WHoever will take a view of the Rise of this Com­monwealth, must trace it up as high as the first Commotions in the Se­venteen Provinces, un­der the Dutchess of Parma's Govern­ment; and the true Causes of that more avowed and general Revolt in the Duke of Alva's time. And to find out the natural Springs of those Revoluti­ons, must reflect upon that sort of Go­vernment under which the Inhabitants of those Provinces lived for so many Ages past, in the subjection of their several Dukes or Counts; till by Mar­riages, Successions, or Conquest, they came to be united in the House of Burgundy, under Philip surnamed The Good: And afterwards in that of Au­stria, under Philip Father of Charles [Page 2] the Fifth: And lastly, in the Person of that great Emperor incorporated with those vast Dominions of Germany and Spain, Italy and the Indies.

Nor will it be from the purpose up­on this search, to run a little higher into the Antiquities of these Coun­tries: For though most men are con­tented only to see a River as it runs by them, and talk of the changes in it as they happen; when 'tis troubled, or when clear; when it drowns the Countrey in a Flood, or forsakes it in a Drowth: Yet he that would know the nature of the water, and the Cau­ses of those Accidents (so as to guess at their continuance or return), must find out its source, and observe with what strength it rises, what length it runs, and how many small streams fall in, and feed it to such a height, as make it either delightful or terrible to the eye, and useful or dangerous to the Countrey about it.

The Numbers and Fury of the Nor­thern Nations under many different names, having by several Inundations broken down the whole frame of the Roman Empire, extended in their Pro­vinces as far as the Rhine; either gave [Page 3] a birth, or made way for the several King­doms and Principalities that have since continued in the parts of Europe on this side that River, which made the ancient limits of the Gaul and German Nations. The Tract of Land which we usually call the Low-Countreys, was so wasted by the Invasions or Marches of this raging people (who past by them to greater Conquests), that the Inhabitants grew thin; and being se­cure of nothing they possest, fell to seek the support of their lives rather by hunting, or by violence, than by labour and industry: and thereby the grounds came to be uncultivated, and in the course of years turned either to Forrest, or Marshes; which are the two natural soyls of all desolated Lands in the more temperate Regions. For by soaking of frequent showrs, and the course of waters from the higher into lower grounds, when there is no issue that helps them to break out into a Channel, the flat Land grows to be a mixture of earth and water, and nei­ther of common use nor passage to Man or Beast, which is call'd a Marsh. Tho higher, and so the dryer parts, moistned by the Rain, and warm'd by the Sun, [Page 4] shoot forth some sorts of Plants, as naturally as Bodies do some sorts of Hair; which being preserved by the desolateness of a place untrodden, as well as untill'd, grow to such Trees or Shrubs as are natural to the Soyle; and those in time producing both food and shelter for several kind of Beasts, make the sort of Countrey we call a Forest.

And such was Flanders for many years before Charlemaign's time, when the Power of the Francs having raised and establisht a great Kingdom of their own upon the entire Conquest of Gaul, Began to reduce the disorders of that Countrey to the form of a Civil, or (at least) Military Government; To make divisions and distributions of Lands and Jurisdictions, by the Bounty of the Prince, or the Services of his chief Fol­lowers and Commanders; To one of whom, a great extent of this Land was given, with the title of Forester of Flan­ders. This Office continued for several descents, and began to civilize the Coun­trey, by repressing the violence of Rob­bers and Spoylers, who infested the woody and fast-places, and by encou­raging the milder people to fall into Civil Societies, to trust to their [Page 5] Industry for subsistence, to Laws for protection, and to their Arms united under the care and conduct of their Go­vernours, for safety and defence.

In the time of Charlemaigne, as some write; or as others, in that of Charles the Bald, Flanders was erected into a County, which changed the Title of Forester for that of Count, without in­terrupting the Succession.

VVhat the extent of this County was at first, or how far the Jurisdiction of Foresters reached, I cannot affirm; nor whether it only bordered upon, or in­cluded the lower parts of the vast VVoods of Ardenne, which in Charle­maign's time was all Forest as high as Aix and the rough Countrey for some Leagues beyond it, and was used com­monly by that Emperor for his Hunt­ing: This appears by the ancient Re­cords of that City, which attribute the discovery, or at least retrieving the knowledg of those hot Baths, to the fortune of that Prince while he was Hunting: For his Horse poching one of his legs into some hollow ground, made way for the smoaking water to break out, and gave occasion for the Emperors building that City, and ma­king [Page 6] it his usual Seat, and the place of Coronation for the following Empe­rors.

Holland being an Island made by the dividing-branches of the ancient Rhyne, and called formerly Batavia, was esteem­ed rather a part of Germany, than Gaul (between which it was seated), in re­gard of its being planted by the Catti, a great and ancient people of Germany, and was treated by the Romans rather as an Allied than Subjected Province; who drew from thence no other Tribute besides Bands of Soldiers, much esteem­ed for their Valour, and joined as Auxiliaries to their Legions in their Gal­lick, German, and British VVars.

'Tis probable this Island changed in a great measure Inhabitants and Customs, as well as Names, upon the inroads of the barbarous Nations, but chiefly of the Normans and Danes, from whose Countreys and Language the Names of Holland and Zealand seem to be de­rived. But about the year 860, a Son of the Count of Frize, by a Daughter of the Emperor Lewis the second, was by him instituted Count of Holland, and gave beginning to that Title; which running since that time through so many [Page 7] direct or collateral Successions and some Usurpations, ended at last in Philip the second, King of Spain, by the defection of the United Provinces.

Under these first Foresters, and Counts, who began to take those wasted Countreys and mixed People into their care, and to intend the growth, strength and riches of their Subjects, which they esteemed to be their own; Many old and demolisht Castles were re-built, many new ones erected, and given by the Princes to those of their Subjects or Friends whom they most loved or esteemed, with large circuits of Lands for their support, and Seigneurial Juris­diction over the Inhabitants. And this upon several easie Conditions, but chiefly of attendance on their Prince at the necessary times of either honouring him in Peace, or serving him in VVar. Nay possibly, some of these Seigneuries and their Jurisdictions, may, as they pretend, have been the remains of some old Principalities in those Countreys among the Gallick and German Nations, the first Institutions whereof were lost in the immensity of time that preceded the Roman Discoveries or Conquest, and might be derived perhaps from the first [Page 8] Paternal dominion or concurrence of loose people into orderly Neighbour­hoods, with a deference, if not subjection to the wisest or bravest among them.

Under the same Counts were either founded or restored many Cities and Towns; of which the old had their ancient Freedoms and Jurisdictions con­firmed, or others annexed; and the New had either the same granted to them by example of the others; or great Immunities and Priviledges for the en­couragement of Inhabitants to come and people in them: All these Constituti­ons agreeing much in substance perhaps by imitation, or else by the agreeing-nature of the people for whom or by whom they were framed; but differing in form according to the difference of their Original, or the several Natures, Customs and Interests of the Princes, whose Concessions many of them were, and all their Permissions.

Another Constitution which entered deep into their Government, may be derived from another source. For those Northern Nations whose unknown Lan­guage and Countrey perhaps made them be called Barbarous (though indeed almost all Nations out of Italy and [Page 9] Greece were stiled so by the Romans), but whose Victories in obtaining new Seats, and Orders in possessing them, might make us allow them for a better polici'd people than they appeared by the vastness of their Multitude, or the rage of their Battels.

VVherever they past, and seated their Colonies and Dominions, they left a Constitution which has since been call­ed in most European Languages, The States; consisting of Three Orders, Noble, Ecclesiastical, and Popular, un­der the limited Principality of one Person, with the stile of King, Prince, Duke, or Count. The remainders at least, or traces hereof, appear still in all the Principalities founded by those people in Italy, France, and Spain; and were of a piece with the present Con­stitutions in most of the great Domi­nions on t'other side the Rhyne: And it seems to have been a temper first introduced by them between the Ty­ranny of the Eastern Kingdoms, and the Liberty of the Grecian or Roman Com­monwealths.

'Tis true, the Goths were Gentiles when they first broke into the Roman Empire, till one great swarm of this [Page 10] people, upon treaty with one of the Roman Emperors, and upon Concessi­ons of a great Tract of Land to be a Seat for their Nation, embraced at once the Christian Faith. After which, the same people breaking out of the li­mits had been allowed them, and by fresh numbers bearing all down where they bent their march; as they were a great means of propagating Religion in many parts of Europe where they ex­tended their Conquests; so the zeal of these new Proselytes, warmed by the veneration they had for their Bishops and Pastors, and enriched by the spoyls and possessions of so vast Countreys, seem to have been the First that in­troduced the maintenance of the Chur­ches and Clergy, by endowments of Lands, Lordships and Vassals, appro­priated to them: For before this time the Authority of the Priesthood in all Religions seemed wholly to consist in the peoples opinion of their Piety, Learning and Virtues, or a reverence for their Character and Mystical Cere­monies and Institutions; their Support, or their Revenues, in the voluntary Oblations of pious men, the Bounty of Princes, or in a certain share out [Page 11] of the Labours and Gains of those who lived under their Cure, and not in any subjection of mens Lives or Fortunes, which belonged wholly to the Civil Power: And Ammianus, though he taxes the Luxury of the Bishops in Va­lentinian's time; yet he speaks of their Riches which occasioned or fomented it, as arising wholly from the Oblations of the people. But the Devotion of these new Christians introducing this new form of endowing their Churches; and afterwards Pepin and Charlemaign, King of the Franks, upon their Victo­ries in Italy, and the favour of the Ro­man Bishop to their Title and Arms, having annexed great Territories and Jurisdictions to that See; This Exam­ple or Custom was followed by most Princes of the Northern Races through the rest of Europe, and brought into the Clergy great possessions of Lands, and by a necessary consequence a great share of Temporal Power, from the de­pendances of their Subjects or Tenants; by which means they came to be ge­nerally one of the Three Orders that composed the Assembly of the States in every Countrey.

This Constitution of the States had [Page 12] been establisht from time immemorial in the several Provinces of the Low-Countreys, and was often assembled for determining Disputes about succession of their Princes, where doubtful or contested; For deciding those between the great Towns; For raising a Milice for the defence of their Countreys in the wars of their Neighbours; For Ad­vice in time of Dangers abroad, or Discontents at home; But always up­on the new Succession of a Prince, and upon any new Impositions that were necessary on the people. The use of this Assembly was another of those Liberties whereof the Inhabitants of these Provinces were so fond and so tenacious. The rest, besides those an­cient Priviledges already mentioned of their Towns, were Concessions and Gra­ces of several Princes, in particular Exemptions or Immunities, Jurisdiction both in choice and exercise of Magi­gistracy and Civil Judicature within themselves; or else in the customs of using none but Natives in Charges and Offices, and passing all weighty Affairs by the great Council composed of the great Lords of the Countrey, who were in a manner all Temporal, there being [Page 13] but three Bishops in all the Seventeen Provinces, till the time of Philip the second of Spain.

The Revenues of these Princes con­sisted in their ancient Demesnes, in small Customs (which yet grew considerable by the greatness of Trade in the Ma­ritime Towns), and in the voluntary Contributions of their Subjects, either in the States, or in particular Cities, according to the necessities of their Prince, or the affections of the people. Nor were these frequent; for the For­ces of these Counts were composed of such Lords who either by their Go­vernments, or other Offices; or by the tenure of their Lands, were obliged to attend their Prince on Horse-back, with certain numbers of men, upon all his wars: or else of a Milice, which was call'd Les gens d' ordonnance, who ser­ved on foot, and were not unlike our Train-bands; the use, or at least stile whereof, was renewed in Flanders up­on the last VVar with France in 1667, when the Count Egmont was made by the Governour, General de gens d' or­donnance.

These Forces were defrayed by the Cities or Countreys, as the others were [Page 14] raised by the Lords when occasion re­quired; and all were licensed immedi­ately when it was past, so that they were of little charge to the Prince. His wars were but with other Princes of his own size, or Competitors to his Principality; or sometimes with the Mutineys of his great Towns: Short, though violent; and decided by one Battel or Siege; unless they fell into the quarrels between England and France, and then they were engaged but in the skirts of the VVar, the gross of it be­ing waged between the two Kings, and these smaller Princes made use of for the credit of Alliance, or sometimes the commodiousness of a Diversion, rather than for any great weight they made in the main of the Affair.

The most frequent VVars of the Counts of Holland, were with the Fri­sons, a part of the old Saxons; and the fiercest battels of some of the Counts of Flanders, were with the Normans, who past that way into France, and were the last of those Nations that have infested the more Southern parts of Eu­rope. I have sometimes thought, how it should have come to pass, that the infinite swarm of that vast Northern-Hive, [Page 15] which so often shook the world like a great Tempest, and overflowed it like a great Torrent; changing Names, and Customs, and Government, and Language, and the very face of Na­ture, wherever they seated themselves; which upon record of story, under the name of Gauls, pierced into Greece and Italy, sacking Rome, and besieging the Capitol in Camillus his time; under that of the Cimbers, marcht through France to the very confines of Italy, defended by Marius; under that of Huns or Lombards, Visigoths, Goths, and Vandals, conquered the whole Forces of the Roman Empire, sackt Rome thrice in a small compass of years; seat­ed their Kingdoms in Spain and Africk, as well as Lombardy; and under that of Danes or Normans, possest themselves of England, a great part of France, and even of Naples and Sicily: How (I say) these Nations, which seemed to spawn in every Age, and at some in­tervals of time discharged their own native Countreys of so vast Numbers, and with such terror to the world, should about seven or eight hundred years ago leave off the use of these furious expeditions, as if on a sudden [Page 16] they should have grown barren, or tame, or better contented with their own ill Climates. But I suppose we owe this benefit wholly to the growth and progress of Christianity in the North; by which, early and undistinguisht Co­pulation, or multitude of VVives, were either restrained or abrogated; By the same means Learning and Civility got footing among them in some degree, and enclosed certain Circuits of those vast Regions, by the distinctions and bounds of Kingdoms, Principalities, or Commonalties. Men began to leave their wilder lives, spent without other cares or pleasures than of Food, or of Lust; and betook themselves to the ease and entertainment of Societies: VVith Order and Labour, Riches be­gan, and Trade followed; and these made way for Luxury, and that for many Diseases or ill habits of body, which, unknown to the former and simpler Ages, began to shorten and weaken both Life and Procreation. Besides, the divisions and circles of Do­minion, occasioned VVars between the several Nations, though of one Faith; and those of the Poles, Hungarians, and Muscovites, with the Turks or Tartars, [Page 17] made greater slaughters; and by these Accidents I suppose the Numbers of those fertil Broods have been lessened, and their Limits in a measure confined; and we have had thereby for so long together in these parts of the world, the honour and liberty of drawing our own blood, upon the quarrels of Humour or Avarice, Ambition or Pride, without the assistance or need of any Barbarons Nations to destroy us.

But to end this disgression, and return to the Low-Countreys, where the Go­vernment lasted in the form and man­ner described (though in several Prin­cipalities), till Philip of Burgundy, in whom all the Seventeen Provinces came to be united.

By this great extent of a populous Countrey, and the mighty growth of Trade in Bruges, Gant, and Antwerp, attributed by Comines to the goodness of the Princes, and ease and safety of the people; both Philip and his Son Charles the Hardy, found themselves a Match for France, then much weakned, as well by the late wars of England, as the Factions of their Princes. And in the wars with France, was the House of Burgundy under Charles and Maxi­milian [Page 18] of Austria (who married his Daughter and Heir), and afterwards under Charles the Fifth, their Grand­child, almost constantly engaged; the course, successes, and revolutions where­of are commonly known.

Philip of Burgundy, who began them, was a good and wise Prince, lov'd by his Subjects and esteemed by his Ene­mies; and took his measures so well, that upon the declining of the English Greatness abroad, by their Dissentions at home, he ended his quarrels in France, by a Peace with Safety and Honour. So that he took no pretence from his Greatness, or his VVars, to change any thing in the Forms of his Government: But Charles the Hardy, engaged more rashly against France and the Switzers, began to ask greater and frequent Contributions of his Subjects; which gain'd at first by the credit of his Father's Government and his own great Designs, but spent in an unfor­tunate VVar, made his people discon­tented and him disesteemed, till he ended an unhappy life, by an untimely death, in the Battel of Nancy.

In the time of Maximilian, several German-troops were brought down into [Page 19] Flanders for their defence against France; and in that of Charles the Fifth, much greater Forces of Spani­ards and Italians, upon the same oc­casion; a thing unknown to the Low-Countrey-men in the time of their for­mer Princes. But through the whole course of this Emperor's Reign, who was commonly on the fortunate hand, his Greatness and Fame encreasing to­gether, either diverted or suppressed any discontents of his Subjects upon the encrease of their Payments, or the grievance of so many Forreign Troops among them. Besides, Charles was of a gentle and a generous nature; and being born in the Low-Countreys, was naturally kind and easie to that peo­ple, whose Customs and Language he always used when he was among them, and employed all their great men in the Charges of his Court, his Govern­ment, or his Armies, through the seve­ral parts of his vast Dominions; so that upon the last great Action of his life, which was the resignation of his Crowns to his Son and Brother, He left to Phi­lip the Second, the Seventeen Provin­ces, in a condition as Peaceable, and as Loyal, as either Prince or Subjects could desire.

[Page 20] Philip the Second coming to the possession of so many and great Do­minions, about the year 1556, after some trial of good and ill fortune in the War with France (which was left him by his Father like an encumbrance upon a great Estate), restored by the Peace of Cambrey not only the quiet of his own Countreys, but in a man­ner of all Christendom, which was in some degree or other engaged in the quarrel of these Princes. After this he resolved to return into Spain, and leave the Low-Countreys under a subordinate Government, which had been till Charles the Fifth's time the constant Seat of their Princes, and shar'd the Presence of that great Emperor with the rest of his Dominions. But Philip a Spaniard born, receiving from the Climate or E­ducation of that Countrey, the Severe­ness and Gravity of the Nation, which the Flemings called Reservedness and Pride; Conferring the Offices of his House, and the Honour of his Coun­cil and Confidence, upon Spaniards, and thereby introducing their Customs, Habits, and Language, into the Court of Flanders. Continuing, after the peace, those Spanish and Italian Forces, and [Page 21] the demand of Supplies from the States, which the War had made necessary, and the easier supported; He soon left off being lov'd, and began to be feared by the Inhabitants of those Provinces.

But Philip the Second thought it not agreeing with the Pomp and Greatness of the House of Austria, already at the head of so mighty Dominions; nor with his Designs of a yet greater Empire, to consider the Discontents or Grievan­ces of so small a Countrey; nor to be limited by their ancient Forms of Go­vernment: And therefore at his depar­ture for Spain, and substitution of his natural Sister the Dutchess of Parma, for Governess of the Low-Countreys, assisted by the Ministry of Granvell; He left her instructed to continue the Forreign Troops, and the demand of money from the States for their support, which was now by a long course of War grown customary among them, and the Sums only disputed between the Prince and the States: To establish the Fourteen Bishops, he had agreed with the Pope, should be added to the Three that were anciently in the Low-Countreys, To revive the Edicts of Charles the Fifth against Luther, pub­lish't [Page 22] in a Diet of the Empire about the year 1550, but eluded in the Low-Countreys even in that Emperor's time; and thereby to make way for the In­quisition with the same course it had received in Spain; of which the Lutherans here, and the Moors there, were made an equal pretence. And these Points, as they came to be own­ed and executed, made the first Com­motions of mens minds in the Pro­vinces.

The hatred of the people against the Spaniards, and the Insolencies of those Troops, with the charge of their support, made them look't upon by the Inhabitants in general, as the Instru­ments of their Oppression and Slavery, and not of their Defence, when a ge­neral Peace had left them no Enemies: And therefore the States began here their Complaints, with a general Con­sent and Passion of all the Nobles, as well as Towns and Countrey. And upon the Delays that were contrived, or fell in; the States first refused to raise any more moneys either for the Spaniards pay, or their own standing-Troops; and the people run into so great despair, that in Zealand they absolutely gave over [Page 23] the working at their Digues, suffering the Sea to gain every Tide upon the Countrey; and resolving (as they said) rather to be devoured by that Ele­ment, than by the Spanish Soldiers: So that after many Disputes and Intrigues between the Governess and the Pro­vinces, the King upon her Remon­strances was induced to their removal; which was accordingly performed with great joy and applause of the people.

The erecting of Fourteen new Bi­shops Sees, raised the next Contest. The great Lords lookt upon this Inno­vation as a lessening of their Power, by introducing so many new men into the great Council. The Abbots (out of whose Lands they were to be en­dowed) pleaded against it as a violent usurpation upon the Rights of the Church, and the Will of the Dead, who had given those Lands to a par­ticular use. The Commons murmured at it as a new degree of Oppression upon their Conscience or Liberty, by the erecting so many new Spiritual Courts of Judicature, and so great a number of Judges, being Seventeen for Three, that were before in the Countrey; and those depending abso­lutely [Page 24] upon the Pope, or the King. And all men declaimed against it as a breach of the Kings Oath at his ac­cession to the Government, for the preserving the Church and the Laws in the same state he found them. How­ever, this Point was gain'd intirely by the Governess, and carried over the head of all opposition, though not without leaving a general discontent.

In the midst of these ill Humours stirring in Flanders, the Wars of Reli­gion breaking out in France, drove great numbers of Calvinists into all those parts of the Low-Countreys that confine upon France, as the Troubles of Germany had before of Lutherans into the Provinces about the Rhyne; and the Persecutions under Queen Mary, those of the Church of England into Flanders and Brabant, by the great commerce of this Kingdom with Bruges and Antwerp.

These Accidents and Neighbourhoods filled these Countreys in a small tract of time with swarms of the Reformed Professors: And the admiration of their Zeal, the opinion of their Do­ctrine and Piety, the compassion of their Sufferings, the infusion of their [Page 25] Discontents, or the Humour of the Age, gain'd them every day many Proselytes in the Low-Countreys, some among the Nobles, many among the Villages, but most among the Cities, whose Trade and Riches were much encreased by these new Inhabitants; and whose Interest thereby, as well as Conversation, drew them on to their favour.

This made work for the Inquisition, though moderately exercised by the prudence and temper of the Gover­ness, mediating between the rigor of Granvell, in straining up to the highest his Master's Authority and the execu­tion of his Commands upon all occa­sions; And the resoluteness of the Lords of the Provinces, to temper the King's Edicts, and protect the Liberties of their Countrey against the admissi­on of this New and Arbitrary Judica­ture, unknown to all ancient Laws and Customs of the Countrey; and for that, not less odious to the people, than for the cruelty of their executions. For before the Inquisition, the care of Religion was in the Bishops; and be­fore that, in the Civil Magistrates throughout the Provinces.

[Page 26]Upon angry Debates in Council, but chiefly upon the universal Mini­stry of Granvell, a Burgundian of mean birth, grown at last to be a Cardinal; and more famous for the greatness of his Parts, than the goodness of his Life. The chief Lords of the Countrey (a­mong whom the Prince of Orange, Counts Egmont and Horn, the Marquess of Bergen and Montigny, were most considerable) grew to so violent and implacable a hatred of the Cardinal (whether from Passion or Interest), which was so universally spread through the whole Body of the People, either by the Causes of it, or the Example; That the Lords first refused their at­tendance in Council, protesting, Not to endure the sight of a man so abso­lute there, and to the ruin of their Countrey: And afterwards petitioned the King in the name of the whole Countrey, for his removal: Upon the delay whereof and the continuance of the Inquisition, the people appeared upon daily occasions and accidents, heated to that degree, as threatned a general Combustion in the whole Bo­dy, when ever the least Flame should break out in any part.

[Page 27]But the King at length consented to Granvell's recess, by the opinion of the Dutchess of Parma, as well as the pur­suit of the Provinces: Whereupon the Lords reassumed their places in Coun­cil; Count Egmont was sent into Spain to represent the Grievances of the Pro­vinces; and being favourably dispatcht by the King, especially by remitting the rigor of the Edicts about Religi­on, and the Inquisition; All noise of discontent and tumult was appeased, the Lords were made use of by the Governess in the Council, and con­duct of Affairs; and the Governess was by the Lords both obeyed and honoured.

In the beginning of the year 1565, there was a Conference at Bayonne be­tween Katharine Queen-Mother of France, and her Son Charles the Ninth (though very young), with his Sister Isabella Queen of Spain: In which no other person but the Duke of Alva in­terven'd, being deputed thither by Phi­lip, who excused his own presence, and thereby made this Enterview pass for an effect or expression of kindness be­tween the Mother and her Children. Whether great Resolutions are the more [Page 28] suspected, where great Secresie is ob­served; or it be true, what the Prince of Orange affirmed to have by acci­dent discovered, That the extirpation of all Families which should profess the New Religion in the French or Spanish Dominions, was here agreed on, with mutual assistance of the two Crowns; 'Tis certain, and was owned, that Matters of Religion were the sub­ject of that Conference; and that soon after, in the same year, came Letters from King Philip to the Dutchess of Parma, disclaiming the Interpretation which had been given to his Letters by Count Egmont; declaring, His Pleasure was, That all Hereticks should be put to death without remission: That the Emperor's Edicts, and the Councel of Trent, should be publish­ed and observed; and commanding, That the utmost Assistance of the Ci­vil Power should be given to the In­quisition.

When this was divulged, at first, the astonishment was great throughout their Provinces; but that soon gave way to their Rage, which began to appear in their Looks, in their Speeches, their bold Meetings and Libels; and was [Page 29] encreased by the miserable spectacles of so many Executions upon account of Religion. The Constancy of the Suf­ferers, and Compassion of the Behold­ers, conspiring generally to lessen the opinion of Guilt or Crime, and hight­en a detestation of the Punishment and Revenge, against the Authors of that Counsel, of whom the Duke of Alva was esteemed the Chief.

In the beginning of the year 1566, began an open Mutiny of the Citizens in many Towns, hindring Executions, and forcing Prisons and Officers; and this was followed by a Confederacy of the Lords, Never to suffer the In­quisition in the Low-Countreys, as con­trary to all Laws, both Sacred and Pro­phane, and exceeding the Cruelty of all former Tyrannies. Upon which all resolutions of Force or Rigor grew unsafe for the Government, now too weak for such a revolution of the peo­ple; and on the other side, Brederode in confidence of the general Favour, came in the head of Two hundred Gentlemen, thorow the Provinces to Brussels, and in bold terms petitioned the Governess for abolishing the Inqui­sition, and Edicts about Religion; and [Page 30] that new ones should be fram'd by a Convention of the States.

The Governess was forced to use gentle Remedies to so violent a Dis­ease; to receive the Petition without show of the resentment she had at heart, and to promise a representation of their Desires to the King; which was accordingly done: But though the King was startled with such conse­quences of his last Commands, and at length induced to recall them; yet whether by the slowness of his na­ture, or the forms of the Spanish Court, the Answer came too late: and as all his former Concessions, either, by delay or testimonies of ill-will or meaning in them, had lost the good grace; so this lost absolutely the effect, and came into the Low-Countreys when all was in flame by an insurrection of the meaner people through many great Towns of Flanders, Holland, and U­trecht; who fell violently upon the spoyl of Churches, and destruction of Images, with a thousand circumstances of barbarous and brutish fury; which with the Institution of Consistories and Magistrates in each Town among those of the Reformed Profession, with pub­like [Page 31] Confederacies and Distinctions, and private Contributions agreed up­on for the support of their common Cause, gave the first date in this year of 1566, to the revolt of the Low-Countreys.

