1849 - The Ministries of Thornbecke
The preponderance of Thorbecke in Dutch political life during the latter half of the nineteenth century was such that the modern history of the Netherlands may be safely divided into two periods — the Thorbecke period, and the period after Thorbecke's death. The first Thorbecke ministry, formed as the natural outcome of the triumph of his efforts and principles, lasted only till 1853, but was marked by extraordinary activity. During that, comparatively speaking, brief period many fundamental laws were passed for which the constitution had already provided: such as a new electoral law; a law to regulate the responsibility of ministers; another, to settle the rights and duties of provincial governments and councils, and of communal governments and councils, together establishing, in large measure, a complete system of decentralisation — thus practically introducing a kind of local government in Holland half a century before it was attempted in Great Britain, but within well-defined limits and safeguards; an act to regulate the rights and duties of Dutch citizenship; another, to settle the parliamentary prerogative of inquiry; etc.
By it Holland received all the immunities of a free government, and her inhabitants came to enjoy nearly the same rights and liberties as those of Great Britain. All traces of the aristocratic privileges retained by the constitution of 1815 were swept away. All citizens were, without distinction of rank or creed, made eligible to all employments; the king's person was declared inviolable, but his ministers responsible. The provisions contained all the elements of real freedom, and made as large concessions to democracy as were consistent with its existence.
In Van Bosse, Thorbecke had secured the services of an able and energetic minister of finance, who raised the state credit, abolished several irksome and oppressive taxes, and established free trade, Holland being the only continental state that afterwards remained faithful in the main to free-trade principles. The postal and telegraph services were reorganised, and the great work of draining the Haarlem Lake was completed. The first Thorbecke cabinet came to an untimely end in 1853, in consequence of what was called "the April movement," because it had originated in that month.
Article 165 of the constitution had recognised, in a country where there was no state church, the equality of all religious bodies, subject to governmental control. The pope and the militant clerical party in Holland perceived in that article an opportunity to re-establish in the Low Countries the ancient bishoprics of Utrecht, Haarlem, Bois-le-Duc, Breda, and Roermond, the bishop of Utrecht becoming an archbishop. This measure — coupled, it must be confessed, with some unfortunate reflections on Dutch Protestantism by the pope, in his decree on that occasion — revived all the anti-Catholic prejudices of former days. Some political enemies of Thorbecke, who could not forgive him his triumphs, were not loth to fan the flames, and a veritable no-popery storm swept over the country, which Thorbecke resisted but could not withstand, he himself being accused of treasonable "papism." For several years to come Thorbecke was compelled to relinquish the active duties of leadership, and not until 1862 did he regain it. The intervening years form a sort of interregnum in modern Dutch history.
Four cabinets followed each other at about equal intervals, the most important among them being the ministry of Dr. Justinus van der Brugghen. It was during his premiership in 1857 that the Primary Education Law was passed, which established neutral (non-sectarian) state schools, and afterwards largely became the pattern of similar legislation in foreign countries, notably of the Education Act of 1870 in England. The Dutch law, however, did not as yet provide for compulsory education.
The subsequent cabinet of Dr. van Hall carried, in 1860, a most important law, directing the construction of a vast system of state railways, connecting the already existing private lines, and involving the building of very costly bridges over the broad rivers in the south. That the Dutch chambers adopted the principle of state railways in 1860 was largely due to Thorbecke's influential advocacy. By 1872 the whole first network of Dutch state railways was at last completed. It is noteworthy that the cost of building them was almost entirely furnished by the surplus funds accruing annually (up to the year 1877) from the administration of the Dutch East Indies under the " culture system." Consequently the Dutch state railways were the only ones in existence not burdened with debt. The state, however, did not undertake their working. This was entrusted to a private company, the state merely receiving a share in the net profits.
Thorbecke came back to power in January, 1862. His second term of office was marked by the same reforming energy as the first. In the four years that it lasted Thorbecke had the Secondary Education Act passed (1863), completing the work of 1857; contributed to the legislation by virtue of which the great canalisation works at Amsterdam and Rotterdam were sanctioned (1863); carried his bill emancipating upwards of thirty thousand slaves in the Dutch West Indies, at the cost of 10,000,000 guilders in compensation, paid by the state.
Heemskerk, the leader of the conservative party, was Thorbecke's great antagonist, the two Dutch statesmen playing in the political arena parts somewhat resembling those of Gladstone and Disraeli in England. Heemskerk, who died in 1880, and who stood three times at the head of affairs, was a politician of talent, though of less calibre and moral fibre than Dr. van Hall, his greater predecessor, and his reactionary tendencies and views found favour at court. There is little doubt that the king's proposal, in 1867, to transfer Luxemburg to France, if it did not emanate from Heemskerk, had his warm approval. It was none the less dangerous, especially as it came after Koniggratz, which had settled the German question in a manner not at all favorable to Napoleonic ambitions.
