A life day by day

In publishing the diary of Michel Edmond de Selys Longchamps, Nicole Haesenne-Peremans and Nicole Caulier-Mathy offer historians – but also the curious – an incredible testimony to  local life in Liège throughout the nineteenth century. In it one can see unfolding the life of provincial polite society in a Belgium which was at first emerging but then did not cease asserting itself at the expense of principality slanted tropisms.

When the University of Liège came into possession of the works preserved in the Halloy château’s library, close to Ciney, the legacy at first proved disappointing, the finest books having been sold. But the collection also contained many handwritten documents which would rapidly turn out to be of great interest. ‘We discovered documents which resembled parts of a diary,’ remembers Nicole Haesenne-Peremans, co-editor of the Journal (1) with Nicole Caulier-Mathy. ‘We started by gathering together these pages, which were scattered amongst other documents. Very quickly the two historians realized that they had in their hands an exceptional document. ‘It was the diary kept by Michel Edmond de Selys Longchamps,’ makes clear Nicole Caulier-Mathy, ‘a diary which is doubtless without any equivalent because the author began it when he was ten years old, in 1823, and continued with it up to a few days before his death, in 1900, practically without interruption. It is thus a testimony which covers nearly the whole of the nineteenth century! Moreover, it is not a private diary. Edmond de Selys was a scientist, and recounts his life a little as if it was a stranger who was observing him.’

It can easily be imagined: the work which led about to the publication of the Journal was very long – of such proportion that the two historians could only complete it once they had retired! An imposing and meticulous task. It was first of all necessary to decipher the thousands of pages of hand written pages. For the everyday text, that didn’t pose too much of a problem. ‘All the more so,’ adds Nicole Haesenne, ‘in that it becomes clear, in comparing them to the author’s other manuscripts, that Edmond de Selys applied himself, took pains over the calligraphy. Very clearly he wrote with the aim of being read.’ On the other hand, the innumerable proper names, of people and places, and the scientific terms presented more problems. Often, a reading of them could only be established after much thankless research work. As the progression of their reading went along, the two Liègois historians themselves prepared the electronic version of the text. They then set about the task in which the value of their enterprise doubtless lies: establishing the different tables which provide the work with its interest. The onomastic table of course identifies the actors but each one of them, whenever it proved possible, is accompanied by a short biographical note: a single reading of it enables an understanding of the family, political and scientific relationships of a member of the provincial gentry in the 19th century. The table of the names of places restores these networks in their spatial dimension. But it is above all the analytical table which allows the society of the era to be defined. As, in leaving the automatic table exclusively alphabetical, the authors have  turned it into a kind of digest of the Journal which allows a rapid reading according to the major themes whose relevance quickly leap to the eye. In this way, the aspects of the scientific and intellectual life of the 19th century are to be read under the rubric of the microcosm of scientific societies; a consultation of the items under the rubric of leisure allow the reader to see how the epoch’s polite society occupied its spare time; the politics category leads the reader along the meanders of local politics at first, regional next, then national, and so on. A genuine goldmine for the historians who would want to make use of this document.

(1) Une vie au fil des jours. Journal d’un notable politicien et naturaliste Michel Edmond de Selys Longchamps (1823-1900), Bruxelles, Commission royale d’Histoire, 2008, 2 vol., LXII-1745 pp.  

The author

But who was this person who has left us this exceptional testimony? Michel Edmond de Selys Longchamps, who was born in Paris, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, en 1813. His father, an ex mayor of Liège, was a representative of the Ourthe region in the Paris legislative body; there he married a Parisian, Marie Denise Gandolphe, whose family had counted amongst its ranks several of the State’s senior agents. The family left Paris in 1827 to come and settle in Liège territory, where the Selys owned several chateaus…including that of Colonster, today a property of the University, and that of Longchamps, situated near Waremme. It was in the latter that the family settled. At least during the summer months as, in the winter, they took up residence in the town house they owned in Liège, in Hors Château. If he didn’t follow the courses delivered by the completely new university, Michel Edmond did visit its scientific collections as he very quickly revealed himself to be fascinated by nature, and birds in particular, followed by insects. In 1829 he was welcomed into the Liège Natural Sciences Society thanks to his work on the Lepidoptera (butterflies). It was above all for his work on dragonflies that he would become known. His wife Sophie also had origins in a scientific background because she was the daughter of Jean-Baptiste d'Omalius d'Halloy, author of the first geological map of our regions. They had four children, all of whom were born in the town house in which the young couple lived, after returning from their honeymoon, on what is now the Boulevard de la Sauvenière in Liège. Joining the Waremme local government council in 1843, Michel Edmond would sit on it for over 50 years. In 1846, he participated actively in the founding congress of the Liberal party, of which he became one of the most important members. In the same year, he sat on the provincial council before becoming, in 1855, a Liberal senator for the Waremme borough, a seat he would occupy practically up until his death. This discovered him on the 11th December, 1900, whilst he was writing up the conclusions to his final works on dragonflies. He had suspended the writing of his diary two weeks before that date. The life of Michel Edmond de Selys was divided into four areas: his scientific research, his role as head of the family, his political life, and his activities as a provincial gentleman. His diary gives a remarkable account of how much attention he devoted to each of these facets of his existence.

