occasioned a constitutional amendment to provide for the
accession of a female sovereign and the establishment of a regency,
and three years later a parliamentary deadlock compelled the king to
authorize a general revision of the fundamental law whereby the (p. 523)
number of citizens in possession of the franchise was more than
tripled. The constitution of Holland at the present day is the amended
instrument of November 6, 1887. It comprises more than two hundred
articles, being, indeed, one of the lengthiest documents of its kind
in existence. Like most European constitutions, it may be amended by
the ordinary legislative organs, though under specially prescribed
conditions. The first step in the amending process consists in the
adoption by the legislative chambers of a resolution affirming that
there is sufficient reason for taking under consideration the
amendment or amendments in hand. Following the promulgation of this
resolution the chambers are required to be dissolved. The newly
elected houses then take up the project for final disposition, and if
by a two-thirds vote they adopt it, and if the sovereign assents, it
goes into operation.[722]

[Footnote 721: Cambridge Modern History, XI., Chap.
23.]

[Footnote 722: Arts. 194-197. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, II., 118. The text of the
constitution, in English translation, is printed in
Dodd, II., 80-119. An excellent annotated edition
of the instrument, in Dutch, is G. L. van den Helm,
De Grondwet voor het koningrijk der Nederlanden
(The Hague, 1889). An elaborate commentary is
contained in J. T. Buijs, De Grondwet, 3 vols.
(Arnheim, 1883-1888). One of the best expositions
of the Dutch constitutional system is L. de Hartog,
Das Staatsrecht des Koenigreichs der Niederlande
(Freiburg, 1886), in Marquardsen's Handbuch, though
this work antedates the amendments of 1887. More
recent is J. van Hamel, Staats-und Verwaltungsrecht
des Koenigreichs der Niederlande (Hanover, 1910).]

II. THE CROWN AND THE MINISTRY

*576. Status of the Sovereign.*--The government of Holland[723] is in
form a constitutional, hereditary monarchy. Until 1884 the royal