240 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



The public-school question, as it exists in the 

 Netherlands at present, is reported in the fol- 

 lowing letter of Minister Gorham to Secretary 



Fish: 



LEGATION or THE UNITED STATES, | 

 THE HAGUE, June 12, 1875. ) 



SIB: The Constitution of the Netherlands pro- 

 vides that the Second Chamber of the States-General 

 shall he partially renewed every alternate year hy 

 the election of one-half of its members. This body, 

 since the election of two years ago, has been equally 

 divided between the Liberals on one side, and Con- 

 servatives, orthodox Protestants, and Catholics, _ on 

 the other; the religious sections, though differing 

 essentially on religious dogmas generally, practical- 

 ly unite in an effort to change the Government's sys- 

 tem of primary instruction. 



Under a law of 1857, children of whatever creed, 

 or of none at all, are admitted to equal advantages in 

 the public schools, with a view to a secular educa- 

 tion, but nothing more. The schools are maintained 

 at the expense of the municipalities, except in a few 

 localities where the General Government aids pecu- 

 niarily to a limited extent. School-teaching is a 

 career entitling a superannuated teacher to a mod- 

 erate pension. 



The system appears to have given satisfaction ior 

 a while, and it is difficult to understand why com- 

 plaint should be made of it now. Each annual re- 

 port bears proof of its efficiency in showing a de- 

 creasing per cent, of untaught children, and of un- 

 lettered persons below a certain age. Still, here, as 

 in most countries in Europe and to a small extent 

 in our own an idea is cherished that in some mys- 

 terious but positive sense the state and Church are 

 divinely wedded, and that fearful calamities will 

 sooner or later be visited upon all governments 

 sanctioning their divorce. The times are not pro- 



?itious for securing directly more intimate relations 

 etween them, bat the principle is involved in the 

 school-question now at issue in so many quarters, 

 and hence the effort being made by the religionists 

 referred to here called clericals to increase their 

 political power in the hope of controlling the edu- 

 cational interests of the country in a manner to serve 

 equally well their sectarian aims. 



The orthodox Protestants say, " Our children 

 must be accustomed to the daily reading of the 

 Bible." " Ours must be educated in the faith of the 

 Catholic Church," say the Romanists ; " and since 

 they cannot be under the present arrangement, re- 

 fund the money we now pay for educational pur- 

 poses that we may support schools consistent with 

 our creed," say both, thus practically uniting to en- 

 feeble, if not destroy, the common-school system of 

 the country. 



It is a noticeable circumstance that the fiercest at- 

 tacks are from orthodox Protestants. Though less 

 numerous than the Catholics, who dominate in at 

 least three of the eleven provinces, they supply in 

 zeal what they lack in numbers. They are ably rep- 

 resented at this time by Dr. Knyper, formerly a 

 clergyman at Amsterdam, now a member of *the 

 Second Chamber. Some months ago he published 

 in a leading journal of his party a detailed plan, 

 under the title of " Restitution," for paying back to 

 the "clericals" taxes collected for school-purposes. 

 A little later, venturing to interrogate the minister 

 in order to determine the prospect of his scheme, he 

 was distinctly informed that "restitution" would 

 receive no encouragement from the Government. 



It is creditable to the several cabinets through 

 which the Government has been administered during 

 the past few years, embracing ordinarily members 

 of different creeds, that no encouragement has been 

 given to sectarian schemes or disposition evinced to 

 direct legislation in a narrow or illiberal sense. 



There is, however, an impression on the part of 

 many that a settled purpose pervades the Catholic 



DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 



portion, now comprising two-fifths of the popula- 

 tion of the Netherlands, to secure political control 

 at whatever expense. Recent events have more 

 than ever brought the papacy into consideration as 

 a political power capable of interfering with the 

 lives of nations as a force which may become a 

 powerful ally to one, a relentless foe to another. 

 People are saying that the Ultramontanes have a 

 hand in every intrigue ; that there is settled mis- 

 chief in the counsels of the Vatican, and that the 

 next war will be so far a religious war that the priest- 

 hood, and all who obey them, will be found, actually 

 or in sympathy, on the same side. 



True or false, these impressions are dividing the 

 people into clerical and anti-clerical parties, oblit- 

 erating other distinctions and forcing men desiring 

 official positions to choose between the two. The 

 election held on the 8th instant was sharply con- 

 tested on this basis, though nominally under old 

 party banners. 



Neither side will' have gained or lost, however, if 

 the three or four ballotings to be repeated on the 

 22d result according to general expectation. The 

 liberals claim a moral victory in gaining two mem- 

 bers at Amsterdam against two lost in places of less 

 importance. Dr. Knyper was reflected at Gonda by 

 the united efforts of the clericals. The ministry is 

 likely to be, as in the last Parliament, without a 

 majority for or against it. How long it will be able 

 to endure the anomalous situation is a question for 

 the future. 



I am, etc., CHARLES T. GORHAM. 



Little prospect for emancipation in Cuba ex- 

 isted at the close of 1874, in the opinion of 

 Mr. Caleb Cushing, minister at the court of 

 Madrid, in Spain, who writes : 



It has been my aim to confer fully with the most 

 undoubted and characterized persons of emancipa- 

 tion opinions to be found in Madrid. This 1 have 

 done. 



These persons assure me that at the present mo- 

 ment all attempts at action, or even agitation, would 

 not only be vain, but prejudicial even. The Gov- 

 ernment, they say, is powerless in this respect, in 

 view of what may be considered the double rebellion 

 in Cuba, that of the Creoles in the eastern depart- 

 ment, and that of the Peninsulars in the western ; 

 and they say, further, that it would require a larger 

 army from 'Spain to enfdrce the submission of the 

 latter than of the former. 



In this view it is that the Emancipation Society 

 itself is at the present time quiescent and silent, 

 awaiting the arrival of some change in political cir- 

 cumstances which may enable it to resume its public 

 labors and manifestations. 



In these circumstances it is difficult to see how 

 anything in this relation can he usefully done by the 

 minister of the United States. 



The correspondence with Mr. Cushing is 

 brought down only to September 15, 1875, in 

 the documents laid before Congress with the 

 President's message. 



DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. The General 

 Christian Missionary Convention of the Dis- 

 ciples of Christ met in Louisville, Ky., October 

 19th. Elder Isaac Everett presided. The 

 Board of Managers reported that the aggre- 

 gate of moneys raised for missionary purposes 

 since the last convention was $61,900.86 ; that 

 the whole number of additions to the churches 

 by missionary effort was 3,420 ; and that the 

 number of new churches established was 40. 

 The whole amount of money raised for mis- 

 sions since the organization of the convention 



