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diff --git a/4882.txt b/4882.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2a95f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/4882.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2102 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook History of The United Netherlands, 1608(b) +#82 in our series by John Lothrop Motley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: History of the United Netherlands, 1608(b) + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4882] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 15, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1608(b) *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS +From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce--1609 + +By John Lothrop Motley + + + +MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 82 + +History of the United Netherlands, 1608 + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + + Designs of Henry IV.--New marriage project between France and Spain + Formal proposition of negotiating for a truce between the States and + Spain--Exertions of Prince Maurice to counteract the designs of + Barneveld--Strife between the two parties in the republic--Animosity + of the people against Barneveld--Return of the Spanish + commissioners--Further trifling--Dismissal of the commissioners-- + Close of the negotiations--Accidental discovery of the secret + instructions of the archdukes to the commissioners--Opposing + factions in the republic--Oration of President Jeannin before the + States-General--Comparison between the Dutch and Swiss republics-- + Calumnies against the Advocate--Ambassador Lambert in France-- + Henry's letter to Prince Maurice--Reconciliation of Maurice and + Barneveld--Agreement of the States to accept a truce. + +President Jeannin had long been prepared for this result. It was also by +no means distasteful to him. A peace would not have accorded with the +ulterior and secretly cherished schemes of his sovereign, and during his +visit to Paris, he had succeeded in persuading Henry that a truce would +be far the most advantageous solution of the question, so far as his +interests were concerned. + +For it had been precisely during that midsummer vacation of the President +at Paris that Henry had completed his plot against the liberty of the +republic, of which he professed himself the only friend. Another phase +of Spanish marriage-making had excited his ever scheming and insidious +brain. It had been proposed that the second son of the Spanish king +should espouse one of Henry's daughters. + +The papal Nuncius asked what benefit the King of Spain would receive for +his share, in case of the marriage. The French king replied by plainly +declaring to the Nuncius that the United States should abstain from and +renounce all navigation to and commerce with the Indies, and should +permit public exercise of the Catholic religion. If they refused, would +incontinently abandon them to their fate. More than this, he said, could +not honestly be expected of him. + +Surely this was enough. Honestly or dishonestly, what more could Spain +expect of the republic's best ally, than that he should use all his +efforts to bring her back into Spanish subjection, should deprive her of +commerce with three-quarters of the world, and compel her to re-establish +the religion which she believed, at that period, to be incompatible with +her constitutional liberties? It is difficult to imagine a more +profligate or heartless course than the one pursued at this juncture +by Henry. Secretly, he was intriguing, upon the very soil of the +Netherlands, to filch from them that splendid commerce which was the +wonder of the age, which had been invented and created by Dutch +navigators and men of science, which was the very foundation of their +State, and without which they could not exist, in order that he might +appropriate it to himself, and transfer the East India Company to France; +while at Paris he was solemnly engaging himself in a partnership with +their ancient and deadly enemy to rob them of their precious and nobly +gained liberty. Was better proof ever afforded that God alone can +protect us against those whom we trust? Who was most dangerous to the +United Provinces during those memorable peace negotiations, Spain the +avowed enemy, or France the friend? + +The little republic had but her own sword, her own brain, and her own +purse to rely upon. Elizabeth was dead, and James loved Spain better +than he did the Netherlands, and quiet better than Spain. "I have told +you often," said Caron, "and I say it once more, the Spaniard is lucky +that he has such a peaceable king as this to deal with in England." + +The details of the new marriage project were arranged at Paris between +the Nuncius, the Spanish ambassador, Don Pedro de Toledo, the diplomatic +agent of the archdukes, and Henry's ministers, precisely as if there had +been no negotiations going on between the States and Spain. Yet the +French king was supposed to be the nearest friend of the States, and was +consulted by them on every occasion, while his most intimate and trusted +counsellor, the ingenuous Jeannin, whose open brow was stamped with +sincerity, was privy to all their most secret deliberations. + +But the statesman thus dealing with the Hollanders under such a mask of +friendly candour, knew perfectly well the reason why his Government +preferred a truce to a peace. During a prolonged truce, the two royal +children would grow old enough for the consummation of marriage, and the +States--so it was hoped--would be corrupted and cajoled into renouncing +their liberty. All the Netherlands would be then formed into a +secundogeniture for Spain, and the first sovereign would be the husband +of a French princess. Even as an object of ambition, the prize to be +secured by so much procrastination and so much treachery was paltry. + +When the Spanish commissioners came to the French and English ambassadors +accordingly, complaining of the abrupt and peremptory tone of the States' +reply, the suggestion of conferences for truce, in place of fruitless +peace negotiations, was made at once, and of course favourably received. +It was soon afterwards laid before the States-General. To this end, in +truth, Richardot and his colleagues had long been secretly tending. +Moreover, the subject had been thoroughly but secretly discussed long +before between Jeannin and Barneveld. + +The French and English ambassadors, accordingly, on the 27th August, came +before the States-General, and made a formal proposition for the opening +of negotiations for a truce. They advised the adoption of this course in +the strongest manner. "Let the truce be made with you," they said, "as +with free States, over which the king and the archdukes have no +pretensions, with the understanding that, during the time of the truce +you are to have free commerce as well to the Indies as to Spain and the +obedient Netherlands, and to every part of the Spanish dominions; that +you are to retain all that you possess at present, and that such other +conditions are to be added as you may find it reasonable to impose. +During this period of leisure you will have time to put your affairs in +order, to pay your debts, and to reform your Government, and if you +remain united, the truce will change into an absolute peace." + +Maurice was more indignant when the new scheme was brought to his notice +than he had ever been before, and used more violent language in opposing +a truce than he had been used to employ when striving against a peace. +To be treated with, as with a free State, and to receive permission to +trade with the outside world until the truce should expire, seemed to him +a sorry result for the republic to accept. + +The state-council declared, by way of answer to the foreign ambassadors, +that the principal points and conditions which had been solemnly fixed, +before the States had consented to begin the negotiations, had been +disputed with infinite effrontery and shamelessness by the enemy. The +pure and perfect sovereignty notoriously included religion and navigation +to any part of the world; and the republic would never consent to any +discussion of truce unless these points were confirmed beforehand with +the Spanish king's signature and seal. + +This resolution of the council--a body which stood much under the +influence of the Nassaus--was adopted next day by the States-General, and +duly communicated to the friendly ambassadors. + +The foreign commissioners, when apprised of this decision, begged for six +weeks' time; in order to be able to hear from Madrid. + +Even the peace party was disgusted with this impertinence. Maurice +boiled over with wrath. The ambassadors recommended compliance with. +the proposal. Their advice was discussed in the States-General, eighty +members being present, besides Maurice and Lewis William. The stadholder +made a violent and indignant speech. + +He was justified in his vehemence. Nothing could exceed the perfidy of +their great ally. + +"I know that the King of France calculates thus"--wrote Aerssens at that +moment from Paris--"'If the truce lasts seven years, my son will be old +enough to accomplish the proposed marriage, and they will be obliged to +fulfil their present offers. Otherwise; I would break the truce in the +Netherlands, and my own peace with them, in order to take from the +Spaniard by force what he led me to hope from alliance.' Thus it is," +continued the States' envoy, "that his Majesty condescends to propose, +to us a truce, which may have a double interpretation, according to the +disposition of the strongest, and thus our commonwealth will be kept in +perpetual disquiet, without knowing whether it is sovereign or not. Nor +will it be sovereign unless it shall so please our neighbour, who by this +means will always keep his foot upon our throat." + +"To treat with the States as if they were free," said Henry to the +Nuncius soon afterwards, "is not to make them free. This clause does no +prejudice to the rights of the King of Spain, except for the time of the +truce." Aerssens taxed the king with having said this. His Majesty +flatly denied it. The republican envoy bluntly adduced the testimony of +the ambassadors of Venice and of Wirtemberg. The king flew into a rage +on seeing that his secrets had been divulged, and burst out with these +words: "What you demand is not reasonable. You wish the king of Spain to +renounce his rights in order to arrive at a truce. You wish to dictate +the law to him. If you had just gained four battles over him, you could +not demand more. I have always held you for sovereigns, because I am +your friend, but if you would judge by equity and justice, you are not +sovereigns. It is not reasonable that the king of Spain should quit the +sovereignty for always, and you ought to be satisfied with having it so +long as the treaty shall last." + +Here was playing at sovereignty with a vengeance. Sovereignty was a +rattle for the States to amuse themselves with, until the royal infants, +French and Spanish, should be grown old enough to take the sovereignty +for good. Truly this was indeed keeping the republic under the king's +heel to be crushed at his pleasure, as Aerssens, with just bitterness, +exclaimed. + +Two days were passed at the Hague in vehement debate. The deputies of +Zeeland withdrew. The deputies from Holland were divided, but, on the +whole, it was agreed to listen to propositions of truce, provided the +freedom of the United Provinces--not under conditions nor during a +certain period, but simply and for all time--should be recognised +beforehand. + +It was further decided on the 14th September to wait until the end of the +month for the answer from Spain. + +After the 1st of October it was distinctly intimated to the Spanish +commissioners that they must at once leave the country unless the king +had then acknowledged the absolute independence of the provinces. + +A suggestion which had been made by these diplomatists to prolong the +actually existing armistice into a truce of seven years, a step which +they professed themselves willing to take upon their own responsibility, +had been scornfully rejected by the States. It was already carrying them +far enough away, they said, to take them away from a peace to a truce, +which was something far less secure than a peace, but the continuance of +this floating, uncertain armistice would be the most dangerous insecurity +of all. This would be going from firm land to slippery ice, and from +slippery ice into the water. By such a process, they would have neither +war nor peace--neither liberty of government nor freedom of commerce--and +they unanimously refused to listen to any such schemes. + +During the fortnight which followed this provisional consent of the +States, the prince redoubled his efforts to counteract the Barneveld +party. + +He was determined, so