The Liberation of Holland: Some Problems

Abstract

BEFORE it was overwhelmed by the Germans, Holland had a constitution which was essentially democratic in structure. The Crown was inviolable. It was assisted by a body of responsible Ministers who governed in virtue of enactments approved by both Houses of Parliament. Two groups of political parties contested with one another for the majority in parliament, the Right group and'the Left group, owing these titles to the position their members occupied on either side of the Chair. In the first instance Right and Left did not stand for conservatism on the one hand and radicalism on the other, although in practice a tendency in these directions undoubtedly existed. The distinction arose after the French R-evolution, when the Goddess of Reason was enthroned. The groups of the Left approached the solution of political questions from the basis of a rational ideology and, in doing so, were deemed to have adopted the principles of the French Revolution. The Right was anti-revolutionary, their precept being that Christian principles provided the only solution to the problems of public life. Within the parties of the Right these principles were defended by two main groups, the Protestants and the Roman Catholics. The parties of the Left were differentiated by the degree to which they adhered to progressive ideas. Their membership, therefore, included conservatives and socialists. It was perfectly possible, therefore, to be a reactionary of the Left or a progressive of the Right, for the distinction depended not on whether one was or was not progressive, but on the spiritual principle upon which one took one's stand. At first sight it might be thought that this would lead to practical difficulties, since it was possible in principle to agree with the Government majority, while differing about the measure to which its tenets should be put into practice. Without claiming that this difficulty never arose, it did not create serious difficulties for two reasons. ' First, for a considerable period during the second half of the last century, there was a majority of the liberal group in the Left parties. Secondly, it was the century during which legal expression was given to individual freedom, the Rights of Man and democratic government. The lower chamber was given all the rights krown to a modern parliament, rights of initiative, of amendment, of enquiry, etc.; it provided the people with all the rights known to a modern democracy, self-government, the freedom of the press, of religion, of association and meeting, as well as with an independent and irremovable judiciary with legal guarantees of personal freedom, with protection of property,'with the right of petition, and so forth.