Dutch Life in Town and Country
by
P. M. Hough
Part 3 out of 4
and resume the more prosaic garments of his own times. All through the
week the influence of the corps, which is the life of the University from
the student's point of view, is manifest in the collective character of
all the festivities, everything being done either by the corps itself or
under its direction. From a comparison of this celebration with 'Commem'
week we can, perhaps, gather a very fair idea of the typical points of
difference between the students of Holland and our own country.
Chapter XV
Art and Letters
The art of a country is ever in unity with the character of the people. It
reflects their ideas and sentiments; their history is marked in its
progress or decline; and it shows forth the influences that have been at
work in the minds and very life of the nation from which it springs. If
this is true of all countries, it is nowhere so visibly true as in
Holland. There art underwent the most decided changes during the various
periods of war and armed peace through which the little country passed. It
may truly be said that 'the first smile of the young Republic was art, for
it was only after the revolt of the Dutch against the Spanish ... that
painting reached a high grade of perfection.' One is accustomed to take it
for granted too readily that the glory of Dutch art lies in the past; that
the works and fame of a Van Eyck, a Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and
Ruysdael sum up Holland's contribution to the art of the world, and that
this chapter of its history, like the chapters which deal with its
maritime supremacy, its industrial greatness, and its struggles for
liberty, is closed for ever. Nothing could be farther from the fact. Dutch
art was never more virile, more original, more self-conscious than to-day,
when it is represented by a band of men whose genius and enthusiasm
recall the great names of the past. Professer Richard Muther has well
said, in his 'History of Modern Painting,' that, 'so far from stagnating,
Dutch art is now as fresh and varied as in the old days of its glory.'
The Dutch painters of the present day include, indeed, quite a multitude
of men of the very first rank, and some of them, like the three brothers
Maris, are unexcelled. Jacob Maris, who died so recently as 1890, was
known for his splendid landscapes, and still more for his town pictures
and beach scenes. Willem Maris has a partiality for meadows in which
cattle are browsing in tranquil content. Thys Maris has a very different
style. He paints grey and misty figures and landscapes all hazy and
scarcely visible. His love of the obscure and the suggestive led to the
common refusal of his portraits by patrons, who complained that they
lacked distinctness. No painter, however, commands such large prices as
he, and from L2000 to L3000 is no rare figure for his canvases.
H. W. Mesdag is Holland's most celebrated sea painter. He pictures the
ever rolling ocean with marvellous power, and carries the song of the
waves and the cry of the wild sea birds into his great paintings, which
speak to one of the life and toil of the fishermen, the never weary
waters, and the ever varying aspects of sea and sky. In this domain he is
unrivalled, and he has certainly done some magnificent work. Mesdag has an
exhibition of his own works every Sunday morning in his studio at The
Hague, and any one who wishes is allowed to visit it, while for the
general public's benefit there is the Mesdag Panorama in the same town.
Mauve, who died in 1887, was best known for his pastoral scenes. His
pictures of sheep on the moors and fens recall pleasant memories of
summer days and sunny hours.
Josef Israels went largely to the life of fishermen for his motives,
though one of his best-known works is that noble one, 'David before Saul.'
Bosboom one naturally associates with church interiors, wonderfully well
done; Blommers, Artz, and Bles likewise paint interiors, the first two
choosing their subjects by preference from the houses of the working
classes, while Bles confines himself to the dwellings of the wealthy.
Bisschop is unquestionably the best of the Dutch portrait-painters, though
his still life is considered even more artistic than his portraits. The
foremost of the lady portrait and figure painters is Therese Schwartze,
who, like Josselin de Jong, often takes Queen Wilhelmina as a grateful
subject for her brush.
The foregoing may be regarded as painters of the old school, though every
one has so much originality as to be virtually the initiator of a distinct
direction. The newer schools are represented by men like J. Toorop,
Voerman, Verster, Camerlingh Onnes, Bauer, and Hoytema.
Toorop is the well-known symbolist. His style is Oriental rather than
Dutch, and his topics for the most part are mystical in character. He is
famous also for his decorative art. This many-sided man is probably the
greatest artist soul in Holland. He is expert in almost every domain of
art. Etching, pastel and water-colour drawing, oil-painting, wood-cutting,
lithography, working in silver, copper, and brass, and modelling in clay,
belong equally to his accomplishments, though as a painter he is, of
course, best known.
Voerman, once known for his minutely painted flowers, is now a pronounced
landscape painter. His cloud studies are marvellous, though perhaps the
landscape colours are somewhat hard and overdone in the effort to produce
the desired effects. He paints, as a rule, the rolling cumulus, and is one
of the first of the younger artists.
Verster is known best for his impressionist way of painting flowers in
colour patches, though he has now taken to the minute and mystical method
of representing them.
Onnes, like Toorop, is a decided mystic, and there is a vein of mysticism
in all his paintings. He is famous for his light effects in glass and
pottery, and has especially a wonderful knack of painting choirs in
churches ail in a dreamy light.
Bauer is better known, perhaps, by his drawings and etchings than by his
paintings. He paints with striking beauty old churches, temples, and
mosques, generally the exteriors, and the effect of his minute work is
wonderful. Bauer is also one of the finest of Dutch decorative artists.
Hoytema is known for his illustrations. Animal life is his _forte_,
especially owls and monkeys.
Among other younger painters who, though not yet of European reputation,
may still be classed with many of the older generation, are Jan Veth and
H. Haverman, both of whom excel in portraits. The lady artists who have
best held their own with the stronger sex include, in addition to those
named, Mme Bilders van Bosse, who paints woods and leafy groves with
striking power; and the late Mme. Vogels-Roozeboom, who found her
inspiration in the flora of Nature. In her day (she died in 1894) she was
the first of floral painters, and whenever she raised her brush the finest
of flowers rose up as at the touch of a magic wand. Second to her, though
not so well known by far, came Mlle W. van der Sande Bakhuizen.
The Dutch are not only a nation of painters, but a nation of
picture-lovers, though in Holland, as in other countries, one not seldom
sees upon walls from which better would be expected tawdry art, about
which all that can be said is that it was bought cheap. The country
possesses a number of good public galleries, and much is done in this way
and by the frequent exhibition of paintings to foster the love of the
artistic. The principal exhibitions are those of the Pulchri Studio and
the Kunst-kring (Art Circle) at The Hague, and the 'Arti et Amicitia' at
Rotterdam. To become a working member of the Pulchri Studio is counted a
great honour, for the artists who are on the committee are very
particular as to whom they admit into their circle, and they ruthlessly
blackball any one who is at all 'amateurish' or who does not come up to
their high standard. For this reason it is that so many of the younger
artists give exhibitions of their own works as the only way of getting
them at all known.
Sculpture is not much practised in Holland. It would seem to be an art
belonging almost entirely to Southern climes, although there was a time
when the Dutch modelled busts and heads from snow. The monument of Piet
Hein was originally made of snow, and so much did it take the fancy of the
people of Delftshaven, the place of his birth, that they had a stone
monument erected for him on the place where the one of snow had stood. It
is only recently, however, that sculpture has been re-introduced into
Holland as a fine art, and those artists who have taken it up need hardly
fear competition with their brethren of other Continental countries, for
their names are already on every tongue. The first amongst those who have
shown real power is Pier Pander, the cripple son of a Frisian mat-plaiter,
who came over from Rome (where he had gone to complete his studies) at
the special invitation of the Queen to model a bust of the Prince Consort,
Duke Hendrik of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Other notable sculptors are Van
Mattos, Ode, Bart de Hove, and Van Wyck.
There is also another art which is in considerable vogue, and in which
much good work has been done--that of wood-carving. In this the painter
and illustrator Hoytema has shown considerable skill. Needless to say,
Holland is also as famous now as ever for its pottery. Delft ware was ever
the fame of the Dutch nation, though the Rosenbach and Gouda pottery is
now gaining approval. It may be doubted, however, whether the love for the
latter is altogether without affectation. One is inclined to believe that
many of its admirers are enthusiastic to order. They admire because the
leading authorities assure them it is their duty so to do.
The Netherlands, though very limited in area and small in population, can
also boast of having contributed much that is excellent to the literature
of the world, and in its roll of famous literary men are to be found names
which would redeem any country from the charge of intellectual barrenness.
Spinoza, Erasmus, and Hugo de Groot (Grotius), to name no others, form a
trio whose influence upon the thought of the world, and upon the movements
which make for human progress, has been beyond estimation, and which still
belongs to-day to the imperishable inheritance of the race.
As illustrating the world-wide fame of Hugo de Groot it is interesting to
note that on the occasion of the Peace Conference held at The Hague in
1899 the American representatives invited all their fellow-delegates to
Delft, and there, in the church of his burial, papers were read in which
the claim of the great thinker to perpetual honour was brought to the
memories of the assembled spokesmen of the civilized world.
It is with the modern literature and literary movements of Holland,
however, that these pages must concern themselves, and for practical
purposes we may confine ourselves principally to the latter part of the
completed century. For the early part of the nineteenth century was by no
means prolific in literary achievement, and does not boast of many great
names, if one disregards the writers whose lives linked that century with
its predecessor, like Betjen Wolff and Agatha Deken. When, in 1814-15,
Holland again became a separate kingdom, that important event failed to
mark a new era in Dutch literature. Strange to say, though the political
changes of the time powerfully influenced the sister arts of music and
painting, which show strong traces of the transition of that crisis in the
nation's history, upon literature they had no effect whatever. Before 1840
no very brilliant writers came to the front, though the period was not
without notable names, such as Willem Bilderdijk, Hendrik C. Tollens, and
Isaac da Costa, all of whom possessed a considerable vogue. Bilderdijk's
chief claim to fame is the fact that he wrote over 300,000 lines of verse,
and regarded himself as the superior of Shakespeare; Tollens had a name
for rare patriotism, and wrote many fine historical poems and ballads;
while Da Costa, who was a converted Jew, had to the last, in spite of a
considerable popularity as a poet, to contend with the oftentimes fatal
shafts of ridicule.
A new period opened, however, about 1840, in the _Gids_ movement promoted
by E.J. Potgieter and R.C. Bakhuizen van den Brink, who were editors of
the _Gids_ and the severest of literary critics. The _Gids_ was the Dutch
equivalent of the _Edinburgh Review_ under Jeffrey, and its criticisms
were so much dreaded by the nervous Dutch author of the day that the
magazine received the name of 'The Blue Executioner,' blue being the
colour of its cover. If, however, Potgieter and Bakhuizen were unsparing
in the use of the tomahawk, the service which they rendered to Dutch
letters by their drastic treatment of crude and immature work was healthy
and lasting in influence, for it undoubtedly raised the tone and standard
of literary work, both in that day and for a long time to come, and so
helped to establish modern Dutch literature on a firm basis. Perhaps the
foremost figure in the literary revival which followed was Conrad Busken
Huet, unquestionably the greatest Dutch critic of the last century, whose
book 'Literary Criticisms and Fancies,' which contains a discriminating
review of all writers from Bilderdijk forward, is essential to a thorough
study of Dutch literature during the nineteenth century. Huet also
emancipated literature from the orthodoxy in thought which had
characterized the earlier Dutch writers, especially by his novel
'Lidewyde.'
No novelist has more truly reflected the old fashioned ideas and simple
home life of Holland than Nicholas Beets, who still lives and even writes
occasionally, though almost a nonagenarian. His 'Camera Obscura,' which
has been translated into English, entitles Beets to be recognized as the
Dickens of Holland, and his two novels, 'De Familie Stastoc' and 'De
Familie Kegge,' are familiar to every Dutchman. The historical novelists,
Jacob van Lennep and Mrs. Bosboom Toussaint, should not be overlooked.
One of the foremost Dutch poets of the century is Petrus Augustus de
Genestet. Although he is not free from rhetoric, and frequently uses old
and worn-out similes, his general view of things is wider and his feeling
deeper than those of any of his contemporaries in verse. The contrast, for
example, between him and Carel Vosmaer, though they belong to the same
period, is very striking, for while the poetry of Genestet is full of
feeling and ideality, that of Vosmaer is unemotional; and though he
dresses his thoughts in beautiful words, the impression left upon the mind
after reading his poetry is that which might be left after looking at a
gracefully modelled piece of marble--it is fine as art, but cold and dead,
and so awakens no responsive sympathy in the mind of the beholder.
