diff options
Diffstat (limited to '4883.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 4883.txt | 2268 |
1 files changed, 2268 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/4883.txt b/4883.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fd2483 --- /dev/null +++ b/4883.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2268 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook History of The United Netherlands, 1609 +#83 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, 1609 + +Author: John Lothrop Motley + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4883] +[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, 1609 *** + + + +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. 83 + +History of the United Netherlands, 1609 + + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + + Vote of the States-General on the groundwork of the treaty-- + Meeting of the plenipotentiaries for arrangement of the truce-- + Signing of the twelve years' truce--Its purport--The negotiations + concluded--Ratification by the States-General, the Archdukes, and + the King of Spain--Question of toleration--Appeal of President + Jeannin on behalf of the Catholics--Religious liberty the fruit of + the war--Internal arrangements of the States under the rule of + peace--Deaths of John Duke of Cleves and Jacob Arminius--Doctrines + of Arminius and Gomarus--Theological warfare--Twenty years' truce + between the Turkish and Roman empires--Ferdinand of Styria-- + Religious peace--Prospects of the future. + +On the 11th January, 1609, the States-General decided by unanimous vote +that the first point in the treaty should be not otherwise fixed than, +thus:-- + +"That the archdukes--to superfluity--declare, as well in their own name +as in that of the King of Spain, their willingness to treat with the +lords States of the United Provinces in the capacity of, and as holding +them for, free countries, provinces, and states, over which they have no +claim, and that they are making a treaty with them in those said names +and qualities." + +It was also resolved not to permit that any ecclesiastical or secular +matters, conflicting with the above-mentioned freedom, should be +proposed; nor that any delay should be sought for, by reason of the +India navigation or any other point. + +In case anything to the contrary should be attempted by the king or the +archdukes, and the deliberations protracted in consequence more than +eight days, it was further decided by unanimous vote that the +negotiations should at once be broken off, and the war forthwith renewed, +with the help, if possible, of the kings, princes, and states, friends of +the good cause. + +This vigorous vote was entirely the work of Barneveld, the man whom his +enemies dared to denounce as the partisan of Spain, and to hold up as a +traitor deserving of death. It was entirely within his knowledge that a +considerable party in the provinces had grown so weary of the war, and so +much alarmed at the prospect of the negotiations for truce coming to +nought, as to be ready to go into a treaty without a recognition of +the independence of the States. This base faction was thought to be +instigated by the English Government, intriguing secretly with President +Richardot. The Advocate, acting in full sympathy with Jeannin, +frustrated the effects of the manoeuvre by obtaining all the votes +of Holland and Zeeland for this supreme resolution. The other five +provinces dared to make no further effort in that direction against +the two controlling states of the republic. + +It was now agreed that the French and English ambassadors should delay +going to Antwerp until informed of the arrival in that city of Spinola +and his colleagues; and that they should then proceed thither, taking +with them the main points of the treaty, as laid down by themselves, and +accepted with slight alterations by the States. + +When the Spanish commissioners had signed these points the +plenipotentiaries were to come to Antwerp in order to settle other +matters of less vital import. Meantime, the States-General were to be +summoned to assemble in Bergen-op-Zoom, that they might be ready to deal +with difficulties, should any arise. + +The first meeting took place on the 10th February, 1609. The first +objection to the draught was made by the Spaniards. It was about words +and wind. They liked not the title of high and puissant lords which was +given to the States-General, and they proposed to turn the difficulty by +abstaining from giving any qualifications whatever, either to the +archdukes or the republican authorities. The States refused to lower +these ensigns of their new-born power. It was, however, at last agreed +that, instead of high and mighty, they should be called illustrious and +serene. + +This point being comfortably adjusted, the next and most important one +was accepted by the Spaniards. The independence of the States was +recognised according to the prescribed form. Then came the great bone of +contention, over which there had been such persistent wrangling--the +India trade. + +The Spanish Government had almost registered a vow in heaven that the +word India should not be mentioned in the treaty. It was no less certain +that India was stamped upon the very heart of the republic, and could not +be torn from it while life remained. The subtle diplomatists now +invented a phrase in which the word should not appear, while the thing +itself should be granted. The Spaniards, after much altercation, at last +consented. + +By the end of February, most of the plenipotentiaries thought it safe to +request the appearance of the States-General at Bergen-op-Zoom. + +Jeannin, not altogether satisfied, however, with the language of the +Spaniards in regard to India, raised doubts as to the propriety of +issuing the summons. Putting on his most reverend and artless expression +of countenance, he assured Richardot that he had just received a despatch +from the Hague, to the effect that the India point would, in all +probability, cause the States at that very moment to break off the +negotiations. It was surely premature, therefore, to invite them to +Bergen. The despatch from the Hague was a neat fiction on the part of +the president, but it worked admirably. The other president, himself +quite as ready at inventions as Jeannin could possibly be, was +nevertheless taken in; the two ex-leaguers being, on the whole, fully +a match for each other in the art of intrigue. Richardot, somewhat +alarmed, insisted that the States should send their plenipotentiaries to +Antwerp as soon as possible. He would answer for it that they would not +go away again without settling upon the treaty. The commissioners were +forbidden, by express order from Spain, to name the Indies in writing, +but they would solemnly declare, by word of mouth, that the States should +have full liberty to trade to those countries; the King of Spain having +no intention of interfering with such traffic during the period of the +truce. + +The commissioners came to Antwerp. The States-General assembled at +Bergen. On the 9th April, 1609, the truce for twelve years was signed. +This was its purport: + +The preamble recited that the most serene princes and archdukes, Albert +and Isabella Clara Eugenic, had made, on the 24th April, 1607, a truce +and cessation of arms for eight months with the illustrious lords the +States-General of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, in quality of, +and as holding them for, states, provinces, and free countries, over +which they pretended to nothing; which truce was ratified by his Catholic +Majesty, as to that which concerned him, by letters patent of 18th +September, 1607; and that, moreover, a special power had been given to +the archdukes on the 10th January, 1608, to enable them in the king's +name as well as their own to do everything that they might think proper +to bring about a peace or a truce of many years. + +It then briefly recited the rupture of the negotiations for peace, and +the subsequent, proposition, originated by the foreign ambassadors, to +renew the conference for the purpose of concluding a truce. The articles +of the treaty thus agreed upon were: + +That the archdukes declared, as well in their own name as that of the +king, that they were content to treat with the lords the States-General +of the United Provinces in quality of, and as holding them for, +countries, provinces, and free states, over which they pretended +to nothing, and to, make with them a truce on certain following +conditions--to wit: + +That the truce should be good, firm, loyal, inviolable, and for the term +of twelve years, during which time there was to be cessation of all acts +of hostility between the king, archdukes, and States-General, as well by +sea and other waters as by land, in all their kingdoms, countries, lands, +and lordships, and for all their subjects and inhabitants of whatever +quality and condition, without exception of places or of persons. + +That each party should remain seized of their respective possessions, +and be not troubled therein during the truce. + +That the subjects and inhabitants of the respective countries should +preserve amity and good correspondence during the truce, without +referring to past offences, and should freely and securely entertain +communication and traffic with each other by land and sea. This +provision, however, was to be expressly understood as limited by the king +to the kingdoms and countries possessed by him in Europe, and in other +places and seas where the subjects of other kings and princes, his +friends and allies, have amicable traffic. In regard, however, to +places, cities, ports, and harbours which he possessed outside of those +limits, the States and their subjects were to exercise no traffic, +without express permission of the king. They could, however, if they +chose, trade with the countries of all other princes, potentates, and +peoples who were willing to permit it; even outside those limits, without +any hindrance by the king; + +That the truce should begin in regard to those distant countries after a +year from date, unless actual notification could be sooner served there +on those concerned; + +That the subjects of the United Provinces should have the same liberty +and privilege within the States of the king and archdukes as had been +accorded to the subjects of the by the King of Great Britain, according +to the last treaty made with that sovereign; + +That letters of marque and reprisal should not be granted during the +truce, except for special cause, and in cases permitted by the laws and +imperial constitutions, and according to the rules therein prescribed; + +That those who had retired into neutral territory during the war were +also to enjoy the benefit of the truce, and could reside wherever they +liked without being deprived of their property; + +That the treaty should be ratified by the archdukes and the States- +General within four days. As to the ratification of the king, the +archdukes were bound to deliver it in good and due form within three +months, in order that the lords the States-General, their subjects and +inhabitants, might enjoy effectively the fruits of the treaty; + +That the treaty should be published everywhere immediately after the +ratification of the archdukes and States-General. + +This document was signed by the ambassadors of the Kings of France and +Great Britain, as mediators, and then by the deputies of the archdukes, +and afterwards by those of the lords the States-General. + +There were thirty-eight articles in all, but the chief provisions +have been indicated. The other clauses, relating to boundaries, +confiscations, regulations of duties, frontier fortifications, +the estates of the Nassau family, and other sequestrated property, +have no abiding interest. + +There was also a secret and special treaty which was demanded of the King +of Spain by the States-General, and by him accorded. + +This secret treaty consisted of a single clause. That clause was made up +of a brief preamble and of a promise. The preamble recited textually +article fourth of the public treaty relative to the India trade. The +promise was to this effect. + +For the period of the truce the Spanish commissioners pledged the faith +of the king and of his successors that his Majesty would cause no +impediment, whether by sea or land, to the States nor their subjects, +in the traffic that thereafter might be made in the countries of all +princes, potentates, and peoples who might permit the same, in whatever +place it might be, even without the limits designated, and everywhere +else, nor similarly to those carrying on such traffic with them, and that +the king and his successors would faithfully carry into effect everything +thus laid, down, so that the said traffic should be free and secure, +consenting even, in order that the clause might be the more authentic, +that it should be considered as inserted in the principal treaty, and as +making part thereof. + +It will be perceived that the first article of all, and the last or +secret article, contained the whole marrow of the treaty. It may be well +understood, therefore, with what wry faces the Spanish plenipotentiaries +ultimately signed the document. + +After two years and a quarter of dreary negotiation, the republic had +carried all its points, without swerving a hair's breadth from the +principles laid down in the beginning. The only concession made was that +the treaty was for a truce of twelve years, and not for peace. But as +after all, in those days, an interval of twelve years might be almost +considered an eternity of peace, and as calling a peace perpetual can +never make it so, the difference was rather one of phraseology than of +fact. + +On