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diff --git a/38595-0.txt b/38595-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..81f3784 --- /dev/null +++ b/38595-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5349 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 38595 *** + +The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom + +1795-1813 + + +A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT + +OF THE MODERN KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS + +BY + +Hendrik Willem van Loon, + + +ILLUSTRATED + + +GARDEN CITY NEW YORK + +DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + +1915 + +[Illustration: WILLIAM I] + + + + +DEDICATION + + +This little book, telling the story of our national usurpation by a +foreign enemy during the beginning of the nineteenth century, appears at +a moment when our nearest neighbours are suffering the same fate which +befell us more than a hundred years ago. + +I dedicate my work to the five soldiers of the Belgian army who saved my +life near Waerloos. + +I hope that their grandchildren may read a story of national revival +which will be as complete and happy as that of our own land. + +Brussels, Belgium, + +Christmas night, 1914. + + + + +APOLOGIA + + +And for those other faults of barbarism, Doric dialect, extemporanean +style, tautologies, apish imitation, a rhapsody of rags gathered +together from several dung-hills, excrements of authors, toys and +fopperies confusedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgment, wit, +learning, harsh, raw, rude, fantastical, absurd, insolent, indiscreet, +ill-composed, indigested, vain, scurrile, idle, dull, and dry, I confess +all ('tis partly affected); thou canst not think worse of me than I do +of myself. + + * * * * * + +So that as a river runs, sometimes precipitate and swift, then dull and +slow; now direct, then _per ambages_; now deep, then shallow; now muddy, +then clear; now broad, then narrow; doth my style flow: now serious, +then light; now comical, then satirical; now more elaborate, then +remiss, as the present subject required or as at that time I was +affected. And if thou vouchsafe to read this treatise, it shall seem no +otherwise to thee than the way to an ordinary traveller, sometimes fair, +sometimes foul, here champaign, there enclosed; barren in one place, +better soil in another. + + --_Anatomy of Melancholy_.--Burton. + + + + +FOREWORD + + +This foreword is an afterthought. It was written when the first proofs +of the book had gone back to the printer. And this is how it took its +origin: + +A few days ago I received a copy of a Dutch historical magazine +containing a violent attack upon one of my former books. The reviewer, +who evidently neither had taken the time to read my book nor had taken +the trouble to understand what I was trying to say, accused me among +other things of a haughty contempt for my forefathers during their time +of decline. Haughty contempt, indeed! Nay, Brother of the Acrid Pen, was +it not the truth which hurt thee so unexpectedly rather than my scornful +irony? + +There are those who claim that reviews do not matter. There are those +who, when their work is talked about with supercilious ignorance, claim +that an author ought to forget what has been said about his work. Pious +wish! The writer who really cares for his work can no more forget an +undeserved insult to the product of his brain than he can forgive a +harsh word given unmerited to one of his children. The thing rankles. +And in my desire to see a pleasant face, to talk this hurt away, as soon +as I arrived this morning in New York I went to see a friend. He has an +office downtown. It overlooks the harbour. From its window one beholds +the Old World entering the new one by way of the Ellis Island ferryboat. + +It was early and I had to wait. Over the water there hung a low, thin +mist. Sea-gulls, very white against the gray sky, were circling about. +And then suddenly, in the distance, there appeared a dark form coming +sliding slowly through the fog. And through a window, opened to get over +the suffocating effect of the steam-heat, there sounded the vibrating +tones of a hoarse steam-whistle--a sound which brought back to me my +earliest years spent among ships and craft of all sorts, and queer +noises of water and wind and steam. And then, after a minute, I +recognized by its green and white funnel that it was one of our own +ships which was coming up the harbour. + +And at that instant everything upon which I had been brooding became so +clear to me that I took to the nearest typewriter, and there, in front +of that same open window, I sit and write what I have understood but a +moment ago. + +Once, we have been a very great people. We have had a slow decline and +we have had a fall which we caused by our own mistakes and during which +we showed the worst sides of our character. But now all this has +changed. And at the present moment we have a better claim to a place on +the honour-list of nations than the mere fact that once upon a time, +some three centuries ago, our ancestors did valiant deeds. + +For, more important, because more difficult of accomplishment, there +stands this one supreme fact: we have come back. + +What I shall have to tell you in the following pages, if you are +inclined to regard it as such, will read like a mockery of one's own +people. + +But who is there that has studied the events of those years between +1795-1815 who did not feel the utter indignation, the terrible shame, of +so much cowardice, of such hopeless vacillation in the hour of need, of +such indifference to civic duties? Who has ever tried to understand the +events of the year of Restoration who does not know that there was very +little glory connected with an event which the self-contented +contemporary delighted to compare to the great days of the struggle +against Spanish tyranny? And who that has studied the history of the +early nineteenth century does not know how for two whole generations +after the Napoleonic wars our country was no better than a negative +power, tolerated because so inoffensive? And who, when he compares what +was one hundred years ago with what is to-day, can fail to see what a +miracle of human energy here has happened? I have no statistics at hand +to tell you about our shipping, our imports and exports, or to show you +the very favourable place which the next to the smallest among the +nations occupies. Nor can I, without looking it up, write down for your +benefit what we have invented, have written, have painted. Nor is it my +desire to show you in detail how the old neglected inheritance of the +East India Company has been transformed into a colonial empire where not +only the intruding Hollander but where the native, too, has a free +chance to develop and to prosper. + +But what I can say and will say with all emphasis is this: Look where +you will, in whatever quarter of the globe you desire, and you will find +Holland again upholding her old traditions for efficiency, energy, and +tenacity of purpose. + +Pay a visit to the Hollander at home and you will find that he is trying +to solve with the same ancient industry of research the eternal problems +of nature, while with the utmost spirit of modern times he attempts to +reconstruct the relationship between those who have and those who have +not, until a basis mutually more beneficial shall have been established. +Then you will see how upon all sides there has been a return to a +renewed interest in life and to a desire to do cheerfully those tasks +which the country has been set to do. + +And then you will understand how the year 1913, proud of what has been +achieved, though not content that the goal has been reached, can well +afford to tell the truth about the year 1813. For after a century and a +half of decline Holland once more has aspired to be great in everything +in which a small nation can be great. + +_New York, N.Y., October 31, 1913._ + + + +CONTENTS + + + APOLOGIA + FOREWORD + DRAMATIS PERSONÆ + PROLOGUE + THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD ORDER + THE REVOLUTION + THE COST OF REVOLUTION + THE PROVISIONAL + THE OPENING CEREMONIES + PIETER PAULUS + NATIONAL ASSEMBLY NO. I AT WORK + NATIONAL ASSEMBLY NO. II AT WORK + GLORY ABROAD + COUP D'ÉTAT NO. I + THE CONSTITUTIONAL + COUP D'ÉTAT NO. II + CONSTITUTION NO. II AT WORK + MORE GLORY ABROAD + CONSTITUTION NO. III + THE THIRD CONSTITUTION AT WORK + ECONOMIC CONDITION + SOCIAL LIFE + PEACE + + + SCHIMMELPENNINCK + KING LOUIS OF HOLLAND + THE DEPARTMENT FORMERLY CALLED HOLLAND + LIBERATION + THE RESTORATION + WILLIAM I + A COMPARISON OF THE FOUR CONSTITUTIONS OF HOLLAND + + BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +HALF-TONES + + + William I _Frontispiece_ + The Estates of Holland + Flight of William V + Krayenhoff + Warship entering the Port of Amsterdam + Daendels + French troops entering Amsterdam + Capetown captured by the English + Pieter Paulus + The National Assembly + The speaker of the Assembly welcoming the French minister + Invasion of the British + Dutch troops rushing to the defence of the coast + Armed bark of the year 1801 + The executive council of the East India Company + Dutch ships frozen in the ice + Batavia--the fashionable quarter + A country place + Skating on the River Maas at Rotterdam + Trades: Printer, Bookbinder, Diamond Cutter, The Mint + Schimmelpenninck + Schimmelpenninck arrives at The Hague + Louis Napoleon + Napoleon visits Amsterdam + Departure of Gardes D'Honneur from Amsterdam + Gysbert Karel van Hogendorp + Proclamation of the new government + Arrival of William I in Scheveningen + Lieutenant Van Speyck blows up his ship + King William II + Line maps in text on pages 17, 25, 94, 207, 216, 217, 252 + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONÆ + +DRAMATIS PERSONÆ (_in order of their appearance_). + +CURTAIN: _December, 1795_. + + +_William V_: Last hereditary Stadholder, futile, well-meaning, but +without any conception of the events which during the latter half of the +eighteenth century brought about the new order of things. Unable to +institute the highly necessary centralization of the country and +emancipate the middle classes, which for the last three centuries have +been cut totally out of all political power. He is driven out by the +French Revolution more than by his own discontented countrymen. Dies, +forgotten, on his country estates in Germany. + +_The Patriots_: Mildly revolutionary party, since the middle of the +eighteenth century working for a more centralized and somewhat more +representative government. Belong almost without exception to the +professional and higher middle classes. Represented in the new Batavian +Assemblies mostly under the name of Unionists. + +_The Regents_: The old plutocratic oligarchy. Disappear with the triumph +of the Patriots. Continue opposition to the centralizing process, but +for all intents and purposes they have played their little rôle when the +old republic ceases to be. + +_The Federalists_: Combine all the opposition elements in the new +Batavian Republic which work to maintain the old decentralization. + +_Daendels_: Lawyer, cart-tail orator, professional exile. Fallen hero of +the Patriotic struggles; flees to Belgium when the Prussians in 1787 +restore William V to his old dignities. Returns in 1795 as quite a hero +and a French major-general. Later with French help organizes a number of +_coups d'état_ which finally remove the opposing Federalists and give +the power to the Unionists. A capable man in many ways. An enthusiast +who spared others as little as he did himself. + +_Krayenhoff_: Doctor, physicist, experiments in new medical theories +with same cheer he does in the new science of politics. Able and +efficient in everything he undertakes. Too much of a man of principle +and honesty to make much of a career during revolutionary days. + +_Pieter Paulus_: The sort of man who twenty years before might have +saved the Republic if only the Stadholder had known how to avail himself +of such a simple citizen possessed of so much common sense. Trained +thoroughly in the intricate working of the Republic's government. +Scrupulously honest. So evidently the One and Only Man to lead the new +Batavian Republic that he was killed immediately by overwork. + +_Schimmelpenninck_: Lawyer, man of unselfish patriotism, honest, +careful, no sense of humour, but a very sober sense of the practically +possible. No lover of extremes, but in no way blind to the +impossibility of maintaining the old, outworn system of government. +Tries at his own private inconvenience to save the country, but when he +fails keeps the everlasting respect of both his enemies and those who +were supposed to be his friends. + +_France_, or, rather, the French Revolution, regards the Republic in the +same way in which a poor man looks upon a rich man with a beefsteak. +Being possessed of a strong club, it hits the rich man on the head, +grabs his steak, his clothes, everything he possesses, and then makes +him turn about and fight his former friends. + +_Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity_: Trademark patented by the French +Republic between the years 1790 and 1809. The goods covered by this +trademark soon greatly deteriorate and finally cover a rank imitation of +the original article. + +_Napoleon Bonaparte_: Chief salesman of the above article for the +territory abroad. Further references unnecessary. Gets a controlling +hold of the firm in which at first he was a subordinate. Removes the +article which made him successful from the market and introduces a new +brand, covered merely with a big N. Firm fails in 1815. The involuntary +customers pay the deficit. + +_England_: Chief enemy of above. In self-defence against the +Franco-Dutch combination, it takes all of the Republic's outlying +territories. + +_Louis Napoleon_: Second brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. Only gentleman +of the family. Made King of Holland in anticipation of a complete French +annexation. Makes an honest but useless attempt to prevent this +annexation. Wife (Napoleon's stepdaughter) no good. Son, Napoleon III, +Emperor of the French. + +_Le Brun, Duke of Plaisance_: Governor of the annexed Republic. Makes +the very best of a rather odious job. Far superior to the corps of +brigands who were his subordinates. + +_Van Hogendorp_: Incarnation of the better elements of the old order; +supporter of William V, although very much aware of the uselessness of +that prince. Has seen a little more of the world than most of his +contemporaries. During the Batavian Republic and annexation refuses to +have anything to do with what he considers an illegitimate form of +government. Man of great strength who, practically alone, arranges the +Revolution of 1813, which drives out the French before the European +allies can conquer the Republic. + +_William I_: First constitutional King of Holland, oldest son of William +V, has learned a good deal abroad, but only during the last ten years of +his exile. Personally a man of the Old Régime, but with too excellent a +business sense not to see that the times have changed. Rather too much a +business man and too little a statesman. Excellent organizer. In many +ways too energetic. Pity he did not live a hundred years later. + +Of the real people we shall see very little. A small minority, very +small indeed, will try to make a noise like Jacobins. But their little +comedy is abruptly ended by the great French stage manager every time he +thinks that such rowdy acting is no longer suitable. Unfortunately for +themselves, they began their particular acting three years later than +Paris, and, fortunately for the rest of us, the sort of plays written +around the guillotine were no longer popular in France when the managers +in Holland wished to introduce them. The majority of the people, +however, gradually impoverished by eternal taxation, without the old +revenues from the colonies, with their sons enlisted and serving a bad +cause in foreign armies--the majority takes to a disastrous way of +vegetating at home, takes to leading an introspective and +non-constructive religious life, finally despairing of everything save +paternal despotism. + +In the country everything becomes Frenchified. The fashions are the +fashions of Paris (two years late). Furniture, books, literature, +everything except an old-fashioned and narrow orthodoxy becomes a true +but clumsy copy of the French. + +The other actors in our little play are foreigners: Sansculottes, French +soldiers of all arms, British and Russian invaders, captives from all of +the Lord's countries, French customs officers, French policemen, French +spies, adventurers of every sort and nationality; French bands playing +the "Carmagnole" and "Marseillaise," _ad infinitum_ and _ad nauseam_. + +Finally Cossacks, Russian Infantry, Blücher Hussars, followed by a +sudden and wild crowd of citizens waving orange colours. And then, once +more for many years, dull, pious citizens, taking no interest in +anything but their own respectability, looking at the world from behind +closed curtains, so terribly hit by adversity that they no longer dare +to be active. Until this generation gradually takes the road to the +welcome cemetery, the curtains are pulled up, the windows are opened, +and a fresh spirit of energy and enterprise is allowed to blow through +the old edifice, and the old fear of living is replaced by the desire to +take an active part in the work of the greater world. + + + + + + + +The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +And now--behold the scene changes. + +The old Republic of the United Netherlands, once the stronghold of an +incipient liberty, the asylum to which for many centuries fled all those +who were persecuted--this same republic will be regarded by the +disciples of the great French Revolution as another Bastille of usurped +power, as the incarnation of all despotic principles, and will soon be +demolished by its own eager citizens. The ruins will be carted away as +so much waste material, unworthy of being used in the great New Temple +now to be constructed to the truly divine principles of Liberty, +Fraternity, and Equality. The old Stadholder, last representative of the +illustrious House of Orange, alternately the Father of his Country and +the Beast of the Book of Revelation, will flee for his life and will +spend the rest of his days in England or Germany, nobody knows and +nobody cares where. Their High and Mightinesses of the Estates, proud +little potentates once accustomed to full sovereign honours, refusing to +receive the most important communication unless provided with their full +and correct titles, these same High and Mightinesses will have to +content themselves with the even greater honour of being called Citizen +Representatives. Their ancient meeting hall, too sacred to allow the +keeping of official records of their meetings, will be the sight of the +town and will be patronized by the loafers to whom the rights of men +mean a Maypole, the tricolor, free gin, and a brass band. Why go on with +a minute recital? The end of the world has come. The days of tyranny, of +indignity to the sovereign sanctity of the individual, are over. +Regents, coal-heavers, patriots, fish peddlers, officers and soldiers, +soon they are all to be of the same human clay. The vote of one is as +good as that of the other. Wherefore, in the name of Equality, give them +all a chance and see what will come of it. If a constitution does not +suit at the first attempt, use it to feed a patriotic bonfire. After +all, what else is it but some woodpulp and printer's ink? If the +parliament of to-day does not please the voters of to-morrow, dissolve +it, close it with the help of gendarmes. If the members resist, call out +the reserves or borrow some soldiers from the great sister republic, +which is now teaching her blessed creed to all the world. They (the +soldiers) are there for the asking (and for the paying). They are a +little out at the elbows, very much out in regard to shoes, and they +have not seen a real piece of money for many a weary month, but for a +square meal and a handful of paper greenbacks they will dismiss a +parliament, rob a museum, or levy taxes, with the utmost fidelity to +their orders and with strict discipline to their master's commands. + +Then, if constitutions and parliaments have failed in an equal degree, +humbly beg for a king from among that remarkable family the father of +which was a little pettifogging lawyer in a third-rate Italian city, and +the members of which now rule one half of the European continent. + +After the rights of men, the rights of a single man. + +In the great melting pot of the Bonapartistic empire all Hollanders at +last become equal in the real sense of the word. They all have the same +chance at promotion, at riches, and the pursuit of happiness. Devotion +to the master, and devotion to him alone, will bring recognition from +the new divinity who issues orders signed with a single gigantic N. Old +Republic of the United Netherlands, enlightened Republic of the Free +Batavian Proconsulate, Kingdom of Holland, it's all the same to the man +who regards this little land as so much mud, deposited by his own, his +French, rivers. + +Vainly and desperately the bankrupt little Kingdom of Brother Louis has +struggled to maintain a semblance of independence. + +A piece of paper, a big splotchy N, and the whole comedy is over. + +The High and Mightinesses, the Citizen Representatives, First Consul, +Royal Majesty, all the big and little political wirepullers of fifteen +years of unstable government, are swept away, are told to hold their +peace, and to contribute money and men, money and men, more money and +men, to carry the glory of the capital N to the uttermost corners of +the world. Never mind about their government, their language, the +remembrance of the old days of glorious renown. The old days are over +for good. The language has no right to exist save as a patois for rustic +yokels. As for the government, gold-laced adventurers, former +barkeepers, and prize-fighters, now bearers of historic titles, will be +sent to look after that. They come with an army of followers, +tax-gatherers, policemen, and spies. They execute their duties in the +most approved Napoleonic fashion. There is war in Spain and there is war +in Russia. There is murder to be done in Portugal, and there is plunder +to be gathered in Germany. The Hollander does not care for this sort of +work. Never mind his private likes and dislikes! Hang a few, shoot a +few, and the rest will march fast enough! And so, up and down the +Spanish peninsula, up but not down the Russian steppes, the Hollander +who cared too much for trade to bother about politics is forced to march +for the glory of that letter N. Amsterdam is reduced from the richest +city in Europe to a forgotten nest, where the grass grows on the streets +and where half of the population is kept alive by public charity. What +matters it? His Majesty has reviewed the new Polish and Lithuanian +regiments and is highly contented with their appearance. The British +have taken all the colonies, and the people eat grass for bread and +drink chiccory for coffee. Who cares? His Majesty has bought a new goat +cart for the King of Rome, his august son, and is tremendously pleased +with the new acquisition. The country is bankrupt. Such a simple matter! +Some more paper, another scrawly N, and the State debt is reduced by two +thirds. A hundred thousand families are ruined, but his Majesty sleeps +as well as ever and indeed never felt better in his life. Until this +capital letter goes the way of all big and small letters of the +historical alphabet, and is put away in Clio's box of enormities for all +time-- + +And then, O patient reader, who wonders what all this rhetoric is +leading to, what shall we then have to tell you? + +How out of the ruin of untried schemes, the terrible failures, the +heartbreaking miseries of these two decades of honest enthusiasm and +dishonest exploitation, there arose a new State, built upon a firmer +ground than ever before, ready and willing to take upon itself the +burden and the duties of a modern community, and showing in the next +century that nothing is lost as long as the spirit of hopefulness and +cheerful work and the firm belief in one's own destiny are allowed to +survive material ruin. Amen. + + + + +I + +THE LAST DAYS OF THE OLD ORDER + +DECEMBER, 1795 + + +It is the year of grace 1795, and the eighth of the glorious French +Revolution. For almost a century there has been friction between the +different parts of the population. A new generation has grown up in an +atmosphere of endless political debate--finally of mere political +scandal. But now the days of idle discussions are over. More than forty +years before, manifestly in the year 1745, the intelligent middle +classes began their agitation for a share in the government, a +government which during the days of great commercial prosperity has +fallen entirely into the hands of the capitalistic classes. In this +struggle, reasonable enough in itself, they have looked for guidance to +the House of Orange. + +Alas! those princes who so often have led the people, who have made this +nation what it is, whose name has come to stand for the very land of +which they are the hired executives--these princes now no longer are in +direct touch with the basic part of the nation. This time they have +failed to see their manifest duty. Left to their own devices, the +reformers, the Patriots as they are commonly called, have fallen into +bad hands. They have mistaken mere rhetoric for action. They have +allowed themselves to be advised by hot-headed young men, raw boys, +filled with undigested philosophies borrowed from their +better-instructed neighbours. As their allies they have taken +experienced politicians who were willing to use this party of +enthusiasts for their own selfish purposes. More through the mistakes of +their enemies than through the virtue of their own partisans, the +Patriots have gained a victory in the Chambers of the old Estates, where +the clumsy machinery of the republican government, outworn and +ill-fitted for modern demands, rolls on like some forgotten water-wheel +in an ancient forest. + +This victory, however, has been won too easily to be of any value to the +conqueror. The Patriots, believing themselves safe behind their wall of +mere words, have gone out of their way to insult the hereditary +Stadholder. What is worse, they have given offence to his wife, the +sister of the King of Prussia. Ten years before, in the last English +war, through a policy of criminal ignorance, they risked their country's +last bit of naval strength in an uneven quarrel. This time (we mean the +year 1787) they bring upon themselves the military strength of the +best-drilled country of the western world. In less than one week the +Prussians have blown together this card-house of the Dutch Patriots. +Their few untrained soldiers have fled without firing a single shot. +Stadholder William once more drives in state to his ancestral palace in +the woods, and again his clumsy fingers try to unravel the perplexing +maze of this antiquated government--with the same result as before. He +cannot do it. Truth is, that the old government is hopelessly beyond +repair. Demolition and complete reconstruction alone will save the +country from anarchy. But where is the man with the courage and the +tenacity of purpose to undertake this gigantic task? Certainly it is not +William, to whom a new cockade on the cap of his soldiers is of vastly +more importance than a reform of the legislative power. Nor can anything +be hoped from old Van den Spiegel, the Raadpensionaris, a man nearing +the seventies, who desires more the rest of his comfortable Zeeland +estate than the hopeless management of an impossible government. There +is, of course, the Princess Wilhelmina, the wife of William, a woman +possessed of all the strength and executive ability of her great-uncle +Frederick, the late King of Prussia. But just now she is regarded as the +arch-traitress, the Jezebel of the country. Alone she can do nothing, +and among the gold-laced brethren who doze in the princely anterooms +there is not a man of even mediocre ability. + +For a short while a young man, trained abroad, capable observer, shrewd +in the judgment of his fellow-men, and willing to make personal +sacrifices for his principles, has supported her with vigorous counsel. +But he, too, has given up the hopeless task of inciting the Stadholder +to deeds of energy, and we shall not hear the name of Gysbrecht Karel +van Hogendorp until twenty years later, when in the quiet of his study +he shall prepare the first draft of the constitution of the new Kingdom +of the Netherlands and shall make ready for the revolution which must +overthrow the French yoke. + +In Rotterdam, leading the uneventful life of a civilian director of the +almost defunct Admiralty, there is Pieter Paulus, who for a moment +promised to play the rôle of a Dutch Mirabeau. He, too, however, found +no elements with which he could do any constructive work. He has retired +to his books and vouchers, trying to solve the puzzle of how to pay +captains and sailors out of an empty treasury. + +A country of a million and a half of people, a country which for more +than a century has led the destinies of Europe, cannot be devoid of +capable men in so short a time? Then--where are they? Most of them are +still within the boundaries of the old republic. But disheartened by the +disgrace of foreign invasion, by the muddling of Patriot and regent, +they sulk at home and await the things that are bound to come. Many +citizens, some say 40,000, but probably less than 30,000, have fled the +country and are exiled abroad. They fill the little Belgian cities along +the Dutch frontier. They live from hand to mouth. They petition the +government in Paris, they solicit help from the government in London, +they will appeal to everybody who may have anything to give, be he +friend or enemy. When support is not forthcoming--and usually the +petitioned party turns a deaf ear--they run up a bill at the little +political club where their credit is good, until the steward himself +shall go into bankruptcy. Then they renew their old appeals, until +finally they receive a few grudging guilders, and as barroom politicians +they await the day of vengeance and a return to the fraternal fleshpots. + +Meanwhile in The Hague, where, as of old, the Stadholder plays at being +a little monarch, what is being done? Nothing! + +The year 1789 comes and brings the beginning of the great French +Revolution. The government of the republic thinks of the frightful +things that might have happened if the Patriots, instead of the +Prussians, had been successful in 1787, and it draws the lines of +reaction tighter than before. At the same time a new business depression +sets in. Large banking houses fail. The West India Company of glorious +memory is dissolved and put into the receiver's hands. + +Two years more and France declares war upon the republic and upon +England. The unwilling people are urged to fight, but refuse. Town after +town is surrendered without the firing of a single shot. It was the +dissension in the French camp--it was the treason of Dumouriez--which +this time saved the country, not the bravery of its soldiers. And the +moment the French had reorganized their forces, the cause of the +Stadholder was lost. In the years 1794 and 1795 new attacks followed. +Driven into a corner, with a vague feeling that this time it meant the +end of things, the defence showed a little more courage than before. Of +organization, however, there was not a vestige. In between useless +fortifications, insufficiently manned and badly defended, the French +Revolutionary armies walked straight to the well-filled coffers of rich +Amsterdam. + +It was midwinter. The rivers were frozen. How often had the ice served +the invader as a welcome road into this impassable country! And just how +often had not divine Providence interfered with a timely thaw and had +changed the victorious inroad into a disastrous rout? It had happened +time and again during the rebellion against Spain. It had happened in +the year 1672 when the cowardly neglect of a Dutch commander alone had +saved the army of Louis XIV from total annihilation. + +Again, in this year of grace 1795, the people expected a miracle. But +miracles do not come to those who are not prepared to help themselves. +The frost continued. For two weeks the thermometer did not rise above +the freezing point. The Maas and the Waal, large rivers which were +seldom frozen over, became solid banks of ice. Wherever the French +troops crossed them they were welcomed as deliverers. The country, +honeycombed with treason, overrun with hungry exiles hastening home to a +bed with clean linen, and a well-filled pantry, hailed the ragged +sansculottes as the bringers of a new day of light. + +[Illustration: 1795. DUTCH REPUBLIC _Reproduced from Author's Sketch_] + +William, among his turnip-gardens and his little bodyguard, surrounded +by his trivial court, wondered what the end was going to be. When first +he entered upon the struggle with the Patriots it was the head of old +King Charles which had haunted him in his dreams. Now he had fresh +visions of another but similar episode. Two years before his good +brother, the Citizen Capet, had climbed the scaffold for his last view +of his rebellious subjects. Since then all that was highest and finest +and noblest in the French capital had trundled down the road which led +to the Place de la Concorde. + +William was not of the stock of which heroes and martyrs are made. What +was to become of him when the French should reach The Hague? The advance +guard of the invading army was now in Utrecht. One day's distance for +good cavalry separated the revolutionary soldiers from the Dutch +capital. + +The jewels and other valuables of the princely family had been sent away +three months before, and were safely stored in the Castle of Brunswick. +The personal belongings of the august household had been packed and were +ready for immediate transportation. All running accounts had been +settled and closed. What ready money there was left had been carefully +collected and had been put up for convenient use by the fugitives. +Remained the all-important question, "Where would they go?" Evidently no +one at the court seems to have known. There still was a large British +auxiliary army in the eastern provinces of the republic; but at the +first approach of the French troops, the British soldiers had hastily +crossed Gelderland and Overysel and had fled eastward toward Germany, a +disorganized mob, burning and plundering as they went along to make up +for the hardships of this terrible winter. Close at their heels followed +the French army, strengthened by Dutch volunteers, guided by young +Daendels, who knew his native province of Gelderland as he did the home +town of Hattum. This time the young Patriot came as the conquering hero, +and by the capture of the fortification of Heusden he cut off the road +which connected the province of Holland with Germany. + +To the north, to Helder, the road was still open. And the fleet, +assembled near Texel, was entirely dependable. But before William could +make up his mind to go northward it was too late. The sudden surrender +of Utrecht, the march of the French upon Amsterdam, cut off this second +road, too. There remained but one way: to take ship in Scheveningen and +flee to England. The only vessels now available were small fishing +smacks, not unlike in form and rigging to the craft of the early +vikings. The idea was far from inviting. The ships were bad sailers at +all times. In winter they were positively dangerous. Now, however, these +little vessels were all that was left, and to Scheveningen went the long +row of carts, loaded with the goods of the small family and their +half-dozen retainers, who were willing to follow them into exile. The +end had come. The only question now was how to leave the stage with a +semblance of dignity. William was passive to all that happened around +him, accepting his fate with religious resignation. The Princess, a very +grand lady, who would have smiled on her way to the scaffold, kept up an +appearance of cheerful contempt. + +Their two sons--William, the later King of Holland, and Frederick, who +was to die four years later at the head of an Austrian army--vaguely +attempted to create some military enthusiasm among the people; offered +to blow themselves up in the last fortification. But what with ten +thousand disorganized soldiers around them clamouring for food, for +shoes, and for coats, it was no occasion for heroics. Why make +sacrifices where nothing was to be gained? Despair and despondency, a +shrugging of the shoulders and a protest, "What is the use?" met their +appeal to the ancient courage and patriotism. Old Van den Spiegel, the +last of the Raadpensionares, came nobly up to the best that was ever +expected of his high office. He stuck to his duty until the very last. +Day and night he worked. When too sick to go about he had himself +carried on a litter into the meeting hall of the Estates. There he +continued to lead the country's affairs and to give sound counsel until +the moment the French entered The Hague and threw him into prison. + +[Illustration: THE ESTATES OF HOLLAND] + +On January the 17th the definite news of the surrender of Utrecht, of +the imminent attack upon Amsterdam, and the approach of the French, had +reached The Hague. It was a cold and sombre day. The people in a +desultory curiosity flocked around the Stadholder's palace and the rooms +of the Estates. A special mission had been sent to Paris several days +before to offer the Committee of Public Safety a Dutch proposal of +peace. The delegates, however, who had met with the opposition of the +exiled Patriots who infested the French capital, had not made any +headway, and for a long time they had been unable to send any news. The +ordinary means of communication were cut off. The canal-boats could no +longer run on account of the ice, and travel by land was slow. Any +moment, however, their answer might be expected. But the 17th came and +the 17th went by and not a word was heard from Paris. That night, in +their ancient hall, in the dim light of flickering candles, the Estates +General met to discuss whether the country could still be saved. Van den +Spiegel was carried into the hall and reported upon the hopeless state +of affairs. A committee of members was then appointed to inquire of his +Highness whether he knew of a possible way out of the danger which was +threatening the fatherland. Late that night the Prince received the +deputies. A prolonged discussion took place. His Highness, alas! knew of +no way out of the present difficulties. Unless the thaw should suddenly +set in, unless the people should suddenly and spontaneously take up +arms, unless Providence should directly intercede, the country was lost. + +The next morning came, and still the frost continued, and not a single +word of hopeful news. Panic seized the Estates. In all haste they sent +two of their members to travel east, go find the commander of the +invading army, and offer peace at any price. For when the French had +attacked the republic they had proclaimed loudly that their war was upon +the Stadholder as the tyrannous head of the nation, but not upon the +nation itself. If that were the case, the Estates reasoned, let the +nation sacrifice its ruler and escape further consequences. Wherefore, +in their articles of capitulation, they did not mention the Stadholder. +And from his side, William, who did not court martyrdom, declared nobly +that he "did not wish to stand between the country's happiness and a +continuation of the present struggle, and that he was quite ready to +offer up his own interest and leave the land." In a lengthy letter to +the Estates General he explained his point of view, took leave of his +country, and recommended the rest to God. + +During the night from Saturday to Sunday, January 17-18, 1795, the +western storm which had been raging for almost a week subsided. An icy +wind made the chance for flight to the English coast a possibility. +Early in the morning the Princess Wilhelmina and her daughter-in-law, +with a two-year-old baby, prepared for flight. Inside the palace, in the +Hall of Audience, a room newly furnished at the occasion of her wedding, +the Princess took leave of her few remaining friends. Many had already +fled. Others, now that the French were within striking distance of the +residence, preferred to be indisposed and stayed at home. Silently the +Princess wished a farewell to her old companions. Outside the gate +there was a larger assembly. Tradespeople grown gray in deep respect for +their benefactors, simple folk whose political creed was contained in +the one phrase "the House of Orange," Patriots wishing to see the last +voyage of this proud woman, stood on both sides of the court's entrance. +Nothing was said. It was no occasion for political manifestations. The +two women and the baby, with a few servants following, slowly drove to +Scheveningen. Without a moment's hesitation they were embarked, and at +nine o'clock of the morning of this frightfully cold day they set sail +for England. There, sick and miserable, they landed the next afternoon. + +[Illustration: FLIGHT OF WILLIAM V] + +At eleven o'clock the Prince heard that his wife had left in safety. The +little palace in which he had built and rebuilt more than any of his +ancestors was practically deserted. Outside, through force of habit, the +sentinels of the Life Guard still trudged up and down and presented arms +to the foreign ambassadors who drove up to take leave. The members of +the Estates, in so far as they did not belong to the opposition, came in +for a personal handshake and a farewell. + +Poor William, innocent victim of his own want of ability, during these +last scenes almost becomes a sympathetic figure. He tried to read a +farewell message, but, overcome by emotion, he could not finish. A +courtier took the paper and, with tears running down his face, read the +last passages. + +At half-past one the court carriages drove up for the final journey. By +this time the whole city had made the best of this holiday and had +walked out toward the road to Scheveningen. + +Slowly, as if it meant a funeral, the long procession of carriages and +carts wound its way over the famous road, once the wonder of its age, +and now lined with curious folk, gazing on in silence, asking themselves +what would happen next. In Scheveningen the shore was black with people; +and everywhere that same ominous quiet as if some great disaster were +about to happen. At two o'clock everything was ready for the departure. +The Prince, with the young Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and four gentlemen in +waiting and his private physician, embarked in the largest ship. The +other members of their suite were divided among some twenty little +vessels, all loaded to the brim with trunks, satchels, bales of clothes, +everything, in most terrible confusion. The situation was uncomfortable. +To ride at anchor in the surf of the North Sea is no pleasure. And still +the sign of departure was not given. Hoping against hope, the Stadholder +expected to hear from the French authorities. At half-past four one of +the members of the secret committee on foreign affairs of the Estates +came galloping down to Scheveningen. News had been received from the +French. It was unfavourable. The war was to continue until the +Stadholder should have been eliminated. + +[Illustration: linemap, p. 25] + +The native fishermen--and they should have known what they were +talking about--declared that every hour longer on this dangerous coast +meant a greater risk. At any moment a boat manned with French troops +might leave Rotterdam and intercept the fugitives. Furthermore, the sea +was full of ice. The wind, which now was favourable, might change and +blow the ice on the shore. They all advised his Highness to give the +order to depart without further delay. + +Whereupon William, in the cramped quarters of this smelly craft, in a +sprawling hand, wrote his last official document. It reads like the +excuses of a pouting child. "Really"--so he tells the +Raadpensionaris--"really, since the French refuse an armistice, since +there is no chance of reaching one or the other of the Dutch ports, +really now, you cannot expect me to remain here aimlessly floating up +and down in the sea forever." And then comes some talk of reaching +Plymouth, where there "are a number of Dutch men-of-war, and of a speedy +return to some Dutch province and to his good town of The Hague." All +very nice and very commonplace and dilatory until the very end. + +At five o'clock the ship carrying the Prince hoisted her sails. Before +midnight William was well upon the high sea and out of all danger. The +next morning, sick and miserable, he landed in Harwich. There the +fishermen were paid off. Each captain received three hundred and fifty +guilders. Then William wished them Godspeed and drove off to Yarmouth to +meet his wife. It was the last time he saw so many of his countrymen. +From now on he saw only a few individuals, exiles like himself, who +visited him at his little court of Hampton and later at Brunswick, +mostly asking for help which he was unable to give. + +Exit at the age of forty-seven, William V, last hereditary Stadholder of +the United Netherlands--a sad figure, intending to do the best, +succeeding only in doing the worst; victim of his own weakness and of +conditions that destroyed the strongest and the most capable. In the +quiet atmosphere of trifling details and petty etiquette of a third-rate +German princedom he ended his days. At his funeral he received all the +honours and pomp to which his exalted rank entitled him. But he never +returned to his own country. + +Of all the members of the House of Orange William V is the only one +whose grave is abroad. + +[Illustration: KRAYENHOFF] + + + + +II + +THE REVOLUTION + + +ÇA IRA. + +Indeed and it will. + +While William is still bobbing up and down on the uncomfortable North +Sea, the republic, left without a Stadholder, left without the whole +superstructure of its ancient government, is wildly and hilariously +dancing around a high pole. On top of this pole is a hat adorned with a +tricoloured sash. At the foot of the pole stands a board upon which is +painted "Liberty, Fraternity, Equality." The music for the festivities +is provided by the drums and fifes of the French soldiers. The melody +that is being played is the "Marseillaise." Soon the Hollanders shall +provide the music themselves to the tune of some 40,000,000 guilders a +year. And they shall dance a gay little two-step across every +battlefield of Europe. + +The worst of the revolution of 1795, from our point of view, was its +absolute sincerity and its great honesty of purpose. The modern +immigrant approaching the shores of the promised land in total ignorance +of what he is about to discover, but with a deep conviction that soon +all will be well, is no more naïve and simple in his unwarranted +optimism that was the good patriot who during the first months of the +year 1796 welcomed the bedraggled French sansculottes as his very dear +deliverers and put his best guestroom at the disposal of some Parisan +tough in red, white, and blue pantaloons. Verily the millennium had +come. Never, until within our own days of amateur sociology and of +self-searching and devotion to the woes of our humbler brethren, has +there been such conscientious desire to lift the world bodily out of its +wicked old groove and put it upon a newer and better road. Whether this +hysterical joy, this unselfish ecstasy, about a new life was founded +upon a sound and tangible basis few people knew and fewer cared. The +sacred fire burned in their breasts and that was enough. + +It was no time for a minute analogy of inner sentiments. The world was +all astir with great events ... _allons enfants de la Patrie_, and the +devil take the hindmost. + +Meanwhile, since in all enthusiasm, genuine or otherwise, there must be +some method; since the music of brass bands does not fill empty +stomachs, but a baker has to bake bread; since, to come to our point, +the old order of things had been destroyed, but no state can continue +without some sort of order--meanwhile, what was the exact status of this +good land? + +The French, as we have said before, had not made war upon the nation but +upon the head thereof. Exit the head; remains the nation. What was the +position of the latter toward their noble deliverers? This was a +question which had to be decided at once. The moment the French soldiers +should overrun the entire country and should become conquerors, the +republic was liable to be treated as so much vanquished territory. The +republic knew of other countries which had suffered a like fate and did +not aspire to follow their example. Wherefore it became imperatively +necessary to "do something." But what? + +In The Hague, as a last nucleus of the old government, there remained a +number of the members of the General Estates, deliberating without +purpose, waiting without hope for some indication of the future French +policy. Wait on, Your High and Mightinesses, wait until your +fellow-members, who are now suing for peace, shall return with their +tales of insult and contempt, to tell you their stories of an +overbearing revolutionary general and of ill-clad ruffians, who are +living on the fat of the land and refuse insolently to receive the +honourable missionaries of the Most High Estates. + +Of real work, however, of governing, meeting, discussing, voting, there +will be no more for you to do. You may continue to lead an humble +existence until a year later, but for the moment all your former +executive power is centred in a body of which you have never heard +before--in the Revolutionary Committee of Amsterdam. + +The Revolutionary Committee in Amsterdam, what was it, whence did it +come, what did it aspire to do? Its name was more formidable than its +appearance. There were none of the approved revolutionary paraphernalia, +no unshaven faces, nor unkempt hair. The soiled linen, once the +distinguishing mark of every true Progressive, was not tolerated in this +honourable company. It is true that wigs were discarded for man's own +natural hair, but otherwise the leaders of this self-appointed +revolutionary executive organ were law-abiding citizens, who patronized +the barber regularly, who believed in the ancestral doctrine of the +Saturday evening, and who had nothing in common with the prototypes of +the French revolution but their belief in the same trinity of Liberty, +Equality, and Fraternity, with perhaps a little less stress upon the +Equality clause. + +No, the Revolutionary Committee which stepped so nobly forward at this +critical moment was composed of highly respectable and representative +citizens, members of the best families. They acted because nobody else +acted, but not out of a desire for personal glory. The army of personal +glorifiers was to have its innings at a later date. + +Now, let us try to tell what this committee did and how the old order of +things was changed into a new one. After all, it was a very simple +affair. A modern newspaper correspondent would have thought it just +about good for two thousand words. + +[Illustration: WARSHIP ENTERING THE PORT OF AMSTERDAM] + +On Friday, the 16th of January, the day on which the French took the +town of Utrecht, a certain Wiselius, amateur author, writer of +innumerable epics and lyrics, but otherwise an inoffensive lawyer and a +member of the secret Patriotic Club, went to his office and composed an +"Appeal to the People." In this appeal the people were called upon to +"throw off the yoke of tyranny and to liberate themselves." On the +morning of the 17th this proclamation, hastily printed, was spread +throughout the town and was eagerly read by the aforementioned people +who were waiting for something to happen. During the afternoon of the +same day this amount of floating literature received a sudden and most +unexpected addition. General Daendels, the man of the hour, commander of +a battalion of Batavian exiles, while pushing on toward Amsterdam, had +discovered a print-shop in the little village of Leerdam, and, in +rivalry with Wiselius, he had set himself down to contrive another +"Appeal to the People." After a two hours' walk, his circulars had +reached the capital and had breathed the genuine and unmistakable +revolutionary atmosphere into the good town of Amsterdam. Here is a +sample: "Batavians, the representatives of the French people demand of +the Dutch nation that it shall free itself forthwith from slavery. They +do not wish to come to the low countries as conquerors. They do not wish +to force upon the old Dutch Republic the assignats which conquered +territory must accept. (A fine bait, for this paper was money as +valuable as Confederate greenbacks.) They come hither driven solely by +the love of Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality, and they want to make +the republic a friend and ally of France--an ally proud of her +independence and her free sovereignty." When the Amsterdam Revolutionary +Committee noticed the commotion made by these two proclamations, +especially by the second one, it decided to act at once. Among the +initiated inner circle the word was passed around that early the next +morning, at the stroke of nine, a "Revolution" would take place. But +before the arrival of the momentous hour many unexpected things +happened. Let us try and explain them in due order. + +On the afternoon of the 17th General Daendels had received a visit from +an old friend, who was called Dr. Krayenhoff--an interesting type, +possible only in the curious eighteenth century. Originally destined for +the study of jurisprudence, he had drifted into medicine, had taken up +the new plaything called electricity, and as an electrical specialist +had made quite a reputation. From popular lectures upon electricity and +the natural sciences in general he had drifted into politics, had easily +become a leading member of the progressive part of the Patriots, and on +account of his recognized executive ability had soon found himself one +of the leaders of the party. He was a man of pleasant manners, rare +personal courage, the combination of scientific, political, and military +man which so often during the revolutionary days seemed destined to play +a leading rôle. His former fellow-student, Daendels, who had been away +from the country for more than eight years, had eagerly welcomed this +ambulant source of information, and had asked Krayenhoff what chances of +success the revolution would have in Amsterdam. The two old friends had +a lengthy conversation, the result of which was that Krayenhoff declared +himself willing to return to Amsterdam to carry an official message from +Daendels to the town government and see what could be done. The town +government was known to consist of weak brethren, and a little pressure +and some threatening words might do a lot. There was only one obstacle +to the plan of Daendels to march directly upon the capital. The strong +fortification of Nieuwersluis was still in the hands of the troops of +the old government. These might like to fight and block the way. But the +commander of this post showed himself a man of excellent common sense. +When Citizen Krayenhoff, on his way north, passed by this well-armed +stronghold, the commander came out to meet him, and not only declared +his eager intention of abandoning the fort but obligingly offered Mr. +Krayenhoff a few of his buglers to act as parliamentaries on his +expedition to Amsterdam. + +[Illustration: DAENDELS] + +Accordingly, on the morning of the 18th of January, Krayenhoff and his +buglers appeared before the walls of the town, and in the name of the +Franco-Batavian General Daendels proceeded to deliver their highly +important message to their Mightinesses the burgomasters and aldermen. +The message solemnly promised that there would be no shedding of blood, +no destroying of property, no violence to the person; but it insisted +in very precise terms upon an immediate revolution. All things would +happen in order and with decency, but revolution there must be. + +This summons to the town government was the sign for the Patriotic Club +to make its first public appearance. Six of the most influential leaders +of the party, headed by Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, incarnation of +civic virtue and prudence, quietly walked to the town hall, where in the +name of the people they demanded that the town government be delivered +into their own hands. They assured the much frightened worthies of the +town hall of their great personal esteem, and repeated the solemn +promise that no violence of any sort would occur unless the militia be +called out against them. + +[Illustration: FRENCH TROOPS ENTERING AMSTERDAM] + +The gentlemen of city hall assured the Revolutionary Committee that +violence was the very last thing which they had in mind. But of course +this whole proceeding was very sudden. Would the honourable +Revolutionary Committee kindly return at nine of that same evening, and +then they would find everything arranged to their complete satisfaction. +_Ita que acta._ At half-past nine of the same evening the Revolutionary +Committee returned to the town hall and found everything as desired. +Krayenhoff, who was made military commander of the city, climbed on the +stoop of the building and by the light of a torch held by one of his new +soldiers he read to the assembled multitude a solemn proclamation +which informed all present that a revolution had taken place, and that +early the next morning the official exchange of the high government +would take place. After which the assembled multitude discreetly +applauded and went home and to bed. The Revolutionary Committee, +however, made ready for a night of literary activity and retired to the +well-known inn, the Cherry Tree, to do a lot of writing. Soon paper and +ink covered the tables and the work of composing proclamations was in +full swing; but ere many hours had passed, who should walk in but our +old friend Major-General Daendels. That afternoon while making a tour of +inspection with a few French Hussars he had found the city gates of +Amsterdam wide open and unguarded. Glad of the chance to sleep in a real +bed, he had entered the town, had asked for the best hotel, and behold! +our hero had been directed to the self-same Cherry Tree. His Hussars +were made comfortable in the stable and he himself was asked to light a +pipe and join his brethren in their arduous task of providing the +literary background for a revolution. + +The next morning, fresh and early, the French detachment drove up to +form a guard of honour for the plain citizens who within another hour +would be the official rulers of the city. When the clock of the New +Church struck the hour of ten, the representatives of the people of +Amsterdam entered the famous hall, where the town government had met in +extraordinary session. Both parties exhibited the most perfect manners. +The Patriots were received with the utmost politeness. They, from their +side, assumed an attitude of much-distracted bailiffs who have come to +perform a necessary but highly uncongenial duty. They assured the +honourable town council again and again that no harm would befall them. +But since (early the night before) "the Batavian people had resumed the +exercise of their ancient sovereign rights," the old self-instituted +authorities had been automatically removed and had returned to that +class of private citizens from which several centuries before their +ancestors had one day risen. The burgomaster and aldermen could not deny +this fundamental piece of historical logic. They gathered up their +papers, made a polite bow, and disappeared. The people assembled in the +open place in front of the city hall paid no attention. Henceforth the +regents could only have an interest as a historical curiosity. A new +time had come. It was established upstairs, on the first floor, and +another proclamation had been written. This first official document of +the new era was then read from the balcony of the hall to the people +below: + +"Liberty, Fraternity, Equality. Fellow-Batavians: The old order of +things has ceased to be. The new order of things will start with the +following list of provisional representatives of the people of +Amsterdam. (Follows a list of twenty-one names.) People of the Batavian +Republic, what say ye?" + +The people, patient audience in all such political entertainments, said +what was expected of them. The twenty-one new dignitaries, thus duly +installed, then took their seats upon the unfamiliar green cushions of +the aldermanic chairs and went over to the order of the day. The former +subjects, present citizens, still assembled in the streets, went home to +tell the folks that there had been a revolution, and that, on the 20th +of January of the first year of the Batavian liberty, the good town of +Amsterdam had thrown off the yoke of tyranny and the people had become +free. And at ten o'clock curfew rang and everybody went to sleep. + + + + +III + +THE COST OF REVOLUTION + + +This little historic comic opera which we are trying to compose has a +great many "leitmotiven." The revolutionary ones are all of foreign make +and importation. There is but one genuinely Dutch tune, the old +"Wilhelmus of Nassau." But this we shall not hear for many, many years, +until it shall be played by a full orchestra, with an extra addition of +warlike bugles and the roaring of many cannon. + +For the moment, while the overture is still being performed, we hear +only a mumble of discordant and cacophonous Parisian street tunes. One +melody, however, we shall soon begin to notice uppermost. It is the +"Marseillaise," and it announces the approach of the taxpayer. For +twenty years to come, whatever the general nature of our music, whenever +we hear the strains of this inspiring tune, the villain of our opera +will obey their summons and will make his rounds to collect from rich +and poor with touching impartiality. + +On Sunday, the 18th, the Stadholder left the country. On Monday, the +19th, the provisional representatives of the people of Amsterdam made +their little bow to the people from the stoop of the town hall. + +On the same day the French recognized the Batavian Republic officially. +On Wednesday, the 21st, Amsterdam called upon fourteen other free cities +to send delegates to discuss the ways and means of establishing a new +government for the aforementioned republic. And on that same day the +representatives of the French Republic unpacked their meagre trunks in +the palace of the old Stadholder and demanded an amount of supplies for +the French army which would have kept the Dutch army in food and clothes +and arms for half a dozen years. + +The provisional authorities demurred. The bill was much too high. "But +surely," the French delegates said, "surely you must comply with our +wishes. We have marched all the way from Paris to this land of frogs to +deliver you from a terrible tyrant. You can not expect us to starve." Of +course not, and the supplies were forthcoming. + +On the 26th of the same month, of January, the different provisional +delegates from the provisional representative bodies of the different +cities of Holland met in The Hague and sent word to the provincial +Estates that their meeting hall was needed for different and better +purposes. And when the old Estates had moved out the provisional +citizens constituted themselves into an executive and legislative body, +to be known as the "Provisional Representatives of the People of +Holland." + +The French authorities, snugly installed in the other wing of the +palace where the provisionals met, were asked for their official +approval. This they condescended to nod across the courtyard. Then the +new representatives set to work. Pieter Paulus, our old friend of the +Rotterdam Admiralty, was elected speaker, an office for which he was +most eminently fitted. In his opening speech he touched all the strings +of the revolutionary harp--peace, quiet, security, equality, safety, +justice, humanity, fairness to all. Those were a few of the basic +principles upon which the everlasting Temple of Civic Righteousness was +to be constructed. After which the provisional meeting set to work, and +in very short order abolished the office of Stadholder, the +Raadpensionaris, the nobility, absolved every one from the old oath of +allegiance, recalled the peace missionaries who were still supposed to +be looking for the French authorities, and ended up with a solemn +declaration of the Rights of Men and a promise immediately to convoke a +national assembly. The other provinces followed Holland's example. In +less than two weeks' time the entire country had dismissed its old +Estates and had provided itself with a new set of rulers. The new +machinery, as long as there was nothing to do but to demolish the ruins +of the old republic, worked beautifully; but when the last stones had +been carted away, then there was a very different story to tell. + +Three weeks after the Stadholder had fled, provisional delegates to the +Estates General (the name had been retained for convenience sake) met in +The Hague. They adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Men as their +ethical constitution, abolished for the whole country what the +provisional provincial Estates had already abolished for each individual +part, changed the five different admiralties into one single navy +department, changed the Council of State into a committee-on-the +general-affairs-of-the-Alliances-on-Land, and vested this committee with +the short name with power to make preparations for the calling together +of a National Assembly for the framing of a constitution. + +And then--_allons enfants de la Patrie_--and here were those same +citizens of the dilapidated uniform who had called but a moment before, +and they had a little account which they would like to see settled. For +now that the provisional delegates of the new republic were so +conveniently together, would they not kindly oblige with a prompt +payment? Poor Batavian Republic, while your provisional representatives +are making speeches, while your people are eagerly trying to rid +themselves of titles, honours, coats-of-arms, fancy wigs, and short +trousers, while the entire Batavian Republic is stewing in a most +delightful feeling of brotherly love, the good brethren in Paris are +coldly calculating just how much they can take away from the republic +without absolutely ruining her as a dividend-producing community. + +The French national convention, in matters of a monetary nature, took no +chances. It sent two of its best financial experts to Holland to make a +close and first-hand inspection of all possible Dutch assets, and to +study the relation between revenue and expenditure and to discover just +how much bleeding this rich old organism could stand. On the 7th of +February these two experts, the Citizens Ramel and Cochon (most fitting +name), arrived in The Hague. In less than two weeks they were ready with +their report. They certainly knew their business. "Do not kill the goose +which lays the golden egg" was the tenor of their message to the French +convention. "Let Holland prosper commercially, and then you shall be +able to take a large sum every year for an unlimited number of years. +But show some clemency for the present. Whatever there used to be of +value in the republic has been sent abroad many months ago and now lies +hidden in safety vaults in Hamburg and London. Reëstablish confidence. +The rich will come back; their property will come back; dividends will +come back. Then go in and take as much as the Dutch capital can stand." + +Such was the gist of their advice, but it was very ill received by the +triumvirate which conducted the foreign policy of the French Republic. +They knew little of economics, but much about the pressing needs of the +large armies which were fighting for the cause of Fraternity and +Liberty. Money was needed in Italy and money was needed in Germany, and +the republic must provide it. And to Citizen Paulus and his provisional +assembly there went a summons for one hundred million guilders to be +paid in cash within three months, and for a 3 per cent. loan of a same +amount to be taken up by the Dutch bankers before the year should be +over. Incidentally a vast tract of territory in the southern part of the +republic was demanded to be used for French military purposes. + +Here was a bit of constructive statesmanship for the month-old +provisional government. Twenty-five thousand hungry French soldiers +garrisoned in their home cities and a peremptory demand for two millions +and several hundred square miles of land. Forward and backward the +discussion ran. The republic was willing to open her colonies to French +trade, to conclude an offensive and defensive treaty with France, to +reorganize her fleet and use it against England. Not a cent less than a +hundred millions, answered Paris. + +The republic must not be driven to extremes, or France will lose all the +influence which it has obtained so far. + +"Go ahead," said Paris, "and get rid of us. The moment we shall recall +our troops, the Prussians will come to reëstablish your little +Stadholder the way they did in 1787. Our retreating army shall plunder +all it can, and the rest will be left to the tender mercies of the +Prussian's Hussars. Get rid of us and see what is to become of your +Batavian Republic." + +The Provisionals, recognizing the truth of this statement, fearing +another restoration, asked time for deliberation. Then they offered to +pay sixty millions and cede a vast tract of territory. "One hundred +millions in cash and the same amount in a loan," said Paris, "and not a +cent less." + +Pieter Paulus (if only he had not died so young) worked hard and +faithfully to try and avert this outrage. At times, as when he declared +that "it were better to submit to the terms of a conqueror than to agree +to such monstrous demands on the part of a professed friend," he rose to +a certain heroism. But he stood alone, and his obstinate fight only +resulted in a slight modification of some of the minor terms. One +hundred millions in cash it was, and one hundred millions in cash it +remained. + +On the 16th of May, 1796, the treaty of The Hague was concluded between +the French and the Batavian republics. The French guaranteed the +independence and the liberty of the Batavian Republic and also +guaranteed the abolition of the Stadholdership. Until the conclusion of +a general European peace there should exist an offensive and defensive +treaty between the two countries. Against England this treaty would be +binding forever. Flushing must receive a French garrison. A number of +small cities in the Dutch part of Flanders must become French. The +colonies must be opened to French trade. The Dutch must equip and +maintain a French army of 25,000 men, and fifty million guilders must be +paid outright, with another fifty million to come in regular rates. + +The Batavian Republic now could make up a little trial balance. This was +the result: + +Credit: the expulsion of one Stadholder and the establishment of a free +republic; 2,365,000 guilders' worth of worthless paper money imported by +the French soldiers. Debit: 50,000,000 in spot cash and 50,000,000 in +future notes; 40,000,000 for French requisitions; 50,000,000 lost +through passed English dividends, lost colonies, ruined trade. Total +gain--Q.E.D. + + + + +IV + +THE PROVISIONAL + + +The provisional representatives of the people of Holland, the +provisional representatives of the people of Zeeland, the provisional +representatives of all the nine provinces (for the old generalities had +been proclaimed into provinces), the provisional municipalities and +provisional committees on the provisional revolution--the names indicate +sufficiently the provisionally of the whole undertaking. + +Curiously enough (but the contemporary of course could not know this) +the Provisional government worked more and to a better effect than the +permanent form of government by which it was followed. It had one great +advantage: there was such an insistent demand for immediate action that +there was a correspondingly small chance for idle talking. The +professional orators, the silver-tongued rhetoricians, had their innings +at a later date. For the moment only men of deeds were wanted, and the +best elements of the Patriotic party cheerfully stepped forward to do +their duty. + +Pieter Paulus, by right of his ability, was the official and unofficial +head. He remained at The Hague and ran the national Provisional +government, while Citizen Schimmelpenninck stayed in Amsterdam and kept +that important dynamo of democratic power running smoothly. Both leaders +had their troubles, but not from foreign enemies. It is true that the +young Prince of Orange was contemplating a wild filibustering scheme and +had called for volunteers to compose an army of invasion. The half-pay +officers of the former régime had hastened to his colours. But very few +soldiers were willing to risk their lives for such an unpopular cause, +and with an army composed of two soldiers for each officer no great +military operations were possible. Wherefore the plan fell through in a +most lamentable way, and the Prince of Orange as a claimant to the Dutch +Government disappeared from further view until many years later. + +The great bugaboo of the Provisional government and its moderate members +was the radical brethren of the very same Patriotic party. These good +people had starved abroad for many years. At the first opportunity they +had hastened back to the ancestral hearth-stone. And now they presented +enormous claims for damages for the losses which eight years before they +had suffered at the hands of the Orangeists. But instead of receiving +the hoped-for bounties these faithful democrats were snubbed on all +sides. The climax was reached when the Batavian Government offered to +pay them twenty-five guilders each (the price of a ticket from Paris to +Amsterdam) and let it go at that. The professional exiles roared +indignation, repaired to the nearest coffee-house, and instantly formed +a number of clubs which were to see that no further deviations from the +genuine path of revolutionary virtue be permitted. And very broadly they +hinted that a short session of Madame Guillotine might do no end of good +in this complacent and ungrateful Dutch community. + +Let it be said to the everlasting honour of the Provisionals that no +such thing occurred. Nobody was decapitated, no palaces and country +houses were delivered to the tender mercies of the Jacobin Patriots. + +The possessions of the Stadholder, which yielded 700,000 livres a year, +were taken over by the republic and administered for its