Prince William the silent did not live to see his efforts for freedom crowned with success. Excited by religious fanaticism, and the hope of a great reward, Balthazar Gerard, or Guion, 1584, shot the prince in his house at Delft, from a narrow passage, as he was stepping from the (lining-room to ascend au adjoining stair which led to the second floor. With the 17th c. the United Provinces began to advance in power and wealth, their ships visiting all parts of the world. Meanwhile the contest between the Arminians and Calvinists brokeout, and raged with fury for many years; Grotius and others fleeing to other lands, and the statesman Oldenbarneveld suffering on the scaffold at the age of 72. The United Provinces were presided over by the princes of Orange till the troubles at the end of the 18th c. began the long European war, which the battle of Waterloo brought to a close. The national convention of France having declared war against Great Britain and the stadtholdcr of Holland, 1793, French armies overran Belgium, 1704; and being welcomed by the so-called patriots of the United Provinces, William V. and his family, Jan., 1705, were obliged to escape from Scheveningen to England in a fishing-junk, and the French rule began. The UMLed Provinces now became the Batavian republic, paying eight and a half millions sterling for a French army of 25,000 men, besides giving up impmtant pans of the country along the Belgian frontier. After several changes, Louis Bonaparte, June 5, 1806, was appointed king of Holland, but tour years later was obliged to resign because he refused to be a mere tool in the hands of the French emperor. Holland was then added to the empire, and formed seven departments. The fall of Napoleon I., and dismemberment of the French empire, led to the recall of the Orange family, and the formation of the southern and northern provinces into the ill-assorted kingdom of the Netherlands, which in 1830 was broken up by the secession of Belgium 'In 1839 peace was finally concluded with Belgium; but almost immediately- after national discontent with the government showed itself, and William I., in 1840, abdicated in favor of his son. The Netherlands being moved by the revolutionary fever of 1848, king William II. granted a new constitution, according to which new chambers were chosen, but had scarcely met when he died, March, 1849, and the present king, William ascended the throne. The nation is prosperous, and on May 11. 1874, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the present king's reign was celebrated with great rejoicings.
A bill for the emancipation of the slaves in the Netherlands West India possessions passed both chambers Aug. 8. 1802, and received the royal assent. It decreed a compen sation of 300 guilders for each slave, except those of the island of St. Martin, who were to be compensated for at 30 guilders each. The freed negroes may choose the place to labor.
but must be able to satisfy the government officers that they are employed somewhere. This surveillance to continue during ten years. The law came into force July 1, 1863, and in Surinam and all the other colonies the day passed quietly over. Those, however, interested in agriculture have sent an address to the minister of the colonies, protesting against the higli-wages tariff as hostile to the successful carrying on of their operations. The rate, however, is not higher than the planters in the neighboring British colony of British Guiana are accustomed to pay. In the budget for 1803 provision was made for the extraordinary expenses connected with the emancipation to the amount of 21,065,866, of which £867,000 as compensation for the slaves of Surinam, and .4•21,250 as premiums for free labor. For Curacoa and its dependencies, £166,090 of compensation money, fully £12,000 being for various other outlays connected with the change. The number of slaves set free may be stated in round numbers to be 42,000, of whom 35,000 are in Dutch Guirth...
On July 16, 1863. a treaty was signed at Brussels by all the naval powers for the buying up of the toll levied, under treaty arrangements, by the king of the Netherlands. pn vessels navigating the Schelde (q.v.), the king of Belgium binding himself also to reduce the harbor, pilot, and other charges on shipping within that kingdom.
The Netherlands have suffered much from floods, either caused by the breaking in of the sea, or by the descent of masses of water from Germany, while the rivers of the Rhine delta were blocked up with ice. Time Zuyder Zee (q.v.), which contains 1365 sq.m., was of trifling extent till the flood of All Saints' day. 1247, when the North sea swallowed up a large tract of country. In 1277 the Dollart gulf, in Groningen, was formed at the mouth of the Ems, by floods in the spring and autumn of that year, which destroyed 33 villages and 100.000 people. The immense waste of waters known as the sunken South Holland Waarde. or Biesbosch, arose out of the breaking of one of the dykes, 1421. by which 72 villages were laid under water, only 34 of them reappearing. In modern times great floods. but fortunately with only temporary results, have occurred in 1809, 1825, and 1855. That of 1855, which placed the town of Veenendaal. in Gelder land, and an extensive tract of country under water, was caused by a rapid thaw in the high lauds of Germany pouring down torrents of water into the Netherlands while the rivers were ice-locked after a winter of unnsual severity.—See the Allgrmeene Stati$lielo van Nederland; Nederland-Geographimll-Ilisio•iNcli Orerzi(it. by Lint. L. G Beausar; Sfa tisliek Jagrbeek, (Witkamp, Amsterdam), an excellent book of reference, which is published yearly up to the-provincial annual reports, etc. .
- NETHEItit.N118 (anti;. See Ltrma•nit. •