But the greatest of modern Dutch authors, and the one who may be termed
the forerunner of the renaissance of 1880, was E. Douwes Dekker, who died
thirteen years ago. Dekker had an eventful career. He went to the Dutch
Indies at the age of twenty-one, and there spent some seventeen years in
official life, gradually rising to the position of Assistant Resident of
Lebac. While occupying that office his eyes were opened to the defective
System of government existing in the Colonies, and the abuses to which the
natives were subjected. He tried to interest the higher officials on
behalf of the subject races, but as all his endeavours proved unavailing
he became disheartened, and, resigning his post, returned to Holland with
the object of pleading in Government circles at home the cause which he
had taken so deeply to heart. As a deaf ear was still turned to all his
entreaties he decided, as a last resource, to appeal for a hearing at the
bar of public opinion. He entered literature, and wrote the stirring story
'Max Havelaar,' in which he gave voice to the wrongs of the natives and
the callous injustices perpetrated by the Colonial authorities. The book
made a great sensation, and has unquestionably had very beneficial results
in opening the public's eyes to some of the more glaring defects of
Colonial administration.
In 1880 Dutch literature entered upon an entirely new phase. The chief
authors of the movement then begun were Lodewryk van Deyssel, Albert
Verwey, and Willem Kloos, who in the monthly magazine, _De Nieuwe Gids_,
exercised by their trenchant criticisms the same beneficial and
restraining influence upon the literature of the day as Potgieter and
Bakhuizen did forty years before. The columns of the _Nieuwe Gids_ were
only opened to the very best of Dutch authors, and any works not coming up
to the editors' high ideas of literary excellence were unmercifully
'slated' by these competent critics. Independence was the prominent
characteristic of the authors of the period. They shook themselves free
from the old thoughts and similes, and created new paths, in which their
minds found freer expression. The new thoughts demanded new words, hence
came about the practice of word-combination, which was in direct defiance
of the conservative canons of literary style which had hitherto prevailed,
so that nowadays almost every author adds a new vocabulary of his own to
the Dutch language, so enhancing the charm of his own writings and adding
to the literary wealth of the nation in general.
The poetess whom Holland to-day most delights to honour is Helena Lapidoth
Swarth, whose works increase in worth and beauty every year. Her command
of the Dutch language and her power of wresting from it literary resources
which are unattainable by any other writer have made her the admiration of
all critics of penetration. Louis Couperas is also another living poet of
mark, who, however, does not confine himself to formal versification, for
his prose is also poetry. His best works are 'Elme Vere,' the first book
he wrote, and the characters in which are said to have been all taken from
life, and his novels 'Majesty' and 'Universal Peace,' which have gained
for him a European reputation, for they have been translated into most
modern languages.
Women authors who have written works with a special tendency are Cornelie
Huygens, who is known particularly by her novel 'Barthold Maryan;' Mrs.
Goekoop de Jong, who champions the cause of women's rights; and Anna de
Savornin Lohman, who, in a striking book entitled, 'Why question any
longer?' has written very bitterly against the political conditions of the
circle of society in which she moves.
While the authors of the present day are beneficially leavening popular
opinion by inculcating higher and healthier sentiments, there are also
authors in Holland, as elsewhere, who debase good metal, and write from a
purely material standpoint. To this class of authors belong Marcellus
Emants and Frans Netcher.
Of Dutch dramatic writers, Herman Heyermans is one of the most noteworthy,
and some of his plays have been translated into French, and produced in
Paris theatres.
It is a great drawback to literary effort in Holland that the _honoraria_
paid to authors are so low that most writers who happen not to be
pecuniarily independent--and they are the majority--are unable to make a
tolerable subsistence at home by the pen alone, and are obliged to
contribute to foreign publications, and some even resort to teaching. Many
Dutch authors of high rank write anonymously in English, French, and
German magazines, and probably earn far more in that way than by their
contributions to Dutch ephemeral literature, for the ordinary fee for a
sheet of three thousand words--which is the average length of a printed
sheet in a Dutch magazine--is only forty francs.
The pity is that Dutch literature itself is not known as well as it
deserves to be, for any one who takes the trouble to master the Dutch
language will find himself well repaid by the treasures of thought which
are contained in the modern authors of Holland.
Chapter XVI
The Dutch as Readers
Although printing was not invented in Holland, the nation would not have
been unworthy of that honour, for there is a widespread culture of the
book among all classes of the population, and the newspaper and periodical
press makes further a very large contribution to its intellectual food.
Nearly two thousand booksellers and publishers are engaged in the task of
bringing within easy reach of their customers everything they wish to
read. It is no unusual thing to find a decently equipped retail bookshop
in quite unimportant townlets, and even in villages. By an admirable
arrangement every publisher sends parcels of books for the various
retailers all over the country to one central house in Amsterdam--'het
Bestelhuis voor den Boekhandel' (the Booksellers' Collecting and
Distributing Office). In this establishment the publishers' parcels are
opened, and all books sent by the various publishers for one retailer are
packed together and forwarded to him, by rail, steamer, or other cheap
mode of conveyance. In consequence, any doctor, clergyman, or schoolmaster
can receive a penny or twopenny pamphlet in his out-of-the-way home, as
well as any book or periodical from London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, etc.,
within a remarkably short time, without trouble, and without extra
expense in postage, by simply applying to the local bookseller.
The Dutch are very cosmopolitan in their reading. Many children of the
superior working classes learn French at the primary schools; most
children of the middle class pick up English and German as well at the
secondary schools, and a large proportion of them are able to talk in
these three foreign languages; and as opportunities for intercourse are
not over-abundant in the smaller towns, they keep up their knowledge of
these languages by reading. Indeed, the five millions of Dutchmen are,
relatively, the largest buyers of foreign literature in Europe. The
translator, however, comes to the rescue of those who succeed in
forgetting so much of their foreign languages that they find reading them
a very mitigated enjoyment. This question of translation is rather a sore
point in the relations between Dutch and foreign authors and publishers.
The pecuniary injury done to foreign authors, however, is very slight,
while in reputation they have benefited; for if Dutch private libraries
are not without their Shakespeare, Motley, Macaulay, Dickens, Thackeray,
Kingsley, Browning, not to mention French and German classics, this is
mainly due to the fact that the parents of the present generation had the
opportunity of buying Dutch translations, and explained to their children
the value and the beauty of these works.
Moreover, most authors and publishers in foreign countries, using
languages with world-wide circulation, are apt to miscalculate the profits
made by Dutch publishers, with their very limited market and limited sale.
A royalty of L5 for the right of translating some novel would be regarded
as a contemptibly small sum in the English book world, but L5 in Dutch
currency presses heavily on the budget of a Dutch translation, of which
only some hundred or so copies can be sold at a retail price of not quite
five shillings, and is an almost prohibitive price to pay for the
copyright of a novel which is only used as the _feuilleton_ of a local
paper with an edition of under a thousand copies a week. As a fact, many
Dutch publishers pay royalties to their foreign colleagues as soon as the
publication is important enough to bear the expense; but the majority
clearly will only give up their ancient 'right' of free translation, and
agree to join the Berne Convention, if a practicable way can be found out
of the financial difficulty. For the present, then, the Dutch are
cosmopolitan readers, direct or indirect. In the average bookseller's shop
one finds, of course, a majority of novels--novels of all sorts and
conditions--supplemented by literary essays and poems. In a number of
cases the bookseller is not merely a shopkeeper who deals in printed
matter, and supplies just what his customers ask for, but a man of
education and judgment, who is well able to give his opinion on books and
authors. Often he has read them, though oftener, of course, he is guided
by the leading monthly and weekly magazines and reviews, and by the
publishers' columns of the leading daily newspapers. The bookseller is
thus in many cases the trusted manager and guiding spirit of one or more
'Leesgezelschappen,' or 'Reading Societies.' These societies have a
history. At the end of the eighteenth century they were often political
and even revolutionary bodies. The members or subscribers met to discuss
books, pamphlets, and periodicals, but frequently they discussed by
preference the passages in the books bearing upon political conditions,
and argued improvements which they considered desirable or necessary. As
time passed by, and free institutions became the possession of the Dutch,
the political mission of the Reading Society became exhausted, but the
institution itself survived, and continues to the present day.
The 'Leesgezelschap' owes its special form to another peculiarity of the
Dutch--their intensely domesticated, home-loving character. Family life,
with its fine and delicate intimacies between husband and wife, between
parent and children, is the most attractive feature of national existence
in the Netherlands. Family life is, indeed, the centre from which the
national virtues emanate, because there the individual members educate
each other in the practice of personal virtues. The Dutchman is not
constitutionally reserved and shy; he knows how to live a full, strong,
public life; he never shrinks from civic duties and social intercourse;
but his love of home life takes the first place after his passion for
liberty and independence. Club life in Holland is insignificant, and few
clubs even attempt to create a substitute for home life; they are merely
used for friendly intercourse for an hour or so every day, and as
better-class restaurants. A Dutchman prefers to do his reading at home, in
the domestic circle, with the members of his family, or in his study if he
follows some scientific occupation, and his 'Leesgezelschap' affords him
the opportunity of doing this. There are military, theological,
educational, philological, and all sorts of scientific reading societies,
besides those for general literature. They work on the co-operative
System. The manager is in many cases a local bookseller, buying Dutch and
foreign books, magazines, reviews, illustrated weeklies and pamphlets in
one or more copies, according to the number, the tastes, and the wants of
the members. Most societies take in books and periodicals in four
languages--Dutch, French, German, English--and so their members keep
themselves well acquainted with the world's opinion. And all this, be it
added, costs the subscriber vastly less than the fees of English
circulating libraries, with their restricted advantages and heavy expenses
of delivery.
Between the book and the newspaper lies a form of literature which is
specifically Dutch--the 'Vlugschrift,' _brochure_, or pamphlet. The
_brochure_ is an old historical institution. In the eighteenth century it
was very popular as a vehicle for the zeal of fiery reformers who thus
vented their opinions on burning political questions of the day. There is
no necessity nowadays for these small booklets, so easily hidden from
suspicions eyes, though the _brochure_ is still used whenever, in stirring
speech or impassioned sermon, Holland's leading men address themselves to
the emotions of the hour. These _brochures_, as a rule, cost no more than
sixpence, yet, none the less, the thrifty Dutch have 'Leesgezelschappen'
which buy and circulate them among their subscribers; they take everything
from everybody, never caring whose opinions they read upon the various
subjects of current interest, a trait which evidences a very praiseworthy
lack of bias.
This lack of bias is not so obvions so far as newspaper reading is
concerned. Like other people, the Dutch take such newspapers as defend or
represent their own political opinions, and often affect towards journals
on the other side a contemptuous indifference which is only half real.
Political parties in Holland differ slightly from those of Great Britain,
except that in the former country politics and religion go together. Thus
in Holland a Liberal who at the same time is not advanced in religious
thought hardly exists, and would scarcely be trusted. In consequence the
Liberals were not defeated at the last general elections because they were
Liberals, but because their opponents (the Anti-Revolutionists and Roman
Catholics) denounced them as irreligious and atheistical. In political
strife the religious controversy takes the form of an argument for and
against the influence of religious dogma upon politics and education.
Now, as far as journalism goes, the Liberal and Radical newspapers
unquestionably take the lead. The Roman Catholics are like the
Anti-Revolutionists, very anxious to provide their readers with wholesome
news, but this anxiety is not successfully backed up by care that this
wholesome news shall be early as well; hence their journalism is somewhat
behind the times. Of most of the progressive newspapers it may be said
that the whole of the contents are interesting; as to the rest, they are
only interesting because of the leading articles, which are sometimes
written by eminent men.
As far as circulation goes, _Het Nieuws van den Dag_ can boast to be the
leading journal, its edition running to nearly 40,000 copies a day. Up to
the present its editors have been advanced, or 'Modern,' Protestant
clergymen, in the persons of Simon Gorter, H. de Veer, and P.H. Ritter.
Although not taking a strong line in politics, its inclinations are
decidedly towards moderate Liberalism, and, thanks to its cheap
price--14s. 6d. per annum--its extensive, prudently and carefully selected
and worded supply of news, and its sagacious management, it became the
family paper of the Dutch, excellently suiting the quiet taste of the
middle class of the nation. It is found everywhere save in those few
places where the Roman Catholic Church has sufficient influence to get it
boycotted. The _Nieuws_, as it is generally called, gives from
twenty-four to thirty-two, and even more, pages of closely printed matter,
of which the advertisements occupy rather over than under half. One does
not see it read in public more than any other Dutch paper, and two reasons
account for this. One is the fact that, as has been said, a Dutchman
prefers to do his reading at home--'met een boekje, in een hoekje' ('with
my book in a quiet corner') is the Dutchman's ideal of cosy literary
enjoyment. Then, too, Dutch newspaper publishers prefer a system of safe
quarterly subscriptions to the chance of selling one day a few thousand
copies less than the other, since even the largest circulation in Holland
is too limited for risky commercial vicissitudes. Hence they make the
price for single numbers so high that only the prospect of long hours in a
railway-carriage frightens a Dutchman into buying one or more newspapers.