far as in him lay, that the United Netherlands +should never fall back under the dominion of Spain. He had long +maintained the impossibility of effecting their thorough independence +except by continuing the war, and had only with reluctance acquiesced in +the arguments of the French ambassadors in favour of peace negotiations. +As to the truce, he vehemently assured those envoys that it was but a +trap. How could the Netherlanders know who their friends might be when +the truce should have expired, and under what unfavourable auspices they +might not be compelled to resume hostilities? + +As if he had been actually present at the council boards in Madrid and +Valladolid, or had been reading the secret letters of Friar John to +Spinola, he affirmed that the only object of Spain was to recruit her +strength and improve her finances, now entirely exhausted. He believed, +on the other hand, that the people of the provinces, after they should +have once become accustomed to repose; would shrink from exchanging their +lucrative pursuits for war, and would prefer to fall back under the yoke +of Spain. During the truce they would object to the furnishing of +necessary contributions for garrison expenses, and the result would be +that the most important cities and strongholds, especially those on the +frontier, which were mainly inhabited by Catholics, would become +insecure. Being hostile to a Government which only controlled them by +force, they would with difficulty be kept in check by diminished +garrisons, unless they should obtain liberty of Catholic worship. + +It is a dismal proof of the inability of a leading mind, after half a +century's war, to comprehend the true lesson of the war--that toleration +of the Roman religion seemed to Maurice an entirely inadmissible idea. +The prince could not rise to the height on which his illustrious father +had stood; and those about him, who encouraged him in his hostility to +Catholicism, denounced Barneveld and Arminius as no better than traitors +and atheists. In the eyes of the extreme party, the mighty war had been +waged, not to liberate human thought, but to enforce predestination; and +heretics to Calvinism were as offensive in their eyes as Jews and +Saracens had ever been to Torquemada. + +The reasons were unanswerable for the refusal of the States to bind +themselves to a foreign sovereign in regard to the interior +administration of their commonwealth; but that diversity of religious +worship should be considered incompatible with the health of the young +republic--that the men who had so bravely fought the Spanish Inquisition +should now claim their own right of inquisition into the human +conscience--this was almost enough to create despair as to the +possibility of the world's progress. The seed of intellectual +advancement is slow in ripening, and it is almost invariably the case +that the generation which plants--often but half conscious of the +mightiness of its work--is not the generation which reaps the harvest. +But all mankind at last inherits what is sown in the blood and tears of a +few. That Government, whether regal or democratic, should dare to thrust +itself between man and his Maker--that the State, not with interfering in +a thousand superfluous ways with the freedom of individual human action +in the business of life, should combine with the Church to reduce human +thought to slavery in regard to the sacred interests of eternity, was one +day to be esteemed a blasphemous presumption in lands which deserved to +call themselves free. But that hour had not yet come. + +"If the garrisons should be weakened," said the prince, "nothing could be +expected from the political fidelity of the town populations in question, +unless they should be allowed the exercise of their own religion. But +the States could hardly be disposed to grant this voluntarily, for fear +of injuring the general insecurity and violating the laws of the +commonwealth, built as it is upon a foundation which cannot suffer this +diversity in the public exercise of religion. Already," continued +Maurice, "there are the seeds of dissension in the provinces and in the +cities, sure to ripen in the idleness and repose of peace to an open +division. This would give the enemy a means of intriguing with and +corrupting those who are already wickedly inclined." + +Thus in the year 1608, the head of the Dutch republic, the son of William +the Silent, seemed to express himself in favour of continuing a horrible +war, not to maintain the political independence of his country, but to +prevent Catholics from acquiring the right of publicly worshipping God +according to the dictates of their conscience. + +Yet it would be unjust to the prince, whose patriotism was as pure and +unsullied as his sword, to confound his motives with his end. He was +firmly convinced that liberty of religious worship, to be acquired during +the truce, would inevitably cause the United Provinces to fall once more +under the Spanish yoke. The French ambassador, with whom he conferred +every day, never doubted his sincerity. Gelderland, Friesland, +Overyssel, Groningen, and Utrecht, five provinces out of the united +seven, the prince declared to be chiefly inhabited by Catholics. They +had only entered the union, he said, because compelled by force. They +could only be kept in the union by force, unless allowed freedom of +religion. His inference from such a lamentable state of affairs was, not +that the experiment of religious worship should be tried, but that the +garrisons throughout the five provinces ought to be redoubled, and the +war with Spain indefinitely waged. The President was likewise of opinion +that "a revolt of these five provinces against the union might be at any +moment expected, ill disposed as they were to recognise a sovereignty +which abolished their religion." Being himself a Catholic, however, it +was not unnatural that he should make a different deduction from that of +the prince, and warmly recommend, not more garrisons, but more liberty of +worship. + +Thus the very men who were ready to dare all, and to sacrifice all in +behalf of their country, really believed themselves providing for the +imperishable security of the commonwealth by placing it on the narrow +basis of religious intolerance. + +Maurice, not satisfied with making these vehement arguments against the +truce in his conferences with the envoys of the French and British +sovereigns, employed the brief interval yet to elapse before definitely +breaking off or resuming the conferences with the Spanish commissioners +in making vigorous appeals to the country. + +"The weal or woe of the United Provinces for all time," he said, "is +depending on the present transactions." Weigh well the reasons we urge, +and make use of those which seem to you convincing. You know that the +foe, according to his old deceitful manner, laid down very specious +conditions at the beginning, in order to induce my lords the States- +General to treat. + +"If the king and the archdudes sincerely mean to relinquish absolutely +their pretensions to these provinces, they can certainly have no +difficulty in finding honest and convenient words to express their +intention. As they are seeking other phrases than the usual and +straightforward ones, they give certain proof that they mean to keep back +from us the substance. They are trying to cheat us with dark, dubious, +loosely-screwed terms, which secure nothing and bind to nothing. If it +be wise to trust the welfare of our State to ambiguous words, you can +judge according to your own discretion. + +"Recognition of our sovereignty is the foundation-stone of these +negotiations. + +"Let every man be assured that, with such mighty enemies, we can do +nothing by halves. We cannot afford to retract, mutilate, or moderate +our original determination. He who swerves from the straight road at the +beginning is lost; he who stumbles at the first step is apt to fall down +the whole staircase. If, on account of imaginable necessity, we postpone +that most vital point, the assurance of our freedom, we shall very easily +allow less important points to pass muster, and at last come tamely into +the path of reconciliation. That was exactly the danger which our +ancestors in similar negotiations always feared, and against which we too +have always done our best to guard ourselves. + +"Wherefore, if the preservation of our beloved fatherland is dear to you, +I exhort you to maintain that great fundamental resolution, at all times +and against all men, even if this should cause the departure of the +enemy's commissioners. What can you expect from them but evil fruit?" + +He then advised all the estates and magistracies which he was addressing +to instruct their deputies, at the approaching session of the States- +General, to hold on to the first article of the often-cited preliminary +resolution without allowing one syllable to be altered. Otherwise +nothing could save the commonwealth from dire and notorious confusion. +Above all, he entreated them to act in entire harmony and confidence with +himself and his cousin, even as they had ever done with his illustrious +father. + +Certainly the prince fully deserved the confidence of the States, as well +for his own signal services and chivalrous self-devotion, as for the +unexampled sacrifices and achievements of William the Silent. His words +had the true patriotic ring of his father's frequent and eloquent +appeals; and I have not hesitated to give these extracts from his +discourse, because comparatively few of such utterances of Maurice have +been preserved, and because it gives a vivid impression of the condition +of the republic and the state of parties at that momentous epoch. It was +not merely the fate of the United Netherlands and the question of peace +or war between the little republic and its hereditary enemy that were +upon the issue. The peace of all Christendom, the most considerable +material interests of civilization, and the highest political and moral +principles that can influence human action, were involved in those +negotiations. + +There were not wanting many to impeach the purity of the stadholder's +motives. As admiral or captain-general, he received high salaries, +besides a tenth part of all prize-money gained at sea by the fleets, +or of ransom and blackmail on land by the armies of the republic. His +profession, his ambition, his delights, were those of a soldier. As a +soldier in a great war, he was more necessary to his countrymen than he +could expect to be as a statesman in time of peace. But nothing ever +appeared in public or in private, which threw a reasonable suspicion upon +his lofty patriotism. Peace he had always believed to be difficult of +attainment. It had now been proved impossible. A truce he honestly +considered a pitfall of destruction, and he denounced it, as we have +seen, in the language of energetic conviction. He never alluded to his +pecuniary losses in case peace should be made. His disinterested +patriotism was the frequent subject of comment in the most secret letters +of the French ambassadors to the king. He had repeatedly refused +enormous offers if he would forsake the cause of the republic. The King +of France was ever ready to tempt him with bribes, such as had proved +most efficacious with men as highly born and as highly placed as a cadet +of the house of Orange-Nassau. But there is no record that Jeannin +assailed him at this crisis with such temptations, although it has not +been pretended that the prince was obdurate to the influence of Mammon +when that deity could be openly approached. + +That Maurice loved power, pelf, and war, can hardly be denied. That he +had a mounting ambition; that he thought a monarchy founded upon the +historical institutions and charters of the provinces might be better +than the burgher-aristocracy which, under the lead of Barneveld, was +establishing itself in the country; that he knew no candidate so eligible +for such a throne as his father's son, all this is highly probable and +scarcely surprising. But that such sentiments or aspirations caused him +to swerve the ninth part of a hair from what he considered the direct +path of duty; that he determined to fight out the great fight with Spain +and Rome until the States were free in form, in name, and in fact; only +that he might then usurp a sovereignty which would otherwise revert to +Philip of Spain or be snatched by Henry of Navarre--of all this there is +no proof whatever. + +The language of Lewis William to the provinces under his government was +quite as vigorous as the appeals of Maurice. + +During the brief interval remaining before the commissioners should +comply with the demands of the States or take their departure, the press +throughout the Netherlands was most active. Pamphlets fell thick as +hail. The peace party and the war party contended with each other, +over all the territory of the provinces, as