the other hand, the States had extorted from their former sovereign a +recognition of their independence. + +They had secured the India trade. + +They had not conceded Catholic worship. + +Mankind were amazed at this result--an event hitherto unknown in +history. When before had a sovereign acknowledged the independence of +his rebellious subjects, and signed a treaty with them as with equals? +When before had Spain, expressly or by implication, admitted that the +East and West Indies were not her private property, and that navigators +to those regions, from other countries than her own, were not to be +chastised as trespassers and freebooters? + +Yet the liberty of the Netherlands was acknowledged in terms which +convinced the world that it was thenceforth an established fact. And +India was as plainly expressed by the omission of the word, as if it had +been engrossed in large capitals in Article IV. + +The King's Government might seek solace in syntax. They might triumph in +Cardinal Bentivoglio's subtleties, and persuade themselves that to treat +with the republic as a free nation was not to hold it for a free nation +then and for ever. But the whole world knew that the republic really was +free, and that it had treated, face to face, with its former sovereign, +exactly as the Kings of France or Great Britain, or the Grand Turk, might +treat with him. The new commonwealth had taken its place among the +nations of the earth. Other princes and potentates made not the +slightest difficulty in recognising it for an independent power and +entering into treaties and alliances with it as with any other realm. + +To the republic the substantial blessing of liberty: to his Catholic +Majesty the grammatical quirk. When the twelve years should expire, +Spain might reconquer the United Provinces if she could; relying upon the +great truth that an adverb was not a preposition. And France or Great +Britain might attempt the same thing if either felt strong enough for the +purpose. Did as plausible a pretext as that ever fail to a state +ambitious of absorbing its neighbours? + +Jeannin was right enough in urging that this famous clause of recognition +ought to satisfy both parties. If the United Provinces, he said, +happened not to have the best muskets and cannons on their side when it +should once more come to blows, small help would they derive from verbal +bulwarks and advantages in the text of treaties. + +Richardot consoled himself with his quibbles; for quibbles were his daily +bread. "Thank God our truce is made," said he, "and we have only lost the +sovereignty for twelve years, if after that we have the means or the will +to resume the war--whatever Don Pedro de Toledo may say." + +Barneveld, on his part, was devoutly and soberly pleased with the result. +"To-day we have concluded our negotiations for the truce," he wrote to +Aerssens. "We must pray to the Lord God, and we must do our highest duty +that our work may redound to his honour and glory, and to the nation's +welfare. It is certain that men will make their criticisms upon it +according to their humours. But those who love their country, and all +honest people who know the condition of the land, will say that it is +well done." + +Thus modestly, religiously, and sincerely spoke a statesman, who felt +that he had accomplished a great work, and that he had indeed brought the +commonwealth through the tempest at last. + +The republic had secured the India trade. On this point the negotiators +had taken refuge in that most useful figure of speech for hard-pressed +diplomatists and law-makers--the ellipsis. They had left out the word +India, and his Catholic Majesty might persuade himself that by such +omission a hemisphere had actually been taken away from the Dutch +merchants and navigators. But the whole world saw that Article IV. +really contained both the East and West Indies. It hardly needed the +secret clause to make assurance doubly sure. + +President Richardot was facetiously wont to observe that this point in +the treaty was so obscure that he did not understand it himself. But he +knew better. He understood it very well. The world understood it very +well. The United Provinces had throughout the negotiations ridiculde the +idea of being excluded from any part of the old world or, the new by +reason of the Borgian grant. All the commissioners knew that the war +would be renewed if any attempt were to be seriously made to put up those +famous railings around the ocean, of which the Dutch diplomatists spoke +in such bitter scorn. The Spanish plenipotentiaries, therefore, had +insisted that the word itself should be left out, and that the republic +should be forbidden access to territories subject to the crown of Spain. +So the Hollanders were thenceforth to deal directly with the kings of +Sumatra and the Moluccas, and the republics of Banda, and all the rich +commonwealths and principalities of nutmegs; cloves, and indigo, unless, +as grew every day more improbable, the Spaniards and Portuguese could +exclude them from that traffic by main force. And the Orange flag of +the republic was to float with equal facility over all America, from the +Isle of Manhattan to the shores of Brazil and the Straits of Magellan, +provided Philip had not ships and soldiers to vindicate with the sword +that sovereignty which Spanish swords and Spanish genius had once +acquired. + +As for the Catholic worship, the future was to prove that liberty for the +old religion and for all forms of religion was a blessing more surely to +flow from the enlightened public sentiment of a free people emerging out +of the most tremendous war for liberty ever waged, than from the +stipulations of a treaty with a foreign power. + +It was characteristic enough of the parties engaged in the great +political drama that the republic now requested from France and Great +Britain a written recognition of its independence, and that both France +and England refused. + +It was strange that the new commonwealth, in the very moment of extorting +her freedom from the ancient tyranny, should be so unconscious of her +strength as to think free papers from neutral powers a boon. As if the +sign-manual of James and Henry were a better guarantee than the trophies +of the Nassaus, of Heemskerk, of Matelieff, and of Olden-Barneveld! + +It was not strange that the two sovereigns should decline the +proposition; for we well know the secret aspirations of each, and it +was natural that they should be unwilling to sign a formal quit-claim, +however improbable it might be that those dreams should ever become +a reality. + +Both powers, however, united in a guarantee of the truce. + +This was signed on the 17th June, and stipulated that, without their +knowledge and consent, the States should make no treaty during the period +of truce with the King of Spain or the archdukes. On the other hand, in +case of an infraction of the truce by the enemy, the two kings agreed to +lend assistance to the States in the manner provided--by the treaties +concluded with the republic previously to the negotiation of the truce. + +The treaty had been at once ratified by the States-General, assembled for +the purpose with an extraordinary number of deputies at Bergen-op-Zoom. +It was also ratified without delay by the archdukes. The delivery of the +confirmation by his Catholic Majesty had been promised within three +months after the signatures of the plenipotentiaries. + +It would however have been altogether inconsistent with the dignity and +the traditions of the Spanish court to fulfil this stipulation. It was +not to be expected that "I the King" could be written either by the +monarch himself, or by his alter ego the Duke of Lerma, in so short a +time as a quarter of a year. + +Several weeks accordingly went by after the expiration of the stated +period. The ratification did not come, and the Netherlanders began to +be once more indignant. Before the storm had risen very high, however, +the despatches arrived. The king's signature was ante-dated 7th April, +being thus brought within the term of three months, and was a thorough +confirmation of what had been done by his plenipotentiaries. + +His Majesty, however, expressed a hope that during the truce the States +would treat their Catholic subjects with kindness. + +Certainly no exception could be taken to so reasonable an intimation as +this. President Jeannin, too, just before his departure, handed in to +the States-General an eloquent appeal on behalf of the Catholics of the +Netherlands; a paper which was not immediately made public. + +"Consider the great number of Catholics," he said, "in your territory, +both in the cities and the country. Remember that they have worked with +you; spent their property, have been exposed to the same dangers, and +have always kept their fidelity to the commonwealth inviolate as long as +the war endured, never complaining that they did not enjoy liberty of +religious worship, believing that you had thus, ordained because the +public safety required such guaranty. But they always promised +themselves, should the end of the war be happy, and should you be placed +in the enjoyment of entire freedom, that they too would have some part in +this good fortune, even as they had been sharers in the inconveniences, +the expenses, and the perils of the war. + +"But those cannot be said to share in any enjoyment from whom has been +taken the power of serving God according to the religion in which they +were brought up. On the contrary, no slavery is more intolerable nor +more exasperates the mind than such restraint. You know this well, my +lords States; you know too that it was the principal, the most puissant +cause that made you fly to arms and scorn all dangers, in order to effect +your deliverance from this servitude. You know that it has excited +similar movements in various parts of Christendom, and even in the +kingdom of France, with such fortunate success everywhere as to make it +appear that God had so willed it, in order to prove that religion ought +to be taught and inspired by the movements which come from the Holy +Ghost, and not by the force of man. Thus kings and princes should be +induced by the evils and ruin which they and their subjects have suffered +from this cause, as by a sentiment of their own interest, to take more +care than has hitherto been taken to practise in good earnest those +remedies which were wont to be used at a time when the church was in +its greatest piety, in order to correct the abuses and errors which the +corruption of mankind had tried to introduce as being the true and sole +means of uniting all Christians in one and the same creed." + +Surely the world had made progress in these forty years of war. Was it +not something to gain for humanity, for intellectual advancement, for +liberty of thought, for the true interests of religion, that a Roman +Catholic, an ex-leaguer, a trusted representative of the immediate +successor of Charles IX. and Henry III., could stand up on the blood- +stained soil of the Netherlands and plead for liberty of conscience +for all mankind? + +"Those cannot be said to share in, any enjoyment from whom has been taken +the power of serving God according to the religion in which they have +been brought up. No slavery is more intolerable nor more exasperating to +the mind than such restraint." + +Most true, O excellent president! No axiom in mathematics is more +certain than this simple statement. To prove its truth William the +Silent had lived and died. To prove it a falsehood, emperors, and kings, +and priests, had issued bans, and curses, and damnable decrees. To root +it out they had butchered, drowned, shot, strangled, poisoned, tortured, +roasted alive, buried alive, starved, and driven mad, thousands and tens +of thousands of their fellow creatures. And behold there had been almost +a century of this work, and yet the great truth was not rooted out after +all; and the devil-worshippers, who had sought at the outset of the great +war to establish the Holy Inquisition in the Netherlands upon the ruins +of religious and political liberty, were overthrown at last and driven +back into the pit. It was progress; it was worth all the blood and +treasure which had been spilled, that, instead of the Holy Inquisition, +there was now holy liberty of thought. + +That there should have been a party, that there should have been an +individual here and there, after the great victory was won, to oppose the +doctrine which the Catholic president now so nobly advocated, would be +enough to cause every believer in progress to hide his face in the dust, +did we not know that the march of events was destined to trample such +opposition out of existence, and had not history proved to us that the +great lesson of the war was not to be rendered nought by the efforts of a +few fanatics. Religious liberty was the ripened and consummate fruit, +and it could not but be gathered. + +"Consider too," continued the president, "how much injury your refusal, +if you give it, will cause to those of your religion in the places where +they are the weakest, and where they are every day imploring with tears +and lamentations the grace of those Catholic sovereigns to whom they are +subject, to enable them to enjoy the same religious liberty which our +king is now demanding in favour of the Catholics among you. Do not cause +it to come again into the minds of those sovereigns and their peoples, +whom an inconsiderate zeal has often driven into violence and ferocity +against protestants, that a war to compel the weakest to follow the +religion of the strongest is just and lawful." + +Had not something been gained for the world when this language was held +by a Catholic on the very spot where less than a half century before