Constitution and Government.

The present constitution-grondwet-of the Netherlands received the royal sanction October 14, 1848, and was solemnly proclaimed Nov. 3, 1848. It vests the whole legislative authority in a Parliament composed of two Chambers, called the States-General. The Upper House, or first Chamber, consists of 39 members, elected by the provincial States from among the most highly assessed inhabitants of the various counties. The second Chamber of the States-General, elected by ballot, at the rate of one deputy to every 45,000 souls, numbered 80 members in 1875. All citizens, natives of the Netherlands, not deprived of civil rights, and paying assessed taxes to the amount of not less than 20 guilders, or 1l. 13s., are voters. Clergymen, judges of the Hooge Raad, or High Court of Justice, and Governors of Provinces are debarred from being elected. The members of the second Chamber receive an annual allowance of 2,000 guilders, or 166l., besides travelling expenses. Every two years onehalf of the members of the second Chamber, and every three years one-third of the members of the Upper House retire by rotation. The Sovereign has the right to dissolve either of the Chambers separately, or both together, at any time, but new elections must take place within forty days. The second Chamber alone has the initiative of new laws, together with the government, and the functions of the Upper House are restricted to either approving or rejecting them, without the right of inserting amendments. The constitutional advisers of the King, having a seat in the Cabinet, must attend at the meetings of both Houses, and have a deliberative voice, but they cannot take an active part in the debate. The King has full veto power, but it is seldom, if ever, brought into practice. Alterations in the Constitution can only be made by the vote of two-thirds of the members of both Houses, followed by a general election, and a second confirmation, by two-third vote, of the new States-General. The executive authority is, under the Sovereign, exercised by a responsible Council of Ministers. There are seven heads of departments in the Ministerial Council, namely:

1. The Minister of the Interior.-Dr. J. Heemskerk, Minister of the Interior, from May 28, 1866, to June 2, 1868; appointed for the second time Minister of the Interior August 26, 1874.

2. The Minister of Finance.- Dr. H. J. Van der Heim; appointed August 26, 1874.

3. The Minister of Justice.-Baron R. W. van Lynden de Sandenburg; appointed August 26, 1874.

4. The Minister of the Colonies.-Dr. F. Alting Mees; appointed September 11, 1876.

5. The Minister of Foreign Affairs.-Dr. P. J. A. M. van der Does de Willebois; appointed August 26, 1874.

6. The Minister of Marine.-Commander Van Erp Taalman Kip; appointed May 9, 1874.

7. The Minister of War.-Major-General Beyen, appointed September 27, 1876.

Each of the above ministers has a salary of 12,000 guilders, or 1,000l. per annum. Whenever the sovereign presides over the deliberations of the ministry, the meeting is called a Cabinet Council, and the privilege to be present at it is given to princes of the royal family nominated for the purpose. There is also a State Council-Raad van State-of 14 members, nominated by the Government, which the sovereign may consult on extraordinary

occasions.

Church and Education.

According to the terms of the Constitution, entire liberty of conscience and complete social equality is granted to the members of all religious confessions. The royal family, and a majority of the inhabitants, belong to the Reformed Church; but the Roman Catholics are not far inferior in numbers. In the census returns of 1870 the number of Calvinists, or members of the Reformed Church, is given as 2,074,734; of Lutherans, 68,067; of Roman Catholics, 1,313,052; of Greek Catholics, 32; of divers other Christian denominations, 55,725; and of Jews, 68,003. The government of the Reformed Church is Presbyterian; while the Roman Catholics are under an archbishop, of Utrecht, and four bishops, of Harlem, Breda, Roermond, and Herzogenbosh. The salaries of several British Presbyterian ministers, settled in the Netherlands, and whose churches are incorporated with the Dutch Reformed Church, are paid out of the public funds.

Education is spreading throughout the kingdom, though as yet it has not reached the lower classes of the population. Official returns -state that in 25,137 marriages that took place in North Hollandprovince containing the capital-between the years 1868-72, there were 609 in which the man, 2,021 in which the woman, and 503 in which neither the man nor the woman could write. It is calculated that among the strictly rural population of the kingdom, one-fourth of the grown-up men, and one-third of the women, can neither read nor write. However, the education of the rising generation is provided for by a non-denominational Primary Instruction Law, passed in 1857. Under its working, there were, in January, 1871, according to government returns, 2,608 public schools, with 6,538 schoolmasters, and 477 schoolmistresses, and 1,119 private schools, with 2,332 schoolmasters, and 1,565 schoolmistresses. At the same

date, the pupils in the public schools numbered 390,129, among them 217,827 boys, and the pupils in the private schools 111,762, among them 50,388 boys. The teachers, appointed under the law of 1857, are superintended by 94 district school-inspectors, who act under 11 provincial superintendents. It is the duty of the inspectors to grant licenses for the establishment of schools, and to present to the Government three times a year an account of the state of public instruction. A fuller education than the schools for primary instruction impart 81 schools of middle instruction, with 7,047 pupils, and 55 additional 'Latin schools,' with 1,128 pupils in 1871. There are three universities at Leyden, Groningen, and Utrecht, with 1,339 students in January 1871, and a polytechnical institution at Delft, with 171 pupils. The ecclesiastical training schools comprise five Roman Catholic and three Protestant seminaries. The proportion of attendance in the schools for primary instruction is one in eight of the entire population of the kingdom. -(Official Communication.)

Revenue and Expenditure.

The national revenue, derived mainly from indirect taxation, averaged 96 million guilders, or 8 millions sterling, in recent years, while the expenditure was nearly always within the income. The following tables exhibit the actual revenue and expenditure of the kingdom, in guilders and pounds sterling, in each of the six years 1870 to 1875, and the estimated expenditure for the year 1875:

The budget estimates for the year 1875, passed by the StatesGeneral, were as follows:

:

The financial estimates are always framed with great moderation, mostly exhibiting a deficit, which in the final account becomes a surplus.

The expenditure of the 'Department for the Colonies,' entered in the budget estimates, only refers to the West Indies and Surinam. There is a separate budget for the great colonial possessions in the East Indies, voted as such by the States-General. In the following statement the summary is given of the Netherlands East India estimates for the year 1875:

The details of the revenue and expenditure, and budget for the East India possessions, are given under Java, in Part II. of the Statesman's Year-Book.

It will be seen from the preceding budget estimates for the kingdom that the largest source of revenue is that derived from excise duties, producing about one-fourth of the total receipts, while the largest branch of expenditure is that for the national debt.

At the commencement of the year 1875, the national debt was represented by a capital of 927,320,076 guilders, or 77,276,673l., divided as follows:

In the session of 1873, the States-General passed an Act to increase the annual sum set aside as a sinking fund for the redemption of the debt, namely, 1,900,000 florins, by 7,000,000 florins, and thus redeem a total amount of 8,900,000 florins, or 741,6667. Another Act, passed in the session of 1875 by the States General, increased the sum to 10,000,000 guilders, or 833,3331., to be set aside for the redemption of the national debt.-(Official Communication.)