me and early the next year proclaimed the city to be the
capital of Italy.

BELGIUM.--The country we now know as Belgium has had a very checkered
history. At one time or another it has been controlled by German,
French, Spanish, and Austrian rulers. At the opening of the nineteenth
century it was annexed to the kingdom of Holland (1815). But a revolt
took place in 1830, and the Belgians separated from the Dutch and chose
a king for themselves. Their constitution declares that the government
is a "constitutional, representative, and hereditary monarchy." The
government is largely in the control of the people or their
representatives. There is one voter for every five persons in the
population, nearly the same proportion as in the United States. In 1839
the principal states of Europe agreed to recognize Belgium's
independence, and in case of war among themselves to treat her territory
as neutral land, not to be invaded. This treaty was signed by Prussia as
well as by Austria, France, Great Britain, and Russia. The treaty was
again acknowledged by Prussia in 1870. It was in violation of these
treaties, as we shall see, that Prussian and other German troops invaded
Belgium on August 4, 1914.

FRANCE.--In 1789 France entered upon a period of revolution. The old
monarchy was shortly overthrown, and with it went aristocracy and all
the inequalities of the Middle Ages. A republic, however, did not long
endure; and Napoleon Bonaparte used his position as a successful general
to establish a new monarchy called the French Empire. After Napoleon's
downfall, the allied monarchs of Europe restored the old line of kings
in France. But the country had outgrown despotism. A revolution in 1830
deposed one king and set up another who was ready to rule under the
terms of a constitution. In 1848 this monarchy was displaced and the
second French republic was established. But again a Bonaparte, nephew of
Napoleon I, seized the government and established a second empire,
calling himself Napoleon III. He aped the ways of his great predecessor
and tried by foreign conquest or annexation in Africa, Italy, and Mexico
to dazzle the French people. But he was never popular, and his reign
closed in the defeat and disgrace of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71),
for which he was partly responsible.

The third French republic was proclaimed in 1870 and is the present
government of the country. Under the constitution there is a senate, the
members of wh