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, he 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, he 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.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS, ENTIRE 1600-09 UNITED NETHERLANDS:

A penal offence in the republic to talk of peace or of truce

A sovereign remedy for the disease of liberty

A man incapable of fatigue, of perplexity, or of fear

A truce he honestly considered a pitfall of destruction

About equal to that of England at the same period

Abstinence from unproductive consumption

Accepting a new tyrant in place of the one so long ago deposed

Alas! we must always have something to persecute

Alas! the benighted victims of superstition hugged their chains

All the ministers and great functionaries received presents

An unjust God, himself the origin of sin

Argument is exhausted and either action or compromise begins

As if they were free will not make them free

As neat a deception by telling the truth

Because he had been successful (hated)

Began to scatter golden arguments with a lavish hand

Bestowing upon others what was not his property

Beware of a truce even more than of a peace

But the habit of dissimulation was inveterate

Butchery in the name of Christ was suspended

By turns, we all govern and are governed

Calling a peace perpetual can never make it so

Cargo of imaginary gold dust was exported from the James River

Certain number of powers, almost exactly equal to each other

Chieftains are dwarfed in the estimation of followers

Conceit, and procrastination which marked the royal character

Constitute themselves at once universal legatees

Contempt for treaties however solemnly ratified

Converting beneficent commerce into baleful gambling

Could handle an argument as well as a sword

Crimes and cruelties such as Christians only could imagine

Culpable audacity and exaggerated prudence

Defeated garrison ever deserved more respect from friend or foe

Delay often fights better than an army against a foreign invader

Despised those who were grateful

Diplomacy of Spain and Rome--meant simply dissimulation

Do you want peace or war? I am ready for either

Draw a profit out of the necessities of this state

Each in its turn becoming orthodox, and therefore persecuting

Eloquence of the biggest guns

England hated the Netherlands

Even the virtues of James were his worst enemies

Exorcising the devil by murdering his supposed victims

Foremost to shake off the fetters of superstition

Four weeks' holiday--the first in eleven years

Friendly advice still more intolerable

Gigantic vices are proudly pointed to as the noblest

God alone can protect us against those whom we trust

God of vengeance, of jealousy, and of injustice

Gold was the only passkey to justice

Gomarites accused the Arminians of being more lax than Papists

Haereticis non servanda fides

Hangman is not the most appropriate teacher of religion

He often spoke of popular rights with contempt

He who confessed well was absolved well

His own past triumphs seemed now his greatest enemies

Human fat esteemed the sovereignst remedy (for wounds)

Humble ignorance as the safest creed

Hundred thousand men had laid down their lives by her decree

Idea of freedom in commerce has dawned upon nations

Idiotic principle of sumptuary legislation

If to do be as grand as to imagine what it were good to do

Impossible it is to practise arithmetic with disturbed brains

Indulging them frequently with oracular advice

Insensible to contumely, and incapable of accepting a rebuff

It is certain that the English hate us (Sully)

John Castel, who had stabbed Henry IV.

John Wier, a physician of Grave

Justified themselves in a solemn consumption of time

Languor of fatigue, rather than any sincere desire for peace

Logic of the largest battalions

Looking down upon her struggle with benevolent indifference

Made peace--and had been at war ever since

Man is never so convinced of his own wisdom

Man who cannot dissemble is unfit to reign

Men who meant what they said and said what they meant

Men fought as if war was the normal condition of humanity

Much as the blind or the deaf towards colour or music

Nations tied to the pinafores of children in the nursery

Natural tendency to suspicion of a timid man

Necessity of extirpating heresy, root and branch

Negotiated as if they were all immortal

Night brings counsel

No retrenchments in his pleasures of women, dogs, and buildings

No generation is long-lived enough to reap the harvest

Not safe for politicians to call each other hard names

Nowhere were so few unproductive consumers

One of the most contemptible and mischievous of kings (James I)

Passion is a bad schoolmistress for the memory

Paving the way towards atheism (by toleration)

