and West Indies, which comprise an area 64 times larger than Holland itself.  The government is a limited monarchy; the executive power is vested in the crown and the legislation in the States-General, an assembly consisting of two chambers, the one elected (for four years) by direct suffrage, the other (for nine years) by provincial councils.  Primary education is free, but not compulsory.  Religion is not established, but about two-thirds of the people are Protestants, the remainder Roman Catholics.  The birth of Holland as an independent European power took place in the 16th century, when, after an heroic and protracted struggle, it freed itself from the yoke of Spain, then the most powerful nation in the world.

HOLLAND, HENRY RICHARD FOX VASSALL-HOLLAND, BARON, statesman, born in Wilts; succeeded to the title in 1774; entered on a public career as a Whig under the patronage of his uncle Charles James Fox; held office under Grenville, Grey, and Melbourne; was imbued with a fine humanitarian spirit, and fought ably against the slave-trade and the corn-laws; his cultured literary taste is revealed in his writings, which embrace Spanish translations, lives of Guillen de Castro and Lope de Vega, Memoirs, &c. (1773-1840).

HOLLAND, SIR HENRY, physician and author, born at Knutsford, Cheshire; graduated at Edinburgh in 1811; spent some years in Eastern Europe, and finally settled in London; he rose to be physician-in-ordinary to the Prince Consort and the Queen, and in 1853 was created a baronet; wrote various essays on various branches of medicine, physiology, psychology, besides “Recollections of Past Life” (1758-1873).

HOLLAND, NORTH (819), one of the eleven provinces of Holland; comprises the peninsula lying between the Zuider Zee and the German Ocean.  SOUTH HOLLAND, also a province, faces the German Ocean between Zealand and North Holland.  These provinces form the most important part of the Netherlands, raise the best farm produce and cattle, and in their great ports Amsterdam, and Rotterdam, the bulk of the trade of Holland is carried on.

HOLLES, DENZIL, statesman, and one of the “five members,” the son of the Earl of Clare, born at Houghton, Northamptonshire; entering Parliament in 1624, he joined the opposition against the king, and actively resisted the imposition of tonnage and poundage, for which he was heavily fined and imprisoned; subsequently he was one of the five members whom Charles attempted to arrest in 1642 on a charge of high-treason; his opposition to the maintenance of a standing Puritan army involved him in trouble, and he fled the country; after Cromwell’s death he returned, was prominent in promoting the Restoration, received a peerage, and for some years was engaged in public duties, still remaining a staunch upholder of the rights of Parliament (1559-1680).

HOLLOWAY (48), a northern district of London, in Islington parish.