NETHERLANDS. 



587 



Holland has preserved her free-trade system in 

 spite of the strong current of protectionism that 

 has affected nearly all the countries of Europe. 

 No duties are levied on raw materials, and on 

 manufactured articles a duty is imposed for 

 revenue only of 5 per cent, of the import value. 

 To prevent undervaluation frauds the customs 

 authorities were given power to acquire goods 

 and sell them on account of the Government 

 by paying the importers 10 per cent, more than 

 the declared cost price. Consignors in foreign 

 countries rendered this safeguard useless by in- 

 voicing whole car-loads of mixed wares, which 

 the officials would not venture to condemn for 

 fear of involving the treasury in a loss from un- 

 salable articles. For this reason another sys- 

 tem was adopted in 1890. A commission of 15 

 members, 7 of them appointed by the Minister 

 of the Interior, and the rest by the guilds of 

 merchants and manufacturers, determines the , 

 market value of the various categories of imports 

 for the coming three months. The classification 

 of duties according to quality must be made by 

 the custom-house officials, and in case their as- 

 sessment is contested the matter is referred to a 

 committee of three experts. 



Navigation. In 1889 the number of sailing 

 vessels entered at Dutch ports was 1,904, of the 

 aggregate burden of 1.448,103 metric tons, of 

 which 1,657. of 1,397,605 tons, carried cargoes. 

 Of the total number, 824, of 508.950 tons were 

 Dutch. The total number cleared was 1,816, of 

 1,422,283 tons, 1,051, of 526,521 tons, carrying 

 cargoes. The number of steam vessels entered 

 was 7,281, of 13,329,803 tons, of which 6,863, of 

 12,879,710 tons, brought cargoes, and 1,921, of 

 3,051,661 tons, sailed under the Dutch flag. The 

 total number of steamers cleared was 7,096, of 

 13,136,574 tons, of which 4,791, of 7,830,133 tons, 

 were with cargoes. 



The mercantile navy on Jan. 1, 1890, consisted 

 of 500 sailing vessels, of the aggregate capacity 

 of 388,003 cubic metres, and 110 steamers, hav- 

 ing a tonnage capacity of 311,170 cubic metres. 



Communications. The length of railroad 

 lines open to traffic on Jan. 1. 1890, was 2,728 

 kilometres. Of 2,602 kilometres completed up 

 to 1888 the state owned 1,324 kilometres, on 

 which 256,906.000 guilders had been expended. 

 There were 3,068,638 kilometres of canals, and 

 4,736 kilometres of navigable waters in 1889. 



The post-office in 1889 forwarded 50,710,978 

 domestic and 16,181,930 foreign letters, 28,728,- 

 203 postal cards, and 58,942,503 journals, taking 

 in 0,489,816 guilders and spending 4,753,273 

 guilders. 



The length of the state telegraph lines in 

 1889 was 5,153 kilometres, with 18,089 kilometres 

 of wires. The number of dispatches sent was 

 4,155,381, of which 2,114,899 were internal, 

 2,003,296 international, and 37,186 official. The 

 receipts were 1,291,264 guilders; the ordinary 

 expenditure, 1,497,350 guilders; extraordinary 

 expenditure, 68,468 guilders. 



Cabinet Changes. The colonial policy of 

 Minister Keuchenius, one of the leaders of the 

 Orthodox Protestants, was distinguished by a 

 humanitarian regard for the native races and a 

 desire to spread the Christian religion, but was 

 so unsuccessful as to subject him to severe criti- 

 cism. In the First Chamber, on Feb. 1, the co- 



lonial budget was rejected by a majority of a 

 single vote, and the Minister of the Colonies was 

 constrained to resign. So much difficulty was 

 found in filling the vacant place that at last 

 Baron Mackay, the Minister of the Interior and 

 Minister-President, took the portfolio, giving up 

 the Ministry of the Interior to Dr. de Savornin 

 Lohman, the leader in the Second Chamber of 

 the anti-Revolutionary or religious party, but 

 retaining the Premiership. It was necessary to 

 take another ultra-Protestant into the Cabinet 

 in the place of the one who retired, in order to 

 retain the support of that party. The dangerous 

 policy, avowed but not yet carried into effect by 

 the late Minister of the Colonies, of intervening 

 with the power of the Government to Christian- 

 ize the inhabitants of the Dutch East Indies was 

 disclaimed by his successor. 



The Regency. The return of King Willem's 

 malady in October, 1890, again deprived him of 

 his powers of mind, as in April of the previous 

 year, and the States-General were called together 

 to consider the question of establishing a re- 

 gency. All the members of both Houses were 

 present to receive Premier Mackay's statement 

 of the result of a medical examination of the 

 King's mental condition, and on Oct. 29, in a 

 plenary sitting, the King was declared incapable 

 of carrying on the Government by a vote of 109 

 to 5, and in accordance with the constitutional 

 law provided for this contingency the Council 

 of State was invested with the supreme power 

 pending the establishment of a regency, which 

 the Council of State was bound to propose within 

 a month. The choice of a Regent was clearly in- 

 dicated, Queen Emma, the natural protector of 

 her daughter, the heir-apparent, having been 

 selected for that office when the same emergency 

 occurred before. Under the law of Sept. 14, 

 1888, she had chosen in the previous October 

 Baron Goltsteirr, the Chamberlain, Baron Schim- 

 melpenninck von der Oye, Chevalier Roell, and 

 Baron von Brienen, to act with the Vice-Presi- 

 dent and senior member of the Council of State 

 and three judicial functionaries designated in 

 the law as her Council. On Nov. 20 Queen 

 Emma took the oath as Regent during the King's 

 incapacity. The death of her husband three 

 days later necessitated no new action of the 

 States-General, which had constituted her Regent 

 during the minority of the Queen. The Queen- 

 Regent issued a proclamation on Nov. 24 an- 

 nouncing the accession of Queen Willemine and 

 accepting the task to act as Regent during her 

 daughter's minority, and on Dec. 8 she took a 

 new oath on the Constitution to that effect. 

 Queen Emma, who was a princess of Waldeck 

 and Pyrmont, has made herself very popular 

 among the Dutch people, who have long regarded 

 her as no longer a German, but as a Queen who 

 in character and feeling has grown to be one of 

 themselves. By the act of settlement of 1886, 

 the Salic law, previously determining the suc- 

 cession in the house of Orange- Nassau, was re- 

 pealed, and the crown was devolved upon the 

 daughter of the King and Queen Emma and her 

 issue, if she reaches adult years and marries and 

 bears a child of either sex to succeed her. 



Luxemburg 1 . The succession to the throne 

 in the Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg, which was 

 connected by a merely personal union with Hoi- 