But the Nobility of the Countrey, and the richest of the people in the Cities, though unsatisfied with the Government, yet feeling the Effects, and abhorring the Rage of Popular Tumults, as the worst mischief that can befall any State; And encouraged by the arrival of the King's Concessi­ons, began to unite their Councels and Forces with those of the Governess, and to employ themselves both with great Vigor and Loyalty, for suppres­sing the late Insurrections that had sei­zed upon many, and shaked most of the Cities of the Provinces; in which the Prince of Orange, and Count Eg­mont, were great Instruments, by the authority of their great Charges (One being Governour of Holland and Zea­land, and the other of Flanders); but more by the general love and confi­dence of the people; Till by the re­ducing Valenciens, Maestricht, and the Burse, by Arms; The submission of [Page 32] Antwerp and other Towns; The de­fection of Count Egmont from the Councels of the Confederate Lords (as they were called); The retreat of the Prince of Orange into Germany; and the death of Brederode, with the news and preparations of King Philip's sud­den journey into the Low-Countreys, as well as the Prudence and Moderation of the Dutchess in governing all these circumstances; The whole Estate of the Provinces was perfectly restored to its former Peace, Obedience, and at least Appearance of Loyalty.

King Philip, whether having never really decreed his journey into Flan­ders, or diverted by the pacification of the Provinces, and apprehension of the Moors rebelling in Spain, or a di­strust of his Son Prince Charles his violent Passions and Dispositions, or the expectation of what had been re­solved at Bayonne, growing ripe for execution in France, gave over the discourse of seeing the Low-Countreys; But at the same time took up the resolution for dispatching the Duke of Alva thither at the head of an Army of Ten thousand Veterane Spanish, and Italian Troops, for the assistance of the [Page 33] Governess, the execution of the Laws, the suppressing and punishment of all who had been Authors or Fomentors of the late Seditions.

This Result was put suddenly in execution, though wholly against the Advice of the Dutchess of Parma in Flanders, and the Duke of Feria (one of the chief Ministers) in Spain: Who thought the present Peace of the Provinces ought not to be invaded by new occasions; nor the Royal Autho­rity lessened, by being made a party in a War upon his Subjects; nor a Minister employed where he was so professedly both hating and hated, as the Duke of Alva in the Low-Coun­treys.

But the King was unmovable; so that in the end of the year 1567, the Duke of Alva arrived there with an Army of Ten thousand, the best Spanish and Italian Soldiers, under the Com­mand of the choicest Officers which the Wars of Charles the Fifth, or Philip the Second, had bred up in Eu­rope; which with Two thousand Ger­mans the Dutchess of Parma had rai­sed in the last Tumults; and under the Command of so Old and Renowned [Page 34] a General as the Duke of Alva, made up a Force, which nothing in the Low-Countreys could look in the face with other eyes, than of Astonishment, Sub­mission, or Despair.

Upon the first report of this Expe­dition, the Trading-people of the Towns and Countrey began in vast numbers to retire out of the Provinces; so as the Dutchess wrote to the King, That in few days above a Hundred thou­sand men had left the Countrey, and withdrawn both their Money and Goods, and more were following every day: So great antipathy there ever appears between Merchants and Soldi­ers; whilst one pretends to be safe un­der Laws, which the other pretends shall be subject to his Sword and his Will. And upon the first Action of the Duke of Alva after his arrival, which was the seizing Count Egmont and Horn, as well as the suspected death of the Marquess of Berghen, and im­prisonment of Montigny in Spain (whi­ther some Months before, they had been sent with Commission and Instructions from the Dutchess), she immediately desired leave of the King to retire out of the Low-Countreys.

[Page 35]This was easily obtained, and the Duke of Alva invested in the Govern­ment, with Powers never given before to any Governour: A Council of Twelve was erected for tryal of all Crimes committed against the King's Authority, which was called by the people The Council of Blood. Great numbers were condemned and execu­ted by Sentence of this Council, upon account of the late Insurrections; More by that of the Inquisition, against the parting-advice of the Dutchess of Par­ma, and the Exclamations of the peo­ple at those Illegal Courts. The Towns stomached the breach of their Char­ters, the people of their Liberties, the Knights of the Golden-Fleece the Char­ters of their Order, by these new and odious Courts of Judicature; All com­plain of the disuse of the States, of the introduction of Armies, but all in vain: The King was constant to what he had determined; Alva was in his na­ture cruel and inexorable; the new Army was fierce and brave, and desi­rous of nothing so much as a Rebelli­on in the Countrey; The people were enraged, but awed and unheaded; All was Seizure and Process, Confiscation, [Page 36] and Imprisonment, Blood and Horror, Insolence and Dejection, punishments executed, and meditated Revenge: The smaller Branches were lopt off apace; the great ones were longer a hewing down. Count Egmont and Horne, last­ed several Months; but at length in spight of all their Services to Charles the Fifth, and to Philip; as well as of their new Merits in the quieting of the Provinces, and of so great Suppli­cations and Intercessions as were made in their favour both in Spain and in Flanders, They were publikely be­headed at Brussels, which seemed to break all patience in the people; and by their end, to give those Commoti­ons a beginning, which cost Europe so much Blood, and Spain a great part of the Low-Countrey-Provinces.

After the process of Egmont and Horne, the Prince of Orange, who was retired into Germany, was summoned to his Trial for the same Crimes of which the others had been accused; and upon his not appearing, was con­demned, proclaimed Traytor, and his whole Estate (which was very great in the Provinces, and in Burgundy) seized upon as forfeited to the King. [Page 37] The Prince treated in this manner while he was quiet and unarmed in Germany, employs all his Credit with those Prin­ces engaged to him by Alliance, or by common fears of the House of Au­stria; throws off all obedience to the Duke of Alva, raises Forces, joyns with great numbers flocking to him out of the Provinces; All enraged at the Duke of Alva's cruel and arbitrary Government, and resolved to revenge the Count Egmont's death (who had ever been the Darling of the people). With these Troops he enters Freizland, and invades the outward parts of Bra­bant, receives succours from the Pro­testants of France then in arms under the Prince of Conde: And after many various Encounters and Successes, by the great Conduct of Alva and Va­lour of his Veterane Army, being hin­dred from seizing upon any Town in Brabant (which both of them knew would shake the fidelity of the Pro­vinces), he is at length forced to break up his Army, and to retire into Germany. Hereupon Alva returns in Triumph to Brussels; and, as if he had made a Conquest instead of a Defence, causes out of the Cannon taken from Lewis [Page 38] of Nassau, his Statue to be cast in Brass, treading and insulting upon two smaller Statues that represented the Two Estates of the Low-Countreys; And this to be erected in the Cittadel he had built at Antwerp for the ab­solute subjecting of that rich, populous, and mutinous Town.

Nothing had raised greater indigna­tion among the Flemings, than the publique sight and ostentation of this Statue; and the more, because they knew the boast to be true, finding their ancient Liberties and Priviledges (the Inheritance of so many Ages, or Bounty of so many Princes) all now prostrate before this one man's Sword and Will, who from the time of Charles the Fifth had ever been esteemed an Enemy of their Nation, and Author of all the Counsels for the absolute sub­duing their Countrey.

But Alva mov'd with no Rumours, terrifi'd with no Threats from a bro­ken and unarmed people, and think­ing no Measures nor Forms were any more necessary to be observed in the Low-Countreys; pretends greater sums are necessary for the pay and reward of his Victorious Troops, than were [Page 39] annually granted upon the King's Re­quest, by the States of the Provinces: And therefore demands a general Tax of the Hundredth part of every man's Estate in the Low-Countreys, to be rai­sed at once: And for the future, the Twentieth of all Immovables, and the Tenth of all that was sold.

The States with much reluctancy consent to the first as a thing that ended at once; but refused the other two, alledging the poverty of the Pro­vinces, and the ruin of Trade. Upon the Duke's persisting, they petition the King by Messengers into Spain, but without redress; draw out the year in Contests, sometimes stomachful, some­times humble with the Governour; Till the Duke impatient of further delay, causes the Edict, without consent of the States, to be published at Brussels. The people refuse to pay, the Soldiers begin to levy by force; the Towns­men all shut up their Shops; the peo­ple in the Countrey forbear the Mar­ket, so as not so much as Bread or Meat is to be bought in the Town. The Duke is enraged, and calls the Soldiers to arms, and commands seve­ral of the Inhabitants, who refused the [Page 40] payments, to be hanged that very night upon their Sign-posts; Which nothing moves the Obstinacy of the people. And now the Officers and the Guards are ready to begin the Executions, when news comes to Town of the ta­king of the Briel by the Geusses, and of the expectation that had given of a sudden Revolt in the Province of Hol­land.

This unexpected blow struck the Duke of Alva; and foreseeing the consequences of it, because he knew the Stubble was dry, and now he found the Fire was fallen in, He thought it an ill time to make an end of the Tragedy in Brabant, whilst a new Scene was ready in Holland; and so giving over for the present his Taxes and Executions, applies his thoughts to the suppression of this new Enemy that broke in upon him from the Sea; and for that reason the bottom and reach of the Design as well as the nature and strength of their Forces, were to the Duke the less known, and the more suspected. Now because this seizure of the Briel began the second great Commotion of the Low-Countreys in 1570; and that which indeed never [Page 41] ended but in the loss of those Pro­vinces, where the death of the Spanish and Royal Government, gave life to a new Commonwealth; It will be ne­cessary to know what sort of men, and by what Accidents united, and by what Fears or Hopes emboldned, were the first Authors of this Adventure.

Upon Brederod's delivering a Peti­tion to the Dutchess of Parma, against the Inquisition, and for some liberty in point of Religion; Those persons which attended him, looking mean in their Clothes and their Garb, were called by one of the Courtiers at their entrance into the Palace, Gueses, which signi­fies Beggars; a Name though raised by chance or by scorn, yet affected by the Party as an Expression of Humi­lity and Distress, and used ever after by both sides as a Name of distinction, comprehending all who dissented from the Roman Church, how different so­ever in opinion among themselves.

These men spread in great numbers through the whole extent of the Pro­vinces, by the accidents and dispositi­ons already mentioned; After the ap­peasing of their first Sedition, were broken in their common Counsels; and [Page 42] by the Cruelty of the Inquisition, and Rigor of Alva, were in great multi­tudes forced to retire out of the Pro­vinces, at least such as had means or hopes of subsisting abroad: Many of the poorer and more desperate, fled in­to the Woods of the upper Countreys (where they are thick and wild), and liv'd upon spoil; and in the first de­scent of the Prince of Orange his Forces, did great mischiefs to all scatter'd parties of the Duke of Alva's Troops in their march through those parts. But after that attempt of the Prince ended without success, and he was forced back into Germany; the Count of Marcke; a violent and im­placable Enemy to the Duke of Alva and his Government, with many others of the broken Troops (whom the same fortune and disposition had left toge­ther in Friezland), mann'd out some Ships of small force, and betook them­selves to Sea; and with Commissions from the Prince of Orange, began to prey upon all they could master, that belonged to the Spaniards. They some­times sheltered and watered, and sold their Prizes in some Crekes or small Harbours of England, though forbidden [Page 43] by Queen Elizabeth (then in peace with Spain); sometimes in the River Ems, or some small ports of Friezland; till at length, having gain'd consider­able Riches by these Adventures; whe­ther to sell, or to refresh; whether driven by storm, or led by design (up­on knowledg of the ill blood which the new Taxes had bred in all the Provinces) they landed in the Island of the Briel, assaulted and carried the Town, pull'd down the Images in the Churches, pro­fessed openly their Religion, declared against the Taxes and Tyranny of the Spanish Government, and were imme­diately followed by the revolt of most of the Towns of Holland, Zealand, and West-Friezland, who threw out the Spanish Garrisons, renounced their obe­dience to King Philip, and swore Fide­lity to the Prince of Orange.

The Prince returned out of Ger­many with new Forces; and making use of this fury of the people, con­tented himself not with Holland and Zealand, but marcht up into the very heart of the Provinces, within five Leagues of Brussels, seizing upon Mech­lin, and many other Towns, with so great Consent, Applause, and Concourse [Page 44] of people, that the whole Spanish Do­minions seemed now ready to expire in the Low-Countreys, if it had not been revived by the Massacre of the Pro­testants at Paris; which contrived by joynt Councels with King Philip ▪ and acted by a Spanish party in the Court of France, and with so fatal a blow to the contrary Faction, encouraged the Duke of Alva, and dampt the Prince of Orange in the same degree; so that one gathers strength enough to defend the heart of the Provinces, and the other retires into Holland, and makes that the seat of the War.

This Countrey was strong by its na­ture and seat among the Waters that encompass and divide it; but more by a rougher sort of people at that time, less softned by Trade, or by Riches; less used to Grants of Money and Taxes; and proud of their ancient Fame recorded in the Roman Stories, of being obstinate Defenders of their Liberties, and now most implacable haters of the Spanish Name.

All these dispositions were encreased and hardened in the War that ensued under the Duke of Alva's Conduct, or his Sons; By the slaughter of all in­nocent [Page 45] persons and sexes, upon the ta­king of Naerden, where the Houses were burnt, and the Walls levelled to the ground; By the desperate defence of Haerlem for ten months, with all the practises and returns of ignominy, cruelty, and scorn on both sides; while the very Women listed themselves in companies, repaired breaches, gave alarms, and beat up quarters, till all being famisht, Four hundred Burgers (after the surrender) were kill'd in cold blood, among many other Examples of an incensed Conqueror; Which made the Humour of the parties grow more desperate, and their hatred to Spain and Alva incurable.

The same Army broken and forced to rise from before Alcmaer, after a long and fierce siege in Alva's time; and from before Leyden in the time of Requisenes (where the Boors them­selves opened the Sluyces, and drown'd the Countrey, resolving to mischief the Spaniards at the charge of their own ruin), gave the great turn to Affairs in Holland.

The King grows sensible of Danger, and apprehensive of the total defecti­on of the Provinces; Alva weary of [Page 46] his Government, finding His violent Counsels and Proceedings had raised a Spirit, which was quiet before he came, and was never to be laid any more. The Duke is recalled, and the War goes under Requisenes; who dying suddenly, and without provisions made by the King for a Successor; the Go­vernment, by customs of the Coun­trey, devolved by way of interim up­on the great Council, which lasted some time by the delay of Don John of Austria's coming, who was declared the new Governour.

But in this Interim the strength of the Disease appears; for upon the Mu­tiny of some Spanish Troops for want of their pay, and their seizing Alost, a Town near Brussels, the people grow into a rage, the Trades-men give over their Shops, and the Countrey-men their Labour, and all run to Arms; In Brussels they force the Senate, pull out those men they knew to be most ad­dicted to the Spaniards, kill such of that Nation as they meet in the streets, and all in general cry out for the ex­pulsion of Forreigners out of the Low-Countreys, and the assembling of the States; to which the Council is forced [Page 47] to consent. In the mean time the chief persons of the Provinces enter into an agreement with the Prince of Orange, to carry on the common Affairs of the Provinces by the same Counsels; so as when the Estates assembled at Ghent, without any contest they agreed upon that Act which was called The Pacifi­cation of Ghent, in the year 1576, whereof the chief Articles were, The expulsion of all Forreign Soldiers out of the Provinces; Restoring all the an­cient Forms of Government; And re­ferring matters of Religion in each Pro­vince to the Provincial Estates; And that for performance hereof the rest of the Provinces should for ever be con­federate with Holland and Zealand. And this made the first period of the Low-Countrey Troubles, proving to King Philip a dear Experience how little the best Conduct and boldest Armies are able to withstand the Torrent of a stubborn and enraged people, which ever bears all down before it, till it comes to be divided into different Channels by Arts or by Chance; or till the Springs, which are the Humours that fed it, come to be spent, or dry up of themselves.

[Page 48]The Forreign Forces refusing to de­part, are declared Rebels; whereupon the Spanish Troops force and plunder several Towns, and Antwerp among the rest (by advantage of the Cittadel), with equal Courage and Avarice; And defend themselves in several Holds from the Forces of the States, till Don John's arrival at Luxenburgh, the only Town of the Provinces where he thought himself safe, as not involved in the de­fection of the rest.

The Estates refuse to admit him without his accepting and confirming the Pacification of Ghent; which at length he does by leave from the King, and enters upon the Government with the dismission of all Forreign Troops, which return into Italy. But soon after Don John, whether out of indignati­on to see himself but a precarious Go­vernour, without force or dependance; Or desiring new occasions of Fame by a War; or instructed from Spain up­on new Councels; He takes the occa­sion of complementing Queen Marga­ret upon her journey out of France to the Spaw, and on a sudden seizes upon the Castle of Namur. Whereupon the Provinces for the third time throw [Page 49] off their obedience, call the Prince of Orange to Brussels, where he is made Protector of Brabant by the States of that Province, and preparations are made on both sides for the War; While Spain is busie to form new Ar­mies, and draw them together in Na­mur and Luxenburgh, the only Pro­vinces obedient to that Crown; And all the rest agree to elect a Governour of their own, and send to Matthias the Emperors Brother, to offer him the Charge.

At this time began to be formed the Malecontent-party in the Low-Countreys; which though agreeing with the rest in their hatred to the Spani­ards, and defence of their Liberties and Laws; yet were not inclin'd to shake off their Allegiance to their Prince, nor change their old and esta­blisht Religion: And these were head­ed by the Duke of Areschot, and se­veral great men; the more averse from a general defection, by emulation or envy of the Prince of Orange his Greatness, who was now grown to have all the influence and credit in the Counsels of the League.

By the assistance of this party after [Page 48] [...] [Page 49] [...] [Page 50] Don John's sudden death, the Duke of Parma succeeding him, gain'd strength and reputation upon his com­ing to the Government, and an entrance upon that great Scene of Glory and Victory, which made both his Person so renowned, and the time of his Government signallized by so many Sieges and Battels, and the reduction of so great a part of the Body of the Provinces to the subjection of Spain.

Upon the growth of this Party, and for distinction from them, who pur­suing a middle and dangerous Coun­cel, were at length to become an ac­cession to one of the Extreams; The Seven Northern Provinces meeting by their Deputies at Utrecht, in the year 1579, framed that Act or Alliance, which was ever after called The Union of Utrecht; and was the Original Con­stitution and Frame of that Common­wealth, which has since been so well known in the World by the Name of The United Provinces.

This Union was grounded upon the Spaniards breach of the Pacification of Ghent, and new invasion of some Towns in Gelderland; and was not pre­tended to divide these Provinces from [Page 51] the generality, nor from the said Pa­cification; but to strengthen and pur­sue the Ends of it, by more vigorous and united Counsels and Arms.

The chief force of this Union con­sists in these points drawn out of the Instrument it self.

The Seven Provinces unite themselves so, as if they were but one Province, and so as never to be divided by Te­stament, Donation, Exchange, Sale, or Agreement: Reserving to each parti­cular Province and City, all Privi­ledges, Rights, Customs and Statutes; In adjudging whereof, or differences that shall arise between any of the Provinces, the rest shall not intermed­dle further, than to intercede towards an Agreement.

They bind themselves to assist one another with Life and Fortunes against all Force and Assault made upon any of them, whether upon pretence of Royal Majesty, of restoring Catholique Religion, or any other whatsoever.

All frontier-Towns belonging to the Union, if old, to be fortified at the charge of the Province where they lye; if new, to be erected at the charge of the Generality.

[Page 52]All Imposts and Customs from three Months to three Months, to be offer­ed to them that bid most; and with the Incomes of the Royal Majesty, to be employed for the Common de­fence.

All Inhabitants to be Listed and Trained within a Month, from 18 to 60 years old. Peace and War not to be made without consent of all the Provinces; Other cases that concern the management of both, by most Voices. Differences that shall arise up­on the first, between the Provinces, to be submitted to the Stadtholders.

Neighbouring-Princes, Lords, Lands, and Cities, to be admitted into the U­nion by consent of the Provinces.

For Religion, those of Holland and Zealand to act in it as seems good un­to themselves. The other Provinces may regulate themselves according to the tenor establisht by Matthias, or else as they shall judg to be most for the peace and welfare of their particular Provinces; provided every one remain free in his Religion, and no man be examined or entrapped for that cause, according to the Pacification of Ghent.

[Page 53]In case of any dissention or differ­ences between Provinces, if it concern one in particular, it shall be accommo­dated by the others; if it concern all in general, by the Stadtholders; In both which cases, sentence to be pro­nounced within a Month, and without Appeal or Revision.

The States to be held as has been formerly used; and the Mint in such manner as shall hereafter be agreed by all the Provinces.

Interpretation of these Articles to remain in the States; but in case of their differences, in the Stadtholders.

They bind themselves to fall upon, and imprison any that shall act con­trary to these Articles; in which case no Priviledg nor Exemption to be valid.

This Act was signed by the Depu­ties of Gelderland, Zutphen, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and the Omlands of Frize, Jan. 23, 1579; but was not signed by the Prince of Orange till May following; and with this Signi­fication, judging that by the same the Superiority and Authority of Arch-Duke Matthias is not lessened.

[Page 54]In the same year this Union was en­ter'd and signed by the Cities of Ghent, Nimmegue, Arnhem, Leewarden, with some particular Nobles of Frizeland, Venlo, Ypers, Antwerp, Breda, and Bru­ges. And thus these Provinces became a Commonwealth, but in so low and uncertain a state of Affairs, by reason of the various motions and affections of mens minds, the different Ends and Interests of the several Parties, especi­ally in the other Provinces; and the mighty Power and Preparations of the Spanish Monarchy to oppress them, That in their first Coyn they caused a Ship to be stamped, labouring among the Waves without Sails or Oars; and these words: Incertum quo fata fe­rant.

I thought so particular a deduction necessary to discover the natural cau­ses of this Revolution in the Low-Countreys, which has since had so great a part, for near a hundred years, in all the Actions and Negotiations of Chri­stendom; And to find out the true In­centives of that obstinate love for their Liberties, and invincible hatred for the Spanish Nation and Government, which laid the foundation of this Common­wealth: [Page 55] And this last I take to have been the stronger passion, and of the greater effect, both in the bold Coun­sels of contracting their Union, and the desperate Resolutions of defend­ing it. For not long after, The whole Councel of this new State being prest by the extremities of their Affairs, passing by the form of Government in the way of a Commonwealth, made an earnest and solemn Offer of the Do­minion of these Provinces both to Eng­land and France; but were refused by both Crowns: And though they re­tain'd the Name of a Free People, yet they soon lost the ease of the Liber­ties they contended for, by the abso­luteness of their Magistrates in the several Cities and Provinces, and by the extream pressure of their Taxes, which so long a War with so mighty an Enemy made necessary for the sup­port of their State.

But the hatred of the Spanish Go­vernment under Alva, was so univer­sal, that it made the Revolt general through the Provinces, running through all Religions, and all Orders of men, as appeared by the Pacification of Ghent; Till by the division of the [Page 56] Parties, by the Powers of so vast a Monarchy as Spain at that time, and by the matchless Conduct and Valour of the Duke of Parma, This Humour, like Poyson in a strong Constitution, and with the help of violent Physick, was expell'd from the heart, which was Flanders and Brabant (with the rest of the Ten Provinces) into the outward Members; and by their being cut off, the Body was saved. After which, the most enflamed spirits being driven by the Arms of Spain, or drawn by the hopes of Liberty and Safety, into the United Provinces out of the rest, the hatred of Spain grew to that heighth, that they were not only wil­ling to submit to any new Dominion, rather than return to the old; but when they could find no Master to protect them, and their Affairs grew desperate, they were once certainly upon the Counsel of burning their great Towns, wasting and drowning what they could of their Countrey, and going to seek some new Seats in the Indies. Which they might have executed, if they had found Shipping enough to carry off all their Numbers, and had not been detained by the com­passion [Page 57] of those which must have been left behind, at the mercy of an incen­sed and conquering Master.

The Spanish and Italian Writers content themselves to attribute the cau­ses of these Revolutions to the change of Religion, to the native stubborn­ness of the people, and to the Ambi­tion of the Prince of Orange: But Religion without mixtures of Ambi­tion and Interest, works no such vio­lent effects; and produces rather the Examples of constant Sufferings, than of desperate Actions. The nature of the People cannot change of a sudden, no more than the Climate which in­fuses it; and no Countrey hath brought forth better Subjects, than many of these Provinces, both before and since these Commotions among them: And the Ambition of one man could nei­ther have designed nor atchieved so great an Adventure, had it not been seconded with universal Discontent: Nor could that have been raised to so great a heighth and heat, without so many circumstances as fell in from an unhappy course of the Spanish Coun­sels, to kindle and foment it. For though it had been hard to Head such [Page 58] a Body, and give it so strong a prin­ciple of Life, and so regular Motions, without the accident of so great a Go­vernour in the Provinces, as Prince William of Orange; A man of equal Abilities in Council and in Arms; Cau­tious and Resolute, Affable and Se­vere, Supple to Occasions, and yet Constant to his Ends; of mighty Re­venues and Dependance in the Pro­vinces, of great Credit and Alliances in Germany; esteemed and honoured abroad, but at home infinitely lov'd and trusted by the people, who thought him affectionate to their Countrey, sin­cere in his Professions and Designs, able and willing to defend their Liber­ties, and unlikely to invade them by any Ambition of his own. Yet all these Qualities might very well have been confin'd to the Duty and Services of a Subject, as they were in Charles the Fifth's time; Without the absence of the King, and the peoples opinion of his ill-will to their Nation and their Laws; Without the continuance of Forreign Troops after the Wars were ended; The erecting of the new Bi­shops Sees, and introducing the Inqui­sition; The sole Ministry of Granvell, [Page 59] and exclusion of the Lords from their usual part in Counsels and Affairs; The Government of a man so hated as the Duke of Alva; The rigour of his Pro­secutions, and the insolence of his Sta­tue: And lastly, Without the death of Egmont, and the imposition of the Tenth and Twentieth part, against the Legal Forms of Government in a Coun­trey, where a long derived Succession had made the people fond and tenacious of their ancient Customs and Laws.

These were the seeds of their ha­tred to Spain; which encreasing by the course of about Threescore years, War, was not allay'd by a long suc­ceeding Peace, but will appear to have been an Ingredient into the Fall, as it was into the Rise of this State; which having been thus planted, came to be conserved and cultivated by many Accidents and Influences from abroad; But those having had no part in the Constitution of their State, nor the Frame of their Government. I will content my self to mention only the chief of them, which most contributed to preserve the Infancy of this Com­monwealth, and make way for its growth. The Causes of its succeeding [Page 60] Greatness and Riches being not to be sought for in the Events of their Wars, but in the Institutions and Orders of their Government, their Customs and Trade, which will make the Arguments of the ensuing Chapters.

When Don John threw off the Condi­tions he had at first accepted of the Paci­fication of Ghent, and by the surprize of Namur broke out into Arms; The Estate of the Provinces offer'd the Government of their Countrey to Matthias Brother to the Emperor, as a temper between their return to the obedience of Spain, and the Popular Government which was moulding in the Northern Provinces. But Matthias arriving without the ad­vice or support of the Emperor, or Credit in the Provinces; And having the Prince of Orange given him for his Lieutenant-General, was only a Cy­pher, and his Government a piece of Pageantry, which past without effect, and was soon ended; So that upon the Duke of Parma's taking on him the Government, some new protection was necessary to this Infant-State, that had not legs to support it against such a storm as was threatned upon the re­turn of the Spanish and Italian Forces, [Page 61] to make the Body of a formidable Army, which the Duke of Parma was framing in Namur and Luxenburgh.