own benefit. +The regents were permitted to exist, very, very quietly, and were not +interfered with in any way. Yea, even when old Van den Spiegel and +William's great friend Count Bentinck were brought to trial for +malfeasance committed while in office they were immediately set free. +And the citizen who conducted the investigation, Valckenaer by name and +a most ardent Jacobin by profession, openly confessed that there had +been no case against these two dignitaries, that the charges against +them had been like spinach: "Looks like a lot when it is fresh, but does +not make much of a dish when it gets boiled down." + +No, the members of the Provisional were good Patriots and good +democrats, but with all due respect for the doctrine of equality they +did not aspire to that particular form of equality which is established +by the revolutionary razor. + +But after the question of the more turbulent members of their party had +been decided, there was another problem of the greatest importance. +Where, in the name of all the depleted treasuries, could the money be +found with which to pay the French deliverers, the current expenses of +this costly provisional government, the added sums necessary for the war +with the enemies of France? The high sea was closed to Dutch trade, the +colonies did not produce a penny's worth of revenue, Dutch industries +were dead and buried under unpayable debts. Not a cent was coming in +from anywhere; but whole streams of valuable guilders were flowing out +of the country to everywhere. + +The final solution of the problem was as simple as it was disastrous. +The Batavian Republic began to live on the capital of the Dutch +Republic. In some provinces the Provisional government confiscated all +gold and silver with the exception of the plate used in the church +service. But this little sum was gobbled up by the hungry treasury +before a month was over. Then voluntary 5 per cent. loans were tried. +They were not taken up. An extraordinary tax of 6 per cent. was levied +upon all revenue. The money covered the running expenses for three +weeks; and all the time those twenty-five thousand Frenchmen, who had to +be clothed and fed, ate and ate and ate as if they had never seen a +square meal before, which probably was the truth. + +There was only one way out of the difficulty: The credit of the prodigal +son, who for two centuries had regularly paid his bills, is apt to be +good. The republic could loan as much as it wanted to, and it now abused +this privilege. Loans were taken to pay dividends upon other loans, +until finally a system was developed of loans within loans upon other +loans which ultimately must ruin even the soundest of financial +constitutions. + +Meanwhile it poured assignats. All attempts to stop this unwelcome +shower at its source were met with the most absolute refusal of the +French Government. "What! dishonour our pretty greenbacks with their +fine mottoes, and accepted everywhere as the true badges of good +revolutionary faith?" They could not hear of such a thing. And they +printed assignats, and the counterfeiters printed assignats, and every +private citizen whose children owned a little private printing press and +whose oldest boy knew the rudiments of drawing printed assignats, until +the shower caused a deluge, which in due time swamped the whole +financial district and brought about that horror of horrors--a national +bankruptcy. + +Enters No. 3 upon the program of the Provisional's difficulties: the +army and the navy. + +Daendels had obtained permission to leave the French service and had +assumed command of the Dutch troops. A strange conglomeration of +troops, by the way, not unlike the mercenary armies of the Middle Ages: +regiments composed of every nationality--Swiss grenadiers and Saxon +cavalry, Scotch life guards and Mecklenburg chasseurs, a few Dutch +engineers and some Waldeck infantry; the officers partly Dutch, but +mostly foreign; the higher officers mostly in exile; the lower ones +awaiting the day when their friend the Prince should return. Surely +before this army could be reorganized into a national army of 24,000 +well-equipped men, hot-blooded Daendels would have a chance to exercise +that swift temper of his. For after a year of drilling there was not +even a single company that could be depended upon in a regular skirmish +in time of war. + +With the fleet the government did not experience such very great +difficulties. The fifteen millions necessary for reorganization had been +quickly collected, and Paulus a specialist on this subject, had gone to +work with a will. The old officers and men had either left the service, +or had surrendered their ships to the English as the allies of their +commander-in-chief, the Stadholder. But there were enough sailors in the +country to man the ships. Such of the old ships as had remained in Dutch +harbours were rebaptized with more appropriate names--the _William the +Silent_ became the _Brutus_, the _Estates General_ was renamed the +_George Washington_, and the _Princess Wilhelmina_ was delicately +changed to the _Fury_--and twenty-four new ships of the line and +twenty-four frigates were planned for immediate construction. + +[Illustration: CAPETOWN CAPTURED BY THE ENGLISH] + +After half a year Admiral de Winter (former second lieutenant of the +navy and French general of infantry) was ready to leave Texel with the +first Batavian fleet. He sailed from Texel with a couple of ships, and +after having been beaten by an English squadron off the coast of Norway, +he returned to Texel with a few ships less. Two special squadrons were +then equipped and ordered to proceed to the West and East Indian +Colonies; but before they left the republic news was received of the +conquest of these colonies by the British, and the auxiliary squadrons +were given up as useless. + +Now all these puzzling questions facing untrained politicians took so +much of their time that nothing was apparently done toward the great +goal of this entire revolution--the establishment of a national assembly +to draw up a constitution and put the country upon a definite legitimate +basis. + +The country began to show a certain restlessness. The old Orangeists +smiled. "They knew what all this desultory business meant. Provisional, +indeed? Provisional for all times." The more extreme Patriots, who knew +how sedition of this sort was preached all over the land, showed signs +of irritation. "It was not good that the opposition could say such +things. Something must be done and be done at once. Would the +Provisional kindly hurry?" + +But when the Provisional did not hurry, and when nothing was done toward +a materialization of the much-heralded constitution, the Jacobins +bethought themselves of what they had learned in their Parisian boarding +school and decided to start a lobby--a revolutionary lobby, if you +please; not a peaceful one which works in the dark and follows the evil +paths of free cigars and free meals and free theatre tickets. No, a +lobby with a recognized standing, a clubhouse visible to all, and rules +and by-laws and a well-trained army of retainers to be drawn upon +whenever noise and threats could influence the passing of a particular +bill. + +On the 26th of August, 1795, there assembled in The Hague more than +sixty representatives from different provincial patriotic clubs. The +purpose of the meeting was "to obtain a national assembly for the +formation of a constitution based upon the immovable rights of +men--Liberty and Equality--and having as its direct purpose the absolute +unity of this good land." Here at last was a program which sounded like +something definite--"the absolute unity of this land." + +All the revolutionary doings of the last six months, the patriotic +turbulences of the past generation, were not as extreme, as +anti-nationalistic in their outspoken tendencies, as was this one +sentence: "The absolute unity of this land." It meant "Finis" to all the +exaggerated provincialism of the old republic. It meant an end to all +that for many centuries had been held most sacred by the average +Hollander. It meant that little potentates would no longer be little +potentates, but insignificant members of a large central government. It +meant that the little petty rights and honours for which whole families +had worked during centuries would pale before the lustre of the central +government in the capital. It meant that all High and Mightinesses would +be thrown into one general melting-pot to be changed into fellow +citizens of one undivided country. It meant the disappearance of that +most delightful of all vices, the small-town prejudice. And all those +who had anything to lose, from the highest regent down to the lowest +village lamplighter, made ready to offer silent but stubborn resistance. +To give up your money and your possessions was one thing, but to be +deprived of all your little prerogatives was positively unbearable. And +not a single problem with which the Provisional, or afterward the +national assembly, had to deal, caused as many difficulties as the +unyielding opposition of all respectable citizens to the essentially +outlandish plan of a single and undivided country. + +As a matter of fact, the unity was finally forced upon the country by a +very small minority. The Dutch Jacobins were noisy, they were +ill-mannered, and on the whole they were not very sympathetic. (Jacobins +rarely are except on the stage.) But one thing they did, and they did it +well. By hook and by crook, by bullying, and upon several occasions by +direct threats of violence, they cut the Gordian knot of provincialism +and established a single nation and a union where formerly +disorganization and political chaos had existed. For when their first +proposal of the 26th of August was not at once welcomed by the +Provisional, the revolutionary lobbyists declared themselves to be a +permanent Supervisory Committee, and as the "Central Assembly" (of the +representatives from among the democratic clubs of the Batavian +Republic) they remained in The Hague agitating for their ideas until at +last something of positive value had been accomplished. + +The Estates General could refuse to receive communications from this +self-appointed advisory body, the Estates of a number of provinces could +threaten its members with arrest, but here they were and here they +stayed (in an excellent hotel, by the way, which still exists and is now +known as the Vieux Doelen), sitting as an unofficial little parliament, +and fighting with all legitimate and illegitimate means for the +fulfilment of their self-imposed task. And one year and one month after +the glorious revolution which we have tried to describe in our previous +chapters, the provisional assembly, under the influence of these ardent +Patriots and their gallery crowd, decided to call together a "national +assembly to draw up a constitution and to take the first steps toward +changing the fatherland into a united country." + +And this is the way they went about it: The national assembly should be +elected by all Hollanders who were twenty years of age. They must be +neither paupers nor heretics upon the point of the people's sovereignty. +For the purpose of the first election, the provinces were to be divided +into districts of 15,000 men each, subdivided into sub-districts of +500. The sub-districts, voting secretly and by majority of votes, were +to elect one elector and one substitute elector. The elector must be +twenty-five years of age, not a pauper, and a citizen of four years' +standing. Thirty electors then were to elect one representative and two +substitute representatives. These must be thirty years of age and were +to represent the people in the national assembly. Their pay was to be +four dollars a day and mileage. The national convention was to be an +executive and legislative body after the fashion of the Estates General +during those old days when no Stadholder had been appointed. Within two +weeks after its first meeting the national assembly must appoint a +suitable commission of twenty-one members (seven from Holland, one from +Drenthe, and two from each of the other provinces). Said commission, +within six months of date, must draw up a constitution. This +constitution then must at once be submitted to the convention for its +approval, and within a year it must be brought before the people for +their final referendum. + +The elections actually took place in the last part of February of the +year 1796. They took place in perfect order and with great dignity. The +system was not exactly simple, but it was something new, and it was +rather fun to study out the complicated details and then walk to the +polls and exercise your first rights as a full-fledged citizen. + +On the 1st of March more than half of the representatives, duly +elected, assembled in The Hague, ready to go to work. + +A year had now gone by since the provisional government had been +started--a year which had little to show for itself except an +ever-increasing number of debts and an ever-decreasing amount of +revenue. The time had come for the direct representatives of the +sovereign people to indicate the new course which inevitably must bring +to the country the definite benefits of its glorious but expensive +revolution. + +Exit the provisional assembly and enter the national assembly. + + + + +V + +SOLEMN OPENING OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY + +THE OPENING CEREMONIES + + +On the morning of the 1st of March, 1796, the ever-curious people of The +Hague had a legitimate reason for taking an extra holiday. For two weeks +carpenters, plumbers, and whitewashers, followed by paperhangers and +upholsterers, had been at work in the former palace of the Stadholder. +They had hammered and papered until the former ballroom of Prince +William V had been changed into a meeting room for the new national +assembly. It was an oblong room eighty by thirty-two feet, and extremely +high. The members were to sit on benches behind tables covered with the +obligatory green baize. Their benches were built in long rows, four +deep, constructed along three sides of the hall and facing the windows +which gave on the courtyard. The centre part of the fourth wall, between +the big windows, was taken up by a sort of revolutionary throne, which +was to be occupied by the Speaker and his secretaries. The chair of the +Speaker was a ponderous affair, embellished with wooden statues +representing Liberty and Fraternity. The gallery for the people, one of +the most important parts of a modern assembly hall, gave room for three +hundred citizens. The principle of equality, however, had not been +carried to such an extreme as in the French assemblies. There was a +separate gallery for the use of the diplomats and the better class of +citizens. Unfortunately there were but few diplomats left to avail +themselves of this opportunity to listen to Batavian rhetoric. +Practically all of the foreign ministers had left The Hague soon after +the Prince had departed. + +The members of the assembly, after the French fashion, were not to speak +from their seats, but when they wished to address their colleagues and +the nation they mounted a special little pulpit standing on the right of +the Speaker's throne and resembling (or trying to resemble) a classical +rostrum. + +Now let us tell what the good people of The Hague were to see on this +memorable 1st of March. All in all there were ninety-six representatives +in town, and they came from seven provinces. + +Friesland and Zeeland, neither of which liked the idea of this assembly, +which was forced upon them by a revolutionary committee, had purposely +delayed their elections--had not even commenced with the preliminaries +of the first election. The other provinces, however, especially Drenthe +and the former Generalities, which for the first time in their history +acted as independent bodies, had been eager to go to work, and at eleven +o'clock of this 1st of March their representatives and their +substitutes, in their Sunday best, came walking to their new quarters. +Slowly they gathered, until at the stroke of noon just ninety members +were present. Punctually at that moment a delegation appeared from +across the way, from the Estates General. They were to be the godfathers +of the new assembly. Nine members of the old Estates General, escorted +by a guard of honour from among the assembly, filed into the hall and +took special seats in front of the Speaker's chair. One of them then +read the names of the assemblymen whose credentials had been examined +and had been passed upon favourably. The new members then drew lots for +their seats. This ceremony was to be repeated every two weeks and was to +prevent the formation of a Mountain and a Plain and other dangerous +geographical substances fatal to an undisturbed political cosmos. The +substitute representatives took their seats on benches behind their +masters. Then the chairman of the delegation from across the way read a +solemn declaration, which took the place of the former oath of +allegiance, and the representatives expressed their fidelity to this +patriotic pledge. The chairman ended this part of the ceremony with a +fine outburst of rhetoric in which the Spanish tyranny, King Philip the +second, Alva, the dangerous ambition of William of Nassau, and the +spirit of liberty of the Batavian people passed in review before his +delighted hearers. And having dispatched the odious tyrant, William V, +across the high seas, he referred to the blessings that were now to flow +over the country, and thanked the gentlemen for their kind attention. + +The next subject on the program was the election of a Speaker. At the +first vote Pieter Paulus, with 88 votes against 2, was elected Speaker +of the Assembly. The chief delegate from the Estates General, in his +quality of best man at this occasion, put a tricoloured sash across the +shoulders of Mr. Paulus and conducted him to the Speaker's chair. +Profound silence. The galleries, crowded to the last seat, held their +breath. The ministers from the French Republic and the United States of +America, who, with the diplomatic representatives of Denmark and +Portugal, were the only official foreigners present, looked at their +watches that they might inform their home governments at what moment +exactly the new little sister republic had started upon her career. + +It was twelve o'clock when Citizen Paulus arose and with a firm voice +declared: "In the name of the people of the Netherlands, which has duly +delegated us to our present functions, I declare this meeting to be the +Representative Assembly of the People of the Netherlands." + +Tremendous applause. A band hidden in a corner struck up a revolutionary +hymn. Outside a bugle call announced unto the multitudes that the new +régime had been officially established. The soldiers presented arms. The +populace hastened to embrace the soldiers and to give vent to such +expressions of civic joy as were fashionable at that moment. The +national flag, the old red, white, and blue with an additional Goddess +of Liberty, was hoisted on the highest available spot, which happened to +be a little observatory where the children of the Stadholder in happier +days had learned to read the wonders of the high heavens. The appearance +of this flag was the appointed signal for those who had not been able to +find room in the small courtyard, and they now burst forth into cheers. +Finally the cannon, well placed outside the city limits (to avoid +accidents to careless patriotic infants), boomed forth their message, +and those who possessed a private blunderbuss fired it to their hearts' +content. Ere long dispatch riders hastened to all parts of the country +and told the glorious news. + +The committee from the Estates General, however, did not wait for this +part of the celebration. As soon as Paulus had begun his inaugural +address (a quiet and dignified document, much to the point) they had +unobservedly slipped out of the assembly and had returned to their own +meeting hall across the yard. And here, while outside in the streets the +people went into frantic joy about the new Batavian liberty, their High +and Mightinesses, who for so many centuries had conducted the destinies +of their own country and who so often had decided the fate of Europe, +who had appointed governors of a colonial empire stretching over many +continents, and who, chiefly through their own mistakes, had lost their +power--here, their High and Mightinesses met for the very last time. The +committee which had attended the opening of the Representative Assembly +of the People of the Netherlands reported upon what they had done, what +they had seen, and what they had heard. Then with a few fitting words +their speaker closed the meeting. Slowly their High and Mightinesses +packed up their papers and dispersed. Outside the town prepared for +illumination. + +[Illustration: PIETER PAULUS] + + + + +VI + +PIETER PAULUS + + +A year before, the French Revolution had come suddenly, and boldly it +had struck its brutal bayonet into the industrious ants' nest of the +Dutch Republic. There had been great hurrying to save life and property. +After a while order had been reëstablished. And then to its intense +surprise, at first with unbelieving astonishment, later with +ill-concealed vexation, the political entymologists of the French +Revolution had discovered that in this little country they had hit upon +an entirely new variety of national fabric. Against all the rules of +well-conducted republics, every little ant and every small combination +of ants worked only for its own little selfish ends, disregarded its +neighbours, fought most desperately for every small advantage to its +own, bit at those who came near, stole the eggs of those who were not +looking--in a word, while outwardly the little heap of earth seemed to +cover a well-conducted colony of formicidæ, inwardly it appeared to be +an ill-conducted, quarrelsome congregation of very selfish little +individuals. And with profound common sense, the French, after their +first surprise was over, said: "Brethren, this will never do. Really +you must change all this. We will give you a chance to build a new nest, +a very superior one. You can upholster it just as you please. You can +put in all the extra outside and inside ornaments which you may care to +have around you. But you must stop this insane quarrelling among +yourselves, this biting at each other, this spoiling of each other's +pleasure. In one word, you have got to turn this chaotic establishment +of yours into a well-regulated, centralized commonwealth such as is now +being constructed by all modern nations." + +Very well. But who was to perform the miracle? William the Silent had +failed. Oldenbarneveldt two hundred years before had told his fellow +citizens almost identically the same thing. John de Witt had tried to +bring about a union by making the whole country subservient to Holland, +but he had not been successful. William III had accomplished everything +he had set out to do, but he could not establish a centralized +government in the republic. The entire eighteenth century had been one +prolonged struggle to establish the beginning of a more unified system, +and in this struggle much of the strength and energy of the country had +been wasted in vain. + +And now the untrained national assembly (Representative Assembly of the +People of the Netherlands was too long a word) was asked to perform a +task which was to make it odious to more than half of its own members +and to the vast majority of the people of the republic. + +Revolution, sansculottes, assignats, carmagnole, unpowdered hair--the +Batavians were willing to stand for almost anything, but not one iota of +provincial sovereignty must be sacrificed. + +Pieter Paulus, wise man of this revolution, knew and understood the +difficulties which were awaiting him and his assembly. Already, in his +inaugural address, he had warned the members of the assembly that they +must not forget to be "representatives of the whole people, not mere +delegates from some particular town or province." The members had +listened very patiently, but when, on the 15th of the month, the +commission for the drawing up of a constitution was elected, the +federalists, those who supported the idea of provincial sovereignty as +opposed to a greater union, proved to be in the majority. + +Of the twenty-one members who were elected to make a constitution, only +one was known as a radical supporter of the idea of union. Since Zeeland +and Friesland, even at this advanced date, had not yet sent their +delegates, the commission could not commence its labours until the end +of April. And when at last they set to work the assembly had suffered an +irreparable loss. One week after the opening ceremonies the secretary of +the assembly had asked that Mr. Paulus be excused from presiding that +day. A heavy cold had kept him at home. Paulus was still a young man, +only a little over forty. But during the last fourteen months, almost +without support, he had carried the whole weight of the revolutionary +government. And as soon as the assembly had met, the disgruntled +Jacobins, who thought that he was not radical enough, had openly accused +him of financial irregularities. It is true the assembly had refused to +listen to these charges and the members had expressed their utmost +confidence in the speaker; but eighteen hours' work a day, the +responsibility for a State on the verge of ruin, and attacks upon his +personal honesty, seemed to have been too much for a constitution which +never had been of the strongest. The slight cold which had prevented +Paulus from presiding proved to be the beginning of the end. After the +6th of March the speaker no longer appeared in the assembly. On the 15th +of the same month he died. + +The greatest compliment to his abilities can be found in the fact that +after his death the national assembly at once degenerated into an +endless debating society which, in imitation of the Roman Senate, +deliberated and deliberated until not merely Saguntum, but the country +itself, the colonies, and the national credit had been lost, and until +once more French bayonets had to be called upon to establish the order +which the people seemed to be unable to provide for themselves. + +[Illustration: THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY] + + + + +VII + +NATIONAL ASSEMBLY NO. I AT WORK + + +The revolutionists in Holland had not followed the example of the French +in abolishing the Lord. All denominations received full freedom of +worship, and, faithful to an old tradition, the meetings of the assembly +were invariably opened with prayer. As an ideal text for this daily +supplication one of the members of the assembly offered the following +invocation, short and much to the point: "O Lord, from trifling, +dilly-dallying, and procrastination save us now and for ever-more. +Amen." + +Posterity seconds this motion. + +The temple of national liberty became an elocution institute where +beribboned and besashed members idled their time away making heroic +speeches for the benefit of some ancestral Buncomb County. + +Let us be allowed to use a big word--the Psychological Moment. The +leaders of the revolution had allowed this decisive moment to go by, and +the day came when they were to pay dearly for their negligence. If, +immediately after the flight of the Prince in the first glory of +victory, they had dared to declare the old order of things abolished, if +they had trusted themselves sufficiently to abrogate the union of +Utrecht, to annul the provincial sovereignty and destroy the old power +of the provincial Estates, they could, assisted by the French armies, +have transformed the old republic into a new united nation. But a +century of vacillation and indecision had ill prepared them for such a +decisive step. The Amsterdam Patriots, trained in the energetic school +of a commercial city, wanted to go ahead and draw the consequences of +their first act. But the other cities had not dared to go as far as +that. And now, after a year of hesitation, it was too late. Radicalism +was no longer fashionable. The old conservative spirit momentarily +subdued, but by no means dead, had had three hundred and sixty-five days +in which to regain its hold on the mass of the people. Incessantly, +although guardedly, the conservatives kept up their agitation against a +united country. "Unity merely means the leadership of Holland." This +became the political watchword of all those who were opposed to the +Patriots. "Unity will mean that our dear old sovereign provinces will +have to take orders from some indifferent official in The Hague. Unity +will mean that we all shall pay an equal share in the country's expenses +and that Holland, with its majority of 400,000 inhabitants, will pay no +more than the smallest province." And with all the stubbornness of people +defending a losing cause, the old regents fought this terrible menace of +a united country. They fought it in the market-place and in the rustic +tavern. They offered resistance in every town hall and in the national +assembly. Every question which entered the assembly (and questions and +bills and decrees entered this legislative body by the basketful) was +looked at from this one single point of view, was discussed with this +idea uppermost in people's minds, and finally was decided in a way which +would work against the unity of the country and the leadership of +Holland. The acts of the national assembly fill eight large quartos; the +decrees issued by the national assembly fill twenty-three. Certainly +here was no lack of industry. Every imaginable question was touched upon +by this enthusiastic body of promising young statesmen. Every +conceivable problem, however difficult, was discussed with ease and +eloquence. The separation of Church and State, something which has +baffled statesmen for many centuries, was number one upon the new +program. The sluices of oratory were opened wide. Each member in turn +came forward with his observations. Nor did he confine himself to a few +words directed to the Speaker of the assembly. No--a speech to the +entire nation, to say the very least--a speech divided and subdivided in +paragraphs like a Puritan sermon and delivered in the most approved +pulpit style, sacred gestures, nasal twang, and all. At times, such as +when the clown of the assembly (appropriately named Citizen Chicken) +went forth to talk down the rafters of the ancient building, the Speaker +tried to put a stop to the overflow of eloquence. + +But the speakership was a movable office. Every two weeks the entire +assembly changed seats and elected a new Speaker. By voting for the +right kind of man (from their point of view) the loquacious majority +could always arrange matters in such a way that their stream of babbling +oratory was kept unchecked. In August, after a lengthy debate, the +separation of Church and State was made a fact. Immediately thereupon a +law was passed giving the franchise to the Jews. Eighty thousand +citizens of the Hebrew persuasion now obtained the right to vote. +Another grave problem, agitated for more than fifty years, was the +creation of a national militia. Theoretically everybody was in favour of +it. In practice, however, most Hollanders would rather dig ditches than +play at soldier. The definite abolition of the uncountable mediæval +feudal rights which in the year 1795 covered the country in a most +complicated maze then came in for prolonged discussion. + +Most painful of all, because most disastrous to the pockets of the +people, was the question of what should be done with the East India +Company. This ancient institution, threatened for several years with +bankruptcy, must in some way be provided for. While finally the problem +of a new system of national finances, satisfactory to all the provinces, +was to engage the discordant attention of the assembly. + +[Illustration: THE SPEAKER OF THE ASSEMBLY WELCOMING THE FRENCH +MINISTER] + +In some of these important matters decisions were actually reached. +Others were discussed in endless tirades, full of repetition and +reiteration. If the point at issue was too obscure to be clearly +understood by the majority of the members, it was usually referred to +the commission on the constitution, which as some sort of superior being +was expected to solve all difficulties satisfactorily at some vague +future date. Or, better still, it was put upon the table until that +happy day when the constitution should actually have become a fact, and +when a regular parliament, elected along strictly constitutional lines, +should have been called together. This famous committee on the +constitution was supposed to meet in executive session, but, not unlike +the executive sessions of another renowned body of legislators, the +discussions which had taken place during the morning and afternoon were +generally known among the newspaper correspondents the same evening. And +those among them who had maintained hopes of a united fatherland must +have been sorely disappointed when week after week they reported the +proceedings of the secret sessions and noticed how the little +constitution under the tender care of its federalistic guardian was +being clothed with a suit of a most pronounced federal hue, cut after a +pattern designed by the most provincial of political tailors. On the +10th of November, 1796, the little infant constitution was first +presented to the admiring gaze of the national assembly. The federalists +were delighted. The unionists denounced it as the work of traitors, of +disguised Orangemen, of reactionaries of the very worst sort. +Undoubtedly the unionists and the Patriots had a right to be angry. +This new constitution was a mere variation of the old republican theme +of the year 1576, the year of the union of Utrecht. The Stadholdership +was abolished. The executive power was now invested in a council of +state consisting of seven members. The old Estates General was +discontinued. In its place there was to appear an elected parliament +consisting of two chambers and provided with legislative powers. The old +provinces were abolished, but under the new name of departments they +retained their ancient sovereignty and remained in the possession of all +their old rights and prerogatives. That was all. + +The political clubs were furious. The Jacobins rattled the knives of +imaginary guillotines. The gallery of the assembly became filled with +wild-eyed patriots. The assembly, somewhat frightened by the popular +storm of disapproval, burst forth into speech and talked for eleven +whole days to prove that really and truly this constitution was not a +return to the old days, that it was most up-to-date and promised to the +country a new and brilliant future. Then, when this oratory did not +appease the popular anger even after fully two thirds of the members had +favoured the occasion with their personal observations, the assembly +gave in and solemnly promised to do some more trimming. Back the little +constitution went to its original guardians, who were reinforced by ten +other members and who had special instructions to put the child into a +newer and more popular garb. This process of rejuvenation took six +months. The committee of twenty-one did its best, but old traditions +proved to be too strong. On the 30th of May, 1797, the national assembly +by a large majority adopted the federalistic constitution and at once +sent it to the electors for their final decision. Two years of work of +enormous expense and sore defeat had gone by. As a result the assembly +had produced a constitution which did not remove a single one of the +faults of the former system of government, but added a few new ones. In +August the session of the first national assembly was closed. Three +weeks later the constitution was presented to the sovereign people for +their consideration. Of those entitled to vote almost three fourths +stayed at home. Of the remaining one hundred and thirty thousand voters +five out of every six declared themselves against the constitution. The +noes had it. + + + + +VIII + +NATIONAL ASSEMBLY NO. II AT WORK + + +There could be no doubt about the views of the majority of the people +who took an interest in active politics. In unmistakable tones they had +declared in favour of unionism. When the new election came they hastened +to the polls and elected into the new assembly a large majority of +unionists. Such was their enthusiasm that several of the more prominent +unionist leaders were elected by seven and twelve electoral colleges at +the same time. In this new assembly the moderate party, which had been +the centre of the first one and which had counted among its members some +of the best-trained political minds, was no longer present. Its leaders +had not considered it worth the while. The unionists in the first +assembly had claimed that the moderates by supporting the federalists +had been directly responsible for the failure of the first constitution. +"All right," the moderates said, "let the unionists now try for +themselves and see what they can do." And the moderates stayed quietly +at home and resumed their law practice. For most of these excellent +gentlemen were lawyers and had offices needing their attention. On the +whole their decision was a wise one. + +[Illustration: 1797 BATAVIAN REPUBLIC] + +When a serious operation has to be performed, philosophic doctors who +start upon an academic discussion of the patient's chances of recovery +are not wanted. And certainly, since the great day of the abjuration of +King Philip II in the year 1581, the country had not passed through any +such violent crisis as it was now facing. The big French brother, +heartily disgusted with this dilatory business, this trifling away of so +much valuable time, hinted more clearly than ever before that something +definite must be done and must be done quickly. A new government must be +constructed by men who not only strongly believed in themselves but also +in the efficacy of their measures and the sacredness of their cause. If +no such men could be found it were better indeed if France should import +a ready-made constitution and should perform the task for which the +Hollanders themselves seemed so ill fitted. + +On September 1, 1797, the second assembly met. The constitutional +committee of twenty-one was duly elected, and the representatives set to +work. So did the patriotic clubs. By constant agitation they reminded +the representatives in The Hague that what the people wanted was a +unionistic constitution, not another mild dilution of the old-fashioned +rule of the regent. Every little outburst of Orangeistic sentiment--a +drunken sailor hurrahing for the Prince, a half-witted peasant mumbling +rumours of another Prussian restoration--was used as an excuse for new +petitions, for ponderous memoranda to be addressed to the national +assembly and to be presented by some patriotic member with a few +well-chosen and trenchant words. + +Came the defeat of the fleet by the British--discussed in the next +chapter--and the inevitable cry of treason to increase the general +confusion. The clubs knew all about it. The country was full of traitors +who were secretly devoted to the Prince and wished to return to William +his old dignities and to bring vengeance upon all pure Patriots. + +Had not the Reformed Church--that old stronghold of the House of +Orange--had not the Reformed ministers, with pious zeal, been working +upon the religious sentiment of their congregations for weeks and +months, and had they not driven their parishioners to the bookstores to +sign petitions against the separation of Church and State? Indeed they +had! Two hundred thousand men, more than half of the total number of +national voters, had signed those petitions which must prevent their +beloved ministers from losing their old official salaries. Louder and +louder the patriotic minority wailed its doleful lamentations of +treachery; and more and more firm became the tone of the Orangeists and +the reactionaries. You see, dear reader, the revolution by this time had +proved a terrible disappointment to most people. Under the old order of +things there had been great economic and political disasters. But then +there had been a Stadholder to be held responsible and to be made into +the official scapegoat. Enter the Patriot with the advice, "Remove the +Stadholder, establish the sovereignty of the people, and politically, +economically, and socially all will be well." Very well. The Stadholder +had been chased into the desert; the sovereignty of the people had been +established. Then everybody had gone back to his business, trusting that +the people's supreme power, like some marvellous patent medicine, would +automatically take care of all the necessary improvements. Quite +naturally nothing of the sort had happened. Of all the different systems +of government--and even the best of them are but a makeshift--intended +to bring comfort to the average majority, there is nothing more +difficult to institute or to maintain than a sovereignty of all the +people. It needs endless watching. It is a big affair which touches +everybody. It is subject to more attacks from without and from within, +to more onslaughts from destructive political parasites, than any other +form of government. Take the case of the Batavian Republic. First of +all, the hungry exiles of the year 1787 had descended upon its treasury +to still their voracious appetites. Then the serious-minded lawyers had +interfered and had said: "No, we must go about this work slowly and +deliberately. We must first read up on the subject. We must peruse all +the books and all the pamphlets written about assemblies and +constitutions and natural rights, and then we must draw our own +conclusions." Next, the federalists, desiring to save what could be +saved from the wreck of their beloved government, had tried to undo all +the work of the Patriots by their own little insiduous methods. + +No, as a general panacea for all popular ailments the sovereignty of a +people had not yet proved itself to be a success. And then, the cost! O +ye gods! the bad assignats--the millions of guilders for the +requisitions of the French army, the other millions to be paid in taxes +for the support of the new government! And the results--the destruction +of the fleet, the loss of almost all the colonies, the complete +annihilation of trade and commerce! While as the only tangible result of +all this effort there were the thirty-one ponderous volumes of the +assemblies' speeches and decrees. + +Perhaps, when all was said and done, was it not better to look the facts +boldly in the face and return to the old order of things? Ahem and Aha! +Perhaps it was. It must not be said too loudly, however, for the +patriotic clubs might hear it, and they were a wild lot. "But now look +here, brother citizen, what have you as a plain and sensible man gained +by this assembly and by all this election business? Have you paid a cent +less in taxes? No. Have your East Indian bonds increased in value? No. +They are not worth a cent to-day. Have you found that your commerce was +better protected than before? No. The fleet has never been in a worse +condition than it is now." And so on, and so on, _ad infinitum_. The +patriotic clubs of course knew that such an agitation was abroad +throughout the land. They knew that the trees of liberty had long since +been cut into firewood by shivering citizens; they knew that in many an +attic the housewife had inspected her old supply of Orange ribbons and +had hopefully provided them with fresh mothballs. And they knew that +with another six months of the present bad government their last chance +at power would have gone. Therefore, as apt pupils of the French +Revolution, they bethought themselves of those remedies which the French +used to apply on similar occasions. Had not the great republic of the +south just expurgated her own assembly of all those traitors who under +the guise of popular representatives had secretly professed royalism, +Catholicism, and every sort and variety of anti-revolutionary and +reactionary doctrines? Was not the new French directory there to prove +to all the world that France was still the same old France of five years +ago and had no intention of again submitting to the ancient royalistic +yoke? And had not the Batavian Club celebrated this great event with +much feasting and toasting, and had it not sent delegates to Paris to +compliment the directors upon the brilliant success of their great coup? +Glorious France had given the example. The free Batavians could but +admire and follow. The French _coup d'état_ of the 4th of September, +1797, was followed by the Dutch _coup d'état_ of the 22nd of June, 1798. +But the Dutch one, with all the satisfaction which eventually it caused +the Patriots, was not to be a home-made dish. The ingredients were those +ordinarily used in the best revolutionary kitchens of Paris. They were +cooked under the supervision of the most skilled French cooks, and they +were tasted by the connoisseurs of the French Directorate, who had +promised to savour the dish personally to make it most palatable to the +Dutch taste. Then, sizzling-hot from the French fire, it was carried to +Holland and was served to the astonished assembly right in the middle of +their endless discussions. Why, reader, this appeal to your culinary +senses? I want you to stay for the appearance of this famous _râgout à +la Directoire_. But it will not be ready before another chapter. If now +I hold out hope of a fine dinner to be served after five or six more +pages, I can perhaps make you stay through the next chapter, which will +be as gloomy as a rainy Sunday in Amsterdam. + + + + +IX + +GLORY ABROAD + + +There was no glory abroad. Naval battles have often been described. +Sometimes they are inspiring through the suggestion of superior courage +or ability. Frequently they are very dull. Then they belong in a +handbook on naval tactics, but not in a popular history. We shall try to +make our readers happy by practising the utmost brevity. Paulus was +dead, and the new leaders of the navy department were inefficient. They +did their best, but private citizens are not changed into successful +managers of a navy over night. On paper (patient paper of the eighteenth +century, which had contained so many imaginary fleets) there were over +sixty Dutch men-of-war. Salaries were officially paid to 17,000 sailors +and officers. Of those not more than a score knew their business. The +old higher officers were all gone. They were sailing under a Russian +flag. They were fighting under the British cross or eking out a +penurious half-pay life in little Brunswick, near their old +commander-in-chief. As for the sailors, they had had no way of escaping +their fate. Poverty had forced them to stay where they were or starve, +and they had been obliged to take the new oath of allegiance to support +their families. Their quarterdeck now was beautiful with the new legend +of Fraternity, Equality, and Liberty painted in big golden letters. +Their masts still flew the old glorious flag of red, white, and blue, +but now adorned with a gaudy picture of the goddess in whose name war +was being waged upon the greater part of the civilized world. At times +the men could not stand it. Many a morning it was discovered that the +flag had been ruined over night. A hasty knife had cut the divinity out +of her corner and had thrown her overboard. But cloth was cheap. A new +flag was soon provided, and the goddess of liberty was sewn in once +more. To find the culprit was impossible, for upon such occasions the +whole fleet was likely to come forward and confess itself guilty. So +there the fleet lay, with mutiny averted by the near presence of a +French army, and forced to inactivity by the blockade of the British +fleet. The admiral of the Dutch squadron was the same Brigadier General +de Winter who the year before had tried in vain to reach the ocean. If +you look him up in the French biographical dictionary you will find him +as Count of Huissen and Marshal of the Empire. In plain Dutch, he was +just Jan Willem de Winter and an ardent believer in the most extreme +revolutionary doctrines. He had had a little experience at sea, but he +had never commanded a ship. Personally brave beyond suspicion, but not +in the least prepared for the work which he had been called to do, he +had again assumed the command with the cheerfulness with which +revolutionary people will undertake any sort of an impossible task. His +instructions were secret, or as secret as anything could be which during +a number of weeks had been carefully threshed out in all the leading +patriotic clubs. The whole plan of this expedition of which Admiral de +Winter was to be the head was of that fantastic nature so dearly loved +by those who are going to change the world over night. England, of +course, the stronghold of all anti-revolutionary forces, was to be the +enemy. And, by the way, what a provoking enemy this island proved to be! +The churches of the Kremlin could be made into stables for the French +cavalry; the domes of Portugal might be turned into pigstys; the palaces +of Venice could be used as powder magazines; the storehouses of Holland +might be changed into hospitals for French invalids; where French +infantry could march or French cavalry could trot, there the influence +of France and the ideas of the French could penetrate; but England, with +many miles of broad sea for its protection, was the one country which +was impregnable. French engineers could do much, but they could not +build a bridge across the Channel. French artillery could at times +perform wonders of marksmanship, but its guns could not carry across the +North Sea. French cavalry had captured a frozen Dutch fleet, but the sea +around England never froze. And French infantry, which held the record +for long distance marches, could not swim sixty miles of salt water. The +fleet, and the fleet alone, could here do the work. At first there had +been talk of a concerted action by the French, the Spanish, and the +Batavian fleets. But the Patriots would not hear of this plan. +Single-handed the Dutch fleet must show that the spirit of de Ruyter and +Tromp continued to animate the breasts of all good Batavianites. On the +6th of October, 1797, the fleet sailed proudly away from the roads of +Texel. The _Brutus_ and the _Equality_, the _Liberty_, the _Batavian_, +the _Mars_, the _Jupiter_, the _Ajax_, and the _Vigilant_, twenty-six +ships in all, ranging from eighteen to seventy-four cannon, set sail for +the English coast. For five days this mythological squadron was kept +near the Dutch coast by a western wind. Then it met the British fleet +under Admiral Adam Duncan. The British fleet was of equal +strength--sixteen ships of the line and ten frigates. But whereas the +Batavian fleet was commanded by new officers and manned by disgruntled +sailors, the British had the advantage of superior guns, superior +marksmanship, better leadership, and a thorough belief in the cause +which their country upheld. Off the little village of Camperdown, on the +coast of the Department of North Holland, the battle took place. It +lasted four hours. After the first fifty minutes the Dutch line had been +broken. After the second hour the victory of the British was certain. +Two hours more, for the glory of their reputation, the Dutch commanders +continued to fight. Vice-Admiral Bloys van Treslong, descendant of the +man who conducted the victorious water-beggars to the relief of Leyden +in 1574, lost his arm, but continued to defend the _Brutus_ until his +ship could only be kept afloat by pumping. Captain Hingst of the +_Defender_ was killed on the bridge. The _Equality_ suffered sixty +killed and seventy wounded out of a total of one hundred and ninety men. +The _Hercules_, set on fire by grapeshot, continued to fight until her +commander had been mortally wounded and the flames had reached the +powder-house, forcing the men to throw their ammunition overboard. The +_Medemblik_, rammed by one of her sister ships, lost fifty men killed +and sixty wounded, lost its mast, and was generally shot to pieces +before the fight had lasted two hours. And so on through the whole list. +Personal bravery could avail little against bad equipment and an +indifferent spirit. Ten vessels fell into British hands. One ship, with +all its men, perished during the storm which followed the battle. +Another one, on the way home, was thrown upon the Dutch coast and was +pounded to timber by the waves. All in all, 727 men had been killed and +674 wounded. A few ships, after suffering terribly, reached Dutch +harbours. + +And for the first time in the history of the Dutch navy, a Dutch admiral +was on board a British ship as a prisoner of war. + + + + +X + +COUP D'ÉTAT NO. I + + +Citizen Eykenbroek was in the gin business--an excellent and profitable +business which needs close watching, otherwise your workmen will drink +the result of their handiwork and all the profits will be lost. Citizen +Eykenbroek had not watched. Citizen Eykenbroek had failed. Wherefore, +since he had a wife and children, it behooved him to look for another +means of livelihood. Citizen Eykenbroek became a speculator in army +provisions. Again a profitable business, but not a success as a course +in applied ethics. However that be, or perhaps because of all that, +Citizen Eykenbroek was the appointed man to act as intermediary between +the grumbling Dutch Patriots and the French radicals who held sway in +Paris. Armed with credentials given him by the Jacobin Club of +Amsterdam, this honourable citizen, with two fellow-conspirators, +hastened to Paris. + +Since as a speculator in army requisitions he often made the trip to the +French capital, his disappearance caused no surprise; and although the +Batavian minister in Paris heard of one shabby individual's arrival, he +saw no occasion to pay any attention to it. Citizen Eykenbroek, who had +not expired when he had told his first lie, did not mind telling a few +fibs, and at once he was very successful with the French radicals. His +first offer of four hundred thousand good Dutch guilders as a reward for +a suitable revolution which would bring all power into the hands of the +unionists he gradually increased until it reached the sum of eight +hundred thousand. Since no one in Holland had given him the right to +offer any monetary reward for the French services, he might easily have +made it a few millions. Having paved the way by creating such visions of +wealth, Eykenbroek set to work. The great grief of the Dutch Jacobins +was the French minister in The Hague. This dignitary, Noel by name, was +not in the least a radical. He understood that in this complacent +republic little could be gained by decapitational measures, but very +much by moderation, the encouragement of trade, the promotion of +commerce; and like his friend Cochon, a year or so before, he strongly +advised against killing the goose that might again lay so many golden +eggs. The Batavian Republic as a thriving commercial commonwealth was a +much better asset to the French Republic than the same republic playing +a game of revolution, which was very distasteful to the richer classes +of the nation. And upon several occasions Noel had firmly reminded his +patriotic Dutch friends that, come what may, he would not stand for any +works of violence. "Remove Noel," therefore, was one of the most +important instructions which Citizen Eykenbroek had taken to Paris upon +his memorable voyage. And behold! the promise of half a million in cash +at once did its work. The French Directorate suddenly remembered that +Citizen Noel had married a Dutch lady. It was not good for France to be +represented by a minister who was attached to the republic through such +tender bonds of personal affection. Therefore, exit Citizen Noel and his +Dutch wife. His successor was a former French minister of foreign +affairs. This worthy gentleman, Delacroix by name, cared little for +Holland or for its imbecile politics. He regarded his post as a mere +stepping-stone to something better (a place in the Directorate perhaps), +and fully decided not to interfere in Dutch politics so long as the +republic paid its debts and strictly obeyed the orders which were issued +from Paris. And since he did not intend to spend too many months in the +abominable climate of the low countries, he left Madame Delacroix at +home and merely brought his secretary, an individual by the name of +Ducagne, who as a spy, a tutor, a newspaper correspondent, and army +contractor knew the republic from one end to the other and could help +the minister pull the necessary strings. The couple appeared in The +Hague during the first part of the year 1797, and their arrival meant +that the coast was clear and that the Patriots could go ahead and +perform the somersault which was to land the republic upon a pair of +unionistic feet. It is an ill defeat which brings nobody any good. The +destruction of the Dutch fleet at Camperdown had brought a sudden +succour to the unionists. "They had predicted this right along." That +most delightful remark, profoundest consolation of all commonplace +souls, became their war cry. + +"We have predicted this, of federalists, moderates, and all further +enemies of union. We will predict the same thing unless we get one +country, one treasury, and one navy," and they told their enemies so, +black on white. In a document containing nine articles and signed by +forty-three of the members of the assembly, more extreme unionists laid +down their political beliefs and indicated the remedies through which +they proposed to avert another similar disaster. With the exception of +parliament, which they wished to consist of only one chamber, but which +at the present moment consists of two, their political program contained +the fundamentals upon which (with the addition of a King as Executive) +the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands is based. + +The united patriotic clubs loudly applauded this declaration of +unionistic principles. Hisses came from the side of the federalistic +villains. Well-intentioned, moderate gentlemen tried to bring about a +cessation of all passions. "Citizens, citizens, in the fair name of our +great republic, let us go about this matter quietly and deliberately. +Let both parties exercise a little more patience. The commission on the +constitution is now almost ready. Only six short weeks more and we may +expect to hear from it. Just a little more patience." + +The French minister was greatly entertained by this little human comedy +which he could see enacted in front of his comfortable windows. He made +no attempt to hide his superior amusement nor to conceal his profound +contempt. Just as in far-off Timbuctoo the French military governor may +give broad hints to the native ruler that such and such a thing must be +done in such and such a way, so did the French minister upon several +occasions at dinners, at his home, and abroad, indicate in the plainest +of terms that the assembly must either adopt a constitution after the +French pattern or must expect to suffer dire consequences. "This +puttering," so his Excellency was pleased to say, "this delaying of +vital matters, this keeping of a whole country in suspense for so many +years, is really unbearable. If the Hollanders cannot make a +constitution for themselves, they had better leave the whole matter to +the care of the French." + +The assembly, getting knowledge of these rumours (as had been intended +by their author), was struck by a sudden wave of patriotism. Unanimously +gathered around the imaginary altar of liberty, the members solemnly +decided and openly declared that come what may they would save the +country or die in the attempt. This sounded very well, but since nobody +had asked them to defend or to die, it had little sense. All the country +asked was that at last a constitution be adopted and that the government +be put upon a regular constitutional basis. That, however, was a +different matter, and for the moment the assembly preferred to begin a +lengthy debate upon the delicate question whether the anniversary of the +decapitation of "Citizen Louis Capet should be celebrated by a public +oath of hatred against William of Nassau or not." The unionists said +"yes." The federalists said "no." And so they spent a number of days +upon this very unprofitable discussion, which ended in a vote which put +Citizen Capet and Citizen William both upon the table. + +While the assembly was thus agreeably engaged a small number of citizens +of a different stamp, but no less interested in the politics of the day, +were holding meetings in a little room just around the corner from the +assembly. This little group consisted of the secretary of the French +embassy, the commander-in-chief of the Batavian army, and a number of +the leading unionist members of the assembly. Right under the nose of +the dignified assembly, if we may use so colloquial an expression for so +wicked a fact, these conspirators were arranging the last details of +their little _coup d'état_. The French Directorate had expressed its +approval, provided that there was to be no bloodshed. Were the promoters +of the plan quite sure that the federalists would offer no armed +resistance? Did the triumphant unionist party contemplate violent +retribution? "Messieurs," the answer came from The Hague, "compared to +your own glorious revolutionists of sainted memory, even the most +extreme Dutch Jacobins are like innocent lambs. The little plan which +they have originated resembles more a Sunday-school frolic than a real +and genuine revolutionary coup." + +"All right," Paris reported back, "go ahead and try." + +The scene of the dark comedy which we are now about to describe was laid +in the old princely courtyard. At two o'clock of a cold winter's night +(January 21-22, 1798), a strong detachment of soldiers under command of +Daendels occupied the buildings where the assembly met. At four o'clock +of the morning the six members of the committee on foreign affairs, +under suspicion as aristocrats and enemies of the union, were hauled out +of their beds and, shivering, were informed that they must consider +themselves under arrest and must not leave their homes. Thereupon they +were allowed to go back to bed. At half-after seven the sleepy town +opened its curious shutters, noticed that something unusual was in the +air, and decided to take a day off. At quarter to eight of the morning, +the fifty extreme unionists who were in the plot met at the hotel which +had been formerly occupied by the delegates to the Estates from the good +town of Haarlem. At eight o'clock sharp their procession started upon +its way. Preceded by two cannon, and accompanied and surrounded by +trustworthy civil guards and Batavian regulars, the fifty conspirators, +the president of the assembly in his official sash at the head of them, +walked in state to their meeting hall. At the entrance they were met by +General Daendels in full gold lace. Silently the members entered the +building, and immediately guards were posted to refuse admission to all +those whose names did not appear upon a specially prepared list. The +committee on the constitution, however, was allowed to be present in its +entirety. At nine o'clock the Speaker of the assembly, Middenrigh by +name, in executive session, declared that the country was in danger. +("Hear! hear!") Not an hour was to be lost. (Great excitement.) He +appealed to all members to do their full duty to their country. +Whereupon the members of the assembly, or such of them as had not been +caught by the guard and according to orders had been locked up in the +coatroom, arose from their seats and openly avowed their horror of the +Stadholdership, of federalism, of anarchy, and of aristocracy. At that +moment, however, it was discovered that ten black sheep had strayed into +the meeting. They were given the choice between an immediate retraction +of their federalist sentiments or leaving the room. They left. At eleven +o'clock the executive session was changed into a regular one. The +galleries were immediately filled with noisy holiday-makers. The +federalist members were released from the coatroom and sadly walked +home. They had been informed that from that moment on they had +officially ceased to be members of the assembly, that they must not +leave The Hague until they were permitted to do so by the military +authorities, and that they must not enter into any correspondence with +their partisans outside of the city. + +At noon the expurgated assembly set to work. It abolished the old rules +of the house which for three years had provided a parliamentary +procedure which allowed of no practical progress. It abolished all +provincial and county sovereignty. And then it took an even more +important step, and on the afternoon of the 22d of January, of the year +of our Lord 1798, the roaring of many cannon announced to the Batavian +people that the republic possessed its first "Constitutional +Assembly"--a gathering of true unionists who would not disperse until +the constitution of the republic should have become an established fact. + +An intermediary body consisting of five members and presided over by a +well-known unionist, Citizen Vreede, was announced to have assumed the +executive duties. The assembly approved, and then it appointed a +committee of seven to proceed with all haste and make a suitable +constitution. + +It was now well past the lunch hour, when suddenly there resounded a +great applause among the members of the eager galleries. + +Enters Citizen Delacroix, minister plenipotentiary and envoy +extraordinary from the Republic of France. "Long live the glorious +French Republic!" The real author of our little comedy appears to make a +curtain speech. He thanked his audience. Really he was greatly touched +by such a warm reception. Such energy and such resolution as had been +shown that night by the true friends of the fatherland deserved his full +approbation. "Continue, Citizens, on this path! The Directory will +support you, yea, the whole French nation will applaud you and encourage +you on your path toward your high destiny." Loud cheers from the +gallery. The Minister sat down. + +Then a speech of thanks by the Speaker of the assembly. You can read it +if you are so inclined on page 125 of the thirty-fifth volume of +Wagenaar, but I have not got the courage to repeat it here. There was a +great deal in it about the enemies of liberty, the noble and magnanimous +French ally, the peoples of Europe, and the humble desire of the +assembly that the Citizen Representative would deign to occupy a seat of +honour in this noble hall. And then the Speaker of the house, having +obtained permission to leave the chair, descended to the floor of the +assembly and among breathless quiet he pressed upon the noble brow of +Citizen Delacroix the imprint of a brotherly kiss. + + + + +XI + + +THE CONSTITUTIONAL + + +The report of this kiss resounded to Paris. So greatly did it please the +French Directorate that they at once increased the number of troops +which the republic was obliged to equip and support, and demanded that +henceforth the French Government might officially dispose over three +fourths of the Batavian army. Let us come down to plain facts. After +three years of revolutionary rhetoric the Batavian Republic for all +intents and purposes had become a French province--a province inhabited +by rather backwoodsy people (the Batavian minister as chief Rube in the +Follies of 1798, an enormous success), people who simply never could +make up their minds, whose very political upheavals had to be staged +abroad, who had to be guided about like small children, and who only +received some respect from their neighbours because they still had a few +pennies in their pocketbook. But otherwise, Oh lálá! they were so funny! +And Citizen Delacroix, having accepted a nice little gratuity (a golden +snuffbox studded with diamonds and filled with gold pieces), wrote back +to Paris that being minister to The Hague was as good fun as an evening +at vaudeville. This, however, was merely the beginning. Much else was +to follow soon. + +Here we have a country becoming every day more like a French department. +And what did the thinking part of the nation do? It continued its petty +political quarrels as if it consisted of a lot of villagers engaged in +the habitual row in the local vestry. The Orangeistic party of these +years reminds us strongly of those pious supporters of the Pope who wish +to see the whole kingdom of Italy go to smash in order that his Holiness +may return to govern a city which during many previous centuries of his +august rule was turned into a byword for civic mismanagement and +municipal corruption. The Orangeists sat in their little corner and +jeered at everything the patriots did. But they lacked the courage and +the conviction to come forward and assist in such constructive work as +the revolutionary parties tried to perform. + +In previous chapters we have had a chance to talk with considerable +irritation about much of what the Patriots did. Do not expect the +historian to read through the twenty-three volumes of speeches of the +assembly, to study the twelve volumes of Wagenaar containing the history +of those three years, to wade through the endless documents addressed to +free citizens, and not to feel a personal resentment against his +ancestors, who, while the country was in such grave danger, talked and +talked and talked without any regard to the threatening facts about +them. + +It is true that very much can be said in defense of the Patriotic +statesmen. They had never enjoyed any political training. For centuries +they and their families had been kept out of all governmental +institutions. They had not even been allowed to run their own town +meeting. There had been no school for parliamentary methods or oratory. +And since the death of Paulus they had not possessed a leader of +sufficient influence to force one single will upon their ill-organized +party. For a moment there was some improvement after the first _coup +d'état_. The idea of ending political anarchy by establishing an +executive body of five members was a curious one, but it was better than +the executive body of more than a hundred which had existed before. And +under the spur of the moment the committee on the constitution set to +work so eagerly that it finished its labours in as many months as the +old assemblies had used years. + +The moderate nature of the Dutch people in political matters was again +shown after this little upheaval. Two or three clubs and coffee-houses +which had shown too open a delight at the former difficulties of the +unionists were closed until further notice. A few of the expelled +members of the old assembly were temporarily lodged in the house in the +woods. But otherwise no enemy of the unionists had to suffer a penalty +for his acts or for his words. + +The committee of five went to work at once and tried to reëstablish some +semblance of order without bothering about political persecutions, and +the committee of seven laboured on the new constitution with an ardour +which excluded all active participation in such matters as did not +pertain to paragraphs and articles and preambles. The French minister +energetically assisted them in their task. He had made many a +constitution in his own day and knew of what he was talking. + +It was a gratifying result that six weeks after the _coup d'état_ the +committee reported that it was ready to submit the new constitution to +the approval of the assembly. On the 6th of March it presented a +document consisting of five hundred and twenty-seven articles. Three +days sufficed to discuss these articles thoroughly. On the evening of +the 17th of March the second constitution of the Batavian Republic was +accepted by the entire assembly, and in less than two months after the +memorable victory of the unionists the constitution was in such shape +that it could be brought before the people. + +In the place of the old oligarchic republic it established a centralized +government. It provided a strong executive power, which was subject to +the will of the legislature. The latter was divided into two chambers, +which were to work in cooperation. The final source of all power, +however, was brought down to the voters. In all religious and personal +matters it tried to furnish complete equality and complete liberty, and +as the best means of controlling the legislature and the executive it +insisted upon absolute freedom for the political press. + +In the matter of finances the country henceforward would be a union and +not a combination of seven contrary-minded pecuniary interests. The +provinces, divided according to a new system, retained such local +government as was necessary for the proper conduct of their immediate +business, but in all matters of any importance the provinces became +subject to the higher central powers in The Hague. + +Finally it brought about one great improvement for which many men during +many centuries had worked in vain. It established a cabinet. Eight +agents (we would call them ministers) would henceforth handle the +general departments of the government. In this way, in the year of grace +1798, disappeared that endless labyrinth of committees and +sub-committees and sub-sub-committees within sub-committees in which +during former centuries all useful legislation had lost its way and had +miserably perished. + +This time when the constitution was brought before the people the result +was very different from that of the year before. Of those who took the +trouble to walk to the polls, twelve out of every thirteen declared +themselves in favour of the new constitution. On the 1st of May, 1798, +the constitutional assembly was informed that the Batavian people had, +by an overwhelming majority, accepted the constitution, and that its +fruitful labours were over. The Batavian republic now was a bona-fide +modern state and all was well with the world. + + + + +XII + +COUP D'ÉTAT NO. II + + +Who was the wise man who first said that a little power was a dangerous +thing? Oh, Citizen Vreede, who knew more about the price and quality of +cloth than of politics; Brother van Langen, who so dearly loved the +little glory and the fine parties to which his exalted rank as one of +the five members of the executive gave him admission; Rev. Mr. Fynje, +who once used to fill the devout Baptist eye with pious tears and who +now talked for the benefit of the Jacobin gallery--why did ye not +disappear from our little stage when your rôle was over, when the +curtain dropped upon the constitution which you had just given to an +expectant fatherland? It would have been so much better for your own +reputation. It would have been so much better for the reputation of the +good cause which you had so well defended. It would have been so much +better for the country which, at one time, you loved so well. + +For listen what happened: In an evil hour the constitutional assembly, +under pressure of its aforementioned