NETHERLANDS (LITERATURE.) 



187 



related to peace and war, was communicated to the 

 states-general. He had the supreme management 

 of the public finances, and had the right of causing 

 coins to be struck with his image. He could grant 

 patents of nobility, and found orders of knighthood. 

 Without his permission, no subject could receive any 

 order, title, or dignity from any foreign prince. In 

 him was vested the pardoning power. In his name 

 alone was justice administered. Every arrest made 

 by the police was immediately reported to the local 

 judge, and the arrested person brought before him 

 within three days. All civil sentences contained 

 the grounds of decision. Each province had a court 

 of justice, a criminal and civil court. To each indi- 

 vidual was secured full freedom of religious opinion, 

 and all religious denominations enjoyed equal protec- 

 tion, equal civil and political privileges, and equal 

 claims to all dignities, offices, and employments. All 

 kinds of divine worship were allowed which did not 

 interfere with the public order and security. To the 

 teachers of all religious denominations, their former 

 provision was secured, and to those who had no suffi- 

 cient income, it was allowed or increased from 

 the public treasury. The king took care that no 

 subject should be interrupted in the free exercise of 

 divine worship, secured to him by the constitution, 

 but, at the same time, that all denominations should 

 keep within the limits of obedience to the laws of the 

 state. No taxes could be imposed for the benefit of 

 the treasury, except by law, and, in assessing them, 

 no privileges were allowed. Foreign troops could be 

 taken into service only after consultation between 

 the king <md the states-general. Of the national 

 militia, the fifth part was disbanded in time of peace. 

 It could in no case be sent to the colonies, and not 

 beyond the boundaries of the kingdom, without the 

 consent of the states-general, and even then only in 

 case of emergency, or when, in changes of garrisons, 

 the shortest route passed over a foreign territory. 

 All expenditures for the troops of the kingdom were 

 paid from the public treasury. The quurtering and 

 maintaining the soldiers, the transports and supplies, 

 of whatever kind they might be, for the armies and 

 fortresses, could not be imposed on one or more inhabi- 

 tants or communities. If this was done, in unforeseen 

 cases, the government made it a rule to indemnify 

 them. The produce of the toll on roads, bridges, and 

 locks was exclusively appropriated to the repairing and 

 improvement of roads, bridges, canals, and navigable 

 rivers. Every one was free to make known his senti- 

 ments and opinions by means of the press, as a suit- 

 able organ for the diffusion of knowledge and the 

 promotion of intelligence ; but every one was always 

 responsible to society or individuals, as far as their 

 right might have been violated, for whatever he wrote, 

 printed, published, or disseminated. Respecting alter- 

 ations of, and additions to, the constitution, the second 

 chamber could never deliberate except when two thirds 

 of the members were present, and could adopt resolu- 

 tions on these subjects only by a majority of three 

 fourths of those present. During a regency, no altera- 

 tions could be made in the constitution or order of 

 succession. All the alterations or additions which 

 were resolved upon by the king and states-general, in 

 regard to the constitution, were solemnly proclaimed, 

 and annexed to the instrument. The title of the 

 monarch ran, king of the Netherlands, prince of 

 Orange- Nassau, grand duke of Luxemburg. 



Administration. In the king was vested the whole 

 executive power, and on him depended the manage- 

 ment of all state matters. He was assisted by a 

 ministry of state, consisting of the first president of 

 the first court of justice, or of the supreme council 

 of the Netherlands, as minister of justice, of the vice- 

 president of die council of state (the king, by the 



constitution, being regarded as the president of it), 

 of the heads of the various departments of war, of 

 state, of trade, and of colonial affairs, &c. These 

 officers formed, together, the privy cabinet of the 

 monarch. The second highest authority, to whose 

 discussion all laws and regulations were submitted, was 

 the council of state, whose qualifications were defined 

 in the constitution. A separate commission of three or 

 four of its Catholic members superintended the worship 

 and privileges of the Belgic church. In the late 

 Belgic provinces, nearly the whole population con- 

 sists of Catholics. In the Dutch provinces, the Cal- 

 vinists constitute four sevenths, the Catholics two 

 sevenths of the population : the remainder consists 

 of Lutherans, Remonstrants, Jansenists, Anabaptists, 

 Greeks, Armenians, Portuguese and (so called) High 

 German Jews, which last enjoy, in the Netherlands, 

 the rights of citizens. The ecclesiastical affairs of the 

 Calvinists are regulated by councils, whose represen- 

 tatives form classes (so called), of which a certain 

 number constitutes the synod of each province. The 

 French, Walloon, English and Scotch have their dis- 

 tinct regulations. (Respecting the institutions of 

 instruction, see the subsequent divisions of this arti- 

 cle, Language, and Literature, and Schools.) The 

 code Napoleon has subsisted in the Netherlands, but 

 a commission has been occupied in elaborating a 

 penal code, to be followed by a civil. The question, 

 whether there shall be juries in criminal trials, and 

 whether the proceedings shall be public, divided the 

 Belgians and Dutch ; the former maintaining the 

 affirmative, the latter the negative. For a knowledge 

 of the history and statistics of this country, the reader 

 may consult Van der Wynckt's Histoire des Troubles 

 des Pays Bas (2d ed.), the best work on the period 

 of the French revolution ; it has been used by J. J. 

 de Smet, in his Histoire de la Belgique (2d ed., Ghent, 

 1822). See, also, professor Frederic, baron of Reif- 

 fenberg's Resume de f Histoire des Pays-Bus (Brus- 

 els, 1827. 2 vols.) : the history of the Revolt of the 

 Netherlands, by Schiller (which has been translated 

 into French by the margrave de Chateaugiron (Paris, 

 1827, 2 vols.); J. J. de Cloet's Geographic historique, 

 physique et statistique du Roy. des Pays Bas et de ses 

 Colonies (Brussels, 1822, 2 vols ) ; the Itineraire du 

 Roy. des Pays Bas (Amsterdam, 1827,2 vols.^; and 

 the Commercial code of the Kingdom of the Nether- 

 lands. 



Language, Literature, and Poetry of the Nether 

 lands. The language spoken in the northern part of 

 the late kingdom of the Netherlands, and generally 

 called Dutch, is derived from the Old Saxon, from 

 which have also sprung the Anglo-Saxon (of which 

 again the English language is a descendant), the Low 

 German (Niedersachsisch, or Plattdeutsch), and the 

 Flemish. The Flemish language, in its chief features 

 and radical words, coincides with the Dutch, though 

 it borrows many words from the French. It differs, 

 however, from the Dutch, by a more nasal pronun- 

 ciation, while that of the Dutch is more guttural. 

 There is, however, in the Netherlands, a dialect to- 

 tally different from the Dutch ; that is, the Wal- 

 loon, a corruption of the French. In all Flanders, 

 Northern Brabant, and a part of Southern Brabant, 

 the Flemish is the common language. The line of 

 division is in Brussels, where the people of the lower 

 city speak Flemish, in the upper city, Walloon. To 

 the south of Brussels, in the (so called) Walloon 

 Brabant, in Hainault, Namur, Liege, and part of 

 Limburg, the Walloon continues to be the popular 

 language. It is worthy of remark, that, even in that 

 part of Flanders which has been under the French 

 sceptre for a long series of years, the Flemish, neverthe- 

 less, is the popular language as far as Dunkirk, while, 

 to this moment, Walloon is spoken in Hainault, Bra- 



