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II

What must we say of William II? We are not trying to write a detailed history of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This little book merely tries to fill out the mysterious and unexplored space between the end of the old Dutch Republic and the modern kingdom. Even these twenty years it does not try to describe too minutely, because on the whole (except for the people themselves) the period was so absolutely uninteresting to the outside world that we would not be warranted in asking the attention of the intelligent reader for more than a limited number of pages. William II was a good king in that he was a constitutional king. The year 1848 did not see the erection of barricades in the quiet Dutch cities. If the people, or, rather, the few liberals who had begun to develop out of the mass of indifferent material—if these gentlemen wanted another and a more liberal constitution very badly, they could have it as far as William II was concerned. And without revolution or undue noise the absolute kingdom which the men of 1813 had constructed to keep the men of 1795 in check was quietly changed into an absolutely constitutional monarchy after the British pattern, with responsible ministers and a parliament ruled by the different political parties. The budget now became a public institution, openly discussed every year by the whole people through their chosen representatives and their newspapers.

The king in this way became the hereditary president of a constitutional republic. There can be no doubt that the system was personally disagreeable to William II as well as to his son William III, who succeeded him in 1849. But neither of them for a moment thought of deviating from the narrow road which alone guaranteed safety to themselves and to their subjects. However much they may have liked or disliked certain individuals who as the result of a change in party had to be appointed to be ministers of the government, they never allowed their own personal feelings to interfere with the provisions of the constitution to which at their ascension to the throne they had sworn allegiance. This policy they continued with such excellent success that whatever strength the socialistic party or the other parties of economic discontent may at present be able to develop, those who would actually like to see the monarchy changed into a republic are so very rare and form such an insignificant part of the total population that a continuation of the present system seems assured for an indefinite length of time, which is saying a great deal in our day of democratic unrest.

As we write these final words a hundred years have gone by since the days of the French domination and of the many revolutionary upheavals; the nation of the year 1813, broken down under the hopeless feeling of failure, and the people, despairing of the future and indifferent to everything of the present which did not touch their bread and butter, have disappeared. One after the other they travelled the road to those open air cemeteries which they had so much detested as a revolutionary innovation, their ancestors all slept under their own church-pews, and their place was taken by younger blood.

But it was not until the year 1870 that we could notice a more hopeful attitude in the point of view of the Dutch nation. Then, at last, it recovered from the blows of the first twelve years of the century. Then it regained the courage of its own individual convictions and once more was ready to take up the burden of nationality. Once more the low countries aspired to that place among the nations to which their favourable geographical position, the thrift of their population, and the enterprise of their leading merchants so fully entitled them. The revival, when it came, was along all lines. Scholarship in many branches of learning compared very favourably with the best days of the old republic. The arts revived and brought back glimpses of the seventeenth century. Social legislation gave the country an honourable place among those states which earnestly endeavour to mitigate the disadvantages of our present capitalistic development and by direct interference of the legislature aim for a higher type of society in which the many shall not spend their lives in a daily drudgery for the benefit of the few.

The feeling that colonies were merely an agreeable asset to the merchants of the country and called for no special obligations upon their part gradually gave way to the modern view that the colonies are a trust which for many a year to come must stay in the hands of European men before they shall be able to render them to the natives for a rule of their own people. Finally that most awful and most despondent of all sentimental meditations, that "we have been a great country once," that "we have had our time," has begun to make place for the conviction that at this very moment no other nation of such a small area and insignificant number of people is capable of performing such valuable service in so many fields of human endeavour as is the modern Dutch nation.

The failure of the men of 1795, who dreamed their honest but ineffectual dream of a prosperous and united fatherland, the apparent failure of the first Dutch king who in the true belief of his own direct responsibility still belonged to a bygone age, have at last made place for a healthy and modern state capable of normal development.

Out of the ruins of the old divided republic—a selfish commercial body—there has risen, after a hundred years of experimenting and suffering, a new and honourable country—a single nation, not merely an indifferent confederacy of independent little sovereignties—a civic body managing its own household affairs without interference from abroad and without disastrous partisanship at home—a people who again dare to see visions beyond the direct interests of their daily bread, and who are given the fullest scope for the pursuit of prosperity and individual happiness under a government of their own choice and under the gracious leadership of her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina.

Brussels.
Christmas, 1914.

