commercial countries in Europe. To a
great extent this was due to the remarkable gifts possessed by one
of its recent rulers, Leopold II, the uncle and predecessor of the
present king, Albert I. Leopold succeeded his father, Leopold I, in
1865. The latter had been on very friendly terms with Queen
Victoria, and, in a way, English friendship for Belgium dates from
that period, although Leopold II was not popular at the English
court. Leopold II was married to an Austrian archduchess. His sister
was the wife of the unfortunate Maximilian who, as Emperor of
Mexico, betrayed by Napoleon III in his hour of need, was stood up
against the walls of a Mexican town and shot by his rebellious
subjects. One of his daught