Abstract
During the 1760’s powerful intellectual trends from outside the Republic continued to increase their penetration. From France in particular was this the case. Voltaire’s works became better known; his Traité sur la Tolerance was translated in 1764. As early as 1755 most of the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau were published in first or early editions in Holland. The publisher Marc Michel Rey of Amsterdam was one of the chief agents in the dissemination of Rousseau’s ideas. In 1755 he put out the first edition of Discours sur L’inégalité, in’58 Lettre à d’Alembert, in’61 La Nouvelle Héloïse, and in 1763 Contrat Social. While these books emanated from Amsterdam, their influence on the intellectual life in the Netherlands was far less than one might expect. They were read and discussed; their content of new or newly presented ideas came to be reflected in the interests of some Dutch writers; they were, oddly enough, not translated for the most part until long after their original appearance in French. In the case of the primarily political works like the Contrat Social, there are only indirect and sporadic hints that it has been incorporated into the mental baggage of Patriot and other writers before the French Revolution itself. By the time the first translation of the Contrat appears in 1793, most of its insights have become quite common, almost imperceptibly so.
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References
W. Gobbers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Holland (Gent, 1963), p. 190.
R.J. Schimmelpenninck, Dissertatio de Imperio Populari Rite Temporate (1784), was one of the few attempts at a thoroughgoing critique of the Contrat Social before 1787.
For biographical detail and an analysis of Van Haren’s most important work, see A. Stakenburg, O. Z. v. Haren-DeGeuzen (Santpoort, 1943), Inleiding.
Cf. W.J. Buitendijk, “Oranje in de Literatuur”, in Als een Goed Instrument (Lochem, [1963]), pp. 102ff.
J. Barueth, Holland’s en Zeelands Jubel-Jaar,… (Dordrecht, 1772), “Voorreden”, p. ii and passim.
Als een goed Instrument, p. 112.
See C. Sepp, Johannes Stinstra en zijn Tijd (Amsterdam, 1865–66) 2 vols. Stinstra was among the more interesting of these mid-century preachers, known among others for his translations of Richardson’s works.
Colenbrander, Patriottentijd, I, p. 72.
On Hofstede, see J.P. de Bie, Leven en Werken van Petrus Hofstede (Amsterdam, 1899) and N.N.B.W., IV, cols. 762–64; on Barueth, N.N.B.W., II, cols. 92–94.
A collection of essays by several contributors about various aspects of their life and influence is Boeket voor Betje en Aagje (Amsterdam, 1954).
H.C.M. Ghijsen, Dapper Vrouwenleven (Assen, 1954), pp. 82, 87.
J. den Tex, Oldenbarnevelt, IV, p. 375.
For a sufficiently detailed treatment of these controversies, emphasizing the role of Betje Wolff, see Ghijsen, Dapper Vrouwenleven, pp. 122–156.
See also Barueth’s Hollands en Zeelands Jubel-Jaar of Tweehonderd-Jarige Gedagtenis (Dordrecht, 1772), which celebrates the bicentennial of the “foundation of Netherlands’ Republic”. In text and notes Barueth makes clear his intent to praise the role of William of Orange and the Beggars who together and out of pure Calvinist zeal, erected a new Israel. The historians in the Loevestein tradition concentrated their interest on the period 1579 to 1587 as the crucial one for the formation of the new State. Here we see the Orangist opposition with its emphasis on the earlier period before the States of Holland began to play the key role.
For the origins and history of the “Economical Branch” see J. Bierens de Haan, Van Oeconomische Tak tot Nederlandsche Maatschappij voor Nijverheid en Handel 1777–1952 (Haarlem, 1952), esp. Chap. I (by W.M.F. Mansvelt).
A.G.N., VIII, p. 223. This chapter (X), and the dissertation of the same title, De Economische Achteruitgang der Republiek (Amsterdam, 1959), by Johan de Vries, are among the most important works in giving a fuller view of the economic decline and its precise contours.
Wilson N, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, 1941), passim.
P.J. van Winter, Het Aandeel van den Amsterdamschen Handel aan den Opbouw van het Amerikaansche Gemeenebest (’s-Gravenhage, 1927–33), I.
Cited in A.G.N., VIII, p. 257.
Griffier of the Provincial Court of Utrecht; he was to be instrumental in the organization of the “Economical Branch”; see Bierens de Haan, Van Oeconomische, chap. I. For his role as advisor to the young G.. v. Hogendorp, see L.G.J. Verberne, Gijsbert Karel’s Leerjaren (Amsterdam, 1931), pp. 98ff.
Griffier of the Provincial Court of Utrecht; he was to be instrumental in the organization of the “Economical Branch”; see Bierens de Haan, Van Oeconomische, chap. I. For his role as advisor to the young G.. v. Hogendorp, see L.G.J. Verberne, Gijsbert Karel’s Leerjaren (Amsterdam, 1931), s 108.
See N.N.B.W., IX, cols. 1313–15.
On this there is now a massive and masterly study, J. Hovy, Het Voorstel van 1751 tot Instelling van een beperkt Vrijhavenstelsel in de Republiek (Groningen, 1966). Hovy goes into every imaginable phase of the economic, political and diplomatic problems of the Republic in that era and illuminates many different areas beyond the immediate subject of the title.