THE END

A COMPARISON OF THE FOUR CONSTITUTIONS OF HOLLAND
CONSTITUTION OF 1798 CONSTITUTION OF 1801  The Representative Assembly:  A Council of State (Executive The highest power in the State, Council, in Dutch: Staatsbewind) to which all other governmental consisting of twelve members. bodies are responsible.  A Legislative Assembly.  The Executive Council of five  National Syndicate consisting directors. of three judicial officers to  The Representative Assembly control all officials of the State has the right of legislation, State and all departments of the of making alliances and treaties, government. of declaring war, of discussing The Legislative Assembly accepting the yearly budget, discusses all laws proposed by the of appointing the directors of Council of State. It discusses and the Executive Council. It can gives its final approval to all grant pensions and has the right treaties (except certain articles of pardon, and will decide in of such treaties). It has to give all such questions which are not its approval to any declaration of explicitly provided for by the war. It discusses and approves the constitution. annual budget.  The Executive Council must  The Council of State see to the strict execution of (Staatsbewind) makes up the annual of all the laws of the budget and proposes new laws to Representative Assembly. It the Legislative Assembly. It sees makes up a yearly budget which to the execution of the laws which must be submitted to the the Legislative body has accepted. Representative Assembly. It has It declares war (after it has the right to appoint diplomatic obtained the approval of the and consular representatives. Legislative Assembly). It is the It negotiates treaties and highest power in all affairs of alliances, subject, however, to army and navy, and it has the approval of the Representative right of appointment of the body. principal state officers. The The Representative Assembly The Legislative Assembly shall consist of one member for consists of one single chamber of every 20,000 inhabitants. Every thirty-five members. year the Representative body The members of the Legislative shall be divided into a second Assembly are for the first time to chamber of thirty members and be appointed by the Council of a first chamber containing all State. Afterward their election the others. (There were will be regulated by law. ninety-four members in all.) To be entitled to vote one must The Representative Assembly is be either a Hollander who has to be elected in the following lived in the country for one year way: The country shall be divided or a foreigner who has lived in into ninety-four districts of the country for six whole years. 20,000 people each. These The declaration of abhorrence of districts are again divided the Stadholder, aristocracy, etc., into forty sub-districts is no longer insisted upon. A (grondvergadering) of 500 people single promise to "remain faithful Stadholder, aristocracy, etc., to the constitution" is now each. Each subdistrict elects one sufficient. candidate and one elector. If the The Council of State is composed same candidate was elected in of twelve members. The first seven twenty-one sub-districts he members are appointed by "the became a Representative. present Executive Council" (this Otherwise forty electors choose meant the three authors of the a Representative from among the constitution of the year 1810). three candidates who had the These seven were to appoint their largest number of votes. five colleagues. Each year one of Each year one third of the the twelve members was supposed to members of the Representative resign. A vacancy was filled as Assembly must resign, and a follows: The departmental circles new election for their places proposed four people. Out of those must be held. four the Legislative Assembly To be entitled to vote one elected two. From among those two must be either a Hollander who the Council of State then selected during the last two years has their new colleague. lived in the country or a The agents are replaced by foreigner who has resided in small advisory councils of three the republic during the last ten members. They are responsible years. The voter must be able to the Council of State. to read and write the Dutch The Legislative Assembly meets language, and must have passed twice a year: April 15 to June 1, the age of twenty. To qualify and October 15 to December 15. as a voter one must swear a The Council of State, however, can solemn oath to the effect that call together the Legislative one abhors the Stadholder, Assembly as often as it pleases. anarchy, aristocracy, and The Council of State proposes federalism, and that one never all laws. Twelve members of the shall vote for any person whose Legislative Assembly appointed by opinions upon these subjects are this body discuss the laws. The not entirely above suspicion. Legislative Assembly then accepts The Executive Council is the law or vetoes it. No further appointed by the Representative discussion allowed in the Assembly, but the members of the Legislative Assembly. Council may not be members of the The country is divided into Executive. The first chamber eight departments. The provincial proposes three candidates. The frontiers of the old republic are second chamber elects the member reëstablished. Drenthe comes to from among those three. Each year Overysel and Brabant becomes the one new member of the Council is new, the eighth, department. to be elected. After his Local government remains as resignation he is not reëligible before, but each city is allowed until five years later. greater liberty in civic affairs, The Executive Council appoints provided the city does not try to eight agents to act as heads of change the original idea of a different departments (as democratic, representative ministers more or less). These government. The cities in this agents are
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