Peace seemed only a process for arriving at war

Peace founded on the only secure basis, equality of strength

Peace was unattainable, war was impossible, truce was inevitable

Philip of Macedon, who considered no city impregnable

Prisoners were immediately hanged

Privileged to beg, because ashamed to work

Proclaiming the virginity of the Virgin's mother

Readiness at any moment to defend dearly won liberties

Religious persecution of Protestants by Protestants

Repose under one despot guaranteed to them by two others

Requires less mention than Philip III himself

Rules adopted in regard to pretenders to crowns

Served at their banquets by hosts of lackeys on their knees

Sick soldiers captured on the water should be hanged

So unconscious of her strength

State can best defend religion by letting it alone

Steeped to the lips in sloth which imagined itself to be pride

Subtle and dangerous enemy who wore the mask of a friend

Such an excuse was as bad as the accusation

Take all their imaginations and extravagances for truths

Taxed themselves as highly as fifty per cent

The art of ruling the world by doing nothing

The slightest theft was punished with the gallows

The wisest statesmen are prone to blunder in affairs of war

The pigmy, as the late queen had been fond of nicknaming him

The expenses of James's household

The People had not been invented

The small children diminished rapidly in numbers

This obstinate little republic

To shirk labour, infinite numbers become priests and friars

To negotiate was to bribe right and left, and at every step

To doubt the infallibility of Calvin was as heinous a crime

To negotiate with Government in England was to bribe

Tolerate another religion that his own may be tolerated

Toleration--that intolerable term of insult

Triple marriages between the respective nurseries

Unlearned their faith in bell, book, and candle

Unproductive consumption being accounted most sagacious

Unwise impatience for peace

Usual expedient by which bad legislation on one side countered

War was the normal and natural condition of mankind

War was the normal condition of Christians

War to compel the weakest to follow the religion of the strongest

We have been talking a little bit of truth to each other

What was to be done in this world and believed as to the next

What exchequer can accept chronic warfare and escape bankruptcy

When all was gone, they began to eat each other

Word peace in Spanish mouths simply meant the Holy Inquisition

Words are always interpreted to the disadvantage of the weak

World has rolled on to fresher fields of carnage and ruin

You must show your teeth to the Spaniard

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS 1584-1609, COMPLETE

A hard bargain when both parties are losers

A penal offence in the republic to talk of peace or of truce

A despot really keeps no accounts, nor need to do so

A free commonwealth--was thought an absurdity

A burnt cat fears the fire

A pusillanimous peace, always possible at any period

A man incapable of fatigue, of perplexity, or of fear

A sovereign remedy for the disease of liberty

A truce he honestly considered a pitfall of destruction

Able men should be by design and of purpose suppressed

About equal to that of England at the same period

Abstinence from unproductive consumption

Accepting a new tyrant in place of the one so long ago deposed

Accustomed to the faded gallantries

Act of Uniformity required Papists to assist

Alas! we must always have something to persecute

Alas! the benighted victims of superstition hugged their chains

Alexander's exuberant discretion

All fellow-worms together

All business has been transacted with open doors

All Italy was in his hands

All the ministers and great functionaries received presents

Allow her to seek a profit from his misfortune

An unjust God, himself the origin of sin

Anarchy which was deemed inseparable from a non-regal form

Anatomical study of what has ceased to exist

And thus this gentle and heroic spirit took its flight

Are wont to hang their piety on the bell-rope

Argument is exhausted and either action or compromise begins

Arminianism

Artillery

As logical as men in their cups are prone to be

As if they were free will not make them free

As neat a deception by telling the truth

As lieve see the Spanish as the Calvinistic inquisition

At length the twig was becoming the tree

Auction sales of judicial ermine

Baiting his hook a little to his appetite

Beacons in the upward path of mankind

Because he had been successful (hated)

Been already crimination and recrimination more than enough

Began to scatter golden arguments with a lavish hand

Being the true religion, proved by so many testimonies

Beneficent and charitable purposes (War)

Bestowing upon others what was not his property

Beware of a truce even more than of a peace

Bomb-shells were not often used although known for a century

Bungling diplomatists and credulous dotards

Burning of Servetus at Geneva

But the habit of dissimulation was inveterate

Butchery in the name of Christ was suspended

By turns, we all govern and are governed

Calling a peace perpetual can never make it so

Canker of a long peace

Cargo of imaginary gold dust was exported from the James River

Casting up the matter "as pinchingly as possibly might be"

