Book Reviews : Belgium and the February Revolution. By BRISON D. GOOCH. (The Hague: Mar tinus Nijhoff, 1963. Pp. 110. $2.70.)
| Author | Allan H. Kittell |
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296401700120 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
141
A
few
minor
weaknesses
exist.
Machine-voter
relationships
are
explored
to
the
exclusion
of
machine-business
ties.
Little
is
said
concerning
the
community
press
or
conflict
between
suburban
and
big-city
newspapers.
And
consideration
of
suburbs,
special
districts,
and
metropolitan
government
is
insufficient,
being
confined
mostly
to
one
chapter.
The
authors
conclude
by
examining
trends:
greater
centralization
of
formal
authority,
issues
more
directly
connected
with
national
ones,
and
a
shift
from
&dquo;ward
politics&dquo;
to
&dquo;city
administration.&dquo;
In
part
a
result
of
change
in
the
city’s
class
com-
position,
these
trends
will
affect
those
who
will
enter
and
rise
through
local
politics.
What
is
said
about
trends,
and
the
possible
decreased
opportunity
of
lower
classes
to
rise
through
politics,
should
be
examined
by
all
concerned
with
our
cities’
future.
Southeast
Missouri
State
College
STEPHEN
L.
WASBY
Belgium
and
the
February
Revolution.
By
BRISON
D.
GOOCH.
(The
Hague:
Mar-
tinus
Nijhoff,
1963.
Pp.
110.
$2.70.)
In
1847
most
continental
monarchs,
including
Leopold
of
Belgium,
still
had
considerable
independent
authority,
especially
in
diplomatic
matters,
and
used
it
to
keep
Europe
on
a
conservative
course.
In
international
affairs
the
Liberal
opposi-
tion
to
the
monarchs
was
furnished
by
Palmerston
of
Great
Britain
who
spoke
not
for
the
Queen
but
for
Parliament.
It
was
furnished,
in
internal
Belgian
affairs,
by
the
Liberal
party
which
emerged
victorious
from
the
1847
elections,
thereby
giving
Belgium
its
first
taste
of
partisan
(as
opposed
to
Unionist)
party
government.
Leo-
pold’s
dislike
for
that
taste
forced
the
new
ministry
to
rely
more
on
parliamentary
than
on
royal
support.
The
February
Revolution
upset
these
relationships.
Con-
servatives
and
dynasts
almost
everywhere
now
sought
Liberal
support
against
the
threat of
republicanism.
Most
continental
Foreign
Offices
turned
to
Palmerston
for
leadership
in
the
crisis
while
in
Belgium
Leopold
even
offered
to
abdicate
altogether
if
the
Liberal
ministry
so
desired.
It
did
not.
There
then
ensued
an
anxious
period
filled
with
rumors
of
French
designs
on
Belgian
independence
and
republican
designs
on
the
Belgian
working
classes.
Mounting
unemployment
became
a
threat
to
inter-
national
peace.
The
failure
of
the
comic-opera
&dquo;invasions&dquo;
of
Risquons-Tout
and
Quievrain
(the
author,
unfortunately,
does
not
directly
examine
the
important
ques-
tion
of
French
support)
was
the
turning
point.
Thereafter
French
militants
appar-
ently
abandoned
the
idea
of
republicanizing
Belgium,
the
economy
began
to
im-
prove,
and
Paris
itself
headed
toward
the
reactionary
explosion
of
June
which
ended
the
republican
threat.
The
key
to
both
the
merits
and
shortcomings
of
this
work
lies
in
the
unusually
prominent
role
Professor
Gooch
gives
to
the
several
archival
source
collections
which
provide
the
core
of
his
documentation,
and
in
his
desire
to
keep
overt
interpretation
to
a
minimum.
This
approach
often
gives
the
study
a
stimulating
immediacy -
almost
as
if
the
reader
were
present
as
the
details
of
a
suspenseful
drama
unfold
bit
by
bit.
But
it
sometimes
becomes
little
more
than
a
chronological
inventory
of
almost
undigested
diplomatic
correspondence.
Although
the
author intended
to
treat
the
&dquo;impact
of
the
February
Revolution
on
the
Belgian
domestic
scene
and,
for
the
first
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