vigorously as the troops +of Fuentes or Bucquoy had ever battled with the columns of Bax and +Meetkerke. The types of Blaauw and Plantin were as effective during the +brief armistice, as pike and arquebus in the field, but unfortunately +they were used by Netherlanders against each other. As a matter of +course, each party impeached the motives as well as the actions of its +antagonist. The adherents of the Advocate accused the stadholder of +desiring the continuance of the war for personal aims. They averred that +six thousand men for guarding the rivers would be necessary, in addition +to the forty-five thousand men, now kept constantly on foot. They placed +the requisite monthly expenses, if hostilities were resumed, at 800,000 +florins, while they pointed to the 27,000,000 of debt over and above the +8,000,000 due to the British crown, as a burthen under which the republic +could scarcely stagger much longer. Such figures seem modest enough, as +the price of a war of independence. + +Familiar with the gigantic budgets of our own day, we listen with +something like wonder, now that two centuries and a half have passed, +to the fierce denunciations by the war party of these figures as wilful +fictions. Science has made in that interval such gigantic strides. The +awful intellect of man may at last make war impossible for his physical +strength. He can forge but cannot wield the hammer of Thor; nor has +Science yet discovered the philosopher's stone. Without it, what +exchequer can accept chronic warfare and escape bankruptcy? After what +has been witnessed in these latest days, the sieges and battles of that +distant epoch seem like the fights of pigmies and cranes. Already an +eighty years' war, such as once was waged, has become inconceivable. Let +two more centuries pass away, and perhaps a three weeks' campaign may +exhaust an empire. + +Meantime the war of words continued. A proclamation with penalties was +issued by the States against the epidemic plague of pamphlets or "blue- +books," as those publications were called in Holland, but with little +result. It was not deemed consistent with liberty by those republicans +to put chains on the press because its utterances might occasionally be +distasteful to magistrates. The writers, printers, and sellers of the +"blue-books" remained unpunished and snapped their fingers at the +placard. + +We have seen the strenuous exertions of the Nassaus and their adherents +by public appeals and private conversation to defeat all schemes of +truce. The people were stirred by the eloquence of the two stadholders. +They were stung to fury against Spain and against Barneveld by the +waspish effusions of the daily press. The magistrates remained calm, +and took part by considerable majorities with Barneveld. That statesman, +while exercising almost autocratic influence in the estates, became more +and more odious to the humbler classes, to the Nassaus, and especially +to the Calvinist clergy. He was denounced, as a papist, an atheist, +a traitor, because striving for an honourable peace with the foe, and +because admitting the possibility of more than one road to the kingdom of +Heaven. To doubt the infallibility of Calvin was as heinous a crime, in +the eyes of his accusers, as to kneel to the host. Peter Titelmann, half +a century earlier, dripping with the blood of a thousand martyrs, seemed +hardly a more loathsome object to all Netherlanders than the Advocate now +appeared to his political enemies, thus daring to preach religious +toleration, and boasting of, humble ignorance as the safest creed. +Alas! we must always have something to persecute, and individual man is +never so convinced of his own wisdom as when dealing with subjects beyond +human comprehension. + +Unfortunately, however, while the great Advocate was clear in his +conscience he had scarcely clean hands. He had very recently accepted a +present of twenty thousand florins from the King of France. That this +was a bribe by which his services were to be purchased for a cause not in +harmony with his own convictions it would be unjust to say. We of a +later generation, who have had the advantage of looking through the +portfolio of President Jeannin, and of learning the secret intentions of +that diplomatist and of his master, can fully understand however that +there was more than sufficient cause at the time for suspecting the +purity of the great Advocate's conduct. We are perfectly aware that the +secret instructions of Henry gave his plenipotentiaries almost unlimited +power to buy up as many influential personages in the Netherlands as +could be purchased. So they would assist in making the king master of +the United Provinces at the proper moment there was scarcely any price +that he was not willing to pay. + +Especially Prince Maurice, his cousin, and the Advocate of Holland, were +to be secured by life pensions, property, offices, and dignities, all +which Jeannin might offer to an almost unlimited amount, if by such means +those great personages could possibly be induced to perform the king's +work. + +There is no record that the president ever held out such baits at this +epoch to the prince. There could never be a doubt however in any one's +mind that if the political chief of the Orange-Nassau house ever wished +to make himself the instrument by which France should supplant Spain in +the tyranny of the Netherlands, he might always name his own price. +Jeannin never insulted him with any such trading propositions. As for +Barneveld, he avowed long years afterwards that he had accepted the +twenty thousand florins, and that the king had expressly exacted secrecy +in regard to the transaction. He declared however that the money was a +reward for public services rendered by him to the French Government ten +years before, in the course of his mission to France at the time of the +peace of Vervins. The reward had been promised in 1598, and the pledge +was fulfilled in 1608. In accepting wages fairly earned, however, he +protested that he had bound himself to no dishonourable service, and that +he had never exchanged a word with Jeannin or with any man in regard to +securing for Henry the sovereignty of the Netherlands. + +His friends moreover maintained in his defence that there were no laws in +the Netherlands forbidding citizens to accept presents or pensions from +foreign powers. Such an excuse was as bad as the accusation. Woe to the +republic whose citizens require laws to prevent them from becoming +stipendiaries of foreign potentates! If public virtue, the only +foundation of republican institutions, be so far washed away that laws in +this regard are necessary to save it from complete destruction, then +already the republic is impossible. Many who bore illustrious names, and +occupied the highest social positions at, that day in France, England, +and the obedient provinces, were as venal as cattle at a fair. Philip +and Henry had bought them over and over again, whenever either was rich +enough to purchase and strong enough to enforce the terms of sale. +Bribes were taken with both hands in overflowing measure; the difficulty +was only in obtaining the work for the wage. + +But it would have been humiliating beyond expression had the new +commonwealth, after passing through the fiery furnace of its great war, +proved no purer than leading monarchies at a most corrupt epoch. It was +no wonder therefore that men sought to wipe off the stain from the +reputation of Barneveld, and it is at least a solace that there was no +proof of his ever rendering, or ever having agreed to render, services +inconsistent with his convictions as to the best interests of the +commonwealth. It is sufficiently grave that he knew the colour of the +king's money, and that in a momentous crisis of history he accepted a +reward for former professional services, and that the broker in the +transaction, President Jeannin, seriously charged him by Henry's orders +to keep the matter secret. It would be still more dismal if Jeannin, in +his private letters, had ever intimated to Villeroy or his master that he +considered it a mercantile transaction, or if any effort had ever been +made by the Advocate to help Henry to the Batavian throne. This however +is not the case. + +In truth, neither Maurice nor Barneveld was likely to assist the French +king in his intrigues against the independence of their fatherland. Both +had higher objects of ambition than to become the humble and well-paid +servants of a foreign potentate. The stadholder doubtless dreamed of a +crown which might have been his father's, and which his own illustrious +services might be supposed to have earned for himself. If that tempting +prize were more likely to be gained by a continuance of the war, it is +none the less certain that he considered peace, and still more truce, as +fatal to the independence of the provinces. + +The Advocate, on the other hand, loved his country well. Perhaps he +loved power even better. To govern the city magistracies of Holland, +through them the provincial estates; and through them again the States- +General of the whole commonwealth; as first citizen of a republic to +wield; the powers of a king; as statesman, diplomatist, and financier, to +create a mighty empire out of those slender and but recently emancipated +provinces of Spain, was a more flattering prospect for a man of large +intellect, iron will, and infinite resources, than to sink into the +contemptible position of stipendiary to a foreign master. He foresaw +change, growth, transformation in the existing condition of things. +Those great corporations the East and West India Companies were already +producing a new organism out of the political and commercial chaos which +had been so long brooding over civilization. Visions of an imperial zone +extending from the little Batavian island around the earth, a chain of +forts and factories dotting the newly-discovered and yet undiscovered +points of vantage, on island or promontory, in every sea; a watery, +nebulous, yet most substantial empire--not fantastic, but practical--not +picturesque and mediaeval, but modern and lucrative--a world-wide +commonwealth with a half-submerged metropolis, which should rule the +ocean with its own fleets and, like Venice and Florence, job its land +wars with mercenary armies--all these dreams were not the cloudy pageant +of a poet but the practical schemes of a great creative mind. They were +destined to become reality. Had the geographical conditions been +originally more favourable than they were, had Nature been less a +stepmother to the metropolis of the rising Batavian realm, the creation +might have been more durable. Barneveld, and the men who acted with him, +comprehended their age, and with slender materials were prepared to do +great things. They did not look very far perhaps into futurity, but they +saw the vast changes already taking place, and felt the throb of forces +actually at work. + +The days were gone when the iron-clad man on horseback conquered a +kingdom with his single hand. Doubtless there is more of poetry and +romance in his deeds than in the achievements of the counting-house +aristocracy, the hierarchy of joint-stock corporations that was taking +the lead in the world's affairs. Enlarged views of the social compact +and of human liberty, as compared with those which later generations +ought to take, standing upon the graves, heaped up mountains high, of +their predecessors, could hardly be expected of them. But they knew how +to do the work before them. They had been able to smite a foreign and +sacerdotal tyranny into the dust at the expense of more blood and more +treasure, and with sacrifices continued through a longer cycle of years, +than had ever been recorded by history. + +Thus the Advocate believed that the chief fruits of the war--political +independence, religious liberty, commercial expansion--could be now +secured by diplomacy, and that a truce could be so handled as to become +equivalent to a peace. He required no bribes therefore to labour for +that which he believed to be for his own interests and for those of the +country. + +First citizen of Holland, perpetual chairman of a board of ambitious +shopkeepers who purposed to dictate laws to the world from their +counting-house table, with an unerring eye for the interests of the +commonwealth and his own, with much vision, extraordinary eloquence, +and a magnificent will, he is as good a sample of a great burgher--an +imposing not a heroic figure--as the times had seen. + +A vast stride had been taken in the world's progress. Even monopoly was +freedom compared to the sloth and ignorance of an earlier epoch and of +other lands, and although the days were still far distant when the earth +was to belong to mankind, yet the modern republic was leading, half +unconsciously, to a period of wider liberty of government, commerce, and +above all of thought. + +Meantime, the period assigned for the