leaders, declared itself to be the +representative assembly provided for by their own constitution, and +calmly parcelled out the seats of the upper and the lower chambers +among its own members. At the same time the intermediary executive of +five members was declared to be a permanent body. And of the entire +constitutional assembly only six members had the courage to declare +themselves openly against this grab, whereupon they were promptly +removed from the meeting by the others. Indeed this was a very stupid +thing to do. For it gave all the enemies of union a most welcome chance +to attack the unconstitutional procedure of those who had just made this +self-same constitution, the rules of which they now violated. It gave +them a chance to talk about graft and to insinuate that not love for the +country but love for the twelve thousand a year actuated the five +directors when they staged this unlawful affair. It exploded all the +noble talk of an unselfish love for a united fatherland when at the very +first chance the unionists disregarded their own laws and continued a +situation by which they personally were directly profited. + +Furthermore, the glory of their sudden elevation went disastrously to +the heads of several of the men who had played a leading rôle during the +fight against the federalists. It did not take a long time to show the +unionists that their constitution, while theoretically a perfect +success, did not bring all the practical results which had been hoped +for. A country which has been running in a provincial groove for more +than three centuries cannot suddenly forget all its antecedents and +become a well-organized, centralized state. The old officials who had +to be retained until new ones could be trained for these duties were +trained to perform their duties in a certain old-fashioned way. The +constitution asked them to do their new work in a very different way. +The result was confusion and congestion. The directors and the new +secretaries of the different departments worked with great industry. +Their desks, however, were loaded with new labours. All the thousand and +one little items which formerly had been decided in the nearest village +or town now had to be referred to The Hague. And soon it became clear +that the constitution was too good, that it had centralized too much, +and that all its energy marred what it tried to do to such an extent +that now nothing at all was ever accomplished. + +The leaders of the unionist party, especially the more ardent of the +Patriots (for although the name began to disappear the party and its +ideals continued), began to suspect bad faith among their opponents. The +chaotic condition of internal affairs, according to them, was due to the +machinations of their federalist and Orangeist opponents. And they began +to lose their heads. They wanted to show their power and make clear to +their enemies that they were not afraid. First of all, they placed the +federalist members who were still detained in the house in the woods +under very strict supervision and talked of weird plots of the country's +enemies, and dismissed all the ancient clerks who on account of their +slowness were suspected of Orangeistic inclination, and ended by +building a foolish temple of liberty on an open place in The Hague, +where they wasted much bad rhetoric and told the astonished populace +that they, the unionists, would stop at nothing if it came to a defence +of what they considered their most holy rights. But when they came to +this point the sun of French approbation began to hide itself behind +dark clouds of disapproval, and a threatening thunder of discontent +began to rumble in far-off Paris. + +And now we come to an amusing episode which better than any lengthy +disquisition shows the rapidity with which France was changing from her +stormy revolutionary nature to a well-established and well-regulated +nation of respectable citizens. A year before Delacroix had been sent to +the republic to supplant a French minister who no longer seemed to be +the right man in the right place. And now M. Talleyrand, the estimable +French minister of foreign affairs, did not feel that Delacroix fully +represented the sentiments of the Directorate, and decided to get rid of +him and fill his place with a more suitable personage. As a preliminary +measure he sent to The Hague a certain Champigny-Aubin, whose express +duty it was to spy on Delacroix, and who was to get into touch with the +defeated federalist party, while his chief supported the unionists. For +several weeks an entertaining situation followed. Delacroix played with +the radicals; Aubin played with the conservatives. Now it so happened +that among those who were discontented for one reason or another there +was that stormy petrel, General Daendels. He had acted an important rôle +during the first _coup d'état_, but when it was over he had found the +commandership in chief of the Batavian forces, momentarily placed into +the hands of the French commander, had not been returned to himself. He +did not fancy this rôle of second fiddle at all and became an enemy of +the Dutch directors and the unionistic party. And one fine morning the +directors were informed that their general had left without asking their +permission and that he had been last seen moving rapidly in the +direction of Paris. Now the directors ought to have taken this hint. +They knew all about conspiracies from their own recent experiences, and +they should have surmised that Daendels did not trot to Paris to take in +the sights of that interesting city. But, on the other hand, did they +not daily meet and confer with his Excellency the French minister? Was +not Delacroix their sworn friend and did not the French army support him +in his affection for the present Batavian Government? Yes, indeed. But +the directors could not know that the home government had secretly +disavowed their diplomatic representative and only waited for a suitable +occasion to recall him. + +Well, General Daendels safely reached Paris and saw the French +directors. After a few days a request came from The Hague for his arrest +as a deserter. The directors deposited this request in the official +waste-paper basket and quietly finished their arrangements with the +Batavian general; and when, after a few days, he returned to The Hague, +all the details for the second _coup d'état_ had been carefully +discussed and all plans had been made. + +Daendels came back just in time to be the guest of honour at a large +dinner which was given by a number of private gentlemen who called +themselves "Friends of the Constitution." At this banquet he appeared in +his habitual rôle of conquering hero, and was the subject of tipsy +ovations. Indeed, so great was the racket of this patriotic party that +the directors who lived nearby could distinctly hear the unholy rumour +of these festivities. And since, for the matter of discipline, it is not +good that a general who has left his post without official leave shall +upon his return be made the subject of a great popular demonstration, +they decided that the next morning the general and the leaders of this +dinner should be put under arrest. _Dis aliter visum._ The very same day +upon which Daendels should have been put into jail, while the directors +were eating their dinner in company with the French minister, who should +enter but General Daendels and a couple of his grenadiers. General +commotion. Tables and chairs were overturned, dishes were thrown to the +floor, and much excellent wine was spilled. A couple of the directors +jumped out of a window and landed in the flowerbeds of the garden. But +the garden was surrounded by more soldiers and the escaping directors +were captured and put under arrest. The others, not wishing to risk +their limbs, appealed to the French minister. But the minister was +unceremoniously told to hold his tongue and mind his own business. He +was then conducted through the door and deposited in the street. Two of +the directors who had escaped during the first commotion hid themselves +in the attic of the building. There they stayed until all searching +parties had failed to discover them, and then managed to make their +escape through a back door. + +This violent attack upon the inviolable directors was but one part of +Daendels' program. At the head of his troops he now hastened to the +assembly. The upper chamber had already adjourned for the day, but in +the lower chamber the Speaker defied the invading soldiers from his +chair and started to make a speech. Two of the soldiers took him by the +arms, and the chair was vacated. A number of members, led by Citizen +Middenrigh, the same who two months before had conducted that unionist +procession which dissolved the constitutional assembly of the federalist +majority, heroically defied the soldiers and flatly refused to leave. No +violence was used, but a guard was placed in front of the entrance and +the assembly was left in darkness to talk and argue and harangue as much +as it desired. Tired and hungry, the disgusted members gave up fighting +the inevitable and slowly left the hall. Two dozen of the more prominent +unionists were arrested, and quiet settled down once more upon the +troubled city. + +The prisoners were conducted to the house in the woods, and that famous +edifice upon this memorable evening resembled one of those absurd clubs +which American cartoonists delight to create and to fill with members of +their own fancy. For the federalist victims of the 23rd of January and +the unionist victims of the 12th of June sat close at the same table, +and as fellow-jailbirds they partook of the same prison food and slept +under the same roof. + +At nine o'clock the second _coup d'état_ was over and everybody went to +bed. In this way ended the most violent day of the Dutch struggle for +constitutional government. + +What would Mr. Carlyle have done with a revolution like that? + + + + +XIII + + +CONSTITUTION NO. II AT WORK + + +The election which took place in June of the year 1798 brought an +entirely new set of men into the assembly. The voters, tiring of +experiments which invariably seemed to end in disaster and a parade of +Daendels at the head of a number of conspiring gentlemen, elected a +number of men of whom little could be said but that they were "sound" +and not given over to the dreaming of impracticable visions. They could +be trusted to run the government in a peaceful way, they would +undoubtedly try to reëstablish credit, and they would give the average +citizen a chance to pursue his daily vocation without being bothered +with eternal elections. + +In the two chambers which convened on the 31st of July of the same year +the moderates, who had left the first assembly in disgust, were +represented by a large majority. A well-known gentleman of very moderate +views was elected to the chair and everybody set to work. First of all, +the assembly had to consider what ought to be done with the members of +the old assemblies who as prisoners of state were running up an enormous +bill for board and lodging in the comfortable house in the woods. The +French directors in Paris dropped the hint that it might be well to let +bygones be bygones and release the prisoners. The doors of the prison +were accordingly opened, the prisoners made their little bow, and left +the stage. A good deal of their work liveth after them. We thank them +for their kind services, but the play will be continued by more +experienced actors. + +When this difficulty had thus been settled in a very simple way the +assembly was called upon to appoint five new directors. Here was a +difficult problem. The old, experienced politicians sulked on their +Sabine farms. And, terrible confession to make, the younger politicians +had not yet reached the two-score years which was demanded by the +constitution of those who aspired to serve their country as its highest +executives. Finally, however, five very worthy gentlemen were elected. +None of them has left a reputation as either very good or very bad. +Under the circumstances that was exactly what the country most needed. + +The new assembly and the new directors went most conscientiously about +their duties. They promptly suppressed all attempts at reaction within +the chambers and without. They kept the discussions on the narrow path +between Orangeism, federalism, anarchy, and aristocracy, and for the +next three years they made an honest attempt to promote the new order of +things to the best of their patient ability and with scrupulous +obedience to the provisions of the constitution. According to the law, +one of the five directors had to resign each year. These changes +occurred without any undue excitement. The sort of men that came to take +the vacant places were of the same stamp as their predecessors. As +assistant secretaries of some department of public business or as judges +of a provincial court they would have been without a rival; but they +hardly came up to the qualities of mind and character required of men +able to save the poor republic from that perdition toward which the gods +were so evidently guiding her. + + + + +XIV + + +MORE GLORY ABROAD + + +While we have been watching our little domestic puppet show and have +seen how the figures were being moved by the dextrous fingers of some +hidden French performer, what has been happening upon the large stage of +the world? Great and wonderful things have happened. A little half-pay +lieutenant, of humble parentage, bad manners, ungrammatical language, +but inordinate ambition, has hewn his way upward until as +commander-in-chief of the French armies he has made all the land +surrounding the country of his adoption into little tributary republics, +has obliged the Sphinx to listen to his oratory, and has caused his +frightened enemies to forget their mutual dislike to such an extent that +they combine into the second coalition of England, Prussia, Russia, and +Turkey. The Batavian Republic, bound to France by her defensive and +offensive treaty, found herself suddenly in war with the greater part of +the European continent. Now if there was anything which the new assembly +of moderates did not wish, it was another outbreak of hostilities. + +Once more a strong British fleet was blockading the Dutch coast. The +Dutch fleet, bottled up in the harbour of Texel, was again doomed to +inactivity. As for the army, it was supposed to consist of 20,000 men, +but the majority of the soldiers were raw and untrained recruits and +useless for immediate action upon any field of battle. + +Often during the previous years the French had contemplated an invasion +of the British Isles. This game of invasion is one which two people can +play. And on the 27th of August, 1799, the directors, who were patiently +working their way through the mountains of official red tape demanded by +the over-centralized Batavian Government, were informed by courier from +Helder that a large hostile fleet had been sighted near the Dutch coast. +Frantic orders were given to Daendels to take his army and prepare for +defense. But the general, in no mild temper, reported that he had +neither "clothes for his men, nor horses for his cavalry, nor straw for +his horses." And before he had obtained the money with which to buy part +of these necessaries the British fleet had captured the Dutch one and +had thrown 15,000 men, English and Russian, upon the Dutch coast. A week +later these were followed by more men, until half a hundred thousand +foreign soldiers were upon the territory of the Batavian Republic and +within two days' march from Amsterdam. + +[Illustration: DE LANDING DER ENGELSCHEN. INVASION OF THE BRITISH] + +Daendels, with such men as he could muster, bravely marched to the +front, and from behind dikes and in the narrow streets of ancient +villages opened a guerilla warfare upon the invaders. French troops were +reported to be on their way to help the Batavians, but could not +arrive before a couple of days. The country was in a dangerous position, +and yet the British-Russian invasion petered out completely, and, full +of promise, was changed into a complete failure. This was due partly to +the dilatoriness of the English commander and to the bad understanding +between Englishman and Russian. But worst of all, the allies, for the +second time, committed the blunder which had cost them so dearly just +before the battle of Verdun. The young Prince of Orange had joined this +expedition, and some enthusiast (if not he himself) had thought to +improve the occasion by the issuing of a high-sounding proclamation. +This document treated the entire revolution as so much personal +wickedness, as the machinations of vicious and ambitious people who +desired to change the country's government merely for the benefit of +their own pockets. It called upon all fatherlanders to drive the French +usurpers out and to return to their old allegiance to what the +proclamation was pleased to call their "sovereign ruler." This sovereign +ruler was none less than old William V. But if there was anything which +the people as a whole did not desire, it was a return to the days of +that now forgotten Stadholder. Federalists and unionists were bad +enough, but the comparative liberty of the present moment was too +agreeable to make the citizens desire a repetition of those old times +when all the voters and assemblymen of the present hour were merely +silent actors in a drama which was not of their making and not of their +approval. And with quite rare unanimity the Batavians rejected this +proclamation of their loving Stadholder and made ready to defend the +country against the invader who came under the guise of a deliverer. + +The hereditary Prince settled down in the little town of Alkmaar of +famous memory and waited. He waited a week, but nothing happened except +that the troops of the allies, badly provisioned by their commissary +departments, began to steal and plunder among the Dutch farmers. And +when another week had passed it had become manifestly clear that the +Prince and his army could not count upon the smallest support from the +Batavians. By that time, too, the French army had been greatly +strengthened. Commanded by the French Jacobin Brune, who loved a fight +as well as he did brandy, the defences of the republic were speedily put +into excellent shape. Krayenhoff, our friend of the revolution of +Amsterdam, now a very capable brigadier general of engineers, inundated +the country around Amsterdam, while the English, under their slow and +ponderous commander Yorke, were still debating as to the best ways and +means of attack. When finally the allies went over to that attack they +found themselves with the sea behind them, with sand dunes and +impassable swamps on both sides, and with a strong French and a smaller +Batavian army in front of them. And when they tried to drive this army +out of its position they were badly defeated in a number of small +fights; and a month after they had marched from Helder to Alkmaar +they marched back from Alkmaar to Helder, shipped their enormous number +of sick and wounded on board the fleet, and departed, cursing a country +where even the drinking water had to be transported across the North +Sea, where it always rained, and where, even if it did not rain, the +water sprang from the soil and turned camps and hospitals and trenches +into uninhabitable puddles. + +[Illustration: DUTCH TROOPS RUSHING TO THE DEFENCE OF THE COAST] + +The Batavian army was proud of itself and was praised by others. The men +had stood the test of the war much better than people had dared to hope. + +But what good, apart from a little glory, had all their bravery done +them? On land they had beaten the English, but in far-away Asia the +British fleet had taken one Dutch colony after the other, until of the +large colonial empire there remained but the little island of Decima, in +Japan. Upon a strip of territory of a few hundred square feet the old +red, white, and blue flag of Holland continued to fly. Everywhere else +it had been hauled down. + + + + +XV + + +CONSTITUTION NO. III + + +On the 9th of November, 1799, Citizen Bonaparte, the successful +commander-in-chief of the armies of the Directorate of France, decided +that his employers had done enough talking and that the time had come to +send them about their business. The Jacobin rabble in the street +protested. Citizen Bonaparte put up two cannon. The rabble jeered at his +toy guns. Citizen Bonaparte fired. The rabble fled whence it came. The +next day the legislative body was summarily dismissed. The French +Revolution was over. + +Biologically speaking, Citizen Bonaparte was the second son of Madame +Laetitia Bonaparte, née Ramolino, the wife of a Corsican lawyer of some +small local importance. His spiritual mother, however, sat on the Place +de la Concorde, knitted worsted stockings, and counted the heads which +the guillotine chopped off. When his day of glory came, Bonaparte did +not forget his faithful mother, and surrounded her with his signs of +love and affection. But the foster-mother who had helped him directly to +his glory, without whom he never might have been anything but the +husband of the attractive Madame Josephine, he neglected, and when she +seemed to stand between him and his success he dispatched her into the +desert of oblivion, a region which during revolutionary times is never +very far distant from the scene of momentary action. + +What Napoleon Bonaparte knew about Holland cannot have been very much. +Geography, in a general sense, was not his strong point. Like everybody +else in Paris, he must have known something about the Batavian Republic, +and, like everybody else, he must have received vague notions of the +dilatory methods, the insignificant acts, and the clumsiness of the +different Batavian missions which sporadically appeared in Paris. +Ginstokers who prepared parliamentary revolutions as delegates from +private political clubs, generals who left their posts and went trotting +to Paris to arrange another upheaval in the assembly of their native +country, were not the type of men in whom the future emperor delighted. + +Of any sentiment or liking for the Dutch trait and character we find no +vestige in Napoleon. There were one or two Dutch generals who won his +favour, and one admiral even gained his friendship. He appreciated Dutch +engineers because they could build good fortifications and excellent +pontoon bridges. In general, however, the slow and deliberate Hollander +greatly annoyed the man of impulsive deeds, and the tenacity with which +these futile people defended their petty little rights and prerogatives, +when actual and immense honours were in store for all men with devotion +and energy, filled Napoleon with an irritation and a contempt which he +never tried to conceal. + +The French Dictator felt but one interest in the Dutch Republic--a +material one. In the first place, he wanted the Dutch gold to use for +his expeditions against all his near and distant neighbours. In the +second place, he contemplated using the strategic position of the +republic in his great war upon the British Kingdom. And as soon as he +had been elected First Consul he approached the republic with demands +for loans and voluntary donations, which were both flatly refused. The +Amsterdam bankers were not willing to consider any French loan just +then, and the Dutch assembly declared that it could not produce the +50,000,000 guilders which the Consul wanted. It was simply impossible. +The Consul retaliated by a very strict enforcement of the terms of the +French treaty by which the republic was bound to equip and maintain +25,000 French soldiers. This, in turn, so greatly increased the expenses +of the republic that many citizens paid more than half of their income +in taxes. It was indeed a very unfortunate moment for such an +experiment. The second constitution was by no means a success. Of the +many promised reorganizations of the internal government not a single +one had as yet been instituted. The reform of the financial system +existed on paper but had not yet come nearer to realization than had the +proposed reorganization of the militia. The new system of legal +procedure was still untried, and the new national courts had not yet +been established. The codification of civil and penal law had not yet +been begun. Public instruction was under a minister of its own, but it +remained as primitive as ever before. The reform of the municipal +government had not yet been attempted. The central government of the +different departments had been put into somewhat better shape than +before, but everything about it was still in the first stages of +development. The constitution which had promised to be all things to all +men was nothing to any one. The system of government which it provided +was too complicated. It looked as if there must be a third change in the +management of the Batavian Republic. General Bonaparte was asked for his +opinion. General Bonaparte at that moment was going through one of the +sporadic changes in his nature. He began to have his hair cut and pay +attention to the state of his linen. He commenced to understand that a +revolution might be all very well, but that a firm and stable government +had enormous advantages. And if the rich people in Holland wished to +drop some of their former revolutionary notions and make their +government more conservative, they certainly were welcome to the change. + +This time there was not even a _coup d'état_. The legislative +assembly--the combined meeting of both houses--convened solemnly, like a +house of bishops, and proposed a revision of the constitution. + +On the 16th of March, 1801, a committee was appointed to draw up a more +practical constitution, one more in accord with the historical +development of the people. The committee went to work with eagerness, +and with the French ambassador as their constant adviser. General +Bonaparte was kept informed of all the proceedings, and everything went +along as nicely as could be desired. But when the work was done the +legislative assembly, after a very complicated discussion, suddenly +rejected the new constitution five to one. + +What the assembly could not do, the Dutch directors could do. Yes, but +the difficulty was that two of the five directors seemed to be against +revision. "Three directors are better than five," came back from Paris. +The two opposing directors were informed that their opinion would no +longer be asked for, and the three others hired a second-class newspaper +man who had seen better days and ordered him to draw up a new +constitution. Our distinguished colleague, who used to make a living +writing political speeches for the members of the different assemblies, +set to work to earn his extra pennies, and in less than the time which +had been allowed him, his constitution, neatly copied, was in the hands +of the three directors. They sent it to Paris. Napoleon changed a few +minor articles, but approved of the document as a whole. Now, according +to the rules of the old constitution, the document should have been sent +to the members of the assembly for their approval. The directors, +however, did not bother about such small details, and had the +constitution printed and sent directly to the voters. The two discarded +directors and the assembly protested. But this time there was not even a +chance for defiance or for a heroic stand in parliament. The doors of +the assembly were locked and were kept locked. The assemblymen could +protest in the street, but for all practical purposes they had ceased to +exist. + +On the 1st of October, 1801, the vote of the people was taken. It +appeared that there were five times as many nays as yeas. Therefore the +nays had it? + +Not while Consul Bonaparte resides in the Tuilleries. + +How many voters were there in the republic? 416,419. + +How many had voted in all? 68,990. + +Well, count all those who did not vote among the yeas and see how the +sum will come out then? A very ingenious method. The count was made, and +then the yeas had it. + + + + +XVI + + +THE THIRD CONSTITUTION AT WORK + + +He new constitution was reduced to only 106 articles. The sovereign +people, with all due respect for their votes, were deprived of most of +their former power. The chief executive and legislative power was vested +in a body of twelve men. They were appointed by the different provinces, +which were reëstablished in their old form, with their old borders, and +with most of their former local sovereignty. The two chambers were +reduced to one legislative body of thirty-five members. It had the power +of veto over the laws proposed by the executive, but could not originate +laws nor propose changes. The individual ministers were abolished, but a +cabinet was formed out of a council of many members, from three to six +for each department. There was to be municipal autonomy. All religious +denominations regained those possessions which they had had at the +beginning of the revolution of 1795. All other matters of government, +the exact form and mode of voting, and such other insignificant details +were left to some future date when the executive would decide upon them. + +On the same day, when the absent votes of the Batavian Republic saved +the third constitution, the preliminaries of the peace between France +and England were signed. After seven years of stagnation, the ocean once +more was open to Dutch ships, and Dutch commerce once more could visit +the furthermost corners of the globe. + +The country again could go to work. + +[Illustration: ARMED BARK OF THE YEAR 1801] + + + + +XVII + + +ECONOMIC CONDITION + + +Here was a splendid dream of a rejuvenated country eagerly striving to +regain its lost importance. But a milkman who comes around once in every +seven years will lose his customers. And the Dutch trader, who as the +common carrier and the middleman had been for many centuries as regular +in the performances of his duties as the useful baker and butcher and +grocer of our own domestic acquaintance, found when he came back after +half a dozen years that his customers, tired of waiting for him, had +gone for their daily needs to a rival and did not contemplate a return +to a tradesman who had neglected them during so many years. And when the +ships which for seven years had been rotting in the harbours had been +sufficiently repaired to venture forth upon the seas, and when they had +gathered a cargo of sorts, there was no one to whom they could go to +sell their wares. + +In the fall of the Dutch Republic we have tried to describe how, +gradually, the Hollander lost his markets. This chapter upon our +economic condition during the Batavian Republic can be very short. We +shall have to describe how, driven out of the legitimate trade, the +Dutch shipper entered the wide field of illegitimate business +enterprises until at last he disappeared entirely from a field of +endeavour in which honesty is not only the best policy but is also the +only policy which sooner or later does not lead to ruin. The large +commercial houses, of course, could stand several years of depression, +but the smaller fry, the humbler brethren who had always kept themselves +going on a little floating capital, these were soon obliged either to go +out of existence altogether or to enter upon some illicit affair. Quite +naturally they chose the latter course, and soon they found themselves +in that vast borderland of commerce where honesty merely consists in not +being found out. + +[Illustration: THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY] + +At first they traded under neutral flags and with neutral papers. But +the British during the prolonged war with France did not stick too +closely to international law, and every ship that was under suspicion of +not being a bona-fide foreign ship, but a Dutch ship under disguise, was +confiscated, taken to England, and there publicly sold. Every variation +upon the wide subject of fake papers, fake passports, and counterfeit +sailing-orders was tried, but invariably these ingenious schemes were +discovered by the British policemen who controlled the high seas, and +finally this commerce had to be given up entirely as being too risky. +Then all sorts of even more wonderful plans were developed by the +diligent Dutch traders. Here is a scheme at once so brilliant and so +simple that we must relate it: + +Messrs. A. and B., honourable merchants from Amsterdam, enter into a +partnership. A. goes to London and as an Englishman enters business. B. +stays at home. A. equips a privateer. B. loads a ship and gets as much +insurance as he possibly can. The ship of B. leaves the Dutch harbour +and is captured by the ship of A. It is taken to England and ship and +cargo are publicly sold. A. gets the profits of his buccaneering +expedition. B. collects the insurance. The partners have in this way +made twice the amount of their original investment, minus the +insignificant loss on the ship. At the end of the year the two merchants +divide the spoils and both get rich. This method had the disadvantage of +being too easy. A deadly competition set in. Finally the insurance +companies discovered the swindle and refused to insure. That stopped the +business. + +From that moment on the only way of doing business across the water was +to take the risk of capture, to try to run the blockade of the British +fleet in the North Seas and reach some safe foreign port. When the year +1801 came hardly a dozen ships which flew the Dutch flag dared to cross +the ocean. Not a single whaler was seen off the coast of Greenland; the +Dutch fishermen had deserted the North Sea; the channel was closed to +Dutch trade; the Mediterranean, where once Dutch had been a commonly +understood language, did not see any Dutch ships for many years; the +Baltic, the scene of the first Dutch commercial triumphs, no longer +witnessed the appearance of the Dutch grain carrier who during so many +centuries had provided the daily bread for millions of people. This +disappearance of the commercial fleet meant the absolute ruin of many +industries which up to that time had been kept alive by such demand as +there was for planed wood, nets, rope, tar, and the countless things +which went into the making of the old sailing-ship. The eighteenth +century had been a bad period for these industries. The beginning +nineteenth century killed them. The great manufacturing centres like +Leiden and Haarlem became the famous _villes mortes_ about which we like +to read, but in which we do not care to live. Hollow streets, grass +growing between the cobblestones, a few old families slowly dwindling +away and using up the funds of former generations; a population ill fed +and badly housed, physically degenerating and morally perishing under +the load of philanthropy by which it was kept alive; the whole life of +the city, once exuberant and open, retiring to the back room where the +sinful world cannot be seen; where, around the family tea table, and +with the patriarchal pipe, dull resignation is found in that same Bible +which once, and not so many years before, had inspired their ancestors +to a display of vitality and of energetic enterprise which has been +unsurpassed in European history. All optimism gone to make place for a +leaden despondency and a feeling that no attempt of the individual can +avail against the higher decrees of a cruel Providence. It is a terrible +picture. It remained true for almost three generations. Let us be +grateful that we in our own day have seen the last of it. + +[Illustration: DUTCH SHIPS FROZEN IN THE ICE] + +In the colonies, as has been said before, the same state of ruin existed +as at home. The West India Company had been bankrupt for almost a score +of years. The colonies in South America, the rich sugar plantations for +which once we sacrificed the unprofitable harbour of New York, were in +the year 1801 being worked for the benefit of the British conqueror. +Holland had lost them and had lost their profits. In the year 1798, by +article 247 of the first constitution, the East India Company had been +suspended. This enormous commercial institution, which with a minimum of +effort had produced a maximum of results, went out of existence like a +candle. Her loss was a terrible blow to Amsterdam. During the last +years, when the affairs of the company were going from bad to worse, +many loans had been taken up to meet the current expenses. Amsterdam, +which had the greatest interest in hiding the actual condition of the +company, had invariably provided these loans. Its City Bank still had an +inexhaustible supply of cash, but with her trade in foreign securities +ruined by the long wars, and her trade in domestic securities destroyed +by the demise of Dutch manufacturing and Dutch shipping, with the +enormous international banking business made impossible by the unsettled +conditions of the revolutionary wars, the bank could only be maintained +by very doubtful financial expedients. And when this pillar of Dutch +society began to tremble upon its foundations, which were no longer +sound, what was to become of the Dutch banks? + +Failures of large commercial houses became disastrously frequent. Each +failure in turn affected larger circles of business institutions. Even +the expedient of using some of the ancestral capital became difficult +where there was no market for the securities which the people wished to +sell. Dividends upon foreign securities were passed year after year; +taxes went up higher every six months. Such a long siege upon its +prosperity no country could stand. And while the people were