The _Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant_ is another typical Dutch newspaper, but
appealing to quite other instincts than the _Nieuws._ In their quiet way
the Dutch are rather proud of their _Nieuwe Kotterdammer_, which inspires
something like awe for its undeniable, but slightly ponderous, virtues.
The _Nieuwe Rotterdammer_ is absolutely Liberal, and stands no Radical or
Social Democratic nonsense; its leading articles are lucid, cool, logical,
and to the point; it has correspondents everywhere, at home and abroad;
and all staunch Liberals of a clear-cut, even dogmatic type, who love Free
Trade and look upon municipal and State intervention as pernicious, swear
by it. The present chief editor is Dr. Zaayer, formerly a Liberal member
of the Second Chamber of the States-General, a shrewd, well-read Dutchman,
with a splendid University education; and the manager, J.C. Nijgh, is as
clever a man of business as Rotterdam can produce. As far as it is
possible to lead Dutchmen by printed matter, the _Nieuwe Rotterdammer_
does it. Its supply of news is so fresh and so reliable that everybody
reads it, even the Roman Catholics in North Brabant and Limburg, Holland's
two Catholic counties.
The next important newspaper is _Het Algemeen Handelsblad_ of Amsterdam,
which is peculiarly the journal of the Amsterdam merchants, shipowners,
and traders. The _Handelsblad_ is not so exclusively Liberal as its
competitor in Rotterdam, for its inclinations are of a more advanced turn,
and it is always ready to admit rather Radical articles on social matters
if written by serious men. Its chief editor is Dr. A. Polak, of whom it is
said that what he does not know about the working and meaning of the Dutch
constitution and the Dutch law is hardly worth knowing. His articles
display a calm, sound, scientific brain and an honest, straightforward
mind. Its managing editor is Charles Boissevain, whose contributions to
the paper, entitled 'Van Dag tot Dag' ('From Day to Day'), are equally
admirable for brilliancy of style, broadness of spirit, and the manly
outspokenness of their contents. This journal has likewise an extensive
staff and a huge army of correspondents at home and abroad.
A third Liberal journal of growing influence is the Radical _Vaderland_,
of which the late Minister of the Interior, Mr. H. Goeman Borgesius, now a
member of the Second Chamber, was chief editor during many years, though
there no longer exists any personal connexion between the two, and the
_Vaderland_ is, if anything, more advanced in politics than its former
editor. Its chief influence is at The Hague, formerly a stronghold of
Conservatism, until the Conservative party disappeared entirely.
Other Liberal, Radical, and Social Democratic newspapers are published
all over the country, the most important and influential being the
Liberal-democratic _Arnhemsche Courant._
Mr. Troelstra, one of the Socialist leaders, edits a daily, _Het Volk_
('The People'), a well-written party newspaper, whose influence, however,
does not extend beyond its party.
Professor Abraham Kuyper, leader of the Anti-Revolutionist or Calvinist
party, the largest but one in the country, was editor of the _Standaard_
until he became President Minister of the Netherlands. In opposition to
the Liberal principle, as formulated by the Italian reformer Cavour, 'A
Free Church in a Free State,' he maintains that the Bible, being God's
Word, is the only possible basis for any State, and holds that the King
and the Government derive their power and authority not from the people,
but from God. His _Standaard_ is another proof that whatever this
universal genius does bears the unmistakable stamp of his power and
personality. One may be thoroughly opposed to his principles, but nobody
can help admiring the sterling merit of his leading articles. If Kuyper
writes or speaks upon any subject under the sun, you will be sure to find
him thoroughly acquainted with it; but then his turn of mind is so
original and his style is so brilliant, that he discloses points of view
which give it fresh interest to those who most cordially disagree with
him. The brilliancy of his journalistic powers is not confined, however,
to his leaders. The _Standaard_ has another and more purely polemical
feature, its 'Driestars'--short paragraphs, separated in the column by
three asterisks, whence their name. These 'Driestars' are the pride and
the wonder of the Dutch Press, on account of their trenchant, clever,
courageous wording, a wording which is sure to incite the opponent to
bitter defence or fiery attack, and to provide the adherent with an
argument so finely sharpened and polished that he delights in the
possession of so excellent a weapon.
Dr. Kuyper's political opponent in the Calvinist party is Mr. A. F. de
Savornin Lohman, the leader of the aristocrats, whereas Kuyper is the head
of the 'kleine luyden'--the humble toilers of the fields and towns. Mr.
Lohman was a member of the first Calvino-Catholic Cabinet, and is still a
great power in his party; in consequence his _Nederlander_ exerts some
influence, though not nearly so much as the _Standaard_.
The two most prominent Roman Catholic newspapers are the Conservative
_Tyd_ ('Time') and the somewhat democratic _Centrum_. Both are party
papers pure and simple, and are excellently edited, so far as party
politics are concerned, by clever, well educated, well read men. The
_Centrum_ frequently enjoys the co-operation of Dr. Herman Schaepman, the
priest-poet, whose somewhat ponderous eloquence is agreeably relieved by a
glowing enthusiasm and a refreshing force of conviction.
Kuyper, Boissevain and Schaepman are, indeed, three journalists of whom
any country might be proud. Their style, their individuality, and their
mental power are equally remarkable, and though living and working in
different grooves of life, using different modes of thought, and
cherishing different ideals, they powerfully impress and influence their
readers by the purity of their aims, the honesty of their convictions, and
the chivalry of their controversial methods. But of the three Boissevain
is the only one who is a journalist for the sake of journalism. Yet
neither Calvinist nor Catholic journal tries to compete with the _Nieuwe
Rotterdammer_ or the _Handelsblad_ in the publication of original and
high-class information. They aim rather at providing their readers with
the necessary party arguments, and the news is a matter of secondary
importance.
As to the provinces in general, of the 1300 towns and villages of Holland,
nearly 300 are the happy possessors of a local newspaper of some
description, and altogether 1700 daily and weekly journals, devoted
variously to the representation of political, clerical, mercantile,
scientific, and other interests, are published in the whole country.
The Dutch like to see more than one newspaper, but the majority of people
cannot afford to be dual subscribers, and a great many cannot even afford
to buy a single news-sheet regularly. Hence agencies exist for circulating
the papers from one reader to another. Those who receive them straight
from the publisher pay most, and those who are contented to enjoy their
news when one, two, or three days old pay but a small fee. The newspaper
circulating agency is very general in Holland, and in centres of
restricted domestic resources it plays a very useful place in social and
political life.
Chapter XVII
Political Life and Thought
Holland is a democratic kingdom. Democracy was born there in the sixteenth
century, and is still unquestionably thriving. But democracy was born in
peculiar circumstances; it was reared by men whose ideas of democracy
differed, for, while the leaders of the nation consistently worked for
popular government, they did not all or always mean exactly the same thing
by the word 'people,' and hence did not aim at exactly the same goal. The
French Revolution of the eighteenth century upset the outward form of the
Dutch Commonwealth; it did away with ancient and more or less obsolete
fetters, which proved no longer strong enough to support the growth of
political life, though still sufficiently strong to hinder it. It could do
nothing for, and add nothing to, the profound love of liberty and the
passion for independence which are dearer to every Dutchman than life
itself, but it could and did extend the blessing of political and
religious freedom to a greater number of people. Love of liberty brought
about the disestablishment of the Church, and love of toleration made
Holland follow this measure in the fifties by the emancipation of the
Roman Catholics.
Every one who is acquainted with Dutch history understands that these two
things have as much meaning for Dutch political as for Dutch religious
life. But side by side with religious and political freedom came also
economic freedom. The guilds were abolished, and so the bonds by which the
handicrafts had been prevented from moving with the movements of the
times, and thus of living a healthy life, were swept away. The social
revolution acted like the doctor who enters a close and stuffy sick-room
and throws open the windows and door, so that the invalid may get the very
first necessity of life--fresh air. So it was with a sigh of relief that
the Dutch--and not they alone--said, 'No State interference in matters of
trade and industry, let us keep open the windows and doors!'
No doctor, however, will compel his patient to live in a constant draught,
winter and summer, since upon one occasion a liberal admission of fresh
air was necessary to save that patient's life. There can be no doubt that
during the nineteenth century the doors and windows were kept open rather
too long. The great employers of labour were strong enough to stand the
draught, for centuries of prosperity had made them a powerful class; but
their men had no such advantages, and they were worse off when steam power
brought about another revolution by creating the so-called system of
'capitalistic production' and the growth of the large industries. Hence it
comes about that Holland, like all civilized countries, is now trying to
find out how far the windows and the doors must be closed, so as to allow
the men to live as well as the masters. This, in few words, characterizes
Dutch party politics from the social and economic side.
Political parties in the Netherlands obviously differ not only in their
views upon political, religious, and economic issues, but also as to the
degree of precedence to be allowed to each of these three departments of
national life and thought. The Liberals say, "Politics first; if these are
sound and religion and commerce are free, everything will be right." The
Social Democrats reply, "Politics only concern us as a means of obtaining
real and substantial economic liberty and material equality; religion does
not affect us at all, and certainly does not help to solve the practical
problems of human life." Differing from both, the Anti-Revolutionists
assert, "Whosoever leaves the firm ground of God's Word, the Holy
Scriptures, as the only true basis for public and private action, can have
neither sound politics nor sound economics." The Roman Catholics also put
religion on the first plane, but they are in the most difficult position
of all. They are a minority, even a decreasing minority, and know
perfectly well that they will never be a majority; so they recognize that
in the first place they must try to be good Dutchmen, faithful, loyal
citizens of the State, while in the second place they must not give up one
single ideal of their Church. Their faith in the eternal existence of
their ecclesiastic system enables them on the one hand to be patient and
to wait, just as on the other hand it teaches them not to sit still, but
to act, to work, either by themselves or conjointly with any party that
may assist them to realize, or even to get nearer to, any of their
religious ideals.
When the Liberals, in the middle of the nineteenth century, did an act of
great toleration by emancipating the Roman Catholic Church, the
Protestants threw over the Liberal Cabinet, and the Liberal leader,
Thorbecke, was returned to Parliament by the most Catholic town of
Holland, Maestricht, in Limburg. But afterwards the Anti-Revolutionists
raised the cry for denominational education, and the Dutch Liberals were
rather sore to find their former friends join their antagonists. The
soreness was in consequence of a miscalculation; the Liberals had
forgotten that in becoming emancipated the Roman Catholics did not become
Liberals, but remained Roman Catholics as before, faithful to their creed,
and to their ideals, even at the cost of political friendship.
The common ground upon which Anti-Revolutionists and Roman Catholics meet
is the conviction that religion must in everything be the starting-point.
The Anti-Revolutionists take the Scriptures as such; the Roman Catholics
accept the Pope's decisions, given _ex cathedra_, as inspired by the Holy
Spirit and transmitted to him by Conclaves and Councils. For the rest,
Rome's creed is sheer idolatry to the Anti-Revolutionist Protestants,
whereas Rome looks upon ail Protestants as lost heretics. But both, again,
consider such Protestants--the so-called 'Moderns'--who reject the
Trinity, the miracles, the Divine origin of the Bible, and certain other
dogmas, as simple atheists, and as most 'Moderns' are Liberals, and
_vice-versa_, they proclaim the Liberal State to be an atheistic State.
Strictly speaking, there is really no Conservative party in Holland, for
it ceased to exist in the beginning of the seventies. After Thorbecke gave
Holland the Liberal constitution of 1848, the Conservatives tried for a
time to obstruct the country's political development, but ultimately they
gave up the attempt, and their best and ablest men, Mr. J. Heemsherk Azn
and Earl C. Th. van Lynden van Sandenburg, headed Liberal Cabinets as men
professing very moderately progressive views, yet openly opposed to the
restoration of the somewhat autocratic and aristocratic conditions which
prevailed before 1848 in consequence of the reaction against the chaotic
era of the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte. Yet though there is
no Conservative party in Holland, there are, none the less, Conservatives
in every party.
The Liberal party counts three sections, the Old Liberals, the
Radico-Liberals, and the Liberal Democrats. The Old Liberals adhere to
Thorbecke's principles, and maintain that it is the primary business of a
Liberal State to promote individuality and to create on this basis the
general conditions by which social development can be achieved. According
to them the State has no right to interfere in everything, to cure
everything, to provide everything, as the collectivist would like; on the
contrary, its first duty is abstinence--simply to preserve a fair field
and to show no favour. These Old Liberals, in fact, regard the State as a
legal corporation which exists merely to administer justice and to guard
the constitutional rights of its citizens.
