Provisional Representatives of the People of Holland

[1] This committee sent invitations to all eighteen cities with a right to vote in the States of Holland and West Friesland to attend a constituent assembly in Amsterdam on 24 January 1795.

From here the Grand Pensionary of the Dutch Republic, Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel, a staunch Orangist, was ordered to make the hall of the States of Holland at the Binnenhof available for the use of the representatives, that same evening.

During the evening session Jacobus Spoors and Cornelis de Lange (a Gouda representative) were elected Griffiers of the new body.

[note 8] In a demonstration of constitutional continuity this committee worked according to the 1751 Instruction for the Gecommitteerde Raden (Executive) of the old States of Holland.

[5] The Provisional Representatives made a number of decrees that often were very consequential for the constitutional history of the Netherlands, even after several regime changes.