1851 in Belgium

Incumbents

Events

• National Bank of Belgium prints its first series of banknotes.
• 24 January – Treaty of commerce and navigation with the Kingdom of Sardinia signed in Turin.
• 23 February – Willemsfonds established.
• 18 April – New law on bankruptcy.
• 24 April – Convention with the Netherlands allowing steamships on the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal signed in The Hague.
• May-October – Embroiderer Joseph Van Halle exhibits "Church ornaments and Brussels lace" at the Great Exhibition in London. The Belgian ambassador, Sylvain Van de Weyer, was consulted to ensure that the display of ecclesiastical vestments was arranged in such a way as not to offend Protestant sensibilities.
• 8 May – Convention with The Netherlands abolishing tolls on the Meuse signed in Brussels.
• 19 May – Railway line between Liège and Namur completed.
• 30 June – Protocol to the convention abolishing tolls on the Meuse signed in Brussels.
• 27 September – Elections to the Senate
• 27 October – Treaty of commerce and navigation with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland signed in London.
• 11 December – Victor Hugo's exile in Belgium begins.

  Publications

• Almanach du commerce et de l'industrie, ed. H. Tarlier
• Annales de l'Observatoire Royal de Bruxelles, vol. 8, edited by Adolphe Quetelet.
• Annuaire de la noblesse de Belgique, vol. 5, edited by Isidore de Stein d'Altenstein
• La Belgique Horticole begins publication.
• Journal de l'armée belge, vol. 1.

• Code de justice et de discipline militaires.
• Recueil des lois et arrêtés royaux de la Belgique, vol. 22.
• Henri Alexis Brialmont, Précis d'art militaire
• Henri Alexis Brialmont, Considérations politiques et militaires sur la Belgique, vols. 1-2

• Johan Michiel Dautzenberg, Beknopte prosodia der Nederduitsche taal

  Art and architecture

• Hendrick Joseph Dillens, The Winning Archer
• Edouard Hamman, Disillusion
• Henri Adolphe Schaep, View of a Harbour
• Charles-Philogène Tschaggeny, The Gathering of the Harvest

  Births

• 8 January – Gérard Leman, general
• 21 April – Eugène Siberdt, painter
• 21 May – Charles Emile Stuyvaert, astronomer
• 21 July – Auguste Brancart, publisher of pornography
• 6 August – Paul Wittouck, industrialist
• 12 August – Aloïs Boudry, painter
• 19 August – Frans Schollaert, politician
• 4 October – Michel Levie, politician
• 7 October – Lucien Solvay, newspaper editor
• 21 November – Désiré-Joseph Mercier, cardinal-archbishop
• 10 December – Alfred Ronner, artist

  Deaths

• 17 February – Jean-Baptiste Minne-Barth, politician
• 4 July – Martin-Joseph Mengal, composer
• 19 July – Hippolyte Visart de Bocarmé, nobleman and murderer