Their political friends and next-of-kin are the Radico-Liberals of the
'Liberal Union,' who form, for the present, the bulk of the party. They
admit the value of individual energy and enterprise, and hold that
unlimited scope must be allowed to these; they even contend that, on the
whole, the system of unfettered individualism proved to be more in the
workman's favour than the opposite; but they also admit that this
condition is not such as it might and ought to be, and in consequence they
do not object to social legislation wherever individual efforts fail.
The advanced Liberal Democrats ('de Vryzinnige Democraten') differ
fundamentally from both the foregoing parties. They give prominence to
political rights and franchises, and hence fall foul of a leading clause
(clause 80) of the constitution, which confers electoral powers upon only
such adult male inhabitants as 'possess characteristics of capability and
prosperity.' The members of the 'Liberal Union' admit that the requirement
of a certain measure of prosperity withholds from numbers of citizens the
right to influence their country's affairs by their votes. They admit also
that the constitution ought to be altered on this point, but they doubt
whether it is sound practical politics to put this item in the foreground.
They say, in effect, 'We can quite well provide the country with adequate
social legislation either with or without the help of the disfranchised
section of the population, for if we propose measures dealing with social
problems, even the more Conservative amongst us will not object, and those
measures will come on the statute book. But there is not the slightest
chance that we shall ever get the Old Liberals to give the franchise to
poor and destitute people, who have no financial stake whatever in the
country. So by insisting upon adult suffrage you merely postpone social
legislation indefinitely. Moreover, the object of our social legislation
can only be to make the poorer class more capable and more prosperous, and
as soon as that end is gained they get the franchise automatically,
without any change of the constitution.' To this the Liberal Democrats
reply: 'Social legislation must not be regarded as a grudgingly admitted
necessity, it is the paramount duty of the State, and as social
legislation principally affects those who are now disfranchised, it is
only just to begin by affording them the opportunity of expressing their
opinions upon the subject, and hence to alter the constitution so as to
give them votes, for they know best what they want.'
The Liberal Democrats deny, in fact, that the State can make any laws that
do not affect the social life as well as the legal position of its
citizens, and contend that those who hold that natural laws rule the
social relations of man with man, and that on this ground the State ought
to refrain from interference, merely allow the State to protect the
stronger against the weaker classes, whereas its duty is the contrary.
Positive interference in social matters is, according to them, the State's
duty, and it may only refrain when the free operation of social forces
creates no conditions or relationships which offend modern ideas of
justice and equity.
The Democrats have, unquestionably, by their secession, greatly crippled
the strength of the Liberal party, and it will be long before the younger
generation of Liberals can take the places thus vacated and a rejuvenated
and unanimous party can issue from the present dissensions.
The only other political party in Holland who do not accept religion as
the one safe starting-point for politics are the Social Democrats. When
the German Socialists of the school of Marx discovered how the sudden
development of steam and machinery was followed by a vast amount of
distress amongst the labouring classes, affecting also such of the lower
middle class as principally traded with workpeople, they at once jumped
at the conclusion that the same thing was bound to go on for ever.
Perhaps it was with a feeling of despair, therefore, that the father of
Dutch Social Democracy, F. Domela Nieuwenhuys, gradually drifted into
anarchism, or, as he prefers to call it, Free Socialism, and finally
abandoned all political action. The younger generation, led by F. van der
Goes, H. van Kol, and, last but not least, P. J. Troelstra, still
vigorously carry on the fray, however, and a very considerable number of
Dutch workmen follow them. Their ambition is to conquer political power
in Holland, and as soon as they have it to revolutionize, not the
country, but the statute-book, in such a manner that they may acquire the
economic power as well. Of course, they wish to abolish individual
property in all the means of production, and to make the State the owner
of all these; and it is their hope that a general love for the
commonwealth, and zeal for the general welfare of all, may take the place
of the present egotism and sordid pursuit of wealth.
[Illustration: Parliament House at the Hague. View from the Great Lake.]
The Anti-Revolutionists also have their Conservatives and Progressives.
Dr. Kuyper always speaks of a 'Left' and a 'Right' wing of his party, and
as the Conservative 'Right' is largely composed of the members of the
Dutch nobility, he once sneeringly called this fraction 'the men with the
double names.' Their proper title is 'Free Anti-Revolutionists,' and their
leader, Jhr. A.F. de Savornin Lohman, who in 1888, with Baron Ae. Mackay
(Lord Reay's cousin), led the first Anti-Revolutionist-Catholic majority
in the Second Chamber of the States-General.
The third faction is headed by Dr. Bronsveld, and is called the
'Christian Historicals,' who differ on one great principle from the two
others, inasmuch as they seek the re-establishment of the Netherlands
Hervormde Kerk as State Church.
But, however much they differ in practical measures, their common ground
is the recognition of the Holy Scriptures as the only right basis for
statesmanship, and their conviction that the present modern State is
merely a passing, non-Dutch consequence of the French Revolution and its
disastrous teachings. They all agree that the Netherlands should be
governed according to the principles that made Holland great and powerful
ever since the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Dr. Kuyper is fully
convinced that the French Revolution thrust Holland off its historical
line of development, and he wants to return, as near as possible, to the
point reached before that event, or, at any rate, to lead the State
forward in the old direction.
All Anti-Revolutionists hold that their first civic duty is obedience to
God;--if conscience requires resistance to the authorities, resist them,
whatever you may suffer. At the same time they eschew clericalism and
object to every form of State Church. Hence one of their chief antipathies
is clause 171 of the constitution, which continues in the same way as
before the disestablishment of the Church the payments by the Exchequer to
various clergymen of all denominations. In opposition to this they demand
entire and absolute liberty and equality for all churches and confessions,
and, theoretically, admit that one can be a member of their party without
being of their creed. With regard to education, they do not desire to
substitute denominational State schools for the present neutral ones, but
they object that at present the State compels parents, who desire
religious schools for their children, not only to find all necessary
money for these 'free schools,' but to contribute in addition to the
school taxes, to the advantage of such parents as hold that secular and
religious education are better disconnected, since religious education
must needs be dogmatical and sectarian, and that the churches and not the
State should look to this, whereas school education can quite well be
given without reference to religion at all.
The Anti-Revolutionist position, on the other hand, is that it is not the
State's duty to provide school or any other education, all education being
a matter of private concern for the individual family, and not a public
business at all; though they allow that where parents are unable to
maintain them schools may be erected by the taxpayers' money. They also
deprecate legislation against intemperance, immorality, and prostitution,
because they think such laws do not remove the evils themselves, but
merely attack their visible signs, and relieve moral trespassers of part
of their responsibility by protecting them against certain consequences of
their acts. They are opposed to the legal and compulsory observance of the
Sabbath, holding this to be an affair of the churches and of individuals;
but they support laws to compel employers to allow their men a sufficient
weekly rest on Sundays. They admit a limited State interference in social
matters, but contend that it must not discourage individual effort, or
create a host of officials, inspectors, and controllers. The franchise
must, according to them, never enable one section of the nation to
supersede the other by sheer force of numbers; they do not admit that the
majority System is the ultimate and only criterion of legality and
justice; moreover, the family being the unit from which the commonwealth
has grown into existence, they contend that heads of families are the
natural electors. Where the Old Liberals say that the financial test is
the right one for voters, the Anti-Revolutionists hold that no one has a
real stake in the country who has not a family and knows nothing of the
responsibilities involved thereby. Dr. Kuyper is the democratic leader of
what he calls, in classical but antiquated Dutch, the 'Kleine luyden' (the
'Little people') amongst the Anti-Revolutionists. He knows that the
'double-named' Free Anti-Revolutionists have little sympathy with his
social programme, but this does not matter, since they are perfectly well
aware of the fact that they owe everything, as far as political power
goes, to the 'Little people.'
Finally, there is the Left Wing of the Roman Catholic party, who derive
their social convictions from Pope Leo's Encyclica 'Rerum Novarum,' which
affords a great many points upon which joint action is possible, for Leo
XIII. is often called in Holland 'the Workmen's Pope.' Both
Anti-Revolutionists and Roman Catholics entertain entirely different
political ideals, but they agree upon this, that the modern Liberal State
is not really neutral in religions matters, but is 'Modern Protestant,'
and 'Modern' Protestantism spells atheism in their eyes; and both regard a
weak and fragile Christian as a better citizen than the best atheist or
agnostic. For this reason they are combined in hostility to the existing
System of elementary education, which they suspect of an atheistic
tendency. These two questions, religion and the schools, virtually exhaust
the vital points of agreement between the Anti-Revolutionists and the
Roman Catholics, though in an emergency they might possibly unite on
social legislation or some mild form of Protection. The latter would,
however, have to be very mild indeed, for Dr. Kuyper is a Free Trader, and
the 'Little people' like cheap bread just as well as other folk. For
Holland it might be a matter of great importance if progressive social
legislation became Kuyper's chief work.
There is no doubt a great drawback in this mixing up by ail parties of
politics and religion. Kuyper, the Calvinist; Schaepman, the Catholic;
Drucker, Treub, and Molengraaf, the Liberal Democrats; Goeman Borgesius,
the man of the 'Liberal Union;' and Troelstra, the Socialist, all have
many common ideas on social questions, although they may differ in
principles and seek different aims. Each of them, however, has
Conservative opponents in his own party, and there is just a possibility
that the next few years may bring about not only a healthy measure of
social development, but also a much-desired readjustment of parties, on
non-theological, undogmatical lines.
Chapter XVIII
The Administration of Justice
There are two very marked differences between the administration of
justice in Holland and in England. The first is that what are called
'petty offences' are not tried and disposed of summarily in the former
country. There the offender in such cases is subjected to a process known
as 'verbalization'--that is, his name, address, age, and all particulars
of the offence are noted by the police; and he is thereupon informed that
he will be called upon to give an account of himself later. A week or two
may pass before the offender receives verbal or printed notice requiring
his presence before the Court of the Cantonal Judge, which answers
somewhat to the English Police Court. This delay in the administration of
justice is regarded as a great defect even in Holland, and one which is
more and more being recognized. The establishment of the Police Court as
known and conducted in England is felt, therefore, to be a great
_desideratum_, and it is by no means unlikely that it may be introduced
before long, since the Dutch have always shown themselves ready to adopt
any modification of their own institutions which the experience of other
countries may prove to be clearly desirable.
The second difference is that trial by jury as Englishmen understand it
does not exist in the Netherlands. But here the Dutch are not likely to
abandon their own tradition. The jury in Holland is composed of
experienced and qualified judges, who are not apt to modify their opinions
as to the guilt or innocence of accused persons owing to the tears of the
latter or the passionate appeals of their advocates. Rightly or wrongly,
the most eminent lawyers in Holland ascribe the often-recurring cases of
miscarriage of justice in some countries which have adopted the jury
system to this system itself, and it is very improbable, therefore, that
in this respect the Dutch will copy any of their neighbours.
The organization of justice in Holland originated in the Code Napoleon,
which was introduced shortly after the country's annexation to the French
Empire. In the judicial system in vogue to-day, which is the result of
modifications introduced at various times during last century, and
particularly by a law of the year 1895, the administration of justice is
vested in the High Court (_Hooge Raad_), the Provincial Courts of Justice
(_Gerechtskoven_), the Arrondissements (_Rechtbanken_), and the Cantonal
Courts (_Kantongerechten_).
The High Court consists of a President, a Vice-President, from twelve to
fourteen Councillors, a Procurator-General, three Advocates-General (who
form, with the Procurator-General, the 'Public Ministry' or Office of
Public Prosecution), also a Greffier, or Clerk of Court, and two deputy
Greffiers. Most of the appointments are made by the Sovereign, and are
for life. The High Court is situated at The Hague, and its principal duty
is to control the administration of justice by the lower Courts, a
process known as 'cassation.' If, for example, one of the lower Courts
has pronounced a sentence from which there is no appeal in that Court,
and one of the contending parties is of opinion that the sentence is
excessive, that party may require the High Court to cancel or annul
(_casseer_) the verdict. When an appeal for cassation or annulment is
thus made, the High Court has not to go into the question of the guilt or
innocence of the contending parties, but merely into the question whether
the lower Court has judged rightly or whether it was competent to judge
the case at all. Such 'cassations' occur almost daily, not because the
High Court has a reputation for reversing the verdicts given below, but
because the process offers at least a good chance of getting a sentence
reduced. The Public Prosecution, however, has power to set in motion the
process of cassation without being called upon so to do if the interests
of justice should in its opinion require it. To the jurisdiction of the
High Court belong also piracy cases, the apportionment of prizes made in
war, and the determination of accusations against State officials of
abuse of power.