the +whole population of the Netherlands, men, women, and children, had been +condemned to death by a foreign tyrant, for the simple reason that it was +just, legal, and a Christian duty to punish the weak for refusing to +follow the religion of the strong? + +"As for the perils which some affect to fear," said Jeannin, further, "if +this liberty of worship is accorded, experience teaches us every day that +diversity of religion is not the cause of the ruin of states, and that a +government does not cease to be good, nor its subjects to live in peace +and friend ship with one another, rendering due obedience to the laws and +to their, rulers as well as if they had all been of the same religion, +without having another thought, save for the preservation of the dignity +and grandeur of the state in which God had caused them to be born. The +danger is not in the permission, but in the prohibition of religious +liberty." + +All this seems commonplace enough to us on the western side of the +Atlantic, in the middle of the nineteenth century, but it would have been +rank blasphemy in New England in the middle of the seventeenth, many +years after Jeannin spoke. It was a horrible sound, too, in the ears of +some of his audience. + +To the pretence so often urged by the Catholic persecutors, and now set +up by their Calvinistic imitators; that those who still clung to the old +religion were at liberty to depart from the land, the president replied +with dignified scorn. + +"With what justice," he asked, "can you drive into, exile people who have +committed no offence, and who have helped to conquer the very country +from which you would now banish them? If you do drive them away, you +will make solitudes in your commonwealth, which will, be the cause of +evils such as I prefer that you should reflect upon without my declaring +them now. Although these reasons," he continued, "would seem sufficient +to induce you to accord the free and public exercise of the Catholic +religion, the king, not hoping as much as that, because aware that you +are not disposed to go so far, is content to request only this grace in +behalf of the Catholics, that you will tolerate them, and suffer them to +have some exercise of their religion within their own households, without +interference or inquiry on that account, and without execution of the +rigorous decrees heretofore enforced against them." + +Certainly if such wholesome, moderate, and modest counsels as these had +been rejected, it would have been sound doctrine to proclaim that the +world did not move. And there were individuals enough, even an +influential party, prepared to oppose them for both technical and +practical reasons. And the cause of intolerance derived much warmth +and comfort at this juncture from that great luminary of theology and +political philosophy, the King of Great Britain. Direful and solemn were +the warnings uttered by James to the republic against permitting the old +religion, or any religion save his own religion, to obtain the slightest +foothold within her borders. + +"Let the religion be taught and preached in its parity throughout your +provinces without the least mixture," said Sir Ralph Winwood, in the name +of his sovereign. + +"On this foundation the justice of your cause is built. There is but one +verity. Those who are willing to tolerate any religion, whatever it may +be, and try to make you believe that liberty for both is necessary in +your commonwealth, are paving the way towards atheism." + +Such were the counsels of King James to the united States of the +Netherlands against harbouring Catholics. A few years later he was +casting forth Calvinists from his own dominions as if they had been +lepers; and they went forth on their weary pilgrimage to the howling +wilderness of North America, those exiled Calvinists, to build a greater +republic than had ever been dreamed of before on this planet; and they +went forth, not to preach, but in their turn to denounce toleration and +to hang heretics. "He who would tolerate another religion that his own +may be tolerated, would if need be, hang God's bible at the devil's +girdle." So spoke an early Massachusetts pilgrim, in the very spirit, +almost the very words of the royal persecutor; who had driven him into +outer darkness beyond the seas. He had not learned the lesson of the +mighty movement in which he was a pioneer, any more than Gomarus or +Uytenbogaart had comprehended why the Dutch republic had risen. + +Yet the founders of the two commonwealths, the United States of the +seventeenth and of the nineteenth centuries, although many of them +fiercely intolerant, through a natural instinct of resistance, not only +to the oppressor but to the creed of the oppressor, had been breaking out +the way, not to atheism, as King James believed, but to the only garden +in which Christianity can perennially flourish--religious liberty. + +Those most ardent and zealous path-finders may be forgiven, in view of +the inestimable benefits conferred by them upon humanity, that they did +not travel on their own road. It should be sufficient for us, if we make +due use of their great imperishable work ourselves; and if we never cease +rendering thanks to the Omnipotent, that there is at least one great +nation on the globe where the words toleration and dissenter have no +meaning whatever. + +For the Dutch fanatics of the reformed church, at the moment of the +truce, to attempt to reverse the course of events, and to shut off the +mighty movement of the great revolt from its destined expanse, was as +hopeless a dream as to drive back the Rhine, as it reached the ocean, +into the narrow channel of the Rheinwald glacier whence it sprang. + +The republic became the refuge for the oppressed of all nations, where +Jews and Gentiles, Catholics, Calvinists, and Anabaptistis, prayed after +their own manner to the same God and Father. It was too much, however, +to hope that passions which had been so fiercely bubbling during fifty +years would subside at once, and that the most intense religious hatreds +that ever existed would exhale with the proclamation of truce. The march +of humanity is rarely rapid enough to keep pace with the leaders in its +most sublime movements, and it often happens that its chieftains are +dwarfed in the estimation of the contemporaneous vulgar, by the very +distance at which they precede their unconscious followers. But even if +the progress of the human mind towards the truth is fated to be a spiral +one, as if to remind us that mankind is of the earth, earthy--a worm in +the dust while inhabiting this lower sphere--it is at least a consolation +to reflect upon the gradual advancement of the intellect from age to age. + +The spirit of Torquemada, of Charles, of Philip, of Titelmann, is even +now not extinct on this globe, but there are counter forces at work, +which must ultimately blast it into insignificance. At the moment of the +great truce, that evil spirit was not exorcised from the human breast, +but the number of its victims and the intensity of its influence had +already miraculously diminished. + +The truce was made and announced all over the Netherlands by the ringing +of bells, the happy discharge of innocent artillery, by illuminations, by +Te Deums in all the churches. Papist and Presbyterian fell on their +knees in every grand cathedral or humblest village church, to thank God +that what had seemed the eternal butchery was over. The inhabitants of +the united and of the obedient Netherlands rushed across the frontiers +into a fraternal embrace; like the meeting of many waters when the flood- +gates are lifted. It was pity that the foreign sovereignty, established +at Brussels, could not then and there have been for ever swept away, and +self-government and beneficent union extended over all the seventeen +Netherlands, Walloon and Flemish, Catholic and reformed. But it hardly +needs a word to show that the course of events had created a deeper chasm +between the two sections than the gravest physical catastrophe could have +produced. The opposing cliffs which religious hatred had rent asunder, +and between which it seemed destined to flow for ever, seemed very close, +and yet eternally separated. + +The great war had established the republic; and apparently doomed the +obedient Netherlands to perpetual servitude. + +There were many details of minor importance to be settled between the +various governments involved in these great transactions; but this +history draws to its predestined close, and it is necessary to glide +rapidly over matters which rather belong to a later epoch than the one +now under consideration. + +The treaty between the republic and the government of Great Britain, +according to which each was to assist the other in case of war with four +thousand troops and twenty ships of war, was confirmed in the treaty of +truce. The debt of the United Provinces to the Crown of England was +definitely reckoned at 8,184,080 florins, and it was settled by the truce +that 200,000 florins should be paid semi-annually, to begin with the year +1611, until the whole debt should be discharged. + +The army establishment of the republic was fixed during the truce at +thirty thousand infantry and three thousand horse. This was a reduction +from the war footing of fifteen thousand men. Of the force retained, +four thousand were a French legion maintained by the king, two thousand +other French at the expense of the States, and distributed among other +troops, two thousand Scotch, three thousand English, three thousand +Germans. The rest were native Netherlanders, among whom, however, were +very few Hollanders and Zeelanders, from which races the navy, both +public and mercantile, was almost wholly supplied. + +The revenue of the United Provinces was estimated at between seven and +eight millions of florins. + +It is superfluous to call attention again to the wonderful smallness of +the means, the minuteness of the physical enginry, as compared with more +modern manifestations, especially in our own land and epoch, by which so +stupendous a result had been reached. In the midst of an age in which +regal and sacerdotal despotism had seemed as omnipotent and irreversible +as the elemental laws of the universe, the republic had been reproduced. +A commonwealth of sand-banks, lagoons, and meadows, less than fourteen +thousand square miles in extent, had done battle, for nearly half a +century, with the greatest of existing powers, a realm whose territory +was nearly a third of the globe, and which claimed universal monarchy. +And this had been done with an army averaging forty-six thousand men, +half of them foreigners hired by the job, and by a sea-faring population, +volunteering into ships of every class and denomination, from a fly-boat +to a galleot of war. + +And when the republic had won its independence, after this almost eternal +warfare, it owed four or five millions of dollars, and had sometimes an +annual revenue of nearly that amount. + +It was estimated by Barneveld, at the conclusion of the truce, that the +interest on the public debt of Spain was about thrice the amount of the +yearly income of the republic, and it was characteristic of the financial +ideas of the period, that fears were entertained lest a total repudiation +of that burthen by the Spanish Government would enable it to resume the +war against the provinces with redoubled energy. + +The annual salary of Prince Maurice, who was to see his chief occupation +gone by the cessation of the war, was fixed by the States at 120,000 +florins. It was agreed, that in case of his marriage he should receive +a further yearly sum of 25,000 florins, and this addition was soon +afterwards voted to him outright, it being obvious that the prince would +remain all his days a bachelor. + +Count Frederic Henry likewise received a military salary of 25,000 +florins, while the emoluments of Lewis William were placed at 36,000 +florins a year. + +It must be admitted that the republic was grateful. 