Adolphe Deschamps

Who was Adolphe Deschamps?

Adolphe Deschamps was a Belgian statesman and publisher, the brother of Cardinal Victor-Auguste-Isidor Deschamps.

He entered public life about 1830 and soon became popular through his contributions to several Catholic newspapers. Having founded, with his friend Pierre de Decker, La Revue de Bruxelles, he advocated in that paper a system of parliamentary government which was termed "government of the centres". The ministries were to be composed of Catholics and Liberals and to be supported by the moderate elements of the two parties. The scheme worked for some years. In 1834 Dechamps was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, where his talent as an orator soon secured him a prominent position. In 1836 he participated very actively in the discussion of the bill on the organization of the communes, and in 1839 he opposed the Treaty of London, 1839. The Great Powers had imposed that treaty on Belgium and Holland in 1834, but the latter had delayed accepting it in the hope that she might eventually obtain better conditions.