departure of the Spanish +commissioners, unless they brought a satisfactory communication from the +king, was rapidly approaching. + +On the 24th September Verreyken returned from Brussels, but it was soon +known that he came empty handed. He informed the French and English +ambassadors that the archdukes, on their own responsibility, now +suggested the conclusion of a truce of seven years for Europe only. This +was to be negotiated with the States-General as with free people, over +whom no pretensions of authority were made, and the hope was expressed +that the king would give his consent to this arrangement. + +The ambassadors naturally refused to carry the message to the States. To +make themselves the mouthpieces of such childish suggestions was to bring +themselves and their masters into contempt. There had been trifling +enough, and even Jeannin saw that the storm of indignation about to burst +forth would be irresistible. There was no need of any attempt on the +part of the commissioners to prolong their stay if this was the result of +the fifteen days' grace which had so reluctantly been conceded to them. +To express a hope that the king might perhaps give his future approval to +a proceeding for which his signed and sealed consent had been exacted as +an indispensable preliminary, was carrying effrontery further than had +yet been attempted in these amazing negotiations. + +Prince Maurice once more addressed the cities of Holland, giving vent to +his wrath in language with which there was now more sympathy than there +had been before. "Verreyken has come back," he said, "not with a +signature, but with a hope. The longer the enemy remains in the country +the more he goes back from what he had originally promised. He is +seeking for nothing more than, in this cheating way and in this pretence +of waiting for the king's consent--which we have been expecting now for +more than eighteen months--to continue the ruinous armistice. Thus he +keeps the country in a perpetual uncertainty, the only possible +consequence of which is our complete destruction. We adjure you +therefore to send a resolution in conformity with our late address, in +order that through these tricks and snares the fatherland may not fall +into the clutch of the enemy, and thus into eternal and intolerable +slavery. God save us all from such a fate!" + +Neither Barneveld nor Jeannin attempted to struggle against the almost +general indignation. The deputies of Zeeland withdrew from the assembly +of the States-General, protesting that they would never appear there +again so long as the Spanish commissioners remained in the country. The +door was opened wide, and it was plain that those functionaries must take +their departure. Pride would not allow them to ask permission of the +States to remain, although they intimated to the ambassadors their +intense desire to linger for ten or twelve days longer. This was +obviously inadmissible, and on the 30th September they appeared before +the Assembly to take leave. + +There were but three of them, the Genoese, the Spaniard, and the +Burgundian--Spinola, Mancicidor; and Richardot. Of the two +Netherlanders, brother John was still in Spain, and Verreyken found it +convenient that day to have a lame leg. + +President Richardot, standing majestically before the States-General, +with his robes wrapped around his tall, spare form, made a solemn +farewell speech of mingled sorrow, pity, and the resentment of injured +innocence. They had come to the Hague, he said, sent by the King of +Spain and the archdukes to treat for a good and substantial peace, +according to the honest intention of his Majesty and their Highnesses. +To this end they had sincerely and faithfully dealt with the gentlemen +deputed for that purpose by their High Mightinesses the States, doing +everything they could think of to further the cause of peace. They +lamented that the issue had not been such as they had hoped, +notwithstanding that the king and archdukes had so far derogated +from their reputation as to send their commissioners into the United +Netherlands, it having been easy enough to arrange for negotiations on +other soil. It had been their wish thus to prove to the world how +straightforward were their intentions by not requiring the States to send +deputies to them. They had accorded the first point in the negotiations, +touching the free state of the country. Their High Mightinesses had +taken offence upon the second, regarding the restoration of religion in +the United Provinces. Thereupon the father commissary had gone to Spain, +and had remained longer than was agreeable. Nevertheless, they had +meantime treated of other points. Coming back at last to the point of +religion, the States-General had taken a resolution, and had given them +their dismissal, without being willing to hear a word more, or to make a +single proposition of moderation or accommodation. + +He could not refrain from saying that the commissioners had been treated +roughly. Their High Mightinesses had fixed the time for their dismissal +more precisely than one would do with a servant who was discharged for +misconduct; for the lackey, if he asked for it, would be allowed at least +a day longer to pack his trunk for the journey. They protested before +God and the assembly of the States that the king and princes had meant +most sincerely, and had dealt with all roundness and sincerity. They at +least remained innocent of all the disasters and calamities to come from +the war. + +"As for myself," said Richardot, "I am no prophet, nor the son of a +prophet; yet I will venture the prediction to you, my lords the States- +General, that you will bitterly rue it that you did not embrace the peace +thus presented, and which you might have had. The blood which is +destined to flow, now that you have scorned our plan of reconciliation, +will be not on our heads but your own." + +Barneveld replied by temperately but firmly repelling the charges brought +against the States in this artful oration of the president. They had +proceeded in the most straightforward manner, never permitting themselves +to enter into negotiations except on the preliminary condition that their +freedom should be once for all conceded and recognised. "You and you +only," he continued, "are to bear the blame that peace has not been +concluded; you who have not been willing or not been able to keep your +promises. One might, with better reason, hold you guilty of all the +bloodshed; you whose edicts, bloodier and more savage than war itself, +long, ago forced these provinces into the inevitable necessity of waging +war; you whose cruelty, but yesterday exercised on the crews of +defenceless and innocent merchantmen and fishing-vessels, +has been fully exhibited to the world." + +Spinola's countenance betrayed much emotion as he listened to the +exchange of bitter recriminations which took place on this farewell +colloquy. It was obvious that the brave and accomplished soldier +honestly lamented the failure of the attempt to end the war. + +But the rupture was absolute. The marquis and the president dined that +day with Prince Maurice, by whom they were afterwards courteously +accompanied a part of the way on their journey to Brussels. + +Thus ended the comedy which had lasted nearly two years. The dismal +leave-taking, as the curtain fell, was not as, entertaining to the public +outside as the dramatic meeting between Maurice and Spinola had been at +the opening scene near Ryswyk. There was no populace to throw up their +hats for the departing guests. From the winter's night in which the +subtle Franciscan had first stolen into the prince's cabinet down to this +autumn evening, not a step of real progress could be recorded as the +result of the intolerable quantity of speech-making and quill-driving. +There were boat-loads of documents, protocols, and notes, drowsy and +stagnant as the canals on which they were floated off towards their tombs +in the various archives. Peace to the dust which we have not wantonly +disturbed, believing it to be wholesome for the cause of human progress +that the art of ruling the world by doing nothing, as practised some +centuries since, should once and again be exhibited. + +Not in vain do we listen to those long-bearded, venerable, very tedious +old presidents, advocates, and friars of orders gray, in their high +ruffs, taffety robes or gowns of frieze, as they squeak and gibber, +for a fleeting moment, to a world which knew them not. It is something +to learn that grave statesmen, kings, generals, and presidents could +negotiate for two years long; and that the only result should be the +distinction between a conjunction, a preposition, and an adverb. That +the provinces should be held as free States, not for free States--that +they should be free in similitude, not in substance--thus much and no +more had been accomplished. + +And now to all appearance every chance of negotiation was gone. The +half-century war, after this brief breathing space, was to be renewed +for another century or so, and more furiously than ever. So thought the +public. So meant Prince Maurice. Richardot and Jeannin knew better. + +The departure of the commissioners was recorded upon the register of the +resolutions of Holland, with the ominous note: "God grant that they may +not have sown, evil seed here; the effects of which will one day be +visible in the ruin of this commonwealth." + +Hardly were the backs of the commissioners turned, before the +indefatigable Jeannin was ready with his scheme for repatching the +rupture. He was at first anxious that the deputies of Zeeland should be +summoned again, now that the country was rid of the Spaniards. Prince +Maurice, however, was wrathful when the president began to talk once more +of truce. The proposition, he said, was simply the expression of a +wish to destroy the State. Holland and Zeeland would never agree to any +such measure, and they would find means to compel the other provinces to +follow their example. If there were but three or four cities in the +whole country to reject the truce, he would, with their assistance alone, +defend the freedom of the republic, or at least die an honourable death +in its defence. This at least would be better than after a few months to +become slaves of Spain. Such a result was the object of those who began +this work, but he would resist it at the peril of his life. + +A singular incident now seemed to justify the wrath of the stadholder, +and to be likely to strengthen his party. Young Count John of Nassau +happened to take possession of the apartments in Goswyn Meursken's +hostelry at the Hague, just vacated by Richardot. In the drawer of a +writing-table was found a document, evidently left there by the +president. This paper was handed by Count John to his cousin, Frederic +Henry, who at once delivered it to his brother Maurice. The prince +produced it in the assembly of the States-General, members from each +province were furnished with a copy of it within two or three hours, +and it was soon afterwards printed, and published. The document, being +nothing less than the original secret instructions of the archdukes to +their commissioners, was naturally read with intense interest by the +States-General, by the foreign envoys, and by the general public. + +It appeared, from an inspection of the paper, that the commissioners had +been told that, if they should find the French, English, and Danish +ambassadors desirous of being present at the negotiations for the treaty, +they were to exclude them from all direct participation in the +proceedings. They were to do this however so sweetly and courteously +that it would be impossible for those diplomats to take offence or to +imagine themselves distrusted. On the contrary, the States-General were +to be informed that their communication in private on the general subject +with the ambassadors was approved by the archdukes, because they believed +the sovereigns of France, England, and Denmark, their sincere and +affectionate friends. The commissioners were instructed to domesticate +themselves as much as possible with President Jeannin and to manifest the +utmost confidence in his good intentions. They were to take the same +course with the English envoys, but in more general terms, and were very +discreetly to communicate to them whatever they already knew, and, on the +other hand, carefully to conceal from them all that was still a secret. + +They were distinctly told to make the point of the Catholic religion +first and foremost in the negotiations; the arguments showing the +indispensable necessity of securing its public exercise in the United +Provinces being drawn up with considerable detail. They were to insist +that the republic should absolutely renounce the trade with the East and +West Indies, and should pledge itself to chastise such of its citizens as +might dare to undertake those voyages, as disturbers of the peace and +enemies of the public repose, whether they went to the Indies in person +or associated themselves with men of other nations for that purpose, +under any pretext whatever. When these points, together with many +matters of detail less difficult of adjustment, had been satisfactorily +settled, the commissioners were to suggest measures of union for the +common defence between the united and the obedient Provinces. This +matter was to be broached very gently. "In the sweetest terms possible," +it was to be hinted that the whole body of the Netherlanders could +protect itself against every enemy, but if dismembered as it was about +to be, neither the one portion nor the ocher would be safe. The +commissioners were therefore to request the offer of some proposition +from the States-General for the common defence. In case they remained +silent, however, then the commissioners were to declare that the +archdukes had no wish to speak of sovereignty over the United Provinces, +however limited. "Having once given them that morsel to swallow," said +their Highnesses, "we have nothing of the kind in our thoughts. But if +they reflect, it is possible that they may see fit to take us for +protectors." + +The scheme was to be managed with great discreetness and delicacy, and +accomplished by hook or by crook, if the means could be found. "You need +not be scrupulous as to the form or law of protection, provided the name +of protector can be obtained," continued the archdukes. + +At least the greatest pains were to be taken that the two sections of the +Netherlands might remain friends. "We are in great danger unless we rely +upon each other," it was urged. "But touch this chord very gently, lest +the French and English hearing of it suspect some design to injure them. +At least we may each mutually agree to chastise such of our respective +subjects as may venture to make any alliance with the enemies of the +other." + +It was much disputed whether these instructions had been left purposely +or by accident in the table-drawer. Jeannin could not make up his mind +whether it was a trick or not, and the vociferous lamentations of +Richardot upon his misfortunes made little impression upon his mind. +He had small confidence in any austerity of principle on the part of his +former fellow-leaguer that would prevent him from leaving the document by +stealth, and then protesting that he had been foully wronged by its +coming to light. On the whole, he was inclined to think, however, +that the paper had been stolen from him. + +Barneveld, after much inquiry, was convinced that it had been left in the +drawer by accident. + +Richardot himself manifested rage and dismay when he found that a paper, +left by chance in his lodgings, had been published by the States. Such a +proceeding was a violation, he exclaimed, of the laws of hospitality. +With equal justice, he declared it to be an offence against the religious +respect due to ambassadors, whose persons and property were sacred in +foreign countries. "Decency required the States," he said, "to send the +document back to him, instead of showing it as a trophy, and he was ready +to die of shame and vexation at the unlucky incident." + +Few honourable men will disagree with him in these complaints, although +many contemporaries obstinately refused to believe that the crafty and +experienced diplomatist could have so carelessly left about his most +important archives. He was generally thought by those who had most dealt +with him, to prefer, on principle, a crooked path to a straight one. +"'Tis a mischievous old monkey," said Villeroy on another occasion, "that +likes always to turn its tail instead of going directly to the purpose." +The archduke, however, was very indulgent to his plenipotentiary. "My +good master," said the, president, "so soon as he learned the loss of +that accursed paper, benignantly consoled, instead of chastising me; and, +after having looked over the draught, was glad that the accident had +happened; for thus his sincerity had been proved, and those who sought +profit by the trick had been confounded." On the other hand, what good +could it do to the cause of peace, that these wonderful instructions +should be published throughout the republic? They might almost seem a +fiction, invented by the war party to inspire a general disgust for any +further negotiation. Every loyal Netherlander would necessarily be +qualmish at the word peace, now that the whole design of the Spanish +party was disclosed. + +The public exercise of the Roman religion was now known to be the +indispensable condition--first, last, and always--to any possible peace. +Every citizen of the republic was to be whipped out of the East and West +Indies, should he dare to show his face in those regions. The States- +General, while swallowing the crumb of sovereignty vouchsafed by the +archdukes, were to accept them as protectors, in order not to fall +a prey to the enemies whom they imagined to be their friends. + +What could be more hopeless than such negotiations? What more dreary +than the perpetual efforts of two lines to approach each other which were +mathematically incapable of meeting? That the young republic, conscious +of her daily growing strength, should now seek refuge from her nobly won +independence in the protectorate of Albert, who was himself the vassal of +Philip, was an idea almost inconceivable to the Dutch mind. Yet so +impossible was it for the archdukes to put themselves into human +relations with this new and popular Government, that in the inmost +recesses of their breasts they actually believed themselves, when making +the offer, to be performing a noble act of Christian charity. + +The efforts of Jeannin and of the English ambassador were now +unremitting, and thoroughly seconded by Barneveld. Maurice was almost +at daggers drawn, not only with the Advocate but with the foreign envoys. +Sir Ralph Winwood, who had, in virtue of the old treaty arrangements with +England, a seat in the state-council at the Hague, and who was a man of a +somewhat rough and insolent deportment, took occasion at a session of +that body, when the prince was present, to urge the necessity of at once +resuming the ruptured negotiations. The King of Great Britain; he said, +only recommended a course which he was himself always ready to pursue. +Hostilities which were necessary, and no others, were just. Such, and +such only, could be favoured by God or by pious kings. But wars were not +necessary which could be honourably avoided. A truce was not to be +despised, by which religious liberty and commerce were secured, and it +was not the part of wisdom to plunge into all the horrors of immediate +war in order to escape distant and problematical dangers; that might +arise when the truce should come to an end. If a truce were now made, +the kings of both France and England would be guarantees for its faithful +observance. They would take care that no wrong or affront was offered +to the States-General. + +Maurice replied, with a sneer, to these sententious commonplaces +derived at second-hand from King James that great kings were often very +indifferent to injuries sustained by their friends. Moreover, there was +an eminent sovereign, he continued, who was even very patient under +affronts directly offered to himself. It was not very long since a +horrible plot had been discovered to murder the King of England, with his +wife, his children, and all the great personages of the realm. That this +great crime had been attempted under the immediate instigation of the +King of Spain was notorious to the whole world, and certainly no secret +to King James. Yet his Britannic Majesty had made haste to exonerate the +great criminal from all complicity in the crime; and had ever since been +fawning upon the Catholic king, and hankering for a family alliance with +him. Conduct like this the prince denounced in plain terms as cringing +and cowardly, and expressed the opinion that guarantees of Dutch +independence from such a monarch could hardly be thought very valuable. + +These were terrible words for the representative of James to have hurled +in his face in full council by the foremost personage of the republic +Winwood fell into a furious passion, and of course there was a violent +scene, with much subsequent protesting and protocolling. + +The British king insisted that the prince should make public amends for +the insult, and Maurice firmly refused to do anything of the kind. The +matter was subsequently arranged by some amicable concessions made by the +prince in a private letter to James, but there remained for the time a +abate of alienation between England and the republic, at which the French +sincerely rejoiced. The incident, however, sufficiently shows the point +of exasperation which the prince had reached, for, although choleric, he +was a reasonable man, and it was only because the whole course of the +negotiations had offended his sense of honour and of right that he had at +last been driven quite beyond self-control. + +On the 13th of October, the envoys of France, England, Denmark, and +of the Elector Palatine, the Elector of Brandeburg, and other German +princes, came before the States-General. + +Jeannin, in the name of all these foreign ministers, made a speech warmly +recommending the truce. + +He repelled the insinuation that the measure proposed had been brought +about by the artifices of the enemy, and was therefore odious. On the +contrary, it was originated by himself and the other good friends of the +republic. + +In his opinion, the terms of the suggested truce contained sufficient +guarantees for the liberty of the provinces, not only during the truce, +but for ever. + +No stronger recognition of their independence could be expected than +the one given. It was entirely without example, argued the president, +that in similar changes brought about by force of arms, sovereigns after +having been despoiled of their states have been compelled to abandon +their rights shamefully by a public confession, unless they had +absolutely fallen into the hands of their enemies and were completely +at their mercy. "Yet the princes who made this great concession," +continued Jeannin, "are not lying vanquished at your feet, nor reduced +by dire necessity to yield what they have yielded." + +He reminded the assembly that the Swiss enjoyed at that moment their +liberty in virtue of a simple truce, without ever having obtained from +their former sovereign a declaration such as was now offered to the +United Provinces. + +The president argued, moreover, with much force and acuteness that +it was beneath the dignity of the States, and inconsistent with their +consciousness of strength, to lay so much stress on the phraseology by +which their liberty was recognised. That freedom had been won by the +sword, and would be maintained against all the world by the sword. + +"In truth," said the orator, "you do wrong to your liberty by calling it +so often in doubt, and in claiming with so much contentious anxiety from +your enemies a title-deed for your independence. You hold it by your own +public decree. In virtue of that decree, confirmed by the success of +your arms, you have enjoyed it long. Nor could anything obtained from +your enemies be of use to you if those same arms with which you gained +your liberty could not still preserve it for you." + +Therefore, in the opinion of the president, this persistence in demanding +a more explicit and unlimited recognition of independence was only a +pretext for continuing the war, ingeniously used by those who hated +peace. + +Addressing himself more particularly to the celebrated circular letter of +Prince Maurice against the truce, the president maintained that the +liberty of the republic was as much acknowledged in the proposed articles +as if the words "for ever" had been added. "To acknowledge liberty is an +act which, by its very nature, admits of no conditions," he observed, +with considerable force. + +The president proceeded to say that in the original negotiations the +qualifications obtained had seemed to him enough. As there was an ardent +desire, however, on the part of many for a more explicit phraseology, as +something necessary to the public safety, he had thought it worth +attempting. + +"We all rejoiced when you obtained it," continued Jeannin, "but not +when they agreed to renounce the names, titles, and arms of the United +Provinces; for that seemed to us shameful for them beyond all example. +That princes should make concessions so entirely unworthy of their +grandeur, excited at once our suspicion, for we could not imagine the +cause of an offer so specious. We have since found out the reason." + +The archdukes being unable, accordingly, to obtain for the truce those +specious conditions which Spain had originally pretended to yield, it was +the opinion of the old diplomatist that the king should be permitted to +wear the paste substitutes about