NETHERLANDS, THE. 



NEVADA. 



537 



formed the foreign governments that he had 

 appealed to the King of the Netherlands, 

 claiming indemnity for the expenses which it 

 was obliged to incur to reestablish peace, dis- 

 turbed in the republic by the last rebellion, 

 promoted, organized, and sustained by Dutch 

 subjects living on the island of Curacoa, and 

 asking the King, moreover, to direct measures 

 to prevent the tranquillity of Venezuela from 

 being at the mercy of some few speculators of 

 Curacoa. The President, at the same time, 

 solicited the good offices of friendly govern- 

 ments in this affair, and to that end submitted 

 a memorandum or recapitulation of the facts 

 and reasons on which the Venezuela claim 

 was founded. The Dutch Government em- 

 phatically denied the charges made by Vene- 

 zuela. It stated that the first news of the 

 Venezuela rebellion at Coro reached the au- 

 thorities at Curacoa October 26, 1874, and 

 that on the next day the Governor prohibited 

 the export of all munitions of war. It was 

 also urged that the proofs of facts brought for- 

 ward consisted chiefly of declarations, nQt 

 sworn to, of persons mostly Venezuelans, 

 made before the authorities of Venezuela, 

 without the presence of any Netherlands au- 

 thority. The Government of the Netherlands 

 refused to enter into negotiations until Ven- 

 ezuela restored the Dutch ship Midas, which 

 she had seized, and agreed to reopen her ports 

 to Dutch commerce. Venezuela eventually 

 agreed to restore the Midas, but desired the 

 withdrawal by Holland of the second condi- 

 tion. Holland not having acceded to these 

 terms within three days, diplomatic relations 

 between the two countries were ruptured. On 

 October 2d the Venezuela minister plenipoten- 

 tiary left the Hague for Brussels, and the 

 Dutch representative at Caracas was also re- 

 called. 



The third centennial celebration of the Uni- 

 versity of Ley den took place on February 7th. 

 It was attended by the King and Queen, the 

 Princes Frederick and Alexander, the Prince 

 and Princess of Wied, and a large number of 

 deputations from learned and art corporations, 

 at home and abroad. The address was deliv- 

 ered by Prof. Hyensius. After the celebration 

 the King gave a reception in the large hall of 

 the university. . On this occasion the uni- 

 versity promoted a large number of persons to 

 honorary degrees, among whom were Prof. 

 Jewett, of Oxford, Doctor of Theology ; Prof. 

 Coyley of Cambridge, Huggins of London, 

 Prescott and Joule of Manchester, Newcomb 

 of Washington, and Odling of Oxford, Doctors 

 of Mathematics ; Prof. Darwin, of London, and 

 Spencer Wells, of London, Doctors of Philoso- 

 phy- 



In August the International Law Conference 

 was held at the Hague. It resolved to adopt, 

 with a few modifications, the principles laid 

 down at Geneva, Brussels, and Washington, 

 and declared itself in favor of the principle that 

 freighted merchant-ships, which do not take 



any part in a war, shall only be captured if 

 they have contraband goods on board or if 

 they attempt to run the blockade. An Inter- 

 national Committee was nominated by the 

 Conference to frame an International Code or 

 Projet de Loi, to be laid before the Conference 

 next year. The members of this committee 

 are : For Austria, Dr. Jaques ; Belgium, M. 

 Guillery ; Denmark, Prof. Klein ; England, Sir 

 Travers Twiss; France, M. Masse; Italy, Si- 

 gnor Vidari; Russia, Prof. Breverer; Spain, 

 Seiior Costieri ; Switzerland, Prof. Koenig. 

 The committee has power to add to its num- 

 bers, and the United States, Sweden, and Por- 

 tugal, will be at once represented. Each rep- 

 resentative has to form a sub-committee for 

 the respective countries. In May, 1876, the 

 members of the committee are to meet at 

 Brussels, to settle the draught of a Projet de 

 Loi, which will be translated into French and 

 German, and copies sent to the chambers of 

 commerce, to jurists, and men of note, in the 

 different countries of Europe and America. 



On October 5th the twenty -fifth anniversary 

 of the rule of Prince Henry, the Governor of 

 Luxemburg, was celebrated. The Emperor of 

 Germany, the King of Belgium, the Grand- 

 duke of Saxe- Weimar, and President MacMa- 

 hon, were represented at the celebration by 

 special deputies.. Besides these!; a large num- 

 ber of other prominent persons were present. 



An immense undertaking, which would give 

 to Holland a new province, has been for sev- 

 eral years under consideration. It is intended 

 to drain the Zuyder Zee, an area of about 650 

 square miles. The Dutch are certainly the 

 people best qualified to undertake this work. 

 Since the earliest times they have always been 

 at war with the ocean. The Zuyder Zee was, 

 at the time of the Romans, dry land, and was 

 covered by the ocean in 1282. It is very shal- 

 low. Alongside of channels of a depth of fif- 

 teen to twenty feet there are sand-banks of 

 considerable extent, on which the water is not 

 more than three or four feet deep. The drain- 

 ing of the Harlem Sea, from 1840 to 1853, 

 gained for the Dutch about seventy square 

 miles, on which there are now living over 

 7,000 persons. As early as 1849 the engineer, 

 Van Diggelen, had prepared a plan of drainage, 

 which, however, was rejected as impracticable. 

 In 1865 M. Bochrussen, the former Governor- 

 General of India, caused M. Beyerinck, who 

 had conducted the drainage of the Harlem 

 Sea, to prepare a plan by which to drain the 

 southern part of the Zuyder Zee. The result 

 was very satisfactory. The matter was next 

 taken in hand by M. Hemskeerk, Minister of 

 the Interior, who appointed a committee of 

 eleven to examine into the feasibility of the 

 plan; and in April, 1873, the committee, by a 

 large majority, declared it possible and desira- 

 ble. A sum was then granted by the Cham- 

 bers to complete the preliminary work. 



NEVADA. The results of the State census, 

 taken in 1875, were as follows : 