E. Laspeyres, Geschichte der Volkswirtschaft,… pp. 36–37.
This disenchantment with commerce continues even among some patriots, cf. the attitude of S.I. Wiselius, p. 250, below.
Cf. J. de Vries, “De Oeconomisch-Patriottische Beweging”, in De Nieuwe Stem, VII, no 12 (1952), pp. 723–30.
W.B.S. Boeles, De Patriot J.H. Swildens (Leeuwarden, 1884), pp. 83–99.
Bierens de Haan, Van Oeconomische, p. 62 n.
A.G.N., VIII, p. 33.
C. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in the 18th Century (Cambridge, 1941), pp. 17
C. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in the 18th Century (Cambridge, 1941), pp. 23
C. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in the 18th Century (Cambridge, 1941), pp. 25
C. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in the 18th Century (Cambridge, 1941), pp. 167–187
see also E.E. de Jong-Keesing, De Economische Crisis van 1763 te Amsterdam, (Amsterdam, 1939).
See D.C. Nijhoff, De Hertog van Brunswijk (‘s-Gravenhage, 1889)
N.A. Bootsma, De Hertog van Brunswijk, 1750–1759, (Assen, 1962).
Colenbrander, Patriottentijd, I, p. 80.
A.G.N., VIII, p. 109.
(Utrecht, 1773). The authorship is publicly proclaimed by Paulus in Verklaring, I, “Voorberight”. For various evaluations of Paulus’s sincerity with regard to the house of Orange, see F. van Dijk, Mr. L.P. van de Spiegel (Assen, 1963), p. 181
M. de Jong, J.D. van der Capellen (Groningen, 1921), p. 192, attacking Fruin’s position that Het Nut was a “perfidious title”
C.H.E. de Wit, De Strijd Tussen Aristocratie en Democratie in Nederland 1780–1848 (Heerlen, 1965), p. 43.
P.H. Suringar, Biographische Aantekeningen Betreffende Mr. Pieter Paulus (Leiden, 1879), p. 18 n.
Paulus, Het Nut (2nd ed., 1773 cited throughout), pp. 1–12
Paulus, Het Nut (2nd ed., 1773 cited throughout), pp. 158ff. on the agreement of theory and practice in the history of the Netherlands.
Ibid., p. 110: Huber on the lack of knowledge among the regents.
Ibid., p. 159 n.: “I consider it no less true, that one can rely on this author (Wagenaar), for that part of which I have made use, as much as one can rely on Contemporaries”. Paulus goes on to quote Van de Spiegel on the V.H., “That it will be important as long as the Netherlands’ name shall deserve a place in historiography”.
Ibid., pp. 60–61 on William III show far less of the whig spirit than Baxter’s appreciation cited above.
Cf. Wagenaar, V.H., XII, p. 120.
Cf. Paulus, Verklaring, III, 77 and IV, 28ff. See also the controversy between Paulus and S. Stijl on these points below in the chapter on Stijl and his Opkomst en Bloei.
Het Nut, p. 113 n. deals with the anti-Stadhouder arguments of the Aanwijsing of P. de la Court; for Raynal see pp. 58–9, 121.
Cf. Kluit, Historie, III, p. 287 n.
Commentarius Legum Fundamentarium Foederati Belgii, of Verklaaring van de Grondwetten der vereenigde Nederlanden, (Amsterdam, etc.); see also N.N.B.W., II, 1453.
Verklaring der Unie van Utrecht, 2nd ed. (Utrecht, 1775–77).
Aenmerkingen over de Verklaring… (Leiden, 1777, 17832). For the interesting career of the author, who was one of the most outspoken among the Patriots and who finally found himself an exile in America, see Francis Adrian van der Kemp, An Autobiography, ed. H.L. Fairchild (New York, 1903) and Harry F. Jackson, Scholar in the Wilderness: Francis Adrian van der Kemp, (Syracuse, 1963). The Observations is a fascinating compendium of historical legal argument about several of the points touched on by Paulus in his Elucidation. The part on Military Jurisdiction is by far the largest. Van der Kemp argues that the claims of the Stadhouder to control and judge through
Suringar, Biographische,… p. 42.
Ibid., p. 57.
De Opkomst en Bloei der vereenigde Nederlanden, (Amsterdam, etc., 1774,2nd enlarged ed. 1778; Brussel, 1824, 1854).
N.N.B.W., V, cols. 837–39. See also H. Smitskamp, “Simon Stijl als Verlicht Geschiedschrijver”, in Bijdragen voor de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, VI (1951), pp. 199–217.
Paulus, Verklaring der Unie van Utrecht (Utrecht, 1775–77), esp. Vol. IV, pp. 28–46.
Meinecke, Die Entstehung des Historismus (München, 1965), pp. 139ff.
Cf. Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois (XI, VI), where he writes also of a certain tranquillity of mind necessary to the well-ordered state.
This modification of climatic differences by variation of the soil is not unlike Montesquieu’s own theory in Esprit, XIX.