thus being +impoverished, what did the government and what did the French allies do +to bring about some improvement? France did nothing at all. The Dutch +Government sometimes sent a mild protest to London and asked the British +Government not to confiscate ships under a neutral flag, protestations +which of course remained unanswered. + +[Illustration: BATAVIA--THE FASHIONABLE QUARTER] + +Here is another little sum in arithmetic which will explain more than a +lengthy disputation upon the subject of our national ruin. It is a list +of the current expenses and revenues for a number of years: + + GUILDERS + + In 1795 the expenses were 51,000,000 + Revenue 17,000,000 + Deficit 34,000,000 + ---------- + + In 1796 expenses and revenue were the same. + + In 1797 the expenses were 42,000,000 + Revenue 20,000,000 + Deficit 22,000,000 + ---------- + + In 1797 the expenses were 31,000,000 + Revenue 21,000,000 + Deficit 10,000,000 + ---------- + +But when in 1799 the English and Russians invaded the country and the +revenues were appropriated according to the new style provided, the +expenses were 80,000,000, the revenue was 36,000,000, and the deficit +was 44,000,000. And these deficits, year after year, had to be covered +by extra loans, until at last a heavy loan was carried to pay the +dividends upon the original loan. Even with the three billions which the +republic was reported to have gathered during former centuries, there is +but one possible end to such a system of finance: That end is called +national bankruptcy. + +[Illustration: A COUNTRY PLACE] + + + + +XVIII + + +SOCIAL LIFE + + +Whether man is merely a chemical compound driven by economic energies or +something higher and more sublime is a question which from the +inexperience of our youth we dare not decide. But that something in +human society is apt to go wrong the moment the _homo sapiens_ leaves +the straight path between the economic too much and too little is a +truth which we are willing to defend against all comers. The trouble +during revolutionary times is that the well-worn, old-fashioned, narrow +road is no longer visible. The old beacons of proper conduct have been +removed, new ones have not yet been provided, and people wander hither +and thither, and tumble from one extreme into the other. + +In the Batavian Republic in 1795, as the Dutch expression has it, the +locks were opened wide. Everybody could do what he pleased. The old +rules of polite society were discarded. Batavians were no longer to be +slaves neither to certain prescribed masters nor of certain well-defined +manners. Of course when almost two million people, rigidly divided into +innumerable classes, are suddenly transformed into so many equal +citizens, a terrible social cataclysm must take place. During the +joyful hysteria of the first few months this was not noticed. The people +seemed to forget that all social questions are the result of historical +compromises and have a historical growth--that they are not allowed to +exist for the benefit of a single class of citizens. A Batavian Republic +without titles and official ranks, without coats-of-arms and +distinguishing uniforms, was no doubt very desirable and very noble and +very highly humane. But the change was too sudden and too abrupt, and in +the end it did an enormous amount of harm. + +[Illustration: SKATING ON THE RIVER MAAS AT ROTTERDAM] + +During the fifty years that had gone before, the patriotic press had +shrieked contumelies upon the regents, who had refused to commit +political suicide for a class which they, however, considered to be +their inferiors. In this fight all good manners had finally disappeared. +It had become a guerilla warfare of violent pamphlets--a muddy battle of +mutual vituperation. The regents, however, although a degenerating +class, had maintained until the very end a certain ideal of personal +manners which had set a standard for all classes. The political upheaval +of 1795 brought a number of men to the front who did not possess these +outward advantages of a polished demeanour, and therefore despised them. +According to them, the country needed men of pure principles (their +principles) and not men who could merely bow and scrape. Any intelligent +man could hold an office provided he was sound in doctrine (their +doctrine). With the ideal of a cultivated man violently thrown out of +the community the standard of the schools had at once suffered. It was +no longer necessary to possess a general education to be eligible for a +higher position. As a result, the universities had not been able to +insist upon the old high standards, and when the universities weakened +in their demands the other schools had immediately followed suit. This +disintegration soon made itself apparent in all sorts of ways. Why write +good books or good poetry when the people asked for and were contented +with the cheaper variety? Why keep up an artistic ideal when the people +wanted vulgar and cheap prints? The few good novelists of the eighteenth +century were no longer read. Their place was taken by a number of +scribblers, who, by flattering the commonest preferences and by +appealing to the worst taste of the large army of voters, made +themselves rich and their books popular. They gave the public what it +liked. And the public thought them very famous men indeed. It was the +same thing in art. We cannot remember ever having seen or ever having +heard any one who had ever seen a single good picture painted during the +Batavian days. The prints which commemorated the current events are so +bad as to be altogether hopeless. + +The sovereign people were flattered with a persistency and a lack of +delicacy which would have incensed even the worst and most astute of +tyrants. The masses, however, did not notice it, and bought the +complimentary pictures with great pride in their own virtue. Posterity +has thought differently about it, and whereas the prints of the +seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries are carefully collected, the +prints of the Batavian Republic are usually left as food to the +industrious domestic mouse. + +But aside from these merely ideal considerations (for a nation may be +great and prosperous and yet lack entirely in artistic perception) the +ordinary daily life of the community suffered a worse blow than it +experienced through the loss of the colonies. During the old commercial +days there had been a great many slippery customers who had managed to +make their living in very questionable ways. On the whole, however, the +leading merchants had maintained a fairly high standard of commercial +integrity from which no one dared to avert too openly. Now, in the year +1795, all this changed. The new men were not bound to these iron rules +of conduct. A good many of the old unwritten rules and regulations of +trade were thrown overboard as being antiquated. Army contractors and +questionable speculators entered into the field of Dutch politics and +introduced the dangerous standards of people who have managed to get +rich overnight. Nobody likes to see his neighbour eating a better dinner +than he can afford himself. If a purveyor of army shoes could suddenly +keep a carriage and pair and yet be respected by the men with whom he +associated, why, the people asked, should we criticise his methods? +He is not punished by social contempt. He is treated with great +respect because he can entertain in such a very handsome way. And soon +the young boy next door tried the same trick of speculation and began to +feel a deep contempt for the old-fashioned and slow ways of his +immediate ancestors. + +[Illustration: TRADES] + +The better element of the community in the general disorganization which +followed the revolution found itself deserted, laughed at for its high +standards, looked at with the pathetic interest which enterprising young +men feel for old fogies who are behind the times. "The poor old people +simply would not look facts in the face. Why insist on living in Utopia? +Utopia was such a very dreary place." Until, finally, these excellent +people either succumbed, which was very rare, or retired from active +life, and within the circle of their own home waited for better days and +more ideal times. And the general tone of Batavian society was indicated +by a class to whom riches meant an indulgence in all the material things +of which they had dreamed during their former days of poverty. Easy +come, easy go--in money matters as well as in morals. The new class of +rich people, living without any restraint, followed its own +inclinations, but obeyed no set rules of conduct. The sudden influx of +ten thousand French officers, and Heaven knows how many foreign +soldiers, also brought a dangerous element into a single community. + +It is true that the discipline of the French soldiers had been +exemplary, but the men trained in the happy-go-lucky school of the +Paris which had followed the puritanical days of the sainted Maximilian +Robespierre did not assist in establishing a deeper respect for good +morals. The old days of parsimonious living and respect for one's +betters were gone forever. Under the new dispensation no one was anybody +else's better, and everybody lived as well as his purse or his credit +allowed him to. + +During the first years of the republic a number of men had suddenly +grown rich. These vulgar personages threw their money out of the windows +in the form of empty champagne bottles. Outside of their house of mirth +a motley congregation of hungry people hovered. They drank what was left +in the discarded bottles; they feasted on the remains of the uneaten +pastry; they dreamed of the golden days when luck should turn and they +should be inside with the worshippers of the fleshpots. The best part of +the nation, however, disgusted with these vulgar doings, retired from +all active life. It preferred a dull existence of simple honesty to a +roisterous feast on the brink of a moral and financial abyss. And +quietly the good people waited for the great change that was certain to +come, when the nation once more should return to a sound mode of living, +and when the resplendent adventurers of the moment should have been +relegated back into that obscurity from which they never ought to have +emerged. + + + + +XIX + + +PEACE + + +What can we say of the next five years--of the five years during which +the Batavian Republic lived under her third constitution and outwardly +exercised all the functions of a normal, independent state? Very little, +indeed. Of course there is material enough. There rarely was a time when +so much ink was wasted on decrees and bills and pamphlets discussing the +decrees. Everything of any importance was referred to the voters, and +therefore had to be printed. But of what value is all this material? +Some day it may be used for a learned doctor's thesis. To the general +historical reader it is without any interest. In name the republic was +still a free commonwealth. In practice --we have repeatedly stated this +before--it was a French province. The First Consul ruled her and gave +his orders either through the Batavian minister in Paris or the French +minister in The Hague. That such orders were ever disobeyed we do not +find recorded. At times there was a little grumbling, but even if the +noise thereof ever penetrated to Paris it was dismissed as the silly +complaint of a lot of tradespeople who were always kicking. That was +part of their business. The best answer to their remonstrances was an +increase in the taxes--5 per cent. on this, 3 per cent. more on that, 20 +per cent. on another article. Income, windows, light, air, newspapers, +bread, tobacco, cheese--there was not an item that did not contribute +toward making Napoleon's rule a success. For five years the republic, +with its twelve executive gentlemen, ambled along. The better elements +no longer appeared either in the assembly or in the colleges of the +voters. The government gradually was left entirely to professional +politicians of the lowest sort. The legislative body at once reflected +this attitude of the more intelligent people to abstain from +participation in the political life of their country. + +It is true that the peace of Amiens made a momentary end to the French +wars and brought about peace between England and the republic. But +before the Dutch ships had been able to reach the Indian island war had +again broken out, the colonies were once more captured by the British, +and the Dutch coast was again blockaded. Bound to France by its +disastrous treaty of 1796, the republic must follow the fate of the +great sister republic. The people (we are now in 1803) had since the +beginning of the revolution produced 600,000,000 guilders in taxes. They +tried to convince the First Consul that they could not go on doing this +forever. He, however, was able to suggest quite a wonderful remedy for +their difficulties. The Batavian Republic must strengthen her fleet +until she could defeat England and take back the colonies which that +perfidious country had stolen. Very well! But the fleet could not be +improved without further millions, and so the republic moved in a +vicious circle which led to nowhere in particular but cost money all +along that eternal line. + +For a change, and to remind them of their duty, the Consul sent urgent +demands for honorary dotations, for extraordinary dotations, for special +dotations, or whatever names he chose to give to those official thefts. + +The Exchange upon such occasions would fly into a panic. Couriers would +race madly along the roads between The Hague and Paris. But invariably +the end of all this commotion was a new command for the republic to pay +up and be very quick about it, too. Continually during those five years +do we hear Napoleon's warning: "If the republic refuses to pay, and +refuses to obey my orders in general, I shall turn it into a French +department." + +Schimmelpenninck, very moderate in his views, not too enthusiastic about +the Batavian form of government, and rather in favour of the American +system, during those very difficult days represented his country in +Paris as its diplomatic agent. He had to carry the brunt of those wordy +battles about the increased taxes. Napoleon may not have been able to +speak French grammatically; but he certainly did have at his command a +varied and choice collection of Parisian and Corsican Billingsgate. +Continually in his correspondence with the Batavian Republic the Consul +flew into a rage, called everybody very unpolite names, insulted the +persons and the families of the members of the executive, told everybody +indiscriminately what he thought of them or what he would do to their +worthless persons. The browbeaten executives could do nothing but bow +very low, accept the insults in an humble spirit, and express their +invariable loyalty to the man who called them a bunch of sneaking +grafters devoid of honour, energy, and patriotism. + +This policy after a while had a very bad influence upon the Batavian +Government. People lost all hope for the future. All desire to start +upon new enterprises was killed. What was the use? The fruits of one's +industry were taken away for the benefit of the French armies. And any +day might be the last. The Consul might have had a bad night, he might +be out of temper, and "finis" then for the Republic of the Free +Batavians. + +The year 1805 came, and with it a demand for 15,000,000 guilders to be +given as a loan, returnable in four years. Fortunately it was before the +battle of Jena had shown the weakness of Prussia, and Napoleon did not +dare to attack the republic too openly. But he had made up his mind that +the present weak form of government could not continue. The large +executive must be abolished, and a single man, be he a French general or +a member of the House of Bonaparte, must be made the head of the +republic. The republic alone seemed unable to walk. Napoleon would give +her somebody for her support. Unfortunately there was no general +available, and all the consular brethren were engaged elsewhere. For +lack of a Frenchman a Hollander must take the job. There was only one +Hollander whom the Consul (the Emperor since a few months) could trust +and for whom he had some personal liking. That was the Batavian +minister, Schimmelpenninck. The latter, however, had no ambitions of +this sort and refused the offer to become Proconsul of the Republic. He +pleaded ill health, a weakening eyesight. Napoleon refused to listen to +his excuses. If Schimmelpenninck were unwilling to accept, then France +must annex the republic. Whereupon the Batavian minister, inspired by +the unselfish interest which he took in his fatherland, agreed to accept +the difficult position. He sadly drove to The Hague along the heavy +roads of a very severe winter, and he informed the twelve citizens of +the executive body what the Emperor intended to do with him and with +them and with the Batavian Republic. The executive must resign at once. +As an executive body it had proved itself to be too large and too +ineffective. As a legislative body it had done nothing of any +importance. It must go. A new constitution (a fourth one, if you +please), more centralized and more after the French pattern, must be +adopted. + +The executive, mild as lambs, approved of everything, said yea and amen +to all the proposals of the Emperor. It informed the legislative body of +the contemplated changes and advised the legislators that the +appointment of Schimmelpenninck as Proconsul was the only way out of +the difficulty. The legislative body, just to keep up appearances, +deliberated for six whole days. Then it expressed its full approval of +everything the Emperor proposed to do with them and for them. The new +constitution, made in Paris, was forwarded to The Hague by parcels post, +was put into type, and was brought before the electorate. The voters by +this time did not care what happened or who governed them so long as +they themselves were only left in peace. And when the time came for them +to express their opinion 139 men out of a total of 350,000, took the +trouble to say no, while less than one-twenty-fifth of the voting part +of the population took the trouble of expressing an affirmative opinion. +Out of every hundred voters, ninety-six stayed quietly at home. It saved +trouble. + +[Illustration: SCHIMMELPENNINCK] + + + + +XX + + +SCHIMMELPENNINCK + + +Schimmelpenninck made himself no false ideals about his high office, +which placed him, a simple man, in the palace of the Noordeinde (the +present royal palace of the kings of the Netherlands), which surrounded +him with a lifeguard of 1,500 men, gave him the title of +Raadpensionaris, encompassed him with an iron circle of regal etiquette, +and provided him with many things which were quite as much against the +essential character of the Hollanders as against his own personal +tastes. + +For himself, the new Raadpensionaris asked for very little. He was +careful not to appoint a single one of his relatives to any public +office, and tried in the most impartial way to gather all the more able +elements of every party around himself. He appointed his cabinet and +selected his advisers from the unionists and the federalists, but most +of all from among the moderates. + +The Raadpensionaris in this new commonwealth of Napoleon's making was a +complete autocrat. Provisions had been made for a legislative body of +nineteen men, to be appointed by the different provinces; but this +legislature, which was to meet twice a year and had resumed the old +title of their High and Mightinesses, the Estates General, amounted to +nothing at all. At the very best it was an official gallery which +applauded the acts of the Raadpensionaris. + +This dignitary and his ministers worked meanwhile with the greatest +energy. A most capable man was appointed to be secretary of the +treasury. He actually managed to reduce the deficit by several millions, +and began to take steps to put the country upon a sound financial basis. +Napoleon, however, did not fancy the idea of the republic getting out of +debt too completely. If anything were to be done in this line he +proposed an immediate reduction of the public debt. In the end, so he +reasoned, such a reduction would be a benefit. At the present moment, as +far as the Emperor could make out, the people through their taxes paid +the money which at the end of the year came back to them through their +investments in public funds. Reduce the national debt and you will +reduce taxation. But however much his Majesty might advocate his pet +plans, the commercial soul of the republic refused to listen to these +proposals of such dangerous financial sleight-of-hand and the people +rather suffered a high taxation than submit to an open confession of +inability to manage their own treasury. + +The army, for which the Raadpensionaris personally had very little love, +was developed into a small but very efficient corps. This had to be +done. Unless the army were well looked after, Napoleon threatened to +introduce conscription in the republic, and to avert this national +calamity people were willing to make further sacrifices and support an +army consisting of volunteers. The navy, too, was put into good shape. A +new man was at work in this department, a certain Verhuell, an ardent +revolutionist, and the Hollander who seems to have had the greatest +influence over the Emperor. During all the events between 1800 and 1812 +Verhuell acted as the unofficial intermediary between the republic and +the Emperor. He was a good sailor. In a number of engagements with the +British his ships ably held their own water. But the Dutch fleet alone +was far too small to tackle England, and the French fleet was soon lost +sight of through the battle of Trafalgar. + +Came the year 1806 and the defeat of the coalition. Ulm and Austerlitz +were not only disasters to the Austrians; they had their effect upon the +republic. Napoleon, complete master of the European continent, parcelled +out its territory in new states and created new kingdoms and duchies +without any regard to the personal wishes of the subjects of these +artificial nations. + +The Batavian Republic had been spared through the sentimentality of the +French revolutionists. For several years it had been left alone because +Napoleon still had to respect the wishes of Prussia and Austria. Now +Prussia and Austria had been reduced to third-class powers, and the +Emperor could treat the republic as he wished to. He sent for his Dutch +man Friday, Verhuell, and talked about his plans. "Had the admiral +noticed that during the war with the European coalition the French +armies in the republic had been under command of his Majesty's brother, +the Prince Louis Napoleon?" Mr. Verhuell had noticed the presence of the +young member of the House of Bonaparte. So had everybody else. "Did Mr. +Verhuell know what this presence meant?" Mr. Verhuell could guess. So +could everybody else. Very well! Mr. Verhuell could go to The Hague and +inform his fellow-citizens that they might choose between asking for the +Prince Louis Bonaparte as their king or becoming a French department. +With this cheerful message Mr. Verhuell repaired to The Hague, just a +year after the Raadpensionaris had travelled that same road to assume +the consulship of the republic. The Batavians were obliged to accept +their fate with Christian resignation. Opposition of ten thousand Dutch +recruits against half a million well-trained French soldiers was +impossible. Furthermore, it is a doubtful question whether the people +would have fought for their independence. There had been too many years +full of disaster. The spirit of the people had been broken. They were +now willing to accept anything. The only question to decide was how to +get through this new comedy with some semblance of the old dignity. +Schimmelpenninck, who was a very constitutional person, called together +the grand council, consisting of the legislative body, the council of +state, and a number of high dignitaries, and proposed that the new plan +be submitted to the voters. The grand council voted him down +directly. As it was, there had been too many elections already. The +people must be left out of this affair. No good would come from their +interference, anyway. + +[Illustration: SCHIMMELPENNINCK ARRIVES AT THE HAGUE] + +And forthwith the council resorted to the old Dutch expedient of +procrastination. It sent a delegation to Paris to see the Emperor. +Meanwhile, something might turn up. It did turn up--in the form of an +ultimatum from his Majesty. He refused to receive the delegation, but +sent word by Verhuell that the republic was given just eight days in +which to repair to Paris and ask the Emperor for the favour of his +brother as their king. If they were a day late the country would be +turned into a French department. + +On the 3rd of May, 1806, the grand council in The Hague agreed to all +the French demands. The ex-bishop of Autun, the Rev. Mr. Talleyrand, had +been appointed by Napoleon to draw up a constitution for the new +kingdom. That was easy enough. After two weeks he could send the +finished article to the grand council for its approval. The council +approved; but Schimmelpenninck denounced the whole proceeding as being +unconstitutional, and refused to sign the document. The council signed +it over his head, and returned the paper to Paris. Then Schimmelpenninck +protested to the French minister, and told him that he could not +possibly justify the actions of the council. The minister said that he +was sorry, but that nothing could be done about it, since the document +was back in Paris. Whereupon Schimmelpenninck resigned and retired to +his country place, declining all further participation in his country's +political affairs. He lived until the year 1825, long enough to see his +beloved land regain its independence and finally benefit by many of the +reforms which he himself had helped to bring about. + +The Speaker of the legislative body was selected to succeed the +Raadpensionaris. Together with his colleagues of the grand council he +now had the dishonour of arranging the last details of the farce which +had been ordered by Paris. + +On the 5th of June, of the year 1806, the Emperor Napoleon graciously +deigned to receive a deputation from among the Batavian people who had +come to Paris to ask his Majesty to present them with a king. The reason +for this request, according to the delegates themselves, was the +weakness of their country, which did not allow them to defend themselves +against their enemies. + +His Majesty, from a high tower of condescension, agreed to honour the +petitioners with a favourable reply. His Majesty's own brother would be +appointed king of the Batavians. + +The new king, an amiable man, but not in the least desirous to be made +king of Holland (having such difficulties in governing his own wife that +he could not well bother about the additional duties of an entire +kingdom), was then asked to step forward. He humbly listened to his +brother's admonition never to "cease being a Frenchman," and answered +that he would accept the crown and do his best, "since his Majesty had +been pleased to order it so." That was all. The Batavian delegation was +dismissed. The new king retired, to go to his unhappy home; but before +he left the hall M. Talleyrand called him back and handed him a copy of +the constitution of his new kingdom. Would his Majesty kindly peruse the +document at his own leisure and make such suggestions as might occur to +him? His Majesty took the document. He was sure that it was all right. +His brother had approved of it. A few days later Louis packed his wife +and his children in the royal coach and slowly rolled to his new +domains. The people in the cities through which he passed gazed at this +ready-made monarch with a dull curiosity. They wondered what this +experiment would bring them. + +[Illustration: LOUIS NAPOLEON] + + + + +XXI + + +KING LOUIS OF HOLLAND + + +The new king was twenty-eight years old, not especially good looking, +kind-hearted, not specially clever, a little vain (as who would not be +who was made a king overnight), filled with the best of intentions +toward his new subjects, and none too fond of his brother. The +difference between the two Bonapartes was great. Louis was a gentleman, +Napoleon tried to be. + +The wife of the new king, whose morals were diametrically opposed to her +looks (she was very handsome), was a stepdaughter of the Emperor. She +hated her new country and its unelegant inhabitants. She was thoroughly +indifferent about her husband's fortunes, and she spent most of her time +in Paris and far away from her husband's court. + +The new king made a tour of inspection of his possessions, and then +settled down to rule. First of all, he tried to learn a little Dutch and +to understand something of the history of his adopted country. These +attempts were not brilliantly successful, but the patient people heard +of them and were happy. "At last," so they said, "we have a nice, good +man to be our king, and his brother will leave us alone." + +The regents, meanwhile, who had been invisible as long as they were +governed by one of their own people, now began to appear out of their +hiding-places. They accepted this new imported Majesty with much better +grace than they had received plain Mr. Schimmelpenninck. The son of an +obscure lawyer and notary public in a little semi-barbarous island, of +royal blood by the grace of his brother, could command the respect which +had been refused the member of an old and honourable Dutch family. The +palace of his Majesty King Louis became the centre to which flocked all +those who desired to become groom of the bedchamber or assistant master +of the horse. Louis was not averse to gold lace, and encouraged these +high aspirations, created nobles, gave orders, and filled his brother's +heart with amusement, mixed with contemptible scorn, by the creation of +Dutch marshals. A few among the old families, notably our former friend +Van Hogendorp, preferred obscurity to the reflected splendour of a +Bonapartistic throne. But they were the exceptions, not the rule. + +The new constitution which King Louis had brought along with him +somewhere in his luggage was unpacked and was put into practice. It +proved to be a concise little document, written with Napoleonic brevity. +It contained only seventy-nine articles. All power was invested in the +king, who was assisted by a cabinet consisting of a council of state and +a number of ministers. The legislative chamber of thirty-eight members +was to convene once a year for two months, and, like its predecessors, +it could only veto or accept bills. It could not propose or amend the +laws. + +Schimmelpenninck was offered the speakership of the assembly for life, +but he refused. Van Hogendorp was offered a seat in the council of +state, but he declined. The members of the council and the ministers +were then elected from among the able men belonging to the different +parties. They were called upon to forget all former partisanship and to +unite in one common cause, the resurrection of the poverty-stricken +fatherland. + +Theoretically, King Louis was much in favour of rigid economy. In +practice, however, he proved to be a very costly monarch. It is true +that he gave the people their money's worth. There were parades and +elaborate coaches and gorgeous uniforms and fine outriders and all the +other paraphernalia so dear to the heart of the gaping multitude. But +soon the restlessness of a man who is miserably unhappy at home, and who +will give anything for diversion, took hold of the poor king. He began +to dislike his palace in The Hague, and moved to the house in the woods. +Then he moved to Haarlem. Then he discovered that Haarlem was not +central enough, and he moved to Utrecht. But Utrecht was too small and +too dull, and he tried Amsterdam. Now all this moving on a regal scale +cost enormous sums of money. Besides that, the king wished to furnish +his palaces with costly furniture, hang splendid tapestries upon the +walls, surround himself with fine works of art. + +But these thousands were insignificant compared to the millions which +were being spent upon the army and the navy. Verhuell, the man after +Napoleon's heart, had received orders to make the navy into a good one. +He had obeyed his orders promptly, but it had cost a pretty penny. And +the army, now that Napoleon was fighting everybody on the European +continent, had to be kept up to an ever-increasing standard of +efficiency. The revenues, on the other hand, fell below the +disheartening average of former years. For Holland, as a dependency of +France, had to obey the absurd rules against English goods with which +Napoleon hoped to starve Great Britain into submission. + +Together with King Louis there had appeared in the republic a veritable +army of French spies. They were under orders to prevent smuggling, and +to see that the laws against British goods be strictly enforced. +Rotterdam and several cities which had prolonged their economic +existence through wholesale smuggling were now ruined. Every year it +became more difficult to raise the extraordinary taxes for the army and +navy. The secretary of the treasury at his first audience with King +Louis had been able to inform the monarch that the state of the +country's finances was as follows: In cash, 205,000 guilders. Deficit on +this year's debt, 35,000,000. The secretary of the treasury thereafter +became a nightmare to the poor king. Every month he appeared with a more +doleful story. Every so many weeks he approached the king with new and +involved plans to bring about some improvements in the finances of the +kingdom. Louis, who shared his brother's dislike for economics, was +terribly bored. At last, in self-defence, he dismissed his minister of +finances, the very capable Gogel, who had begun life as a clerk in a +bookstore and had worked his way up through sheer ability. The new +secretary of the treasury was less of a persistent bore, but the +economic condition of the country grew worse instead of better. + +[Illustration: 1807. KINGDOM OF HOLLAND.] + +What more can we say of the rule of this well-meaning monarch? He was +the receiver appointed in a bankrupt business. It was a wonder that he +could maintain himself for four whole years. He was not a man who made +friends easily. A rapidly developing sense of his own dignity gradually +isolated him from those men who meant well with the king and the +country. He tried to improve the arts and sciences by founding an +academy. But painters and poets cannot be made to order, and his academy +did not flourish. + +Agriculture and commerce were encouraged by the construction of a number +of excellent roads and the making of several important polders. But with +all foreign markets, except the French, closed to them, the products of +the farmer and the manufacturer could not be exported. The good +intentions were all there, but the adverse circumstances were too +powerful. The king was tender-hearted. When there was a national +calamity, a fire, or an inundation, the king might be seen on the +nearest dike trying to fish people out of the flood. But with Christian +charity alone a nation cannot be made prosperous. + +The king tried to get rid of the French influence. His wife, who +intrigued against him with her cousin, the French minister, opposed his +independent plans. The king then tried to get rid of his wife; but +brother Napoleon, who contemplated divorcing his own wife, in order to +marry into a better family, did not like the idea of two separations in +the family at the same time, and Louis was obliged to stay married. He +then tried to get rid of the French minister, but Napoleon supported his +envoy and refused to recall so devoted and useful a servant. + +It was England which finally spoiled King Louis' last chances. After a +long preparation, during which Napoleon had frequently taken occasion to +warn his brother, the English fleet crossed the North Sea and attacked +the Dutch island of Walcheren preparatory to an assault upon Antwerp, +Napoleon's great naval base. The strong town of Flushing, after a +bombardment which incidentally destroyed every house in that city, was +taken by the British forces, and the advance against Antwerp was begun. +The French, however, had been able to make full preparations for +defence. Bernadotte had inundated the country surrounding the Belgian +fortress, and the British were obliged to stay where they were, on the +Zeeland Islands. As usual, Holland paid the expenses. When finally the +malarial fever had driven the English out of the country, the plundered +provinces had to be kept alive by public charity. + +Napoleon was furious. His pet scheme, the glorious harbour of Antwerp, +had almost fallen into English hands. Why had not his brother taken +measures to prevent such a thing? "Holland was merely a British +dependency where the English deposited of their wares in perfect safety. +The Emperor's own brother was an ally of England. Why does he not equip +an army strong enough to resist such British aggressions? The Kingdom of +Holland says that it is too poor to pay more for an army. Lies, all +lies. Holland is rich. It is the richest nation on the continent. But +every time the pockets of their High and Mightinesses are touched they +make a terrible noise and plead poverty. Don't listen to their +complaints. Make them pay! Do you hear? Make them pay!" And so on, and +so on. There exists an entire correspondence to this effect. Louis +answered as best he could. The Emperor was