70,000 dollars a +year, in the seventeenth century, not only for life, but to be inherited +afterwards by his younger brother, Frederic Henry, was surely a +munificent sum to be accorded from the puny exchequer of the States- +General to the chief magistrate of the nation. + +The mighty transatlantic republic, with its population of thirty or forty +millions, and its revenue of five hundred millions of dollars, pays +25,000 dollars annually for its president during his four years of +office, and this in the second half of the nineteenth century, when a +dollar is worth scarcely one-fifth of its value two hundred and fifty +years ago. + +Surely here is improvement, both in the capacity to produce and in the +power to save. + +In the year 1609, died John, the last sovereign of Cleves and Juliers, +and Jacob Arminius, Doctor of Divinity at Leyden. It would be difficult +to imagine two more entirely dissimilar individuals of the human family +than this lunatic duke and that theological professor. And yet, perhaps, +the two names, more concisely than those of any other mortals, might +serve as an index to the ghastly chronicle over which a coming generation +was to shudder. The death of the duke was at first thought likely to +break off the negotiations for truce. The States-General at once +declared that they would permit no movements on the part of the Spanish +party to seize the inheritance in behalf of the Catholic claimants. +Prince Maurice, nothing loth to make use of so well-timed an event in +order to cut for ever the tangled skein at the Hague, was for marching +forthwith into the duchies. + +But the archdukes gave such unequivocal assurances of abstaining from +interference, and the desire for peace was so strong both in the obedient +and in the United Provinces, that the question of the duchies was +postponed. It was to serve as both torch and fuel for one of the longest +and most hideous tragedies that had ever disgraced humanity. A thirty +years' war of demons was, after a brief interval, to succeed the forty +years' struggle between slaves and masters, which had just ended in the +recognition of Dutch independence. + +The gentle Arminius was in his grave, but a bloody harvest was fast +ripening from the seeds which he had sown. That evil story must find its +place in the melancholy chapter where the fortunes of the Dutch republic +are blended with the grim chronicle of the thirty years' war. Until the +time arrives for retracing the course of those united transactions to +their final termination in the peace of Westphalia, it is premature to +characterize an epoch which, at the moment with which we are now +occupied, had not fairly begun. + +The Gomarites accused the Arminians of being more lax than Papists, and +of filling the soul of man with vilest arrogance and confidence in good +works; while the Arminians complained that the God of the Gomarites was +an unjust God, himself the origin of sin. + +The disputes on these themes had been perpetual in the provinces ever +since the early days of the Reformation. Of late, however, the acrimony +of theological conflict had been growing day by day more intense. It was +the eternal struggle of religious dogma to get possession of the State, +and to make use of political forces in order to put fetters on the human +soul; to condemn it to slavery where most it requires freedom. + +The conflict between Gomarus and Arminius proceeded with such ferocity +in Leyden, that, since the days of the memorable siege, to which the +university owed its origin, men's minds had never been roused to such +feverish anxiety: The theological cannonades, which thundered daily from +the college buildings and caused all Holland to quake, seemed more +appalling to the burghers than the enginry of Valdez and Boisot had ever +seemed to their fathers. + +The Gomarite doctrine gained most favour with the clergy, the Arminian +creed with the municipal magistracies. The magistrates claimed that +decisions concerning religious matters belonged to the supreme authority. +The Gomarites contended that sacred matters should be referred to synods +of the clergy. Here was the germ of a conflict which might one day shake +the republic to its foundations. + +Barneveld, the great leader of the municipal, party, who loved political +power quite as well as he loved his country; was naturally a chieftain of +the Arminians; for church, matters were no more separated from political +matters in the commonwealth at that moment than they were in the cabinets +of Henry, James, or Philip. + +It was inevitable therefore that the war party should pour upon his head +more than seven vials of theological wrath. The religious doctrines +which he espoused were, odious not only because they were deemed vile in +themselves but because he believed in them. + +Arminianism was regarded as a new and horrible epidemic, daily gaining +ground, and threatening to destroy the whole population. Men deliberated +concerning the best means to cut off communication with the infected +regions, and to extirpate the plague even by desperate and heroic +remedies, as men in later days take measures against the cholera or the +rinderpest. + +Theological hatred was surely not extinct in the Netherlands. It was a +consolation, however, that its influence was rendered less noxious by the +vastly increased strength of principles long dormant in the atmosphere. +Anna van der Hoven, buried alive in Brussels, simply because her +Calvinistic creed was a crime in the eyes of the monks who murdered her, +was the last victim to purely religious persecution. If there were one +day to be still a tragedy or two in the Netherlands it was inevitable +that theological hatred would be obliged to combine with political party +spirit in its most condensed form before any deadly effect could be +produced. + +Thus the year 1609 is a memorable one in the world's history. It forms a +great landmark in human progress. It witnessed the recognition of a +republic, powerful in itself, and whose example was destined to be most +influential upon the career of two mighty commonwealths of the future. +The British empire, just expanding for wider flight than it had hitherto +essayed, and about to pass through a series of vast revolutions, +gathering strength of wing as it emerged from cloud after cloud; and the +American republic, whose frail and obscure beginnings at that very +instant of time scarcely attracted a passing attention from the +contemporaneous world--both these political organisms, to which so much +of mankind's future liberties had been entrusted, were deeply indebted to +the earlier self-governing commonwealth. + +The Dutch republic was the first free nation to put a girdle of +empire around the earth. It had courage, enterprise, intelligence, +perseverance, faith in itself, the instinct of self-government and self- +help, hatred of tyranny, the disposition to domineer, aggressiveness, +greediness, inquisitiveness, insolence, the love of science, of liberty, +and of money--all this in unlimited extent. It had one great defect, it +had no country. Upon that meagre standing ground its hand had moved the +world with an impulse to be felt through all the ages, but there was not +soil enough in those fourteen thousand, square miles to form the +metropolis of the magnificent empire which the genius of liberty had +created beyond the seas. + +That the political institutions bequeathed by the United States of the +seventeenth century have been vastly improved, both in theory and +practice, by the United States of the nineteenth, no American is likely +to gainsay. That the elder Republic showed us also what to avoid, and +was a living example of the perils besetting a Confederacy which dared +not become a Union, is a lesson which we might take closely to heart. + +But the year 1609 was not only memorable as marking an epoch in Dutch +history. It was the beginning of a great and universal pause. The world +had need of rest. Disintegration had been going on too rapidly, and it +was absolutely necessary that there should be a new birth, if +civilization were not to vanish. + +A twenty years' truce between the Turkish and Holy Roman empires was +nearly simultaneous with the twelve years' truce between Spain and the +United Provinces. The Emperor Rudolph having refused to ratify the +treaty which his brother Matthias had made, was in consequence partially +discrowned. The same archduke who, thirty years before, had slipped away +from Vienna in his nightgown; with his face blackened, to outwit and +outgeneral William the Silent at Brussels, was now--more successful in +his manoeuvres against his imperial brother. Standing at the head of his +army in battle array, in the open fields before the walls of Prague, he +received--from the unfortunate Rudolph the crown and regalia of Hungary, +and was by solemn treaty declared sovereign of that ancient and +chivalrous kingdom. + +His triumphal entrance into Vienna succeeded, where, surrounded by great +nobles and burghers, with his brother Maximilian at his side, with +immense pomp and with flowers strewn before his feet, he ratified that +truce with Ahmed which Rudolph had rejected. Three months later he was +crowned at Pressburg, having first accepted the conditions proposed by +the estates of Hungary. Foremost among these was the provision that the +exercise of the reformed religion should be free in all the cities and +villages beneath his sceptre, and that every man in the kingdom was to +worship God according to his conscience. + +In the following March, at the very moment accordingly when the +conclusive negotiations were fast ripening at Antwerp, Matthias granted +religious peace for Austria likewise. Great was the indignation of his +nephew Leopold, the nuncius, and the Spanish ambassador in consequence, +by each and all of whom the revolutionary mischief-maker, with his +brother's crown on his head, was threatened with excommunication. + +As for Ferdinand of Styria, his wrath may well be imagined. He refused +religious peace in his dominions with scorn ineffable. Not Gomarus in +Leyden could have shrunk from Arminianism with more intense horror than +that with which the archduke at Gratz recoiled from any form of +Protestantism. He wrote to his brother-in-law the King of Spain and to +other potentates--as if the very soul of Philip II. were alive within +him--that he would rather have a country without inhabitants than with a +single protestant on its soil. He strongly urged upon his Catholic +Majesty--as if such urging were necessary at the Spanish court--the +necessity of extirpating heresy, root and branch. + +Here was one man at least who knew what he meant, and on whom the dread +lessons of fifty years of bloodshed had been lost. Magnificent was the +contempt which this pupil of the Jesuits felt for any little progress +made by the world since the days of Torquemada. In Ferdinand's view Alva +was a Christian hero, scarcely second to Godfrey of Bouillon, Philip II. +a sainted martyr, while the Dutch republic had never been born. + +And Ferdinand was one day to sit on the throne of the holy Roman Empire. +Might not a shudder come over the souls of men as coming events vaguely +shaped themselves to prophetic eyes? + +Meantime there was religious peace in Hungary, in Austria, in Bohemia, in +France, in Great Britain, in the Netherlands. The hangman's hands were +for a period at rest, so far as theology had need of them. Butchery in +the name of Christ was suspended throughout Christendom. The Cross and +the Crescent, Santiago and the Orange banner, were for a season in +repose. + +There was a vast lull between two mighty storms. The forty years' war +was in the past, the thirty years' war in the not far distant future. + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +CONCLUSION. + +Forth-three years had passed since the memorable April morning in which +the great nobles of the, Netherlands presented their "Request" to the +Regent Margaret at Brussels. + +They had requested that the holy Spanish Inquisition might not be +established on their soil to the suppression of all their political and +religious institutions. + +The war which those high-born "beggars" had then kindled, little knowing +what they were doing, had now come to a close, and the successor of +Philip II., instead of planting the Inquisition in the provinces, had +recognised them as an independent, sovereign, protestant republic. + +In the ratification which he had just signed of the treaty of truce the +most Catholic king had in his turn made a Request. He had asked the +States-General to deal kindly with their Catholic subjects. + +That request was not answered with the age and faggot; with the avenging +sword of mercenary legions. On the contrary, it was destined to be +granted. The world had gained something in forty-three years. It had at +least begun to learn that the hangman is not the most appropriate teacher +of religion. + +During the period of apparent chaos with which this history of the great +revolt has been occupied, there had in truth been a great reorganization, +a perfected new birth. The republic had once more appeared in the world. + +Its main characteristics have been indicated in the course of the +narrative, for it was a polity which gradually unfolded itself out of the +decay and change of previous organisms. + +It was, as it were, in their own despite and unwittingly that the United +Provinces became a republic at all. + +In vain, after originally declaring their independence of the ancient +tyrant, had they attempted to annex themselves to France and to England. +The sovereignty had been spurned. The magnificent prize which France for +centuries since has so persistently coveted, and the attainment of which +has been a cardinal point of her perpetual policy--the Low Countries and +the banks of the Rhine--was deliberately laid at her feet, and as +deliberately refused. + +It was the secret hope of the present monarch to repair the loss which +the kingdom had suffered through the imbecility of his two immediate +predecessors. But a great nation cannot with impunity permit itself to +be despotically governed for thirty years by lunatics. It was not for +the Bearnese, with all his valour, his wit, and his duplicity, to obtain +the prize which Charles IX. and Henry III. had thrown away. Yet to make +himself sovereign of the Netherlands was his guiding but most secret +thought during all the wearisome and tortuous negotiations which preceded +the truce; nor did he abandon the great hope with the signature of the +treaty of 1609. + +Maurice of Nassau too was a formidable rival to Henry. The stadholder- +prince was no republican. He was a good patriot, a noble soldier, an +honest man. But his father had been offered the sovereignty of Holland +and Zeeland, and the pistol of Balthasar Gerard had alone, in all human +probability, prevented the great prince from becoming constitutional +monarch of all the Netherlands, Batavian and Belgic. + +Maurice himself asserted that not only had he been offered a million of +dollars, and large estates besides in Germany, if he would leave the +provinces to their fate, but that the archdukes had offered, would he +join his fortunes with theirs, to place him in a higher position over all +the Netherlands than he had ever enjoyed in the United Provinces, and +that they had even unequivocally offered him the sovereignty over the +whole land. + +Maurice was a man of truth, and we have no right to dispute the accuracy +of the extraordinary statement. He must