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Show I Miscellany j Brunt of Wars on Little Belgium j Gfi-man soldiery overrun Belgium's territory. 40,000 of Per troops He dead on tne fields of battle, her capital is Invade and her other cities threatened. It is an experience not new to the little lit-tle nation, whose misfortune consists in i the fact tiiat her territory lies In ti e I midst of the warring nations. Throua'u ' eenturle. she has been the battlefield or ; Europe. : K .nr.hTy ed and a burial ground fr t,lc ","1Ki I Her Interest In the pre.vnt en, in I not direct, and vet she has s if r ,n than any of the rlZ I ."rets are ttrucnlliur with,,, i,r hoi ', ,', ' I arles. Whatever ,j,c .., 0 th,, . ''" ent conlliet. past wais have , , ! ', ' s" ' veritable nation or Borrows ' ! Sine. .h, ,lRya , . ; MniKslwJ In the 8ri, r,r ,i. .!, , " H'-r iron;,. fnus:,, '?,,,., '.''," i nallnn ., hi,.,, rarti,.i,,w.., .',,,,Wf:,V r-ie Moodiest battles In the history of the "Her soil is steeped in the blood of Zurore. her cities and fortresses are wrapped close in the oistory oi w,.r- i Through Ave centuries her progress ha., j f- the tllg'.iling hand of international irusSis, Antwerp. Xairajr , Charli-ol, Ostenu and t.ic valleys 01 the before and the Meuse territory about which the present conflict has revoh ed BMmrae ha. suffered bombard- ia,-,u.a CltaVL the Bold .took it in 14, . , -j Twit Maximilian S''k TeSn?U fenVror, the onslaughts on-slaughts of the Elector of -oIuBne; ; In 167-, lBS-i and at-a.n in IbS he at miM of France occupied Its stronjrho Ms M"-borouph M"-borouph captured it in 1.0J. It was tne Uie'of many deadly clashes between , the Austrian? and the french in t.ie . revolutionary wars of 1T92-K4. In 1S6 it. was tiie scene of Socialist uprisings, In which many lives were sacnneed. The fate of Namur has been scarcely less unhappv. Through the 4u0 years of life fornfative period in Belgian history it resounded to the tread oi almost In numerable armies. r.v,. .cre intwerp. Brussels 'and Ghent were stormed aP,Kl conquered hy llf P : j Parma early in lcS5. l.ouis IV to. Mon, I in mat. It was restored to hpam in lb , iand arrain taken by the French in 1 . 1-i 1-i prince' Eucene captured it in 1,0.1 ai d I tiie French" took it in 1740 and again in 1752' . . In 1705 British troops marched through Brabant, and for five years the same province was the stage for repeated conflicts con-flicts between the English and the French. In 1708 I -Me was stormed ana captured by "Marlborough. In 1792 Jemappes was the scene or a terrific battle between the French and Austrian forces, which ended with the victorious French troops driving the Austrian Aus-trian army before it across the Meu!e. In 1734 French forces routed the British from their position near Malrlacquot. In 1S31 a Dutch army crossed the P.eisrinn frontier and overpowered tne i garrisons in the principal cities of the 1 kingdom. -V short time later Antwerp was attacked by the combined troops i of r'ngland and France and the Hutch 1 garrison forced to surrender. . Belgium also was the theater in which I the curtain was rung down on Napoleon's i dreams of a world empire at the end iof the hundred days at Quatre Bras and finally at 'Waterloo. I I Yet to all those must be added a series iof internal dissensions and uprisings i stretching over a period of several centuries. cen-turies. ! S'ince tiie foundation of tile modern kingdom of 1S.10 Belgium lias continued Viown to tiie present as an independent, constitutional nation. Thouch threatened threat-ened bv every wae of International disturbance dis-turbance which lias rolled over j-urope, her position has been secure. During the Franco-lJrus.s'an war her Independence was imperiled bv a proposed pro-posed agreement, between France and Prussia, wilirh planned the annexation of Belgium to France he force of French and Purssian arms. Clreat Britain, however, succeeded In influencing both France and Germany to sign a treaty pledging respect to Belgium's Bel-gium's neutrality throughout the Franco-Prussian Franco-Prussian war. In accordance with this agreement a large force of French troops, driven across the Belgian border after the battle of S'edan, were disarmed and detained on Belgian soil. Will the present war bring about a change In the status of Belgium among the nations of Europe? In the event of a German victory what would be the nature of Germany's demands upon the integrity of the little nation which Germany Ger-many herself was the first to respect forty-four years ago? Would Germany insist upon retaining all or at least a portion of the territory terri-tory which her troops already have overrun? over-run? Time and the destiny" which rule ocer wars aione can tell. Meanwhile the Pttle nation, whose en-;re en-;re population scarcely excels that of Greater London, again is laying the l.v.g of thousands of her citizens upon the flrf.r r Mia1' fr0'" which-whatever e J- b, r-V" tor-v -""e can have no hope to gain. Chicago Plerald. |