etherlands; it, as a
sovereign grand-duchy, was made a state of the Germanic confederation.
By virtue of the exchange sanctioned by the treaty of 1839, the ceded
portion of Limburg became a state of the confederation. But with the
revision of the Dutch constitution, which in 1840 followed the final
separation of Holland and Belgium, by the wish of the king his duchy of
Limburg was included in the new Fundamental Law, and thus became
practically a Dutch province. The Limburgers had thus a strange and
ambiguous position. They had to pay taxes, to furnish military
contingents and to send deputies to two different sovereign authorities.
This state of things continued with more or less friction, until the
victory of Prussia over Austria in 1866 led to the dissolution of the
Germanic confederation. At the conference of London, 1867, Luxemburg was
declared to be an independent state, whose neutrality was guaranteed
by the Great Powers, while Limburg became an integral portion of the
kingdom of the Netherlands.

Since the middle of the last century the financial position of Holland
has been continuously improving. The heavy indebtedness of the country,
in the period which followed the separation from Belgium, was gradually
diminished. This was effected for a number of years by the doubtful
expedient of the profits derived from the exploitation of the East
Indian colonies through the "Cultivation System." With the passing of
the revised Fundamental Law of 1848 the control of colonial affairs and
of the colonial budget was placed in the hands of the States-General;
and a considerable section of the Liberal party began henceforth to
agitate for the abolition of a system which was very oppressive to the
Javanese population. It was not, however, until 1871 that the reform was
carried out. Meanwhile, chiefly by the efforts of Thorbecke, the methods
of home finance had been greatly improved by the removal, so far as
possible, of indirect imposts, and the introduction of a free trade
policy, which since his days has been steadily maintained. Such a policy
is admirably suitable to a country which possesses neither minerals nor
coal[15], and whose wealth is mainly due to sea-or river-borne trade, to
dairy farming and to horticulture. For its supply of corn and many other
necessary commodities Holland has to look to other countries. The
fisheries still form one of the staple industries of the land, and
furnish a hardy sea-faring populatio