Abstract
Already during the early years of the Restoration, liberals and Catholics expressed, through their predominant political journals, sympathy for each other’s ideas and arguments on numerous occasions.
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Notes
- 1.
On the exchanges between L’Observateur belge and Le Spectateur belge and their mutual support, see also: Bartier (1975). Bartier argued that the mutual respect between Leo de Foere and Pierre-François van Meenen can be attributed to the intermediary role of Norbert Cornelissen , another contributor to L’Observateur belge, and that, whilst there is no evidence that De Foere and Van Meenen actually met, Cornelissen had definitely made attempts to bring them together (Bartier 1975, 52–54). Bartier also pointed out that De Foere and Van Meenen shared a great admiration for Bossuet .
- 2.
Le Spectateur belge 7 (1819): 4; quoted in Bartier (1975, 51–52). When L’Observateur belge ceased publication, De Foere paid tribute in Le Spectateur belge to ‘the most remarkable journal on the basis of its talent published in the kingdom, and the journal the most useful to the state’. Le Spectateur belge 10 (1820): 210–211; quoted in Bartier (1975, 61). See also: Harsin (1930, 22).
- 3.
Instruction pastorale de Son Altesse Monseigneur l’évêque de Gand, … relativement au projet de la nouvelle constitution du Royaume des Pays-Bas (Ghent, 1815).
- 4.
Van Meenen added that ‘two books, the New Testament and the book of Roman law, are the source and the foundation of all European civilisation’ (van Meenen 1819, 339).
- 5.
This side of Constant’s work has led George Armstrong Kelly to assert that his real contribution to political theory lay not so much in any prophetic abilities regarding the ‘excesses’ or problems of modern democracy, but rather in his innovative attempt to ‘spiritualise liberalism’ (Kelly 1982, 514). Helena Rosenblatt supported Kelly’s point of view, calling the ‘extraordinarily pessimistic reading of Constant … truly baffling’ (Rosenblatt 2004, 447). See further also: Jaume (1997, 77–82) and Garsten (2009).
- 6.
Altered translation by Rosenblatt. Constant also changed his negative views on Catholicism. In the second volume of his major work on religion, De la religion considérée dans sa source, ses formes et ses développements (1824–1831), he insisted that ‘nothing I have written can be misinterpreted, by those with good intentions, as an attack on priests’. The only thing he opposed was ‘the alliance of despotism and priesthood’. He paid tribute to a tradition within Catholicism of defying this alliance, consisting of people who ‘never ceased to repeat to kings that the laws were the foundation and limit of their power [e.g. Fénelon, Massillon and Fléchier]’. Quoted in Rosenblatt (2008, 210).
- 7.
Le Vrai Liberal was a ‘spinoff’ from the journal Le Libéral, which itself resulted from a fusion between the Nain jaune réfugié and Le Mercure-Surveillant (Lemmens 2011, 1179).
- 8.
Systematic research on the importance and influence of the French exile community and their networking and journalistic activities is still lacking; see: Lemmens (2011).
- 9.
Le Spectateur belge 15 (1822): 273–282; quoted in Bartier (1975, 59–60).
- 10.
- 11.
The actual influence which ministers had on matters of policy differed greatly according to the individual ministers. When ministers were able to exert influence, it was often through threatening resignation. The king, on the other hand, always searched for pliability when he was selecting ministers.
- 12.
Original source: Handelingen Tweede Kamer 1826–1827, 10 April 1827, 362ff.
- 13.
Van Maanen even went as far as invoking Benjamin Constant’s notion of a ‘neutral power’, to which Barthélemy immediately counter-argued that Constant’s notion of a fourth power also involved responsible ministers.
- 14.
W.B. Donker Curtius, De verdediging der wet op de instelling der regterlijke magt van den minister van justitie getoets aan en wederlegt uit de grondwet, het belang des konings en dat der natie (The Hague, 1827).
- 15.
Original source: Donker Curtius van Tienhoven 1827 (ft. 14), 31–32.
- 16.
For the frequency of the different demands: de Jonghe (1943, 324).
- 17.
Original source: Nederlandse staatscourant, 5 December 1828.
- 18.
He further added: ‘The right to make proposals … does it not extend to the right to demand the removal of an incapable or badly intentioned minister? And if this were not sufficient, would the refusal to accord subsidies to ministers who have lost the trust of the nation not result in the rectification of the grievances?’ (Castiau 1829, 31–32).
- 19.
Van Velzen has pointed out that Constant was the most frequently quoted political thinker in the Second Chamber (van Velzen 2005, 292).
- 20.
Devaux was also influenced by the French liberal journal Le Globe, which since 1825 had promoted ‘freedom of thought under all its forms and in all its manifestations’ (including education) and the complete separation of Church and State (Miroir 1994, 102, 104).
- 21.
The pamphlet addressed Sermoen over de godsdienstige opvoeding der Katholyke kinderen by Bernard De Smet (Ghent, 1827).
- 22.
On the origin and the development of Courrier des Pays-Bas see: Vermeersch (1981, 504–509).
- 23.
Louis de Potter , Considérations sur l’histoire des principaux conciles, depuis les apôtres jusqu’au Grand Schisme entre les Grecs et les Latins (Bruxelles, 1816).
- 24.
Louis de Potter , Vie et mémoires de Scipion de Ricci, évêque de Pistoie et Prato, réformateur du catholicisme en Toscane, sous le règne de Léopold (Bruxelles, 1826), 4 vols.
- 25.
- 26.
De Potter did also not distinguish between the historical credentials of liberals and Catholics in the fight for freedom. If he acknowledged that Catholics had previously ‘anathematised freedom of the press, religion and opinions’, he also pointed out that it had been the Catholics who, by working for ‘the demolition of the gothic edifice of a monopolised education’, had helped the union to come about. Furthermore, De Potter pointed out that liberals had also often been wrong in the past, for example by ‘wanting to change opinions by using the law’. He also reminded of ‘the regrettable attempts to establish the so-called national Churches on the ruins of ultramontanism, on the basis of principles that one either calls Gallican or Joséphist’ (de Potter 1829, 7–8).
- 27.
De Potter’s ideas at this point resonated with the central arguments of Benjamin Constant on politics in relation to morality and religion. Constant believed that the government should abstain at all times from interfering with the moral values of citizens and remain neutral in any moral debate. There was, in his view, ‘something about power which more or less warps judgement’. Members of the government were very likely to hold ‘views which are less just, less sound, and less impartial than those of the governed’ (Constant [1806–1810], 54). Furthermore, Constant believed that individuals must be allowed to strive for the truth by themselves. He was convinced that intellectual and moral progress were inextricably linked with each other, and the search for knowledge, and therefore the freedom to make mistakes, constituted an essential element of man’s moral improvement (Rosenblatt 2008, 125–129; Jaume 1997, 77–82).
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Marteel, S. (2018). A Union of Catholicism and Liberalism. In: The Intellectual Origins of the Belgian Revolution. Palgrave Studies in Political History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89426-3_7
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