Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1165

 POPULATION-— RELIGION

811

III. Principal Towns.

Oil Doceiuber 31, 1897, the following towns had a population of more than 20,000 inhabitants, namely : —

'sHortogenbosch 30,355

Zwolle^. . 30,660

Schiedam. 26,884

Breda. . 26,160

Deventer. 25,930

Holder. . 25,823

Amsterdam

. 503,285

Leiden.

. 53,703

Rotterdam

. 298,433

Tilburg.

. 38,599

The Hague

. 196,325

Maestricht

. 34,125

Utrecht.

. 98,434

Nimeguen

. 40,098

Groningon

. 63,863

Dordrecht

. 37,631

Haarlem

. 62,066

Leeuwarde

. 31,944

Arnhem

. 55,848

Delft.

. 31,886

Religion.

According to the terms ot the Constitution, entire liberty of conscience and complete social equality are gi'anted to the members of all religious con- fessions. The royal family and the majority of the inhabitants belong to the Reformed Church. The salaries of several British Presbyterian ministers, settled in the Netherlands, and whose churches are incorporated with the Dutch Reformed Church, are paid out of the public funds. The State Budget contained fixed allowances for the different churches ; for Protestant Churches, 1,379,852 guilders ; for Roman Catholics, 578,035 ; and for Jews, 12,775,

The number of adherents of the different churches in the various provinces, according to the census of 1889, was as follows : —

Provinces

N. BralKint. Guelders. . South Holland North Holland Zealand. . Utrecht. . Friesland. . Overyssel. . Groningen Drenthe. . Limburg. .

Dutch Reformed

48,555 I 284,142 , 575,996 S81,310 120,398 117,897 206,230 176,063 180,804 100,153 3,101

Other

R. Cuth.

Protestant

Church

11,638

446,531

34,131

185,321

116,033

229,199

141,343

225,652

23,8-23

50,180

22,785

75,942

70,087

25.848

31,457

80,740

56,899

18,467 ^008

18,058

673

250,594

2,194,649

532,907 1,596,482

Jansenists

Jews

17

2,252

357

5,243

1,758

15,277

3,9.53

57,257

5

412

1,554

1,426

6

1,817

13

4,182 '

12

5,946 :

8

2,327

4

1,185

7,687

97,324 1

Other or

unknown

creeds

635 3,008

11,378

19,974 4,416 1,423

25,570 2,990

10,658

2,150

164

82,366

The government of the Reformed Church is Presbyterian. At the end of 1897 the Dutch Reformed, Walloon, English Presbyterian, and Scotch Churches had 1 Synod, 10 provincial districts, 44 classes, and 1,348 parishes. Their clergy nunil>ered 1,606. Xine other Protestant bodies had about 260 churches and about 280 clergymen. The Roman Catholic Church had one archbishop (of Utrecht), 4 bishops, 1,050 churches, and a])out 2,509 clerg)'- men. The Jansenists had 1 archbishop, 2 bishops, 26 churches, and 27 clergymen. The Jews had about 180 places of worship.

Instruction.

Public instruction (primary) is given in all places where needed, but education is not compulsory nor necessarily free ; religious convictions arc respected.

From the beginning of this century elementary schools have been more or less under State regulation and inspection. In 1806, and more expressly