Communes have their communal
councils, under the control of the burgomasters. There is a high
court of justice, and numerous minor courts.

The population is divided between about two million two hundred
thousand Protestants, and half as many Roman Catholics, together
with others. There are four thousand schools, with six hundred
thousand pupils, and about fourteen thousand teachers. Not more
than ten per cent of the people are illiterate, and the women are
as carefully educated the men. There are four great universities:
Leyden, founded in 1575; Utrecht, founded in 1636; Groningen, in
1614; and Amsterdam, which has existed since 1877. These seats of
learning give instruction to from three hundred to seven hundred
students each. The total expenses of the universities average
about six hundred thousand dollars. There are also in Holland
excellent institutions of art, science, and industry.

Agriculture is generally pursued, but without the extreme science
and economy shown in Belgium. The cultivation and produce vary,
in part, according as the soil is sand or clay; but the same kind
of soil, in different parts of the country, produces different
results. Cattle are largely raised and are of first-rate quality;
Friesland produces the best, but there are also excellent stocks in
North Holland and South Holland. In Drenthe, owing to the extensive
pasturage, great numbers of sheep are raised. But perhaps the most
important industry of Holland is the fisheries, both those of the
deep sea, and those carried on in the great Zuyder Zee, which
occupies a vast area within the boundaries of the country. These
fisheries, however, are not in all years successful, owing to
the ungovernable vagaries of ocean currents, and other causes.

Holland has taken a prominent part in European thought since about
1820. The Dutch language, instead of yielding to the domination
of the German, has been cultivated and enriched. The writers who
have achieved distinction could hardly even be named in space
here available, and any approach to a critical estimate of them
would require volumes. One of the earlier but best-known names
is that of Jacobus Van Lennep, who is regarded as the leader
of the Dutch Romantic school. He was born in Amsterdam on the
24th of March, 1802, and died at Oosterbeek, near Arnheim, August
25, 1868. His father, David, was a professor and a poet; Jacobus
studied jurisprudence at Leyden, and afterward practiced law at
Amst