Since the Conference of Bayonne be­tween the Queen-Mother of France, and her Daughter Queen of Spain; Those two Crowns had continued in the Reign of Francis and Charles, to assist one another in the common De­sign there agreed on, of prosecuting with violence those they called the Hereticks, in both their Dominions. The Peace held constant, if not kind, between England and Spain; so as King Philip had no Wars upon his hands in Christendom during these Commotions in the Low-Countreys; And the bold­ness of the Confederates in their first Revolt and Union, seemed greater at such a time, than the success of their Resistances afterwards, when so many occasions fell in to weaken and divert the Forces of the Spanish Monarchy.

For Henry the Third coming to the Crown of France, and at first only fet­ter'd and control'd by the Faction of the Guises, but afterwards engaged in an open War (which They had rai­sed against him upon pretext of pre­serving the Catholique Religion, and in [Page 62] a conjunction of Councels with Spain) was forced into better measures with the Hugonots of his Kingdom, and fell into ill intelligence with Philip the Se­cond, so as Queen Elizabeth having declined to undertake openly the pro­tection of the Low-Countrey Provinces, It was by the concurring-resolution of the States, and the consent of the French Court, devolved upon the Duke of Alencon, Brother to Henry the Third.

But this Prince entered Antwerp with an ill presage to the Flemings, by an attempt which a Biscainer made the same day upon the Prince of Orange's Life, shooting him, though not mortal­ly, in the head; and He continued his short Government with such mutual distasts between the French and the Flemings (the Heat and Violence of one Nation agreeing ill with the Cu­stoms and Liberties of the other) that the Duke attempting to make himself absolute Master of the City of Antwerp by force, was driven out of the Town, and thereupon retired out of the Coun­trey with extream resentment of the Flemings, and indignation of the French; so as the Prince of Orange being not [Page 63] long after assasin'd at Delph, and the Duke of Parma encreasing daily in Re­putation and in Force, and the Male­content Party falling back apace to his obedience, an end was presaged by most men to the Affairs of the Confe­derates.

But the Root was deeper, and not so easily shaken: For the United Provin­ces, after the unhappy Transactions with the French under the Duke of Alencon, reassumed their Union in 583; binding themselves, in case by fury of the War any point of it had not been observed, To endeavour from that time to see it effected, In case any doubt had happened, to see it clear'd, And any Difficulties, composed: And in regard the Article concerning Reli­gion had been so fram'd in the Union, because in all the other Provinces be­sides Holland and Zealand, The Romish Religion was then used, but now the Evangelical; It was agreed by all the Provinces of the Union, That from this time in them all, the Evangelical Re­formed Religion should alone be openly preached and exercised.

They were so far from being broken in their Designs by the Prince of [Page 64] Orange's death, That they did all the honour that could be to his Memory, substituted Prince Maurice his Son, though but Sixteen years old, in all his Honours and Commands, and ob­stinately refused all Overtures that were made them of Peace; resolving upon all the most desperate Actions and Sufferings, rather than return under the Spanish Obedience.

But these Spirits were fed and heighthen'd in a great degree, by the hopes and countenance given them a­bout this time from England: for Queen Elizabeth, and Philip the Second, though they still preserved the Name of Peace, yet had worn out in a man­ner the Effects as well as the Disposi­tions of it, whilst the Spaniard fo­mented and assisted the Insurrections of the Irish, and Queen Elizabeth the new Commonwealth in the Low-Coun­treys; Though neither directly, yet by Countenance, Money, voluntary Troops, and ways that were equally felt on both sides, and equally understood.

King Philip had lately encreased the greatness of his Empire, by the Inhe­ritance or Invasion of the Kingdoms of Portugal, upon King Sebastian's loss [Page 65] in Africa; But I know not whether he had encreast his Power, by the ac­cession of a Kingdom, with disputed Title, and a discontented People, who could neither be used like good Sub­jects and governed without Armies; nor like a Conquered Nation and so made to bear the charge of their for­ced obedience; But this addition of Empire, with the vast Treasure flow­ing every year out of the Indies, had without question raised King Philip's Ambition to vaster designs; which made him embrace at once the pro­tection of the League in France against Henry the Third and Fourth, and the Donation made him of Ireland by the Pope, and so embarque himself in a War with both those Crowns, while He was bearded with the open Arms and Defiance of his own Sub­jects in the Low-Countreys.

But 'tis hard to be imagined how far the Spirit of one Great man goes in the Fortunes of any Army or State. The Duke of Parma coming to the Government without any footing in more than two of the smallest Provin­ces, collecting an Army from Spain, Italy, Germany, and the broken Troops [Page 66] of the Countrey left him by Don John, having all the other Provinces confe­derated against him, and both England and France beginning to take open part in their defence; yet by force of his own Valour, Conduct, and the Dis­cipline of his Army, with the dis-in­teressed and generous Qualities of his mind, winning equally upon the Hearts and Arms of the Revolted Countreys, and piercing through the Provinces with an uninterrupted course of Suc­cesses, and the recovery of the most important Towns in Flanders; At last by the taking of Anwerp and Groningue, reduced the Affairs of the Union to so extream distress, that being grown destitute of all hopes and succours from France (then deep engaged in their own Civil Wars), They threw them­selves wholly at the feet of Queen E­lizabeth, imploring her Protection, and offering her the Soveraignty of their Countrey. The Queen refused the Dominion, but enter'd into Articles with their Deputies in 585, obliging her self to very great Supplies of Men and of Moneys, lent them upon the security of the Briel, Flussing, and Ramekins; which were performed, and [Page 67] Sir John Norrice sent over to command her Forces; and afterwards in 87, up­on the War broken out with Spain, and the mighty threats of the Spanish Armada, she sent over yet greater For­ces under the Earl of Leicester, whom the States admitted, and swore obedi­ence to him, as Governour of their United Provinces.

But this Government lasted not long, distastes and suspition soon breaking out between Leicester and the States; Partly from the jealousie of his affect­ing an Absolute Dominion and Arbi­trary disposal of all Offices; But chiefly, of the Queen's Intentions to make a Peace with Spain; And the easie loss of some of their Towns by Governours placed in them by the Earl of Leice­ster, encreased their discontents. Not­withstanding this ill intercourse, the Queen re-assures them in both those points, disapproves some of Leicester's proceedings, receives franc and hearty assistances from them in her Naval Pre­parations against the Spaniards; and at length upon the disorders encrea­sing between the Earl of Leicester and the States, commands him to resign his Government, and release the States of [Page 68] the Oath they had taken to obey him. And after all this had past, the Queen easily sacrificing all particular resent­ments to the Interest of her Crown, continued her Favour, Protection, and Assistances to the States, during the whole course of Her Reign, which were return'd with the greatest defer­ence and veneration to her Person, that was ever paid by them to any Forreign Prince, and continues still to her Name in the remembrance, and frequently in the mouths of all sorts of people among them.

After Leicester's departure, Prince Maurice was by the consent of the Union chosen their Governour, but with a reservation to Queen Elizabeth; and enter'd that Command with the hopes, which he made good in the execution of it for many years; pro­ving the greatest Captain of his Age, famous particularly in the discipline and ordonance of his Armies, and the ways of Fortification by him first in­vented or perfected, and since his time imitated by all.

But the great breath that was given the States in the heat of their Affairs, was by the sharp Wars made by Queen [Page 69] Elizabeth upon the Spaniards at Sea in the Indies, and the Expeditions of Lisbon and Cadiz, and by the decli­ning-affairs of the League in France, for whose support Philip the Second was so passionately engaged, that twice he commanded the Duke of Parma to interrupt the course of his Victories in the Low-Countreys, and march into France, for the relief of Roan and Paris; Which much augmented the Re­nown of this great Captain, but as much impaired the state of the Spanish Affairs in Flanders. For in the Duke of Parma's absence, Prince Maurice took in all the places held by the Spa­niard on t'other side the Rhine, which gave them entrance into the United Provinces.

The succession of Henry the Fourth to the Crown of France, gave a mighty blow to the Designs of King Philip; and much greater, The general obedi­ence and acknowledgment of him up­on his change of Religion. With this King the States began to enter a confi­dence and kindness, and the more by that which interceded between Him and the Queen of England, who had all their dependance during her life; [Page 70] But after her death, King Henry grew to have greater credit than ever in the United Provinces; though upon the decay of the Spanish Power under the Ascendent of this King, the States fell into very early jealousies of his grow­ing too great and too near them in Flanders.

With the Duke of Parma died all the Discipline, and with that, all the Fortunes of the Spanish Arms in Flan­ders; The frequent Mutinies of their Soldiers, dangerous in effect and in ex­ample, were more talkt of, than any other of their actions, in the short Go­vernment of Manstsield, Ernest, and Fu­entes. Till the old Discipline of their Armies began to revive, and their For­tune a little to respire under the new Government of Cardinal Albert, who came into Flanders both Governour and Prince of the Low-Countreys, in the head of a mighty Army drawn out of Germany and Italy, to try the last effort of the Spanish Power, either in a prosperous War, or at least in ma­king way for a necessary Peace.

But the choice of the Arch-Duke and this new Authority, had a deeper root and design than at first appear'd: [Page 71] For that mighty King, Philip the Se­cond, born to so vast Possessions, and to so much vaster Desires; after a long dream of raising his head into the Clouds, found it now ready to lye down in the dust: His Body broken with age and infirmities, his Mind with cares and distemper'd thoughts, and the Royal servitude of a sollicitous life, He began to see in the glass of Time and Experience, the true shapes of all hu­man Greatness and Designs; And find­ing to what Airy Figures he had hi­therto sacrificed his Health, and Ease, and the Good of his Life, He now turn'd his thoughts wholly to rest and quiet, which he had never yet allowed either the World or Himself: His De­signs upon England, and his Invincible Armada, had ended in smoak; Those upon France, in Events the most con­trary to what he had proposed; And instead of mastering the Liberties, and breaking the Stomach of his Low-Coun­trey Subjects, He had lost Seven of his Provinces, and held the rest by the te­nure of a War, that cost him more than they were worth. He had made lately a Peace with England, and desir'd it with France; and though he scorn'd [Page 72] it with his revolted Subjects in his own Name, yet he wisht it in another's; and was unwilling to entail a quarrel upon his Son, which had crost his For­tunes, and busied his thoughts all the course of his Reign. He therefore re­solved to commit these two Designs to the management of Arch-Duke Albert, with the stile of Governour and Prince of the Low-Countreys; to the end that if he could reduce the Provinces to their old subjection, He should govern them as Spanish Dominions; If that was once more in vain attempted, He should by a Marriage with Clara Isabella Eu­genia (King Philip's beloved Daughter) receive those Provinces as a Dowry, and become the Prince of them, with a condition only of their returning to Spain, in case of Isabella's dying with­out Issue. King Philip believed that the presence of a natural Prince among his Subjects; That the Birth and Cu­stoms of Arch-Duke Albert, being a German; The generous and obliging dispositions of Isabella, might gain fur­ther upon this stubborn people, than all the Force and Rigor of his former Counsels: And at the worst; That they might make a Peace, if they could [Page 73] not a War, and without interessing the Honour and Greatness of the Spanish Crown.

In pursuit of this determination, like a wise King, while he intended nothing but Peace, He made Preparations as if he design'd nothing but War; know­ing that his own desires of Peace would signifie nothing, unless he could force his Enemies to desire it too. He there­fore sent the Arch-Duke into Flanders, at the head of such an Army, that be­lieving the Peace with France must be the first in order, and make way for either the War or Peace afterward in the Low-Countreys, He marcht into France, and took Amiens the chief City of Picardy, and thereby gave such an Alarm to the French Court, as they little expected, and had never recei­ved in the former Wars. But while Albert bent the whole force of the War upon France, till he determin'd it in a Peace with that Crown, Prince Maurice who had taken Groningue in the time of Ernest, now mastered Ling­hen, Groll, and other places in Over­yssel, thereby adding those Provinces intire, to the Body of the Union; and at Albert's return into Flanders, enter­tain'd [Page 74] him with the Battel of Newport, won by the desperate Courage of the English under Sir Francis Vere, where Albert was wounded and very near be­ing taken.

After this Loss the Arch-Duke was yet comforted and relieved, by the obsequious affections and obedience of his new Subjects, so far as to resolve upon the Siege of Ostend; which ha­ving some time continued, and being almost disheartned by the strength of the place, and invincible Courage of the Defendants; He was recruited by a Body of Eight thousand Italians under the Marquess Spinola, to whom the prosecution of this Siege was committed: He took the place af­ter Three years siege, not by any want of Men or Provisions within (the Ha­ven and relief by Sea being open all the time); but perfectly for want of ground, which was gain'd foot by foot, till not so much was left, as would hold men to defend it; a great example how impossible it is to defend any Town that cannot be relieved by an Army strong enough to raise the Siege.

Prince Maurice, though he could not save Ostend, made yet amends for its [Page 75] loss, by the taking of Grave and Sluyce; so as the Spaniards gain'd little but the honour of the Enterprise: And Philip the Second being dead about the time of the Arch-Dukes and Dutchesses ar­rival in Flanders, and with him the per­sonal resentment of that War, The Arch-Duke by consent of the Spanish Court, began to apply his thoughts wholly to a Peace; which another circumstance had made more necessary than any of those already mentioned.

As the Dutch Commonwealth was born out of the Sea, so out of the same Element it drew its first strength and consideration, as well as afterwards its Riches and Greatness: For before the Revolt, the Subjects of the Low-Countreys, though never allowed the Trade of the Indies, but in the Spa­nish Fleets, and under Spanish Covert; yet many of them had in that manner made the Voyages, and become skilful Pilots, as well as verst in the ways, and sensible of the infinite gains of that Trade. And after the Union, a greater confluence▪ of people falling down into the United Provinces, than could manage their Stock, or find em­ployment at Land; Great multitudes [Page 76] turn'd their endeavours to Sea; and having lost the Trade of Spain and the Streights, fell not only into that of England, France, and the Northern Seas, but ventur'd upon that of the East-Indies, at first with small Forces and Success; But in course of time, and by the institution of an East-India Company, This came to be pursued with so general application of the Pro­vinces, and so great advantage, that they made themselves Masters of most of the Collonies and Forts planted there by the Portuguesses (now Subjects of Spain). The Dutch Sea-men grew as well acquainted with those vast Seas and Coasts, as with their own; and Holland became the great Maga­zine of all the Commodities of those Eastern Regions.

In the West-Indies their attempts were neither so frequent nor prosper­ous, the Spanish Plantations there be­ing too numerous and strong; But by the multitude of their Shipping set out with publique or private Commissions, they infested the Seas, and began to wait for, and threaten the Spanish In­dian Fleets, and sometimes to attempt their Coasts in that new World (which [Page 77] was to touch Spain in the most sensible part), and gave their Court the strongest motives to endeavour a Peace, That might secure those Treasures in their way, and preserve them in Spain, by stopping the issue of those vast sums which were continually transmitted to entertain the Low-Countrey Wars.

These respects gave the first rise to a Treaty of Peace, the Proposal where­of came wholly from the Spaniards; and the very mention of it could hardly at first be fast'ned upon the States; nor could they ever be pre­vail'd with to make way for any Ne­gotiation by a suspension of Arms, till the Arch-Duke had declared, He would treat with them as with free Provinces, upon whom neither He nor Spain had any pretence. However, the Affair was pursued with so much Art and Industry on the Arch-Dukes part, and with so passionate Desires of the Spa­nish Court, to end this War, That they were content to treat it at the Hague, the Seat of the States-General; And for the greater Honour and better Conduct of the whole Business, ap­pointed the Four chief Ministers of the Arch-Dukes, Their Commissioners to [Page 78] attend and pursue it there; who were, Their Camp-Master-General Spinola, The President of the Council, and the Two Secretaries of State and of War in Flanders.

On the other side, in Holland, all the paces towards this Treaty were made with great coldness and arro­gance, raising punctillious-difficulties upon every word of the Arch-Dukes Declaration of treating them as Free Provinces, and upon Spain's Ratification of that Form; And forcing them to send Expresses into Spain upon every occasion, and to attend the length of those returns. For the prosperous suc­cess of their Arms at Land, in the course of above Thirty years War; and the mighty growth of their Naval Power, and (under that protection) of their Trade, Had made the whole Body of their Militia both at Land and Sea, averse from this Treaty, as well as the greatest part of the People; Whose in­veterate hatred against Spain, was still as fierce as ever; and who had the hopes or dispositions of raising their Fortunes by the War, of which they had so many and great Examples among them.

[Page 79]But there was at the bottom, one For­reign and another Domestick Conside­ration, which made way for this Treaty, more than all those Arguments that were the common Theams, or than all the Offices of the Neighbour-Princes, who concerned themselves in this Af­fair, either from interest of their own, or the desires of ending a War which had so long exercised in a manner the Arms of all Christendom upon the Stage of the Low-Countreys. The greatness of the Spanish Monarchy, so formidable un­der Charles the Fifth and Philip the Se­cond, began now to decline by the vast Designs and unfortunate Events of so many Ambitious Counsels: And on the other side the Affairs of Henry the Fourth of France were now at the greatest height and felicity, after having atchie­ved so many Adventures with incredi­ble Constancy and Valour, and ended all his Wars in a Peace with Spain. The Dutch imagin'd that the hot spirits of the French could not continue long without some Exercise; and that to prevent it at home, it might be necessa­ry for that King to give it them abroad; That no Enterprise lay so convenient for Him, as that upon Flanders, which had [Page 80] anciently been part of the Gallick Na­tion, and whose first Princes derived and held of the Kings of France. Be­sides, they had intimations that Henry the Fourth was taken up in great Pre­parations of War, which they doubted would at one time or other fall on that side, at least if they were invited by any greater decays of the Spanish Power in Flanders: And they knew very well, they should lye as much at the mercy of such a Neighbour as France, as they had formerly done of such a Master as Spain. For the Spanish Power in Flanders was fed by Treasures that came by long and perillous Voyages out of Spain; By Troops drawn either from thence, or from Italy or Germany, with much Ca­sualty, and more Expence: Their Ter­ritory of the Ten Provinces was small, and awed by the Neighbourhood and Jealousies both of England and France. But if France were once Master of Flanders, The Body of that Empire would be so great, and so intire; so abounding in People, and in Riches, That whenever they found or made an occasion of invading the United Provin­ces, They had no hopes of preserving themselves by any opposition or diversi­on: [Page 65] And the end of their mighty re­sistances against Spain, was to have no Master; and not to change one for another, as they should do in this case: Therefore the most intelligent among their Civil Ministers thought it safest, by a Peace to give breath to the Arch-Duke's and Spanish Power, and by that means to lessen the invitation of the Arms of France into Flanders under so great a King.

For what was Domestique, The Cre­dit and Power of Prince Maurice built at first upon that of his Father, but much raised by his own Personal Vir­tues and Qualities, and the success of his Arms; Was now grown so high (the Prince being Governour or Stadt­holder of Four of the Provinces, and two of his Cousins of the other Three), that several of the States, headed by Barnevelt, Pensioner of Holland, and a man of great Abilities and Authority among them, became jealous of the Prince's Power, and pretended to fear the growth of it to an Absolute Do­minion: They knew it would encrease by the continuance of a War, which was wholly managed by the Prince; and thought that in a Peace it would [Page 66] diminish, and give way to the Autho­rity of Civil Power: Which disposed this whole Party to desire the Treaty, and to advance the progress and issue of it by all their assistances. And these different humours stirring in the heart of the States, with almost equal strength and vigour; The Negotiation of a Peace came to be ended after long debates and infinite endeavours; Breaking in appearance upon the points of Religi­on, and the Indian Trade: But yet came to knit again and conclude in a Truce of Twelve years, dated in the year 1609, whereof the most essential points were, The Declaration of treat­ing with them as Free Provinces: The Cessation of all Acts of Hostility on both sides during the Truce: The en­joyment, for that space, of all that each party possest at the time of the Treaty. That no new Fortification should be raised on either side; And that free Commerce should be restored on all parts in the same manner as it was be­fore the Wars.

And thus the State of the United Provinces came to be acknowledged as a Free Commonwealth by their ancient Master, having before been treated so [Page 67] by most of the Kings and Princes of Europe, in frequent Ambassies and Ne­gotiations. Among which, a particular preference was given to the English Crown, whose Ambassador had Session and Vote in their Council of State, by Agreement with Queen Elizabeth, and in acknowledgment of those great As­sistances, which gave life to their State when it was upon the point of expi­ring: Though the Dutch pretend that Priviledg was given to the Ambassa­dor by virtue of the possession This Crown had of the Briel, Flussingue, and Ramekins; and that it was to cease upon the restitution of those Towns, and repayment of those Sums lent by the Queen.

In the very time of treating this Truce, a League was concluded between Henry the Fourth of France, and the States, for preserving the Peace, if it came to be concluded; or in case of its failing, for assistance of one another, With Ten thousand men on the Kings part, and Five thousand on the States. Nor did that King make any difficulty of continuing the Two Regiments of Foot and Two hundred Horse in the States Service, at his own charge, after [Page 68] the Truce, which he had maintained for several years before it; Omitting no provisions that might tye that State to his interests, and make him at pre­sent Arbiter of the Peace, and for the future of the War, if the Truce should come to be broken, or to expire of it self.

By what has been related, it will easily appear, That no State was ever born with stronger throws, or nurst up with harder fare, or inur'd to greater labours or dangers in the whole course of its youth; which are circumstances that usually make strong and healthy bodies: And so this has proved, ha­ving never had more than one Disease break out, in the space of Ninety three years, which may be accounted the Age of this State, reckoning from the Uni­on of Utrecht, enter'd by the Provin­ces in 1579: But this Disease, like those of the Seed or Conception in a natural body, Though it first appear'd in Barnevelt's time, breaking out upon the Negotiations with Spain, and seem­ed to end with his death (who was beheaded not many years after); yet has it ever since continued lurking in the veins of this State, and appearing [Page 69] upon all Revolutions, that seem to fa­vour the predominancy of the one or other Humour in the Body; And un­der the Names of the Prince of Orange's, and the Arminian Party, has ever made the weak side of this State; and when­ever their period comes, will prove the occasion of their Fall.

The ground of this Name of Ar­minian was, That whilst Barnevelt's Party accused those of the Prince of Orange's, as being careless of their Liberties, So dearly bought, as devoted to the House of Orange, and disposed to the admission of an Absolute Prin­cipality, and in order thereunto as pro­moters of a perpetual War with Spain: So those of the Princes Party, accused the others, as leaning still, and looking kindly upon their old Servitude, and relishing the Spaniard both in their Politicks, by so eagerly affecting a Peace with that Crown; and in their Religion, by being generally Armini­ans (which was esteemed the middle part between the Calvinist and the Roman Religion). And besides these mutual Reproaches, the two Parties have ever valued themselves upon the asserting, One of the true and purer [Page 70] Reformed Religion; and the other, of the true and freer Liberties of the State.

The Fortunes of this Commonwealth, that have happened in their Wars or Negotiations, since the Truce with Spain, and what Circumstances or Ac­cidents both abroad and at home, serv'd to cultivate their mighty growth, and conspired to the Greatness wherein they appear'd to the World in the beginning of the year 1665, being not only the subject of the Relations, but even the Observations of this present Age; I shall either leave as more obvious, and less necessary to the account I intend of the Civil Government of this Com­monwealth; Or else reserve them till the same vein of Leasure or Humour invite me to continue this Deduction to the present time, The Affairs of this State having been complicated with all the variety and memorable Revoluti­ons both of Actions and Counsels, that have since happened in the rest of Chri­stendom.

In the mean time, I will close this Relation with an Event, which arrived soon after the conclusion of the Truce, and had like to have broken it within [Page 71] the very year, if not prevented by the Offices of the Neighbour Princes, but more by a change of Humour in the United States, conspiring to the conser­vation of the new-restored Peace in these parts of the World.

In the end of the year 1609, dyed the Duke of Cleves and Juliers, with­out Heir-male, leaving those Dutchies to the pretensions of his Daughters, in whose Right the Duke of Branden­burgh and Nieuburgh possessed them­selves of such parts of those Territo­ries as they first could invade; each of them pretending right to the whole In­heritance. Brandenburgh seeks prote­ction and favour to his Title, from the United Provinces; Nieuburgh from Arch-Duke Albert, and from Spain. The Arch-Duke newly respiring from so long a War, had no desire to interess himself in this Quarrel, further than the care that the Dutch should not take ad­vantage of it; and under pretext of as­sisting one of the Parties, seize upon some of those Dominions lying conti­guous to their own. The Dutch were not so equal, nor content to lose so fair an occasion, and surprized the Town of Juliers (though pretending only to keep [Page 72] it till the Parties agreed). And belie­ving that Spain, after having parted with so much in the late Truce, to end a quarrel of their own, would not venture the breach of it upon a quar­rel of their Neighbours. But the Arch-Duke, having first taken his measures with Spain, and foreseeing the conse­quence of this Affair, resolved to ven­ture the whole State of Flanders in a new War, rather than suffer such an en­crease of Power and Dominion to the States. And thereupon first in the be­half of the Duke of Nieuburgh, re­quires from them the restitution of Ju­liers; and upon their artificious and dilatory Answers, immediately draws his Forces together, and with an Army under the Command of Spinola, mar­ches towards Juliers (which the States were in no care of, as well provided for a bold defence); But makes a sud­den turn, and sits down before Wesel, with such a terror and surprise to the Inhabitants, that he carries the Town before the Dutch could come in to their assistance. Wesel was a strong Town upon the Rhine, which the Duke of Brandenburgh pretended to, as belonging to the Dutchy of Cleve; [Page 73] but the Citizens held it at this time as an Imperial Town, and under pro­tection of the Dutch; Who amazed at this sudden and bold attempt of Spi­nola, which made him Master of a Pass that lay fair for any further Invasion upon their Provinces (especially those on t'other side the Rhine), engage the Offices of both the English and French Crowns, to mediate an Agreement, which at length they conclude, so as neither Party should upon any pretence draw their Forces into any part of these Dutchies. Thus the Arch-Duke having by the fondness of Peace, newly made a Truce upon Conditions impo­sed by the Dutch; now by the Reso­lution of making War, obtains a Peace upon the very Terms proposed by him­self, and by Spain. An Event of great Instruction and Example, how danger­ous it ever proves for weak Princes to call in greater to their aid, which makes them a prey to their Friend, instead of their Enemy; How the only time of making an advantageous Peace, is when your Enemy desires it, and when you are in the best condition of pursuing a War: And how vain a [Page 74] Counsel it is, to avoid a War by yeilding any point of Interest or Honour; which does but invite new Injuries, encourage Enemies, and dis­hearten Friends.

