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242 NETHERLANDS Christ that was born of her, since God could neither be born nor die. His opinions were vigorously combated by Oyril, bishop of Alex- andria, who by advice of Pope Oelestine called a council at Alexandria in 430 to determine the controversy. By this assembly Nestorius was judged guilty of blasphemy and anathe- matized. He retorted by charging Oyril with confounding the two natures of Christ, and anathematized him in turn. Cyril, jealous of the overshadowing power of the see of Con- stantinople, induced the emperor Theodosius II. to call a general council at Ephesus in 431, at which Cyril presided. Nestorius was per- emptorily summoned before it ; but as the bish- op of Antioch and others from the East who were friendly to him had not yet arrived, and the council had been improperly organized, he refused to appear and protested against their action. But he was again condemned, deprived of his bishopric, and banished from Constanti- nople. He was sent first to Arabia Petra3a, and afterward to one of the oases of Libya. (See CYBIL OF ALEXANDRIA, and NESTORIANS.) NETHERLANDS, or Low Countries (Dutch, Ne- derlanden ; Fr. Pays-Baa), a country of west- ern Europe, formerly comprising Belgium as well as the present kingdom of the Nether- lands. The term is applied to this region be- cause a large portion of the surface is a dead plain, and' much of it lies below the level of the sea, from which it is protected partly by natural sand hills and partly by vast artificial dikes or embankments. The kingdom of the Netherlands as it was before 1830 was bound- ed N. and W. by the North sea, E. by Prussia, and S. by France, from which countries it was not separated by any great natural barriers. It' is the western termination of the vast plain which stretches across Europe to the Ural mountains. Three great rivers, the Rhine, the Maas, and the Scheldt, flow through it, and their mud, mixing with the sand banks thrown up by the ocean around their mouths, has formed the country, which, excepting the S. E. portion, is nothing but the delta of those riv- ers. It was by nature a wide morass, which man has made fertile and habitable by labori- ously protecting it by embankments from the overflow of the rivers and the frequent inun- dations of the sea. At present this region is divided into two kingdoms of nearly equal size, the Netherlands in the north and Belgium in the south. (See BELGIUM.) The present king- dom of the Netherlands lies between lat. 50 45' and 53 35' N., and Ion. 3 24' and 7 12' E., and is bounded N. and W. by the North sea, E. by Germany, and S. by Belgium. Its length from N. to S. is about 190 m., and its breadth from about 60 to 120 m., with an area of 12,680 sq. m. It is divided into 11 prov- inces, which with their respective areas, their population in 1873 (according to the annual official calculation, the last decennial census having been taken in 1869), and their capitals, are as follows : PROVINCES. Area, square miles. Population in 1873. Capitals. North Brabant Gelderland 1,980 1,964 443,045 441 088 Bois-le-Duc. Arnhem. South Holland . ... 1,155 721464 The Hague. North Holland Zealand 1,054 680 610,990 182865 Amsterdam. Middelburg. Utrecht 534 179 465 Utrecht Friesland 1,264 307'390 Leeuwarden. 1,282 260533 Zwolle. 885 232 739 Groningen Drenthe 1,031 109'454 Assen. Ldmbur" 1 851 227 469 Maestricht. Total 12,680 3,716,002 The grand duchy of Luxemburg, though it is governed by the king of the Netherlands as grand duke, is in point of administration en- tirely separate. (See LUXEMBURG.) The Neth- erlands possess important colonies in various parts of the world, whose aggregate popula- tion far exceeds that of the mother country. The principal of these are : in the East Indies, Java, Madura, Bali, Lombok, Banca, Ternate, Amboyna, Banda, Timor, and extensive terri- tories in Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes, with a total population in 1872 of 24,300,000; in America, Surinam (Dutch Guiana), Curac,oa, and the islands of St. Eustatius, Aruba, Bo- naire, St. Martin, and Saba, with a total popu- lation of nearly 100,000. The former pos- sessions in W. Africa, comprising a few posts on the coast of Guinea, were by a treaty con- cluded in 1871, and ratified in February, 1872, ceded to Great Britain. The Hague is the residence of the king and the seat of the legis- lature, and Amsterdam the nominal capital of the kingdom ; the other principal cities are Rotterdam, Utrecht, Leyden, Groningen, Arn- hem, Middelburg, Haarlem, Maestricht, Leeu- warden, Dort, Bois-le-Duc, Nimeguen, Delft, Zwolle, and Breda. The seacoast of the Neth- erlands is lined in great part by sand banks cast up by the waves of the ocean, and, where these have not been formed, by vast (jlikes, built partly of granite blocks brought from Norway, and partly of timbers, fagots, turf, and clay. These embankments are usually 30 ft. high, 70 ft. broad at the bottom, and wide enough at the top for a roadway. They have been constructed by the labor of many gener- ations, at a cost estimated at not less than $1,500,000,000, and are maintained by an an- nual expenditure of upward of $2,000,000. Great pains and much expense are bestowed to keep them in order, and their supervision is intrusted to a board of commissioners, under whom there are many boards of sub-commis- sioners for particular districts, who from time to time report to the central board the condi- tion of the dikes under their care. (See DIKE.) The principal rivers of the Netherlands are the. Rhine, the Maas or Meuse, the Scheldt, and the Vecht, though only the lower parts of these streams are within the limits of the country. The Ehine enters from Germany on the east with a breadth of nearly half a mile,