Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/901

 Blok : GescJiiedenis van het Nedcrlandsche Volk 891 cow, not two thousand returned. The experiment of Frenchif'ing Dutchmen was not a success. The Dutch were quite ready, after Napoleon had been sent to Elba, to meet him at Waterloo, on which field five thousand Netherlanders performed prodigies of valor. The Kingdom of the United Netherlands was formed by action of a congress of the Powers, but Dr. Blok shows very clearly why such an ill-starred union of the Dutch and the Belgian peoples, as unlikely to mix as oil and water, could not and did not hold together. Their historical precedents, the differences in religion, .the diversity of economic and industrial interests, made it impossible that the clamps put on by a con- gress of aliens could hold together such an artificial structure. The Belgians, most of whom would have preferred being incorporated with France, had no sympathy with Protestant Holland. Rising in revolt, they chased the Dutch out of the country. Dr. Blok goes into pretty full detail in describing the second congress, which, like divorcing lawyers, met to undo the work which their predecessors had hoped would never be put asunder. It must be painful reading to a Dutchman to note how the great monarchies employed this congress as a mere pretext to gain their own ends, using Holland as a shuttlecock. An American reader wonders whether, after all, our local and national politics are any worse than those of the sort done under such high-sounding phrases. The work concludes with a glance at the northern provinces as they begin again their separate life. Comparing the general result with title and plan, it must be said that Dr. Blok has failed in one direction, while winning signal success in others. Here is a first-class political history, and in so far a positive contribution to knowledge. His pages show familiarity with the schemes of diplomatists and with the real thoughts and ambitions of politicians, generals, and statesmen. The great figures, like Maurice, Barneveldt, and the line of Williams, great and little, stand out on his pages as clear personalities. The trend, development, and issues of great movements are apparent, the author showing ability and grace in marking off the various periods. He sees when an issue is dead. He knows well the economic bases of the nation's story. His pages are wonderfully clear in their revelations as to the opening and closing of trade-routes and markets, and in showing how the legislation and cus- toms of surrounding peoples made weal or woe for the Dutch people. At times he is informing and brilliant in his pictures of phases of society, notably in his treatment of the Burgundian era. From this view-point, his work is highly satisfactory. Yet on the whole, those who seek in these volumes a real history of the Dutch people, how they grew to be a nation, and what were the forces outside of politics proper that shaped them, will be disappointed. If religion be a real force in the making of a people, then one mighty factor in the evolution of the nation has been overlooked. Even the great emigration of " the Dutch Pilgrim Fathers " of 1830, and later, which so filled our own Northwest, is not so