Beschrijving
Gottingen, Vandenhock und Ruprecht, 1824, 49pp. softcover paper binding (later?), paper soiled and foxed, library stamp on titlepage, letter written by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke (14 January 1798 – 4 June 1872) who was a Dutch liberal statesman, one of the most important Dutch politicians of the 19th century. Thorbecke is best known for heading the commission that drafted the revision of the Constitution of the Netherlands in 1848, amidst the liberal democratic revolutions of 1848. The new constitution transformed the country from an absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy, with the States General and the Council of Ministers becoming more powerful than the king. The amended constitution also granted individual rights to residents and citizens of the kingdom. This made the constitution one of the more progressive at the time. Thorbecke is generally considered a founding father of the modern political system of the Netherlands.Shortly after taking his doctorate, Thorbecke was granted a state scholarship for a journey through Germany. At Giessen he lectured as an extraordinary professor, and at Göttingen, in 1824, published his treatise, Ueber das Wesen der Geschichte.He would spend four years travelling, during which he was introduced to historism and Romanticism, and developed emotionally and spiritually.[1][6] Upon his return to the Netherlands in 1824, he settled in Amsterdam, where he wrote his first political work of significance, Bedenkingen aangaande het Regt en Den Staat (‘Concerns about the Law and the State’). The work managed to gain some attention, and Thorbecke became professor of Political Science at Ghent University the following year.