Certain number of powers, almost exactly equal to each other

Certainly it was worth an eighty years' war

Chief seafaring nations of the world were already protestant

Chieftains are dwarfed in the estimation of followers

Children who had never set foot on the shore

Chronicle of events must not be anticipated

College of "peace-makers," who wrangled more than all

Conceding it subsequently, after much contestation

Conceit, and procrastination which marked the royal character

Condemned first and inquired upon after

Conformity of Governments to the principles of justice

Considerable reason, even if there were but little justice

Constant vigilance is the price of liberty

Constitute themselves at once universal legatees

Contempt for treaties however solemnly ratified

Continuing to believe himself invincible and infallible

Converting beneficent commerce into baleful gambling

Could do a little more than what was possible

Could handle an argument as well as a sword

Courage and semblance of cheerfulness, with despair in his heart

Court fatigue, to scorn pleasure

Crimes and cruelties such as Christians only could imagine

Culpable audacity and exaggerated prudence

Deal with his enemy as if sure to become his friend

Decline a bribe or interfere with the private sale of places

Defeated garrison ever deserved more respect from friend or foe

Defect of enjoying the flattery, of his inferiors in station

Delay often fights better than an army against a foreign invader

Demanding peace and bread at any price

Despised those who were grateful

Diplomacy of Spain and Rome--meant simply dissimulation

Diplomatic adroitness consists mainly in the power to deceive

Disciple of Simon Stevinus

Dismay of our friends and the gratification of our enemies

Disordered, and unknit state needs no shaking, but propping

Disposed to throat-cutting by the ministers of the Gospel

Divine right of kings

Do you want peace or war? I am ready for either

Done nothing so long as aught remained to do

Draw a profit out of the necessities of this state

During this, whole war, we have never seen the like

Each in its turn becoming orthodox, and therefore persecuting

Eat their own children than to forego one high mass

Elizabeth, though convicted, could always confute

Elizabeth (had not) the faintest idea of religious freedom

Eloquence of the biggest guns

England hated the Netherlands

Englishmen and Hollanders preparing to cut each other's throats

Enmity between Lutherans and Calvinists

Even the virtues of James were his worst enemies

Even to grant it slowly is to deny it utterly

Ever met disaster with so cheerful a smile

Every one sees what you seem, few perceive what you are

Evil is coming, the sooner it arrives the better

Evil has the advantage of rapidly assuming many shapes

Exorcising the devil by murdering his supposed victims

Faction has rarely worn a more mischievous aspect

Famous fowl in every pot

Fed on bear's liver, were nearly poisoned to death

Fellow worms had been writhing for half a century in the dust

Find our destruction in our immoderate desire for peace

Fitter to obey than to command

Five great rivers hold the Netherland territory in their coils

Fled from the land of oppression to the land of liberty

Fool who useth not wit because he hath it not

For his humanity towards the conquered garrisons (censured)

For us, looking back upon the Past, which was then the Future

Forbidding the wearing of mourning at all

Foremost to shake off the fetters of superstition

Four weeks' holiday--the first in eleven years

French seem madmen, and are wise

Friendly advice still more intolerable

Full of precedents and declamatory commonplaces

Future world as laid down by rival priesthoods

German Highland and the German Netherland

German-Lutheran sixteenth-century idea of religious freedom

Gigantic vices are proudly pointed to as the noblest

God of vengeance, of jealousy, and of injustice

God alone can protect us against those whom we trust

God of wrath who had decreed the extermination of all unbeliever

God, whose cause it was, would be pleased to give good weather

Gold was the only passkey to justice

Gomarites accused the Arminians of being more lax than Papists

Guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith

Had industry been honoured instead of being despised

Haereticis non servanda fides

Hanging of Mary Dyer at Boston

Hangman is not the most appropriate teacher of religion

Hard at work, pouring sand through their sieves

Hardly an inch of French soil that had not two possessors

Hardly a distinguished family in Spain not placed in mourning

He often spoke of popular rights with contempt

He did his work, but he had not his reward

He who confessed well was absolved well

He spent more time at table than the Bearnese in sleep

He sat a great while at a time. He had a genius for sitting

Henry the Huguenot as the champion of the Council of Trent

Her teeth black, her bosom white and liberally exposed (Eliz.)

