﻿92« 



Is-ETHERLANDS. 



NEUBURG. 



030 



lire tolerated. The Calyiniat and Lutheran Churches have each their 

 own synod. The Protestant clergy have a support from the state : the 

 amount allotted to them in the budget of 1854 amounted to 1,677,906 

 florins. The Catholics, perhaps the largest united religious body in 

 the state, received in Uie same year for the support of their worship 

 573,329 florins. A bull of the Pope, dated March 4th 1853, established 

 a hierarchy in the kingdom of the Netherlands, consisting of an arch- 

 bishop (Utrecht), and four suffragans (Haerlem, Bois-le-Duc, Breda, 

 and Ruremonde). 



Education ia very generally diffused throughout the kingdom. 

 Besides th; parish schools, under the protection of the government, 

 private boarding-schools are numerous. For the higher branches there 

 are seminaries called royal schools, where the ancient and modem 

 languages, mathematics, rhetoric, and drawing are taught : of these 

 there is one in every large town. The universities are those of Leyden, 

 Utrecht, and Groningen, the first of which was formerly one of the 

 most illustrious in Europe. There are likewise schools for particular 

 branches of education, such as military and naval schools. 



Cotutituiion. — According to the constitution, which was promulgated 

 by a royal ordinance August 24, 1815, the crown is hereditary in the 

 male line, and in default of male descendants in the female line. The 

 executive power ia in the hands of the king, whose person is inviolable, 

 his ministers being responsible. The legislative power is in the king 

 and the states-general, consisting of two chambers : the members of 

 the first chamber are appointed by the king for life ; the second 

 chamber is elected by the provinciid assemblies, and one-third of the 

 members go out annually by rotation, but they may bo re-elected. 

 All new laws are proposed by the king to the second chamber. The 

 sittings of the second chamber are open to the public ; those of the 

 first are not. Elach province has its own provincial assembly, 

 which has various important local duties, such as the superintend- 

 ence of religious worship and charitable institutions, the care of 

 tlie roads and bridges, and the election of the deputies to the second 

 chamber. 



Pinancet. — In the budget of 1854 the revenue is estimated at 

 71,833,752 florins; the expenditure at 70,703,711 florins. The total 

 amount of the public debt in 1854 was 1,200,988,330 florins, the 

 interest payable on which within the year was 35,123,122 florins. The 

 receipts from the East India possessions, including the proceeds of the 

 sale of colonial produce, was estimated at 69,942,791 florins in 1852; 

 the whole of this sum, it is stated, would be absorbed by the colonial 

 administration and expenses in the mother country. The revenue of 

 Dutch Guyana amounted to 1,006,150 florins, and the expenses to the 

 same sum. The revenue obtained from the West India Islands and 

 the coast of Guinea does not pay the expenditure required for the 

 maintenance of those colonies. 



Army and Navy. — The army in 1854 consisted of 8 regiments of the 

 line ; 1 regiment of grenadiers and chasseurs ; 4 regiments of dragoons, 

 and 1 of mounted chasseurs ; 1 regiment of field artillery, 3 of garrison 

 artillery, and 1 regiment of horse artillery ; with a corps of poutoneers 

 and a battalion of sappers and miners ; the whole force nimibering 

 57,959, including 1669 officers. 



The navy in July 1854 comprised 2 ships of eighty-four guns; 

 3 seventy-fours ; 5 fiirst-clflss frigates (one of them a screw), with fifty- 

 four to sixty guDS each ; 8 second-class frigates, of thirty-eight to forty- 

 four guns ; 12 corvettes (two propelled by screw) ; 20 sloops (one of 

 them a screw) ; 21 war steamers ; 2 frigates and 1 corvette for port 

 duty, carrying together one hundred guns ; 2 armed transports ; and 

 49 gun-boats : all manned by 6760 men (580 of whom are East Indians), 

 and carrying altogether 2174 guns. 



Co/onie<.^The colonial possessions of the Dutch in the East Indies 

 comprise the islands of Java and Madura, the west coast of Sumatra, 

 the west, south, and east coasts of Borneo ; Celebes, the Moluccas, 

 Banco, Billiton, Menado, Temate, Amboyna, Bonda, Timor, &c., with 

 an aggregate area of 612,000 square miles, and 12,006,700 iuhabitants. 



The West India colonies comprise Dutch Guyana, Curafao, Bon- 

 aire, Aruba, St Eustache, St. Martin, and Saba, with a total area of 

 69,880 square miles, and a population of 76,500. 



The Dutch possessions in Africa are estimated at 10,500 square 

 miles, with a population of about 100,000. 



Bitttry. — Julius Caisar, ia prosecuting his conquests in Northern 

 Gaul, advanced as far «■ the Rhine. The inhabitants of the north 

 bank of the Rhine were called Batavi, and considered as belonging to 

 Germany. They were engaged in many wars, either with the Romans 

 or as their allies. We afterwards find them partly as trading, partly 

 as seafaring people, and as pirates, who were ia the end subdued by 

 the Romans. In the 5th century the Batavians, and in the 6th cen- 

 tury the Belgte, were conquered by the Franks, but the Frieslanders 

 not till the 7th century. At the peace of Verdun, in 843, Batavia and 

 FrieaUnd were incorporated with the newly-created kingdom of Ger- 

 many, of which Ludwig (that is, Lewis), sumamed the German, was 

 the first king, and were under governors, who afterwards made 

 themselves independent. From the year 1000 to the end of the 11th 

 century the country was divided into duchies, counties, and imperial 

 cities. Utrecht became a bishopric, and extended its temporal power 

 over Groningen and Overyssel. Of all these princes the counts of 

 Flanders were the most powerful, and their country having become 

 subjeot in 1383 to the still more powerful house of Burgundy, the 



OCOa. SIT. TOL, III. 



latter made itself master of almost the whole of the Netherlands. 