A life in science

Michel Edmond’s vocation appeared very early, in 1824 it seems. His diary gives an account of the observations he carried out; from 1841 to 1846, we thus find at the end of each month the ephemeris of the birds and insects he had caught sight of; subsequently such observations are found in the form of a note, but the substance of his observations and conclusions must be read not in his diary but in his scientific writings. On a scientific level the journal’s interest is to be found elsewhere: he shows how to conduct science in a precise domain, in a provincial town but one which was endowed with a university which was rapidly developing.

The reader thus discovers the functioning of the networks which established themselves outside of the scholarly societies and the Academy. Michel Edmond invited to his home Liège scientists, for working lunches we would today say, above all those attached to the faculties of science and medicine, thus offering them the possibility to exchange their ideas outside the academic framework. One can also follow in his Journal the development of zoological research, but in a purely factual manner, one would be tempted to write. ‘It can be surprising,’ note the Journal’s two editors, ‘that he never mentions the theories of Darwin, for example. They nonetheless touched very closely on his scientific activities and it was a subject debated in his day. We do not know what he thought of evolutionism.’ Over the course of these pages we can see Michel Edmond’s reputation grow: foreign learned societies reserved a place for him, he was often called beyond our borders to order and classify insect collections. He himself owned a magnificent collection of birds and insects (today in the Brussels Royal Natural History Museum), which foreign researchers came to study.

The liberal man

The Journal clearly shows that Michel Edmond de Selys’ political activity was not the past time of a rich man who practiced it in a dilettante fashion. His commitment to the Waremme commune, the Province of Liège, to the Senate and to the Liberal Party is real. His is a constant presence at meetings; he speaks up to defend his local district and scientific research. Contrary to what the reader today might think, his election did not always go without saying. Even if he was a well known and wealthy notable, and the vote during this epoch was on a censal basis, he often had to fight to be elected. His diary bears witness to his election campaigns, which one is tempted to describe as ‘American style campaigns’! He had to go door to door accompanied by a local member of the party, to convince each voter. But, as is the case for his scientific life, the author almost never allows himself to pass comment. He recounts the facts, with a sometimes exasperating precision (‘took the train at such an hour to go to X; the journey took X hours...’ is a notation which one comes across often!), lists the speeches, the members of the assemblies, the subjects broached, etc but we almost every time know nothing about what he thinks about the major questions of the day. One exception: on the independence of Belgium, the young Michel Edmond, a Francophile immersed in the ideals of the Enlightenment, was not very favourable to the establishment of the Saxe-Cobourg monarchy. But if we know that he rushed to Paris in 1848 to sniff the air of revolution, he says nothing about what he really thinks of it!

Private life

As has been said, the Journal is not teeming with intimist notes. Here and there the reader catches family tensions, disapproval concerning the behaviour of one or another. But no more than that. On the other hand, Michel Edmond de Selys allows his concerns for the education and health of his children to come through more. Should one of them happen to fall ill, he worries, consults the great names of the faculty of medicine, and scrupulously notes down the treatment. He is also very preoccupied with death, the presence of which escalates following the death of his youngest daughter in 1852. He finds an outlet for his grief in scientific and political work but certainly not in religion. A Liberal, Michel Edmond rejects neither the Catholic faith nor practicing religion, but he does not accord a central place to either religion or faith. One senses that it concerns propriety more than real attachment. Rather anti-clerical, he does not allow religion to come into account for social relationships, even for matrimonial relationships. ‘His notes,’ stresses Nicole Caulier-Mathy, ‘clearly allow the decline of religion throughout the whole of the 19th century to be perceived; secularism was gaining ground in society.’

Provincial Gentleman

It is perhaps the aspect of the Journal which will delight non professional readers the most: the numerous pieces of information he provides about the daily life of ‘polite society’ all along the 19th century. The reader is thus no longer left without knowledge, of the concerts, theatre plays, balls and receptions which follow one after another the whole year long. Places to meet up, it is there where marriage plans and networks are engaged in. In Winter, it is Liège which is the epicentre. From the Spring, the festivities spread to more rural retreats, above all as progress in laying down railway lines goes along. For the Journal also serves that purpose; it provides us with information about the progress in communications, always scrupulously noted by the author. In the Summer, the countryside chateaus host the meetings (the Season often began with a crow hunt!), before they find themselves taking place in the fashionable spa resorts in France or in Germany. Next comes the hunting season. Michel Edmond notes the habits, the customs, but also the names. The reader can thus follow the members of the family on their travels (very numerous: we think we are very mobile today but these ancestors could teach us a thing or two on the subject!), discover their close friends and their more occasional acquaintances. And discover the greater and greater importance of the fact of ‘Belgium’ in their minds. For whilst the bulk of Michel Edmond’s activities and acquaintances are Province based, the Journal shows very well that, little by little, Brussels was supplanting Liège as the capital.