Heretics to the English Church were persecuted

Hibernian mode of expressing himself

High officers were doing the work of private, soldiers

Highest were not necessarily the least slimy

His invectives were, however, much stronger than his arguments

His own past triumphs seemed now his greatest enemies

His insolence intolerable

His inordinate arrogance

Historical scepticism may shut its eyes to evidence

History is but made up of a few scattered fragments

History is a continuous whole of which we see only fragments

Holland was afraid to give a part, although offering the whole

Holy institution called the Inquisition

Honor good patriots, and to support them in venial errors

Hugo Grotius

Human fat esteemed the sovereignst remedy (for wounds)

Humanizing effect of science upon the barbarism of war

Humble ignorance as the safest creed

Humility which was but the cloak to his pride

Hundred thousand men had laid down their lives by her decree

I will never live, to see the end of my poverty

I am a king that will be ever known not to fear any but God

I did never see any man behave himself as he did

Idea of freedom in commerce has dawned upon nations

Idiotic principle of sumptuary legislation

Idle, listless, dice-playing, begging, filching vagabonds

If to do be as grand as to imagine what it were good to do

Ignorance is the real enslaver of mankind

Imagining that they held the world's destiny in their hands

Imposed upon the multitudes, with whom words were things

Impossible it was to invent terms of adulation too gross

Impossible it is to practise arithmetic with disturbed brains

In times of civil war, to be neutral is to be nothing

Individuals walking in advance of their age

Indulging them frequently with oracular advice

Inevitable fate of talking castles and listening ladies

Infamy of diplomacy, when diplomacy is unaccompanied by honesty

Infinite capacity for pecuniary absorption

Inhabited by the savage tribes called Samoyedes

Innocent generation, to atone for the sins of their forefathers

Inquisitors enough; but there were no light vessels in The Armada

Insensible to contumely, and incapable of accepting a rebuff

Intelligence, science, and industry were accounted degrading

Intentions of a government which did not know its own intentions

Intolerable tendency to puns

Invaluable gift which no human being can acquire, authority

Invincible Armada had not only been vanquished but annihilated

It is certain that the English hate us (Sully)

John Castel, who had stabbed Henry IV.

John Wier, a physician of Grave

Justified themselves in a solemn consumption of time

King had issued a general repudiation of his debts

King was often to be something much less or much worse

Labour was esteemed dishonourable

Languor of fatigue, rather than any sincere desire for peace

Leading motive with all was supposed to be religion

Life of nations and which we call the Past

Little army of Maurice was becoming the model for Europe

Logic of the largest battalions

Longer they delay it, the less easy will they find it

Look for a sharp war, or a miserable peace

Looking down upon her struggle with benevolent indifference

Lord was better pleased with adverbs than nouns

Loud, nasal, dictatorial tone, not at all agreeable

Loving only the persons who flattered him

Luxury had blunted the fine instincts of patriotism

Made peace--and had been at war ever since

Magnificent hopefulness

Make sheep of yourselves, and the wolf will eat you

Man is never so convinced of his own wisdom

Man had no rights at all He was property

Man who cannot dissemble is unfit to reign

Maritime heretics

Matter that men may rather pray for than hope for

Matters little by what name a government is called

Meet around a green table except as fencers in the field

Men who meant what they said and said what they meant

Men fought as if war was the normal condition of humanity

Mendacity may always obtain over innocence and credulity

Military virtue in the support of an infamous cause

Mistakes might occur from occasional deviations into sincerity

Mondragon was now ninety-two years old

Moral nature, undergoes less change than might be hoped

More catholic than the pope

Much as the blind or the deaf towards colour or music

Myself seeing of it methinketh that I dream

Names history has often found it convenient to mark its epochs

National character, not the work of a few individuals

Nations tied to the pinafores of children in the nursery

Natural tendency to suspicion of a timid man

Necessity of kingship

Necessity of extirpating heresy, root and branch

Negotiated as if they were all immortal

Neighbour's blazing roof was likely soon to fire their own

Never did statesmen know better how not to do

Never peace well made, he observed, without a mighty war

New Years Day in England, 11th January by the New Style

Night brings counsel

Nine syllables that which could be more forcibly expressed in on

No retrenchments in his pleasures of women, dogs, and buildings

No generation is long-lived enough to reap the harvest

Nor is the spirit of the age to be pleaded in defence

Not many more than two hundred Catholics were executed

Not a friend of giving details larger than my ascertained facts

Not distinguished for their docility

Not of the genus Reptilia, and could neither creep nor crouch

Not safe for politicians to call each other hard names

Nothing cheap, said a citizen bitterly, but sermons

Nothing could equal Alexander's fidelity, but his perfidy

Nowhere were so few unproductive consumers

Obscure were thought capable of dying natural deaths

Octogenarian was past work and past mischief

Often necessary to be blind and deaf

One-third of Philip's effective navy was thus destroyed

One could neither cry nor laugh within the Spanish dominions

One of the most contemptible and mischievous of kings (James I)

