STATISTICS OF THE NETHERLANDS. 



495 



Provincial Estates, and are required to possess very high property qualifications. 

 The two chambers united form the Stafen Oeneraal. 



The King enjoys the usual privileges and immunities of a constitutional 

 sovereign, and receives a civil list of £79,100. He appoints his Secretaries of 

 State, as well as the members of his Privy Council, and nominates the judges, those 

 of the Supreme Court being selected by him from a list of five candidates presented 

 by the Second Chamber. There are courts of justice in each of the 106 cantons 



Fig. 284. — The Railway Viaduct, near Moerdyk. 



and thirty-five arrondissements, besides five superior courts, and a Supreme Court 

 of fifteen members. All judges, except those of inferior courts, are irremovable. 



The Eeformed Church was disestablished in 1870, although the vast majority 

 of the inhabitants belong to it. The Roman Catholics are in a majority in the 

 provinces of Limburg and Brabant, and generally carry the elections, for religious 

 differences largely enter into politics. Jews are numerous in the larger towns.* 



The Army is partly recruited by voluntary enlistment, partly by conscription. 



* In 1869 there were 2,074,734 memlDers of the Eeformed Church, 68,067 Lutherans, 1,313,053 Eoman 

 Catholics, 55,757 Old Catholics and other Christians, and 68,003 Jews. In 1829 the Catholics were 

 38-8 per cent, of the population; in 1869 only 36-5 per cent. 



