The report of this kiss resounded to Paris. So greatly did it please the
French Directorate that they at once increased the number of troops
which the republic was obliged to equip and support, and demanded that
henceforth the French Government might officially dispose over three
fourths of the Batavian army. Let us come down to plain facts. After
three years of revolutionary rhetoric the Batavian Republic for all
intents and purposes had become a French province--a province inhabited
by rather backwoodsy people (the Batavian minister as chief Rube in the
Follies of 1798, an enormous success), people who simply never could
make up their minds, whose very political upheavals had to be staged
abroad, who had to be guided about like small children, and who only
received some respect from their neighbours because they still had a few
pennies in their pocketbook. But otherwise, Oh lálá! they were so funny!
And Citizen Delacroix, having accepted a nice little gratuity (a golden
snuffbox studded with diamonds and filled with gold pieces), wrote back
to Paris that being minister to The Hague was as good fun as an evening
at vaudeville. This, however, was merely the beginning. Much else was
to follow soon.
Here we have a country becoming every day more like a French department.
And what did the thinking part of the nation do? It continued its petty
political quarrels as if it consisted of a lot of villagers engaged in
the habitual row in the local vestry. The Orangeistic party of these
years reminds us strongly of those pious supporters of the Pope who wish
to see the whole kingdom of Italy go to smash in order that his Holiness
may return to govern a city which during many previous centuries of his
august rule was turned into a byword for civic mismanagement and
municipal corruption. The Orangeists sat in their little corner and
jeered at everything the patriots did. But they lacked the courage and
the conviction to come forward and assist in such constructive work as
the revolutionary parties tried to perform.
In previous chapters we have had a chance to talk with considerable
irritation about much of what the Patriots did. Do not expect the
historian to read through the twenty-three volumes of speeches of the
assembly, to study the twelve volumes of Wagenaar containing the history
of those three years, to wade through the endless documents addressed to
free citizens, and not to feel a personal resentment against his
ancestors, who, while the country was in such grave danger, talked and
talked and talked without any regard to the threatening facts about
them.
It is true that very much can be said in defense of the Patriotic
statesmen. They had never enjoyed any political training. For centuries
they and their families had been kept out of all governmental
institutions. They had not even been allowed to run their own town
meeting. There had been no school for parliamentary methods or oratory.
And since the death of Paulus they had not possessed a leader of
sufficient influence to force one single will upon their ill-organized
party. For a moment there was some improvement after the first _coup
d'état_. The idea of ending political anarchy by establishing an
executive body of five members was a curious one, but it was better than
the executive body of more than a hundred which had existed before. And
under the spur of the moment the committee on the constitution set to
work so eagerly that it finished its labours in as many months as the
old assemblies had used years.
The moderate nature of the Dutch people in political matters was again
shown after this little upheaval. Two or three clubs and coffee-houses
which had shown too open a delight at the former difficulties of the
unionists were closed until further notice. A few of the expelled
members of the old assembly were temporarily lodged in the house in the
woods. But otherwise no enemy of the unionists had to suffer a penalty
for his acts or for his words.
The committee of five went to work at once and tried to reëstablish some
semblance of order without bothering about political persecutions, and
the committee of seven laboured on the new constitution with an ardour
which excluded all active participation in such matters as did not
pertain to paragraphs and articles and preambles. The French minister
energetically assisted them in their task. He had made many a
constitution in his own day and knew of what he was talking.
It was a gratifying result that six weeks after the _coup d'état_ the
committee reported that it was ready to submit the new constitution to
the approval of the assembly. On the 6th of March it presented a
document consisting of five hundred and twenty-seven articles. Three
days sufficed to discuss these articles thoroughly. On the evening of
the 17th of March the second constitution of the Batavian Republic was
accepted by the entire assembly, and in less than two months after the
memorable victory of the unionists the constitution was in such shape
that it could be brought before the people.
In the place of the old oligarchic republic it established a centralized
government. It provided a strong executive power, which was subject to
the will of the legislature. The latter was divided into two chambers,
which were to work in cooperation. The final source of all power,
however, was brought down to the voters. In all religious and personal
matters it tried to furnish complete equality and complete liberty, and
as the best means of controlling the legislature and the executive it
insisted upon absolute freedom for the political press.
In the matter of finances the country henceforward would be a union and
not a combination of seven contrary-minded pecuniary interests. The
provinces, divided according to a new system, retained such local
government as was necessary for the proper conduct of their immediate
business, but in all matters of any importance the provinces became
subject to the higher central powers in The Hague.
Finally it brought about one great improvement for which many men during
many centuries had worked in vain. It established a cabinet. Eight
agents (we would call them ministers) would henceforth handle the
general departments of the government. In this way, in the year of grace
1798, disappeared that endless labyrinth of committees and
sub-committees and sub-sub-committees within sub-committees in which
during former centuries all useful legislation had lost its way and had
miserably perished.
This time when the constitution was brought before the people the result
was very different from that of the year before. Of those who took the
trouble to walk to the polls, twelve out of every thirteen declared
themselves in favour of the new constitution. On the 1st of May, 1798,
the constitutional assembly was informed that the Batavian people had,
by an overwhelming majority, accepted the constitution, and that its
fruitful labours were over. The Batavian republic now was a bona-fide
modern state and all was well with the world.