Of Provincial Courts there are five, each composed of officials similar in
name, though not in rank, to those of the High Court, and they, too, are
for the most part appointed by the Crown, though not all for life. These
Provincial Courts pronounce judgment in the second instance--that is, when
the decision of a lower Court has been appealed against. This is, in fact,
their principal function, though they also pronounce judgment in the first
instance in cases of difference between the Cantonal Courts or
Arrondissement Courts. The latter are so named from the divisions into
which the country was split up for administrative purposes during the
Napoleonic _regime_, for the existing arrondissement boundaries are
virtually the same as those of ninety years ago.
There are twenty-three Arrondissement Courts, thirteen of the first-class
and ten of the second class. Their principal business is to pronounce
judgment in the first instance, even in criminal cases, but they also
decide in the final instance in cases of dispute between the Cantonal
Courts, which are under their jurisdiction. They likewise adjudicate upon
claims for compensation up to a certain amount, upon disputes regarding
the boundaries of land and property, and upon complaints relating to
water-supply, drainage, and the like, while cases of mendicancy, vagrancy,
and evasion of taxes are decided by these Courts summarily.
The Cantonal Courts are, as already stated, the nearest equivalent in
Holland to the English Police Courts. Their members, however, are legally
trained and salaried men, though attached to each Court are several
unsalaried deputies. The Judges of these Courts are appointed for life by
the Crown, and the minor officiais for a term of years. All the petty
cases which in England come before the Police Court are in Holland
adjudicated upon by the Cantonal Courts. Poaching, personal violence,
cruelty to animals, damage done to dwellings, trees, or crops, are all
cases for these Courts, and so long as the fines imposed do not exceed
two guineas, their judgment is final, but in other cases the right of
appeal exists.
Mention has just been made of the fact that even from the lowest Court of
Law in Holland the amateur judge is rigidly excluded. No one who has not
acquired the diploma of Doctor of Laws from one of the Dutch Universities
is allowed to assume any responsible duty associated with the
administration of justice. The same severe requirement is imposed upon the
legal profession in general. The possession of the diploma of Doctor of
Laws and Letters alone entitles a man to practise as advocate. Amongst
themselves the members of the legal profession also exercise a sort of
mutual surveillance by means of their Councils of Supervision and
Discipline, whose duty it is to take care that nothing is done by an
advocate which is contrary to the law or to the honour of the faculty.
These Councils are chosen from amongst the lawyers themselves in all towns
where there are more than fourteen resident advocates, but in smaller
places their duties are discharged by the Provincial or Arrondissement
Courts. Should a lawyer be guilty of any serious misdemeanour he is
promptly expelled from the Community of Advocates, and he may be even
refused the right to plead in any of the public Courts. In passing, it is
an interesting feature of the Dutch judicial system that in every place
where there is a Court of Justice, higher or lower, there exists a
Consultation Bureau where people without means may obtain gratuitous
advice in legal matters. Unless a charge laid before this Consultation
Bureau appears on the face of it to be unsustainable, the Bureau appoints
one of its members to act as legal adviser and counsellor to the applicant
free of cost. In criminal cases the President of the Court concerned
appoints a legal adviser for the accused, though the latter may choose
another advocate if he pleases.
It will be interesting to enter one of these Dutch Courts of Law, and a
Cantonal Court may perhaps best serve as an example, since that resembles
most closely the English _forum_ of the people--the Police Court. Let us
assume that we are privileged persons, though engaged in serious legal
business. We are bidden to make an appearance at a quarter to eleven
o'clock in the morning, and, presenting ourselves at that hour, we take
our seats on comfortable chairs, ranged round a long square table in the
large public waiting-room. As many other people are coming in, and the
room threatens soon to be crowded, a considerate attendant, knowing that
we are in favour with the grave and reverend seigniors who preside over
the Court, shows us into another and smaller room, where one of the deputy
Clerks (Greffier) is seated working at his books. One by one other persons
come in, pay small sums of money, of which the deputy Clerk evidently
keeps an exact account, together with the names and addresses of the
payers, the amounts yet remaining due--everything, in fact, relating to
each person's case. We note that some of the payers inquire how much they
yet owe, and the sum being told them, they forthwith take their departure.
We learn that these are all people who were fined some time ago for petty
offences, and who are, or pretend to be, unable to pay the full amount at
once. Hence they are allowed to pay by instalments, and it is the duty of
the Clerk to keep an accurate account of their contributions.
Our own turn having come round, we are now ushered into the Court, where
we see His Worship the Judge seated at the head--which happens to be the
middle--of a long table, covered by the inevitable green cloth. Papers,
ink-stands, and pens are before him; at his left hand sits the Clerk, and
next to him the first deputy Clerk. We observe, too, how carefully the
proprieties are observed in the matter of dress. All the judicial
functionaries present wear a costume consisting of a black toga reaching
to the heels, with a white 'bef,' or collar-band, hanging in front
halfway down to the waist, and also a black _barrette_, or square cap, as
in France.
Five persons are seated in the chairs next to ours and opposite to the
Judge. They have just testified that the last will of their parent has
been duly carried out, and that each of them has received his share, being
in this case '3887 guilders 71/2 cents'. (don't forget the half-cent, for
attention to minutiae is one of those characteristics of the Dutch which
strikes us at every turn). Presently the Judge asks the eldest of the
party whether his name is not 'So-and-so.' The answer being in the
affirmative, His Worship nods to the Clerk, who begins to read out in
clear and measured tones--
'I, So-and-so (description and address follow), hereby declare and testify
to have received as my share in the heritage of my parent the sum legally
apportioned to me, being 3887 guilders 71/2 cents.'
Then the Judge asks: 'Are you prepared to swear that this is true, and
that as far as you know nothing is kept behind so that justice is not
fully carried out?' This is the legal formula in use upon such an
occasion, and it produces the expected reply. 'Very well, then,' proceeds
the Judge, 'repeat after me, "So truly help me God Almighty!"' The
familiar words of the Dutch oath are accompanied by the uplifting of the
right hand and the pointing to heaven of the first two fingers. Then
follow the other four members of the family in order of age. All of them
swear in the usual words, except the second daughter, who demurs, on which
the judicial eyebrows are raised in surprise. It appears that the maiden
suffers from religious scruples, being firmly of opinion that swearing an
oath is forbidden by Holy Scripture. The Judge listens respectfully, and
simply answers, 'Then repeat after me, "I hereby solemnly declare that the
words read out to me just now are the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth."' The conscientious witness having no objection to a
simple affirmation, the words are promptly repeated, the business is
completed, and the party are all allowed to withdraw.
Now our own turn has come. One of our party, we will assume, has been
appointed by the Cantonal Judge to be guardian over a minor son of another
of our number. All declare who, what, and whence they are, and that the
guardian has received his appointment with their common consent, while the
guardian himself makes formal declaration of accepting the duty. He is
thereupon sworn by the Judge in the occupation of his office, promising
'to act in all things as a true and faithful guardian should act, so truly
help me God Almighty.' These several incidents are fairly typical of the
sort of business which occupies the attention of these minor Courts. As we
leave the building, however, we learn another piece of interesting
information in the course of conversation with the deputy Clerk whose
acquaintance we first made. It is that the principle of 'punishment by
instalments' is applied in the case of the poorer classes, not merely in
the matter of fines, but also of imprisonment, save in criminal cases.
Many a poor man, for instance, who shortly after being sentenced to, say,
a week's or a fortnight's imprisonment has happened to find employment
would be ruined if compelled to go to prison at once. He is therefore
allowed, as in Russia, to select his own time for surrendering himself to
the prison authorities, and if, as often happens in poaching cases, two
different offences have brought upon him two terms of imprisonment, he is
allowed to come before the Judge, with the request that he may combine
these two terms, beginning his incarceration at a fixed date. The Court to
whose clemency he thus appeals generally grants the request, and the man
is thus enabled to work for his livelihood whilst the demand for labour
is general, and to go to prison when he happens to be out of work, and
would only be one mouth more to feed at home, where his wife and children
already find difficulty enough in making both ends meet. When imprisonment
is thus post-poned the offender receives from the Court a document, on the
presentation of which at the prison door the Master of the prison will
admit him as a temporary occupant of one of the cells. Old gaol-birds,
however, are not treated so tenderly, but the Judges soon learn by
experience when and how to apply this merciful arrangement, and when to
refuse it altogether.
In general the statistics of crime give Holland a decidedly favourable
reputation. Serious misdemeanours are comparatively rare. Crimes like
burglary, theft, and the like, are certainly committed often enough, but
there is no evidence to show that they are on the increase, while life and
property are at least as secure in the large Dutch towns as anywhere else
in Europe. The Hague, though a city of 220,000 inhabitants, is
sufficiently protected by the comparatively small number of 220 policemen.
Rotterdam and Amsterdam both have a larger number of policemen per
thousand inhabitants than The Hague, but this is natural, owing to the
more heterogeneous character of the population of these great commercial
centres. It is a notable fact that in every town in Holland the
Burgomaster or Mayor is the supreme head of the police, and that the Chief
Commissary of Police must not merely co-operate with him, but is in the
last resort subject to his direct command.
In spite of the fact that Courts of summary jurisdiction of the English
type do not exist in Holland, the police authority possesses a
considerable amount of power. Mention has been made of the process of
'verbalization' as applied to common misdemeanours. In the case of
drunkenness or fighting, however, the offenders are at once taken before
the Commissary of Police, who promptly deals with them. Offences against
which the police are entirely powerless are those of adulteration of food,
household quarrels so long as they remain within certain bounds, and an
offence of quite modern origin known as 'bottle-drawing' (_Anglice_,
'long-firm frauds'). This last is an ingenious species of fraud which has
become very common in Holland of late years. A person orders a quantity of
goods from merchants of various towns on the pretence of opening accounts,
which he promises will quickly assume large dimensions. Consignment after
consignment of wares is sent, but never paid for, and when at last the too
trustful merchant discovers that he has been playing into the hands of a
swindler he gets no redress, for the artful schemer has disappeared,
taking with him the proceeds of the goods received. For a time this sort
of fraud was quite popular, but then the eyes of the business community
were opened, and the strong hand of the law fell upon several offenders
with crushing weight, after which 'bottle-drawing' lost in attractiveness.
On the whole, the police in Holland are commendably energetic as well as
dutiful, and the relationship between the police authority and the public
is generally a friendly and trustful one.
It may be noted that the Dutch law strongly discourages divorce. In
general the present generation is apt to regard separation and divorce
with greater favour than its fathers did, but though this feeling may to
some extent influence the decisions of Dutch Judges in divorce
proceedings, the law itself, strictly interpreted, offers little hope to
those who would weaken the marriage tie. When married people disagree to
such an extent that a rupture between them is imminent, and a demand for
divorce is made, proof is required that the demand comes only from one
side, for divorce by common consent is against the law except in cases of
adultery. In every other case the Judge of the Cantonal Court must do his
utmost to effect a reconciliation. Should, however, a demand for divorce
be repeated, this same Judge, or a Judge of a Superior Court, must again
endeavour to bring the parties together, and only in the event of failure
is judicial separation _a mensa et thoro_ pronounced, and this separation
must exist for a number of years--as a rule seven--before actual divorce
can take place. Nevertheless, both separation and divorce are far more
frequent nowadays than ten or twenty years ago, owing largely to the
judicial disposition to interpret the law more in accordance with what are
known as 'modern ideas.'
Holland is one of the few countries which no longer tolerate capital
punishment. It was abolished thirty years ago, and, in spite of the
strenuous efforts of the reactionary party, it is not likely to be
re-established. Quite recently, Mr. C. Loosjes wrote a pamphlet in
advocacy of the reenactment of capital punishment, and his position at the
Ministry of Justice gave to this work considerable weight. His contention
was that since capital punishment was abolished, the crimes of murder,
attempted murder, poisoning, and parricide had increased, but Mr. Loosjes
failed to make sufficient allowance for the fact that during the period
covered by his statistics the population of the country had greatly
increased. The fact is that during the twenty years preceding abolition
considerably more crimes punishable by death occurred than during the
twenty years following that act of clemency, civilisation, and
enlightenment, while as compared with other countries Holland takes a very
favourable position indeed, standing, together with England, Belgium, and
Germany, at the head of the nations having the smallest number of crimes
of a kind usually punished by death.
