The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom, 1795-1813: A Short Account of the Early Development of the Modern Kingdom of the NetherlandsVan Loon, Hendrik Willem
History
The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom, 1795-1813: A Short Account of the Early Development of the Modern Kingdom of the Netherlands
Van Loon, Hendrik Willem
Netherlands -- History -- 1795-1815
all a chance and see what will come of it. If a constitution does not
suit at the first attempt, use it to feed a patriotic bonfire. After
all, what else is it but some woodpulp and printer's ink? If the
parliament of to-day does not please the voters of to-morrow, dissolve
it, close it with the help of gendarmes. If the members resist, call out
the reserves or borrow some soldiers from the great sister republic,
which is now teaching her blessed creed to all the world. They (the
soldiers) are there for the asking (and for the paying). They are a
little out at the elbows, very much out in regard to shoes, and they
have not seen a real piece of money for many a weary month, but for a
square meal and a handful of paper greenbacks they will dismiss a
parliament, rob a museum, or levy taxes, with the utmost fidelity to
their orders and with strict discipline to their master's commands.
Then, if constitutions and parliaments have failed in an equal degree,
humbly beg for a king from among that remarkable family the father of
which was a little pettifogging lawyer in a third-rate Italian city, and
the members of which now rule one half of the European continent.
After the rights of men, the rights of a single man.
In the great melting pot of the Bonapartistic empire all Hollanders at
last become equal in the real sense of the word. They all have the same
chance at promotion, at riches, and the pursuit of happiness. Devotion
to the master, and devotion to him alone, will bring recognition from
the new divinity who issues orders signed with a single gigantic N. Old
Republic of the United Netherlands, enlightened Republic of the Free
Batavian Proconsulate, Kingdom of Holland, it's all the same to the man
who regards this little land as so much mud, deposited by his own, his
French, rivers.
Vainly and desperately the bankrupt little Kingdom of Brother Louis has
struggled to maintain a semblance of independence.
A piece of paper, a big splotchy N, and the whole comedy is over.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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