IT is evident by what has been dis­coursed in the former Chapter con­cerning the Rise of this State (which is to be dated from the Union of U­trecht), that It cannot properly be sti­led a Commonwealth, but is rather a Confederacy of Seven Soveraign Pro­vinces united together for their com­mon and mutual defence, without any dependance one upon the other. But to discover the nature of their Go­vernment from the first springs and mo­tions, It must be taken yet into smaller pieces, by which it will appear, that each of these Provinces is likewise composed of many little States or Ci­ties, which have several marks of So­veraign Power within themselves, and are not subject to the Soveraignty of their Province; Not being concluded in many things by the majority, but only by the universal concurrence of Voices in the Provincial-States. For as the States-General cannot make War or [Page 76] Peace, or any new Alliance, or Le­vies of Money, without the consent of every Province; so cannot the States-Provincial conclude any of those points without the consent of each of the Cities, that by their Constitution has a voice in that Assembly. And though in many Civil Causes there lies an Appeal from the Common Judica­ture of the Cities, to the Provincial Courts of Justice; yet in Criminals there lies none at all; nor can the So­veraignty of a Province exercise any Judicature, seize upon any Offender, or pardon any Offence within the Ju­risdiction of a City, or execute any common Resolution or Law, but by the Justice and Officers of the City it self. By this a certain Soveraignty in each City is discerned, the chief marks whereof are, The power of exercising Judicature, levying of Money, and ma­king War and Peace: For the other of Coining Money, is neither in particu­lar Cities or Provinces, but in the ge­neralty of the Union by common A­greement.

The main Ingredients therefore into the Composition of this State, are the Freedom of the Cities, the Soveraignty [Page 77] of the Provinces, the Agreements or Constitutions of the Union, and the Authority of the Princes of Orange; Which make the Order I shall follow in the Account intended of this Go­vernment. But whereas the several Provinces in the Union, and the seve­ral Cities in each Province, as they have in their Orders and Constitutions some particular differences, as well as a general resemblance; and the account of each distinctly would swell this Dis­course out of measure, and to little purpose; I shall confine my self to the account of Holland, as the richest, strongest, and of most authority among the Provinces; and of Amsterdam, as that which has the same Preheminen­cies among the Cities.

The Soveraign Authority of the Ci­ty of Amsterdam, Govern­ment of the City of Am­sterdam. consists in the De­crees or Results of their Senate, which is composed of Six and thirty men, by whom the Justice is administred, ac­cording to ancient forms, in the names of Officers and Places of Judicature. But Moneys are levied by Arbitrary Resolutions and Proportions, according to what appears convenient or necessa­ry upon the change or emergency of [Page 78] occasions. These Senators are for their lives, and the Senate was anciently chosen by the voices of the richer Burghers or Free-men of the City, who upon the death of a Senator met together either in a Church, a Mar­ket, or some other place spacious e­nough to receive their numbers; And there made an election of the person to succeed, by the majority of voices. But about a hundred and thirty or forty years ago, when the Towns of Holland began to encrease in circuit, and in people, so as these frequent As­semblies grew into danger of tumuit and disorders upon every occasion, by reason of their Numbers and Conten­tion; This election of Senators came by the resolution of the Burghers, in one of their General Assemblies, to be devolved for ever upon the standing-Senate at that time; So as ever since, when any one of their number dyes, a new one is chosen by the rest of the Senate, without any intervention of the other Burghers; Which makes the Government a sort of Oligarchy, and very different from a Popular Govern­ment, as it is generally esteemed by those who passing or living in these [Page 79] Countreys, content themselves with common Observations or Inquiries. And this Resolution of the Burghers, either was agreed upon, or followed by general Consent or Example, about the same time, in all the Towns of the Province, though with some differ­ence in number of their Senators.

By this Senate are chosen the chief Magistrates of the Town, which are the Burgomasters and the Eschevins: The Burgomasters of Amsterdam are Four, whereof three are chosen every year; so as one of them stays in office two years; but the three last chosen, are called the Reigning-Burgomasters for that year, and preside by turns, after the first three Months; for so long after a new Election, the Burgomaster of the year before presides; in which time it is supposed the new ones will grow instructed in the Forms and Du­ties of their Office, and acquainted with the state of the City's Affairs.

The Burgomasters are chosen by most voices of all those persons in the Senate who have been either Burgo­masters or Eschevins; and their Au­thority resembles that of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in our Cities. [Page 80] They represent the Dignity of the Go­vernment, and do the Honour of the City upon all occasions: They dispose of all under-offices that fall in their time; and issue out all Moneys out of the Common Stock or Treasure, judg­ing alone what is necessary for the Safety, Convenience, or Dignity of the City. They keep the Key of the Bank of Amsterdam (the Common Treasure of so many Nations), which is never open'd without the presence of one of them; And they inspect and pursue all the great Publique Works of the City, as the Ramparts and Stadt-house, now almost finished with so great Magni­ficence, and so vast Expence.

This Office is a Charge of the great­est Trust, Authority, and Dignity; and so much the greater, by not being of Profit or Advantage, but only as a way to other constant Employments in the City that are so. The Salary of a Burgomaster of Amsterdam, is but Five hundred Gilders a year, though there are Offices worth Five thousand in their disposal; But yet none of them known to have taken money upon such occa­sions, which would lose all their Cre­dit in the Town, and thereby their [Page 81] Fortunes by any Publique Employments. They are obliged to no sort of Ex­pence, more than ordinary modest Ci­tizens, in their Habits, their Attend­ance, their Tables, or any part of their own Domestique. They are upon all Publique Occasions waited on by men in Salary from the Town; and what­ever Feasts they make upon Solemn Days, or for the Entertainment of any Princes or Forreign Ministers, the Charge is defrayed out of the Com­mon Treasure; but proportioned by their own discretion. At other times they appear in all places with the simplicity and modesty of other private Citizens. When the Burgomaster's Office ex­pires, they are of course disposed into the other Charges or Employments of the Town, which are very many and beneficial; unless they lose their Cre­dit with the Senate, by any want of Diligence or Fidelity in the discharge of their Office, which seldom arrives.

The Eschevins are the Court of Ju­stice in every Town. They are at Amsterdam Nine in number; of which Seven are chosen Annually; but two of the preceding year continue in of­fice. A double number is named by [Page 82] the Senate, out of which the Burgo­masters now chuse, as the Prince of Orange did in the former Constitution. They are Soveraign Judges in all Cri­minal Causes. In Civil, after a cer­tain value, there lyes Appeal to the Court of Justice of the Province. But they pass sentence of death upon no man, without first advising with the Burgomasters; though after that form is past, they proceed themselves, and are not bound to follow the Burgo­masters opinion, but are left to their own: This being only a care or fa­vour of supererogation to the life of man, which is so soon cut off, and ne­ver to be retrieved or made amends for.

Under these Soveraign Magistrates, the chief subordinate Officers of the Town are the Treasurers, who receive and issue out all moneys that are pro­perly the Revenues or Stock of the City: The Scout, who takes care of the Peace, seizes all Criminals, and sees the Sentences of Justice executed, and whose Authority is like that of a Sheriff in a County with us, or a Constable in a Parish. The Pensioner, who is a Civil-Lawyer, verst in the [Page 83] Customs, and Records, and Priviledges of the Town, concerning which he informs the Magistracy upon occasion, and vindicates them upon disputes with other Towns; He is a Servant of the Senate and the Burgomasters, Delivers their Messages, makes their Harangues upon all Publique Occasi­ons, and is not unlike the Recorder in one of our Towns.

In this City of Amsterdam is the fa­mous Bank, which is the greatest Trea­sure, either real or imaginary, that is known any where in the World. The place of it is a great Vault under the Stadthouse, made strong with all the circumstances of Doors and Locks, and other appearing cautions of safety, that can be: And 'tis certain, that whoever is carried to see the Bank, shall never fail to find the appearance of a mighty real Treasure, in Barrs of Gold and Silver, Plate and infinite Bags of Metals, which are supposed to be all Gold and Silver, and may be so for ought I know. But the Burgo­masters only having the inspection of this Bank, and no man ever taking any particular account of what issues in and out, from Age to Age, 'tis im­possible [Page 84] to make any calculation, or guess what proportion the real Trea­sure may hold to the Credit of it. Therefore the security of the Bank lies not only in the Effects that are in it, but in the Credit of the whole Town or State of Amsterdam, whose Stock and Revenue is equal to that of some Kingdoms; and who are bound to make good all Moneys that are brought into their Bank; The Tickets or Bills hereof, make all the usual great Payments that are made between man and man in the Town; and not only in most other places of the Uni­ted Provinces, but in many other Tra­ding-parts of the World. So as this Bank is properly a general Cash, where every man lodges his money, because he esteems it safer, and easier paid in and out, than if it were in his Coffers at home: And the Bank is so far from paying any Interest for what is there brought in, that Money in the Bank is worth something more in common Payments, than what runs current in Coyn from hand to hand; No other money passing in the Bank, but in the species of Coyn the best known, the most ascertain'd, and the [Page 85] most generally current in all parts of the Higher as well as the Lower Germany.

The Revenues of Amsterdam arise out of the constant Excise upon all sorts of Commodities bought and sold within the Precinct: Or out of the Rents of those Houses or Lands that belong in common to the City: Or out of certain Duties and Impositions upon every House, towards the uses of Charity, and the Repairs, or Adorn­ments, or Fortifications of the place: Or else out of extraordinary Levies consented to by the Senate, for fur­nishing their part of the Publique Charge that is agreed to by their De­puties in the Provincial-States, for the use of the Province: Or by the De­puties of the States of Holland in the States-General, for support of the U­nion. And all these Payments are made into one Common Stock of the Town, not as many of ours are into that of the Parish; So as attempts may be easier made at the calculati­ons of their whole Revenue: And I have heard it affirmed, That what is paid of all kinds to Publique Uses of the States-General, the Province, and the City in Amsterdam, amounts to [Page 86] above Sixteen hundred thousand pounds Sterling a year. But I enter into no Computations, nor give these for any thing more than what I have heard from men who pretended to make such Enquiries, which I confess I did not. 'Tis certain that in no Town, Strength, Beauty, and Convenience, are better provided for, nor with more unlimited Expence, than in this, by the Magnificence of their Publique Build­ings, as Stadthouse and Arsenals; The Number and Spaciousness, as well as Order and Revenues of their many Hospitals; The commodiousness of their Canals running through the chief Streets of passage; The mighty strength of their Bastions and Ram­parts; And the neatness as well as convenience of their Streets, so far as can be compassed in so great a con­fluence of industrious people: All which could never be atchieved with­out a Charge much exceeding what seems proportioned to the Revenue of one single Town.

Govern­ment of the Pro­vince of Holland▪The Senate chuses the Deputies, which are sent from this City to the States of Holland; The Soveraignty whereof is represented by Deputies of [Page 87] the Nobles and Towns, composing Nineteen Voices; Of which the No­bles have only the first, and the Cities eighteen, according to the number of those which are called Stemms; The other Cities and Towns of the Pro­vince having no voice in the States. These Cities were originally but Six, Dort, Haerlem, Delf, Leyden, Amster­dam, and Tergo [...]. But were encreased by Prince William of Nassaw, to the number of Eighteen, by the addition of Rotterdam, Gorcum, Schedam, Scho­noven, Briel, Alcmaer, Horne, Enchu­sen, Edam, Moninckdam, Medenblick, and Permeren. This makes as great an inequality in the Government of the Province, by such a small City as Permeren having an equal voice in the the Provincial-States with Amsterdam (which pays perhaps half of all charge of the Province), as seems to be in the States-General by so small a Pro­vince as Overyssel having an equal voice in the States-General with that of Holland, which contributes more than half to the general charge of the Union. But this was by some Wri­ters of that Age interpreted to be done by the Prince's Authority, to [Page 88] lessen that of the Nobles, and balance that of the greater Cities, by the voi­ces of the smaller, whose dependan­ces were easier to be gained and se­cured.

The Nobles, though they are few in this Province, yet are not represented by all their number, but by Eight or Nine, who as Deputies from their Bo­dy have session in the States-Provin­cial; And who, when one among them dyes, chuse another to succeed him. Though they have all together but one voice equal to the smallest Town; yet are they very considerable in the Government, by possessing many of the best Charges both Civil and Mi­litary, by having the direction of all the Ecclesiastical Revenue that was seized by the State upon the change of Religion; and by sending their De­puties to all the Councils both of the Generalty and the Province, and by the nomination of one Councellor in the two great Courts of Justice. They give their Voice first in the Assembly of the States, and thereby a great weight to the business in consultation. The Pensioner of Holland is seated with them, delivers their Voice for [Page 89] them, and assists at all their Delibera­tions before they come to the Assem­bly. He is properly, but Minister or Servant of the Province, and so his Place or Rank is behind all their Deputies; but has always great Cre­dit, because he is perpetual, or seldom discharged; though of right he ought to be chosen or renewed every third year. He has place in all the several Assemblies of the Province, and in the States proposes all Affairs, gathers the Opinions, and forms or digests the Re­solutions; Pretending likewise a power not to conclude any very important Affair by plurality of Voices, when he judges in his Conscience he ought not to do it, and that it will be of ill consequence or prejudice to the Province.

The Deputies of the Cities are drawn out of the Magistrates and Senate of each Town: Their Num­ber is uncertain and arbitrary, accor­ding to the Customs or Pleasure of the Cities that send them, because they have all together but one Voice, and are all maintained at their Cities charge: But commonly one of the Burgomasters and the Pensioner are of the number.

[Page 90]The States of Holland have their Session in the Court at the Hague, and assemble ordinarily four times a year, in February, June, September, and No­vember. In the former Sessions they provide for the filling up of all vacant Charges, and for renewing the Farms of all the several Taxes, and for con­sulting about any matters that concern either the general good of the Pro­vince, or any particular differences arising between the Towns. But in November they meet purposely to re­solve upon the continuance of the Charge which falls to the share of their Province the following year, ac­cording to what may have been agreed upon by the Deputies of the States-General, as necessary for the support of the State or Union.

For extraordinary occasions, they are convoked by a Council called the Gecommi Heerde Raeden, or the Com­missioned Councellors, who are pro­perly a Council of State of the Pro­vince, composed of several Deputies; One from the Nobles; One from each of the chief Towns; And but One from three of the smaller Towns, each of the three chusing him by [Page 91] turns. And this Council sits con­stantly at the Hague, and both pro­poses to the Provincial-States at their extraordinary Assemblies, the matters of deliberation; and executes their Resolutions.

In these Assemblies, though all are equal in Voices, and any one hinders a result; yet it seldom happens, but that united by one common bond of Interest, and having all one common End of Publique Good, They come after full Debates to easie Resolutions; yeilding to the power of Reason where it is clear and strong; And suppressing all private Passions or Interests, so as the smaller part seldom contests hard or long, what the greater agrees of. When the Deputies of the States a­gree in opinion, they send some of their number to their respective Towns, proposing the Affair and the Reasons alledged, and desiring Orders from them to conclude; Which seldom fails, if the necessity or utility be evi­dent: If it be more intricate, or suf­fers delay, The States adjourn for such a time, as admits the return of all the Deputies to their Towns; where their influence and interest, and [Page 92] the impressions of the Debates in their Provincial Assemblies, make the con­sent of the Cities easier gain'd.

Besides the States and Council men­tion'd, the Province has likewise a Chamber of Accounts, who manage the general Revenues of the Province: And besides this Trust, they have the absolute disposition of the ancient De­mesne of Holland, without giving any account to the States of the Province. Only at times, either upon usual intervals, or upon a necessity of mo­ney, The States call upon them for a Subsidy of Two or three hundred thousand Crowns, or more, as they are prest, or conceive the Chamber to be grown rich, beyond what is propor­tioned to the general design of encrea­sing the ease and fortunes of those persons who compose it. The States of Holland dispose of these charges to men grown aged in their service, and who have passed through most of the Employments of State with the esteem of Prudence and Integrity; and such persons find here an honourable and profitable retreat.

The Provinces of Holland and Zea­land, as they used formerly to have [Page 93] one Governour in the time of the House of Burgundy and Austria; so they have long had one common Ju­dicature, which is exercised by two Courts of Justice, each of them com­mon to both the Provinces. The first is composed of Twelve Councellors, Nine of Holland, and Three of Zea­land, of whom the Governour of the Provinces is the Head; by the old Constitution used to preside when­ever he pleased, and to name all the Councellors except one, who was cho­sen by the Nobles. This Court judges without appeal in all Criminal Causes; but in Civil there lyes appeal to the other Court, which is called the High Council, from which there is no ap­peal but only by Petition to the States of the Province for a revision: When these judg there is reason for it, they grant Letters-Patents to that purpose, naming some Syndiques out of the Towns, who being added to the Coun­cellors of the two former Courts, re­vise and judg the Cause in the last re­sort. And this course seems to have been instituted by way of supply or imitation of the Chamber of Mechlyn, to which, before the Revolt of the [Page 94] Provinces, there lay an appeal by way of revision, from all or most of the Provincial Courts of Justice, as there still does in the Spanish Provinces of the Netherlands.

Govern­ment of the United Provin­ces.The Union is made up of the Seven Soveraign Provinces before named, who chuse their respective Deputies, and send them to the Hague, for the composing of three several Colledges, called, The States-General, The Coun­cil of State, and the Chamber of Ac­counts. The Soveraign Power of this United-State, lyes effectively in the Assembly of the States-General, which used at first to be convoked upon ex­traordinary occasions, by the Council of State; but that seldom, in regard they usually consisted of above Eight hundred persons, whose meeting toge­ther in one place from so many several parts, gave too great a shake to the whole Body of the Union; Made the Debates long, and sometimes confu­sed; the Resolutions slow, and upon sudden occasions out of time. In the absence of the States-General, the Council of State represented their Au­thority, and executed their Resoluti­ons, and judged of the necessity of a [Page 95] new Convocation: Till after the Earl of Leicester's departure from the Go­vernment, the Provincial-States desired of the General, That they might by their constant respective Deputies, con­tinue their Assemblies under the name of States-General, which were never after assembled but at Bergen ap Zoom, for ratifying with more solemn form and authority, the Truce concluded with Duke Albert and Spain.

This Desire of the Provinces was grounded upon the pretences, That the Council of State convoked them but seldom, and at will; and that be­ing to execute all in their absence, they thereby arrogated to themselves too great an Authority in the State. But a more secret reason had greater weight in this Affair, which was, That the English Ambassador had by agreement with Queen Elizabeth, a constant place in their Council of State; And upon the distasts arising between the Pro­vinces and the Earl of Leicester, with some jealousies of the Queen's dispo­sition to make a Peace with Spain, They had no mind that Her Ambassa­dor should be present any longer in the first digestion of their Affairs, [Page 96] which was then usually made in the Council of State. And hereupon they first framed the ordinary Council, cal­led the States-General, which has ever since passed by that Name, and sits constantly in the Court at the Hague, Represents the Soveraignty of the U­nion, Gives Audience and Dispatches to all Forreign Ministers; But yet is indeed only a representative of the States-General, the Assemblies whereof are wholly disused.

The Council of State, the Admiral­ty, and the Treasury are all subordi­nate to this Council; All which are continued in as near a resemblance as could be, to the several Councils used in the time when the Provinces were subject to their several Principalities; or united under One in the Houses of Burgundy and Austria: Only the seve­ral Deputies (composing one voice) now succeeding the single Persons em­ployed under the former Governments: And the Hague, which was the ancient Seat of the Counts of Holland, still continues to be so of all these Coun­cils; where the Palace of the former Soveraigns, lodges the Prince of Orange as Governour, and receives these seve­ral [Page 97] Councils as attending still upon the Soveraignty, represented by the States-General.

The Members of all these Councils are placed and changed by the seve­ral Provinces, according to their differ­ent or agreeing Customs. To the States-General every one sends their Depu­ties in what number they please; some Two, some Ten or Twelve; Which makes no difference, because all mat­ters are carried not by the Votes of Persons, but of Provinces; and all the Deputies from one Province, how few or many soever, have one single Vote. The Provinces differ likewise in the time fixed for their Deputation; some sending for a year, some for more, and others for life. The Province of Hol­land send to the States-General one of their Nobles, who is perpetual; Two Deputies chosen out of their Eight chief Towns; and One out of North-Holland; and with these, Two of their Provincial Council of State, and their Pensioner.

Neither Stadtholder, or Governour, or any person in Military-charge, has Session in the States-General. Every Province presides their week in turns, [Page 98] and by the most qualified person of the Deputies of that Province: He sits in a Chair with arms, at the mid­dle of a long Table, capable of hold­ing about thirty persons; For about that number this Council is usually composed of. The Greffier, who is in nature of a Secretary, sits at the lower end of the Table: When a Forreign Minister has audience, he is seated at the middle of this Table, over-against the President: Who proposes all mat­ters in this Assembly; Makes the Gref­fier read all Papers; Puts the Que­stion; Calls the Voices of the Pro­vinces; And forms the Conclusion. Or if he refuses to conclude accor­ding to the plurality, he is obliged to resign his Place to the President of the ensuing Week, who concludes for him.

This is the course in all Affairs be­fore them, except in cases of Peace and War, of Forreign Alliances, of Raising or Coining of Moneys, or the Priviledges of each Province or Mem­ber of the Union. In all which, All the Provinces must concur, Plurality being not at all weighed or observed. This Counsel is not Soveraign, but [Page 99] only represents the Soveraignty; and therefore though Ambassadors are both received and sent in their Name; yet neither are their own chosen, nor For­reign Ministers answered, nor any of those mentioned Affairs resolved, with­out consulting first the States of each Province by their respective Deputies, and receiving Orders from them; And in other important matters, though de­cided by Plurality, They frequently consult with the Council of State.

Nor has this Method or Constituti­on ever been broken since their State began, excepting only in one Affair, which was in January 1668, when His Majesty sent me over to propose a League of Mutual Defence with this State, and another for the preservation of Flanders from the invasion of France, which had already conquered a great part of the Spanish Provinces, and left the rest at the mercy of the next Campania. Upon this occasion I had the fortune to prevail with the States-General to conclude three Trea­ties, and upon them draw up and sign the several Instruments, in the space of Five days; Without passing the essential forms of their Government [Page 100] by any recourse to the Provinces, which must likewise have had it to the several Cities; There, I knew, those Forreign Ministers whose Duty and In­terest it was to oppose this Affair, ex­pected to meet and to elude it, which could not have failed in case it had run that circle, since engaging the Voice of one City, must have broken it. 'Tis true, that in concluding these Alliances without Commission from their Principals, The Deputies of the States-General ventur'd their Heads if they had been disowned by their Pro­vinces; but being all unanimous, and led by the clear evidence of so di­rect and so important an Interest (which must have been lost by the usual de­lays), They all agreed to run the haz­zard; and were so far from being dis­owned, that they were applauded by all the Members of every Province; Having thereby changed the whole face of Affairs in Christendom, and laid the Foundation of the Triple-Alliance, and the Peace of Aix (which were concluded about Four Months after). So great has the force of Reason and Interest ever proved in this State, not only to the uniting of all Voices in [Page 101] their Assemblies, but to the absolving of the greatest breach of their Origi­nal Constitutions; Even in a State whose Safety and Greatness has been chiefly founded upon the severe and exact observance of Order and Method in all their Counsels and Executions. Nor have they ever used at any other time any greater means to agree and unite the several Members of their U­nion in the Resolutions necessary, up­on the most pressing occasions, Than for the agreeing-Provinces to name some of their ablest persons to go and confer with the dissenting, and represent those Reasons and Interests, by which they have been induced to their opini­ons.

The Council of State is composed of Deputies from the several Provin­ces, but after another manner than the States-General, the number being fixed. Gelderland sends Two, Holland Three, Zealand and Utrecht Two a piece, Friezland, Overyssel and Groninghen, each of them One, making in all Twelve. They vote not by Provin­ces, but by Personal Voices; and eve­ry Deputy presides by turns. In this Council the Governour of the Pro­vinces [Page 102] has Session, and a decisive voice; And the Treasurer-General, Session, but a voice only deliberative; yet he has much credit here, being for life; and so is the person deputed to this Coun­cil from the Nobles of Holland, and the Deputies of the Province of Zea­land. The rest are but for two, three, or four years.

The Council of State executes the Resolutions of the States-General; consults and proposes to them the most expedient ways of raising Troops, and levying Moneys, as well as the pro­portions of both, which they conceive necessary in all Conjunctures and Re­volutions of the State: Superintends the Milice, the Fortifications, the Con­tributions out of Enemies Countrey, the forms and disposal of all Passports, and the Affairs, Revenues, and Go­vernment of all places conquered since the Union; which being gain'd by the common Arms of the State, de­pend upon the States-General, and not upon any particular Province.

Towards the end of every year, this Council forms a state of the Expence they conceive will be necessary for the year ensuing; Presents it to the States-General, [Page 103] desiring them to demand so much of the States-Provincial, to be raised according to the usual Propor­tions, which are of 100000 G^rs.

This Petition, as 'tis called, is made to the States-General in the Name of the Governour and Council of State, which is but a continuance of the forms used in the time of their Sove­raigns, and still by the Governours and Council of State in the Spanish Ne­therlands: Petition signifying barely asking or demanding, though implying the thing demanded to be wholly in the right and power of them that give. It was used by the first Counts only upon extraordinary occasions and necessities; but in the time of the Houses of Burgundy and Austria, grew to be a thing of course, and Annual, [Page 104] as it is still in the Spanish Provinces.

The Council of State disposes of all sums of Money destin'd for all ex­traordinary Affairs, and expedites the Orders for the whole expence of the State, upon the Resolutions first taken in the main, by the States-General. The Orders must be signed by three Deputies of several Provinces, as well as by the Treasurer-General, and then registred in the Chamber of Accounts, before the Receiver-General pays them, which is then done without any difficulty, charge, or delay.

Every Province raises what Moneys it pleases, and by what ways or means; sends its Quota, or share of the general charge, to the Receiver-General, and converts the rest to the present use, or reserves it for the future occasions of the Province.

The Chamber of Accounts was erect­ed about sixty years ago, for the ease of the Council of State, to examine and state all Accounts of all the seve­ral Receivers, to controul and register the Orders of the Council of State, which disposes of the Finances: and this Chamber is composed of two De­puties from each Province, who are [Page 105] changed every Three years.

Besides these Colledges, is the Coun­cil of the Admiralty; who, when the States-General by advice of the Council of State, have destin'd a Fleet of such a number and force to be set out, Have the absolute disposition of the Marine Affairs, as well in the choice and equipage of all the several Ships, as in issuing the Moneys allotted for that service.

This Colledg is subdivided into Five, of which three are in Holland, viz. one in Amsterdam, another at Rotter­dam, and the third at Horn: The fourth is at Middlebourgh in Zealand, and the fifth at Harlinguen in Friez­land. Each of these is composed of Seven Deputies; Four of that Pro­vince where the Colledg resides; and Three named by the other Provinces. The Admiral, or in his absence the Vice-Admiral, has Session in all these Colledges, and presides when he is pre­sent. They take cognizance of all Crimes committed at Sea; judg all Pirates that are taken, and all Frauds or Negligences in the payment or col­lections of the Customs; which are particularly affected to the Admiralty, [Page 106] and appliable to no other use. This Fond being not sufficient in times of Wars, is supplied by the States with whatever more is necessary from other Fonds; but in time of Peace, being little exhausted by other constant charge, besides that of Convoys to their several Fleets of Merchants in all parts, The remainder of this Revenue is applied to the building of great Ships of War, and furnishing the several Arse­nals and Stores with all sorts of Pro­vision necessary for the building and rigging of more Ships than can be needed by the course of a long War.

