POTTER United Families

abolished: “Press is only a tool to express opinions openly. Opinions
are free. There is no more risk in expressing them because truth will
always crush lies.”
Education must be reorganized so that the law alone defines it, and
it was not at the mercy of government agents. The judiciary must be
totally independent. Louis also asked for responsible judges
appointed fairly, who would protect the nation, even against bad laws.
Furthermore, the citizens of the Netherlands must have the right to
trial by jury: “Offer your citizens a real jury which contributes to the
best interests of the truth, the dignity and the values of the morality
of a nation, fighting abuses, ignorance and mean conduct of men.”
Louis said that sentences against the press and of political nature, in
absence of a jury, would always seem to be of sort of revenge.
He stated that the milling and slaughtering duties must be abolished,
because the nation was financially exhausted. A new system of taxes
should be imagined. One that relieved the burden of the poor without
bankrupting the wealthy, with the greatest possible division of the
wealth of the state.
William's public expenditures were too high, the military out of
proportion to the size of the country, and the bureaucracy
overloaded. Pensions and salaries were granted indiscriminately, also
depleting the treasury.
Louis pointed at yet another major grief made by “his” brave
Belgians... The ban against the use of French in public affairs. This,
he claimed, was not only ridiculous, it had caused the domination of
Belgium by the Dutch, a Belgium which also was unequally
represented in the States-General, and had paid more than its share
of the expenses of state.
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