He entered upon his reign in difficult times.  There was a loud demand for a further sweeping revision of the constitution.  Religious movements, which had been gathering force during the reign of William I, required careful handling.  One minister after another had tried to grapple with the financial problem, but in vain.  In 1840 the public debt amounted to 2200 million florins; and the burden of taxation, though it had become almost unendurable, failed to provide for the interest on the debt and the necessary expenses of administration.  The State was in fact on the verge of bankruptcy.  The appointment in 1842 of F.A. van Hall (formerly an Amsterdam advocate, who had held the post of minister of justice) to be finance minister opened out a means of salvation.  The arrears to 1840 amounted to 35 million florins; the deficit for 1841-3 had to be covered, and means provided for the expenditure for 1843-4.  Van Hall’s proposals gave the people the choice between providing the necessary money by an extraordinary tax of one and a half per cent, on property and income, and raising a voluntary loan of 150 million florins at 3 per cent.  After long debates the States-General accepted the proposal for the voluntary loan, but the amount was reduced to 126 millions.  The success of the loan, though at first doubtful, was by March, 1844, complete.  The Amsterdam Bourse gave its utmost support; and the royal family set a good example by a joint subscription of 11 million florins.  By this means, and by the capitalisation of the annual Belgian payment of five million francs, Van Hall was able to clear off the four years’ arrears and to convert the 5 and 4-1/2 per cent. scrip into 4 per cent.  He was helped by the large annual payments, which now began to come in from the Dutch East Indies; and at length an equilibrium was established in the budget between receipts and expenditure.

In the years preceding the French Revolution the Reformed Church in the United Provinces had become honey-combed with rationalism.  The official orthodoxy of the Dort synod had become “a fossilised skeleton.”  By the Constitution of 1798 Church and State were separated, and the property of the Church was taken by the State, which paid however stipends to the ministers.  Under King Louis subsidies were paid from the public funds to teachers of every religious persuasion; and this system continued during the union of Holland and Belgium.  A movement known as the Reveil had meanwhile been stirring the dry-bones of Calvinistic orthodoxy in Holland.  Its first leaders were Bilderdijk, De Costa and Capadose.  Like most religious revivals, this movement gave rise to extravagancies and dissensions.  In 1816 a new sect was founded by a sea-captain, Staffel Mulder, on communistic principles after the example of the first Jerusalem converts, which gathered a number of followers among the peasantry.  The “New Lighters”—­such was the name they assumed—­established in 1823