Chapter XIX
Religious Life and Thought
The Dutch are a thoroughly religious people. Religious sentiments and
introspective inclinations were bound to develop and prosper in the Low
Lands, where vast plains of fertile land are only limited by the endless
sea below, the unfathomable blue of heaven above; where man feels himself
an atom, lost in the vastness of creation, yet safe, because he is placed
there by the will of a beneficent Maker.
Introspective, personal, individualistic, self-centred are their painters
and their poets. These were greatly so when Holland's fleets ruled the
seas, and when Holland's influence and power were felt far beyond ils own
narrow frontiers; and they are still so in our days.
This individualism accounts for the many sects found among the Dutch
Reformed. The Roman Catholic Church, the only episcopacy in Holland,
numbers only two sections: those--the majority--who admit the
infallibility of the Pope, and those--a small minority--who, although
recognizing the Pope as chief of the Church, do not agree with the
decisions of the Vatican Council of 1870, proclaiming this papal
infallibility. The Roman Catholic Church is a tolerably prospering
institution, thanks to the absolute freedom which it, like all the sister
Churches, enjoys in Holland, where, ever since the revolution of 1795, a
State Church has been an unknown thing. On the whole, however, its growth
is not keeping pace with the increase of the population. A former census
indicated that the Roman Catholics numbered two-fifths of the whole
population, but the latest puts them down at only one-third, and in the
Second Chamber of the States General there are only twenty-five Roman
Catholic members out of a total of a hundred representatives. Their
present organization dates from 1853, when the Liberals agreed to the
appointment by the Pope of one Archbishop in Utrecht, and four Bishops in
Haarlem, Bois-le-Duc, Breda, and Roermond. The bishoprics are divided in
decanates, and in 1858 the Pope completed the organization by instituting
chapters, each governed by one provost and eight canons. The Archbishops
and Bishops do not officially participate in political life in Holland,
although, as a matter of course, nobody can help noticing their influence
upon the electorate; the minor clergy as a rule are less discreet in this
matter than their chiefs, whereas the political leader of the Roman
Catholics in the Second Chamber is Dr. Herman Schaepman, a priest, a
professer at the Seminary of Rysenburg, a statesman, an orator, and a
poet, whose quintuple attainments are equally admired, although his
scientific importance is not generally considered to be quite as weighty
as the rest of his remarkable personality.
Far more significant for Dutch religious life are the other two-thirds of
the population, Protestants to the back-bone. The former State Church, the
Netherlands Reformed Church, was left in a most awkward position when, in
1795, disestablishment was forced upon it. Up till 1848, when Jann Rudolf
Thorbecke saved Holland and the Royal House from another revolution, by
imposing a Liberal constitution upon the reluctant King William II, the
Netherlands Reformed Church had no sound, well-regulated status; but not
before 1870 was the last tie Connecting State and Church severed. The
State now no longer exercises spiritual or other supervision, but merely
pays a yearly allowance to the various clergymen, without vindicating or
claiming any rights in return.
On the other hand, the State no longer pays or appoints University
professors to teach specific reformed theology; every Church of every
description looks after this on behalf of its own students, and whereas
the Roman Catholic clergy are educated at the Seminaries, the General
Synod, the supreme governing board of the Netherlands Reformed Church,
nominates two professors for each of the four Dutch Universities at
Leyden, Utrecht, Groningen, and Amsterdam.
It is necessary to point here to a peculiarity in Dutch religious and
political life. At the time when Liberal politics were developing in
Holland, critical and historical research made itself conspicuous in the
teaching of leading Dutch ecclesiastics like Scholten and Kuenen. The
Reformation upset the Divine authority of the Pope; these modern critics
denied and destroyed the faith in the Divine authority of the Bible. They
were educated, and afterwards taught their lessons at the University of
Leyden, where the future Liberal statesmen of Holland were preparing for
their task; they had the same ideals, the same modes of thought.
[Illustration: Interior of Delftshaven Church (Where the Pilgrim Fathers
Worshipped Before Leaving for New England).]
The ecclesiastics called themselves 'Moderns;' the politicians were
designated 'Liberals.' Both vindicated the supreme right of freedom in
everything: free criticism, free research, free thought, free speech. The
reign of pure intellectualism became supreme; every emotion, every
sentiment was dissected, measured by the measure of inexorable logic; and
rationalism, later doomed to bankruptcy, was in those days all-triumphant.
So it came about that the Liberals were 'Moderns' and the 'Moderns'
Liberals; and as the State was for a quarter of a century governed by
Liberals who involuntarily made the Church 'Modern,' populated by
Liberals, so it also came about that their religious opponents became
their political foes.
These opponents were called 'Orthodox;' they felt this imposition of
liberty as the worst coercion one man could apply to another--the coercion
of the conscience. They did not care to see the Bible treated as a piece
of sheer human manufacture, however exalted; they felt it a burning shame
to have to pay taxes towards the maintenance of irreligious, or even
anti-religious, scientific chairs and colleges. They thought of their
stern forefathers, who had broken the power of the mighty Spanish Empire,
strengthened by God's Word and by that only. To them the Netherlands
Reformed Church and the Netherlands State lost their sound and only safe
basis by the assertion that there was something changeable, something
non-eternal in the Bible; that this Bible, revered as containing the Holy
Scriptures, might be replaced by any human System of thought to serve as
the foundation for the structure of the State.
This blending of Modernism and Liberalism afforded to them absolute proof
that any abandonment of the ancient creed and the revered confession meant
ruin both to State and Church. So they followed the time-honoured practice
of the Dutch race; they separated, broke away from a species of liberty
which was not of their liking, and became 'Anti-Revolutionists' and
'Separatists' ('Afgescheidenen'); Calvin, with his staunch, severe
Protestantism, being their ideal as statesman and spiritual leader.
The Dutch language has two words for one thing: 'Hervorming' and
'Reformatie.' But there is a vast difference between the Netherlands
'Hervormde' and the Netherlands 'Gereformeerde' Churches. The former is
the late State Church, the latter is the Church of the 'Afgescheidenen,'
who, before joining the Netherlands Gereformeerde, called themselves
'Christelyk Gereformeerde.' These two joined in 1892, and are now known as
the 'Gereformeerde Kerken' (the Reformed Churches).
Their leader is Professer Abraham Kuyper, the present President Minister
of the Netherlands. He, like Dr. Schaepman, is a born orator, a prolific
author, a scientific ecclesiastic, a strong democratic leader of men, an
admirable organizer, and perhaps the most brilliant journalist in Holland;
but beyond this, he is a staunch Protestant of the strictest Calvinistic
type, to whom the Roman Catholic Church is a blasphemous and idolatrous
institution. In 1879 he created the 'Society for Higher Education on a
Reformed Basis,' and in 1880 his 'Free University' was consecrated in the
'Nieuwe Kerk' (the New Church) at Amsterdam, Dr. Kuyper ever since the
opening acting as one of the professors. His flock is now strong in
numbers, but his and their faith is stronger and has worked miracles,
building churches and schools, maintaining preachers and teachers, finding
money for everything, and finally, for the second time, gaining a
political victory, with the help of such strange auxiliaries as the Roman
Catholics. What unites them is the conviction they have in common that a
State and a Government not led themselves by religion must lead a nation
to perdition. To them Liberal Governments, although theoretically free
from clerical influence, are actually led and unduly influenced by the
'Modern' Protestants of Holland. These 'Modern' Protestants reject the
dogma of the Holy Trinity and various other dogmas which the Roman
Catholics and the Orthodox Protestants consider the essence of the
Christian creed; they are, therefore, in the opinion of the latter, mere
atheists, and consequently unfit to rule the destinies of a nation.
[Illustration: Utrecht Cathedral.]
These 'Modern' Protestants came to the fore during the last fifty years.
The University of Groningen taught a humanism, which created a reaction
towards the ancient confessors of the creed, the 'reveal,' or awakening.
Subsequently modern cosmosophy tried to adjust its opinions to modern
science and the results of modern research in every branch of human
knowledge. This was a great blow to the ancestral faith and the venerable
Confession. In those days Coenraad Busken Huet published his 'Letters on
the Bible,' popularizing the scientific criticisms of the Sacred Book.
Gradually Leyden's University took the lead, Johannes Henricus Scholten,
Abraham Kuenen, and the Utrecht philosopher Cornelis Willem Opzoomer
assisting the new movement by their profound knowledge, their irresistible
logic, their brilliant style, and their high enthusiasm. In those years
Holland went through ail the throes accompanying the appearance of new
life; it was a time of intellectual stress and strain, a time of
controversial storm in which unrelenting criticism and critical research
carried away everything that could not exist in the light of exact science
and exacter thinking.
Jacobus Izaak Doedes, Johannes Jacobus van Oosterzee, Chantepic de la
Saussaye, the successors of Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, Jan Rudolf
Thorbecke's greatest opponent, and Isaaec Da Costa, Willem Bilderdyk's
famous pupil, defended the ancient creed, but the General Synod was
'Modern' and the 'Orthodox' had a difficult time.
In numbers of places the 'dominees,' or preachers, were Orthodox, and in
order to provide their own followers with spiritual fare, the 'Moderns'
established in 1870 the 'Nederlandsche Protestantenbond,' or Netherlands
Protestant League. This League sees that all over the country 'Modern'
sermons are preached, 'Modern' Sunday Schools instituted, meetings of
Protestants arranged, and everything is done that can support or promote
religious life.
Besides these two large bodies of Protestants, the Orthodox and the
Moderns, Holland has a good many Lutherans, Baptists, or Mennonites, and
Remonstrants. Of the Lutherans the most numerous are the Evangelical
Lutherans, who faithfully maintain the Augsburg Confession, while the
Moderns, known as Reinstated Lutherans, abandoned that organ of doctrine.
There is not, however, much animosity between the two sects at the present
time, neither making a strong point of dogma, but both giving a prominent
place to the demands of Christian practice.
The Mennonites--so called after the Dutch reformer Menno Simons
(1496-1561)--were in olden times the most persecuted Protestants of all.
Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists were equally hard upon them,
and many of them lost their lives on account of their convictions. They
have no test, no church, no rite, no clergy. They have fraternities, and
in these the minister is the 'voorganger' (guide or leader), though his
education, social position, and general duties are the same as those of
all other Protestant ministers. In Amsterdam they have their own Seminary,
and the names of Professors Samuel Muller, Sytske Hoekstra Bzn, Jacob
Gysbert de Hoop Scheffer, and Jan van Gilse are honoured in the country
and outside the 'General Baptist Society,' as their central body is
called. Their teaching and preaching appeal not only to the religions, but
very strongly to the ethical and moral tendencies of humanity.
The Remonstrants (formerly Arminians) came upon the scene towards the end
of the sixteenth century. Dirk Vorlkertsz Coornhert had written a very
able refutation of the dogma of predestination. The Town Council of
Amsterdam ordered Jacob Arminius to Write a book against Coornhert's work.
But behold! when Arminius settled down to the task, and read Coornhert's
argument carefully, he came to the conclusion that the other was right,
and from an opponent he turned into a powerful ally. This happy lack of
bias has ever been the particular feature of Arminian doctrine, and, like
the Mennonites, the Remonstrants hold that the value of religion is
determined by its beneficial influence on ethics. Considering the ethical
or social fermentation which Holland, like every other country, has
witnessed during the last decades, it is not surprising to find a great
many 'Modern' members of the Netherlands 'Hervormde Kerk' joining the
Remonstrant fraternity, which affords absolute liberty as regards dogma
and confession, and at the same time satisfies their altruistic
inclinations.
It is one of the commonest contentions of the age that ethics and religion
can exist in one being independently of each other. One very advanced sect
of modern Dutch Protestants--not yet, however, numbering a great many
adherents--does not go quite to this extreme, but in the 'Vrye Gemeente,'
or 'Free Community,' they represent religion as a thing complete in
itself, a thing purely pertaining to the individual, personal spiritual
life. This 'Free Community' was established in 1878 by two Amsterdam
ministers, Pieter Hermannus Hugenholtz and Frederik Willem Nicolaas
Hugenholtz. They neither observe Ascension Day nor Whitsuntide; they
abolished Baptism and the Eucharist; and, however charitable the members
may be in their private capacities, the Free Community, as such, does not
practise poor-relief or charity in any form.
In this connexion it is interesting to add a few words about Dutch Free
Masonry. The Dutch Free Masons of the present day are not so much
moralists as ethicists. The well-being of the commonwealth based upon the
well-being of every member--spiritually, intellectually, and
materially--is their threefold aim. They feel and express profound
admiration for every form of religious life, utterly indifferent as to the
existence or non-existence of any dogma accompanying it, since they freely
realize how strong a motive religion is to ethics; they admit Roman
Catholics, Orthodox or Modern Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Mohammedans,
Atheists and Agnostics into their fraternity, no confessional test
whatever being put to any one; they only require faithful co-operation
towards the general betterment of human society as a whole.