So soon as the number and force of the Fleets designed for any Expedition, is agreed by the States-General, and given out by the Council of State to the Admiralty; Each particular Col­ledg furnishes their own proportion, which is known as well as that of the several Provinces, in all Moneys that are to be raised. In all which, the Admiral has no other share or advan­tages, besides his bare Salary, and his proportion in Prizes that are taken. The Captains and Superior Officers of each Squadron are chosen by the se­veral [Page 107] Colledges; the number of men appointed for every ship: After which, each Captain uses his best diligence and credit to fill his number with the best men he can get, and takes the whole care and charge of Victualling his own Ship for the time intended for that Expedition, and signifi'd to him by the Admiralty; and this at a cer­tain rate of so much a man. And by the good or ill discharge of his Trust, as well as that of providing Chirur­geons Medicines, and all things neces­sary for the health of the men, each Captain grows into good or ill credit with the Sea-men, and by their report with the Admiralties; Upon whose opinion and esteem, the fortune of all Sea-Officers depends: So as in all their Expeditions there appears rather an emulation among the particular Captains who shall treat his Sea-men best in these points, and employ the Moneys allotted for their Victualling, to the best advantage, Than any little Knavish Practises, of filling their own Purses by keeping their men's Bellys empty, or forcing them to corrupted unwholsome Diet: Upon which, and upon cleanliness in their Ships, the [Page 108] health of many people crowded up into so little Rooms, seems chiefly to depend.

The Salaries of all the great Officers of this State, are very small: I have already mentioned that of a Burgo­master's of Amsterdam to be about fifty pounds sterling a year: That of their Vice-Admiral (for since the last Prince of Orange's death, to the year 1670, there had been no Admiral) is Five hundred, and that of the Pensio­ner of Holland Two hundred.

The Greatness of this State seems much to consist in these Orders, how confused soever, and of different pie­ces they may seem: But more in two main effects of them, which are the good choice of the Officers of chief Trust in the Cities, Provinces, and State: And the great simplicity and modesty in the common port or living of their chiefest Ministers; without which, the Absoluteness of the Senates in each Town, and the Immensity of Taxes throughout the whole State, would never be endured by the people with any patience; being both of them greater than in many of those Govern­ments which are esteemed most Arbi­trary [Page 109] among their Neighbours. But in the Assemblies and Debates of their Senates, every man's Abilities are dis­covered, as their Dispositions are, in the conduct of their Lives and Dome­stick, among their fellow-Citizens. The observation of these, either raises or suppresses the credit of particular men, both among the people and the Se­nates of their Towns; who to main­tain their Authority with less po­pular envy or discontent, give much to the general opinion of the people in the choice of their Magistrates: By this means it comes to pass, that though perhaps the Nation generally be not wise, yet the Government is, Because it is composed of the wisest of the Nation, which may give it an advan­tage over many others, where Ability is of more common growth, but of less use to the Publique, If it happens that nei­ther Wisdom nor Honesty are the Quali­ties which bring men to the management of State-Affairs, as they usually do in this Commonwealth.

Besides, though these people, who are naturally Cold and Heavy, may not be ingenious enough to furnish a pleasant or agreeable Conversation, yet [Page 110] they want not plain down-right sence to understand and do their business both publique and private, which is a Talent very different from the other; and I know not whether they often meet: For the first proceeds from heat of the brain, which makes the spirits more aiery and volatile, and thereby the motions of Thought lighter and quicker, and the range of Imagi­nation much greater than in cold heads, where the spirits are more earthy and dull; Thought moves slower and hea­vier, but thereby the impressions of it are deeper, and last longer: One ima­gination being not so frequently nor so easily effaced by another, as where new ones are continually arising. This makes duller men more constant and steddy, and quicker men more incon­stant and uncertain; whereas the great­est ability in business, seems to be the steddy pursuit of some one thing till there is an end of it, with perpetual application and endeavour not to be diverted by every representation of new hopes or fears, of difficulty or danger, or of some better design. The first of these Talents cuts like a Razor, the other like a Hatchet: One has [Page 111] thinness of edg, and fineness of metal and temper, but is easily turn'd by any substance that is hard, and resists. T'o­ther has toughness and weight, which makes it cut thorough, or go deep, wherever it falls; and therefore one is for Adornment, and t'other for Use.

It may be said further, that the heat of the Heart commonly goes along with that of the Brain; so that Passi­ons are warmer where Imaginations are quicker: And there are few men (un­less in case of some evident natural de­fect) but have sence enough to distinguish in gross between Right and Wrong, between Good and Bad, when repre­sented to them; and consequently have judgment enough to do their business, if it be left to it self, and not swayed nor corrupted by some Humour or Pas­sion, by Anger or Pride, by Love or by Scorn, Ambition or Avarice, De­light or Revenge; so as the coldness of Passions seems to be the natural ground of Ability and Honesty among men, as the government or moderati­on of them the great End of Philo­sophical and Moral Instructions. These Speculations may perhaps a little lessen the common wonder, How we should [Page 112] meet with in one Nation so little show of Parts and of Wit, and so great evidence of Wisdom and Pru­dence, as has appeared in the Conduct and Successes of this State for near a Hundred years; Which needs no other testimony than the mighty Growth and Power it arrived to from so weak and contemptible Seeds and Beginnings.

The other Circumstance I mention­ed as an occasion of their Greatness, was the simplicity and modesty of their Magistrates in their way of living; which is so general, that I never knew One among them exceed the common frugal popular air; And so great, That of the two chief Officers in my time, Vice-Admiral De Ruiter, and the Pen­sioner De Wit (One, generally esteem­ed by Forreign Nations, as great a Sea-man, and the other as great a States-man, as any of their Age), I never saw the first in Clothes better than the commonest Sea-Captain, nor with above one man following him, nor in a Coach: And in his own House, neither was the Size, Building, Furniture, or Entertainment, at all ex­ceeding the use of every common Merchant and Trades-man in his Town. [Page 113] For the Pensioner De Wit, who had the great influence in the Govern­ment, The whole train and expence of his Domestique went very equal with other common Deputies or Mi­nisters of the State; His Habit grave, and plain, and popular; His Table what only serv'd turn for his Family, or a Friend; His Train (besides Com­missaries and Clerks kept for him in an Office adjoining to his House, at the publique charge) was only one man, who performed all the Menial service of his House at home; and upon his Visits of Ceremony, putting on a plain Livery-Cloak, attended his Coach abroad: For upon other occasions, He was seen usually in the streets on foot and alone, like the commonest Burger of the Town. Nor was this manner of life affected, or used by these par­ticular men, but was the general fashi­on or mode among all the Magistrates of the State: For I speak not of the Military Officers, who are reckon'd their Servants, and live in a different garb, though generally modester than in other Countreys.

Thus this stomachful People, who could not endure the least exercise of [Page 114] Arbitrary Power or Impositions, or the sight of any Forreign Troops under the Spanish Government; Have been since inured to all of them, in the highest degree, under their own Po­pular Magistrates; Bridled with hard Laws; Terrified with severe Executi­ons; Environ'd with Forreign Forces; And opprest with the most cruel Hardship and variety of Taxes, that was ever known under any Govern­ment. But all this, whilst the way to Office and Authority lyes through those qualities which acquire the ge­neral esteem of the people; Whilst no man is exempted from the danger and current of Laws; Whilst Soldiers are confin'd to Frontier-Garrisons (the guard of Inland or Trading-Towns being left to the Burghers themselves); And whilst no great Riches are seen to enter by Publique Payments into private Purses, either to raise Families, or to feed the prodigal Expences of vain, extravagant, and luxurious men; But all Publique Moneys are applied to the Safety, Greatness, or Honour of the State, and the Magistrates them­selves bear an equal share in all the Burthens they impose.

[Page 115]The Authority of the Princes of Orange, The Au­thority of the Prin­ces of O­range. though intermitted upon the untimely death of the last, and infancy of this present Prince; Yet as it must be ever acknowledged to have had a most essential part in the first frame of this Government, and in all the For­tunes thereof, during the whole growth and progress of the State: So has it ever preserved a very strong root, not only in Six of the Provinces, but even in the general and popular affe­ctions of the Province of Holland it self, Whose States have for these last Twenty years so much endeavoured to suppress or exclude it.

This began in the person of Prince William of Nassaw, at the very birth of the State; And not so much by the quality of being Governour of Holland and Zealand in Charles the Fifth's, and Philip the Second's time; As by the esteem of so great Wisdom, Goodness and Courage, as excell'd in that Prince, and seems to have been from him derived to his whole Race, Being indeed the qualities that natu­rally acquire esteem and authority a­mong the people in all Governments. [Page 116] Nor has this Nation in particular, since the time perhaps of Civilis, ever been without some Head, under some Title or other; but always a Head subordi­nate to their Laws and Customs, and to the Soveraign Power of the State.

In the first Constitution of this Go­vernment, after the Revolt from Spain, All the Power and Rights of Prince William of Orange, as Governour of the Provinces, seem to have been care­fully reserved. But those which re­main'd inherent in the Soveraign, were devolved upon the Assembly of the States-General, so as in them remained the power of making Peace and War, and all Forreign Alliances, and of rai­sing and coining of Moneys. In the Prince, the command of all Land and Sea-Forces, as Captain-General and Admiral, and thereby the disposition of all Military Commands; The power of pardoning the Penalty of Crimes; The chusing of Magistrates upon the nomination of the Towns; For they presented three to the Prince, who elected one out of that number. Ori­ginally the States-General were con­voked [Page 117] by the Council of State, where the Prince had the greatest influence: Nor since that change, have the States used to resolve any important matter without his advice. Besides all this, As the States-General represented the Soveraignty, so did the Prince of O­range the Dignity of this State, by publique Guards, and the attendance of all Military Officers; By the applica­tion of all Forreign Ministers, and all pretenders at home; By the splendour of his Court, and magnificence of his Expence, supported not only by the Pensions and Rights of his several Charges and Commands, but by a mighty Patrimonial Revenue in Lands, and Soveraign Principalities and Lord­ships, as well in France, Germany, and Burgundy, as in the several parts of the Seventeen Provinces; so as Prince Henry was used to answer some that would have flattered him into the de­signs of a more Arbitrary Power, That he had as much as any wise Prince would desire in that State; since he had all indeed, besides that of Punish­ing men, and raising Money; whereas he had rather the envy of the first [Page 118] should lye upon the Forms of the Go­vernment; and he knew the other could never be supported without the consent of the people, to that degree which was necessary for the defence of so small a State against so mighty Prin­ces as their Neighbours.

Upon these Foundations was this State first establisht, and by these Or­ders maintained, till the death of the last Prince of Orange; When by the great influence of the Province of Holland amongst the rest, the Autho­rity of the Princes came to be shared among the several Magistracies of the State; Those of the Cities assumed the last nomination of their several Magistrates; The States-Provincial, the disposal of all Military Commands in those Troops which their share was to pay; And the States-General, the Com­mand of the Armies, by Officers of their own appointment, substituted and changed at their will. No power re­main'd to pardon what was once con­demned by rigor of Law; Nor any person to represent the Port and Dig­nity of a Soveraign State; Both which could not fail of being sensibly missed [Page 119] by the people, since no man in parti­cular can be secure of offending, or would therefore absolutely despair of impunity himself, though he would have others do so; And men are ge­nerally pleased with the Pomp and Splendor of a Government, not only as it is an amusement for idle people, but as it is a mark of the Greatness, Honour and Riches of their Coun­trey.

However these Defects were for near Twenty years supplied in some measure, and this Frame supported by the great Authority and Riches of the Province of Holland, which drew a sort of dependance from the other Six; and by the great Sufficiency, In­tegrity and Constancy of their chief Minister, and by the effect of both in the prosperous Successes of their Af­fairs: Yet having a Constitution strain­ed against the current vein and hu­mour of the people, It was always evident, that upon the growth of this young Prince, The great Vir­tues and Qualities he derived from the mixture of such Royal and such Princely Blood, could not fail [Page 120] in time of raising His Authority to equal at least, if not to surpass that of his glorious Ancestors.

HOLLAND, Zealand, Friezland, and Groninguen, are seated upon the Sea, and make the Strength and Greatness of this State: The other three, with the Conquered Towns in Brabant, Flanders, and Cleve, make only the Out-works or Frontiers, ser­ving chiefly for safety and defence of these. No man can tell the strange and mighty Changes that may have been made in the face and bounds of Maritime Countreys, at one time or other, by furious Inundations, upon the unusual concurrence of Land-Floods, Winds and Tides; And therefore no man knows whether the Province of Holland may not have been in some past Ages, all Wood and rough une­qual ground, as some old Traditions go; And level'd to what we see, by the Sea's breaking in and continuing long upon the Land; since recovered by its recess, and with the help of In­dustry. For it is evident, that the Sea [Page 122] for some space of years, advances con­tinually upon one Coast, retiring from the opposite; and in another Age, quite changes this course, yeilding up what it had seized, and seizing what it had yeilded up, without any reason to be given of such contrary motions. But I suppose this great change was made in Holland, when the Sea first parted England from the Continent, breaking through a neck of Land be­tween Dover and Calais; Which may be a Tale, but I am sure is no Re­cord. It is certain, on the contrary, that Sixteen hundred years ago, there was no usual mention or memory of any such Changes; and that the face of all these Coasts, and nature of the Soil, especially that of Holland, was much as it is now, allowing only the Improvements of Riches, Time, and In­dustry; Which appears by the descripti­on made in Tacitus both of the limits of the Isle of Batavia, Rhenus apud prin­cipium agri Bata­vi velut ín duos am­nes divi­ditur, ad Gallicam ripam latior & placidior verso cognomento Va­halem accola dicuut, mox id quoque vocabulum mutat Mosâ flumine, ejus (que) immenso ore eundem in Oceanum effunditur. Cum interim flexu Autumni & Crebris imbribus superfusus amnis palust [...]m humil [...]m (que) Insulam in faciem Stag [...]i opplevit. and the nature of the Soil as well as the Climate, and the very names of Rivers still remaining.

[Page 123]'Tis likely the Changes arrived since that Age in these Countreys, may have been made by stoppages grown in time, with the rolling of Sands upon the mouths of three great Rivers, which disimbogued into the Sea through the Coasts of these Provinces; That is, the Rhine, the Mose, and the Scheld. The ancient Rhyne divided where Skencksconce now stands, into two Ri­vers; of which, one kept the name, till running near Leyden, it fell into the Sea at Catwick; Where are still seen at low Tides, the foundations of an ancient Roman Castle that com­manded the mouth of this River: But this is wholly stopt up, though a great Canal still preserves the Name of the old Rhine. The Mose running by Dort and Rotterdam, fell as it now does, into the Sea at the Briel, with mighty issues of water; But the Sands gather'd for three or four Leagues upon this Coast, makes the Haven extream dangerous, without great skill of Pi­lots, and use of Pilot-boats, that come out with every Tide to welcome and secure the Ships bound for that River; And it is probable that these Sands having obstructed the free course of [Page 124] the River, has at times caused or en­creased those Inundations, out of which so many Islands have been recovered, and of which that part of the Coun­trey is much composed.

The Scheld seems to have had its issue by Walcheren in Zealand, which was an Island in the mouth of that River, till the Inundations of that and the Mose seem to have been joyned together by some great Helps or Ir­ruptions of the Sea, by which the whole Countrey was overwhelmed, which now makes that Inland-Sea that serves for a common passage between Holland, Zealand, Flanders and Brabant. The Sea for some Leagues from Zealand, lyes generally upon such Banks of Sand as it does upon the mouth of the Maze, though separated by something better Channels than are found in the other.

That which seems likeliest to have been the occasion of stopping up wholly one of these Rivers, and ob­structing the others, Is the course of Westerly-winds, which drive upon this Shore so much more constant and vio­lent than the East: For taking the Sea­sons and Years one with another, I sup­pose [Page 125] there will be observed three parts of Westerly for one of Easterly Winds; Besides that these last gene­rally attend the calm Frosts and fair weather, and the other the stormy and foul. And I have had occasion to make experiment of the Sands ri­sing and sinking before a Haven, by two fits of these contrary Winds, a­bove four foot. This I presume is like­wise the natural reason of so many deep and commodious Havens found upon all the English side of the Channel, and so few (or indeed none) upon the French and Dutch: An advantage seeming to be given us by Nature, and never to be equal'd by any Art or Expence of our Neighbours.

I remember no mention in ancient Authors of that which is now call'd the Zudder-Sea; Which makes me imagine, that may have been form'd likewise by some great Inundation breaking in between the Tessel-Islands and others that lye still in a line con­tiguous, and like the broken remain­ders of a continued Coast. This seems more probable from the great shallow­ness of that Sea, and flatness of the Sands upon the whole extent of it; [Page 126] From the violent Rage of the Waters breaking in that way, which threaten the parts of North-Holland about Me­denblick and Enchusen, and brave it o­ver the highest and strongest Digues of the Province upon every High-tide, and storm at North-west. As likewise from the Names of East and West-Friezland, which should have been one Continent till divided by this Sea; And in the time of the first Counts of Holland, their great and almost continual Wars were against the Fri­zons; which could not have been, if separated by this Sea, or if the Fri­zons were only the Inhabitants of North-Holland.

Whatever it was, whether Nature or Accident, and upon what occasion soe­ver it arrived, The Soil of the whole Province of Holland is generally flat like the Sea in a calm, and looks as if after a long contention between Land and Water, which It should belong to, It had at length been divided between them: For to consider the great Ri­vers, and the strange number of Ca­nals that are found in this Province, and do not only lead to every great Town, but almost to every Village, [Page 127] and every Farm-House in the Coun­trey; And the infinity of Sails that are seen every where coursing up and down upon them; One would ima­gine the Water to have shar'd with the Land; and the people that live in Boats, to hold some proportion with those that live in Houses. And this is one great advantage towards Trade, which is natural to the Scituation, and not to be attained in any Countrey where there is not the same level and softness of Soil, which makes the cutting of Ca­nals so easie work as to be attempted almost by every private man; And one Horse shall draw in a Boat more than fifty can do by Cart, whereas Carriage makes a great part of the price in all heavy Commodities: And by this easie way of travelling, an in­dustrious man loses no time from his business, for he writes, or eats, or sleeps while he goes; whereas the Time of labouring or industrious men, is the greatest Native Commodity of any Countrey.

There is besides, one very great Lake of fresh water still remaining in the midst of this Province, by the name of Harlem Maer, which might as they [Page 128] say be easily drained, and would there­by make a mighty addition of Land to a Countrey, where nothing is more wanted; and receive a great quantity of people, in which they abound, and who make their Greatness and Riches. Much discourse there has been about such an Attempt, but the City of Ley­den having no other way of refresh­ing their Town, or renewing their Ca­nals with fresh water, but from this Maer, will never consent to it. On the other side, Amsterdam will ever oppose the opening and cleansing of the old Channel of the Rhine, which they say might easily be compassed, and by which the Town of Leyden would grow Maritime, and share a great part of the Trade now engros­sed by Amsterdam. There is in North-Holland a great Essay made at the possibility of draining these great Lakes, by one of about two Leagues broad having been made firm Land, within these forty years; This makes that part of the Countrey called the Bemster, being now the richest Soil of the Province, lying upon a dead flat, divided with Canals, and the ways through it distinguisht with ranges of [Page 129] Trees, which make the pleasantest Summer-Landschip of any Countrey I have seen of that sort.

Another advantage of their Scitua­tion for Trade, is made by those two great Rivers of the Rhyne and Mose, reaching up, and Navigable so mighty a length into so rich and populous Countreys of the Higher and Lower Germany; which as it brings down all the Commodities from those parts to the Magazines in Holland, that vent them by their Shipping into all parts of the World where the Market calls for them; so with something more La­bour and Time, it returns all the Mer­chandizes of other parts into those Countreys that are seated upon these streams. For their commodious seat as to the Trade of the Streights, or Bal­tique, or any parts of the Ocean, I see no advantage they have of most parts of England; and they must certainly yeild to many we possess, if we had other equal circumstances to value them.

The lowness and flatness of their Lands, makes in a great measure the richness of their Soil, that is easily overflowed every Winter, so as the [Page 130] whole Countrey at that season seems to lye under water, which in Spring is driven out again by Mills. But that which mends the Earth, spoils the Air, which would be all Fog and Mist, if it were not clear'd by the sharpness of their Frosts, which never fail with eve­ry East-wind for about four Months of the year, and are much fiercer than in the same Latitude with us, because that Wind comes to them over a mighty length of dry Continent; but is moist­ned by the Vapours, or softned by the warmth of the Seas motion, before it reaches us.

And this is the greatest disadvantage of Trade they receive from their Sci­tuation, though necessary to their health; Because many times their Ha­vens are all shut up for two or three Months with Ice, when ours are open and free.

The fierce sharpness of these Winds, makes the changes of their Weather and Seasons more violent and surpri­sing than in any place I know; so as a warm faint Air turns in a night to a sharp Frost, with the Wind coming into the North-east; And the contrary with another change of Wind. The [Page 131] Spring is much shorter, and less agree­able than with us; the Winter much colder, and some parts of the Summer much hotter; and I have known more than once, the violence of one give way to that of the other, like the cold fit of an Ague to the hot, without any good temper between.

The flatness of their Land exposes it to the danger of the Sea, and for­ces them to infinite charge in the con­tinual fences and repairs of their Banks to oppose it; Which employ yearly more men than all the Corn of the Province of Holland could maintain (as one of their chief Ministers has told me). They have lately found the common Sea-weed to be the best Ma­terial for these Digues, which fastens with a thin mixture of Earth, yeilds a little to the force of the Sea, and returns when the Waves give back: Whether they are thereby the safer against Water, as they say Houses that shake are against Wind; or whether, as pious Naturalists observe, all things carry about them that which serves for a Remedy against the Mischiefs they do in the world.

[Page 132]The extream moisture of the Air, I take to be the occasion of the great neatness in their Houses, and clean­liness in their Towns. For without the help of those Customs, their Countrey would not be habitable by such Crowds of people, but the Air would corrupt upon every hot season, and expose the Inhabitants to general and infectious Diseases; Which they hardly escape three Summers together, especially about Leyden, where the Waters are not so easily renewed; and for this reason I suppose it is that Ley­den is found to be the neatest and cleanest kept of all their Towns.

The same moisture of Air makes all Metals apt to rust, and Wood to mould; which forces them by conti­nual pains of rubbing and scouring, to seek a prevention or cure: This makes the brightness and cleanness that seems affected in their Houses, and is call'd natural to them, by peo­ple who think no further. So the deepness of their Soil, and wetness of Seasons, which would render it unpassable, forces them not only to exactness of paving in their Streets, but to the expence of so long Cawsies [Page 133] between many of their Towns, and in their High-ways. As indeed most National Customs are the Effect of some unseen or unobserved natural Causes or Necessities.

THE People of Holland may be divided into these several Classes: The Clowns or Boors (as they call them), who cultivate the Land. The Mariners or Schippers, who supply their Ships and Inland-Boats. The Mer­chants or Traders, who fill their Towns. The Renteeners, or men that live in all their chief Cities upon the Rents or Interest of Estates formerly acqui­red in their Families: And the Gen­tlemen and Officers of their Armies.

The first are a Race of people diligent rather than laborious; dull and slow of understanding, and so not dealt with by hasty words, but managed ea­sily by soft and fair; and yeilding to plain Reason, if you give them time to understand it. In the Countrey and Villages not too near the great Towns, they seem plain and honest, and content with their own; so that [Page 135] if in bounty you give them a shilling for what is worth but a groat, they will take the current price, and give you the rest again; if you bid them take it, they know not what you mean, and sometimes ask if you are a Fool. They know no other Good, but the supply of what Nature re­quires, and the common encrease of Wealth. They feed most upon Herbs, Roots, and Milks; and by that means I suppose neither their Strength nor Vigor seems answerable to the Size or Bulk of their Bodies.

The Mariners are a plain, but much rougher people; whether from the E­lement they live in, or from their Food, which is generally Fish and Corn, and heartier than that of the Boors. They are surly and ill-man­ner'd, which is mistaken for Pride; but I believe is learnt, as all Manners are, by the conversation we use. Now theirs lying only among one another, or with Winds▪ and Waves, which are not mov'd or wrought upon by any language, or observance; or to be dealt with, but by Pains and by Pa­tience; These are all the Qualities their Mariners have learnt; their Va­lour [Page 136] is passive rather than active; and their Language is little more than what is of necessary use to their Bu­siness.

The Merchants and Trades-men, both the greater and Mechanick, li­ving in Towns that are of great re­sort, both by strangers and passengers of their own; Are more Mercurial (Wit being sharpned by commerce and conversation of Cities), though they are not very inventive, which is the gift of warmer heads; yet are they great in imitation, and so far, many times, as goes beyond the Originals: Of mighty Industry, and constant ap­plication to the Ends they propose and pursue. They make use of their Skill and their Wit, to take advan­tage of other men's Ignorance and Folly they deal with: Are great Ex­acters where the Law is in their own hands. In other points, where they deal with men that understand like themselves, and are under the reach of Justice and [...], they are the plain­est and best dealers in the world; Which seems not to grow so much from a Principle of Conscience or Morality, as from a Custom or Habit [Page 137] introduced by the necessity of Trade among them, which depends as much upon Common-Honesty, as War does upon Discipline; and without which, all would break up, Merchants would turn Pedlars, and Soldiers Thieves.

Those Families which live upon their Patrimonial Estates in all the great Cities, are a people differently bred and manner'd from the Traders, though like them in the modesty of Garb and Habit, and the Parsimony of living. Their Youth are generally bred up at Schools, and at the Uni­versities of Leyden or Utrecht, in the common studies of Human Learning, but chiefly of the Civil Law, which is that of their Countrey, at least as far as it is so in France and Spain. (For, as much as I understand of those Countreys, No Decisions or De­crees of the Civil Law, nor Consti­tutions of the Roman Emperors, have the force or current of Law among them, as is commonly believed, but only the force of Reasons when al­ledged before their Courts of Judica­ture, as far as the Authority of men esteemed wise, passes for Reason: But the ancient Customs of those several [Page 138] Countreys, and the Ordonnances of their Kings and Princes, consented to by the Estates, or in France verified by Parliaments, have only the strength and authority of Law among them.)

Where these Families are rich, their Youths after the course of their stu­dies at home, travel for some years, as the Sons of our Gentry use to do; but their journeys are chiefly into England and France, not much into Italy, sel­domer into Spain, nor often into the more Northern Countreys, unless in company or train of their Publique Ministers. The chief End of their Breeding, is to make them fit for the service of their Countrey in the Ma­gistracy of their Towns, their Provin­ces, and their State. And of these kind of men are the Civil Officers of this Government generally composed, be­ing descended of Families who have many times been constantly in the Ma­gistracy of their Native Towns for many Years, and some for several Ages.

Such were most or all of the chief Ministers, and the persons that compo­sed their chief Councils, in the time of my residence among them, and not [Page 139] men of mean or Mechanick Trades, as it is commonly received among Forreign­ers, and makes the subject of Comical Jests upon their Government. This does not exclude many Merchants, or Traders in gross, from being often seen in the Offices of their Cities, and sometimes deputed to their States; Nor several of their States, from turning their Stocks in the management of some very beneficial Trade by Ser­vants, and Houses maintained to that purpose. But the generality of the States and Magistrates are of the other sort; Their Estates consisting in the Pensions of their Publique Charges, in the Rents of Lands, or Interest of Money upon the Cantores, or in Acti­ons of the East-Indy Company, or in Shares upon the Adventures of great Trading-Merchants.

