Dutch Life in Town and Country

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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.

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