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On the abdication of James II. of England, this William III., the great-grandson of the hero of the Netherlands, came from Holland to ascend the throne of Great Britain, in conjunction with his wife Mary, James's daughter. During his reign, Great Britain and Holland were under one rule; but when he died childless in 1701, the States-General of the Seven Provinces, instead of appointing a new stadtholder, took the government into their own hands. The title of Prince of Orange, however, did not become extinct; it was inherited by his cousin, Frison of Nassau, who was governor of the single province of Friesland. The activity and energy of this new Prince of Orange and of his son soon gave them an ascendancy in all the provinces; and in 1747, in the person of the latter, the House of Orange again acceded to the dignity of the stadtholderate of the United Provinces. At the close of the last century, Holland suffered from the invasion of the French, and was for some time in their hands; but finally, in 1813, the Prince of Orange was restored to power; being admitted to the government as a sovereign prince.

Having thus traced the history of the northern provinces of the Netherlands down to 1815, let us trace that of the southern ones down to the same year.

After the death of William of Orange, the Prince of Parma continued his victorious career in the southern provinces; and if he did not altogether crush the spirit of patriotism, he at least rendered it weak and powerless. Although, therefore, Prince Maurice and Prince Frederic Henry, while repelling the attempts of the Spaniards to reconquer Holland, endeavoured also to drive them out of the rest of the Netherlands, they were never able fully to effect this, and Spain still kept possession of all the southern provinces. In 1713, Philip III. of Spain gave these southern provinces as a marriage portion to his daughter Isabella when she espoused Albert, Archduke of Austria; and from that time they ceased to be called the Spanish provinces, and obtained the name of the Belgian provinces, or of the Austrian Netherlands. This arrangement lasted till 1795, when it was swept away by the French Revolution. After a struggle between France and Austria, the Austrian Netherlands and the province of Liege were divided into nine departments, forming an integral part of the French republic; and they continued to be so till the fall of Napoleon in 1815.

At this great epoch, when Europe, recovering from the shock of the French Revolution, had leisure to arrange its various territories according to its own pleasure, separating some countries which had been long joined, and joining others which had been long separated, it was determined once more to unite Holland and the Belgian provinces into one state. Accordingly, in 1815, the Prince of Orange had the southern provinces added to his dominions, and was recognised by the various powers of Europe as king of the whole Netherlands. In 1579 the country had

been broken up into two parts; and now, in 1815, they were reunited, with no chance, so far as appearances went, of ever being separated again. But appearances were fallacious. As we have already informed our readers, there had always been certain marked differences of lineage, religion, language, and habits, between the people of the northern and those of the southern provinces of the Netherlands. In 1830, when the second French revolution took place, the Belgians revolted from their allegiance, and insisted on being separated from Holland, and erected into an independent kingdom. The demand was, after some delay, complied with by foreign powers. On the 15th of November 1831 the boundary-line was fixed, and the Netherlands were divided into the two independent states of Holland and Belgium. The crown of the latter was accepted by Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg, now sovereign of the country.

The modern kingdom of Holland consists of the following ten provinces-North Holland, South Holland, Zealand, North Brabant, Guelderland, Utrecht, Friesland, Overyssel, Groningen, and Drenthe; its capital is the Hague. The population on the 1st of January 1839 amounted to 2,583,271. The prevailing form of worship is the Calvinistic; but all other forms enjoy perfect toleration. Holland is celebrated for its excellent educational institutions, which are on a liberal footing, and acceptable to all sects and classes.

The kingdom of Belgium consists of nine provinces-Limbourg, Liege, Namur, Luxemburg, Hainault, South Brabant, East Flanders, West Flanders, Antwerp; its capital is Brussels. The population of Belgium in 1830 was 4,064,235. The Belgians are almost altogether Roman Catholics. The ancient Teutonic language, which has taken the form of Dutch in Holland, has degenerated into Flemish in Belgium; besides which, there is the language called Walloon, a species of old French mingled with German, and spoken principally in Hainault, on the borders of France. Nevertheless, modern French may be described as the predominating language of Belgium.