however have reflected upon the +offer once made by the Prince of Darkness from the mountain top, and have +asked himself by what machinery the archdukes proposed to place him in +possession of such a kingdom. + +There had, however, been serious question among leading Dutch +statesmen of making him constitutional, hereditary monarch of the United +Netherlands. As late as 1602 a secret conference was held at the house +of Olden-Barneveld, in which the Advocate had himself urged the claims of +the prince to the sovereignty, and reminded his guests that the signed +and sealed documents--with the concurrence of the Amsterdam municipality +alone lacking--by which William the Silent had been invited to assume the +crown were still in the possession of his son. + +Nothing came of these deliberations. It was agreed that to stir in the +matter at that moment would be premature, and that the pursuit by Maurice +of the monarchy in the circumstances then existing would not only over- +burthen him with expense, but make him a more conspicuous mark than ever +for the assassin. It is certain that the prince manifested no undue +anxiety at any period in regard to those transactions. + +Subsequently, as Olden-Barneveld's personal power increased, and as the +negotiations for peace became more and more likely to prove successful, +the Advocate lost all relish for placing his great rival on a throne. +The whole project, with the documents and secret schemes therewith +connected, became mere alms for oblivion. Barneveld himself, although of +comparatively humble birth and station, was likely with time to exercise +more real power in the State than either Henry or Maurice; and thus while +there were three individuals who in different ways aspired to supreme +power, the republic, notwithstanding, asserted and established itself. + +Freedom of government and freedom, of religion were, on the whole, +assisted by this triple antagonism. The prince, so soon as war was +over, hated the Advocate and his daily increasing power more and more. +He allied himself more closely than ever with the Gomarites and the +clerical party in general, and did his best to inflame the persecuting +spirit, already existing in the provinces, against the Catholics and the +later sects of Protestants. + +Jeannin warned him that "by thus howling with the priests" he would be +suspected of more desperately ambitious designs than he perhaps really +cherished. + +On the other hand, Barneveld was accused of a willingness to wink at the +introduction, privately and quietly, of the Roman Catholic worship. That +this was the deadliest of sins, there was no doubt whatever in the minds +of his revilers. When it was added that he was suspected of the Arminian +leprosy, and that he could tolerate the thought that a virtuous man or +woman, not predestined from all time for salvation, could possibly find +the way to heaven, language becomes powerless to stigmatize his +depravity. Whatever the punishment impending over his head in this world +or the next, it is certain that the cause of human freedom was not +destined on the whole to lose ground through the life-work of Barneveld. + +A champion of liberties rather than of liberty, he defended his +fatherland with heart and soul against the stranger; yet the government +of that fatherland was, in his judgments to be transferred from the hand +of the foreigner, not to the self-governing people, but to the provincial +corporations. For the People he had no respect, and perhaps little +affection. He often spoke of popular rights with contempt. Of popular +sovereignty he had no conception. His patriotism, like his ambition, was +provincial. Yet his perceptions as to eternal necessity in all healthy +governments taught him that comprehensible relations between the state +and the population were needful to the very existence of a free +commonwealth. The United Provinces, he maintained, were not a republic, +but a league of seven provinces very loosely hung together, a mere +provisional organization for which it was not then possible to substitute +anything better. He expressed this opinion with deep regret, just as the +war of independence was closing, and added his conviction that, without +some well-ordered government, no republic could stand. + +Yet, as time wore on, the Advocate was destined to acquiesce more and +more in this defective constitution. A settled theory there was none, +and it would have been difficult legally and historically to establish +the central sovereignty of the States-General as matter of right. + +Thus Barneveld, who was anything but a democrat, became, almost +unwittingly, the champion of the least venerable or imposing of all +forms of aristocracy--an oligarchy of traders who imagined themselves +patricians. Corporate rights, not popular liberty, seemed, in his view, +the precious gains made by such a prodigious expenditure of time, money, +and blood. Although such acquisitions were practically a vast addition +to the stock of human freedom then existing in the world, yet torrents of +blood and millions of treasure were to be wasted in the coming centuries +before mankind was to convince itself that a republic is only to be made +powerful and perpetual by placing itself upon the basis of popular right +rather than on that of municipal privilege. + +The singular docility of the Dutch people, combined with the simplicity, +honesty, and practical sagacity of the earlier burgher patricians, made +the defects of the system tolerable for a longer period than might have +been expected; nor was it until theological dissensions had gathered to +such intensity as to set the whole commonwealth aflame that the grave +defects in the political structure could be fairly estimated. + +It would be anticipating a dark chapter in the history of the United +Provinces were the reader's attention now to be called to those fearful +convulsions. The greatest reserve is therefore necessary at present in +alluding to the subject. + +It was not to be expected that an imperious, energetic but somewhat +limited nature like that of Barneveld should at that epoch thoroughly +comprehend the meaning of religious freedom. William the Silent alone +seems to have risen to that height. A conscientious Calvinist himself, +the father of his country would have been glad to see Protestant and +Papist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Anabaptist living together in harmony +and political equality. This was not to be. The soul of the immortal +prince could not inspire the hearts of his contemporaries. That +Barneveld was disposed to a breadth of religious sympathy unusual in +those days, seems certain. It was inevitable, too, that the mild +doctrines of Arminius should be more in harmony with such a character +than were the fierce dogmas of Calvin. But the struggle, either to force +Arminianism upon the Church which considered itself the established one +in the Netherlands, or to expel the Calvinists from it, had not yet +begun; although the seeds of religious persecution of Protestants by +Protestants had already been sown broadcast. + +The day was not far distant when the very Calvinists, to whom, more than +to any other class of men, the political liberties of Holland, England, +and America are due, were to be hunted out of churches into farm-houses, +suburban hovels, and canal-boats by the arm of provincial sovereignty and +in the name of state-rights, as pitilessly as the early reformers had +been driven out of cathedrals in the name of emperor and pope; and when +even those refuges for conscientious worship were to be denied by the +dominant sect. And the day was to come, too, when the Calvinists, +regaining ascendency in their turn, were to hunt the heterodox as they +had themselves been hunted; and this, at the very moment when their +fellow Calvinists of England were driven by the Church of that kingdom +into the American wilderness. + +Toleration--that intolerable term of insult to all who love liberty--had +not yet been discovered. It had scarcely occurred to Arminian or +Presbyterian that civil authority and ecclesiastical doctrine could be +divorced from each other. As the individual sovereignty of the seven +states established itself more and more securely, the right of provincial +power to dictate religious dogmas, and to superintend the popular +conscience, was exercised with a placid arrogance which papal +infallibility could scarcely exceed. The alternation was only between +the sects, each in its turn becoming orthodox, and therefore persecuting. +The lessened intensity of persecution however, which priesthood and +authority were now allowed to exercise, marked the gains secured. + +Yet while we censure--as we have a right to do from the point of view +which we have gained after centuries--the crimes committed by bigotry +against liberty, we should be false, to our faith in human progress did +we not acknowledge our debt of gratitude to the hot gospellers of Holland +and England. + +The doctrine of predestination, the consciousness of being chosen +soldiers of Christ, inspired those puritans, who founded the +commonwealths of England, of Holland, and of America, with a contempt +of toil, danger, and death which enabled them to accomplish things +almost supernatural. + +No uncouthness of phraseology, no unlovely austerity of deportment, +could, except to vulgar minds, make that sublime enthusiasm ridiculous, +which on either side the ocean ever confronted tyranny with dauntless +front, and welcomed death on battle-field, scaffold, or rack with perfect +composure. + +The early puritan at least believed. The very intensity of his belief +made him--all unconsciously to himself, and narrowed as was his view of +his position--the great instrument by which the widest human liberty was +to be gained for all mankind. + +The elected favourite of the King of kings feared the power of no earthly +king. Accepting in rapture the decrees of a supernatural tyranny, he +rose on mighty wings above the reach of human wrath. Prostrating himself +before a God of vengeance, of jealousy, and of injustice, be naturally +imitated the attributes which he believed to be divine. It was +inevitable, therefore, that Barneveld, and those who thought with him, +when they should attempt to force the children of Belial into the company +of the elect and to drive the faithful out of their own churches, should +be detested as bitterly as papists had ever been. + +Had Barneveld's intellect been broad enough to imagine in a great +republic the separation of Church and State, he would deserve a tenderer +sympathy, but he would have been far in advance of his age. It is not +cheerful to see so powerful an intellect and so patriotic a character +daring to entrust the relations between man and his Maker to the decree +of a trading corporation. But alas! the world was to wait for centuries +until it should learn that the State can best defend religion by letting +it alone, and that the political arm is apt to wither with palsy when it +attempts to control the human conscience. + +It is not entirely the commonwealth of the United Netherlands that is of +importance in the epoch which I have endeavoured to illustrate. History +can have neither value nor charm for those who are not impressed with a +conviction of its continuity. + +More than ever during the period which we call modern history has this +idea of the continuousness of our race, and especially of the inhabitants +of Europe and America, become almost oppressive to the imagination. +There is a sense of immortality even upon earth when we see the +succession of heritages in the domains of science, of intellectual and +material wealth by which mankind, generation after generation, is +enriching itself. + +If this progress be a dream, if mankind be describing a limited circle +instead of advancing towards the infinite; then no study can be more +contemptible than the study of history. + +Few strides more gigantic have been taken in the march of humanity than +those by which a parcel of outlying provinces in the north of Europe +exchanged slavery to a foreign despotism and to the Holy Inquisition +for the position of a self-governing commonwealth, in the, front rank of +contemporary powers, and in many respects the foremost of the world. It +is impossible to calculate the amount of benefit tendered to civilization +by the example of the Dutch republic. It has been a model which has been +imitated, in many respects, by great nations. It has even been valuable +in its very defects; indicating to the patient observer many errors most +important to avoid. + +Therefore, had the little republic sunk for ever in the sea so soon as +the treaty of peace had been signed at Antwerp, its career would have +been prolific of good for all succeeding time. + +Exactly at the moment when a splendid but decaying despotism, founded +upon wrong--upon oppression of the human body and the immortal soul, upon +slavery, in short, of the worst kind--was awaking from its insane dream +of universal empire to a consciousness of its own decay, the new republic +was recognised among the nations. + +It would hardly be incorrect to describe the Holland of the beginning +of the seventeenth century as the exact reverse of Spain. In, the +commonwealth labour was most honourable; in the kingdom it was vile. +In the north to be idle was accounted and punished as a crime. In the +southern peninsula, to be contaminated with mechanical, mercantile, +commercial, manufacturing pursuits, was to be accursed. Labour was for +slaves, and at last the mere spectacle of labour became so offensive that +even the slaves were expelled from the land. To work was as degrading in +the south as to beg or to steal was esteemed unworthy of humanity in the +north. To think