214 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



to pack those wares in bales too big to be got through his 

 warehouse doors. 



Yet another point of the Bill was forcibly illustrated 

 in the course of the debate, viz., the King's faculty to 

 allow dispensations from the prohibition to cure issued 

 against coast fishermen. This clause was never meant for 

 anything but a decoy to win the opposition over. The 

 parliamentary system was at the time in its infancy in the 

 Netherlands. There was no ministerial responsibility ; and 

 to oppose a Bill emanating from the King himself was some- 

 thing awful, on which many members of the House did not 

 care to venture so long as they could somehow keep their 

 consciences at rest in acquiescing. To provide a sedative 

 to this effect was therefore a means to shut up importunate 

 mouths. One member distinctly stated his intention to vote 

 for the law in the hope that the King would use his faculty 

 to establish exceptions ; whereas, as he justly observed, the 

 Bill's rejection would be the continuance of the laws of 1800 

 and 1 80 1, by which the monopoly was sanctioned without 

 any perspective of relaxation. It is probable that many 

 members tacitly embraced the same course ; and it certainly 

 was a clever piece of parliamentary tactics to make such 

 members vote the continuation of a monopoly obnoxious 

 to their views, by asking them to empower Government to 

 overthrow its own handiwork and system. But such an 

 overthrow was no part of the King's intentions. The 

 Minister's speech in defence of the Bill has unfortunately 

 been lost ; but it is more than probable that Mr. Kemper 

 fully expressed the Government's views upon the subject, 

 by stating that he did not look forward to any breach in 

 the monopoly, and would rather have abandoned the reserva- 

 tion clause. This was straightforward speaking ; and the 

 law having been voted by a majority of fifty-one to sixteen, 

 coast fishermen had not many illusions left. Of the several 