which so many idle words had been +wasted. + +It would be better, he thought, for the States to be contented with what +was precious and substantial, and not to lose the occasion of making a +good treaty of truce, which was sure to be converted with time into an +absolute peace. + +"It is certain," he said, "that the princes with whom you are treating +will never go to law with you to get an exposition of the article in +question. After the truce has expired, they will go to war with you if +you like, but they will not trouble themselves to declare whether they +are fighting you as rebels or as enemies, nor will it very much signify. +If their arms are successful, they will give you no explanations. If you +are the conquerors, they will receive none. The fortune of war will be +the supreme judge to decide the dispute; not the words of a treaty. +Those words are always interpreted to the disadvantage of the weak and +the vanquished, although they may be so perfectly clear that no man could +doubt them; never to the prejudice of those who have proved the validity +of their rights by the strength of their arms." + +This honest, straightforward cynicism, coming from the lips of one +of the most experienced diplomatists of Europe, was difficult to gainsay. +Speaking as one having authority, the president told the States-General +in full assembly, that there was no law in Christendom, as between +nations, but the good old fist-law, the code of brute force. + +Two centuries and a half have rolled by since that oration was +pronounced, and the world has made immense progress in science during +that period. But there is still room for improvement in this regard in +the law of nations. Certainly there is now a little more reluctance to +come so nakedly before the world. But has the cause of modesty or +humanity gained very much by the decorous fig-leaves of modern diplomacy? + +The president alluded also to the ungrounded fears that bribery and +corruption would be able to effect much, during the truce, towards the +reduction of the provinces under their repudiated sovereign. After all, +it was difficult to buy up a whole people. In a commonwealth, where the +People was sovereign, and the persons of the magistrates ever changing, +those little comfortable commercial operations could not be managed so +easily as in civilized realms like France and England. The old Leaguer +thought with pensive regret, no doubt, of the hard, but still profitable +bargains by which the Guises and Mayennes and Mercoeurs, and a few +hundred of their noble adherents, had been brought over to the cause +of the king. He sighed at the more recent memories of the Marquis de +Rosny's embassy in England, and his largess scattered broadcast among the +great English lords. It would be of little use he foresaw--although the +instructions of Henry were in his portfolio, giving him almost unlimited +powers to buy up everybody in the Netherlands that could be bought--to +attempt that kind of traffic on a large scale in the Netherlands. + +Those republicans were greedy enough about the navigation to the East and +West Indies, and were very litigious about the claim of Spain to put up +railings around the Ocean as her private lake, but they were less keen +than were their more polished contemporaries for the trade in human +souls. + +"When we consider, "said Jeannin, "the constitution of your State, and +that to corrupt a few people among you does no good at all, because the, +frequent change of magistracies takes away the means of gaining over many +of them at the same time, capable by a long duration of their power to +conduct an intrigue against the commonwealth, this fear must appear +wholly vain." + +And then the old Leaguer, who had always refused bribes himself, although +he had negotiated much bribery of others, warmed into sincere eloquence +as he spoke of the simple virtues on which the little republic, as should +be the case with all republics, was founded. He did homage to the Dutch +love of liberty. + +"Remember," he said, "the love of liberty which is engraved in the hearts +of all your inhabitants, and that there are few persons now living who +were born in the days of the ancient subjection, or who have not been +nourished and brought up for so long a time in liberty that they have a +horror for the very name of servitude. You will then feel that there is +not one man in your commonwealth who would wish or dare to open his mouth +to bring you back to subjection, without being in danger of instant +punishment as a traitor to his country." + +He again reminded his hearers that the Swiss had concluded a long and +perilous war with their ancient masters by a simple truce, during which +they had established so good a government that they were never more +attacked. Honest republican principles, and readiness at any moment to +defend dearly won liberties, had combined with geographical advantages +to secure the national independence of Switzerland. + +Jeannin paid full tribute to the maritime supremacy of the republic. + +"You may have as much good fortune," he said, "as the Swiss, if you are +wise. You have the ocean at your side, great navigable rivers enclosing +you in every direction, a multitude of ships, with sailors, pilots, and +seafaring men of every description, who are the very best soldiers in +battles at sea to be found in Christendom. With these you will preserve +your military vigour and your habits of navigation, the long voyages to +which you are accustomed continuing as usual. And such is the kind of +soldiers you require. As for auxiliaries, should you need them you know +where to find them." + +The president implored the States-General accordingly to pay no attention +to the writings which were circulated among the people to prejudice them +against the truce. + +This was aimed directly at the stadholder, who had been making so many +direct personal appeals to the people, and who was now the more incensed, +recognising the taunt of the president as an arrow taken from Barneveld's +quiver. There had long ceased to be any communication between the Prince +and the Advocate, and Maurice made no secret of his bitter animosity both +to Barneveld and to Jeannin. + +He hesitated on no occasion to denounce the Advocate as travelling +straight on the road to Spain, and although he was not aware of the +twenty thousand florins recently presented by the French king, he had +accustomed himself, with the enormous exaggeration of party spirit, to +look upon the first statesman of his country and of Europe as a traitor +to the republic and a tool of the archdukes. As we look back upon those +passionate days, we cannot but be appalled at the depths to which +theological hatred could descend. + +On the very morning after the session of the assembly in which Jeannin +had been making his great speech, and denouncing the practice of secret +and incendiary publication, three remarkable letters were found on the +doorstep of a house in the Hague. One was addressed to the States- +General, another to the Mates of Holland, and a third to the burgomaster +of Amsterdam. In all these documents, the Advocate was denounced as an +infamous traitor, who was secretly intriguing to bring about a truce for +the purpose of handing over the commonwealth to the enemy. A shameful +death, it was added, would be his fitting reward. + +These letters were read in the Assembly of the States-General, and +created great wrath among the friends of Barneveld. Even Maurice +expressed indignation, and favoured a search for the anonymous author, in +order that he might be severely punished. + +It seems strange enough that anonymous letters picked up in the street +should have been deemed a worthy theme of discussion before their High +Mightinesses the States-General. Moreover, it was raining pamphlets and +libels against Barneveld and his supporters every day, and the stories +which grave burghers and pious elders went about telling to each other, +and to everybody who would listen to them, about the Advocate's +depravity, were wonderful to hear. + +At the end of September, just before the Spanish commissioners left the +Hague, a sledge of the kind used in the Dutch cities as drays stopped +before Barneveld's front-door one fine morning, and deposited several +large baskets, filled with money, sent by the envoys for defraying +certain expenses of forage, hire of servants, and the like, incurred by +them during their sojourn at the Hague, and disbursed by the States. The +sledge, with its contents, was at once sent by order of the Advocate, +under guidance of Commissary John Spronsen, to the Receiver-General of +the republic. + +Yet men wagged their beards dismally as they whispered this fresh proof +of Barneveld's venality. As if Spinola and his colleagues were such +blunderers in bribing as to send bushel baskets full of Spanish dollars +on a sledge, in broad daylight, to the house of a great statesman whom +they meant to purchase, expecting doubtless a receipt in full to be +brought back by the drayman! Well might the Advocate say at a later +moment, in the bitterness of his spirit, that his enemies, not satisfied +with piercing his heart with their false, injurious and honour-filching +libels and stories, were determined to break it. "He begged God +Almighty," he said, "to be merciful to him, and to judge righteously +between him and them." + +Party spirit has rarely run higher in any commonwealth than in Holland +during these memorable debates concerning a truce. Yet the leaders both +of the war party and the truce party were doubtless pure, determined +patriots, seeking their country's good with all their souls and strength. + +Maurice answered the discourse of Jeannin by a second and very elaborate +letter. In this circular, addressed to the magistracies of Holland, he +urged his countrymen once more with arguments already employed by him, +and in more strenuous language than ever, to beware of a truce even more +than of a peace, and warned them not to swerve by a hair's breadth from +the formula in regard to the sovereignty agreed upon at the very +beginning of the negotiations. To this document was appended a paper +of considerations, drawn up by Maurice and Lewis William, in refutation, +point by point, of all the arguments of President Jeannin in his late +discourse. + +It is not necessary to do more than allude to these documents, which were +marked by the close reasoning and fiery spirit which characterized all +the appeals of the prince and his cousin at this period, because the time +had now come which comes to all controversies when argument is exhausted +and either action or compromise begins. + +Meantime, Barneveld, stung almost to madness by the poisonous though +ephemeral libels which buzzed so perpetually about him, had at last +resolved to retire from the public service. He had been so steadily +denounced as being burthensome to his superiors in birth by the power +which he had acquired, and to have shot up so far above the heads of his +equals; that he felt disposed to withdraw from a field where his presence +was becoming odious. + +His enemies, of course, considered this determination a trick by which +he merely wished to prove to the country how indispensable he was, and +to gain a fresh lease of his almost unlimited power by the alarm which +his proposed abdication would produce. Certainly, however, if it were a +trick, and he were not indispensable, it was easy enough to prove it and +to punish him by taking him at his word. + +On the morning after the anonymous letters had been found in the street +he came into the House of Assembly and made a short speech. He spoke +simply of his thirty-one years of service, during which he believed +himself to have done his best for the good of the fatherland and for +the welfare of the house of Nassau. He had been ready thus to go on +to the end, but he saw himself environed by enemies, and felt that his +usefulness had been destroyed. He wished, therefore, in the interest of +the country, not from any fear for himself, to withdraw from the storm, +and for a time at least to remain in retirement. The displeasure and +hatred of the great were nothing new to him, he said. He had never +shrunk from peril when he could serve his fatherland; for against all +calumnies and all accidents he had worn the armour of a quiet conscience. +But he now saw that the truce, in itself an unpleasant affair, was made +still more odious by the hatred felt towards him. He begged the +provinces, therefore, to select another servant less hated than +himself to provide for the public welfare. + +Having said these few words with the dignity which was natural to him he +calmly walked out of the Assembly House. + +The personal friends of Barneveld and the whole truce party were in +consternation. Even the enemies of the Advocate shrank appalled at the +prospect of losing the services of the foremost statesman of the +commonwealth at this