Nor do these Families, habituated as it were to the Magistracy of their Towns and Provinces, usually arrive at great or excessive Riches; The Sa­laries of Publique Employments and Interest being low, but the Revenue of Lands being yet very much lower, and seldom exceeding the profit of Two in the Hundred. They content them­selves [Page 140] with the hohour of being useful to the Publique, with the esteem of their Cities or their Countrey, and with the ease of their Fortunes; which seldom fails, by the frugality of their living, grown universal by being (I suppose) at first necessary, but since honourable among them.

The mighty growth and excess of Riches is seen among the Merchants and Traders, whose application lyes wholly that way, and who are the better content to have so little share in the Government, desiring only se­curity in what they possess; Troubled with no cares but those of their For­tunes, and the management of their Trades, and turning the rest of their time and thought to the divertisement of their lives. Yet these, when they attain great wealth, chuse to breed up their Sons in the way, and marry their Daughters into the Families of those others most generally credited in their Towns, and versed in their Magistracies; And thereby introduce their Families into the way of Government and Ho­nour, which consists not here in Titles, but in Publique Employments.

The next Rank among them, is that [Page 141] of their Gentlemen or Nobles, who in the Province of Holland (to which I chiefly confine these Observations) are very few, most of the Families having been extinguished in the long Wars with Spain. But those that remain, are in a manner all employ'd in the Military or Civil Charges of the Province or State. These are in their Customs, and Manners, and way of living, a good deal different from the rest of the peo­ple; and having been bred much abroad, rather affect the Garb of their Neighbour-Courts, than the Popular Air of their own Countrey. They value themselves more upon their No­bility, than men do in other Coun­treys, where 'tis more common; and would think themselves utterly disho­noured by the marriage of one that were not of their Rank, though it were to make up the broken Fortune of a Noble Family, by the Wealth of a Plebean. They strive to imitate the French in their Meen, their Clothes, their way of Talk, of Eating, of Gal­lantry, or Debauchery; And are, in my mind, something worse than they would be, by affecting to be better than they need; making sometimes but ill Copies, [Page 142] whereas they might be good Origi­nals, by refining or improving the Customs and Virtues proper to their own Countrey and Climate. They are otherwise an Honest, Well-natur'd, Friendly, and Gentlemanly sort of men, and acquit themselves generally with Honour and Merit, where their Coun­trey employs them.

The Officers of their Armies live after the Customs and Fashions of the Gentlemen; And so do many Sons of the rich Merchants, who returning from travel abroad, have more designs upon their own pleasure, and the va­nity of appearing, than upon the Ser­vice of their Countrey; Or if they pretend to enter into that, it is rather by the Army than the State. And all these are generally desirous to see a Court in their Countrey, that they may value themselves at home, by the Qualities they have learnt abroad; and make a Figure which agrees better with their own Humour, and the man­ner of Courts, than with the Customs and Orders that prevail in more Po­pular Governments.

There are some Customs or Dispo­sitions that seem to run generally [Page 143] through all these Degrees of men a­mong them; As great Frugality, and order in their Expences. Their com­mon Riches lye in every man's having more than he spends; or to say it more properly, In every man's spend­ing less than he has coming in, be that what it will: Nor does it enter into men's heads among them, That the common port or course of Expence, should e­qual the Revenue; and when this hap­pens, they think at least they have liv'd that year to no purpose; And the train of it discredits a man among them, as much as any vicious or pro­digal Extravagance does in other Coun­treys. This enables every man to bear their extream Taxes, and makes them less sensible than they would be in o­ther places: For he that lives upon Two parts in Five of what he has coming in, if he pays Two more to the State, he does but part with what he should have laid up, and had no present use for; Whereas he that spends yearly what he receives, if he pays but the Fiftieth part to the Pub­lique, it goes from him like that which was necessary to buy Bread or Clothes for himself or his Family.

[Page 144]This makes the beauty and strength of their Towns, the commodiousness of travelling in their Countrey by their Canals, Bridges, and Cawseys; the pleasantness of their Walks, and their Grafts in and near all their Ci­ties; And in short, the Beauty, Con­venience, and sometimes Magnificence of all Publique Works, to which eve­ry man pays as willingly, and takes as much pleasure and vanity in them, as those of other Countreys do in the same circumstances, among the Posses­sions of their Families, or private In­heritance. What they can spare, be­sides the necessary expence of their Domestique, the Publique Payments, and the common course of still en­creasing their Stock, Is laid out in the Fabrick, Adornment, or Furniture of their Houses: Things not so transitory, or so prejudicial to Health, and to Busi­ness, as the constant Excesses and Luxury of Tables; Nor perhaps alto­gether so vain as the extravagant Ex­pences of Clothes and Attendance; At least these end wholly in a man's self, and the satisfaction of his personal Hu­mour; whereas the other make not only the Riches of a Family, but con­tribute [Page 145] much towards the publique Beauty and Honour of a Countrey.

The order in casting up their Ex­pences, is so great and general, that no man offers at any Undertaking, which he is not prepared for, and Ma­ster of his Design before he begins; so as I have neither observed nor heard of any Building publique or private, that has not been finished in the time designed for it. So are their Canals, Cawseys, and Bridges; so was their Way from the Hague to Skeveling, a Work that might have become the old Romans, considering how soon it was dispatcht. The House at the Hague, built purposely for casting of Cannon, was finisht in one Summer, during the heat of the first English War, and lookt rather like a design of Vanity in their Government, than Necessity or Use. The Stadthouse of Amsterdam has been left purposely to time, without any limitation in the first Design, either of that, or of Expence; both that the Diligence and the Genius of so many succeeding Magistrates, should be em­ploy'd in the collection of all things that could be esteemed proper to en­crease the Beauty or Magnificence of [Page 146] that Structure; And perhaps a little to reprieve the experiment of a cur­rent Prediction, That the Trade of that City should begin to fall the same year the Stadthouse should be finisht, as it did at Antwerp.

Charity seems to be very National among them, though it be regulated by Orders of the Countrey, and not usually moved by the common Objects of Compassion. But it is seen in the admirable Provisions that are made out of it for all sorts of persons that can want, or ought to be kept in a Go­vernment. Among the many and va­rious Hospitals that are in every man's curiosity and talk that travels their Countrey, I was affected with none more than that of the aged Sea-men at Enchusyen, which is contrived, fi­nished, and ordered, as if it were done with a kind intention of some well-na­tur'd man, That those who had past their whole lives in the Hardships and Incommodities of the Sea, should find a Retreat stor'd with all the Eases and Conveniences that Old-age is capable of feeling and enjoying. And here I met with the only rich man that I ever saw in my life: For one of these old [Page 147] Sea-men entertaining me a good while with the plain Stories of his Fifty years Voyages and Adventures, while I was viewing their Hospital, and the Church adjoining; I gave him at part­ing a piece of their Coin about the value of a Crown; He took it smi­ling, and offer'd it me again; but when I refused it, he askt me what he should do with Money? for all that ever they wanted, was provided for them at their House. I left him to overcome his Modesty as he could; but a Servant coming after me, saw him give it to a little Girl that open'd the Church-door, as she past by him; Which made me reflect upon the fan­tastick calculation of Riches and Po­verty that is current in the world, by which a man that wants a Million, is a Prince; He that wants but a Groat is a Beggar; and this was a poor man that wanted nothing at all.

In general, All Appetites and Passi­ons seem to run lower and cooler here, than in other Countreys where I have converst. Avarice may be excep­ted. And yet that should not be so violent, where it feeds only upon In­dustry and Parsimony, as where it [Page 148] breaks out into Fraud, Rapine, and Oppression. But Quarrels are seldom seen among them, unless in their drink, Revenge rarely heard of, or Jealousie known. Their Tempers are not aiery enough for Joy, or any un­usual strains of pleasant Humour; nor warm enough for Love. This is talkt of sometimes among the younger men, but as a thing they have heard of, rather than felt; and as a discourse that becomes them, rather than affects them. I have known some among them that personated Lovers well enough but none that I ever thought were at heart in love; Nor any of the Wo­men that seem'd at all to care whether they were so or no. Whether it be that they are such lovers of their Li­berty, as not to bear the servitude of a Mistris, any more than that of a Ma­ster; Or that the dulness of their Air renders them less susceptible of more refined Passions; Or that they are di­verted from it by the general intenti­on every man has upon his business whatever it is; (nothing being so mor­tal an Enemy of Love, that suffers no Rival, as any bent of thought another way).

[Page 149]The same Causes may have had the same Effects among their married Wo­men, who have the whole care and absolute management of all their Do­mestique; And live with very gene­ral good Fame; A certain sort of Chastity being hereditary and habitual among them, as Probity among the Men.

The same dulness of Air may dis­pose them to that strange assiduity and constant application of their minds, with that perpetual Study and Labour upon any thing they design and take in hand. This gives them patience to pursue the quest of Riches by so long Voyages and Adventures to the Indies, and by so long Parsimony as that of their whole lives. Nay I have (for a more particular example of this Dis­position among them) known one man that employ'd Four and twenty years about the making and perfecting of a Globe, and another above Thirty about the inlaying of a Table. Nor does any man know how much may have been contributed towards the great things in all kinds, both pub­lique and private, that have been at­chieved among them by this one Hu­mour [Page 150] of never giving over what they imagine may be brought to pass, nor leaving one sent to follow another they meet with; Which is the pro­perty of the lighter and more ingeni­ous Nations; And the Humour of a Government being usually the same with that of the persons that compose it, Not only in this, but in all other points; so as where men that govern, are Wise, Good, Steady and Just, the Government will appear so too; and the contrary where they are other­wise.

The same Qualities in their Air, may encline them to the Entertain­ments and Customs of Drinking, which are so much laid to their charge, and for ought I know may not only be necessary to their Health (as they ge­nerally believe it), but to the vigour and improvement of their Understand­ings, in the midst of a thick foggy Air, and so much coldness of Temper and Complexion. For though the use or excess of drinking, may destroy men's Abilities who live in better Cli­mates, and are of warmer Constituti­ons; Wine to hot Brains, being like Oyl to Fire, and making the Spirits by [Page 151] too much lightness, evaporate into smoak, and perfect aiery imaginations; Or by too much heat, rage into Fren­zy, or at least into Humours and Thoughts that have a great mixture of it; Yet on the other side, it may improve men's Parts and Abilities of cold Complexions, and in dull Air; and may be necessary to thaw and move the frozen or unactive Spirits of the Brain; To rowse sleepy Thought, and refine grosser Imaginations, and per­haps to animate the Spirits of the Heart, as well as enliven those of the Brain: Therefore the old Germans seem'd to have some reason in their Custom, Not to execute any great Re­solutions which had not been twice debated, and agreed at two several Assemblies, one in an Afternoon, and t'other in a Morning; Be­cause they thought their Counsels might want Vigour when they were sober, as well as Caution when they had drunk.

Yet in Holland I have observed ve­ry few of their chief Officers or Mini­sters of State vicious in this kind; Or if they drunk much, 'twas only at set-Feasts, and rather to acquit themselves, [Page 152] than of choice or inclination; And for the Merchants and Traders, with whom it is customary, They never do it in a morning, nor till they come from the Exchange, where the business of the day is commonly dispatcht; Nay, it hardly enters into their heads, that 'tis lawful to drink at all before that time; but they will excuse it if you come to their House, and tell you how sorry they are you come in a morn­ing when they cannot offer you to drink; as if at that time of day it were not only unlawful for them to drink themselves, but so much as a stranger to do it within their Walls.

The Afternoon, or at least the Eve­ning is given to whatever they find will divert them; And is no more than needs, considering how they spend the rest of the day, in Thought, or in Cares; in Toils, or in Business. For Nature cannot hold out with constant labour of Body, and as little with con­stant bent or application of mind: Much motion of the same parts of the Brain either weary and waste them too fast for repair, or else (as it were) fire the wheels, and so end either in ge­ [...]eral decays of the Body, or distracti­ons [Page 153] of the Mind (For these are usu­ally occasion'd by perpetual motions of Thought about some one Object; whether it be about ones self in ex­cesses of Pride, or about another in those of Love, or of Grief). There­fore none are so excusable as men of much care and thought, or of great business, for giving up their times of leisure to any pleasures or diversions that offend no Laws, nor hurt others or themselves: And this seems the rea­son that in all Civil Constitutions, not only Honours, but Riches are annex­ed to the Charges of those who go­vern, and upon whom the Publique cares are meant to be devolved; Not only that they may not be distracted from these by the cares of their own Domestique or private Interests; but that by the help of Esteem, and of Riches, they may have those Pleasures and Diversions in their reach, which idle men neither need nor deserve, but which are necessary for the re­freshment or repair of Spirits exhaust­ed with Cares and with Toil, and which serve to sweeten and preserve those Lives that would otherwise wear out too fast, or grow too uneasie in [Page 154] the Service of the Publique.

The two Characters that are left by the old Roman Writers, of the ancient Batavi or Hollanders, are, That they were both the bravest among the German Nations,Queruntur (Fabii Valentis) Legiones or­bari se fortissimorum virorum auxilio ve­teres illos & tot bel­lorum auctores non abrumpendos ut cor­pori validissimos ar­tus. Tacit. and the most obsti­nate lovers and defenders of their Liberty; Which made them exempted from all Tribute by the Romans, who desir'd only Soldiers of their Nation to make up some of their Auxiliary-Bands, as they did in former Ages of those Nations in Italy that were their Friends and Allies. The last Disposi­tion seems to have continued constant and National among them ever since that time, and never to have more ap­peared than in the Rise and Constitu­tions of their present State. It does not seem to be so of the First, or that the people in general can be said now to be Valiant, a quality of old so Na­tional among them, and which by the several Wars of the Counts of Hol­land (especially with the Frizons), and by the desperate Defences made against the Spaniards by this people in the beginnings of their State, should [Page 155] seem to have lasted long, and to have but lately decayed; That is, since the whole application of their Natives has been turn'd to Commerce and Trade, and the vein of their Domestique lives so much to Parsimony (by Cir­cumstances which will be the Subject of another Chapter); and since the main of all their Forces, and body of their Army has been composed and continually supplied out of their Neighbour-Nations.

For Soldiers and Merchants are not found by experience to be more in­compatible in their abode, than the Dispositions and Customs seem to be different that render a people sit for Trade and for War. The Soldier thinks of a short life and a merry. The Tra­der reckons upon a long and a pain­ful. One intends to make his For­tunes suddenly by his Courage, by Vi­ctory, and Spoil: The t'other slower, but surer, by Craft, by Treaty, and by Industry. This makes the first franc and generous, and throw away upon his Pleasures what has been got­ten in one Danger, and may either be lost or repaired in the next. The other wary and frugal, and loath to [Page 156] part with in a day, what he has been labouring for a year, and has no hopes to recover, but by the same paces of Diligence and Time. One aims only to preserve what he has, as the fruit of his Father's pains; or what he shall get, as the fruit of his own: T'other thinks the price of a little Blood is more than of a great deal of Sweat; and means to live upon other men's Labours, and possess in an hour what they have been years in acquiring: This makes one love to live under stanch Orders and Laws; While t'o­ther would have all depend upon Ar­bitrary Power and Will. The Trader reckons upon growing Richer, and by his account Better, the longer he lives; which makes him careful of his Health and his Life, and so apt to be orderly and temperate in his Diet; While the Soldier is thoughtless or prodigal of both; and having not his Meat ready at hours, or when he has a mind to it, Eats full and greedily whenever he gets to it; And perhaps difference of Diet may make greater difference in men's natural Courage, than is commonly thought of.

[Page 157]For Courage may proceed in some measure from the temper of Air, may be form'd by Discipline, and acquir'd by Use, or infus'd by Opinion; But that which is more natural, and so more National in some Countreys than in others, seems to arise from the heat or strength of Spirits about the Heart, Which may a great deal depend upon the measure and the substance of the food men are used to. This made a great Physician among us say, He would make any man a Coward with six weeks dietting; and Prince Mau­rice of Orange call for the English that were newly come over, and had (as he said) their own Beef in their Bel­lies, for any bold and desperate Action. This may be one reason why the Gen­try in all places of the world are bra­ver than the Peasantry, whose hearts are depressed not only by Slavery, but by short and heartless Food, the effect of their Poverty. This is a cause why the Yeomanry and Commonalty of England are generally braver than in other Countreys, Because by the Plen­ty and Constitutions of the Kingdom, they are so much easier in their Rents and their Taxes, and fare so much [Page 158] better and fuller than those of their rank in any other Nation. Their chief, and indeed constant food, being of flesh; And among all Creatures, both the Birds and the Beasts, we shall still find those that feed upon flesh, to be the fierce and the bold; and on the contrary, the fearful and faint­hearted to feed upon Grass, and upon Plants. I think there can be pretend­ed but two Exceptions to this Rule, which are rhe Cock, and the Horse; whereas the Courage of the first is no­ted no where but in England, and there, only in certain Races: And for the other, all the Courage we com­mend in them, is the want of fear; and they are observed to grow much fiercer, whenever by custom or neces­sity they have been used to flesh.

From all this may be inferr'd, That not only the long disuse of Arms a­mong the Native Hollanders (especi­ally at Land), and making use of other Nations chiefly in their Milice; But the Arts of Trade, as well as Peace, and their great Parsimony in diet, and eating so very little flesh (which the common people seldom do above once a week), may have helpt to debase [Page 159] much the ancient Valour of the Na­tion, at least in the occasions of Ser­vice at Land. Their Sea-men are much better; but not so good as those of Zealand, who are generally brave; Which I suppose comes by these ha­ving upon all occasions turn'd so much more to Privateering, and Men of War; and those of Holland being generally employ'd in Trading and Merchant-Ships; While their Men of War are man'd by Mariners of all Nations, who are very numerous among them, but especially those of the East-land Coasts of Germany, Suedes, Danes, and Nor­wegians.

'Tis odd, that Veins of Courage should seem to run like Veins of good Earth in a Countrey, and yet not only those of the Province of Hainault among the Spanish, and of Gelderland among the United Provinces, are esteemed better Soldiers than the rest; But the Burghers of Valenciennes among the Towns of Flanders, and of Nimmeguen among those of the lower Gelder, are observed to be particularly brave. But there may be firmness and constancy of Courage from Tradition, as well as of Belief: Nor methinks [Page 160] should any man know how to be a Coward, that is brought up with the opinion, That all of his Nation or City have ever been Valiant.

I can say nothing of what is usually laid to their charge about their being Cruel, besides what we have so often heard, of their barbarous usage to some of our men in the East-Indies, and what we have so lately seen of their Savage Murther of their Pensio­ner De Wit; A Person that deserv'd another Fate, and a better return from his Countrey after Eighteen years spent in their Ministry, without any care of his Entertainments or Ease, and little of his Fortune. A man of unwearied Industry, inflexible Constancy, sound, clear, and deep Understanding, and un­tainted Integrity; so that whenever he was blinded, it was by the passion he had for that which he esteemed the good and interest of his State. This testimony is justly due to him from all that practised him; and is the more wil­lingly paid, since there can be as little interest to flatter, as honour to reproach the dead. But this Action of that people may be attributed to the misfortune of their Countrey; and is so unlike [Page 161] the appearance of their Customs and Dispositions, living as I saw them un­der the Orders and Laws of a quiet and setled State, that one must confess Mankind to be a very various Creature, and none to be known that has not been seen in his Rage, as well as his Drink.

They are generally not so long-liv'd as in better Airs; and begin to decay early, both men and women, especially at Amsterdam; For at the Hague (which is their best Air) I have known two considerable men a good deal above Seventy, and one of them in very good sense and health: But this is not so usual as it is in England and in Spain. The Diseases of the Climate seem to be chiefly the Gout and the Scurvy; but all hot and dry Summers bring some that are infectious among them, especially into Amsterdam and Leyden: These are usually Fevers that lye most in the head, and either kill suddenly, or languish long before they recover. Plagues are not so frequent, at least not in a degree to be taken notice of, for All suppress the talk of them as much as they can, and no distinction is made in the Registry of the dead, nor [Page 162] much in the care and attendance of the sick: Whether from a belief of Predestination, or else a preference of Trade, which is the life of the Coun­trey, before that of particular men.

Strangers among them are apt to com­plain of the Spleen, but those of the Countrey seldom or never: Which I take to proceed from their being ever busie, or easily satisfied. For this seems to be the Disease of people that are idle, or think themselves but ill enter­tain'd; and attribute every sit of dull Humour, or Imagination, to a formal Disease, which they have found this Name for; Whereas such Fits are in­cident to all men, at one time or other, from the fumes of Indigestion, from the common alterations of some insensible degrees in Health and Vigor Vbi tempestas & coeli mobilis humor Mu [...]avere vias, & Jupiter humidus Austris, D [...]nsat, erant quae rara modo, & quae densa relaxat [...]tuntur species animorum, & pectora motus [...] alios, alios dum nubila ventus agebat [...]cipiunt, hinc ille avium concentus in agris Et [...] pecudes, & ovantes gutture corvi. Virg. Geor.; or from some changes or approaches of change in Winds and Weather, which affect the finer Spirits of the Brain, before they grow sensible to other parts; And are apt to alter the shapes or colours of whatever is represented to us by our [Page 163] Imaginations whilst we are so affected. Yet this Effect is not so strong, but that business, or intention of thought, commonly either resists or diverts it; And those who understand the moti­ons of it, let it pass, and return to themselves. But such as are idle, or know not from whence these changes arise, and trouble their heads with No­tions and Schemes of general Happi­ness or Unhappiness in life; Upon every such fit begin reflections on the condition of their Bodies, their Souls, or their Fortunes; And (as all things are then represented in the worst co­lours) they fall into melancholy appre­hensions of one or other, and some­times of them all: These make deep impression in their minds, and are not easily worn out by the natural returns of good Humour, especially if they are often interrupted by the contrary; As happens in some particular Constituti­ons, and more generally in uncertain Climates, especially if improved by ac­cidents of ill health, or ill fortune. But this is a Disease too refin'd for this Countrey and People, Who are well, when they are not ill; and pleas'd, when they are not troubled; are con­tent, [Page 162] [...] [Page 163] [...] [Page 164] because they think little of it; and seek their happiness in the common Ea­ses and Commodities of Life, or the encrease of Riches; Not amusing them­selves with the more speculative con­trivances of Passion, or refinements of Pleasure.

To conclude this Chapter: Holland is a Countrey where the Earth is bet­ter than the Air, and Profit more in request than Honour; Where there is more Sense than Wit; More good Na­ture than good Humour; And more Wealth than Pleasure; Where a man would chuse rather to travel, than to live; Shall find more things to ob­serve than desire, And more persons to esteem than to love. But the same Qualities and Dispositions do not value a private man and a State, nor make a Conversation agreeable, and a Go­vernment great: Nor is it unlikely that some very great King might make but a very ordinary private Gentle­man, and some very extraordinary Gen­tleman might be capable of making but a very mean Prince.

I Intend not here to speak of Religi­on at all as a Divine, but as a meer Secular man, when I observe the occa­sions that seem to have establisht it in the Forms, or with the Liberties where­with it is now attended in the United Provinces. I believe the Reformed Re­ligion was introduced there, as well as in England, and the many other Coun­treys where it is profess'd, by the ope­ration of Divine Will and Provi­dence; And by the same, I believe the Roman-Catholique was continued in France: Where it seemed by the con­spiring of so many Accidents in the beginnings of Charles the Ninth's Reign, to be so near a change. And whoever doubts this, seems to question not only the Will, but the Power of God. Nor will it at all derogate from the Honour of a Religion, to have been planted in a Countrey by Secular [Page 166] means, or Civil Revolutions, which have, long since, succeeded to those Miraculous Operations that made way for Christianity in the world. 'Tis enough that God Almighty infuses be­lief into the hearts of men, or else or­dains it to grow out of Religious En­quiries and Instructions; And that wherever the generality of a Nation come by these means to be of a belief, It is by the force of this concurrence introduced into the Government, and becomes the Establisht Religion of That Countrey. So was the Reformed Pro­fession introduced into England, Scot­land, Sueden, Denmark, Holland, and many parts of Germany. So was the Roman-Catholique restored in France and in Flanders; where notwithstand­ing the great Concussions that were made in the Government by the Hu­gonots and the Gueuses, yet they were never esteemed in either of those Coun­treys to amount further than the Se­venth or Eighth part of the people. And whosoever designs the change of Religion in a Countrey, or Govern­ment, by any other means than that of a general conversion of the people, or the greatest part of them, Designs all [Page 167] the Mischiefs to a Nation that use to usher in or attend the two greatest Di­stempers of a State, Civil War, or Ty­ranny; Which are, Violence, Oppressi­on, Cruelty, Rapine, Intemperance, In­justice, and in short, the miserable Effu­sion of Human Blood, and the Confusi­on of all Laws, Orders, and Virtues among men.

Such Consequences as these, I doubt are something more than the disputed Opinions of any man, or any particu­lar Assembly of men can be worth; Since the great and general End of all Religion, next to mens happiness here­after, is their happiness here; As ap­pears by the Commandments of God, being the best and greatest Moral and Civil, as well as Divine Precepts, that have been given to a Nation; And by the Rewards proposed to the Piety of the Jews throughout the Old Testa­ment, which were the Blessings of this life, as Health, length of Age, number of Children, Plenty, Peace, or Vi­ctory.

Now the way to our future happi­ness, has been perpetually disputed throughout the World, and must be left at last to the Impressions made upon [Page 168] every man's Belief and Conscience, ei­ther by natural or supernatural Argu­ments and Means; Which Impressions men may disguise or dissemble, but no man can resist. For Belief is no more in a man's power, than his Stature or his Feature; And he that tells me, I must change my Opinion for his, be­cause 'tis the truer and the better, without other Arguments, that have to me the force of conviction, May as well tell me, I must change my gray eyes for others like his that are black, because these are lovelier, or more in esteem. He that tells me, I must in­form my self; Has reason, if I do it not: But if I endeavour it all that I can, and perhaps more than he ever did, and yet still differ from him; And he, that it may be is idle, will have me study on, and inform my self better, and so to the end of my life; Then I easily understand what he means by informing, Which is in short, that I must do it till I come to be of his opinion.

If he that perhaps pursues his Plea­sures or Interests as much or more than I do; And allows me to have as good sense as he has, in all other mat­ters; [Page 169] Tells me I should be of his opi­nion, but that Passion or Interest blinds me; Unless he can convince me how, or where this lies, He is but where he was, Only pretends to know me better than I do my self, who can­not imagine why I should not have as much care of my soul, as he has of his.

A man that tells me my opinions are absurd or ridiculous, impertinent or un­reasonable, because they differ from his, seems to intend a Quarrel instead of a Dispute; and calls me Fool or Mad-man with a little more circum­stance; Though perhaps I pass for one as well in my senses as he, as pertinent in talk, and as prudent in life: Yet these are the common Civilities, in Re­ligious Argument, of sufficient and conceited men, Who talk much of Right Reason, and mean always their own; And make their private imagi­nation the measure of general Truth. But such language determines all be­tween us, and the Dispute comes to end in three words at last, which it might as well have ended in at first, That he is in the right, and I am in the wrong.

