"The Sladtholder grants likewise, letters of grace, of pardon, and abolition, both of the crimes which they call communia delicta, and of military offences. In Holland and Zealand, these letters are made out for the former, in the name of the States, with the advice of his Highness; in cases of common crimes, he consults the courts of justice, the counsellors deputies of the Provinces, the Council of State, and the tribunals of justice of the cities respectively, according to the nature of the case, and concerning the others, the High Council of War, &c.
"In the Provinces of Holland and Zealand, the Stadtholder makes every year an election of the magistrates of the cities, upon a representation or nomination of a double number, which the cities themselves send to him. He has the choice of two, and in some cases, of three candidates, whom the States of Holland name to fill the offices, which their Noble and Grand Mightinesses, and formerly the Chamber of Accounts of their dominions had the disposition or election of, when there was no Governor. In some cities, the Stadtholder elects only the sheriffs, in others the burgomasters and sheriffs, and in some, the counsellors of the cities also. The magistrates, in taking possession of their offices, promise by oath, to maintain the rights, privileges, and immunities of their cities and citizens; and they take an oath also of fidelity to the States of Holland and Friesland. In 1672, the magistrates of Dort, added 'as also to his Serene Highness, the Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of the Province,' and the same thing was done in 1747, but only in Dort. When the States, in extraordinary cases which require it, judge proper to invest him with an act of authority, he can dismiss all these magistrates and replace them by others. This was done upon this footing, in 1672 and 1748. 'Saving their honor, and without its being permitted to suspect them of having ill conducted in the exercise of their offices, the Stadtholder promising to take, in case of need, their persons and their families under his protection and safeguard, &c.' The Prince of Maurice having changed in 1718 the magistrates of the greatest part of the cities, was thanked for it by the States of Holland, who, by their resolution of the 16th of November of the same year, approved unanimously of what his Excellency had done.
"There are some few offices, which, by the constitution, the States have the disposal of, but in effect, the Stadtholder disposes of all offices, and is by this means in a capacity to oblige and attach to him, the magistrates of the cities, and other persons whom he pleases to gratify with them. He elects the counsellors and inspectors of the dykes of Rhynland, of Delfland, and of Schieland, &c. upon a presentation of three persons which these Colleges, established in Holland for many centuries, send directly to him. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in an old ordinance, calls these officers Counsellors of the Dykes. Their offices are for life; and besides these three Colleges, there are still several others in Holland, but the three abovementioned are the most considerable.
"In virtue of the regulations made in 1674 and 1675, and renewed since the accession of the Prince to the Stadtholdership, he has a great power in the Provinces of Guelderland, Utrecht, and Overyssel. The decision of the differences, which may there arise among the respective members and quarters belong to him; all the offices and commissions, which are exercised both in the Provinces and without. The States of Guelderland had, in 1748, conferred on the Prince Stadtholder the power of correcting, changing, and augmenting the regulation of the Regency of the year 1675, as his Highness should judge necessary for the good and advantage of the Province, in case that in this regulation he should find articles, which, according to the constitution of the present form of government, have occasion to be altered. But his Highness, in re-establishing it, did not judge proper to avail himself of this concession, which he nevertheless accepted in 1750. See the last article of the regulation published that year. In 1748, the Quarter of Nimeguen made a present to the Prince of the Earldom of Culembourg, and the States of Overyssel did the same with regard to the lands, which they possessed in the Earldom of Bantheim. By this he is the First Member of the States, and Sovereign Lord of the Lower Earldom.
"He has at his disposal all the offices and commissions in the Provinces of Groningen and Ommelanden, since the regulation of the year 1748, and the Prince Stadtholder has also acquired the greatest prerogatives in Friesland, by the regulation of December, 1748. As Stadtholder of the country of Drenthe and of the territory of the Generality, he has also very fair prerogatives, and annual appointments. The Council of State of the United Provinces, as well as the Councils Deputies of Holland and West Friesland, have, of their own motion offered, and at last conceded to his Highness all the employments which were in their disposal. By the articles ninth, sixteenth, and twentyfirst of the Treaty of Union of Utrecht, the Stadtholders of that time had been named provisionally, arbiters of the differences, which contrary sentiments and opposite views might occasion among the confederates, who, in thus submitting to an arbitration of points so important, had considered no doubt, that in fact there could not be any union or confederation among allies, who united themselves so closely, without agreeing upon means of coming to a conclusion, in cases, in which the plurality of voices did not take place.
"Since the re-establishment of the Stadtholdership on the footing where it is at present, similar differences between the Provinces are no longer to be feared; the Prince Stadtholder, being fortified with a power sufficiently great to maintain the union, by preventing the consequences of all which might disturb it, or being a prejudice to the State in general, or to the Provinces, or their Quarters, or their members in particular; finally to take and put in execution the measures and resolutions necessary, &c. His Highness presides in the Court of Holland, and in the Courts of Justice of the other Provinces, and his name is placed at the head of their commandments, ordinances, and bills. In Overyssel and in the Province of Utrecht, the fiefs are held in the name of the Prince Stadtholder. He is supreme curator of the Universities of Guelderland, of Friesland, and Groningen, Grand Forrester and Grand Hunter in Guelderland, Holland, and other places.
"In the Province of Utrecht, his Highness, by virtue of the regulation of the year 1674, disposes of the provostship, and other benefices, which have remained attached to the chapters, as also the canonical prebends, which have fallen vacant in the months which were formerly called Popish.
"Conformably to the first article of the instructions of the Council of State of the United Provinces, the Stadtholder is the first member of it, and has there the right of suffrage, with an appointment of twentyfive thousand florins a year. In virtue of a resolution of the States-General, of the 27th of February, the Prince of Orange had enjoyed it before his elevation to the Stadtholdership, having been placed, from the year 1670, in the Council of State. The 26th of July, 1746, their High Mightinesses granted the same appointments to the Prince Stadtholder.
"He assists also, whenever he judges proper for the service of the State, at the deliberations of the States-General, there to make propositions, &c. and sometimes also at the conferences held by the Deputies of their High Mightinesses in the several departments, according to the order established at the Assemblies of the States of particular Provinces, and at those of their Counsellors, or States Deputies. In Guelderland, in Holland, and in the Province of Utrecht, his Highness participates of the sovereignty, as Chief, or President of the body of Nobles; and in Zealand, where he possesses the Marquisate of Veere and of Flessingue as First Noble, and representing alone all the nobility. In his absence, he has in Zealand his representatives, who hold the first place, who have the first voice in all the councils, and the first of whom is always First Deputy from this Province at the Assembly of their High Mightinesses. The three quarters of the Province of Guelderland conferred the dignity of Chief, or President of the Body of Nobles, on his Serene Highness, in 1750. None of his predecessors had it, but Basnage says, in his Annals of the United Provinces, that the Prince William the Second, a little before his death, had a design to get himself elected First Noble in Guelderland, where the nobility had been at all times devoted to him.
"The Body of Nobles of Holland, having prayed in 1635, the Prince Frederick Henry to do them the honor of being their Chief, his Highness, who as Stadtholder had neither seat nor voice in the Assembly of the States of the Province, graciously accepted of this offer, and became thereby a permanent member of it. The Body of Nobles have done the same with regard to the successors of this Prince.