prevent civil unrest in the Netherlands, William II formed a commission, chaired by Thorbecke, which would draft a new constitution. The new constitution, which was introduced in October 1848, limited the power of the king by introducing ministerial responsibility and by giving parliament the right to amend laws and hold investigative hearings. It also extended the census suffrage and codified civil rights, such as the freedom of assembly, the privacy of correspondence, freedom of ecclesiastical organisation and the freedom of education. In the period following the constitutional amendment, liberalism was the dominant political force in the Netherlands. Liberalism also dominated the universities, the media and business. The liberals supported a laissez-faire economy, free trade, civil rights and a gradual expansion of suffrage. Thorbecke became Prime Minister of the Netherlands in 1849, and would serve two more terms throughout his lifetime. Because of their dominant position, the liberals did not deem it necessary to organise themselves in a political party. Instead there was a loose liberal parliamentary group and locally organised liberal caucuses. The liberals also did not organize their own pillar, a system of like-minded social organisations. The liberals were politically allied with the Catholics, whom the liberals granted considerable freedom of religion. After Thorbecke's death in 1872, the liberals grew increasingly disunited. By 1897, a division had emerged between the supporters of the progressive liberal Jan Kappeyne van de Coppello on the one side, and those of the conservative liberal Johan George Gleichman on the other. Only in the late 19th century, when the opposition began to organise itself in the Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Roman Catholic State Party, the liberals followed suit. On 4 March 1885, the Liberal Union was established. In the 1890s some liberals, such as Samuel van Houten, Johannes Tak van Poortvliet and Kappeyne van de Coppello started to propose a more active role of the government, breaking with the Thorbeckian laissez-faire ideal. This led to the establishment of the progressive Free-thinking Democratic League in 1901. The liberals saw a second split with the establishment of the more conservative liberal League of Free Liberals in 1906. There are different names for these two tendencies. The more progressive liberals have been called "radical", "freeminded" or "democratic" liberals, while the more conservative liberals have been called "free" or "old" liberals. The issue which divided the liberals most was the question whether to extend the census or even