The Hebrew Church has also enjoyed perfect freedom ever since the
constitution of 1848 made the right of congregation absolute and
incontestable. But after being fettered during so many centuries, it took
even this energetic and tenacious race some twenty years to shake itself
free from the lingering influences of long-protracted restraint. It was
only in 1870 that the Netherlands Israelitic Congregation was established;
the Portuguese Jews in Holland have a separate governing body. Modern and
ancient views clash here, as everywhere else, but the consciousness of
their illustrious history, not sullied, but adorned with greater
brilliancy by centuries of persecution, becomes gradually more powerful in
the mind of the Dutch Jew, and invigorates his natural and national
tendency towards the ancient rites and doctrines of his classic creed.
Chapter XX
The Army and Navy
Although the Dutch maintained their independence in the sixteenth century
against the most formidable regular army in Europe, and also did their
fair share of fighting in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they
have long ceased to aspire to the rank of a military Power. The separation
from Belgium in 1830-31 put an end to the Orange policy of creating a
powerful Netherland State from Lorraine to the North Sea which could hold
its own with either France or Prussia, and since that period Holland has
gradually sunk, and seemingly without discontent, into the position of a
third-rate Power. This has taken place without any apparent loss of the
old love of independence, but it has necessarily been accompanied by a
diminution not only of the military spirit, but of military efficiency and
readiness. The spectacle of immense armies of millions of men in the
neighbouring States seems to have produced a sense of helplessness among
the people of the Netherlands, and to have led them to believe that
resistance, were it needful, would be futile. The inglorious campaign of
1794, when Pichegru occupied Holland almost without a blow, serves as a
sort of object-lesson to demonstrate the hopelessness of any attempt at
resistance, instead of the creditable campaign of 1793; when the Dutch
expelled Dumouriez from their country. Curiously enough, the Transvaal War
has revived national hope and confidence by showing what a well-armed
people without military training can do when standing on the defensive.
Time is necessary to prove whether this new sentiment will remove the
fatalistic feeling of helplessness that has been creeping over Dutch
public men, and brace them to efforts worthy of their ancestry.
The sense of impotency has not been confined to the land forces alone. In
that matter it was felt that a nation of less than five millions could
not compete with those that numbered forty and fifty millions. But the
same sentiment exists also with regard to maritime power, where the
competition is not of men, but of money. The immense navies of modern
days, and the enormous cost of their maintenance and renovation, seem to
exclude small States from the rank of naval Powers. Holland, with the
finest material for manning a navy of any Continental State, can be no
exception to the general rule. Her little navy is a model of efficiency,
her small cruisers of 5000 tons are not surpassed by any of the same
size, and the _morale_ of her officers, one may not doubt, is worthy of
the service that produced not only the Ruyters and Tromps of old days,
but Suffren, our most able opponent during the long Napoleonic struggle.
None the less, the Dutch navy remains a small navy quite overshadowed by
the immense organizations of the present age, and without any possible
chance of competing with them.
This self-evident fact exercises a depressing influence on Dutch opinion,
which has latterly shown a marked desire to ally the country with some
other. An alliance with Belgium, that of the North and South
Netherlanders, the old Union of the Provinces broken in 1583 and
imperfectly restored from 1815 to 1830, would be hailed with delight. The
difficulty of attaining this consolidation of Netherland opinion and
resources, on account of pronounced religious differences, has resulted in
the formation of a considerable body of opinion favourable to an alliance
with Germany. For the moment, events in South Africa have placed the old
English party in a hopeless minority.
Although the Dutch possess in probably an unabated degree all the sturdy
characteristics that distinguished them of old, it seems as if prosperity
had somewhat blunted the edge of patriotism, at least to the extent of
rendering them unwilling to submit to the hardships of the conscription,
when fully applied to the whole people. As the consequence the Dutch do
not come under the head of an armed nation, and the war effective of their
army is less than 70,000 men.
The regulations applying to the army are based on the law of 1861, which
was modified in one important particular by an Act of 1898. The army was
to be raised partly by conscription and partly by voluntary enlistment.
The annual contingent by conscription was fixed at 11,000 men. Every man
became liable to conscription at the age of nineteen, but as the right of
purchasing exemption continued in force until the Act of 1898 referred to,
all well-to-do persons so minded escaped from the obligation of military
service. At the same time its conditions were made as light as possible.
Nominally the conscripts had to serve for five years, but in reality they
remained one year with the colours, and afterwards were called out for
only six weeks' training during each of the four subsequent years. The
regular army thus obtained mustered on a peace footing 26,000 men and 2000
officers, and on a war footing 68,000 officers and men and 108 guns,
excluding fortress artillery. Considering the interests entrusted to its
charge, the Dutch army must be pronounced the weakest of any State
possessing colonies--a position of no inconsiderable importance from the
historical and political point of view.
It will be said, no doubt, that Holland possesses other land forces
besides her regular army, and this is true, but they are by the admission
of the Dutch themselves ill organized and not up to the level of their
duties. There is the Schutterij, or National Volunteer force--perhaps
Militia would be a more correct term, because the law creating it is based
on compulsion. The law organizing the Schutterij was passed in April,
1827, by which ail males were required to serve in it between the ages of
twenty-five and thirty, and from thirty to thirty-five in the Schutterij
reserve. An active division is formed out of unmarried men and widowers
without children. This division would be mobilized immediately on the
outbreak of war, and would take its place alongside the regular army. It
probably numbers five thousand men out of the total of 45,000 active
Schutterij. The reserve Schutterij does not exceed 40,000, but behind ail
these is what is termed indifferently the Landsturm, or the _levee en
masse_. There is only one defect in this arrangement, which is that by far
the larger portion of the population has never had any military training
except that given to the Schutterij, which is practically none at all. A
_levee en masse_ in Holland would have precisely the value, and no more,
that it would have in any other non-military State which either did not
possess a regular army of adequate efficiency and strength, or which had
not passed its population through the ranks of a conscript army.
The Dutch Schutterij is ostensibly based on the model of the Swiss Rifle
Clubs, and the obligatory part of its service relates to rifle-practice at
the targets, but there the similarity ends. There is no room to question
the efficiency of the Swiss marksmen, and the tests applied are very
severe. But in Holland the practice is very different. The Schutterij
meetings are made the excuse for jollity, eating and drinking. They are
rather picnics than assemblies for the serious purpose of qualifying as
national defenders. Even in marksmanship the ranges are so short, and the
efficiency expected so meagre, that the military value of this civic force
is exceedingly dubious. It could only be compared with that of the Garde
Civique of Belgium, and with neither the Swiss Rifle Corps nor our own
Volunteers.
Curiously enough, there is, however, an offshoot of the Schutterij based
also on the old organization of an ancient guild called the
"Sharpshooters." Its members are supposed to be good shots, or at least to
take pains to become so, and they practise at something approaching long
ranges. But it is a very limited and somewhat exclusive organization based
on a considerable subscription. It is the society or club of well-to-do
persons with a bent towards rifle-practice. An application to the
Schutterij of the obligations forming part of the voluntary and
self-imposed conditions accepted by the Sharpshooters would, no doubt, add
much to its efficiency, and might in time give Holland a serviceable
auxiliary corps of riflemen.
Besides the home army, Holland possesses a very considerable colonial army
which is commonly known as the Indian contingent. This force garrisons
Java, Sumatra, and the other colonies in the East. The army of the East
Indies numbers 13,000 Europeans and 17,000 natives, principally Malays of
Java. Besides this regular garrison a Schutterij force is maintained in
Java. It consists of 4000 Europeans and 6000 natives. The Europeans are
the planters and the members of the civil service. The natives are the
retainers of some of the native princes, and the overseers and more
responsible men employed on the European plantations. The total garrison
of the Dutch East Indies is consequently a very considerable one, viewed
by the light of its duties, but allowance has to be made for the
interminable war in Atchin, which keeps several thousand men permanently
engaged, and never seems nearer an ending.
The Dutch authorities find great difficulty in recruiting their army for
the East Indies, and with the growth of prosperity this difficulty
increases. Indeed, the garrison could not be maintained at its present
high strength but for the numerous volunteers who come forward for this
well-paid service from Germany and Belgium. At one time these outside
recruits became so numerous owing to the tempting offers made to them by
the Dutch authorities that the two Governments interested presented formal
protests against their proceedings. Germany has always been very sore on
the subject of losing any of her soldiers, and Belgium has much need of
all the men likely to serve abroad in the Congo State. There are still
foreigners of German and Belgian race in the Dutch Indian army, but any
design of turning it into a Foreign Legion on the same model as that of
the force which has served France so well in Algeria and her colonies has
fallen through.
The only active service or practical experience of war which the Dutch
army has had since the end of the struggle with Belgium has been in the
East Indies. The Lombock expedition of 1894 is still remembered for its
losses and disasters, but on that occasion the Dutch displayed a fine
spirit of fortitude under a reverse, and ended the campaign by bringing
the hostile Sultan to reason. The long struggle with the Atchinese has
been marked by heroism on both sides, and is evidence that the Dutch have
not lost their old tenacity. At the same time the Government finds
considerable difficulty in obtaining the requisite number of voluntary
exiles to preserve its possessions in the Eastern Archipelago, and it may
find itself obliged to reduce the effective strength of its garrison.
Moreover, the hygienic conditions are still extremely unfavourable, and
the rate of mortality among Europeans in Java and the Celebes is
particularly high. It may be no longer true, as was said with perhaps
some exaggeration in the time of Marshal Daendels at the beginning of
last century, that the European Dutch garrisons die out every three
years, but the death-rate is certainly high, and a considerable part of
the garrison returns invalided by fever a very few months after its
arrival in the East. At present the Dutch Indies are absolutely safe
because England does not covet them, and would never dream of molesting
the Dutch in them provided she herself remains unmolested. But should
international competitions break out in that quarter of the world Holland
might experience some difficulty in maintaining her garrison at an
adequate strength for the proper discharge of her international duties,
but this contingency is not likely to present itself for another twenty
or thirty years.
The troops of the regular Dutch army will compare favourably with any of
their neighbours. They are not as stiff on parade as the Germans, and they
are more solid than the French. Their physique is good, although, owing to
the practice of purchasing a substitute, which has too lately ceased to
allow of the change to come into full effect, the infantry contains an
abnormal number of short men, which gives a misleading idea of the average
height of the race. The minimum height of the infantry soldier is 5 ft.
11/2 ins., which is very low for a people whose general stature is quite
on a level with our own. There is certainly one point in which the Dutch
soldiers strike the observer as being different from their neighbours.
They seem light-hearted and jovial, not at all oppressed by the severe
claims of discipline, and at the same time quite free from the slouch that
gives the Belgian linesman a non-military appearance.
The strength of the Dutch army lies undoubtedly in its corps of officers,
a body of specially qualified men fitted to discharge the duties that
devolve on the leaders of any army. The majority of these pass through the
Royal Military Academy, an institution from which we might borrow some
features with advantage. Candidates are admitted between the ages of
fifteen and eighteen, and undergo a course of four years before they are
eligible for a commission. As the charges at the Academy are limited to
_L22 10s_. a year, the expense of becoming an officer forms no prohibitive
barrier, and in a course of training spread over four years the cadet can
be turned into a fully qualified officer before he is entrusted with the
discharge of practical duties. Moreover, his training does not stop with
his leaving the Academy. It is supposed to be necessary to complete it by
a further course in camps of instruction, and subsequently by what are
called State missions in the temporary service of other armies. This
practice is fairly general on the Continent, although it is never resorted
to by the British, who are less acquainted with the organization of
Continental armies than is the case with even third or fourth-rate States.
The headquarters of the Dutch Engineers are at Utrecht, of the Artillery
at Zwolle, of the Infantry at The Hague, and of the Cavalry at Breda.
Utrecht is the most important of these military stations, because the
Engineers are the most important branch of the army, and also because it
is the centre of the canal and dyke System of Holland. The school or
college of the State Civil Engineers, to whom is entrusted the care of the
dykes, is at Utrecht. They are known as Waterstaat, and Utrecht may be
held to supplement and complete the machinery existing at the capital,
Amsterdam, for flooding the country. In theory and on paper, the defence
of Holland is based on the assumption that in the event of invasion the
country surrounding Amsterdam to as far as Utrecht on one side and Leyden
on the other would be flooded. There are many who doubt whether the
resolution to sanction the enormous attendant damage would be displayed.