Only citadel against a tyrant and a conqueror was distrust

Oration, fertile in rhetoric and barren in facts

Others that do nothing, do all, and have all the thanks

Passion is a bad schoolmistress for the memory

Past was once the Present, and once the Future

Patriotism seemed an unimaginable idea

Pauper client who dreamed of justice at the hands of law

Paving the way towards atheism (by toleration)

Peace and quietness is brought into a most dangerous estate

Peace seemed only a process for arriving at war

Peace founded on the only secure basis, equality of strength

Peace would be destruction

Peace-at-any-price party

Peace was unattainable, war was impossible, truce was inevitable

Philip II. gave the world work enough

Philip of Macedon, who considered no city impregnable

Picturesqueness of crime

Placid unconsciousness on his part of defeat

Plea of infallibility and of authority soon becomes ridiculous

Portion of these revenues savoured much of black-mail

Possible to do, only because we see that it has been done

Pray here for satiety, (said Cecil) than ever think of variety

Prisoners were immediately hanged

Privileged to beg, because ashamed to work

Proceeds of his permission to eat meat on Fridays

Proclaiming the virginity of the Virgin's mother

Rarely able to command, having never learned to obey

Readiness at any moment to defend dearly won liberties

Rebuked him for his obedience

Religion was rapidly ceasing to be the line of demarcation

Religion was not to be changed like a shirt

Religious persecution of Protestants by Protestants

Repentance, as usual, had come many hours too late

Repose under one despot guaranteed to them by two others

Repose in the other world, "Repos ailleurs"

Repudiation of national debts was never heard of before

Requires less mention than Philip III himself

Resolved thenceforth to adopt a system of ignorance

Respect for differences in religious opinions

Rich enough to be worth robbing

Righteous to kill their own children

Road to Paris lay through the gates of Rome

Round game of deception, in which nobody was deceived

Royal plans should be enforced adequately or abandoned entirely

Rules adopted in regard to pretenders to crowns

Sacked and drowned ten infant princes

Sacrificed by the Queen for faithfully obeying her orders

Sages of every generation, read the future like a printed scroll

Security is dangerous

Seeking protection for and against the people

Seem as if born to make the idea of royalty ridiculous

Seems but a change of masks, of costume, of phraseology

Self-assertion--the healthful but not engaging attribute

Selling the privilege of eating eggs upon fast-days

Sentiment of Christian self-complacency

Served at their banquets by hosts of lackeys on their knees

Sewers which have ever run beneath decorous Christendom

She relieth on a hope that will deceive her

Shift the mantle of religion from one shoulder to the other

Shutting the stable-door when the steed is stolen

Sick soldiers captured on the water should be hanged

Simple truth was highest skill

Sixteen of their best ships had been sacrificed

Slain four hundred and ten men with his own hand

So often degenerated into tyranny (Calvinism)

So unconscious of her strength

Soldiers enough to animate the good and terrify the bad

Some rude lessons from that vigorous little commonwealth

Spain was governed by an established terrorism

Spaniards seem wise, and are madmen

Sparing and war have no affinity together

Stake or gallows (for) heretics to transubstantiation

State can best defend religion by letting it alone

States were justified in their almost unlimited distrust

Steeped to the lips in sloth which imagined itself to be pride

Strangled his nineteen brothers on his accession

Strength does a falsehood acquire in determined and skilful hand

String of homely proverbs worthy of Sancho Panza

Subtle and dangerous enemy who wore the mask of a friend

Succeeded so well, and had been requited so ill

Such an excuse was as bad as the accusation

Such a crime as this had never been conceived (bankruptcy)