 Charles the Bold, the last duke of Burgundy, fell in a battle with the 

 Swiss ; and his only daughter and heiress Maria marrying Maximilian, 

 son of Frederick III., duke of Austria and emperor of Germany, the 

 Netherlands came under the dominion of the house of Austria. 

 Maximilian's grandson, Charles V., by the Pragmatic Sanction in 

 1548, united all the seventeen provinces with Spain ; they however 

 retained the name of the Circle of Burgundy, and were attached to 

 the Gei-man empire. During the reign of Charles V. the Protestant 

 religion began to spread in these provinces, though gi'ievously 

 oppressed, for the number of persons in the seventeen provinces put 

 to death in his reign as heretics is estimated at several thousands. 

 His son and successor Philip II. introduced the inquisition, and carried 

 on religious persecution with a cruelty before unknown. The patience 

 of the people was exhausted, and they rose in open rebellion, which 

 the atrocities of the bloodthirsty Alba could not quell. Most of 

 the other provinces concluded with Holland and Zealand the Con- 

 vention of Ghent in 1576, and formed a still closer alliance in the 

 following year by the Union of Brussels. But the cousummate abilities 

 of the Prince of Parma succeeded in bringing all the southern pro- 

 vinces under the authority of Spain. In 1579 the five provinces of 

 Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Guelderland, and Friesland concluded the 

 celebrated Union of Utrecht, in which they declared themselves inde- 

 pendent of Spain. l"hey wero joined in 1580 by Overyssel. On the 

 26th of July 1581 they renounced their allegiance to Philip, and being 

 joined in 1594 by Groningen, formed the celebrated repuljlio of the 

 Seven United Provinces, which was afterwards generally called Holland, 

 from that province, which exceeded the others in extent, population, 

 wealth, and influence. Though Philip III. was obliged to conclude iu 

 1609 a thirteen years' truce, called the Peace of Antwerp, and the inde- 

 pendence of the provinces was recognised by all the European powers 

 except Spain, it was not fully secured till the peace of Miinster, at the 

 close of the thirty years' war, in 1648. Towards the end of the 17th 

 century they were engaged "in war with France and England, and at 

 the beginning of the 18th century in the war of the Spanish succession. 

 Holland was weakened by these efforts, while republican jealousy of 

 the attempts of the house of Orange to increase its authority sowed 

 the seeds of party rage and civil war. In 1747 the house of Orange 

 triumphed, and William IV. obtained the hereditary dignity of 

 stadtholder in all the seven provinces. In 1786 the republicans again 

 raised their heads, but the wife of the stadtholder William V., who 

 was sister to Frederick William II., king of Prussia, having been insulted 

 by some violent patriots, applied to her brother, who sent a Prussian 

 army of 25,000 men to avenge the indignity she had received, and 

 secure the rights of her husband. The patriots resisted in vain ; the 

 rights of the house of Orange were confirmed and enlarged, &pA a 

 close alliance concluded between the repubUc and Great Britain and 

 Prussia. In 1794 the republican or anti-Orange party, encouraged by 

 the approach of the victorious armies of France, again rose. Pichegru 

 easily conquered Holland, being favoured by the severe winter and by 

 the popular party ; and the stadtholder, with his family, was obliged 

 to fly to England. The provinces were now organised under the title 

 of the Batavian Republic. A necessary consequence of this change 

 was war with England, which led to the capture of their fleets, the 

 destruction of their trade, and the loss of their colonies, to all which 

 evils were added the exorbitant demands of their French allies, who 

 also changed several times the constitution of the republic. In 1806 

 it was foi'med by Napoleon into a kingdom, and given to his brother 

 Louis, who studied the welfare of his subjects, but lost the friend- 

 ship of his brother by his too great liberality, and unexpectedly 

 resigned the crown in favour of his eldest son, a minor, on the 1st of 

 July, 1810. Napoleon however refused to recognise his brother's 

 arrangement, and incorporated the kingdom with the French empire, 

 with which it remained united till November, 1813, when the people, 

 encouraged by the disasters of the B'rench, rose and expelled them 

 from the country, and recalled the Orange family. The Prince of 

 Orange governed the country by the title of ' Sovereign Prince ' till 

 1815, when the seven northern and the ten southern provinces, after a 

 separation of 200 years, were again imited by the name of the kingdom 

 of the Netherlands. This union continued for fifteen years. In 1830 

 the Belgians revolted from their allegiance, and became an independent 

 state. [Beloiuu.] 



NEU-BUANDENBURO. [Mecklenbubo Stkeutz.] 



NEUBOURG. [Eube.] 



NEUBURG, a well-built town in the Bavarian circle of Suabia, is 

 agreeably situated on an eminence on the right bank of the Danube, 

 33 miles N.N.E. from Augsburg, and opposite to an island which is 

 connected with both banks by bridges. Among the public buildings 

 are a large handsome palace, which contains the great hall, with a 

 collection of ancient armour ; a college, formerly belonging to the 

 Jesuits ; a rich library, a collection of antiquities, a gymnasium, 

 extensive barracks, the church of St. Peter, two other churches, an 

 hospital, and an orphan asylum. Neuburg is the seat of a court of , 

 appeal, and of the courts of justice of the circle and the town. The 

 inhabitants, who are about 7000 in number, have considerable brew- 

 eries and distilleries, a manufactory of earthenware, and a flourishing 

 trade. In the neighbourhood are the royal country-seats of Qrunau 

 and Petzelheim, the royal stud at Rothenfeld, and, near the viilngo of 



So 