It is said that the national spirit does not beat so high as when the
youthful William resorted to that measure in 1672 to baffle the French
monarch, and then prepared his fleet, in the event of its failure, to
convey the relics of Dutch greatness and the fortunes of Orange to a new
home and country beyond the seas. On that occasion the waters did their
work thoroughly well. But it is said that they might not accomplish what
was expected of them on the next occasion, while the damage inflicted
would remain. Nothing can solve this question save the practical test, but
there is no reason to believe that at heart the Dutch race of to-day is
less patriotic or resolute than formerly.
At the same time a very important change has to be noted in the views of
Dutch strategists. Formerly the whole system of national defence centred
in Amsterdam, and it must be added that the dykes have been mainly
constructed with the idea of flooding the country round it. This was the
old plan, sanctioned by antiquity and custom, of defending the capital at
all costs, and making it the final refuge of the race. But latterly the
opinion has been spreading among military men that Rotterdam would make a
far better place of final stand than Amsterdam, because, the forts of the
Texel once forced, the capital might be menaced by a naval attack from the
Zuyder Zee or by the Northern Canal. In old days Amsterdam was safe from
any naval descent, but the introduction of steam has laid it open to the
attack at least of torpedo flotillas. The entrance to the Meuse, it is
represented, could be made impregnable with little difficulty, and the
approaches to Rotterdam from the land side are far more dependent on the
proper restraining of the waters within their artificial or natural
channels than those to Amsterdam. There is another argument in support of
Rotterdam. It would be easier for Holland's allies to send aid there than
to Amsterdam, while a strong position at Rotterdam would senously menace
any hostile army at Utrecht, and contribute materially to the defence of
Amsterdam as well. But the Dutch are a slow people to move. Amsterdam is
supposed to be ready to stand a siege at any time, whereas Rotterdam's
defences are mainly on paper. The garrison of Rotterdam is only a few
hundred men, and to convert it into a fortified position would, no doubt,
entail the outlay of a good many million florins. Still, the conviction is
spreading that Rotterdam has supplanted Amsterdam as the real centre of
Dutch prosperity and national life.
The Schutterij is, singularly enough, not popular. The reason for this is
not very clear, as the duties are quite nominal, and in no material
clegree interfere with civil employment. The distaste to any form of
military service is tolerably general, and the advanced Radical party has
adopted as one of its cries, "Nobody wishes to be a soldier." Probability
points, however, not to the abolition of the Schutterij, but to its being
made more efficient, and consequently the conditions of service in it must
become more rigorous. There is one portion of the duties of the Schutterij
which is far from unpopular with the men of the force. When a householder
neglects to pay his taxes one or more militiamen are quartered on him, and
he is obliged to supply his guests not merely with good food and lodging,
but also with abundant supplies of tobacco and gin. Apart from such
incidents, which one may not doubt from the nature of the penalty are
exceedingly rare, the Schutterij seems to have rather a dull and
monotonous time of it.
There is one fact about the Dutch army that deserves mention. It is
extremely well behaved, and the men give their officers very little
trouble. The discipline is lighter than in most armies. There is an
unusually kindly feeling between officers and men for a Continental force,
and at the same time the public and the military are on excellent terms
with each other. This is, no doubt, due to the very short period served
with the colours, and to the fact that the last four years, with the
exception of six weeks annually in a camp or fortress, are passed in civil
life at home.
The Dutch navy, although small in comparison with its past achievements
and with its present competitors, is admitted to be well organized,
efficient in its condition, and manned by a fine _personnel_. It is
generally said, perhaps unjustly, that the pick of the manhood of Holland
joins the navy in preference to the army. One fact shows that there is no
difficulty in obtaining the required number of recruits to man the fleet,
for while the nominal law is that of conscription for the navy as well as
for the army, all the necessary contingent is obtained by voluntary
enlistment. No doubt the large fishing and boating classes provide
excellent material, and a comparatively short spell of service on board a
man-of-war offers an agreeable break in their lives. The Dutch being a
nautical race by tradition as well as by the daily work of a large portion
of them, there is nothing uncongenial in a naval career. No difficulty is
experienced in obtaining the services of the seven thousand seamen and two
thousand five hundred marine infantry who form the permanent staff of the
Dutch navy, and if the country's finances enabled it to build more ships,
there would be no serious difficulty in providing the required number of
men to furnish their crews.
In 1897 some steps were taken in this direction, and a credit of five
millions sterling for a ship-building programme was voted. Its operations
have not yet been brought to a conclusion, but a torpedo fleet has been
created for the defence of the Zuyder Zee, supplementing the defences at
Helder and the Texel. Something has also been done in the same direction
for the defence of Batavia and the ports of Java. The Dutch navy might be
correctly described as a good little one, quite equal to the everyday work
required of it, but not of the size or standard to play an ambitious
_role_. We should not, however, overlook the fact that its addition to the
navy of another Power would be as important an augmentation of strength as
was the case when Pichegru added the Dutch fleet to that of France by
capturing it with cavalry and horse artillery while ice-bound in the
Zuyder Zee. Nor can we always count on a Duncan to end the story as at
Camperdown.
The impression left on an observer of the military and naval classes in
Holland is that they are not animated by a very strong martial spirit.
Clothed in a military costume, they are still essentially men of peace,
who would be sorry to commit an act of violence or do an injury to any
one. The officers as a class are devoted to the technical part of their
work, and are thoroughly well posted in the science of war. But whether it
is due to the long peace, to the spread of prosperity among all classes of
the community, or to the lymphatic character of the race, it is not easy
to persuade one's self that the Dutch army, taken as a whole, is a
formidable instrument of war.
This feeling must be corrected by a study of history, and by recognizing
that there are no symptoms of deterioration in the sturdy qualities of the
Dutch people. Physically and morally the Netherlanders of to-day are the
equals of their forefathers, but the conditions of their national life,
the fortunate circumstances that have so long made them unacquainted with
the terrible ordeals of war, have diverted their thoughts from a bellicose
policy, and have confirmed them in their peaceful leanings. How far these
tendencies have diminished their fighting-power, and rendered them unequal
to accept or bear the sacrifices that would be entailed by any strenuous
defence of their country against serious invasion by a Great Power, must
remain a matter of opinion. Perhaps their organization has become somewhat
rusty. Reforms are admitted to be necessary. The annual contingent is
altogether too small for the needs of the age; a great and efficient
national reserve should be created; and in good time the army ought to be
raised to the numbers that would enable it to man and hold the numerous
and excellent forts which have been constructed at all vital points. The
Dutch plans of defence are excellent, but to carry them all out a very
considerable army would be necessary, and at the present moment Holland
possesses only the skeleton of an army.
Leaving the question of numbers and military organization aside, only
praise can be given to the Dutch soldier individually. He is clean, civil,
good-tempered, and with a far closer resemblance to Englishmen in what we
regard as essentials than any other Continental. The officers are in the
truest sense gentlemen free from swagger, and not over-bearing towards
their men and their civilian compatriots. They represent a genuine type of
manhood, free from artificiality or falsehood. One feels instinctively
that they say what they think, and that they will do rather more instead
of less than they promise.
Chapter XXI
Holland Over Sea
Holland holds the second place among the successful colonizing nations,
though Powers like England, France, and Germany surpass her in the actual
area of their colonies and protectorates. Besides her East Indian
possessions, which form by far the most important part of her colonial
empire, she holds Surinam, or Dutch Guiana, and six small islands,
including Curacao, in the West Indies, and her colonial subjects number
in all more than thirty-six millions, being as many as the colonial
subjects of France and at least seven times the population of the
Netherlands in Europe. The East Indian Archipelago belonging to the
Netherlands consists of five large islands and a great number of smaller
ones. It is not within the scope of a book like this to go into details
of geographical division, but a glance at the map will show us that the
three groups which make up this dependency are extended over a length of
about three thousand miles, and inclucle Java and Sumatra, Borneo,
Celebes, New Guinea, the Timor Laut archipelago, and the Moluccos. The
northern part of Borneo is a British possession, and the eastern half of
New Guinea is divided between England and Germany, while half of the
island of Timor is Portuguese; the rest of the archipelago forms the
possession known as Netherlands India, or the Dutch East Indies. The
most important and the most densely populated of these islands are Java
and Sumatra; at the last census, in 1899, Java alone had twenty-six
millions of inhabitants, more than four times as many as in 1826, but the
richness of its soil is so great that it could support a much larger
population, though the island is only about the same size as England.
Java was taken by the English in 1811 from the French flag, but was
restored at the Peace of Vienna to the Netherlands, together with some of
the other Dutch colonies. As Dr. Bright remarks in his 'History of
England,' 'it has been believed that its value and wealth were not
thoroughly known or appreciated by the Ministry at the time.' It has now
become by far the most important of the Dutch dependencies, and the
favourite colony for fortune-hunters.
Considering the great wealth of the Dutch Indies, it is a little
surprising that so few young men are tempted to go out there to seek
their fortunes. As is usually the case in the tropics, those parts of the
coasts which are low and marshy are very unhealthy for Europeans, who
cannot stay in such places for any length of time without falling victims
to malaria, though the Malays do not seem to be affected by the climate;
but higher up, from 500 to 1000 feet above the sea, it is healthy enough,
and up the hills, in the larger islands, the climate leaves little to be
desired. The temperature generally varies between 70 and 90 degrees all
the year round, though there is a certain amount of difference between
one island and another. North of the equator the rainy monsoon lasts from
October to April, and the dry season from April to October, while on the
south side these seasons are reversed. On the line, however, the
trade-winds and monsoons appear very irregularly, because there are four
seasons instead of two--that is to say, two rainy and two dry--and the
weather is also subject to frequent changes of a local character,
especially in the neighbourhood of mountain-ranges and volcanoes. With
the exception of Borneo and the central part of Celebes all these islands
are volcanic. In the principal group, which stretches from Sumatra and
Java to the Timor Laut archipelago, there are no less than thirty-three
active volcanoes, of which twelve are in Java, besides a number of
so-called extinct ones which may at any moment burst into renewed life.
Some of the smaller islands are merely sunken volcanoes, such as Gebeh,
for instance, and the Banda Islands, where the 'Goonong Api'
(Fire-Mountain) is a living proof. The best known of all these volcanoes
is the terrible Cracatao, one of the three which may be seen in the
Straits of Sunda. Readers may remember the great eruption of 1886, when
half the island of Cracatao and part of the mountain, which was split
clean in two, were swallowed up in the sea, and parts of the coasts of
Java and Sumatra were overwhelmed by the tidal wave that accompanied the
outburst, ships being lifted bodily on to the land and left perched among
the hills. In one day and night 100,000 persons perished, and except a
slight earthquake, which, as earthquakes are not uncommon in that part of
the world, was naturally not regarded as serious, there was no warning of
the impending disaster, for the crater had shown no signs of life for 200
years. During the eruption a roar as of distant artillery could be heard
in the middle of Java, fully 400 miles from the scene.
The form of the islands prevents the existence of very large rivers; the
largest are in Borneo, the only non-volcanic island in the archipelago
which can boast of three navigable rivers each about 400 miles long.
Owing to the narrowness of Java and Sumatra, the rivers flowing towards
the north-east coasts of these islands are very rapid, and as they are
liable to be suddenly swollen by heavy rains, canals have been dug, and
others are in course of construction, to ensure a regular outflow and
protect the land from floods. In an undertaking of this kind the Dutch are
quite at home, for, as every one knows, they are past masters in the art
of taming the waters; but they have not to push back the sea here, as they
have done and are still doing in their native country; the rivers do that
for them, by bringing down masses of gravel and mud, which form wide banks
at their mouths and are soon overgrown with trees. The lighthouse at
Batavia, in Java, was built about the middle of the seventeenth century at
what was then the entrance to the harbour; now it is two and a half miles
from the entrance, the shore having advanced that distance in 250 years.
Before passing to the question of government, it may be well to notice the
principal races with which the Dutch have to deal. Besides the native
population, the Dutch Indies contained in 1892 about 446,000 Chinese,
20,000 Arabs, and 26,000 other Asiatics, but only 55,000 Europeans,
including the soldiers, many of whom are Germans. The greater part of all
these are found in Java. Of the remaining 355 millions the majority are
Malays, including Malays proper and several kindred races, and to this
last class belong the Javanese, who live in Java, Madura, Bally (or Bali),
and Lombok. Natives other than Malays are the Dyaks, in the interior of
Borneo; the Battaks, in the interior of Sumatra; and finally the Papuans,
who inhabit New Guinea, or Papua, and some of the small islands near.
These Papuans are said to be of the same race as the Australian
aborigines, and are the only black people in these islands, the other
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