We have now shown how the Netherlands effected their independence; how the country became divided into the two modern kingdoms of Holland and Belgium; and it only remains for us to say that, successful as were the struggles of the people against oppression, the Netherlands, taken as a whole, have not till this hour attained the opulence and prosperity of which they were deprived by the iniquitous aggressions of Philip II. in the sixteenth century. In travelling through the country, we everywhere see symptoms of fallen grandeur. Antwerp, once the most opulent mercantile city in Europe, is now in a state of decay; while Louvain, Mechlin, Utrecht, Leyden, Dort, Delft, all exhibit similar tokens of desertion. To "the Spaniards" is everywhere ascribed the ruin of trade, the destruction of works of art, and the distresses to which the country has been exposed. Such

are the results of the unhappy war which scourged the Netherlands in the sixteenth century. Although advancing by new efforts towards its former condition, three centuries have not obliterated the traces of this fearful struggle for civil and religious freedom. Considering the services performed by William of Orange in this great effort, no one can look without emotion on the splendid monument erected over his tomb in the New Church of Delft, of which we append a representation. It is a lofty structure of marble, embellished with many figures, one of which is that of the prince, in bronze, sitting with his truncheon of office, and his helmet at his feet; while behind is a figure of Fame sounding with her trumpet the praises of the hero.

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OULD you like me to do anything for you, dear mother? said Lizette, a sweet-tempered girl, to her mother, who was lying to all appearance on her deathbed, in a cottage in the environs of Marseilles. Would you like me to raise your head a little? I am sure you would-now, I think you will be more comfortable. I am glad I thought of that."

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Lizette," said the dying woman, with some degree of effort, "you kill me with kindness-you are far too good to

me.

"Kindness!-do not speak of such a thing. It is my duty to be kind and attentive to my poor dear mother. You know I would do anything I could think of for you, and it would be all little enough. Do try to compose yourself, dear mother. Perhaps you may yet get well."

"Never," answered Dame Margaret; "I know I have not long to live, and yet I cannot die. Had you been less dutiful, less kind, it would have been easier for me now. I could have endured your want of affection, but your goodness overcomes me. Oh, what a dreadful thing it is to receive kindness from those you have wronged!" And here the poor woman stopped, as if convulsed with some strong emotion.

Lizette exhausted every persuasive to compose the agony of

the sufferer, whom she imagined was becoming delirious; but all was in vain.

"Dear, dear mother," said she tenderly, her large black eyes filling with tears, as she fixed them on the agitated countenance of the dying woman; "do not speak thus. You have never done me any wrong; you have always been the best of mothers." "Do not call me mother; I am not your mother."

66 I fear you are suffering a great deal," said Lizette, not heeding her strange observation.

"Oh, yes," answered Dame Margaret, who was perceptibly getting weaker; "I am dying, and cannot appear before God with such a heavy sin upon my conscience, Lizette."

"If it is a sin, dear mother, you ought to tell it to the curé, and not to me: he will console you. Would you like me to go

and call him?"

"Go, my child; but come back quickly: I feel I am very ill." When Lizette returned, accompanied by the pastor, they both observed terror in every feature of the dying woman. Lizette fell on her knees at the foot of her mother's bed, and poured out her full heart in prayer.

66 Well, Dame Margaret," said the pastor, seating himself on a stool, and taking the hand of the poor woman, as if to feel her pulse, "you are ill; but I trust you are at peace with God?"

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"No, sir, no," replied the woman; there is no peace for me: I have wronged that innocent child. Oh, Lizette, Lizette,” added she, turning to the young girl, "promise not to curse me."

"Dearest mother," said Lizette caressingly.

"Hush, hush. For pity's sake do not call me mother: it kills me." And Dame Margaret, then raising herself in the bed, clasped her hands, and with an effort for which she seemed obliged to collect all her remaining strength-"I am verily guilty, sir. I am not the mother of that child. Lizette, I am not your mother;" and, as if she had but been given strength for this avowal, she fell back in utter exhaustion.

66

Explain yourself, and hope still in God," said the pastor, as he bent over the couch; whilst Lizette's anxious gaze seemed to inquire the meaning of these mysterious words.

Dame Margaret, after a few moments, recovered sufficiently to answer "Sixteen years ago I lost my husband, just as I became the mother of a little girl; and I was soon after hired as nurse to the daughter of the Baroness de Pons, who then resided in Marseilles. Three weeks had hardly gone by when the child fell sick, and so sick that I thought she was going to die. I was a poor widow. If I lost the nursing, I must lose the money that I intended to lay out in purchasing a bit of ground near my house, which would set me above want for the rest of my days." Here the dying woman paused, either to collect strength or to delay a painful confession. The curé pressed her hand, as if to encourage her. "Alas! your reverence," she resumed, in broken accents,

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