a man's thought upon high matters of religion and +government, and through a thousand errors to pursue the truth; with the +aid of the Most High and with the best use of human reason, was a +privilege secured by the commonwealth, at the expense of two generations +of continuous bloodshed. To lie fettered, soul and body, at the feet of +authority wielded by a priesthood in its last stage of corruption, and +monarchy almost reduced to imbecility, was the lot of the chivalrous, +genial; but much oppressed Spaniard. + +The pictures painted of the republic by shrewd and caustic observers, not +inclined by nature or craft to portray freedom in too engaging colours, +seem, when contrasted with those revealed of Spain, almost like +enthusiastic fantasies of an ideal commonwealth. + +During the last twenty years of the great war the material prosperity of +the Netherlands had wonderfully increased. They had, become the first +commercial nation in the world. They had acquired the supremacy of the +seas. The population of Amsterdam had in twenty years increased from +seventy thousand to a hundred and thirty thousand, and was destined to be +again more than doubled in the coming decade. The population of Antwerp +had sunk almost as rapidly as that of its rival had increased; having +lessened by fifty thousand during the same period. The commercial +capital of the obedient provinces, having already lost much of its famous +traffic by the great changes in the commercial current of the world, was +unable to compete with the cities of the United Provinces in the vast +trade which the geographical discoveries of the preceding century had +opened to civilization. Freedom of thought and action were denied, and +without such liberty it was impossible for oceanic commerce to thrive. +Moreover, the possession by the Hollanders of the Scheld forts below +Antwerp, and of Flushing at the river's mouth, suffocated the ancient +city, and would of itself have been sufficient to paralyze all its +efforts. + +In Antwerp the exchange, where once thousands of the great merchants of +the earth held their daily financial parliament, now echoed to the +solitary footfall of the passing stranger. Ships lay rotting at the +quays; brambles grow in the commercial streets. In Amsterdam the city +had been enlarged by two-thirds, and those who swarmed thither to seek +their fortunes could not wait for the streets to be laid out and houses +to be built, but established themselves in the environs, building +themselves hovels and temporary residences, although certain to find +their encampments swept away with the steady expanse of the city. As +much land as could be covered by a man's foot was worth a ducat in gold. + +In every branch of human industry these republicans took the lead. On +that scrap of solid ground, rescued by human energy from the ocean, were +the most fertile pastures in the world. On those pastures grazed the +most famous cattle in the world. An ox often weighed more than two +thousand pounds. The cows produced two and three calves at a time, the +sheep four and five lambs. In a single village four thousand kine were +counted. Butter and cheese were exported to the annual value of a +million, salted provisions to an incredible extent. The farmers were +industrious, thriving, and independent. It is an amusing illustration of +the agricultural thrift and republican simplicity of this people that on +one occasion a farmer proposed to Prince Maurice that he should marry his +daughter, promising with her a dowry of a hundred thousand florins. + +The mechanical ingenuity of the Netherlanders, already celebrated by +Julius Caesar and by Tacitus, had lost nothing of its ancient fame. The +contemporary world confessed that in many fabrics the Hollanders were at +the head of mankind. Dutch linen, manufactured of the flax grown on +their own fields or imported from the obedient provinces, was esteemed a +fitting present for kings to make and to receive. The name of the +country had passed into the literature of England as synonymous with the +delicate fabric itself. The Venetians confessed themselves equalled, if +not outdone, by the crystal workers and sugar refiners of the northern +republic. The tapestries of Arras--the name of which Walloon city had +become a household word of luxury in all modern languages--were now +transplanted to the soil of freedom, more congenial to the advancement of +art. Brocades of the precious metals; splendid satins and velvets; +serges and homely fustians; laces of thread and silk; the finer and +coarser manufactures of clay and porcelain; iron, steel, and all useful +fabrics for the building and outfitting of ships; substantial broadcloths +manufactured of wool imported from Scotland--all this was but a portion +of the industrial production of the provinces. + +They supplied the deficiency of coal, not then an article readily +obtained by commerce, with other remains of antediluvian forests long +since buried in the sea, and now recovered from its depths and made +useful and portable by untiring industry. Peat was not only the fuel +for the fireside, but for the extensive fabrics of the country, and its +advantages so much excited the admiration of the Venetian envoys that +they sent home samples of it, in the hope that the lagunes of Venice +might prove as prolific of this indispensable article as the polders of +Holland. + +But the foundation of the national wealth, the source of the apparently +fabulous power by which the republic had at last overthrown her gigantic +antagonist, was the ocean. The republic was sea-born and sea-sustained. + +She had nearly one hundred thousand sailors, and three thousand ships. +The sailors were the boldest, the best disciplined, and the most +experienced in the-world, whether for peaceable seafaring or ocean +warfare. The ships were capable of furnishing from out of their number +in time of need the most numerous and the best appointed navy then known +to mankind. + +The republic had the carrying trade for all nations. Feeling its very +existence dependent upon commerce, it had strode centuries in advance of +the contemporary world in the liberation of trade. But two or three per +cent. ad valorem was levied upon imports; foreign goods however being +subject, as well as internal products, to heavy imposts in the way of +both direct and indirect taxation. + +Every article of necessity or luxury known was to be purchased in +profusion and at reasonable prices in the warehouses of Holland. + +A swarm of river vessels and fly-boats were coming daily through the +rivers of Germany, France and the Netherlands, laden with the +agricultural products and the choice manufactures of central and western +Europe. Wine and oil, and delicate fabrics in thread and wool, came from +France, but no silks, velvets, nor satins; for the great Sully had +succeeded in persuading his master that the white mulberry would not grow +in his kingdom, and that silk manufactures were an impossible dream for +France. Nearly a thousand ships were constantly employed in the Baltic +trade. The forests of Holland were almost as extensive as those which +grew on Norwegian hills, but they were submerged. The foundation of a +single mansion required a grove, and wood was extensively used in the +superstructure. The houses, built of a framework of substantial timber, +and filled in with brick or rubble, were raised almost as rapidly as +tents, during the prodigious expansion of industry towards the end of the +war. From the realms of the Osterlings, or shores of the Baltic, came +daily fleets laden with wheat and other grains so that even in time of +famine the granaries of the republic were overflowing, and ready to +dispense the material of life to the outer world. + +Eight hundred vessels of lesser size but compact build were perpetually +fishing for herrings on the northern coasts. These hardy mariners, the +militia of the sea, who had learned in their life of hardship and daring +the art of destroying Spanish and Portuguese armadas, and confronting the +dangers of either pole, passed a long season on the deep. Commercial +voyagers as well as fishermen, they salted their fish as soon as taken +from the sea, and transported them to the various ports of Europe, thus +reducing their herrings into specie before their return, and proving that +a fishery in such hands was worth more than the mines of Mexico and Peru. + +It is customary to speak of the natural resources of a country as +furnishing a guarantee of material prosperity. But here was a republic +almost without natural resources, which had yet supplied by human +intelligence and thrift what a niggard nature had denied. Spain was +overflowing with unlimited treasure, and had possessed half the world in +fee; and Spain was bankrupt, decaying, sinking into universal pauperism. +Holland, with freedom of thought, of commerce, of speech, of action, +placed itself, by intellectual power alone, in the front rank of +civilization. + +From Cathay, from the tropical coasts of Africa, and from farthest Ind, +came every drug, spice, or plant, every valuable jewel, every costly +fabric, that human ingenuity had discovered or created. The Spaniards, +maintaining a frail tenure upon a portion of those prolific regions, +gathered their spice harvests at the point of the sword, and were +frequently unable to prevent their northern rivals from ravaging such +fields as they had not yet been able to appropriate. + +Certainly this conduct of the Hollanders was barbarism and supreme +selfishness, if judged by the sounder political economy of our time. +Yet it should never be forgotten that the contest between Spain and +Holland in those distant regions, as everywhere else, was war to the +knife between superstition and freedom, between the spirits of progress +and of dogma. Hard blows and foul blows were struck in such a fight, and +humanity, although gaining at last immense results, had much to suffer +and much to learn ere the day was won. + +But Spain was nearly beaten out of those eastern regions, and the very +fact that the naval supremacy of the republic placed her ancient tyrant +at her mercy was the main reason for Spain to conclude the treaty of +truce. Lest she should lose the India trade entirely, Spain consented to +the treaty article by which, without mentioning the word, she conceded +the thing. It was almost pathetic to witness, as we have witnessed, this +despotism in its dotage, mumbling so long over the formal concession to +her conqueror of a portion of that India trade which would have been +entirely wrested from herself had the war continued. And of this Spain +was at heart entirely convinced. Thus the Portuguese, once the lords and +masters, as they had been the European discoverers, of those prolific +regions and of the ocean highways which led to them, now came with +docility to the republic which they had once affected to despise, +and purchased the cloves and the allspice, the nutmegs and the cinnamon, +of which they had held the monopoly; or waited with patience until the +untiring Hollanders should bring the precious wares to the peninsula +ports. + +A Dutch Indianian would make her voyage to the antipodes and her return +in less time than was spent by a Portuguese or a Spaniard in the outward +voyage. To accomplish such an enterprise in two years was accounted a +wonder of rapidity, and when it is remembered that inland navigation +through France by canal and river from the North Sea to the Mediterranean +was considered both speedier and safer, because the sea voyage between +the same points might last four or five months, it must be admitted that +two years occupied in passing from one end of the earth to the other and +back again might well seem a miracle. + +The republic was among the wealthiest and the most powerful of organized +States. Her population might be estimated at three millions and a half, +about equal to that of England at the same period. But she was richer +than England. Nowhere in the world was so large a production in +proportion to the numbers of a people. Nowhere were so few unproductive +consumers. Every one was at work. Vagabonds, idlers, and do-nothings, +such as must be in every community, were caught up by the authorities and +made to earn their bread. The devil's pillow, idleness, was smoothed for +no portion of the population. + +There were no beggars, few paupers, no insolently luxurious and +ostentatiously idle class. The modesty, thrift, and simple elegance of +the housekeeping, even among the wealthy, was noted by travellers with +surprise. It will be remembered with how much amused wonder, followed by +something like contempt, the, magnificent household of Spinola, during +his embassy at the Hague, was surveyed by the honest burghers of Holland. +The authorities showed their wisdom in permitting the absurd exhibition, +as an example of what should be shunned, in spite of grave remonstrances +from many of the citizens. Drunken Helotism is not the only form of +erring humanity capable of reading lessons to a republic. + +There had been monasteries, convents, ecclesiastical establishments of +all kinds in the country, before the great war between Holland and the +Inquisition. These had, as a matter of course, been confiscated as the +strife went on. The buildings, farms, and funds, once the property of +the Church, had not, however, been seized upon, as in other Protestant +lands, by rapacious monarchs, and distributed among great nobles +according to royal caprice. Monarchs might give the revenue of a +suppressed convent to a cook, as reward for a successful pudding; the +surface of Britain and the continent might be covered with abbeys and +monasteries now converted into lordly palaces--passing thus from the dead +hand of the Church