Within, on the walls of a great hall, the Salle des États, is a tablet in memory of the famous 'Pacification of Ghent,' signed there in 1576, when the leaders of the Dutch and Catholic Netherlands united for the purpose of securing civil and religious liberty and the downfall of the Spanish oppression. Opposite this tablet is a window, through which one steps on to a small balcony where proclamations were made of war, or peace, or royal marriages, and laws were promulgated, in olden times. In another part of the building the twelve Catholics, thirteen Liberals, and fourteen Socialists, who (1907) make up the Council of to-day, meet and debate, in a Gothic hall of the fifteenth century, with the Burgomaster in the chair. The civil marriages, which by the Belgian Constitution of 1831 must always precede the religious ceremony in church, take place in an old chapel of 1574, where there is a large picture by Wauters of Mary of Burgundy asking the burghers of Ghent to pardon one of her Ministers. Just outside the door of this Salle des Mariages a painting of the last moments of Count Egmont and Count Horn hangs in a passage, with a roof 500 years old, leading to the offices of the Tramway Company. Thus the everyday business of the town is conducted in the midst of the memorials of the past. [Illustration: GHENT BÉGUINAGE de Mont St. Amand.] In front of the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville there used to be a wide, open space, in which the burghers assembled; but now the ground is occupied by a row of houses (the Rue Haut-Port), intersected by narrow streets, one of which leads to the Marché de Vendredi, the scene of the greatest events in the history of Ghent. This is a large square, surrounded by a double row of trees, in the middle of which is a statue of Jacques van Artevelde, the 'Brewer of Ghent,' who stands with arm up-raised, pointing to the west, as if to show his fellow-citizens that help was coming from England, or that the enemy was on the march from France. Not far from the Hôtel de Ville the compact tower of St. Nicholas rises above the housetops; and the churches of St. Pierre, St. Michael, and St. Jacques are worth a visit. There is also the Béguinage de Ste. Élisabeth, a group of houses of dark red brick with tiled roofs, trim grass paddocks, and winding streets, clustering round a church--the quietest spot in Ghent, where five or six hundred Beguines, in their blue robes and white head-dresses, spend their days in making lace or attending the services of the Catholic Church. But the antiquary and student of history will find more to interest him if he makes his way to the Abbey of St. Bavon (birthplace of John of Gaunt), the ruins of which lie on the east side of the town, near the Porte d'Anvers.