nationality began to be felt. "In 1815 the differences between Flemish and
Walloon were to a large extent concealed beneath a veneer of French culture
and French manners. Among the upper and commercial classes no language but
French was ever spoken; and in their dislike of Dutch supremacy the Flemish
Belgians took a sort of patriotic pride in their borrowed speech, and for a
time relegated their native tongue to the level of a rustic _patois_."[1]
And yet, on the other hand, "the separation of Belgium from Holland had no
sooner taken place than the newly aroused national spirit began to show
itself among the Flemish-speaking part of the people by a revival of
interest in their ancestral Teutonic language.... King William I.'s attempt
to make Dutch the official language had met with universal opposition; but
as early as 1840 a demand was put forward for the use of the Flemish tongue
(which is closely akin to the Dutch) on equal terms with French in the
Legislature, the Law Courts, and the Army. As the years passed by, the
movement gathered ever-increasing numbers of adherents, and the demand was
repeated with growing insistence."[2] In 1897 the Flemish party attained
its ambition, and Flemish became the official language of the country, side
by side with French. The remarkable thing about this Teutonising movement
is that its mainstay has always been the extreme Catholic party, which
on religious grounds had been the most violent opponent of the attempted
Teutonification by the Dutch. The opposition between Flemish and Walloon,
indeed, became so marked in recent years that many feared that the Belgian
nation was about to split into two. Germany has, however, postponed this
national calamity for generations if not for ever, and the Belgium
which arises like a phoenix from the ashes of this third attempt at
Teutonification will, we cannot doubt, be a Belgium indissolubly knit
together by common memories of a glorious struggle for freedom and cemented
by the blood and tears of the whole population. Germany, like Napoleon a
century ago, will call many nations into being; the first and not the least
of her creations is a transfigured and united Belgium.