not satisfied. He sent for +his brother to come to Paris. Louis went. When he arrived, Napoleon +scolded him openly before his entire court, before the new wife which +his armies had obtained for him in Vienna. The humiliation was great, +but still Louis refused to resign and deliver the country of which he +had grown fond to the tender mercies of his august brother. Even when, +in March of the year 1810, Napoleon, by a sudden decree, annexed part of +the south of the kingdom, Louis refused to give in and depart. For a +while he contemplated armed resistance to the French armies. Krayenhoff +worked on a plan for the inundation of Amsterdam. A number of generals +who were suspected of French sentiments were dismissed. The idea, +however, was given up as altogether too impossible. The Dutch ministers +would not follow their king. The council of state refused to give him +money for such purposes. And Napoleon gathered a large army and began to +move his troops in the direction of Amsterdam. + +Louis, despairing of everything for the future of himself and his +country, would not continue to rule under such circumstances. On the 1st +of July, 1810, he abdicated in favour of his small son. The child, just +seven years old, was to be king under the guardianship of his mother, +the admiral, Verhuell, and a number of the leading members of the +cabinet. + +On the night of the 2nd of June Louis, under the incognito of a Count of +Leu, left his palace in Haarlem and departed forever from his kingdom. +In the year 1846 he died in Livorno. Six years later his son ascended +the French throne as Napoleon III. + +News of the abdication reached Paris at the very moment that the troops +of Napoleon took possession of Amsterdam. One week later, on the 9th of +July, Napoleon signed the decree of annexation. The little bit of mud +deposited upon the shores of the North Sea by the French rivers, and for +some years known as the Dutch Republic, ceased to be an independent +state and became a minor French province. + +[Illustration: NAPOLEON VISITS AMSTERDAM] + + + + +XXII + + +THE DEPARTMENT FORMERLY CALLED HOLLAND + + +For the next three years the Hollanders went to the French school. The +teachers were severe masters, but the pupils learned a lot. The Batavian +Republic, and even the kingdom of Louis Napoleon, had been but +continuations of the old partisan struggles of the former republics. The +new state of affairs wiped the slate clean. The government came into the +hands of French superiors who trained the lower Dutch officials in the +new methods of governmental administration, who insisted upon running +the state as they would a business firm, and to whom the petty +considerations of former partisanship meant absolutely nothing. Uniform +laws for the entire country, which the different assemblies had not been +able to institute, were drawn up and were enforced upon all Hollanders +with equal severity. The old system of jurisprudence, different for +every little province, town, or village, was replaced by one single +system. The Code Napoleon became the law for all. + +The old trouble with the armed forces which had put the republic under +the obligation of hiring mercenaries was now done away with. The new +conscription took in all able-bodied citizens, put them all in the +same uniform, and gave them all the same chance to serve their country +and be killed for its glory. + +[Illustration: 1811. HOLLAND ANNEXED BY FRANCE.] + +[Illustration: Reproduced from Author's Sketch.] + +But, best of all, that old atmosphere in which a man from one village +had looked upon his nearest neighbour from another village as his worst +enemy was at last cleared away. A man might have been an Orangeist or a +federalist or a Jacobin, he might have believed in the supreme right of +the state or the divine right of his own family--before the new ruler +this made no difference. Napoleon asked no questions about the past. He +insisted upon duties toward the future. Before that capital N all men +became equal, because they all were inferiors. Promotion could be won +only by ability and through faithful service. Family influence no longer +counted. Humble names were suddenly elevated if their possessors showed +themselves worthy of the Emperor's confidence. The whole country was +thrown into one gigantic melting-pot of foreign make and stirred by a +foreign master without any respect for the separate ingredients out of +which he was trying to brew his one and indivisible French Empire. + +The new French province was arbitrarily divided into departments. The +old provincial names and frontiers were discontinued. Each little +department was called after some river or brook which happened to flow +through it. At its head came a prefect, invariably a Frenchman. A French +governor-general resided in The Hague to exercise the supreme command. + +Fortunately the first governor-general, the French General Lebrun, Duke +of Plaisance, was a decent old man who did his best to make the sudden +change from Hollander into Frenchman as little painful to the subject as +possible. And his subjects, if they did not actually love the old +gentleman, always treated him with respect and deference. But the same +thing cannot be said of a majority of the French prefects. They were +insolent adventurers who had fought their way up from among the ranks, +but who had neither understanding nor affection for the despised +Hollanders over whom they were called to rule. + +A large French army came to Holland and French garrisons were placed in +all of the more important cities. Churches and hospitals were hastily +turned into barracks, and the soldiers made themselves entirely at home. +French customs officers were placed in all the villages along the coast. +They watched all harbours. A French soldier sailed on every fishing +smack to prevent smuggling. The entire village was responsible for his +safe return. French police spies made their entry into Dutch society and +kept a control over all Dutch families. The French language was +officially introduced into all schools, theatres, and newspapers. The +universities, except the one in Leiden, were abolished or changed into +secondary schools. What gradually made the French rule so unpopular, and +what finally made it so universally hated, was not the introduction of +an entirely new form of government. The political innovations were +hailed by the thinking part of the nation with considerable joy. Foreign +influence brought about improvements which the people themselves, with +their age-old political prejudices, could not have instituted. It was +not the ever-increasing severity of the taxes nor the unpleasant +presence of a large French army which made the people regard Napoleon as +the incarnation of Antichrist. The opposition to everything French began +the moment Napoleon started to interfere with those undefinable parts of +daily life which we call the national character, or, still shorter, the +"nationality." Napoleon, himself an Italian ruling over Frenchmen, does +not seem to have understood this sentiment at all. Under different +circumstances he would just as happily have made his career in Russia or +in China. His failures in every country date from the moment when he +attacked the nationality of his enemies. The Dutch or the Spanish or the +German child could be made to speak French in school, but the soldiers +of the Emperor could not force the mother of the child to teach it +French when first it began to prattle. The Dutch citizen could be forced +to read a newspaper printed in French and to attend a church where the +sermon was preached in French, but he could not be made to think in that +language. Dutch nationality, driven violently from the public places, +hid itself in the home, and there entrenched itself behind impregnable +barriers. At home the nation suffered, and in the proscribed language +talked of the future and the better times which must certainly +follow. For when the year 1812 came the nation had reached a depth of +misery so very low that things simply could not be worse. The most +despondent pessimist by the very hopeless condition of affairs was +turned into an optimist. Trade and commerce were gone; smuggling was +impossible; factories stood empty and deserted; no dividends were paid. +By imperial decree the national debt had been reduced to one third of +its actual size. Families whose income had been three thousand guilders +now received one thousand. Those who had had one thousand became +paupers. One fourth of the people of Amsterdam were kept alive by public +charities, until finally the charities themselves had no more to give, +and had to go into bankruptcy. Another fourth of the population, while +not absolutely dependent, received partial support. The other half of +the people were obliged to give up everything that was not absolutely +necessary for just simple existence. They dismissed their servants, they +sold their horses, they refrained from buying books and articles of +luxury. + +[Illustration: DEPARTURE OF GARDES D'HONNEUR FROM AMSTERDAM] + +Then came the sudden blow of the conscription. First of all, the young +men of twenty-one years of age were taken into the army. Then the +conscription was extended upward and downward. Finally, those who had +celebrated their nineteenth birthday in the year 1788 were forced to +take up arms. The few boys who drew a high lot and were free if they +belonged to the higher classes were honoured with a patent of a +sub-altern in his Majesty's personal bodyguard. If they were poor they +were used for some extra duty, as hospital soldiers, or were enlisted +under some flimsy pretext. In short, there was no way of escape. After a +while there was not a family in the land, be it rich or poor, whose sons +or brothers were not serving the Emperor in his armies, and in far-away +countries were risking their lives for a cause as vile as any that has +ever been fought for. + +Came the year 1812 and the preparations for the expedition against +Russia. Fifteen thousand Dutch troops were divided among the French +armies as hussars, infantry, artillery, or engineers. They were not +allowed to form one Dutch contingent for fear of possible mutiny. As a +minor part of the enormous army of invasion they marched across the +Russian plains. A few of the men managed to desert and to join the +English troops or the irregular bands which were beginning to operate in +Germany. The others were frozen to death or were killed in battle. The +Fourth Dutch Hussars charged a Russian battery and was reduced to +forty-six men. This was at the beginning of September. A month later the +Third Grenadiers was decimated until only forty men were left. Of the +four regiments of infantry of the line only one came back as such. The +others, shot to pieces, reduced by cold and starvation, gradually +wandered home as part of that endless stream of starving men who early +in 1813 began to beg for bread along the roads of eastern Prussia. Of +the Second Lancers only two men ever saw their fatherland again. The +Thirty-third Light Infantry was practically annihilated, until only +twenty-five men survived, and they as prisoners in Russia. Of two +hundred Hollanders serving in the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Infantry +not a single one ever returned. + +It was a terrible story, but it did not affect the Emperor. His answer +to the catastrophe was a demand for more troops. The sailors were taken +from the fleet. Young boys and old men were mustered into the army. Here +and there Dutch farmers, first robbed of their money, then of their +possessions, finally deprived of their sons, resisted, took pitchforks +and killed a few gendarmes. Immediate reprisals followed. The culprits +were stood against the nearest trees and shot, the sons were marched off +to the army, and the farms were confiscated. + +One hundred years ago, at the moment we are writing this chapter, on the +18th of November, 1813, old man Bluecher, cursing and swearing at the +Corsican blackguard, whirled his cavalry against the left flank of the +French army, smashed it to pieces, and changed Napoleon's victory of +Leipzig into a defeat. After a week the first news of the Emperor's +defeat reached the republic. Officially it was not announced until some +months later. Even then it made little impression. The people were too +dejected to rejoice. They had heard of such defeats before, and +invariably the announcement had been followed by a masterstroke on the +part of the terrible Emperor and a rehabilitation of his military +prestige. Here and there in the universities and in the schools some +teachers began to whisper that the days of slavery might be soon over. +But nobody dared to listen. Only a fool or a college professor could +believe in the final victory of the allies. + +It was now near the middle of November. Most of the French troops had +been called to the frontiers. A few regiments of custom-house men had +been left behind, and a few companies of either very old or very young +men. It was a dangerous moment. In the east the allies were rapidly +approaching the Dutch frontiers. The possession of the Dutch harbours +would mean direct communication with England and an open road to the +British goods and the British money of which the allies were in such +desperate need. That Holland on this occasion was not conquered by the +allies as French territory was entirely due to the energy of one man, +bravely supported by a small number of able friends. + +[Illustration: GYSBERT KAREL VAN HOGENDORP] + + + + +XXIII + + +LIBERATION + + +The name of Van Hogendorp has been frequently mentioned before. First of +all as the adviser of the Princess Wilhelmina during her attempt to +cause some spontaneous enthusiasm for her husband, who had been driven +out of his province of Holland by the Patriots. After the year 1795 we +have been able to call attention repeatedly to the conduct of this +excellent gentleman, who was most obstinate in his fidelity to his given +word and refused to consider himself freed from the oath of allegiance +which he once had sworn to the Stadholder. He simply refused all +overtures from the side of the revolution, and later from King Louis, +and lived a forgotten existence in a big and dignified house. He had a +brother, Charles, who thought him to be altogether too idealistic, and +who had accepted a position under the Emperor and was at this time a +well-known general. For the rest, and outside of his own family, Van +Hogendorp for many years did not associate intimately with a great +number of people. The last years had been very dangerous to those who +engaged conspicuously in social life. French spies might have wondered +why Mr. So and So was so very fond of the company of his neighbour, and +some fine night both gentlemen might have been lifted out of their beds, +their correspondence confiscated, and for weeks or even months they +might have been kept in jail. It was one of the measures of the Emperor +himself which directly drove a number of prominent Dutch families into a +closer union. The creation of the so-called Guards of Honour meant that +all the boys of the higher classes, who formerly had been often allowed +to send substitutes, now had to enter the army personally. There had +been very great opposition. The police had had to interfere and had been +obliged to drag many of the recruits to the barracks. Arrests had been +made and fines had been imposed, and out of sheer misery many families +who had not been intimate before now came to know each other more +closely. It was among those unfortunate people that Van Hogendorp first +seems to have looked for associates and confederates in his plans for a +revolution against the French Government. Of course, of a revolution +which even in the smallest degree shall resemble the rebellion against +Spain, we shall see nothing. Everything in Holland during those years +was on a small scale. The nation was old and weakened and tottered +around with difficulty. Not for a moment must we imagine a situation +where enthusiastic Patriots rush to the standard of rebellion. All in +all we shall see perhaps a dozen men who are willing to take the +slightest personal risk and who by sheer force of their character shall +compel the rest of the nation to follow their example. It was a +revolution in spite of the Dutch people, not through them. + +It is not merely for convenience sake that we take Van Hogendorp as the +centre. He was really the man of imagination who, long before the French +had been beaten, understood that this Napoleonic empire, built upon +violence and deceit, could not survive--must inevitably perish, and that +soon the time would come for his own country to regain its independence. +He had studied the situation with such care that he was able to time his +uprising very precisely. When the news came of the battle of Leipzig, +Van Hogendorp was engaged upon a rough draft of a new constitution for +the benefit of the independent republic which he felt must soon +materialize. + +Now the expected had happened. Napoleon had been beaten and was in full +flight. The allies were marching upon the French and Dutch frontiers. +The next weeks would decide everything. It was a period of the greatest +confusion. The Emperor, engaged in creating new armies out of almost +impossible material, had no time to give orders to his outposts. The +French army in the department formerly called Holland must help itself. +The result of this ignorance about the general affairs in France and +Germany was a hopeless diversity in false rumours. Every single hour, +almost, the prefects in the provinces and the governor-general in The +Hague were surprised by some new and terrible story. One moment a report +was spread throughout the town that the Emperor was dead. The next day +it was contradicted: the Emperor had merely gone crazy. The next day he +was in his right mind again, but had been taken prisoner by the +Cossacks, and the French had crossed the Rhine. After a while, however, +some definite orders came from Paris. The French army must concentrate +and try to defend the frontiers of France. Here was news indeed. On the +evening of the 14th of November, 1813, the French troops in Amsterdam +were packed in a number of boats and rowed away in a southern direction. +Amsterdam was without a garrison. Immediately there followed a terrific +explosion. The poor people, after so many years of misery and hunger, +after so many months in which they had tasted neither coffee nor sugar, +not to speak of tobacco, burst forth to take their revenge. The French +soldiers were gone. The only visible sign of the hated foreign +domination was the little wooden houses which up to that day had been +occupied by the French douaniers. Half an hour after the last Frenchman +had disappeared the air was red with the flames of those buildings, and +the infuriated populace was dancing a wild gallop of joy around the +cheerful bonfire. + +But right here we come to one of the saddest parts of the year 1813. +These insurgents, rebels, hoodlums, or whatever you wish to call them, +received no support from above. The old spirit of the regents was still +too strong. The higher classes saw this wild carousal, but instead of +guiding it into an organized movement to be used against the French, +they were terribly scared, thinking only of danger to their own +property, and decided to stop the violent outbreak before further harm +could be done. With promises of the splendid things that might happen +to-morrow they got the people back into their slums. Then they quickly +organized a volunteer police corps and made ready to keep the people in +their proper place, and actually prevent further outbreaks. That the +time had come to throw off the French yoke does not seem to have been +apparent to the majority of the former regents, who hastened back to the +town hall the moment the French burgomasters had left. They were scared, +and they refused to budge. The French flag was kept flying on the public +buildings. Napoleon might come back, and the regents were not going to +be caught standing on a patriotic barricade waving Orange banners. The +fame for the first open outbreak goes to the poor people of Amsterdam. +But the old conservative classes of the city prevented the town from +actually becoming the leader of this great movement for Holland's +independence. Late in the evening of the 16th of November the news of +the burning of the French custom-houses in Amsterdam reached The Hague. +A few hours before the French governor had left the residence and had +gone to Utrecht to be nearer the centre of the country. But several +French troops and policemen had been left behind to keep order. At three +o'clock of the night of the 17th, while the town was asleep, Van +Hogendorp sent a messenger to the Dutch commander of the civic militia. +The commander came, but regretted to report that his militia had been +left entirely without arms by the French authorities, who suspected them +of treason. The mayor was then appealed to. He was told of the danger +that might occur should the common people attack the French troops. The +militia must have arms to keep order. The mayor, who was a Hollander, +readily gave the required permission. Just before sunrise the town +guards were assembled in front of the old palace of the Stadholders. +They were given arms and were told to keep themselves in readiness. That +was the moment for which Van Hogendorp had waited. + +With a large orange-coloured bow upon his hat, General Leopold van +Limburg Stirum, the friend and chief fellow-conspirator of Van +Hogendorp, suddenly appeared upon the public street. Slowly, with a +crowd of admiring citizens behind him, he walked to the place where the +militia waited. There he read a proclamation which Van Hogendorp had +prepared beforehand: + +"Holland is free. Long live the House of Orange. The French rule has +come to an end. The sea is open, commerce revives, the past is +forgotten. All old partisanship has ceased to be, and everything has +been forgiven." + +[Illustration: PROCLAMATION OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT] + +Then the proclamation went on to indicate the new form of government. +There would be founded a state in which all men of some importance would +be able to take part, under the high leadership of the Prince of +Orange. The militia listened with approval, then with beating drums and +waving the Orange colours, which had not been seen for almost a +generation, the soldiers marched through the excited town directly to +the city hall. The old flag of the republic was hoisted on the tower of +the church nearby. Within an hour the news of this wonderful event had +spread throughout the town. On all sides, from doors and windows and +upon roofs, the old red, white, and blue colours mixed with orange +appeared. Orange ribbons, still disseminating a smell of the moth-chest +in which they had lain hidden for so many years, appeared upon hats and +around sleeves, were waved on canes, and put around the collars of the +domestic canines. Spontaneous parades of orange-covered citizens began +to wander through the streets. + +The House of Van Hogendorp became the centre of all activity. In the +afternoon of the same day Van Hogendorp and a number of his friends +assumed the Provisional government, to handle the affairs of the state +until the Prince of Orange should come to assume the highest leadership. + +So far, the conspirators had been successful. The French soldiers showed +no desire to oppose this popular movement, but they were still present +in their barracks and constituted an element of grave danger. But in the +afternoon the fisherfolk of Scheveningen, ultra-Orangeists, began to +hear of the great doings in The Hague and enthusiastically made up their +minds to join. And when the influx of this proverbially hard-fisted +tribe became known to the French they decided that their number of five +hundred was not sufficient to suppress the popular excitement. Hastily +they packed their belongings and marched away in the direction of +Utrecht. But before they had been gone half an hour, some two hundred +Prussian grenadiers deserted and returned to The Hague, where they were +received with open arms, and where they joined the populace with loud +hoorays for the Prince of Orange and the hospitable Dutch nation. + +Mere shouting, however, although a very necessary part of a revolution, +has never yet brought about a victory. It was necessary to do some more +substantial work than to cause a popular outbreak of enthusiasm. There +must be order and a foundation upon which the new authorities should be +able to construct a stable form of government. Van Hogendorp, therefore, +took the next necessary step and hastily called upon all the former +regents who could be reached to come and deliberate with him upon the +establishment of a legitimate provisional form of government. Right +there his difficulties began. The regents refused to come. They, like +their brethren in Amsterdam, were afraid. Napoleon was invincible. They +knew it. He was certain to regain the lost ground, and then he would +come and take his revenge. And as far as they were concerned, the +regents intended to stay at home. Only a few of them dared to come +forward. + +Amsterdam at this first meeting was represented by one man. His name was +Falck. He was a _homo novus_, but by far the most capable of those who +appeared at the house of Van Hogendorp, and he was at once selected to +be the secretary of the meeting. Falck understood that such a poor +beginning was worse than no revolution at all. The country must not +return to the old bad conditions. The former regents had shown their +lack of interest. A meeting must be called together of men from among +all parties. Accordingly, on the 20th of November, a general meeting of +notabilities from among all the former political parties was called +together. It was not much more successful than the first one. The people +distrusted it profoundly. They thought that there was to be a repetition +of the old Estates General and that the conservative elements would +again be in the majority. What was worse, the members of this informal +convention had no confidence in themselves. Half a dozen were willing to +go ahead. The others hesitated. They wanted to proceed slowly until they +should know what would happen to the allies and what would become of +Napoleon. The country had no army, it had no money, it had no credit. + +In vain did Van Hogendorp talk to each member individually, in vain did +he and his friends try every possible means of personal persuasion. The +conservative elements were still too strong. The regents preached +against more revolution. The French had been bad enough, but they did +not wish to come once more under the domination of their own common +people. + +In this emergency all sorts of desperate remedies were resorted to. A +British merchantman appeared before the coast near Scheveningen. At once +Van Hogendorp sent word to the captain and asked him to put on his full +uniform as a British militia officer and with a few of his men parade +the streets of The Hague and Rotterdam. In this way the report would +become current that a British auxiliary squadron had appeared before the +coast. The captain did his best, and put on all his spangles. He did +some good, but not so very much. Next, the leaders in The Hague asked +for volunteers to form a Dutch army. Six hundred and thirty men answered +the summons. Badly equipped and armed, they were marched to Amsterdam, +where they were joined by a company of militia under the ever-active +Falck. They arrived just in time. The next day the first advance guard +of the army of the allies, a company of Cossacks, appeared before the +gates of the town, and it was by the merest piece of luck that Amsterdam +could welcome them as friends and need not open her gates to them as +conquerors. + +But withal, the situation was most precarious. In the north Verhuell +held the fleet and threatened the Dutch coast. In the south all the +principal cities were in French hands. In the centre of the country the +French had fortified themselves considerably and even made frequent +sallies upon the territory of the rebels, which cost the latter +considerably in men and money. Finally, in the far east, Bluecher was +preparing to invade the republic and make her territory the scene of his +battles. For a moment it seemed that all the trouble had been for no +purpose. Only one thing could save the situation. The Prince of Orange +must come, must inspire the people with greater diligence for the good +cause, and must take command of the disorganized forces. + +Question: Where is the Prince? Nobody knew. He might be in England, but +then, again, he might be with the allies somewhere along the Rhine. +Messengers had been sent to London and to Frankfort. Those who went to +Frankfort did not find the Prince, but they found the commanders of the +allies and had the good sense to tell a fine yarn--how Holland had freed +itself, and how the French had been ignominiously driven out. As a +matter of fact, the Prince was in England, and in London, on the 21st of +November, he heard how his arrival was eagerly awaited and how he must +cross the North Sea at once. Five days later, well provided with men and +money, he left the British coast on the frigate _Warrior_. An easterly +wind, which nineteen years before had driven his father safely across +the waters, delayed his voyage. For four whole days his ship tacked +against this breeze. One British ship with 300 marines landed on the +Dutch coast on the 27th, but nothing was heard of the Prince. The +anxiety in Holland grew. + +The fisher fleet of Scheveningen was sent out cruising in front of the +coast to try to get in touch with the British fleet. But the days came +and the days went by and no news was reported which might appease the +general anxiety. Finally, on the morning of the 30th of November, the +rumour spread suddenly through The Hague that the British fleet had been +sighted. The Prince was coming! Then the people went forth to meet their +old beloved Prince of Orange. Everything else was now forgotten. Along +the same road where almost twenty years before they had gone to bid +farewell to the father whom they had driven away, they now went to hail +the son as their saviour. + +At noon of Friday, the 30th, the _Warrior_ came in sight. The same +fisherman who eighteen years before had taken William to the ship which +was to conduct him into his exile was now chosen to carry the new +sovereign through the surf. With orange ribbons on his horses, with his +coat covered with the same faithful colour, the old man drove through +the waves. At four o'clock of the afternoon a sloop carrying the Prince +left the British man-of-war. Half an hour later William landed. + +[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF WILLIAM I IN SCHEVENINGEN] + +The shore once more was black with people. The old road to The Hague was +again lined with thousands of people. Little boys had climbed up into +trees. Small children were lifted high by their mothers that they might +get a glimpse of the hallowed person of a member of the House of Orange. +A few people, from sheer excitement, shrieked their welcome. They were +at once commanded to be silent. The moment was too solemn for such an +expression of personal feeling. Here a nation in utter despair welcomed +the one person upon whom it had fixed its hope of salvation. In this way +did the House of Orange come back into its own--with a promise of a new +and happier future--after the terrible days of foreign domination and +national ruin. + + + + +XXIV + + +THE RESTORATION + + +Van Hogendorp did not witness this triumphal entry. He was sick and had +to keep to his room. Thither the Prince drove at once, and together the +old man and the young man had a prolonged conference. + +What was to be the exact position of the Prince, and what form of +government must be adopted by the country? On the road from Scheveningen +the cry of "Long live the King!" had been occasionally heard. Was +William to be a king or was he merely to continue the office of +Stadholder which his fathers had held? Van Hogendorp's first plan to +revive the old oligarchic republic had failed at once. The regents had +played their rôle for all time. They had showed that they could not come +back. They had lost those abilities which for several centuries had kept +them at the head of affairs. The plan of Falck to create a government on +the half and half principle--half regent, half Patriot--had not been a +success, either. The Patriots as a party had been too directly +responsible for the mistakes of the last twenty years to be longer +popular as a ruling class. A new system must be found which could unite +all the best elements of the entire country. Surely here was a +difficult task to be performed. + +The country to which Prince William was restored consisted at that +moment of exactly two provinces. The army numbered 1,350 infantry and +200 cavalry. The available cash counted just a little under 300,000 +guilders. The only thing that was plentiful was the national debt. To +start a new nation and a new government upon such a slender basis was +the agreeable task which awaited the Prince, and yet, after all, the +solution of the problem proved to be more simple than had been expected. +The old administrative machinery of the Napoleonic empire was bodily +taken over into the new state and was continued under the command of the +Prince. The higher French dignitaries disappeared and their places were +taken by Hollanders trained in the Napoleonic school. The army of +well-drilled lower officials was retained in its posts. Except for the +fact that Dutch was once more made the official language, there was +little change in the internal form of government. The modern edifice of +state which had been constructed by Napoleon for the unwilling +Hollanders was cleaned of all Frenchmen and all French influence, but +the building itself was not touched, and after the original architect +had moved out, the impoverished Dutch state continued to live in it with +the utmost satisfaction. + +But now came the question of the title and the position of the new head +of the household. Was it possible to place the state, which for so many +years had recognized an outlandish adventurer as its emperor, under the +leadership of a mere Stadholder? Was it fair that the Prince of Orange +should rule in his own country as a mere Stadholder where the country +had just recognized a member of a foreign family as its legitimate king? +The higher classes might have their doubts and might spend their days in +clever academic disputations; the mass of the people, however, +instinctively felt that the only right way out of the difficulty was to +make the son of the last Stadholder the first king of the resurrected +nation. + +Before this popular demand, William, who himself in many ways was +conservative, and might have preferred to return merely as Stadholder, +had to give way. With much show of popular approbation he set to work to +reorganize the country as its sovereign ruler and no longer as the +subordinate executive of its parliament. + +The first task of the sovereign, when on the 6th of December he took the +government into his own hands, was to abolish the most unpopular of the +old French taxes. The government monopoly of tobacco was at once +suppressed and joyous clouds of smoke spread heavenward. The press was +freed from the supervision of the police, under which it had so severely +suffered. The law which confiscated the goods of political prisoners and +which had been so greatly abused by the French authorities disappeared, +to the general satisfaction of the former victims. The clergy, which for +many years had received no salary at all and had been supported by +public charity, saw itself reinstated in its old revenues. But the time +had not yet come in which William could devote himself exclusively to +internal problems. The question of the moment was the military one. The +French still occupied many Dutch fortifications. They must first of all +be driven out. For this purpose the three thousand odd men were not +sufficient. But no further volunteers announced themselves. + +The first two weeks of enthusiasm had been followed by the old apathy. +Neither men nor money was forthcoming. Everything was once more left to +an allwise Providence and to the allies. During eighteen years the +people had paid taxes. Now they kept their money at home. For almost ten +years their sons had been in the army. They were not going to send them +to be slaughtered for yet another king. The allies might do the fighting +if they liked. And it was impossible to get Dutch soldiers. Not until +the old government had begun to enforce the former French law upon the +conscription was it possible to lay the foundations of a national army. +After a year 45,000 infantrymen and 5,000 cavalrymen were ready to join +the allies. Then, however, they were no longer needed. Napoleon was +drilling his hundred rustics on the Island of Elba, and the Congress of +Vienna had started upon that round of dinners and gayeties which was to +decide the future destinies of the European continent. + +After the army came the question of a constitution. This problem was +settled in the following way: A committee of fourteen members was +appointed to make a constitution. These fourteen gentlemen represented +all the old parties. A concept-constitution, drawn up by Van Hogendorp +long before the revolution took place, was to be the basis for