critical juncture. There was a brief and animated +discussion as soon as his back was turned. Its result was the +appointment of a committee of five to wait upon Barneveld and solemnly to +request him to reconsider his decision. Their efforts were successful. +After a satisfactory interview with the committee he resumed his +functions with greater authority than ever. Of course there were not +wanting many to whisper that the whole proceeding had been a comedy, and +that Barneveld would have been more embarrassed than he had ever been in +his life had his resignation been seriously accepted. But this is easy +to say, and is always said, whenever a statesman who feels himself +aggrieved, yet knows himself useful, lays dawn his office. The Advocate +had been the mark of unceasing and infamous calumnies. He had incurred +the deadly hatred of the highest placed, the most powerful, and the most +popular man in the commonwealth. He had more than once been obliged to +listen to opprobrious language from the prince, and it was even whispered +that he had been threatened with personal violence. That Maurice was +perpetually denouncing him in public and private, as a traitor, a papist, +a Spanish partisan, was notorious. He had just been held up to the +States of the union and of his own province by unknown voices as a +criminal worthy of death. Was it to be wondered at that a man of sixty, +who had passed his youth, manhood, and old age in the service of the +republic, and was recognised by all as the ablest, the most experienced, +the most indefatigable of her statesmen, should be seriously desirous of +abandoning an office which might well seem to him rather a pillory than a +post of honour? + +"As for neighbour Barneveld," said recorder Aerssens, little dreaming of +the foul witness he was to bear against that neighbour at a terrible +moment to come, "I do what I can and wish to help him with my blood. He +is more courageous than I. I should have sunk long ago, had I been +obliged to stand against such tempests. The Lord God will, I hope, help +him and direct his understanding for the good of all Christendom, and for +his own honour. If he can steer this ship into a safe harbour we ought +to raise a golden statue of him. I should like to contribute my mite to +it. He deserves twice much honour, despite all his enemies, of whom he +has many rather from envy than from reason. May the Lord keep him in +health, or it will go hardly with us all." + +Thus spoke some of his grateful countrymen when the Advocate was +contending at a momentous crisis with storms threatening to overwhelm +the republic. Alas! where is the golden statue? + +He believed that the truce was the most advantageous measure that the +country could adopt. He believed this with quite as much sincerity as +Maurice held to his conviction that war was the only policy. In the +secret letter of the French ambassador there is not a trace of suspicion +as to his fidelity to the commonwealth, not the shadow of proof of the +ridiculous accusation that he wished to reduce the provinces to the +dominion of Spain. Jeannin, who had no motive for concealment in his +confidential correspondence with his sovereign, always rendered +unequivocal homage to the purity and patriotism of the Advocate and the +Prince. + +He returned to the States-General and to the discharge of his functions +as Advocate-General of Holland. His policy for the time was destined to +be triumphant, his influence more extensive than ever. But the end of +these calumnies and anonymous charges was not yet. + +Meantime the opposition to the truce was confined to the States of +Zeeland and two cities of Holland. Those cities were very important +ones, Amsterdam and Delft, but they were already wavering in their +opposition. Zeeland stoutly maintained that the treaty of Utrecht +forbade a decision of the question of peace and war except by a unanimous +vote of the whole confederacy. The other five provinces and the friends +of the truce began with great vehemence to declare that the question at +issue was now changed. It was no longer to be decided whether there +should be truce or war with Spain, but whether a single member of the +confederacy could dictate its law to the other six States. Zeeland, on +her part, talked loudly of seceding from the union, and setting up for an +independent, sovereign commonwealth. She would hardly have been a very +powerful one, with her half-dozen cities, one prelate, one nobleman, her +hundred thousand burghers at most, bustling and warlike as they were, and +her few thousand mariners, although the most terrible fighting men that +had ever sailed on blue water. She was destined ere long to abandon her +doughty resolution of leaving her sister provinces to their fate. + +Maurice had not slackened in his opposition to the truce, despite the +renewed vigour with which Barneveld pressed the measure since his return +to the public councils. The prince was firmly convinced that the kings +of France and England would assist the republic in the war with Spain so +soon as it should be renewed. His policy had been therefore to force the +hand of those sovereigns, especially that of Henry, and to induce him to +send more stringent instructions to Jeannin than those with which he +believed him to be furnished. He had accordingly despatched a secret +emissary to the French king, supplied with confidential and explicit +instructions. This agent was a Captain Lambert. Whether it was "Pretty +Lambert," "Dandy Lambert"--the vice-admiral who had so much distinguished +himself at the great victory of Gibraltar--does not distinctly appear. +If it were so, that hard-hitting mariner would seem to have gone into +action with the French Government as energetically as he had done +eighteen months before, when, as master of the Tiger, he laid himself +aboard the Spanish admiral and helped send the St. Augustine to the +bottom. He seemed indisposed to mince matters in diplomacy. He +intimated to the king and his ministers that Jeannin and his colleagues +were pushing the truce at the Hague much further and faster than his +Majesty could possibly approve, and that they were obviously exceeding +their instructions. Jeannin, who was formerly so much honoured and +cherished throughout the republic, was now looked upon askance because +of his intimacy with Barneveld and his partisans. He assured the king +that nearly all the cities of Holland, and the whole of Zeeland, were +entirely agreed with Maurice, who would rather die than consent to the +proposed truce. The other provinces, added Lambert, would be obliged, +will ye nill ye, to receive the law from Holland and Zeeland. Maurice, +without assistance from France or any other power, would give Spain and +the archdukes as much exercise as they could take for the next fifty +years before he would give up, and had declared that he would rather die +sword in hand than basely betray his country by consenting to such a +truce. As for Barneveld, he was already discovering the blunders which +he had made, and was trying to curry favour with Maurice. Barneveld and +both the Aprasens were traitors to the State, had become the objects of +general hatred and contempt, and were in great danger of losing their +lives, or at least of being expelled from office. + +Here was altogether too much zeal on the part of Pretty Lambert; a +quality which, not for the first time, was thus proved to be less useful +in diplomatic conferences than in a sea-fight. Maurice was obliged to +disavow his envoy, and to declare that his secret instructions had never +authorized him to hold such language. But the mischief was done. The +combustion in the French cabinet was terrible. The Dutch admiral had +thrown hot shot into the powder-magazine of his friends, and had done no +more good by such tactics than might be supposed. Such diplomacy was +denounced as a mere mixture of "indiscretion and impudence." Henry was +very wroth, and forthwith indited an imperious letter to his cousin +Maurice. + +"Lambert's talk to me by your orders," said the king, "has not less +astonished than scandalized me. I now learn the new resolution which +you have taken, and I observe that you have begun to entertain suspicions +as to my will and my counsels on account of the proposition of truce." + +Henry's standing orders to Jeannin, as we know, were to offer Maurice a +pension of almost unlimited amount, together with ample rewards to all +such of his adherents as could be purchased, provided they would bring +about the incorporation of the United Provinces into France. He was +therefore full of indignation that the purity of his intentions and the +sincerity of his wish for the independence of the republic could be +called in question. + +"People have dared to maliciously invent," he continued, "that I am the +enemy of the repose and the liberty of the United Provinces, and that I +was afraid lest they should acquire the freedom which had been offered +them by their enemies, because I derived a profit from their war, and +intended in time to deprive them of their liberty. Yet these falsehoods +and jealousies have not been contradicted by you nor by anyone else, +although you know that the proofs of my sincerity and good faith have +been entirely without reproach or example. You knew what was said, +written, and published everywhere, and I confess that when I knew this +malice, and that you had not taken offence at it, I was much amazed and +very malcontent." + +Queen Elizabeth, in her most waspish moods, had not often lectured the +States-General more roundly than Henry now lectured his cousin Maurice. + +The king once more alluded to the secret emissary's violent talk, which +had so much excited his indignation. + +"If by weakness and want of means," he said, "you are forced to abandon +to your enemies one portion of your country in order to defend the other- +as Lambert tells me you are resolved to do, rather than agree to the +truce without recognition of your sovereignty for ever--I pray you to +consider how many accidents and reproaches may befal you. Do you suppose +that any ally of the States, or of your family, would risk his reputation +and his realms in such a game, which would seem to be rather begun in +passion and despair than required by reason or necessity?" + +Here certainly was plain speaking enough, and Maurice could no longer +expect the king for his partner, should he decide to risk once more the +bloody hazard of the die. + +But Henry was determined to leave no shade of doubt on the subject. + +"Lambert tells me," he said, "that you would rather perish with arms in +your hands than fall shamefully into inevitable ruin by accepting truce. +I have been and am of a contrary opinion. Perhaps I am mistaken, not +knowing as well as you do the constitution of your country and the wishes +of your people. But I know the general affairs of Christendom better +than you do, and I can therefore judge more soundly on the whole matter +than you can, and I know that the truce, established and guaranteed as +proposed, will bring you more happiness than you can derive from war." + +Thus the king, in the sweeping, slashing way with which he could handle +an argument as well as a sword, strode forward in conscious strength, +cutting down right and left all opposition to his will. He was +determined, once for all, to show the stadholder and his adherents that +the friendship of a great king was not to be had by a little republic on +easy terms, nor every day. Above all, the Prince of Nassau was not to +send a loud-talking, free and easy Dutch sea-captain to dictate terms to +the King of France and Navarre. "Lambert tells me"--and Maurice might +well wish that Pretty Lambert had been sunk in the bay of Gibraltar, +Tiger and all, before he had been sent on this diplomatic errand, +"Lambert tells me," continued his Majesty, "that you and the States- +General would rather that I should remain neutral, and let you make war +in your own fashion, than that I should do anything more to push on this +truce. My cousin, it would be very easy for me, and perhaps more +advantageous for me and my kingdom than you think, if I could give you +this satisfaction, whatever might be the result. If I chose to follow +this counsel, I am, thanks be to God, in such condition, that I have no +neighbour who is not as much in need of me as I can be of him, and who is +not glad to seek for and to preserve my friendship. If they should all +conspire against me moreover, I can by myself, and with no assistance but +heaven's, which never failed me yet, wrestle with them altogether, and +fling them all, as some of my royal predecessors have done. Know then, +that I do not favour war nor truce for the United Provinces because of +any need I may have of the one or the other for the defence of my own +sceptre. The counsels and the succours, which you have so largely +received from me, were given because of my consideration for the