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