their +discussions. On the 2nd of March this committee presented the sovereign +with a constitution which made him practically autocratic. There was to +be a sort of parliament of fifty-five members elected by the provincial +estates. But except for the futile right of veto and the exceptional +right of proposing an occasional bill, this parliament could exercise no +control over the executive or the finances. This was exactly what most +people wanted. They had had enough and to spare of popular government. +They were quite willing to leave everything to an able king who would +know best what was good for them. + +On all sides the men of 1813 were surrounded by the ruins of the +failures of their inexperienced political schemes. The most energetic +leaders among them were dead or had been forced out of politics long +ago. Of the younger generation all over Europe the best elements had +been shot to pieces for the benefit of the Emperor Napoleon. The people +that remained when this scourge left Europe were the less active ones, +the less energetic ones, those who by nature were most fit to be humble +subjects. + +On the 29th of March six hundred of the most prominent men of the +country were called together at Amsterdam to examine the new +constitution and to express their opinion upon the document. Only four +hundred and forty-eight appeared. They accepted the constitution between +breakfast and luncheon. They did not care to go into details. Nobody +cared. People wanted to be left in peace. Political housekeeping had +been too much trouble. They went to board with their new king, gave him +a million and a half a year, and told him to look after all details of +the management, but under no circumstances to bother them. And the new +king, whose nature at bottom was most autocratic, assumed this new duty +with the greatest pleasure and prepared to show his subjects how well +fitted he was for such a worthy task. + + + + +XXV + +WILLIAM I + + +On the 20th of July, 1814, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, together with +England, agreed to recognize and support the new Kingdom of Holland and +to add to the territory of the old republic the former Austrian +possessions in Belgium. This meant the revival of a state which greatly +resembled the old Burgundian Kingdom. The allies did not found this new +country out of any sentimental love for the Dutch people. England wanted +to have a sentinel in Europe against another French outbreak, and +therefore the northern frontier of France must be guarded by a strong +nation. To further strengthen this country England returned most of the +colonies which during the last eighteen years had been captured by her +fleet. But before the new kingdom could start upon its career General +Bonaparte had tired of the monotony of his island principality and had +started upon his well-known trip to Waterloo. The new Dutch army upon +this occasion fought well and at Quatre Bras rendered valuable services. + +[Illustration: KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS] + +General Bonaparte was dispatched to St. Helena, a fate which of late has +inspired many sentimental folk to the point of writing books, and the +Kingdom of Holland-Belgium could begin its independent existence in all +seriousness. King William, in this new country, remained the absolute +ruler. Instead of one there were to be two chambers in his new domains. +But the executive and legislative power was all vested in the hands of +his Majesty. He, on the whole, made use of them for the very best +purposes. In a material way he attempted every possible remedy for the +poverty of the country. As far as dollars and cents go he was an +excellent king. Canals were dug all over the country; commerce was +encouraged in every possible way; the colonies were exploited with +energy; factories were built with and without support of the state, and +the mineral riches of Belgium were fully developed. A plan for a Panama, +or, rather, a Nicaraguan Canal was seriously discussed. And yet William +failed. The task to which he had been called was an impossible one. +Belgium and Holland had nothing in common but their mutual dislike of +each other. Protestant Holland, proud of its history, had no sympathy +for Catholic Belgium, where the Middle Ages had peacefully continued +while the rest of the world had moved forward. Catholic Belgium returned +these uncordial sentiments most heartily, and with the worst of +prejudices awaited the things which must be inflicted upon it by a +Protestant king. + +A man of such pronounced views as King William was certain to have many +and sincere enemies. Furthermore, the French part of Belgium, following +the example of its esteemed neighbours, enjoyed a noisy opposition to +the powers that were as a sort of inspiring political picnic. But the +real difficulties of William's reign began when he got into a quarrel +with the Catholic Church. This well-organized institution, which will +provide all things to all men, under all conditions and circumstances, +was directly responsible for the ultimate break between the two +countries. We are not discussing the Church as an establishment for the +propagation of a certain sort of religious ethics; but we must +regretfully state that the entrance of the Church upon the field of +practical politics has invariably been followed by trouble in the most +all-around sense of the word. + +William as King of the Netherlands felt his responsibility and felt it +heavily. He and He Only (make it capitals) was the head of the nation. +And when it appeared that the Bishop of Rome or the Bishop of Liège or +any other bishop aspired to the rôle of the power above the throne he +found in William a most determined and most sincere enemy. The Church, +assured of her power in a country which for so many centuries had been +under her absolute influence, became very aggressive, and her leaders +became very bold. William promptly landed the boldest among the bishops +in jail. And that was the beginning of a quarrel which lasted until +Catholics and Liberals, water and fire, had been forced to make common +cause against their mutual enemy and started a secret revolution against +William's rule, which broke forth in the open in the year 1830. + +[Illustration: LIEUTENANT VAN SPEYCK BLOWS UP HIS SHIP] + +The northern part of the country, for the first time in almost thirty +years, began to take an interest in politics and commenced showing +hopeful signs of life. And when in February, 1831, the commander of a +small Dutch gunboat, Lieutenant van Speyck, blew his ship and all his +sailors into the kingdom of brave men rather than surrender to the +Belgian rabble which had climbed on board his disabled craft, such an +unexpected enthusiasm broke loose that it took Holland just ten days in +which to reconquer most of the rebellious provinces. + +This, however, was not to the liking of France. In the first place, +France was under the influence of a strong Catholic reaction and felt +compelled to help the suffering brethren in Belgium. In the second +place, France did not like the idea of a sentinel of England and +hastened to recognize and support the Prince of Saxe-Coburg, who was +called upon to mount the newly founded throne of the independent state +of Belgium. + +A large French army marched north to oppose a further advance of the +Hollanders. William had to give up all idea of reuniting the two +countries. Since when, divorced from their incompatible companions, the +two nations have gone their different ways in excellent friendship and +have established great mutual respect and understanding. + +To King William, however, who had devoted his time and strength quite as +much to Belgium as to Holland, the separation came as a terrible blow. +William was one of those sovereigns who take a cup of coffee and a bun +at five in the morning and then set to work to do everything for +everybody. He could not understand that mere devotion to duty was not +sufficient to make all his subjects love him. Perhaps he had not always +shown great tact in dealing with religious matters. But, then, look at +his material results. The Prince, who seventeen years before had been +hailed as the saviour of his country, now began to suffer under the +undeserved slights of his discontented citizens and was made a subject +for attacks which were wholly unwarranted. That the conditions in the +kingdom were in many ways quite unsatisfactory, is true; but it was not +so entirely the fault of the king as his contemporaries were so eager to +believe. They themselves had at first given him too much power. They had +without examination accepted a constitution which allowed their +parliament no control over monetary matters. The result of this state of +affairs had been a wholesale system of thefts and graft. The king knew +nothing of this, could not have known it. There were private individuals +who thought that they could prove it, but the ministers of state were +not responsible to the parliament, and there was no legitimate way of +bringing these unsound conditions to the attention of the sovereign. + +And so the discontented elements started upon a campaign of calumny and +of silent disapproval, until finally William, who strongly felt that he +had done his duty to the best of his ability, became so thoroughly +disgusted with the ingratitude of his subjects that he resigned in +favour of his son, who, as William II, came to the throne in 1840. +William then left the country and never returned. + +[Illustration: KING WILLIAM II] + +What must we say of William II? We are not trying to write a detailed +history of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This little book merely tries +to fill out the mysterious and unexplored space between the end of the +old Dutch Republic and the modern kingdom. Even these twenty years it +does not try to describe too minutely, because on the whole (except for +the people themselves) the period was so absolutely uninteresting to the +outside world that we would not be warranted in asking the attention of +the intelligent reader for more than a limited number of pages. William +II was a good king in that he was a constitutional king. The year 1848 +did not see the erection of barricades in the quiet Dutch cities. If the +people, or, rather, the few liberals who had begun to develop out of the +mass of indifferent material--if these gentlemen wanted another and a +more liberal constitution very badly, they could have it as far as +William II was concerned. And without revolution or undue noise the +absolute kingdom which the men of 1813 had constructed to keep the men +of 1795 in check was quietly changed into an absolutely constitutional +monarchy after the British pattern, with responsible ministers and a +parliament ruled by the different political parties. The budget now +became a public institution, openly discussed every year by the whole +people through their chosen representatives and their newspapers. + +The king in this way became the hereditary president of a constitutional +republic. There can be no doubt that the system was personally +disagreeable to William II as well as to his son William III, who +succeeded him in 1849. But neither of them for a moment thought of +deviating from the narrow road which alone guaranteed safety to +themselves and to their subjects. However much they may have liked or +disliked certain individuals who as the result of a change in party had +to be appointed to be ministers of the government, they never allowed +their own personal feelings to interfere with the provisions of the +constitution to which at their ascension to the throne they had sworn +allegiance. This policy they continued with such excellent success that +whatever strength the socialistic party or the other parties of economic +discontent may at present be able to develop, those who would actually +like to see the monarchy changed into a republic are so very rare and +form such an insignificant part of the total population that a +continuation of the present system seems assured for an indefinite +length of time, which is saying a great deal in our day of democratic +unrest. + +As we write these final words a hundred years have gone by since the +days of the French domination and of the many revolutionary upheavals; +the nation of the year 1813, broken down under the hopeless feeling of +failure, and the people, despairing of the future and indifferent to +everything of the present which did not touch their bread and butter, +have disappeared. One after the other they travelled the road to those +open air cemeteries which they had so much detested as a revolutionary +innovation, their ancestors all slept under their own church-pews, and +their place was taken by younger blood. + +But it was not until the year 1870 that we could notice a more hopeful +attitude in the point of view of the Dutch nation. Then, at last, it +recovered from the blows of the first twelve years of the century. Then +it regained the courage of its own individual convictions and once more +was ready to take up the burden of nationality. Once more the low +countries aspired to that place among the nations to which their +favourable geographical position, the thrift of their population, and +the enterprise of their leading merchants so fully entitled them. The +revival, when it came, was along all lines. Scholarship in many branches +of learning compared very favourably with the best days of the old +republic. The arts revived and brought back glimpses of the seventeenth +century. Social legislation gave the country an honourable place among +those states which earnestly endeavour to mitigate the disadvantages of +our present capitalistic development and by direct interference of the +legislature aim for a higher type of society in which the many shall not +spend their lives in a daily drudgery for the benefit of the few. + +The feeling that colonies were merely an agreeable asset to the +merchants of the country and called for no special obligations upon +their part gradually gave way to the modern view that the colonies are +a trust which for many a year to come must stay in the hands of European +men before they shall be able to render them to the natives for a rule +of their own people. Finally that most awful and most despondent of all +sentimental meditations, that "we have been a great country once," that +"we have had our time," has begun to make place for the conviction that +at this very moment no other nation of such a small area and +insignificant number of people is capable of performing such valuable +service in so many fields of human endeavour as is the modern Dutch +nation. + +The failure of the men of 1795, who dreamed their honest but ineffectual +dream of a prosperous and united fatherland, the apparent failure of the +first Dutch king who in the true belief of his own direct responsibility +still belonged to a bygone age, have at last made place for a healthy +and modern state capable of normal development. + +Out of the ruins of the old divided republic--a selfish commercial +body--there has risen, after a hundred years of experimenting and +suffering, a new and honourable country--a single nation, not merely an +indifferent confederacy of independent little sovereignties--a civic +body managing its own household affairs without interference from abroad +and without disastrous partisanship at home--a people who again dare to +see visions beyond the direct interests of their daily bread, and who +are given the fullest scope for the pursuit of prosperity and +individual happiness under a government of their own choice and under +the gracious leadership of her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina. + + _Brussels._ + _Christmas, 1914._ + + +THE END + + + + +A COMPARISON OF THE FOUR CONSTITUTIONS OF HOLLAND + +CONSTITUTION OF 1798 CONSTITUTION OF 1801 + + The Representative Assembly: A Council of State (Executive +The highest power in the State, Council, in Dutch: Staatsbewind) +to which all other governmental consisting of twelve members. +bodies are responsible. A Legislative Assembly. + The Executive Council of five National Syndicate consisting +directors. of three judicial officers to + The Representative Assembly control all officials of the State +has the right of legislation, State and all departments of the +of making alliances and treaties, government. +of declaring war, of discussing The Legislative Assembly +accepting the yearly budget, discusses all laws proposed by the +of appointing the directors of Council of State. It discusses and +the Executive Council. It can gives its final approval to all +grant pensions and has the right treaties (except certain articles +of pardon, and will decide in of such treaties). It has to give +all such questions which are not its approval to any declaration of +explicitly provided for by the war. It discusses and approves the +constitution. annual budget. + The Executive Council must The Council of State +see to the strict execution of (Staatsbewind) makes up the annual +of all the laws of the budget and proposes new laws to +Representative Assembly. It the Legislative Assembly. It sees +makes up a yearly budget which to the execution of the laws which +must be submitted to the the Legislative body has accepted. +Representative Assembly. It has It declares war (after it has +the right to appoint diplomatic obtained the approval of the +and consular representatives. Legislative Assembly). It is the +It negotiates treaties and highest power in all affairs of +alliances, subject, however, to army and navy, and it has the +approval of the Representative right of appointment of the +body. principal state officers. The + The Representative Assembly The Legislative Assembly +shall consist of one member for consists of one single chamber of +every 20,000 inhabitants. Every thirty-five members. +year the Representative body The members of the Legislative +shall be divided into a second Assembly are for the first time to +chamber of thirty members and be appointed by the Council of +a first chamber containing all State. Afterward their election +the others. (There were will be regulated by law. +ninety-four members in all.) To be entitled to vote one must + The Representative Assembly is be either a Hollander who has +to be elected in the following lived in the country for one year +way: The country shall be divided or a foreigner who has lived in +into ninety-four districts of the country for six whole years. +20,000 people each. These The declaration of abhorrence of +districts are again divided the Stadholder, aristocracy, etc., +into forty sub-districts is no longer insisted upon. A +(grondvergadering) of 500 people single promise to "remain faithful +Stadholder, aristocracy, etc., to the constitution" is now +each. Each subdistrict elects one sufficient. +candidate and one elector. If the The Council of State is composed +same candidate was elected in of twelve members. The first seven +twenty-one sub-districts he members are appointed by "the +became a Representative. present Executive Council" (this +Otherwise forty electors choose meant the three authors of the +a Representative from among the constitution of the year 1810). +three candidates who had the These seven were to appoint their +largest number of votes. five colleagues. Each year one of + Each year one third of the the twelve members was supposed to +members of the Representative resign. A vacancy was filled as +Assembly must resign, and a follows: The departmental circles +new election for their places proposed four people. Out of those +must be held. four the Legislative Assembly + To be entitled to vote one elected two. From among those two +must be either a Hollander who the Council of State then selected +during the last two years has their new colleague. +lived in the country or a The agents are replaced by +foreigner who has resided in small advisory councils of three +the republic during the last ten members. They are responsible +years. The voter must be able to the Council of State. +to read and write the Dutch The Legislative Assembly meets +language, and must have passed twice a year: April 15 to June 1, +the age of twenty. To qualify and October 15 to December 15. +as a voter one must swear a The Council of State, however, can +solemn oath to the effect that call together the Legislative +one abhors the Stadholder, Assembly as often as it pleases. +anarchy, aristocracy, and The Council of State proposes +federalism, and that one never all laws. Twelve members of the +shall vote for any person whose Legislative Assembly appointed by +opinions upon these subjects are this body discuss the laws. The +not entirely above suspicion. Legislative Assembly then accepts + The Executive Council is the law or vetoes it. No further +appointed by the Representative discussion allowed in the +Assembly, but the members of the Legislative Assembly. +Council may not be members of the The country is divided into +Executive. The first chamber eight departments. The provincial +proposes three candidates. The frontiers of the old republic are +second chamber elects the member reëstablished. Drenthe comes to +from among those three. Each year Overysel and Brabant becomes the +one new member of the Council is new, the eighth, department. +to be elected. After his Local government remains as +resignation he is not reëligible before, but each city is allowed +until five years later. greater liberty in civic affairs, + The Executive Council appoints provided the city does not try to +eight agents to act as heads of change the original idea of a +different departments (as democratic, representative +ministers more or less). These government. The cities in this +agents are responsible and way regain a great deal of their +subordinate to the Council. old autonomy. The old interstate + The Representative Assembly tariff scheme of the former +meets the whole year round. republic is not allowed. But + New laws are proposed in and otherwise the cities regain most +discussed by the first chamber. of their former power. +Then they are submitted to the +second chamber, which has the +right of approval or veto, but +not the right of discussion. + The Executive Council must see +to the execution of these laws. + The country is divided into +eight departments with new names: +The department of the Eems, of +the Old Ysel, of the Rhine, of +the Amstel, of Texel, of the +Delf, of the Dommel, and of the +Scheldt and Maas. Their former +boundaries are given up and +arbitrary boundaries are made. +Each department is divided into +seven circles and the circles are +divided into communes. + Each department has a local +governmental body somewhat +resembling the old Provential +Estates. Each circle is +represented in this by one +member. These seven members are +elected by the voters. The +officials of the commune are +elected in the same way. These +local, departmental, and civic +bodies are responsible to the +Executive Council. + + +CONSTITUTION OF 1805 CONSTITUTION OF 1806 + + + A Raadpensionaris. A King. + A Legislative Assembly. (The A Legislative Assembly. +old title of their High and The King is assisted by a +Mightinesses is revived for the Council of State of thirteen +members of this body.) members, to be appointed by + The Raadpensionaris is himself. +assisted by an advisory Council The Legislative body has the +of State of five to nine members, same rights as in the year 1801. +to be selected by himself. The King has the same executive + The powers of the Legislative power as the Raadpensionaris, but +body remain the same. may "upon certain occasions act + The Raadpensionaris has all directly without consulting the +the executive and legislative Legislative body at all." +power of the Council of State The Legislative body consists of +(Staatsbewind) of 1801, but he thirty-eight members. Holland +has at his disposal a secret appoints seventeen. The other +budget to be used "for the good departments two or four; Drenth, +of the country" at his own one. When a department increases +discretion. in territory the number of + The Legislative Assembly representatives may be increased, +consists of nineteen members: too. +Holland sends seven; Zeeland For the first time nineteen new +sends one; Utrecht sends one; all members proposed by the +the other departments send two Legislative body itself and +members. confirmed by the King were added + The first Legislative Assembly to the old Legislative Assembly of +is to be appointed by the the year 1805. +Raadpensionaris. Afterward the The next year (1807) the King +departmental government proposes appointed the new members from +four names. The Raadpensionaris among a list of candidates, half +selects two out of the four and of which list was proposed by the +returns the names to the Legislative Assembly, the other +departmental government, which half of which was made up by a +then votes for one of those two. number of notabilities who were + Qualifications for franchise selected by the King from a list +remain the same as in 1801. of names proposed by departmental + The Raadpensionaris is officers. +appointed by the Legislative The Constitution refers the +Assembly for a period of five question of the qualifications for +years. The Constitution of 1805 the franchise to the future. As a +lasted only for a year. The only matter of fact the franchise was +Raadpensionaris was practically abolished after the +Schimmelpenninck. institution of the kingdom. + The Raadpensionaris appoints The King appoints four +five secretaries of State and a secretaries of State (Ministers). +Council of Finance, consisting The Legislative body meets at +of three advisory members. the pleasure of the King. It is + The Legislative Assembly meets supposed to meet regularly during +twice a year for a period of six two months of the year. +weeks: April 15 to June 1, and The King proposes the laws. The +December 1 to January 15. Legislative Assembly has no right + All laws are proposed by the of discussion. Can accept a law or +Raadpensionaris. The Legislative veto it. +Assembly does not have the right The country is divided into nine +of debate, but has the right of departments. Drenthe is revived as +veto. a separate department. + The same division of the The old Departmental Estates, are +country as before. brought immediately under the + The cities continue to regain influence of the King, who appoints +their old sovereign rights. his own officers (Land-drost). The + autonomy of the cities is again lost. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +GIVING THE DETAILS OF THE RESURRECTION OF HOLLAND IN 1812 + + +For this period we have, as may be seen from the following list of +books, very few memoirs, only a limited number of newspapers, and no +books which show us in detail the inside work of the big and little +political events of the day. + +The rôle which the Batavian Republic played was so little flattering +that the chief participants in the drama of national decadence preferred +not to chronicle their own adventures between the years 1795 and 1815 +and expose their private conduct to the public judgment of their +children and grandchildren. + + +THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC + +Van der Aa, Biographisch woordenboek, the only source of information for +the lives of many of the men of this period. + +Appelius, J.H., de staatsomwenteling van 1795 in haren aard, loop en +gevolgen beschouwd. Leiden, 1801. + +D'Auzon de Boisminart W.P., Gedenkschriften, 1788-1840. The Hague, +1841-1843. + +Bas, F. de, De overgave van de Bataafsche vloot in 1795. Utrecht, 1884. + +Berkhey, J. le Francq van, de Bataafsche menschelykheid enz. Leiden, +1801. + +Beynen, G.J.W. Koolemans, Het Terugtrekken van Daendels in 1799 uit de +Zype naar de Schermer. Leiden, 1898. + +Blok, P.J., Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche volk. The new standard +history in eight volumes. Translated into English. The part treating of +the last hundred years of the Dutch Republic has not been translated as +fully as the earlier history. + +Bouwens, R.L., aan zyne committenten over het politiek en finantieel +gedrag der ministers van het vorige bewind. Amsterdam, 1797. + +Brauw, W.M. de, de Departmenten van Algemeen Bestuur in Nederland sedert +de omwenteling van 1795. Utrecht, 1864. + +Brougham, Henry Lord, Life and Times, written by himself. Edinburgh, +1871. This book contains a description of a voyage through the Batavian +Republic in the year 1804. + +Byleveld, H.J.J., de geschillen met Frankryk betreffende Vlissingen +sedert 1795 tot 1806. The Hague, 1865. + +Castlereagh, Memoirs and correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh, London, +1848, contains the diplomatic correspondence upon many subjects +concerning the Batavian Republic and the Kingdom of Holland. + +Colenbrander, Gedenkschriften der Algemeene Geschiedenis van Nederland. +Collection of official documents. 1795-1798, 1798-1801 (2 vols.); +1801-1806 (2 vols.), 1806 1810 (2 vols.), 1810-1813 (3 vols.) The +standard work of sources for this period. + +Courant, de Bataafsche Binnenlandsche, a newspaper with some news but +little of any value. + +Covens C. Beknopte staatsbeschryving der Bataafsche Republiek. +Amsterdam, 1800. + +Dagverhaal der handelingen van de eerste en tweede nationale and +constitueerende vergadering representeerende het Volk van Nederland. The +Hague, 1796-1801. A sort of congressional record in twenty-two volumes. + +Decreeten der Nationale Vergadering, March, 1796 to January, 1798. +Twenty-three volumes. An enormous mass of state papers of the National +Assembly. + +Decreeten, Register der, van de Vergadering van het Provintiaal Bestuur +van Holland. March 2, 1796 to January 31, 1798. The records of the +provincial government of Holland, which succeeded the estates of +Holland. + +Doorninck, J. van, Het Alliantie tractaat met Frankryk van 16 Mei 1795. +Deventer, 1852. + +Galdi M. Quadro politico delle rivoluzioni delle Provincie Unite e della +Republica Batava e dello stato attuale del regno di Olande. Milan, 1809. + +Groen van Prinsterer. Handboek der Geschiedenis van Het Vaderland. +Standard work written from point of view opposed to the French +Revolution. + +Hall, M.C. van, Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, voornamelyk als Bataafsch +afgezant op het Vredescongres te Amiens in 1802. Amsterdam, 1847. + +Hartog, J., De Joden in het eerste jaar der Bataafsche vryheid. +Amsterdam, 1875. A discussion of the emancipation of the Jews in the +Batavian Republic. + +Herzeele P. van and J. Goldberg, Rapport der commissie tot het onderzoek +naar den staat der finantien op 4 Januari, 1797. The Hague, 1797. + +Hingman, J.H., Stukken betreffende het voorstel tot deportatie van Van +de Spiegel, Bentinck, Rhoon en Repelaer, 1795-1798. Utrecht, 1888. + +Jaarboeken der Bataafsche Republiek. Amsterdam 1795-1798. Thirteen +volumes. A continuation of the old year books of the Dutch Republic. +Minute record of official acts, documents, etc. + +Kesman, J.H., Receuil van den zakelyken inhoud van alle sedert, 1795 +gestelde orders van den lande, de armée betreffende. The Hague, 1805. + +Kluit, W.P. Sautyn, Studies over de Nederlandsche journalistiek, +1795-1813. The Hague, 1876-1885. A discussion of the Gazette de +Hollande, the "Nationaale en Bataafsche couranten," and the official +newspaper of the State before the restoration of 1814. + +Krayenhoff, Geschiedkundige beschouwing van den oorlog op het +grondgebied der Bataafsche republiek in 1799. Nymwegen, 1832. + +Langres, Lonbard de, Byzonderheden uit de tyden der onwenteling en +betrekkingen van Nederland in 1798. The Hague, 1820. + +Langres was French minister between 1798 and 1799. Nothing much of +importance. + +Legrand, L., La révolution française en Hollande; la République Batave. +Paris, 1894. + +Naber, J.A., Journal van het gepasseerede gedurende het verblyf der +Nationale Trouppen in s'Gravenhage. January 21 to April 20, 1795. The +Hague, 1895. + +Notulen van het Staatsbewind der Bataafsche Republiek. October 17, 1801 +to April 29, 1805. Twelve volumes of records of the proceedings of the +Batavian Executive. + +Paulus, Aanspraak by de opening van de vergadering der Nationale +Vergadering. March 1, 1796. The Hague, 1796. A report of this speech is +found in Wagenaar. + +Rogge C., Tafereel van de geschiedenis der jongste omwenteling in de +Vereenigde Nederlanden. Amsterdam, 1796. + +Rogge C., Geschiedenis der staatsregeling voor het Bataafsche volk. +Amsterdam, 1799. + +Rogge C., Schaduwbeelden der leden van de Nationale Vergadering. + +Schimmelpenninck, G., Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck en eenige +gebeurtenissen van zyn tyd. The Hague, 1845. See also under M.C. van +Hall. + +Staatsbesluiten der Bataafsche Republiek, April 29 to December 31, 1805. +Three volumes of official decrees. + +Staatscourant, Bataafsche. See Kluit. + +Swildens, J.H., Godsdienstig Staatsboek. Amsterdam, 1803. Discussion of +the revolution from an orthodox protestant point of view. + +Vitringa, C.L., Staatkundige geschiedenis der Bataafsche Republiek. +Arnhem, 1858-1864. + +Vitringa, H.H., Advisen over de eenheid der Bataafsche Republiek, den +godsdienst, de verandering der constitutie, de vermeniging der oude +provincieele schulden, etc. Amsterdam, 1796. + +Vonk L.C., Geschiedenis der landing van het Engelsch Russisch leger in +Noord Holland. Haarlem, 1801. + +Vreede, G.W., Bydragen tot de geschiedenis der omwenteling van +1795-1798. Amsterdam, 1847-1851. + +Vreede G.W., Geschiedenis der diplomatie van de Bataafsche Republiek. +Three volumes of diplomatic history of the Batavian Republic. + +Vreede, P., Verantwoording. Leyden, 1798. Explanation of his official +acts as member of the Executive. + +Wagenaar. Vaderlandsche Historie. See the three volumes of Vervolg +written by Loosjes and his forty-eight volumes of Vervolg which bring +Wagenaar down to the year 1806. Stuart in 1821 wrote four more volumes +which continue the Historie until the year 1810 is reached. The same +tendency to endless reports of facts without any comment, except from +the revolutionary point of view, is met in this Vervolg, which is only +useful as a book of information. + +For the pamphlets of this period see the last column of the Catalogue of +Knuttel, Catalogus van de pamphletten verzameling berustende in de +Koninklyke Bibliotheek. The Hague. + + +THE KINGDOM OF HOLLAND + +Blik op Holland of schildery van dat Koninkryk in 1806. Amsterdam, +1807. + +Bonaparte, L., Documents historiques et réflexions sur le gouvernement de +la Hollande. Bruxelles, 1820. Translated into Dutch in the same year. + +Cour, La de Hollande sous le règne de Louis Bonaparte. Paris, 1823. + +Dykshoorn, J., Van de Landing der Engelschen in Zeeland. Vlissingen, +1809. + +Fruin, R., Twee nieuwe bydragen tot de kennis van het tydvak van Koning +Lodewyk. The Hague, 1888. + +Geslachts--levens--en karakterschets van Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. +Schiedam, 1806. + +Hoek, S. van, Landing en inval der Engelschen in Zeeland, 1809. Haarlem, +1810. + +Hortense de Beauharnais, Mémoires sur Madame la Duchesse de St. Leu, +ex-reine de Hollande. London, 1832. + +Hugenpoth d'Aerdt G.J.J.A., Notes historiques sur le règne de Louis +Napoleon. The Hague, 1829. + +Jorissen Th., Napoleon I et le Roi de Hollande, 1806-1813. The Hague, +1868. + +Jorissen Th., De ondergang van het koninkryk Holland. Arnhem, 1871. + +Jorissen Th., De commissie van 22 Juli 1810 te Parys. + +Maaskamp. E., Reis door Holland in 1806. Amsterdam, 1806. + +Rocqain F., Napoléon premier et le Roi Louis. Paris, 1875, with original +documents. + +Roel, W.F., Verslag van het verblyf des konings te Parys 1909-1910. +Amsterdam, 1837. + +Wichers L., De Regeering van Koning Lodewyk Napoleon, 1806-1810. Utrecht, +1892. The best book upon the subject which has as yet appeared. + +See Colenbrander's Gedenkstukken, Blok, Groen, and Wagenaar. + + +FRENCH OCCUPATION + +Bas, F. de and Snouckaert van Schauburg, Het 2de Hollandsche regiment +Huzaren. Breda, 1892. Story of the adventures of the Eleventh Regiment +French Hussars. + +Daendels, Staat van Nederlandsch Oost Indie onder het bestuur van H.W. +Daendels. The Hague, 1814. + +The same subject treated by N. Engelhard. About Daendels, see his life +by I. Mendels. For the colonial history of this period see also M.L. van +Deventer. Het Nederlandsch Gezag over Java. The Hague, 1891. + +Hogendorp D. van (brother of Gysbrecht Karel), Memoirs, 1761-1814. The +Hague, 1887. + +Hogendorp, Gysbrecht Karel van, Brieven en gedenkschriften. The Hague, +1762-1813. + +Kanter J. de, de Franschen in Walcheren. Middelburg, 1814. Krayenhoff. +Bydragen tot de vaderlandsche geschiedenis van de jaren, 1809 en 1810. +Nymegen, 1831. + +See Colenbrander's Gedenkstukken, Blok, Groen en Wagenaar. + + +THE RESTORATION + +During the centenary celebration of the revival of the Dutch +independence the events of the years 1812 and 1813 were made the subject +of numerous publications large of volume and dreary of reading. The art +of reproduction having been greatly perfected during those last years, +every single scrap of document was dutifully copied and royal battles +were fought about the exact wording of long-forgotten proclamations. +Most of these works of history appeared in serials and many have not +approached any further than the dreary works of 1814. In the second +edition of this book it will perhaps be possible to give a complete +bibliography for the years 1812-1815. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom, by +Hendrik Willem van Loon + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 38595 *** |