GENERAL HISTORY. 



[31 



persons as they may deem un- 

 qualified. When, from the sum- 

 ming up of the registers, it shall 

 appear that the majority are sa- 

 tisfied with the persons thus sub- 

 mitted to their election, they shall 

 be regarded as the representatives 

 of the whole Dutch people. 



On the day appointed for the 

 meeting of these notables or lead- 

 ing men, the members repaired to 

 the New Church at Amsterdam, 

 where his Royal Highness the 

 Prince of Orange, accompanied by 

 his two sons, arriving at half past 

 eleven, opened the business with 

 a speech. After a congratulatory 

 introduction, relative to the happy 

 change which had restored him to 

 his country, he reminded the as- 

 sembly that he had said, upon the 

 declaration of the majority of the 

 nation, that they deposited the 

 rights of sovereignty in his hands, 

 that he assumed them upon one 

 condition, which was that of a 

 constitutional code, analogous to 

 the wants of Holland, and the 

 present state of Europe, and which 

 should amply provide for freedom 

 of person, security of property, 

 and all the civil rights which dis- 

 tinguish a people really free. A 

 committee of men whose pa- 

 triotism and intelligence were 

 above suspicion, had drawn up the 

 plan of that constitution, the bases 

 of which would be communicated 

 to them ; and as he did not wish 

 this to be a mere idle ceremony, 

 he recommended the subject to 

 their most serious consideration. 

 Mr. Van Maanen, first president 

 of the high court of justice of 

 the United Netherlands, then ad- 

 dressed the assembly, and explained 

 succinctly the principles of the 

 constitution. His Royal High- 



ness next delivered the plan of 

 the constitution to the president, 

 and returned to his palace amidst 

 the acclamations of the people ; 

 and about two in the afternoon, a 

 general discharge of artillery an- 

 nounced the acceptance of the 

 constitution. The majority in its 

 favour is said to have been 458 to 

 25. On the following day his 

 Royal Highness took the oath to 

 the constitution, and on that oc- 

 casion again addressed the assem- 

 bly. He observed, that exactly 

 four months had elapsed since his 

 return to the Netherlands, during 

 which period the progress made 

 in the restoration of the state, 

 had much surpassed all that could 

 have been expected. Foreign 

 powers had not only by words, 

 but by deeds, manifested their sa- 

 tisfaction at the recovery of inde- 

 pendence by the Netherlands, and 

 the conferring of the sovereignty 

 upon his house. The most ica- 

 portant of their foreign relations, 

 that with the generous British 

 nation, would soon acquire a new 

 degree of intimacy by the mar- 

 riage of his eldest son. The de- 

 votion of the country to the good 

 cause had enabled him, notwith- 

 standing the exhaustion of its 

 finances, to raise more than 25,000 

 troops, for the most part well 

 armed and equipped ; whilst its 

 unanimity had been displayed by 

 the prompt organization of the 

 militia, the levy in mass, the 

 national guards, and now by the 

 acceptance of the constitution. 

 He concluded with promising to 

 apply himself to the immediate 

 enforcement of that constitution, 

 and carrying into effect all the re- 

 quisite arrangements. 



On April 6th, the Prince Sore- 



