four
years. William III. himself died in 1890, and Queen Emma thereupon
assumed the regency, which she was to hold until Wilhelmina came
of age in 1898; an agreeable consummation which we have just
witnessed.

A word may here be said concerning the physical and political
constitution of the present kingdom of Holland. The country is
divided into eleven provinces--North and South Holland, Zealand,
North Brabant, Utrecht, Limburg, Gelderland, Overyssel, Drenthe,
Groningen, and Friesland. There are three large rivers--the Rhine,
the Meuse, and the Scheldt. The inhabitants are Low Germans (Dutch),
Frankish, Saxon, Frisian, and Jews, the latter numbering some
sixty thousand, though their influence is, owing to their wealth
and activity, larger than these figures would normally represent.
The leading religion of the country is Lutheran; but there are
also many Catholics and persons of other faiths, all of whom
are permitted the enjoyment of their creeds. Holland was at one
time second to no country in the extent of its colonies; and
it still owns Java, the Moluccas, part of Borneo, New Guinea,
Sumatra and Celebes, in the East; and in the West, Dutch Guiana
and Curacoa. In Roman times the Low Countries were inhabited by
various peoples, chiefly of Germanic origin; and in the Middle
Ages were divided into several duchies and counties--such as
Brabant, Flanders, Gelderland, Holland, Zealand, etc. The present
government is a hereditary monarchy, consisting of a king or
queen and states-general; the upper chamber of fifty members,
the lower of one hundred. It is essentially a country of large
towns, of five thousand inhabitants and upward. The Frisians are
in North Holland, separated by the river Meuse from the Franks;
the Saxons extend to the Utrecht Veldt. The Semitic race is
represented by the Portuguese Jews; and there is an admixture
of other nationalities. In no part of the country do the Dutch
present a marked physical type, but, on the other hand, they
are sharply differenced, in various localities, by their laws,
their customs, and particularly by their dialects; indeed the
Frisians have a distinct language of their own.

The constitution of 1815, though more than once revised, remains
practically much the same as at first. The son of the monarch, the
heir-apparent, is called the Prince of Orange. The administration
of the Provinces is in the hands of the provincial states; these
meet but a few times in the year. The