into the idle and unproductive palm of the noble; but +the ancient ecclesiastical establishments of the free Netherlands were +changed into eleemosynary institutions, admirably organized and +administered with wisdom and economy, where orphans of the poor, widows +of those slain in the battles for freedom by land and sea, and the aged +and the infirm, who had deserved well of the republic in the days of +their strength, were educated or cherished at the expense of the public, +thus endowed from the spoils of the Church. + +In Spain, monasteries upon monasteries were rising day by day, as if +there were not yet receptacles enough for monks and priests, while +thousands upon thousands of Spaniards were pressing into the ranks of +the priesthood, and almost forcing themselves into monasteries, that +they might be privileged to beg, because ashamed to work. In the +United Netherlands the confiscated convents, with their revenues, +were appropriated for the good of those who were too young or too old to +labour, and too poor to maintain themselves without work. Need men look +further than to this simple fact to learn why Spain was decaying while +the republic was rising? + +The ordinary budget of the United Provinces was about equal to that of +England, varying not much from four millions of florins, or four hundred +thousand pounds. But the extraordinary revenue was comparatively without +limits, and there had been years, during the war, when the citizens had +taxed themselves as highly as fifty per cent. on each individual income, +and doubled the receipts of the exchequer. The budget was proposed once +a year, by the council of state, and voted by the States-General, who +assigned the quota of each province; that of Holland being always one- +half of the whole, that of Zeeland sixteen per cent., and that of the +other five of course in lesser proportions. The revenue was collected +in the separate provinces, one-third of the whole being retained for +provincial expenses, and the balance paid into the general treasury. +There was a public debt, the annual interest of which amounted to 200,000 +florins. During the war, money had been borrowed at as high a rate as +thirty-six per cent., but at the conclusion of hostilities the States +could borrow at six per cent., and the whole debt was funded on that +basis. Taxation was enormously heavy, but patriotism caused it to be +borne with cheerfulness, and productive industry made it comparatively +light. Rents were charged twenty-five per cent. A hundred per cent. was +levied upon beer, wine, meat, salt, spirits. Other articles of necessity +and luxury were almost as severely taxed. It is not easy to enumerate +the tax-list, scarcely anything foreign or domestic being exempted, while +the grave error was often committed of taxing the same article, in +different forms, four, five, and six times. + +The people virtually taxed themselves, although the superstition +concerning the State, as something distinct from and superior to the +people, was to linger long and work infinite mischief among those seven +republics which were never destined to be welded theoretically and +legally into a union. The sacredness of corporations had succeeded, +in a measure, to the divinity which hedges kings. Nevertheless, those +corporations were so numerous as to be effectively open to a far larger +proportion of the population than, in those days, had ever dreamed before +of participating in the Government. The magistracies were in general +unpaid and little coveted, being regarded as a burthen and a +responsibility rather than an object of ambition. The jurisconsults, +called pensionaries, who assisted the municipal authorities, received, +however, a modest salary, never exceeding 1500 florins a year. + +These numerous bodies, provincial and municipal, elected themselves +themselves by supplying their own vacancies. The magistrates were +appointed by the stadholder, on a double or triple nomination from the +municipal board. This was not impartial suffrage nor manhood suffrage. +The germ of a hateful burgher-oligarchy was in the system, but, as +compared with Spain, where municipal magistracies were sold by the crown +at public auction; or with France, where every office in church, law, +magistrature, or court was an object of merchandise disposed of in open +market, the system was purity itself, and marked a great advance in the +science of government. + +It should never be forgotten, moreover, that while the presidents +and judges of the highest courts of judicature in other civilized lands +were at the mercy of an irresponsible sovereign, and held office--even +although it had been paid for in solid specie--at his pleasure, the +supreme justices of the high courts of appeal at the Hague were nominated +by a senate, and confirmed by a stadholder, and that they exercised their +functions for life, or so long as they conducted themselves virtuously in +their high office--'quamdiu se bene gesserint.' + +If one of the great objects of a civilized community is to secure to all +men their own--'ut sua tenerent'--surely it must be admitted that the +republic was in advance of all contemporary States in the laying down of +this vital principle, the independence of judges. + +As to the army and navy of the United Provinces, enough has been said, +in earlier chapters of these volumes, to indicate the improvements +introduced by Prince Maurice, and now carried to the highest point of +perfection ever attained in that period. There is no doubt whatever, +that for discipline, experience, equipment, effectiveness of movement, +and general organization, the army of the republic was the model army of +Europe. It amounted to but thirty thousand infantry and two thousand +five hundred cavalry, but this number was a large one for a standing army +at the beginning of the seventeenth century. It was composed of a +variety of materials, Hollanders, Walloons, Flemings, Scotch, English, +Irish, Germans, but all welded together into a machine of perfect +regularity. The private foot-soldier received twelve florins for a so- +called month of forty-two days, the drummer and corporal eighteen, the +lieutenant fifty-two, and the captain one hundred and fifty florins. +Prompt payment was made every week. Obedience was implicit; mutiny, such +as was of periodical recurrence in the archduke's army, entirely unknown. +The slightest theft was punished with the gallows, and there was +therefore no thieving. + +The most accurate and critical observers confessed, almost against their +will, that no army in Europe could compare with the troops of the States. +As to the famous regiments of Sicily, and the ancient legions of Naples +and Milan, a distinguished Venetian envoy, who had seen all the camps and +courts of Christendom, and was certainly not disposed to overrate the +Hollanders at the expense of the Italians, if any rivalry between them +had been possible, declared that every private soldier in the republic +was fit to be a captain in any Italian army; while, on the other hand, +there was scarcely an Italian captain who would be accepted as a private +in any company of the States. So low had the once famous soldiery of +Alva, Don John, and Alexander Farnese descended. + +The cavalry of the republic was even more perfectly organized than was +the infantry. "I want words to describe its perfection," said Contarini. +The pay was very high, and very prompt. A captain received four hundred +florins a month (of forty-two days), a lieutenant one hundred and eighty +florins, and other officers and privates in proportion. These rates +would be very high in our own day. When allowance is made for the +difference in the value of money at the respective epochs, the salaries +are prodigious; but the thrifty republic found its account in paying well +and paying regularly the champions on whom so much depended, and by whom +such splendid services had been rendered. + +While the soldiers in the pay of Queen Elizabeth were crawling to her +palace gates to die of starvation before her eyes; while the veterans of +Spain and of Italy had organized themselves into a permanent military, +mutinous republic, on the soil of the so-called obedient Netherland, +because they were left by their masters without clothing or food; the +cavalry and infantry of the Dutch commonwealth, thanks to the organizing +spirit and the wholesome thrift of the burgher authorities, were +contented, obedient, well fed, well clothed, and well paid; devoted to +their Government, and ever ready to die in its defence. + +Nor was it only on the regular army that reliance was placed. On the +contrary, every able-bodied man in the country was liable to be called +upon to serve, at any moment, in the militia. All were trained to arms, +and provided with arms, and there had been years during this perpetual +war in which one man out of three of the whole male population was ready +to be mustered at any moment into the field. + +Even more could be said in praise of the navy than has been stated of the +armies of the republic; for the contemporary accounts of foreigners, and +of foreigners who were apt to be satirical, rather than enthusiastic, +when describing the institutions, leading personages, and customs of +other countries, seemed ever to speak of the United Provinces in terms of +eulogy. In commerce, as in war, the naval supremacy of the republic was +indisputable. It was easy for the States to place two thousand vessels +of war in commission, if necessary, of tonnage varying from four hundred +to twelve hundred tons, to man them with the hardiest and boldest sailors +in the world, and to despatch them with promptness to any quarter of the +globe. + +It was recognised as nearly impossible to compel a war-vessel of the +republic to surrender. Hardly an instance was on her naval record of +submission, even to far superior force, while it was filled with the +tragic but heroic histories of commanders who had blown their ships, +with every man on board, into the air, rather than strike their flag. +Such was the character, and such the capacity of the sea-born republic. + +That republic had serious and radical defects, but the design remained to +be imitated and improved upon, centuries afterwards. The history of the +rise and progress of the Dutch republic is a leading chapter in the +history of human liberty. + +The great misfortune of the commonwealth of the United Provinces, next to +the slenderness of its geographical proportions, was the fact that it was +without a centre and without a head, and therefore not a nation capable +of unlimited vitality. There were seven states. Each claimed to be +sovereign. The pretension on the part of several of them was ridiculous. +Overyssel, for example, contributed two and three-quarters per cent. of +the general budget. It was a swamp of twelve hundred square miles in +extent, with some heath-spots interspered, and it numbered perhaps a +hundred thousand inhabitants. The doughty Count of Embden alone could +have swallowed up such sovereignty, have annexed all the buckwheat +patches and cranberry marshes of Overyssel to his own meagre territories, +and nobody the wiser. + +Zeeland, as we have seen, was disposed at a critical moment to set up +its independent sovereignty. Zeeland, far more important than Overyssel, +had a revenue of perhaps five hundred thousand dollars,--rather a slender +budget for an independent republic, wedged in as it was by the most +powerful empires of the earth, and half drowned by the ocean, from which +it had scarcely emerged. + +There was therefore no popular representation, and on the other hand no +executive head. As sovereignty must be exercised in some way, however, +in all living commonwealths, and as a low degree of vitality was +certainly not the defect of those bustling provinces, the supreme +functions had now fallen into the hands of Holland. + +While William the Silent lived, the management of war, foreign affairs, +and finance, for the revolted provinces, was in his control. He was +aided by two council boards, but the circumstances of history and the +character of the man had invested him with an inevitable dictatorship. + +After his death, at least after Leicester's time, the powers of the +state-council, the head of which, Prince Maurice, was almost always +absent at the wars, fell into comparative disuse. The great functions +of the confederacy passed into the possession of the States-General. +That body now came to sit permanently at the Hague. The number of its +members, deputies from the seven provinces-envoys from those seven +immortal and soulless sovereigns--was not large. The extraordinary +assembly held at Bergen-op-Zoom for confirmation of the truce was +estimated by, Bentivoglio at eight hundred. Bentivoglio, who was on the +spot, being then nuncius at Brussels, ought to have been able to count +them, yet it is very certain that the number was grossly exaggerated. + +At any rate the usual assembly at the Hague rarely amounted to one +hundred members. The presidency was changed once a week, the envoy of +each province taking his turn as chairman. + +Olden-Barneveld, as member for Holland, was always present in the diet. +As Advocate-General of the leading province, and keeper of its great +seal, more especially as possessor of the governing intellect of the +whole commonwealth, be led the administration of Holland, and as the +estates of Holland contributed more than half of the whole budget of +the confederacy, it was a natural consequence of the actual supremacy of +that province, and of the vast legal hand political experience of the +Advocate, that Holland should, govern the confederacy, and that Barneveld +should govern Holland. + +The States-General remained virtually supreme, receiving