in office. Such prosecution may be instituted (p. 532)
either during an official's tenure of office or after his retirement.[742]

[Footnote 742: Arts. 162-166. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, II., 112-113.]

Of inferior tribunals there are three grades. At the bottom are the
cantonal courts, 106 in number, consisting each of a single judge and
taking cognizance of claims under 200 guilders, breaches of police
regulations, and other cases of a minor nature. Next are the district
courts, 23 in number, each consisting of three judges and exercising
within the _arrondissement_ jurisdiction in matters of more weight.
Still above the district tribunals are five courts of appeal, each
comprising a body of three judges. Trial by jury is unknown in
Holland.

*586. Local Government: the Province.*--The constitution of the
Netherlands is somewhat peculiar in that it prescribes at length not
merely the form and character of the national government, but also the
arrangements that shall prevail respecting the governments of the
provinces and the communes throughout the kingdom. Of provinces there
are eleven; of communes, 1,123. The importance of the province is
enhanced by the fact that the nation has sprung from a pure
confederation, the original autonomy of the federated provinces having
never been wholly obliterated under the present centralized regime.
Each province has its own representative body, or "provincial
estates," a unicameral assembly whose members are chosen directly for
six years by all inhabitants of the province who are entitled to vote
for members of the lower house of the States-General. Half of the
members retire every three years. The number of members varies,
according to the population of the province, from eighty in South
Holland to thirty-five in Drenthe. The assembly meets at least twice a
year. Its powers are extensive, although it can perform no legislative
act without the assent of the crown. It enacts ordinances, levies
taxes, prepares and submits to the sovereign an annual budget,
controls in certain respects the municipalities, and elects those
members of the upper branch of the States-General to which the
individual province is entitled.

For the exercise of executive authority within the province there are
two agencies. The provincial assembly appoints from its own members a
committee of six, known as the "deputed states," to which, in
accordance with condi