office, being in command of the Hague civic force, on
January 22, 1798, seized and imprisoned the members of the Committee for
Foreign Affairs and twenty-two members of the Assembly. The "Rump" then
met, protected by a strong body of troops, and declared itself a
Constituent Assembly representing the Batavian people. After the French
model, an Executive Council was nominated, consisting of five members,
Vreede, Fijnje, Fokker, Wildrik and Van Langen, and a new Commission of
Seven to frame a Constitution. The "Regulation" was rejected; and the
Assembly solemnly proclaimed its "unalterable aversion" to the
stadholderate, federalism, aristocracy and governmental
decentralisation.

French influence was henceforth paramount; and the draft of the new
Constitution, in the framing of which Delacroix took a leading part, was
ready on March 6. Eleven days later it was approved by the Assembly. The
Fundamental Assemblies in their turn assented to it by 165,520 votes to
11,597, considerable official pressure being exerted to secure this
result; and the Constitution came thus into legal existence. Its
principal provisions were directed to the complete obliteration of the
old provincial particularism. The land was divided into eight
departments, whose boundaries in no case coincided with those of the
provinces. Holland was split up among five departments; that of the
Amstel, with Amsterdam as its capital, being the only one that did not
contain portions of two or more provinces. Each department was divided
into seven circles; each of these returned one member; and the body of
seven formed the departmental government. The circles in their turn were
divided into communes, each department containing sixty or seventy. All
these local administrations were, however, quite subordinate to the
authority exercised by the central Representative Body. For the purpose
of electing this body the land was divided into ninety-four districts;
each district into forty "Fundamental Assemblies," each of 500 persons.
The forty "electors" chosen by these units in their turn elected the
deputy for the department. The ninety-four deputies formed the
Representative Body, which was divided into two Chambers. The Second
Chamber of thirty members was annually chosen by lot from the
ninety-four, the other sixty-four forming the First Chamber. The framing
and proposing of all laws was the prerogative of the First Chamber. The
Second Chamber accepted or rejected th