envoys from all +the great powers, sending abroad their diplomatic representatives, to +whom the title and rank of ambassador was freely accorded, and dealing +in a decorous and dignified way with all European affairs. The ability +of the republican statesmen was as fully recognised all over the earth, +as was the genius of their generals and great naval commanders. + +The People did not exist; but this was merely because, in theory, the +People had not been invented. It was exactly because there was a People +--an energetic and intelligent People--that the republic was possible. + +No scheme had yet been devised for laying down in primary assemblies +a fundamental national law, for distributing the various functions +of governmental power among selected servants, for appointing +representatives according to population or property, and for holding +all trustees responsible at reasonable intervals to the nation itself. + +Thus government was involved, fold within fold, in successive and +concentric municipal layers. The States-General were the outer husk, +of which the separate town-council was the kernel or bulb. Yet the +number of these executive and legislative boards was so large, and the +whole population comparatively so slender, as to cause the original +inconveniences from so incomplete a system to be rather theoretic than +practical. In point of fact, almost as large a variety of individuals +served the State as would perhaps have been the case under a more +philosophically arranged democracy. The difficulty was rather in +obtaining a candidate for the post than in distributing the posts +among candidates. + +Men were occupied with their own affairs. In proportion to their +numbers, they were more productive of wealth than any other nation then +existing. An excellent reason why the people were so, well governed, so +productive, and so enterprising, was the simple fact that they were an +educated people. There was hardly a Netherlander--man, woman, or child-- +that could not read and write. The school was the common property of the +people, paid for among the municipal expenses. In the cities, as well as +in the rural districts, there were not only common schools but classical +schools. In the burgher families it was rare to find boys who had not +been taught Latin, or girls unacquainted with French. Capacity to write +and speak several modern languages was very common, and there were many +individuals in every city, neither professors nor pedants, who had made +remarkable progress in science and classical literature. The position, +too, of women in the commonwealth proved a high degree of civilization. +They are described as virtuous, well-educated, energetic, sovereigns +in their households, and accustomed to direct all the business at home. +"It would be ridiculous," said Donato, "to see a man occupying himself +with domestic house-keeping. The women do it all, and command +absolutely." The Hollanders, so rebellious against Church and +King, accepted with meekness the despotism of woman. + +The great movement of emancipation from political and ecclesiastical +tyranny had brought with it a general advancement of the human intellect. +The foundation of the Leyden university in memory of the heroism +displayed by the burghers during the siege was as noble a monument +as had ever been raised by a free people jealous of its fame. And the +scientific lustre of the university well sustained the nobility of its +origin. The proudest nation on earth might be more proud of a seat of +learning, founded thus amidst carnage and tears, whence so much of +profound learning and brilliant literature had already been diffused. +The classical labours of Joseph Scaliger, Heinsius father and son the +elder Dousa, almost as famous with his pen in Latin poetry as his sword +had made him in the vernacular chronicle; of Dousa the son, whom Grotius +called "the crown and flower of all good learning, too soon snatched +away by envious death, than whom no man more skilled in poetry, more +consummate in acquaintance with ancient science and literature, had ever +lived;" of Hugo Grotius himself, who at the age of fifteen had taken his +doctor's degree at Leyden who as a member of Olden-Barneveld's important +legation to France and England very soon afterwards had excited the +astonishment of Henry IV. and Elizabeth, who had already distinguished +himself by editions of classic poets, and by original poems and dramas in +Latin, and was already, although but twenty-six years of age; laying the +foundation of that magnificent reputation as a jurist, a philosopher, a +historian, and a statesman, which was to be one of the enduring glories +of humanity, all these were the precious possessions of the high school +of Leyden. + +The still more modern university of Franeker, founded amid the din +of perpetual warfare in Friesland, could at least boast the name of +Arminius, whose theological writings and whose expansive views were +destined to exert such influence over his contemporaries and posterity. + +The great history of Hoofd, in which the splendid pictures and the +impassioned drama of the great war of independence were to be preserved +for his countrymen through all time, was not yet written. It was soon +afterwards, however, to form not only a chief source of accurate +information as to the great events themselves, but a model of style +never since surpassed by any prose writer in either branch of the +German tongue. + +Had Hoofd written for a wider audience, it would be difficult to name a +contemporary author of any nation whose work would have been more +profoundly studied or more generally admired. + +But the great war had not waited to be chronicled by the classic and +impassioned Hoofd. Already there were thorough and exhaustive narrators +of what was instinctively felt to be one of the most pregnant episodes of +human history. Bor of Utrecht, a miracle of industry, of learning, of +unwearied perseverance, was already engaged in the production of those +vast folios in which nearly all the great transactions of the forty +years' war were conscientiously portrayed, with a comprehensiveness of +material and an impartiality of statement, such as might seem almost +impossible for a contemporary writer. Immersed in attentive study and +profound contemplation, he seemed to lift his tranquil head from time to +time over the wild ocean of those troublous times, and to survey with +accuracy without being swayed or appalled by the tempest. There was +something almost sublime in his steady, unimpassioned gaze. + +Emanuel van Meteren, too, a plain Protestant merchant of Antwerp and +Amsterdam, wrote an admirable history of the war and of his own times, +full of precious details, especially rich in statistics--a branch of +science which he almost invented--which still, remains as one of the +leading authorities, not only for scholars, but for the general reader. + +Reyd and Burgundius, the one the Calvinist private secretary of Lewis +William, the other a warm Catholic partisan, both made invaluable +contemporaneous contributions to the history of the war. + +The trophies already secured by the Netherlanders in every department of +the fine arts, as well as the splendour which was to enrich the coming +epoch, are too familiar to the world to need more than a passing +allusion. + +But it was especially in physical science that the republic was taking a +leading part in the great intellectual march of the nations. + +The very necessities of its geographical position had forced it to pre- +eminence in hydraulics and hydrostatics. It had learned to transform +water into dry land with a perfection attained by no nation before or +since. The wonders of its submarine horticulture were the despair of all +gardeners in the world. + +And as in this gentlest of arts, so also in the dread science of war, the +republic had been the instructor of mankind. + +The youthful Maurice and his cousin Lewis William had so restored +and improved the decayed intelligence of antique strategy, that the +greybeards of Europe became docile pupils in their school. The +mathematical teacher of Prince Maurice amazed the contemporary world with +his combinations and mechanical inventions; the flying chariots of Simon +Stevinua seeming products of magical art. + +Yet the character of the Dutch intellect was averse to sorcery. The +small but mighty nation, which had emancipated itself from the tyranny of +Philip and of the Holy Inquisition, was foremost to shake off the fetters +of superstition. Out of Holland came the first voice to rebuke one of +the hideous delusions of the age. While grave magistrates and sages of +other lands were exorcising the devil by murdering his supposed victims, +John Wier, a physician of Grave, boldly denounced the demon which had +taken possession, not of the wizards, but of the judges. + +The age was lunatic and sick, and it was fitting that the race which had +done so much for the physical and intellectual emancipation of the world, +should have been the first to apply a remedy for this monstrous madness. +Englishmen and their descendants were drowning and hanging witches in New +England, long after John Wier had rebuked and denounced the belief in +witchcraft. + +It was a Zeelander, too; who placed the instrument in the hand of Galileo +by which that daring genius traced the movements of the universe, and +who, by another wondrous invention, enabled future discoverers to study +the infinite life which lies all around us, hidden not by its remoteness +but it's minuteness. Zacharias Jansens of Middelburg, in 1590, invented +both the telescope and the microscope. + +The wonder-man of Alkmaar, Cornelius Drebbel, who performed such +astounding feats for the amusement of Rudolph of Germany and James of +Britain, is also supposed to have invented the thermometer and the +barometer. But this claim has been disputed. The inventions of Jansens +are proved. + +Willebrod Snellius, mathematical professor of Leyden, introduced the true +method of measuring the degrees of longitude and latitude, and Huygens, +who had seen his manuscripts, asserted that Snellius had invented, before +Descartes, the doctrine of refraction. + +But it was especially to that noble band of heroes and martyrs, the great +navigators and geographical discoverers of the republic, that science is +above all indebted. + +Nothing is more sublime in human story than the endurance and audacity +with which those pioneers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries +confronted the nameless horrors of either pole, in the interests of +commerce, and for the direct purpose of enlarging the bounds of the human +intellect. + +The achievements, the sufferings, and the triumphs of Barendz and Cordes, +Heemskerk, Van der Hagen, and many others, have been slightly indicated +in these pages. The contributions to botany, mineralogy, geometry, +geography, and zoology, of Linschoten, Plancius, Wagenaar, and Houtmann, +and so many other explorers of pole and tropic, can hardly be overrated. + +The Netherlanders had wrung their original fatherland out of the grasp of +the ocean. They had confronted for centuries the wrath of that ancient +tyrant, ever ready to seize the prey of which he had been defrauded. + +They had waged fiercer and more perpetual battle with a tyranny more +cruel than the tempest, with an ancient superstition more hungry than the +sea. It was inevitable that a race, thus invigorated by the ocean, +cradled to freedom by their conflicts with its power, and hardened almost +to invincibility by their struggle against human despotism, should be +foremost among the nations in the development of political, religious, +and commercial freedom. + +The writer now takes an affectionate farewell of those who have followed +him with an indulgent sympathy as he has attempted to trace the origin +and the eventful course of the Dutch commonwealth. If by his labours +a generous love has been fostered for that blessing, without which +everything that this earth can afford is worthless--freedom of thought, +of speech, and of life--his highest wish has been fulfilled. + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +About equal to that of England at the same period +An unjust God, himself the origin of sin +Butchery in the name of Christ was suspended +Calling a peace perpetual can never make it so +Chieftains are dwarfed in the estimation of followers +Each in its turn becoming orthodox, and therefore persecuting +Exorcising the devil by murdering his supposed victims +Foremost to shake off the fetters of superstition +God of vengeance, of jealousy, and of injustice +Gomarites accused the Arminians of being more lax than Papists +Hangman is not the most appropriate teacher of religion +He often spoke of popular rights with contempt +John Wier, a physician of Grave +Necessity of extirpating heresy, root and branch +Nowhere were so few unproductive consumers +Paving the way towards atheism (by toleration) +Privileged to beg, because ashamed to work +Religious persecution of Protestants by Protestants +So unconscious of her strength +State can best defend religion by letting it alone +Taxed themselves as highly as fifty per cent +The People had not been invented +The slightest theft was punished with the gallows +Tolerate another religion that his own may be tolerated +Toleration--that intolerable term of insult +War to compel the weakest to follow the religion of the strongest + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY UNITED NETHERLANDS, 1609 *** + +********** This file should be named 4883.txt or 4883.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. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +https://gutenberg.org or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + |