NETHERLANDS (STATISTICS.) 



183 



the state of the Netherlands maintained its dignity. 

 When the dey of Algiers, disregarding the treaty of 

 1816, renewed, in 1824, under menace of war, the 

 old demands for presents, the commander of the Dutch 

 fleet in the Mediterranean, admiral Wolterbeck, re- 

 plied, that the Netherlandish government had no 

 intention of yielding to the claims of the dey; the 

 admiral, at the same time, demanded, within twenty- 

 four hours, an explicit declaration, whether he should 

 consider himself at war with Algiers. The dey, here- 

 upon (in October), desisted wholly from his demands, 

 and signed anew the peace of 1816. With respect to 

 the internal affairs of Italy, Spain, and Greece, the 

 Netherlands have observed the strictest neutrality, 

 so that, e. g. in 1823, the Dutch minister did not 

 leave the king of Spain until his arrival in Seville. 

 The same is the case with the Porte. The ambassa- 

 dors of Russia, England, and France, when they left 

 Constantinople, in December, ] 827, placed the sub- 

 jects of their powers under the protection of the 

 Dutch ambassador. Natives of France, Spain, and 

 Italy, obliged to leave their country on account of 

 having shared in its internal disturbances, found an 

 asylum in the Netherlands. For the history of the 

 Netherlands subsequent to the Belgian revolution see 

 the articles, Antwerp, Belgium and Holland. 



Geography and Statistics of the Netherlands. The 

 kingdom of the Netherlands consisted, before the late 

 revolution, of the seventeen provinces united under 

 Charles V., but not altogether with the same boun- 

 daries. The county of Ziitphen is united with 

 Guelders, the lordship of Mechlin with the margra- 

 vate of Antwerp ; and, by the peace of the Pyrenees, 

 in 1659, the county of Artois was ceded to France. 

 On the other hand, Brabant and Flanders, on account 

 of their extent, have been divided into North and 

 South Brabant, and East and West Flanders. The 

 district of Drenthe, formerly pertaining to Groningen, 

 has become a distinct province. In its internal ad- 

 ministration, the province of Holland is divided into 

 two parts, South and North ; but, in relation to the 

 general government, it forms only one province. In 

 Belgium, the French departmental boundaries have 

 been made the foundation of the provincial divisions. 

 The provinces of the late kingdom of the Netherlands 

 are the following: I. North Brabant (formerly Bra- 

 bant); 2. South Brabant (formerly department of the 

 Dyle); 3. Limburg (department of the Lower Meuse, 

 with a part of the department of the Roer) ; 4. Guel- 

 derland ; 5. Liege (department of the Ourthe) ; 6. 

 East Flanders (department of the Scheldt); 7. West 

 Flanders (department of the Lys); 8. Hainault (de- 

 partment of Jemappes); 9. Holland; 10. Zeeland ; 

 11. Namur (department of the Sambre and Meuse, 

 with the exception of Luxemburg) ; 12. Antwerp 

 (department of the two Netties); 13. Utrecht; 14. 

 Fnesland; 15. Overyssel; 16 Groningen; 17. Drenthe. 

 According to official accounts of the year 1820, the 

 kingdom (including Luxemburg) contained 25,375 

 square miles, with a population, in 1827, of 6,059,566 

 inhabitants, or 239 to the square mile. The king- 

 dom (including Luxemburg) was bounded on the 

 south and south-west by France, on the east by Ger- 

 many (the Prussian-Rhenish provinces and ttie king- 

 dom of Hanover), and on the west and north by the 

 North sea. It extended from 49 30' to 53 45' N. 

 lat., and from 2 30' to 7 20' E. Ion. Among the 

 inhabitants were upwards of 1, 690 ,000 Dutch, 145,000 

 Frieslanders. 300.OOO Germans, 3,360,500 Walloons, 

 or Belgians, and 80,000 Jews. Among the Christians, 

 about 3,414,300 were Catholics, 1,650,000 Dutch 

 Refori/ied, 320,000 Lutherans, 115,000 Mennonites, 

 38,000 Remonstrants, and other denominations. The 

 fac of the country is, for the most part, very low in 

 the north-west, where the Rhine, the Meuse, and the 



Scheldt empty into the sea. The Rhine, entering 

 the Low Countries formerly at Schenkenschans, at 

 present by the canal of Pannerden, separates into two 

 branches, the southern, the Waal (known as early 

 as Caesar's times under the name of Fa halts), and 

 the Northern (which retains the name of the Rhine). 

 From the latter, a canal, constructed by the Roman 

 general Drusus, leads to the old Yssel, which pro- 

 ceeds from Munster, and, forming a junction with 

 this river, under the general name of the Yssel, 

 enters the Zuyder-Zee, between Ziilphen, Overyssel, 

 and the Veluwe. The Rhine, flowing westward, the 

 other side of Arnheim, assumes, at Wyk te Duur- 

 stede, the name of Leek. A small stream, which is 

 connected with the Leek by means of a sluice, there 

 receives the name of the Crooked Rhine, and, between 

 Utrecht and Leyden, the name of the Rhine. This 

 was formerly the principal mouth, emptying into the 

 sea at Catwyk; but, after the fearful inundation in 

 860, which probably threw up the greater part of the 

 downs, had filled this arm with sand, the Leek re- 

 ceived the great volume of water, and the Old Rhine, 

 as it was called, became an inland canal, without any 

 considerable current. To drain the circle of Rhyn- 

 land of its superfluous waters, it was contemplated, 

 more than two centuries ago, to restore the old mouth 

 of the Rhine at Catwyk ; but this difficult under- 

 taking was first commenced in 1804, and successfully 

 finished in three years. North of the Old Rhine, an 

 arm of this river flows into the Zuyder-Zee, under the 

 name of the I'echt. After its junction with an arm 

 of the Waal, the Meuse has the name of the Merwe, 

 which receives the other arm of the Waal and the 

 Leek, and, after branching out into many outlets, 

 and taking various names, flows into the North sea at 

 Briel, where it has a considerable breadth. After 

 having, for almost two centuries, been closed to 

 navigation, by treaty, the Scheldt, at Antwerp, has 

 borne again, since 1795, on its broad, navigable 

 waters the. largest vessels of all nations. At Sand- 

 vliet, where its breadth is 6000 yards, it divides into 

 two arms (the East and \V r est Scheldt), which surround 

 Zeeland, and become almost imperceptibly confounded 

 with the North sea. The Ems and Moselle also touch 

 a small part of the country, which is, moreover, in- 

 tersected by numerous secondary rivers, mostly navi- 

 gated by boats drawn by horses (trekschuyts), and 

 into which the contiguous Polder (low tracts of coun- 

 try diked in, and rendered inhabitable by draining) 

 empty their superfluous water by means of hydraulic 

 machinery. In Belgium, the canal from Mons to 

 Conde was opened Nov. 27, 1814. It connects Mons 

 with the Scheldt, and is of importance for the export 

 trade of the Netherlands. The North canal is to 

 unite the Scheldt with the Rhine, and extend from 

 Antwerp, through Venloo and Neuss. The part 

 which is finished connects the Meuse and Scheldt. 

 In 1825, the arm of the sea called the Axel Gat 

 was closed by a dam. In 1828, a navigable canal 

 was in progress from the Meuse at Liege to the 

 Moselle at Wasserbillig, which it was intended to 

 complete in six years. By the influx of rivers, 

 especially of the Rhine and Meuse, Guelderlaml and 

 Holland are exposed to almost annual inundations, 

 which, breaking through or flowing over the dams of 

 the rivers, or dikes, cover whole tracts of country 

 with water and sand, and not nnfrequently render 

 them unfruitful for a number of years. Still more 

 dangerous to the seaboard provinces Holland, Zee- 

 land, FriesUuul, and Groningen is the North sea, 

 which is higher than the level of the land. This 

 danger is in part diminished by a series of downs 

 (Dttneri], 90 to 200 feet high, extending from Dun- 

 kirk, in French Flanders, to the Texel. The rest of 

 the sea coast it is necessary to protect by means of 



