Perhaps the memorial that attracts the greatest amount of public interest in Brussels is that to the Belgians who were killed during the fighting with the Dutch in September 1830.
The public interest in the ex-Speaker's later life centred entirely in his somewhat controversial connexion with the drink traffic. A royal commission was appointed in April 1896 to inquire into the operation and administration of the licensing laws, and Viscount Peel was appointed chairman.
Nevertheless the state is (as will be explained later) a slightly declining factor in the public life of the nation, because public interest tends more and more to centre in the Federal or national government.
The alterations in the law have been in the direction of greater strictness in regard to the conduct of elections, and increased control in the public interest over the proceedings on election petitions.
There can be no doubt that he was a busy intriguer, or that the king, acting on the then very generally accepted doctrine that the sovereign has a right to act for the public interest without regard to forms of law, gave orders to Antonio Perez that he was to be put out of the way.
