. Though the province of Holland is now only a part of the kingdom of the Netherlands, and of course has lost many of its peculiar privileges and institutions, yet sonic particu lars respecting its government require to be noticed, as they still remain under the constitution of the Netherlands. Deputies of the nobles, and those of the towns and country, are elected for the parliament of the kingdom. There are also provincinal councils of state for South and North Holland. For the administration of justice, there are two courts held at the Hague ; namely, the court of Holland, and the high council. The nobles of Holland are sub ject to the jurisdiction of this court ; an appeal lies to it from the sentences of the inferior courts. The high coun cil of Holland judge peremptorily and definitively of cases brought before them by an appeal from the court al Holland. Among the laws of this province the following deserve notice. No person can be arrested for debt, who has not been summoned regularly three times, with the in terval of 14 days between each summons ; and six weeks further must elapse from the last official notification and de mand of the debt, before the creditor is permitted to arrest or seize the effefAs of the insolvent person. By this mode of procedure, debtors are generally enabled either fully to settle their affairs, or to compromise with their creditors, so that few are sent to prison. No person can be arrested in his own house in Holland, or even standing at the door of it, though all the previous citations should have been made ; and should his wife be lying in, he is privileged, during her illness, to go abroad without molestation.
The religion of Holland is Calvinism. In it there are two provincial synods ; one for South Rolland, and the other for North Holland. The whole province being di vided into a great many classes, composed of the deputies of five or six neighbouring churches ; each class sends four deputies to the respective synods, two ministers, and two elders. The synods meet twice a year, and a political commissary attends their meetings. The ministers are paid by the magistrates. Their salaries are small ; few, even in the cities, having 2001. a-year, while in the country they have generally 601. or 701.
The taxes of the province of Holland are very heavy. They amounted in 1795 to 24,000,000 of guilders, or sterling, which, on the supposition that the popu lation was 800,000, formed an average of 21: 10s. each per son ; but a large portion of this taxation is, in fact, paid by foreigners, who consume the articles taxed. Among the taxes really paid by the inhabitants themselves are the fol lowing : A land-tax of about 4s. 9d. per acre ; a sale-tax of 8 per cent. upon horses ; I+ per cent. upon other move ables; and 2i per cent. upon land and buildings ; a tax upon inheritances out of the direct line, varying from 2i to 11 per cent. ; 2 per cent. upon every man's income ; an ex cise of 31. per hogshead on wine, and a charge of 2 per cent. on all public offices. The excise upon coffee, tea,
and salt, is paid annually by each family, according to their number.
The province of Holland, as well as all the countries wa tered by the Meuse and the Rhine, were for a long time divided into small earldoms ; but in the year 923, Theodo vie was appointed Count of Holland by Charles the Simple, King of France, and the title. became hereditary. The most frequent wars of the counts of Holland were with the Frisons, a part of the old Saxons. There were also fre quent contests between the counts of Holland and Flanders, concerning the possession of the islands of Zealand. The counts of Holland, likewise, were frequently opposed by their own nobility. In order to break their power, they not only demolished many of their castles and strong holds, but also, about the year 1200, built several cities, and gave freedom to the inhabitants of the adjacent country; or even to foreigners, who would come and dwell in those cities. They were thus freed, not only from all taxes due to the counts themselves, but also, when they had dwelt in the cities a year and a day, from the vassalage they were un der to their own lords. The counts, besides, gave especial privileges to those cities ; but the inhabitants were not per mitted, though at their own charge, to set up gates or walls to defend their cities, unless they purchased the pri vilege from the counts. Hence proceeded the difference between walled and unwalled cities in Holland ; and also, that the counts being afterwards jealous of the former, de stroyed many of them entirely, and pulled down the walls of others. Philippina, (laughter of William III. Earl of Holland, was married to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward III. of England. This king afterwards contested the earldom of Holland with Margaret, his sister-in-law. In the year 1417, Jacquelin, heiress of Holland, married John IV. Duke of Brabant ; but her uncle John of Bavaria, who had resigned the bishopric of Liege, in the hopes of espousing her, contested the succession. A kind of an archy followed. Jacquelin went to England, where, in 1423, she married Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester ; but this marriage having been annulled by the Pope, she married, in 1432, Borselen, stadtholder of Holland. But having no children by any of her husbands, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who was her first cousin, obliged her to give up the administration and govern ment of her states, and at her death inherited them. Soon afterwards, Holland, with the other large possessions of the House of Burgundy, fell by marriage to the House of Austria. Its history, from this period, must be sought for under the article NETHERLANDS. See Statistical Account of Holland, by R. Meterlecamp, 1804 ; De Witt's True In terest of Holland ; Sir William Temple's Observations on the Netherlands ; Mrs Radcliffe's Journey through Holland in 1794 ; A Tour through the Batavian Republic in 1800, by R. Fell. (w. s.)