of March, 1814. The following day they
assembled with an immense concourse of people in the great church,
which was splendidly fitted up for the occasion; and then and
there the prince, in an impressive speech, solemnly offered the
constitution for acceptance or rejection. After a few hours'
deliberation, a discharge of artillery announced to the anxious
population that the constitution had been accepted. The numbers
present were four hundred and eighty-three, and the votes as
follows: Ayes, four hundred and fifty-eight; Noes, twenty-five.

There were one hundred and seventeen members absent; several
of these were kept away by unavoidable obstacles. The majority
among them was considered as dissentients; but it was calculated
that if the whole body of six hundred had voted, the adoption
of the constitution would have been carried by a majority of
five-sixths. The dissentients chiefly objected to the power of
declaring war and concluding treaties of peace being vested in
the sovereign. Some individuals urged that the Protestant interest
was endangered by the admission of persons of every persuasion
to all public offices; and the Catholics complained that the
state did not sufficiently contribute to the support of their
religious establishments.

Such objections as these were to be expected, from individual
interest or sectarian prejudices. But they prove that the whole
plan was fairly considered and solemnly adopted; that so far from
being the dictation of a government, it was the freely chosen
charter of the nation at large, offered and sworn to by the prince,
whose authority was only exerted in restraining and modifying
the overardent generosity and confidence of the people.

Only one day more elapsed before the new sovereign was solemnly
inaugurated, and took the oath prescribed by the constitution:
"I swear that first and above all things I will maintain the
constitution of the United Netherlands, and that I will promote,
to the utmost of my power, the independence of the state and
the liberty and prosperity of its inhabitants." In the eloquent
simplicity of this pledge, the Dutch nation found an ample guarantee
for their freedom and happiness. With their characteristic wisdom
and moderation, they saw that the obligation it imposed embraced
everything they could demand; and they joined in the opinion
expressed by the sovereign in his inaugural address, that "no
greater degree of liberty could be desired by ratio