good of +the States, and of yourself in particular, whom I have always favoured +and cherished, as I have done others of your house on many occasions." + +The king concluded his lecture by saying, that after his ambassadors had +fulfilled their promise, and had spoken the last word of their master at +the Hague, he should leave Maurice and the States to do as they liked. + +"But I desire," he said, "that you and the States should not do that +wrong to yourselves or to me as to doubt the integrity of my counsels nor +the actions of my ambassadors: I am an honest man and a prince of my +word, and not ignorant of the things of this world. Neither the States +nor you, with your adherents, can permit my honour to be compromised +without tarnishing your own, and without being branded for ingratitude. +I say not this in order to reproach you for the past nor to make you +despair of the future, but to defend the truth. I expect, therefore, +that you will not fall into this fault, knowing you as I do. I pay more +heed to what you said in your letter than in all Lambert's fine talk, +and you will find out that nobody wishes your prosperity and that of +the States more sincerely than I do, or can be more useful to you +than I can." + + [I have abbreviated this remarkable letter, but of course the text + of the passages cited is literally given. J.L.M.] + +There could be but little doubt in the mind of Prince Maurice, after this +letter had been well pondered, that Barneveld had won the game, and that +the peace party had triumphed. + +To resume the war, with the French king not merely neutral but angry and +covertly hostile, and with the sovereign of Great Britain an almost open +enemy in the garb of an ally, might well seem a desperate course. + +And Maurice, although strongly opposed to the truce, and confident in his +opinions at this crisis, was not a desperado. + +He saw at once the necessity of dismounting from the high horse upon +which, it must be confessed, he had been inclined for more rough-riding +of late than the situation warranted. Peace was unattainable, war was +impossible, truce was inevitable; Barneveld was master of the field. + +The prince acquiesced in the result which the letter from the French king +so plainly indicated. He was, however, more incensed than ever against +Barneveld; for he felt himself not only checkmated but humiliated by the +Advocate, and believed him a traitor, who was selling the republic to +Spain. It was long since the two had exchanged a word. + +Maurice now declared, on more than one occasion, that it was useless for +him any longer to attempt opposition to the policy of truce. The States +must travel on the road which they had chosen, but it should not be under +his guidance, and he renounced all responsibility for the issue. + +Dreading disunion, however, more than ought else that could befal the +republic, he now did his best to bring about the return of Zeeland to the +federal councils. He was successful. The deputies from that province +reappeared in the States-General on the 11th November. They were still +earnest, however, in their opposition to the truce, and warmly +maintained, in obedience to instructions, that the Union of Utrecht +forbade the conclusion of a treaty except by unanimous consent of the +Seven Provinces. They were very fierce in their remonstrances, and again +talked loudly of secession. + +After consultation with Barneveld, the French envoys now thought it their +duty to take the recalcitrant Zeelanders in hand; Maurice having, as it +were, withdrawn from the contest. + +On the 18th November, accordingly, Jeannin once more came very solemnly +before the States-General, accompanied by his diplomatic colleagues. + +He showed the impossibility of any arrangement, except by the submission +of Zeeland to a vote of the majority. "It is certain," he said, "that +six provinces will never be willing to be conquered by a single one, nor +permit her to assert that, according to a fundamental law of the +commonwealth, her dissent can prevent the others from forming a definite +conclusion. + +"It is not for us," continued the president, "who are strangers in your +republic, to interpret your laws, but common sense teaches us that, if +such a law exist, it could only have been made in order to forbid a +surrender. + +"If any one wishes to expound it otherwise, to him we would reply, +in the words of an ancient Roman, who said of a law which seemed to him +pernicious, that at least the tablet upon which it was inscribed, if it +could not be destroyed, should be hidden out of sight. Thus at least the +citizens might escape observing it, when it was plain that it would cause +detriment to the republic, and they might then put in its place the most +ancient of all laws, 'salus populi suprema lex.'" + +The president, having suggested this ingenious expedient of the antique +Roman for getting rid of a constitutional provision by hiding the +statute-book, proceeded to give very practical reasons for setting, up +the supreme law of the people's safety on this occasion. And, certainly, +that magnificent common-place, which has saved and ruined so many States, +the most effective weapon in the political arsenal, whether wielded by +tyrants or champions of freedom, was not unreasonably recommended at this +crisis to the States in their contest with the refractory Zeelanders. +It was easy to talk big, but after all it would be difficult for that +doughty little sandbank, notwithstanding the indomitable energy which it +had so often shown by land and sea, to do battle by itself with the whole +Spanish empire. Nor was it quite consistent with republican principles +that the other six provinces should be plunged once more into war, when +they had agreed to accept peace and independence instead, only that +Zeeland should have its way. + +The orator went on to show the absurdity, in his opinion, of permitting +one province to continue the war, when all seven united had not the means +to do it without the assistance of their allies. He pointed out, too, +the immense blunders that would be made, should it be thought that the +Kings of France and England were so much interested in saving the +provinces from perdition as to feel obliged in any event to render them +assistance. + +"Beware of committing an irreparable fault," he said, "on so insecure a +foundation. You are deceiving yourselves: And, in order that there may +be no doubt on the subject, we declare to you by express command that if +your adversaries refuse the truce, according to the articles presented to +you by us, it is the intention of our kings to assist you with armies and +subsidies, not only as during the past, but more powerfully than before. +If, on the contrary, the rupture comes from your side, and you despise +the advice they are giving you, you have no succour to expect from +them. The refusal of conditions so honourable and advantageous to your +commonwealth will render the war a useless one, and they are determined +to do nothing to bring the reproach upon themselves." + +The president then intimated; not without adroitness, that the republic +was placing herself in a proud position by accepting the truce, and that +Spain was abasing herself by giving her consent to it. The world was +surprised that the States should hesitate at all. + +There was much more of scholastic dissertation in the president's +address, but enough has been given to show its very peremptory character. + +If the war was to go on it was to be waged mainly by Zeeland alone. This +was now plain beyond all peradventure. The other provinces had resolved +to accept the proposed treaty. The cities of Delft and Amsterdam, which +had stood out so long among the estates of Holland, soon renounced their +opposition. Prince Maurice, with praiseworthy patriotism, reconciled +himself with the inevitable, and now that the great majority had spoken, +began to use his influence with the factious minority. + +On the day after Jeannin's speech he made a visit to the French +ambassadors. After there had been some little discussion among them, +Barneveld made his appearance. His visit seemed an accidental one, but +it had been previously arranged with the envoys. + +The general conversation went on a little longer, when the Advocate, +frankly turning to the Prince, spoke of the pain which he felt at the +schism between them. He defended himself with honest warmth against the +rumours circulated, in which he was accused of being a Spanish partisan. +His whole life had been spent in fighting Spain, and he was now more +determined than ever in his hostility to that monarchy. He sincerely +believed that by the truce now proposed all the solid advantages of the +war would be secured, and that such a result was a triumphant one for the +republic. He was also most desirous of being restored to the friendship +and good opinion of the house of Nassau; having proved during his whole +life his sincere attachment to their interests--a sentiment never more +lively in his breast than at that moment. + +This advance was graciously met by the stadholder, and the two +distinguished personages were, for the time at least, reconciled. + +It was further debated as to the number of troops that it be advisable +for the States to maintain during the truce and Barneveld expressed his +decided opinion that thirty thousand men, at least, would be required. +This opinion gave the prince at least as much pleasure as did the +personal devotion expressed by the Advocate, and he now stated his +intention of working with the peace party. + +The great result was now certain. Delft and Amsterdam withdrew from +their opposition to the treaty, so that Holland was unanimous before the +year closed; Zeeland, yielding to the influence of Maurice, likewise gave +in her adhesion to the truce. + +The details of the mode in which the final arrangement was made are not +especially interesting. The discussion was fairly at an end. The +subject had been picked to the bones. It was agreed that the French +ambassadors should go over the frontier, and hold a preliminary interview +with the Spanish commissioners at Antwerp. + +The armistice was to be continued by brief and repeated renewals, until +it should be superseded by the truce of years: + +Meantime, Archduke Albert sent his father confessor, Inigo Brizuela, to +Spain, in order to make the treaty posed by Jeannin palatable to the +king? + +The priest was to set forth to Philip, as only a ghostly confessor +could do with full effect, that he need not trouble himself about the +recognition by the proposed treaty of the independence of the United +Provinces. Ambiguous words had been purposely made use of in this +regard, he was to explain, so that not only the foreign ambassadors were +of opinion that the rights of Spain were not curtailed, but the emptiness +of the imaginary recognition of Dutch freedom had been proved by the +sharp criticism of the States. + +It is true that Richardot, in the name of the archduke, had three months +before promised the consent of the king, as having already been obtained. +But Richardot knew very well when he made the statement that it was +false. The archduke, in subsequent correspondence with the ambassadors +in December, repeated the pledge. Yet, not only had the king not given +that consent, but he had expressly refused it by a courier sent in +November. + +Philip, now convinced by Brother Inigo that while agreeing to treat with +the States-General as with a free commonwealth, over which he pretended +to no authority, he really meant that he was dealing with vassals over +whom his authority was to be resumed when it suited his convenience, at +last gave his consent to the, proposed treaty. The royal decision was, +however, kept for a time concealed, in order that the States might become +more malleable. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A truce he honestly considered a pitfall of destruction +Alas! we must always have something to persecute +Argument is exhausted and either action or compromise begins +Beware of a truce even more than of a peace +Could handle an argument as well as a sword +God alone can protect us against those whom we trust +Humble ignorance as the safest creed +Man is never so convinced of his own wisdom +Peace was unattainable, war was impossible, truce was inevitable +Readiness at any moment to defend dearly won liberties +Such an excuse was as bad as the accusation +The art of ruling the world by doing nothing +To doubt the infallibility of Calvin was as heinous a crime +What exchequer can accept chronic warfare and escape bankruptcy +Words are always interpreted to the disadvantage of the weak + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1608(b) *** + +************ This file should be named 4882.txt or 4882.zip ************ + +This eBook was produced by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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