Jan-Baptist Verlooy - Later Life

Later Life

In 1766 Verlooy went to Leuven to study law at the University. In 1774 he settled in Brussels and a year later he took the oath as a solicitor to the Brabant Counsel. In 1781 he published the Codex Brabanticus, a judicial manual about the laws valid in the Duchy of Brabant. The study bears testimony to his democratic and rationalist state of mind, as well as to his attachment to Brabant. In 1785 he wrote Emperor Joseph II in Vienna a letter denouncing the disregard of the Dutch language.

Verlooy’s most influential study on this subject appeared only two years later: the clandestine Essay on the disregard of the native language in the Netherlands, (in Dutch: Verhandeling op d’onacht der moederlyke tael in de Nederlanden). His point of view was one of a patriot and a democrat. He deeply regretted the worrisome situation of culture and literature in the Netherlands. He noticed that the Netherlands couldn’t compete in cultural matters with the French, the English, the Germans and the Italians, because the upper class and the intellectuals while adopting French neglected the language of the people, Dutch. This phenomenon first occurred when the Burgundian dukes ruled over the Netherlands and it reached its climax in Brussels, where the native language of 95% of the population was and remained nonetheless Dutch. Verlooy even noticed that some Flemings pretended to speak Dutch only poorly to make believe they had been educated in French. The writings of intellectuals who wrote in French but had French as a second language couldn’t compete with those by native French speakers, the result being that the writing style in French of the first was inferior to that of the latter. Verlooy considered the Dutch native language therefore as the only language in which the people could be cultivated and made to think for themselves. People should be aware of their history, the value of their language and their ancient democratic institutions. The language of a small people could be predestined for an important future. The awakening of the national sentiment would result in a political renaissance. Therefore, where Dutch is the language of the people, French should no longer be the language of the upper class, the intellectuals and the scientists, especially in Brussels. One could even consider the prohibition of all education in French. Fairytales in the primary section should be substituted by lectures treating subjects such as history and laws and charters of the Netherlands. In the secondary section, the French and Greek language would be optional, while as much time and care for the study of Dutch as that for the study of Latin would be taken. This whole programme would be accomplished by a mighty social class ready to claim its rights: the bourgeoisie, a class which will have to claim all rights for its language - the Dutch language of the people. To accept the benefit for the people as a criterion, to want to elevate the political awareness of the people and to want to remind them of the urban democracies in the Netherlands in former times, was in fact in 1788 quite an innovative idea, which made Verlooy anticipate modern thinking for about a century.