Cf. E. Cassirer, The Question of J. J. Rousseau (New York, 1954), pp. 64–67 and passim.
Cf. W.D. Voorthuijsen, De Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden en het Mercantilisme (’s-Gravenhage, 1965). Voorthuijsen argues that the Republic was by no means free of mercantilist devices and “to call the Republic an Island of Freedom, encircled by the mercantilistic waves of the surrounding countries would not create a true picture”. In general he sees little evidence of unifying efforts, many striking examples of positive support of industry, and slight emphasis on negative or limiting actions by the state. In short, the Dutch were mercantilist but with a difference. For a critique of this view, see J. Hovy’s review in Bijdragen voor de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, XXI (1966–67), pp. 332–37.
R.R. Palmer, The Age of the Democratic Revolution (Princeton, 1959), I, p. 168.
See also Rudé, Wilkes and Liberty (London, 1962) for some English ideas about “true liberty”.
Cf. J.V. Giessen, De Opkomst van het Woord democratie als leuze in Nederland (Den Haag, 1948), passim, for some of the different meanings attached to democracy in the course of Dutch history. While his main interest is directed to the second half of the 19th Century, he has some comments of interest on this earlier period too.
Except for a fleeting mention of it in connection with Leicester’s rule and the realization of how vital it was to assert the sovereignty of the individual provinces. “Aan den Leezer”, p. xxxviii.
P. Geyl, De Patriottenbeweging 1780–1787 (Amsterdam, 1947) = Patria no XL, p. 53.
M. de Jong, J.D. v.d. Capellen, is the fundamental work on this important Patriot figure. It is far more than a mere biography, for it goes into every facet of the political life of the Netherlands in the formative period of the Patriot movement. The complexities of the situation in Overijssel are especially well brought out and used to point up the diversity of the various provinces in the Republic. Unless otherwise noted, I have followed De Jong in this section.
See note 28, Chapter V, p. 232 below.
De Jong, p. 33.
Ibid., p. 103. This is the motive given by F.A. van der Kemp, Historie der Admissie (1779).
On the importance of the battle between proponents of army and navy priority and the sad state of those forces, see J.S. Bartstra, Vlootherstel en Legeraugmentatie, 1770–1780 (Assen, 1952).
See F.A. v.d. Kemp, Aenmerkingen, passim.
E.g., Hollands Rijkdom, III, pp. 297–319.
Het Nut, pp. 155–60; also see Paulus, Verklaring der Unie van Utrecht, II, pp. 137–41.
De Jong, J.D. v.d. Capellen, pp. 185ff. and 263. Article VIII of the Union of Utrecht was the key to this idea of civilian militias. A. Fletcher’s work was A Discourse of Government with Relation to Militias (Edinburgh, 1698). For a discussion of Fletcher, see C. Robbins, The Eighteenth Century Commonwealthman (Cambridge, Mass., 1959; New York, 1968), pp. 180–84. Much of what Prof. Robbins has to say in this work on the British “Commonwealthmen” or “Republicans” offers fertile suggestions for the comparable movements in the Netherlands. I will return to this theme in the Conclusion.
Ibid., p. 202.
Ibid., p. 329; cf. S. Stijl, Opkomst en Bloei, p. 234.
On Price, see Robbins, Eighteenth Century, pp. 335–47.
See the very apposite remarks in J.G.A. Pocock, The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law, pp. 229–251: “Conclusion: 1688 in the History of Historiography”
Christopher Hill, “The Norman Yoke” in Puritanism and Revolution (New York, 1964), pp. 87–109.
Cf. H. Trevor Coulborn, The Lamp of Experience, Whig History and the Intellectual Origins of the American Revolution (Chapel Hill, 1965), p. 99, and the remarks of John Adams cited there.
De Jong, J.D. v.d. Capellen, p. 220 on ideas of the constitution and the desirability of Imperium mixtum.
Cf. J. van de Giessen, De Opkomst van het woord democratie als Leuze in Nederland (Hague, 1948).
G.W. Vreede, Mr Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel en zijne Tijdgenooten (1737–1800) (Middelburg, 1875), II, pp. 418
G.W. Vreede, Mr Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel en zijne Tijdgenooten (1737–1800) (Middelburg, 1875), II, pp. 417–31 on “Burgerlijke Vrijheid” and V.d. Capellen.
On the Drostediensten, see De Jong, Chap. V, pp. 246–306, and P. Blok, Gesch. v.h. Ned. Volk, III3, pp. 540ff.
Cf. G.H. Guttridge, English Whiggism and the American Revolution (Berkeley, etc., 1966), p. 10 and Chap. I, passim.
On this, see C.B. MacPherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke (Oxford, 1962).
De Jong, J.D. v.d. Capellen, p. 5.
P. J. v. Winter, Het Aandeel van den Amsterdamsche Handel (s’-Gravenhage, 1927–33), passim. See also J.C. Westermann, The Netherlands and the United States, Their Relations in the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century (Hague, 1935), p. 2.
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Leeb, I.L. (1973). The Development of Patriot and Orangist Ideology. In: The Ideological Origins of the Batavian Revolution. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2493-8_4
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