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' (Anglicè, '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 mensâ 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.