Sure bind, sure find

Sword in hand is the best pen to write the conditions of peace

Take all their imaginations and extravagances for truths

Taxed themselves as highly as fifty per cent

Tension now gave place to exhaustion

That crowned criminal, Philip the Second

That unholy trinity--Force; Dogma, and Ignorance

The very word toleration was to sound like an insult

The blaze of a hundred and fifty burning vessels

The expenses of James's household

The worst were encouraged with their good success

The history of the Netherlands is history of liberty

The great ocean was but a Spanish lake

The divine speciality of a few transitory mortals

The sapling was to become the tree

The nation which deliberately carves itself in pieces

The most thriving branch of national industry (Smuggler)

The record of our race is essentially unwritten

The busy devil of petty economy

The small children diminished rapidly in numbers

The People had not been invented

The Alcoran was less cruel than the Inquisition

The wisest statesmen are prone to blunder in affairs of war

The art of ruling the world by doing nothing

The slightest theft was punished with the gallows

The pigmy, as the late queen had been fond of nicknaming him

Their existence depended on war

There are few inventions in morals

There was apathy where there should have been enthusiasm

There is no man fitter for that purpose than myself

They were always to deceive every one, upon every occasion

They had come to disbelieve in the mystery of kingcraft

They liked not such divine right nor such gentle-mindedness

They chose to compel no man's conscience

Thirty-three per cent. interest was paid (per month)

Thirty thousand masses should be said for his soul

This obstinate little republic

Those who argue against a foregone conclusion

Thought that all was too little for him

Three hundred and upwards are hanged annually in London

Three or four hundred petty sovereigns (of Germany)

Tis pity he is not an Englishman

To negotiate with Government in England was to bribe

To negotiate was to bribe right and left, and at every step

To work, ever to work, was the primary law of his nature

To attack England it was necessary to take the road of Ireland

To shirk labour, infinite numbers become priests and friars

To doubt the infallibility of Calvin was as heinous a crime

Toil and sacrifices of those who have preceded us

Tolerate another religion that his own may be tolerated

Tolerating religious liberty had never entered his mind

Toleration--that intolerable term of insult

Torturing, hanging, embowelling of men, women, and children

Tranquil insolence

Tranquillity rather of paralysis than of health

Triple marriages between the respective nurseries

Trust her sword, not her enemy's word

Twas pity, he said, that both should be heretics

Under the name of religion (so many crimes)

Undue anxiety for impartiality

Universal suffrage was not dreamed of at that day

Unlearned their faith in bell, book, and candle

Unproductive consumption being accounted most sagacious

Unproductive consumption was alarmingly increasing

Unwise impatience for peace

Upon their knees, served the queen with wine

Upper and lower millstones of royal wrath and loyal subserviency

Use of the spade

Usual expedient by which bad legislation on one side countered

Utter want of adaptation of his means to his ends

Utter disproportions between the king's means and aims

Uttering of my choler doth little ease my grief or help my case

Valour on the one side and discretion on the other

Waiting the pleasure of a capricious and despotic woman

Walk up and down the earth and destroy his fellow-creatures

War was the normal and natural condition of mankind

War to compel the weakest to follow the religion of the strongest

War was the normal condition of Christians

Wasting time fruitlessly is sharpening the knife for himself

We have the reputation of being a good housewife

We must all die once

We mustn't tickle ourselves to make ourselves laugh

We have been talking a little bit of truth to each other

We were sold by their negligence who are now angry with us

Wealthy Papists could obtain immunity by an enormous fine

Weapons

Weary of place without power

What exchequer can accept chronic warfare and escape bankruptcy

What was to be done in this world and believed as to the next

When persons of merit suffer without cause

When all was gone, they began to eat each other

Whether murders or stratagems, as if they were acts of virtue

While one's friends urge moderation

Who the "people" exactly were

Whole revenue was pledged to pay the interest, on his debts

Wish to sell us the bear-skin before they have killed the bear

With something of feline and feminine duplicity

Word peace in Spanish mouths simply meant the Holy Inquisition

Words are always interpreted to the disadvantage of the weak

World has rolled on to fresher fields of carnage and ruin

Worn nor caused to be worn the collar of the serf

Wrath of bigots on both sides

Wrath of that injured personage as he read such libellous truths

Write so illegibly or express himself so awkwardly

You must show your teeth to the Spaniard