[Page 170]The other great End of Religion, which is our happiness here, Has been generally agreed on by all Mankind, as appears in the Records of all their Laws,Fiunt diversae res­publicae ex civium mo­ribus qui quocun (que) fluxerint, caetera se­cum rapiunt. Plat. de Rep. as well as all their Religions, which come to be establisht by the concur­rence of men's Customs and and Opinions; though in the latter, that concurrence may have been produced by Divine Impressions or In­spirations. For all agree in teaching and commanding, in planting and im­proving, not only those Moral Virtues which conduce to the felicity and tran­quillity of every private man's life; But also those Manners and Dispositions that tend to the Peace, Order, and Safety of all Civil Societies and Go­vernments among men. Nor could I ever understand, how those who call themselves, and the world usually calls Religious Men, come to put so great weight upon those points of Belief which men never have agreed in, and so little upon those of Virtue and Mo­rality, in which they have hardly ever disagreed. Nor why a State should venture the subversion of their Peace, and their Order, which are certain [Page 171] Goods, for the propagation of uncer­tain or contested Opinions.

One of the great Causes of the first Revolt in the Low-Countreys, appeared to be, The Oppression of men's Con­sciences, or Persecution in their Liber­ties, their Estates, and their Lives, up­on pretence of Religion. And this at a time, when there seemed to be a conspiring-disposition in most Countreys of Christendom, to seek the reforma­tion of some abuses, grown in the Do­ctrine and Discipline of the Church, ei­ther by the Rust of Time, by Negli­gence, or by Human Inventions, Passi­ons and Interests. The rigid oppositi­on given at Rome to this general Hu­mour, was followed by a defection of mighty numbers in all those several Countreys, Who professed to reform themselves according to such Rules as they thought were necessary for the reformation of the Church. These persons, though they agreed in the main of disowning the Papal Power, and reducing Belief from the autho­rity of Tradition to that of the Scrip­ture; Yet they differ'd much among themselves in other circumstances, espe­cially of Discipline, according to the [Page 172] Perswasions and Impressions of the Leading-Doctors in their several Coun­treys. So the Reformed of France be­came universally Calvinists: But for those of Germany, though they were generally Lutherans, yet there was a great mixture both of Calvinists and Anabaptists among them.

The first Persecutions of these Re­formed, arose in Germany in the time of Charles the Fifth, and drove great numbers of them down into the Se­venteen Provinces, especially Holland and Brabant, where the Priviledges of the Cities were greater, and the Em­peror's Government was less severe, as among the Subjects of his own Native Countreys. This was the occasion that in the year 1566, when upon the first Insurrection in Flanders, those of the Reformed Profession began to form Consistories, and levy Contributions among themselves, for support of their Common Cause; It was resolved upon consultation among the Heads of them, that for declining all differences among themselves, at a time of common exi­gence, The publique Profession of their Party should be that of the Lutherans, though with liberty and indulgence to [Page 173] those of different Opinions. By the U­nion of Utrecht concluded in 579, Each of the Provinces was left to or­der the matter of Religion as they thought fit and most conducing to the welfare of their Province; With this provision, that every man should re­main free in his Religion, and none be examined or entrapped for that cause, according to the Pacification at Gant. But in the year 583, it was enacted by general agreement, That the Evangeli­cal Religion should be only professed in all the Seven Provinces: Which came thereby to be the establisht Re­ligion of this State.

The Reasons which seem to induce them to this settlement, were many, and of weight; As first, Because by the Persecutions arrived in France, (where all the Reformed were Calvinists) mul­titudes of people had retired out of that Kingdom into the Low Countreys; And by the great commerce and con­tinual intercourse with England, where the Reformation agreed much with the Calvinists in point of Doctrine, though more with the Lutherans in point of Discipline, Those Opinions came to be credited and propagated more than any [Page 174] other among the people of these Pro­vinces, So as the numbers were grown to be greater far in the Cities, of this, than of any other Profession. Second­ly, The Succours and Supplies both of Men and Money, by which the weak Beginnings of this Commonwealth were Perserved and Fortified, came chiefly, from England, from the Protestants of France, (when their affairs were suc­cessful), and from the Calvinist Princes of Germany, who lay nearest, and were readiest to relieve them. In the next place, Because those of this Profession seem'd the most contrary and violent against the Spaniards, who made them­selves Heads of the Roman-Catholiques throughout Christendom, And the ha­tred of Spain and their Dominion, was so rooted in the Hearts of this People, that it had influence upon them in the very choice of their Religion. And lastly, Because by this Profession, all Rights and Jurisdiction of the Clergy or Hierarchy being suppressed, There was no Ecclesiastical Authority left to rise up and trouble or fetter the Civil Power; And all the Goods and Pos­sessions of Churches and Abbies, were seized wholly into the hands of the State, [Page 175] which made a great encrease of the pub­lique Revenue, A thing the most ne­cessary for the support of their Govern­ment.

There might perhaps be added one Reason more, which was particular to one of the Provinces: For whereas in most, if not all other parts of Christen­dom, the Clergy composed one of the Three Estates of the Countrey, And thereby shar'd with the Nobles and Commons in their Influences upon the Government; That Order never made any part of the Estates in Holland, nor had any Vote in their Assembly, which consisted only of the Nobles and the Ci­ties, and this Province bearing always the greatest sway in the Councils of the Union, was most enclined to the settle­ment of that Profession, which gave least pretence of Power or Jurisdiction to the Clergy, and so agreed most with their own ancient Constitutions.

Since this Establishment, as well as before, the great Care of this State has ever been, To favour no particular or curious Inquisition into the Faith or Religious Principles of any peaceable man, who came to live under the pro­tection of their Laws, And to suffer [Page 176] no Violence or Oppression upon any Mans Conscience, whose Opinions broke not out into Expressions or Acti­ons of ill consequence to the State. A free Form of Government either ma­king way for more freedom in Religi­on, Or else having newly contended so far themselves for Liberty in this point, they thought it the more unreasonable for them to oppress others. Perhaps while they were so threatened and en­danger'd by Forreign Armies, they thought it the more necessary to pro­vide against Discontents within, which can never be dangerous where they are not grounded or fathered upon Op­pression in point either of Religion or Liberty, But in those two Cases the Flame often proves most violent in a State, the more 'tis shut up, or the longer concealed.

The Roman-Catholique Religion was alone excepted from the common pro­tection of their Laws, Making Men (as the States believed) worse Sub­jects than the rest, By the acknowledg­ment of a Forreign and Superior Ju­risdiction; For so must all Spiritual Power needs be, as grounded upon greater Hopes and Fears than any Ci­vil, [Page 177] At least wherever the perswasions from Faith are as strong as those from Sense, Of which there are so many Testimonies recorded by the Martyr­doms, Penances or Conscientious Re­straints and Severities, suffered by in­finite Persons in all sorts of Religion.

Besides, this Profession seemed still a retainer of the Spanish Government, which was then the great Patron of it in the world: Yet such was the care of this State to give all men ease in this point, who askt no more than to serve God, and save their own souls, in their own Way and Forms; That what was not provided for by the Constitutions of their Government, was so, in a very great degree, by the con­nivence of their Officers, Who upon certain constant Payments from every Family, suffer the exercise of the Ro­man-Catholique Religion in their seve­ral Jurisdictions, as free and easie, though not so cheap and so avowed as the rest. This I suppose has been the reason, that though those of this Profession are very numerous in the Countrey, among the Peasants, and considerable in the Cities; Yet they seem to be a found piece of the State, [Page 178] and fast jointed in with the rest; And have neither given any disturbance to the Government, nor exprest any in­clinations to a change, or to any For­reign Power, Either upon the former Wars with Spain, or the latter Inva­sions of the Bishop of Munster.

Of all other Religions, every man enjoys the free exercise in his own Chamber, or his own House, unque­stioned and unespied: And if the fol­lowers of any Sect grow so numerous in any place, that they affect a pub­lique Congregation, and are content to purchase a place of Assembly, to bear the charge of a Pastor or Tea­cher, and to pay for this Liberty to the Publique; They go and propose their desire to the Magistrates of the place where they reside, Who inform themselves of their Opinions, and man­ners of Worship; and if they find no­thing in either, destructive to Civil So­ciety, or prejudicial to the Constitu­tions of their State, And content themselves with the price that is offer'd for the purchase of this Liberty, They easily allow it; But with the conditi­on, That one or more Commissioners shall be appointed, who shall have free [Page 179] admission at all their meetings, shall be both the Observers and Witnesses of all that is acted or preached among them, and whose testimony shall be received concerning any thing that passes there to the prejudice of the State; In which case the Laws and Executions are as severe as against any Civil Crimes.

Thus the Jews have their allowed Synagogues in Amsterdam and Rotter­dam; And in the first, almost all Sects that are known among Christians, have their publique Meeting-places; and some, whose Names are almost worn out in all other parts, as the Brownists, Familists, and others. The Arminians, though they make a great Name among them, by being rather the distinction of a Party in the State, than a Sect in the Church; Yet are, in comparison of others, but few in number, Though considerable by the persons, who are of the better quality, the more learned and intelligent men, and many of them in the Government. The Anabaptists are just the contrary, very numerous, but in the lower ranks of people, Me­chanicks and Sea-men, and abound chiefly in North-Holland.

[Page 180]The Calvinists make the body of the people, and are possessed of all the publique Churches in the Dominions of the State, as well as of the only Ministers or Pastors who are maintain­ed by the Publique; But these have neither Lands, nor Tythes, nor any authorized Contributions from the peo­ple, but certain Salaries from the State, upon whom they wholly depend: And though they are often very bold in taxing and preaching publiquely against the Vices, and sometimes the innocent Entertainments of persons most consi­derable in the Government, as well as of the Vulgar; yet they are never heard to censure or controul the pub­lique Actions or Resolutions of the State: They are in general, through­out the Countrey, passionate Friends to the Interests of the House of Orange; And during the intermission of that Authority, found ways of expressing their affections to the Person and For­tunes of this Prince, without offend­ing the State, as it was then constitu­ted. They are fierce Enemies of the Arminian Party, whose Principles were thought to lead them in Barnevelt's time towards a conjunction, or at least [Page 181] compliance with the Spanish Religion and Government; Both which, the House of Orange in the whole course of the War, endeavoured to make ir­reconcilable with those of the State.

It is hardly to be imagined how all the violence and sharpness, which ac­companies the differences of Religion in other Countreys, seems to be ap­peased or softned here, by the general freedom which all men enjoy, either by allowance or connivence; Nor how Faction and Ambition are thereby dis­abled to colour their Interessed and Seditious Designs, with the pretences of Religion, Which has cost the Chri­stian World so much blood for these last Hundred and fifty years. No man can here complain of pressure in his Conscience, Of being forced to any publique profession of his private Faith; Of being restrained from his own manner of worship in his House, Or obliged to any other abroad: And whoever asks more in point of Reli­gion, without the undisputed evidence of a particular Mission from Heaven, may be justly suspected, not to ask for God's sake, but for his own; since pretending to Soveraignty instead of [Page 182] Liberty in Opinion, is indeed pretend­ing the same in Authority too, Which consists chiefly in Opinion; And what Man or Party soever, can gain the common and firm belief, of being most immediately inspired, instructed, or favoured of God, Will easily ob­tain the prerogative of being most ho­nour'd and obey'd by men.

But in this Commonwealth, no man having any reason to complain of op­pression in Conscience; and no man having hopes by advancing his Reli­gion, to form a Party, or break in upon the State, The differences in O­pinion make none in Affections, and little in Conversation, where it serves but for entertainment and variety. They argue without interest or anger; They differ without enmity or scorn, And they agree without confederacy. Men live together like Citizens of the World, associated by the common ties of Humanity, and by the bonds of Peace, Under the impartial protection of indifferent Laws, With equal en­couragement of all Art and Industry, and equal freedom of Speculation and Enquiry; All men enjoying their ima­ginary excellencies and acquisitions of [Page 183] knowledg, with as much safety, as their more real possessions and improve­ments of Fortune. The power of Re­ligion among them, where it is, lies in every man's heart; The appearance of it, is but like a piece of Humanity, by which every one falls most into the company or conversation of those whose Customs and Humours, whose Talk and Disposition they like best: And as in other places, 'tis in every man's choice, With whom he will eat or lodg, with whom go to Market, or to Court; So it seems to be here, with whom he will pray or go to Church, or associate in the Service and Worship of God; Nor is any more notice taken, or more censure past, of what every one chuses in these cases, than in the other.

I believe the force of Commerce, Alliances, and Acquaintance, spreading so far as they do in small circuits (such as the Province of Holland) may contribute much to make conversation, and all the offices of common life, so easie, among so different Opinions, Of which so many several persons are of­ten in every man's eye; And no man cheeks or takes offence at Faces, or [Page 182] [...] [Page 183] [...] [Page 184] Customs, or Ceremonies he sees every day, As at those he hears of in places far distant, and perhaps by partial re­lations, and comes to see late in his life, and after he has long been pos­sest by passion or prejudice against them. However it is, Religion may possibly do more good in other places, But it does less hurt here; And where­ever the invisible effects of it are the greatest and most advantageous, I am sure the visible are so in this Coun­trey, by the continual and undisturbed Civil Peace of their Government for so long a course of years; And by so mighty an encrease of their people, Wherein will appear to consist chiefly the vast growth of their Trade and Riches, and consequently the strength and greatness of their State.

'TIs evident to those who have read the most, and travel'd far­thest, That no Countrey can be found either in this present Age, or upon Re­cord of any Story, Where so vast a Trade has been managed, as in the nar­row compass of the Four Maritime Provinces of this Commonwealth: Nay it is generally esteemed, that they have more Shipping belongs to them, than there does to all the rest of Europe. Yet they have no Native Commodi­ties towards the building or rigging of the smallest Vessel; Their Flax, Hemp, Pitch, Wood, and Iron, coming all from abroad, as Wool does for cloathing their men, and Corn for feeding them. Nor do I know any thing properly of their own growth, that is considerable either for their own necessary use, or for Traffique with their Neighbours, besides Butter, Cheese, and Earthen [Page 186] Wares. For Havens, they have not any good upon their whole Coast: The best are Helversluys, which has no Trade at all; and Flussingue, which has little in comparison of other Towns in Holland: But Amsterdam, that triumphs in the spoils of Lisbon and Antwerp (which before engrost the greatest Trade of Europe and the Indies) seems to be the most incommodious Haven they have, Being seated upon so shal­low waters, that ordinary Ships cannot come up to it without the advantage of Tides; Nor great ones without unlading. The entrance of the Tessel, and passage over the Zudder-Sea, is more dangerous than a Voyage from thence to Spain, lying all in blind and narrow Channels; so that it easily appears, that 'tis not a Haven that draws Trade, but Trade that fills a Haven, and brings it in vogue. Nor has Holland grown rich by any Native Commodities, but by force of Industry; By improvement and manufacture of all Forreign growths; By being the general Magazine of Europe, and fur­nishing all parts with whatever the Market wants or invites; And by their Sea-men being, as they have properly [Page 187] been call'd, the common Carriers of the World.

Since the ground of Trade cannot be deduced from Havens, or Native Commodities (as may well be conclu­ded from the survey of Holland, which has the least and the worst; and of Ireland, which has the most and the best, of both); it were not amiss to consider, from what other source it may be more naturally and certainly derived: For if we talk of Industry, we are still as much to seek what it is that makes people industrious in one Countrey, and idle in another. I conceive the true original and ground of Trade, to be great multitude of people crowded into small compass of Land, whereby all things necessary to life become deer, and all men who have possessions, are induced to Par­simony; but those who have none, are forced to industry and labour, or else to want. Bodies that are vigorous, fall to labour; Such as are not,Magister artis inge­niique largitor Venter. Pers. supply that defect by some sort of Inventions or Ingenuity. These Customs arise first from Necessity, but encrease by Imita­tion, and grow in time to be habitual in a Countrey; And wherever they are [Page 188] so, If it lies upon the Sea, they natu­rally break out into Trade, both be­cause whatever they want of their own that is necessary to so many mens lives, must be supply'd from abroad; and be­cause by the multitude of people, and smallness of Countrey, Land grows so deer, that the improvement of money that way is inconsiderable, and so turns to Sea, where the greatness of the Pro­fit makes amends for the Venture.

This cannot be better illustrated, than by its contrary, which appears no where more than in Ireland; Where by the largeness and plenty of the Soil, and scarcity of People, all things necessary to life are so cheap, that an industrious man, by two days labour, may gain enough to feed him the rest of the week; Which I take to be a very plain ground of the laziness at­tributed to the people: For men na­turally prefer Ease before Labour, and will not take pains if they can live idle; Though, when by necessity they have been inured to it, they cannot leave it, being grown a custom neces­sary to their health, and to their very entertainment: Nor perhaps is the change harder, from constant Ease, to [Page 189] Labour, than from constant Labour to Ease.

This account of the Original of Trade, agrees with the experience of all Ages, and with the Constitutions of all places where it has most flou­rished in the World, as Tyre, Carthage, Athens, Syracuse, Agrigentum, Rhodes, Venice, Holland; and will be so obvi­ous to every man, that knows and considers the scituation, the extent and the nature of all those Countreys, that it will need no enlargement upon the comparisons.

By these Examples, which are all of Commonwealths, and by the decay or dissolution of Trade in the Six first, when they came to be conquered or subjected to Arbitrary Dominions, It might be concluded, That there is something in that form of Government proper and natural to Trade in a more peculiar manner. But the heighth it ar­rived to at Bruges and Antwerp, under their Princes, for four or five descents of the House of Burgundy, and two of Austria, shows it may thrive under good Princes and legal Monarchies, as well as under Free States. Under Ar­bitrary and Tyrannical Power, it must [Page 190] of necessity decay and dissolve, Be­cause this empties a Countrey of peo­ple, whereas the others fill it; This extinguishes Industry, whilst men are in doubt of enjoying themselves what they get, or leaving it to their Chil­dren; The others encourage it, by se­curing men of both: One fills a Coun­trey with Soldiers, and the other with Merchants; Who were never yet known to live well together, Because they cannot trust one another: And as Trade cannot live without mutual trust among private men; so it cannot grow or thrive to any great degree, without a confidence both of publique and private safety, and consequently a trust in the Government, from an opinion of its Strength, Wisdom, and Justice; Which must be grounded either upon the Personal Virtues and Qualities of a Prince, or else upon the Constituti­ons and Orders of a State.

It appears to every mans eye who hath travel'd Holland, and observed the number and vicinity of their great and populous Towns and Villages, with the prodigious improvement of almost every spot of ground in the Countrey, And the great multitudes [Page 191] constantly employ'd in their Shipping abroad, and their Boats at home, That no other known Countrey in the World, of the same extent, holds any proportion with this in numbers of people; And if that be the great foundation of Trade, the best account that can be given of theirs, will be, by considering the Causes and Acci­dents that have served to force or in­vite so vast a confluence of people in­to their Countrey. In the first rank may be placed, the Civil-Wars, Cala­mities, Persecutions, Oppressions, or Discontents, that have been so fatal to most of their Neighbours, for some time before as well as since their State began.

The Persecutions for matter of Re­ligion, in Germany under Charles the Fifth, in France under Henry the Se­cond, and in England under Queen Mary, forced great numbers of people out of all those Countreys, to shelter themselves in the several Towns of the Seventeen Provinces, where the ancient Liberties of the Countrey, and Privi­ledges of the Cities, had been invio­late under so long a succession of Prin­ces, and gave protection to these op­pressed [Page 192] strangers, who fill'd their Cities both with People and Trade, and rai­sed Antwerp to such a heighth and re­nown, as continued till the Duke of Alva's arrival in the Low-Countreys. The fright of this man, and the Or­ders he brought, and Armies to exe­cute them, began to scatter the Flock of people that for some time had been nested there; So as in very few Months, above a Hundred thousand Families removed out of the Countrey. But when the Seven Provinces united, and began to defend themselves with suc­cess, under the conduct of the Prince of Orange, and the countenance of England and France, And the Persecu­tions for Religion began to grow sharp in the Spanish Provinces, All the Pro­fessors of the Reformed Religion, and haters of the Spanish Dominion, re­tir'd into the strong Cities of this Commonwealth, and gave the same date to the growth of Trade there, and the decay of it at Antwerp.

The long Civil-Wars, at first of France, then of Germany, and lastly of England, serv'd to encrease the swarm in this Countrey, not only by such as were persecuted at home, but great [Page 193] numbers of peaceable men, who came here to seek for quiet in their Lives, and safety in their Possessions or Trades; Like those Birds that upon the approach of a rough Winter-sea­son, leave the Countreys where they were born and bred, flye away to some kinder and softer Climate, and never return till the Frosts are past, and the Winds are laid at home.

The invitation these people had, to fix rather in Holland than in many bet­ter Countreys, seems to have been at first, the great strength of their Towns, which by their Maritime scituation, and the low flatness of their Countrey, can with their Sluces overflow all the ground about them at such distances, as to become inaccessible to any Land-Forces. And this natural strength has been improv'd, especially at Amster­dam, by all the Art and Expence that could any ways contribute towards the defence of the place.

Next was the Constitution of their Government, by which, neither the States-General nor the Prince have any power to invade any man's Person or Property within the precincts of their Cities. Nor could it be fear'd that the [Page 194] Senate of any Town should conspire to any such violence; nor if they did, could they possibly execute it, having no Soldiers in their pay, and the Bur­gers only being employ'd in the de­fence of their Towns, and execution of all Civil Justice among them.

These Circumstances gave so great a credit to the Bank of Amsterdam; And that was another invitation for people to come, and lodg here what part of their Money they could transport, and knew no way of securing at home. Nor did those people only lodg Mo­neys here, who came over into the Countrey; but many more who never left their own; Though they provided for a retreat, or against a storm, and thought no place so secure as this, nor from whence they might so easily draw their money into any parts of the World.

Another Circumstance, was the ge­neral Liberty and Ease, not only in point of Conscience, but all others that serve to the commodiousness and quiet of life; Every man following his own way, minding his own busi­ness, and little enquiring into other mens; Which I suppose happen'd by [Page 195] so great a concourse of people of se­veral Nations, different Religions and Customs, as left nothing strange or new; And by the general humour, bent all upon Industry, whereas Curiosity is only proper to idle men.

Besides, it has ever been the great Principle of their State, running through all their Provinces and Cities, even with emulation, To make their Countrey the common refuge of all miserable men; From whose protection, hardly any Alliance, Treaties, or In­terests, have ever been able to divert or remove them. So as during the great dependance this State had upon France, in the time of Henry the Fourth, All the persons disgraced at that Court, or banisht that Countrey, made this their common retreat; Nor could the State ever be prevail'd with, by any instances of the French Ambassadors, to refuse them the use and liberty of common life and air, under the pro­tection of their Government.

This firmness in the State, has been one of the circumstances that has in­vited so many unhappy men out of all their Neighbourhood, and indeed from most parts of Europe, to shelter them­selves [Page 196] from the blows of Justice, or of Fortune. Nor indeed does any Coun­trey seem so proper to be made use of upon such occasions, not only in respect of safety, but as a place that holds so constant and easie correspondencies with all parts of the World; And whi­ther any man may draw whatever mo­ney he has at his disposal in any other place; Where neither Riches expose men to danger, nor Poverty to con­tempt; But on the contrary, where Parsimony is honourable, whether it be necessary or no; and he that is forced by his Fortune to live low, may here alone live in fashion, and upon equal terms (in appearance abroad) with the chiefest of their Ministers, and richest of their Merchants: Nor is it easily imagin'd how great an effect this Con­stitution among them, may in course of time have had upon the encrease both of their People and their Trade.

As the two first invitations of peo­ple into this Countrey, were the strength of their Towns, and nature of their Government; So two others have grown with the course of time, and progress of their Riches and Pow­er. One is the Reputation of their [Page 197] Government, arising from the observa­tion of the Success of their Arms, the Prudence of their Negotiations, the Steddiness of their Counsels, the Constancy of their Peace and Quiet at home, and the Consideration they hereby arrived at among the Princes and States of Christendom. From all these, men grew to a general opinion of the Wisdom and Conduct of their State; and of its being establisht upon Foundations that could not be shaken by any common Accidents, nor conse­quently in danger of any great or sud­den Revolutions; And this is a mighty inducement to industrious people to come and inhabit a Countrey, who seek not only safety under Laws from Inju­stice and Oppression, but likewise un­der the strength and good conduct of a State, from the violence of Forreign Invasions, or of Civil Commotions.

The other, is the great Beauty of their Countrey (forced in time, and by the improvements of Industry, in spight of Nature), Which draws every day such numbers of curious and idle per­sons to see their Provinces, though not to inhabit them. And indeed their Countrey is a much better Mistress [Page 198] than a Wife; and where few persons who are well at home, would be content to live; but where none that have time and money to spare, would not for once be willing to travel; And as Eng­land shows in the beauty of the Coun­trey, what Nature can arrive at; so does Holland in the number, greatness, and beauty of their Towns, whatever Art can bring to pass. But these and many other matters of Speculation a­mong them, filling the Observations of all common Travellers, shall make no part of mine, whose design is rather to discover the Causes of their Trade and Riches, than to relate the Effects.

Yet it may be noted hereupon, as a piece of wisdom in any Kingdom or State, By the Magnificence of Courts, or of Publique Structures; By encou­raging beauty in private Buildings, and the adornment of Towns with plea­sant and regular plantations of Trees; By the celebration of some Noble Fe­stivals or Solemnities; By the institu­tion of some great Marts or Fairs; and by the contrivance of any extraordi­nary and renowned Spectacles, To in­vite and occasion, as much and as of­ten as can be, the concourse of busie [Page 199] or idle people from the neighbouring or remoter Nations, whose very pas­sage and intercourse is a great encrease of Wealth and of Trade, and a secret incentive of people to inhabit a Coun­trey where men may meet with equal advantages, and more entertainments of life, than in other places. Such were the Olimpick and other Games among the Grecians; Such the Triumphs, Trophees, and Secular Plays of old Rome, as well as the Spectacles exhi­bited afterwards by the Emperors, with such stupendious effects of Art and Expence, for courting or enter­tertaining the people; Such the Jubi­lees of new Rome; The Justs and Tournaments formerly used in most of the Courts of Christendom; The Fe­stivals of the more celebrated Orders of Knighthood; And in particular Towns, the Carnavals and Faires; The Kirmeshes which run through all the Cities of the Netherlands, and in some of them, with a great deal of Pagean­try, as well as Traffique, being equal baits of Pleasure and of Gain.

Having thus discover'd what has laid the great Foundations of their Trade, by the multitude of their People, [Page 200] which has planted and habituated In­dustry among them, and by that, all sorts of Manufacture; As well as Par­simony, and thereby general Wealth: I shall enumerate very briefly, some other Circumstances, that seem, next to these, the chief Advancers and En­couragers of Trade in their Coun­trey.

Low Interest, and deerness of Land, are effects of the multitude of People, and cause so much Money to lye ready for all Projects, by which gain may be expected, as the cutting of Canals, ma­king Bridges and Cawsies, leveling Downs, and draining Marshes, besides all new essays at Forreign Trade, which are proposed with any proba­bility of advantage.

The use of their Banks, which se­cures Money, and makes all Payments easie, and Trade quick.

The Sale by Registry, which was introduced here and in Flanders in the time of Charles the Fifth, and makes all Purchases safe.

The Severity of Justice, not only against all Thefts, but all Cheats, and Counterfeits of any Publique Bills (which is capital among them), and [Page 201] even against all common Beggars, who are disposed of either into Work­houses, or Hospitals, as they are able or unable to labour.

The Convoys of Merchant-Fleets into all parts, even in time of Peace, but especially into the Streights; which give their Trade security against many unexpected accidents, and their Nation credit abroad, and breeds up Sea-men for their Ships of War.

The lowness of their Customs, and easiness of paying them, which, with the freedom of their Ports, invite both Strangers and Natives to bring Com­modities hither, not only as to a Mar­ket, but as to a Magazine, where they lodg till they are invited abroad to other and better Markets.

Order and Exactness in managing their Trade, which brings their Com­modities in credit abroad. This was first introduced by severe Laws and Penalties, but is since grown into cu­stom. Thus there have been above Thirty several Placarts about the man­ner of curing, pickling, and barreling Herrings. Thus all Arms made at U­trecht, are forfeited if sold without mark, or marked without trial. And I [Page 202] observed in their Indian-House, that all the pieces of Scarlet, which are sent in great quantities to those parts, are marked with the English Arms, and In­scriptions in English; by which they maintain the credit gain'd to that Com­modity, by our former trade to parts where 'tis now lost or decay'd.

The Government manag'd either by men that trade, or whose Families have risen by it, or who have themselves some Interest going in other men's Traffique, or who are born and bred in Towns, The soul and beeing where­of consists wholly in Trade, Which makes sure of all favour that from time to time grows necessary, and can be given it by the Government.

The custom of every Towns affect­ing some particular Commerce or Sta­ple, valuing it self thereupon, and so improving it to the greatest heighth, as Flussingue by that of the West-Indies, Middleburgh of French-Wines, Terveer by the Scotch Staple, Dort by the English Staple and Rhenish-Wines, Rot­terdam by the Rnglish and Scotch Trade at large, and by French-Wines; Leyden by the Manufacture of all sorts of Stuffs, Silk, Hair, Gold and Silver; [Page 203] Haerlem by Linnen, Mixt-Stuffs, and Flowers; Delf by Beer and Dutch-Purcelane; Surdam by the built of Ships; Enchusyen and Mazlandsluys, by Herring-fishing; Friezland by the Greenland-Trade, and Amsterdam by that of the East-Indies, Spain, and the Streights.

The great application of the whole Province to the Fishing-Trade, upon the Coasts of England and Scotland, which employs an incredible number of Ships and Sea-men, and supplies most of the Southern parts of Europe with a rich and necessary Commodity.

The last I shall mention, is the mighty advance they have made to­wards engrossing the whole Commerce of the East-Indies, by their successes against the Porteguesses, and by their many Wars and Victories against the Natives, whereby they have forced them to Treaties of Commerce, ex­clusive to all other Nations, and to the admission of Forts to be built upon Streights and Passes that command the entrances into the Traffique of such places. This has been atchieved by the multitude of their people and Ma­riners, that has been able to furnish [Page 204] every year so many great Ships for such Voyages, and to supply the loss of so many lives as the changes of Cli­mate have cost, before they learnt the method of living in them: By the vast­ness of the Stock that has been turn'd wholly to that Trade; And by the conduct and application of the East-Indy Company, who have managed it like a Commonwealth rather than a Trade; And thereby raised a State in the Indies, governed indeed by the Orders of the Company, but other­wise appearing to those Nations like a Soveraign State, making War and Peace with their greatest Kings, and able to bring to Sea Forty or Fifty Men of War, and Thirty thousand men at Land, by the modestest computations. The Stock of this Trade, besides what it turns to in France, Spain, Italy, the Streights, and Germany, makes them so great Masters in the Trade of the Nor­thern parts of Europe, as Muscovy, Po­land, Pomerania, and all the Baltique; where the Spices, that are an Indian-Drug, and Europaean-Luxury, command all the Commodities of those Coun­treys, which are so necessary to life, as their [...]ora; and to Navigation, as [Page 205] Hemp, Pitch, Masts, Planks, and Iron.

Thus the Trade of this Countrey is discover'd to be no effect of common contrivances, of natural dispositions or scituations, or of trivial accidents; But of a great concurrence of Circum­stances, a long course of Time, force of Orders and Method, which never before met in the World to such a de­gree, or with so prodigious a Success, and perhaps never will again. Having grown (to sum up all) from the sci­tuation of their Countrey, extended upon the Sea, divided by two such Rivers as the Rhyne and the Mose, with the vicinity of the Ems, Weser, and Elve; From the confluence of people out of Flanders, England, France, and Germany, invited by the Strength of their Towns, and by the Constitutions and Credit of their Go­vernment; by the Liberty of Consci­ence, and Security of Life and Goods (subjected only to constant Laws); From general Industry and Parsimony, occasion'd by the multitude of People, and smalness of Countrey; From cheapness and easiness of Carriage by convenience of Canals; From low Use, [Page 206] and deerness of Land, which turn Mo­ney to Trade; The institution of Banks; Sale by Registry; Care of Convoys; Smalness of Customs; Freedom of Ports; Order in Trade; Interest of persons in the Government; Particular Traffique affected to particular places; Application to the Fishery; And Ac­quisitions in the East-Indies.

It is no constant Rule, That Trade makes Riches; For there may be a Trade that impoverishes a Nation: As it is not going often to Market that enriches the Countrey-man; But on the contrary, if every time he comes there, he buys to a greater value than he sells, He grows the poorer the oft­ner he goes: But the only and cer­tain Scale of Riches arising from Trade in a Nation, is the proportion of what is exported for the consumption of others, to what is imported for their own.

The true ground of this proportion lies in the general Industry and Par­simony of a people, or in the contrary of both. Industry encreases the Na­tive Commodity, either in the product of the Soil, or the Manufactures of the Countrey, which raises the Stock [Page 207] for exportation. Parsimony lessens the consumption of their own, as well as of Forreign Commodities; and not only abates the importation by the last, but encreases the exportation by the first; For of all Native Commodities, the less is consumed in a Countrey, the more is exported abroad; there being no Commodity, but at one price or other will find a Market, which They will be Masters of, who can af­ford it cheapest: Such are always the most industrious and parsimonious peo­ple, who can thrive by Prices upon which the Lazy and Expensive cannot live.

The vulgar mistake, That importa­tion of Forreign Wares, if purchased abroad with Native Commodities, and not with Money, does not make a Na­tion poorer; Is but what every man that gives himself leisure to think, must immediately rectifie, By finding out, that upon the end of an Account be­tween a Nation and all they deal with abroad Whatever the Exporta­tion wants in value to balance that of the Importation, must of necessity be made up with ready money.

By this we find out the foundation [Page 208] of the Riches of Holland, As of their Trade by the circumstances already re­hearsed. For never any Countrey tra­ded so much, and consumed so little: They buy infinitely, but 'tis to sell again, either upon improvement of the Commodity, or at a better Market. They are the great Masters of the In­dian Spices, and of the Persian Silks; but wear plain Woollen, and feed up­on their own Fish and Roots. Nay, they sell the finest of their own Cloath to France, and buy coarse out of Eng­land for their own wear. They send abroad the best of their own Butter into all parts, and buy the cheapest out of Ireland, or the North of Eng­land, for their own use. In short, they furnish infinite Luxury, which they ne­ver practise; and traffique in Pleasures which they never taste.

The Gentlemen and Officers of the Army change their Clothes and their Modes like their Neighbours. But a­mong the whole Body of the Civil Magistrates, the Merchants, the rich Traders, and Citizens in general, the Fashions continue still the same; And others as constant among the Sea-men and Boors: So that men leave off [Page 209] their Clothes only because they are worn out, and not because they are out of fashion.

Their great Forreign Consumption, is French-Wine and Brandy; But that may be allow'd them, as the only Re­ward they enjoy of all their pains, and as that alone which makes them rich and happy in their voluntary Po­verty, who would otherwise seem poor and wretched in their real Wealth. Besides, what they spend in Wine, they save in Corn to make other Drinks, which is bought from Forreign parts. And upon a pressure of their Affairs, we see now for two years together, They have deni'd themselves even this Comfort, among all their Sorrows, and made up in passive Fortitude whatever they have wanted in the active.

Thus it happens, that much going constantly out either in Commodity, or in the Labour of Seafaring-men; And little coming in to be consumed at home; The rest returns in Coin, and fills the Countrey to that degree, That more Silver is seen in Holland among the common Hands and Purses, than Brass either in Spain or in France; Though one be so rich in the best [Page 210] Native Commodities, and the other drain all the Treasures of the West-Indies.

By all this account of their Trade and Riches, it will appear, That some of our Maxims are not so certain as they are current in our common Po­liticks. As first, That Example and Encouragement of Excess and Luxury, if employ'd in the consumption of Native Commodities, is of advantage to Trade: It may be so to that which impoverishes, but is not to that which enriches a Countrey; And is indeed less prejudicial if it lie in Native than in Forreign Wares. But the custom or humour of Luxury and Expence, cannot stop at certain bounds: What begins in Native, will proceed in For­reign Commodities; and though the Example arise among idle persons, yet the Imitation will run into all De­grees, even of those men by whose In­dustry the Nation subsists. And besides, the more of our own we spend, the less we shall have to send abroad; and so it will come to pass, that while we drive a vast Trade, yet by buying much more than we sell, we shall come to be poor: Whereas when we [Page 211] drove a very small Traffique abroad, yet by selling so much more than we bought, we were very rich in propor­tion to our Neighbours. This ap­pear'd in Edward the Third's time, when we maintain'd so mighty Wars in France, and carri'd our Victorious Arms into the heart of Spain; Where­as in the 28 year of that King's Reign, the Value and Custom of all our Ex­ported Commodities amounted to 294184 l.—17 s.—2 d. And that of our Imported, but to 38970 l.—03 s.—06 d. So as there must have enter'd that year into the Kingdom in Coin or Bullion (or else have grown a Debt to the Nation) 255214 l. — 13 s. —08 d. And yet we then carri'd out our Wools unwrought, and brought in a great part of our Clothes from Flanders.

Another common Maxim is, That if by any Forreign Invasion or Servitude, the State, and consequently the Trade of Holland should be ruin'd, the last would of course fall to our share in England. Which is no consequence: For it would certainly break into se­veral pieces, and shift either to us, to Flanders, to the Hans-Towns, or any other parts, according as the most of [Page 212] those circumstances should any where concur to invite it (and the likest to such), as appear to have formerly drawn it into Holland, By so mighty a confluence of People, and so gene­ral a vein of Industry and Parsimony among them. And whoever pretends to equal their growth in Trade and Riches, by other ways than such as are already enumerated, will prove, I doubt, either to deceive, or to be de­ceived.

A third is, That if that State were reduced to great extremities, so as to become a Province to some greater Power, They would chuse our Subje­ction rather than any other, or those at least that are the Maritime and the Richest of the Provinces. But it will be more reasonably concluded from all the former Discourses, That though they may be divided by ab­solute Conquests, they will never di­vide themselves by consent, But all fall one way, and by common agreement make the best terms they can for their Countrey as a Province, if not as a State: And before they come to such an extremity, they will first seek to be admitted as a Belgick-Circle in the [Page 213] Empire (which they were of old); and thereby receive the protection of that Mighty Body, which (as far as great and smaller things may be compar'd) seems the likest their own State in its main Constitutions, but especially in the Freedom or Soveraignty of the Impe­rial Cities. And this I have often heard their Ministers speak of, as their last refuge, in case of being threatned by too strong and fatal a Conjun­cture.

And if this should happen, the Trade of the Provinces would rather be preserved or encreased, than any way broken or destroy'd by such an alteration of their State, Because the Li­berties of the Countrey would conti­nue what they are, and the Security would be greater than now it is.

The last I will mention, is of another vein; That if the Prince of Orange were made Soveraign of their Country, though by Forreign Arms, he would be a great Prince, because this now appears to be so great a State. Whereas, on the contrary, those Provinces would soon become a very mean Countrey. For such a Power must be maintain'd by force, as it would be acquir'd, and as [Page 214] indeed all Absolute Dominion must be in those Provinces. This would raise general Discontents; and those, per­petual Seditions among the Towns, which would change the Orders of the Countrey, endanger the Property of private men, And shake the Credit and Safety of the Government: When­ever this should happen, The People would scatter, Industry would faint, Banks would dissolve, And Trade would decay to such a degree, as pro­bably in course of time, their very Digues would be no longer maintain'd by the Defences of a weak People against so furious an Invader; But the Sea would break in upon their Land, and leave their chiefest Cities to be Fisher-Towns, as they were of old.

Without any such great Revoluti­ons, I am of opinion, That Trade has for some years ago past its Meridian, and begun sensibly to decay among them: Whereof there seem to be se­veral Causes; As first, The general application that so many other Nati­ons have made to it, within these two or three and twenty years. For since the Peace of Munster, which restor'd the quiet of Christendom in 1648, [Page 215] not only Sueden and Denmark, but France and England, have more parti­cularly than ever before, busied the thoughts and counsels of their several Governments, as well as the humours of their People, about the matters of Trade.

Nor has this happen'd without good degrees of Success; though Kingdoms of such extent, that have other and Nobler Foundations of Greatness, can­not raise Trade to such a pitch as this little State, which had no other to build upon; No more than a man, who has a fair and plentiful Estate, can fall to Labour and Industry, like one that has nothing else to trust to for the support of his life. But however, all these Nations have come of late to share largely with them; And there seem to be grown too many Traders for Trade in the World, So as they can hardly live one by another. As in a great populous Village, the first Grocer or Mercer that sets up among them, grows presently rich, having all the Custom; till another, encouraged by his success, comes to set up by him, and share in his gains; At length so many fall to the Trade, that nothing is [Page 216] got by it; and some must give over, or all must break.

Not many Ages past, Venice and Flo­rence possest all the Trade of Europe; The last by their Manufactures; But the first by their Shipping: and the whole Trade of Persia and the Indies, whose Commodities were brought (Those by Land, and These by the Arabian-Sea) to Egypt, from whence they were fetcht by the Venetian Fleets, and dispersed into most of the parts of Europe: And in those times we find the whole Trade of England was dri­ven by Venetians, Florentines, and Lombards. The Easterlings, who were the Inhabitants of the Hans-Towns, as Dantzic, Lubeick, Hamburgh, and others upon that Coast, fell next into Trade, and managed all that of these Northern parts for many years, and brought it first down to Bruges, and from thence to Antwerp. The first Navigations of the Portuguesses to the East-Indies, broke the greatness of the Venetian Trade, and drew it to Lisbon; And the Revolt of the Netherlands, that of Antwerp to Holland. But in all this time, The other and greater Nations of Europe concern'd themselves [Page 217] little in it; Their Trade was War; Their Counsels and Enterprizes were busied in the quarrels of the Holy Land, or in those between the Popes and the Emperors (both of the same Forge, engaging all Christian Princes, and ending in the greatness of the Ec­clesiastical State throughout Christen­dom): Sometimes in the mighty Wars between England and France, Between France and Spain: The more general, between Christian and Turks; Or more particular quarrels between lesser and Neighbouring-Princes. In short, The Kingdoms and Principalities were in the World like the Noblemen and Gentlemen in a Countrey; The Free-States and Cities, like the Merchants and Traders: These at first despised by the others; The others serv'd and rever'd by them; till by the various course of Events in the World, Some of these came to grow Rich and Pow­erful by Industry and Parsimony; And some of the others Poor, by War and by Luxury: Which made the Traders begin to take upon them, and carry it like Gentlemen; and the Gentlemen begin to take a fancy of falling to Trade. By this short account it will [Page 218] appear no wonder, either that particu­lar places grew so Rich and so Mighty, while they alone enjoyed almost the general Trade of the World; nor why not only the Trade in Holland, but the advantage of it in general, should seem to be lessen'd by so many that share it.

Another Cause of its decay in that State, may be, That by the mighty progress of their East-Indy Company, The Commodities of that Countrey are grown more than these parts of the World can take off; and conse­quently the Rates of them must needs be lessened, while the Charge is en­creast by the great Wars, the Armies, and Forts, necessary to maintain or ex­tend the Acquisitions of that Company in the Indies. For instead of Five or Six East-Indy Ships, which used to make the Fleet of the year, they are now risen to Eighteen or Twenty (I think Two and twenty came in one year to the United Provinces). This is the rea­son why the particular persons of that Company in Holland, make not so great advantage of the same Stock, as those of ours do in England; Though their Company be very much richer, [Page 219] and drives a far greater Trade than ours, Which is exhausted by no charge of Armies, or Forts, or Ships of War: And this is the reason that the Dutch are forced to keep so long and so much of those Commodities in their Maga­zines here, and to bring them out, only as the Markets call for them, or are able to take off; And why they bring so much less from the Indies, than they were able to do, if there were vent enough here: As I remem­ber one of their Sea-men, newly landed out of their East-Indy Fleet in the year 69, upon discourse in a Boat between Delf and Leyden, said he had seen, before he came away, three heaps of Nutmegs burnt at a time, each of which was more than a small Church could hold, which he pointed at in a Village that was in sight.

Another Cause may be the great cheapness of Corn, which has been for these dozen years or more, gene­ral in all these parts of Europe, and which has a very great influence upon the Trade of Holland. For a great vent of Indian Commodities (at least the Spices, which are the gross of them) used to be made into the Northern [Page 220] parts of Europe, in exchange for Corn, while it was taken off at good rates by the Markets of Flanders, England, France, Spain, or Italy; In all which Countreys it has of late years gone so low, as to discourage the Import of so great quantities as used to come from Poland and Prussia, and other parts of the North. Now the less value those Nations receive for Corn, the less they are able to give for Spice, Which is a great loss to the Dutch on both sides, lessening the vent of their Indian Ware in the Northern, and the Traffique of Corn in the Southern parts. The cause of this great cheapness of Corn, seems to be, not so much a course of plen­tiful and seasonable years, As the gene­ral Peace that has been in Europe since the year 59 or 60; by which so many Men and so much Land have been turned to Husbandry, that were before employ'd in the Wars, or lay wasted by them in all the Frontier-Provinces of France and Spain, as well as through­out Germany, before the Peace of Mun­ster; and in England, during the Acti­ons or Consequences of a Civil War; And Plenty grows not to a heighth, but by the Succession of several peace­ful [Page 221] as well as seasonable Years.

The last Cause I will mention, is the mighty enlargement of the City of Amsterdam, by that which is called the New Town; The Extent whereof is so spacious, and the Buildings of so much greater Beauty and Cost than the Old, that it must have employ'd a vast proportion of that Stock which in this City was before wholly turned to Trade. Besides, there seems to have been growing on for these later years, a greater Vie of Luxury and Expence among many of the Merchants of that Town, than was ever formerly known; Which was observed and complained of, as well as the enlargement of their City, by some of the wisest of their Ministers, while I resided among them, who designed some Regulations by Sumptuary Laws; As knowing the very Foundations of their Trade would soon be undermined, if the ha­bitual Industry, Parsimony, and Sim­plicity of their People, came to be over-run by Luxury, Idleness, and Ex­cess. However it happen'd, I found it agreed by all the most diligent and cir­cumspect Enquiries I could make, That in the years 69 and 70, there was [Page 222] hardly any Forreign Trade among them, besides that of the Indies, by which the Traders made the returns of their money without loss; and none, by which the gain was above Two in the hundred. So as it seems to be with Trade, as with the Sea (its Element), that has a certain pitch, above which it never rises in the highest Tides; And begins to ebb as soon as ever it ceases to flow; And ever loses ground in one place, proportionably to what it gains in another.

THE Strength and Forces of a Kingdom or State, were measured in former Ages by the Numbers of Native and Warlike Subjects, which they could draw into the Field upon any War with their Neighbours. Na­tional quarrels were decided by Na­tional Armies, not by Stipendiary For­ces (raised with Money, or maintained by constant Pay). In the several King­doms and Principalities of Europe, the Bodies of their Armies were compo­sed, as they are still in Poland, Of the Nobility and Gentry, who were bound to attend their Princes to the Wars, with certain numbers of armed men, according to the tenure and extent of the several Lordships and Lands they held of the Crown: Where these were not proportionable to the occasion, The rest were made up of Subjects drawn together by love of their Prince [Page 224] or their Countrey; By desire of Con­quest and Spoils, or necessity of de­fence; Held together by Allegiance or Religion; And Spirited by Honour, Revenge, or Avarice (not of what they could get from their Leaders, but from their Enemies). A Battel or two, fairly fought, decided a War; and a War ended the quarrel of an Age, and either lost or gain'd the Cause or Countrey contended for: Till the change of Times and Accidents brought it to a new decision; Till the Virtues and Vices of Princes made them stronger or weaker, either in the love and obedience of their people, or in such Orders and Customs as render'd their Subjects more or less Warlike or Esseminate. Standing-Forces or Guards in constant pay, were no where used by lawful Princes in their Native or Hereditary Countreys, But only by Conquerors in subdued Provinces, or Usurpers at home; And were a de­fence only against Subjects, not against Enemies.

These Orders seem first to have been changed in Europe by the two States of Venice and Holland; Both of them small in Territories at Land, and those [Page 225] extended in Frontier upon powerful Neighbours: Both of them weak in number of Native Subjects; and those less warlike at Land, by turning so much to Traffique, and to Sea: But both of them mighty in Riches and Trade; Which made them endeavour to balance their Neighbours strength in Native Subjects, by Forreign Sti­pendiary Bands; And to defend their Frontiers by the Arts of Fortification, and strength of places, which might draw out a War into length by Sieges, when they durst not venture it upon a Battel; And so make it many times determine by force of Money, rather than of Arms. This forced those Prin­ces, who frontier'd upon these States, to the same provisions; Which have been encreast by the perpetual course of Wars, upon the Continent of Eu­rope, ever since the rise of This State, until the Peace of the Pirenees, between Princes bordering one upon the other; and so, ready for sudden Inroads or Invasions.

The Force therefore of these Pro­vinces is to be measur'd, not by the number or dispositions of their Sub­jects, But by the strength of their Ship­ping, [Page 226] and standing-Troops, which they constantly maintain, even in time of peace; And by the numbers of both which, they have been able to draw into the Field, and to Sea, for support of a War: By their constant Revenue to maintain the first; And by the tem­porary charge they have been able to furnish for supply of the other.

I will not enumerate their Frontier-Towns (which is a common Theam), or the Forces necessary for the Garri­sons of them. Nor the nature and va­riety of their Taxes and Impositions; Though I have an exact List of them by me, expressing the several kinds, rates, and proportions, upon every Province and Town; But this would swell a Discourse with a great deal of tedious matter, and to little purpose. I shall therefore be content only to ob­serve, what I have informed my self of their Forces and Revenues in general, from persons among them the best able to give that account.

The ordinary Revenue of this State, consists either in what is levied in the conquered Towns, and Countrey of Brabant, Flanders, or the Rhine; Which is wholly administred by the Council [Page 227] of State: Or else the ordinary Fonds which the Seven Provinces provide every year, according to their several proportions, upon the Petition of the Council of State, and Computation of the Charge of the ensuing year, given in by them to the States-General. And this Revenue commonly amounts to about One and twenty Millions of Gil­ders a year; Every Million making about Ninety thousand pounds Sterling, intrinsick value.

The chief Fonds out of which this rises, Is the Excise, and the Customs: The first is great, and so general, that I have heard it observed at Amsterdam, That when in a Tavern, a certain Dish of Fish is eaten with the usual Sawce, above thirty several Excises are paid, for what is necessary to that small Ser­vice. The last are low, and applied particularly to the Admiralty.

Out of this Revenue, is supplied the charge of the whole Milice, Of all publique Officers of the State, and Ambassadors or Ministers a­broad, And the Interest of about Thirteen Millions owing by the States-General.

The standing-Forces in the year 70, [Page 228] upon so general a Peace, and after all Reformations, Were Twenty six thou­sand two hundred men, in Ten Regi­ments of Horse, consisting of Fifty Troops; And Nineteen of Foot, con­sisting of Three hundred and Eighty Companies. The constant charge of these Forces stood them in Six Millions one hundred and nineteen thousand Gilders a year.

Their Admiralties, in time of Peace, maintain between Thirty and Forty Men of War, employ'd in the several Convoys of their Merchants Fleets, In a Squadron of Eight or Ten Ships to attend the Algerines and other Corsairs in the Mediterranean; And some al­ways lying ready in their Havens for any sudden accidents, or occasions of the State. The common Expence of the Admiralties in this Equipage, and the built of Ships, Is about Six Milli­ons a year.

Besides the Debt of the Generalty, The Province of Holland owes about Sixty five Millions, for which they pay Interest at Four in the Hundred; But with so great ease and exactness both in Principal and Interest, That no man ever demands it twice; They might [Page 229] take up whatever money they desired. Whoever is admitted to bring in his money, takes it for a great deal of fa­vour; And when they pay off any part of the Principal, Those it belongs to, receive it with tears, Not knowing how to dispose of it to Interest with such safety and ease. And the common Revenue of particular men, lies much in the Cantores either of the Gene­ralty, or the several Provinces, which are the Registries of these publique Debts.

Of the several Imposts and Excises, Those that are upon certain and immo­vable possessions (as Houses and Lands) are collected by the Magistrates of the several places, and by them paid in to the Receivers, because both the num­ber and value of them are constant, and easily known. Those which arise out of uncertain Consumptions, are all set out to farm, And to him that bids most, some every three Months, some every six, and some yearly.

The Collection, Receit, and Distri­bution of all Publique Moneys, are made without any Fee to Officers, who receive certain constant Salaries from the State, which they dare not [Page 230] encrease by any private practises or Ex­tortions; So as whoever has a Bill of any publique Debt, has so much rea­dy money in his Coffers, being paid certainly at call, without charge or trouble; and assign'd over in any pay­ment, like the best Bill of Exchange.

The extraordinary Revenue is, when upon some great occasions or Wars, the Generalty agrees to any extraor­dinary Contributions; As sometimes the Hundredth penny of the Estates of all the Inhabitants; Pole, or Chimney-money; Or any other Subsidies and Payments, according as they can agree, and the occasions require; Which have sometimes reached so far, as even to an Imposition upon every man that tra­vels in the common ways of their Countrey, by Boat, or in Coach; in Wagon, or on Horseback.

By all these means, in the first year of the English War in 1665, There were raised in the Provinces Forty Millions, of which Twenty two in the Province of Holland. And upon the Bishop of Munster's invading them at the same time by Land, they had in the year 66, above Threescore thou­sand Land-men in pay; And a Fleet [Page 231] of above a Hundred great Men of War at Sea.

The greatness of this Nation at that time, seems justly to have raised the glory of Ours; Which during the years 65 and 66, maintained a War, not only against this Powerful State, but against the Crowns of France and Denmark in conjunction with them: And All at a time, when This King­dom was forced to struggle at home with the Calamitous Effects of a ra­ging Plague, that in Three Months of the first year, swept away incredible numbers of people; And of a prodi­gious Fire, that in Three days of the Second, laid in ashes that Ancient and Famous City of LONDON (the Heart and Center of our Commerce and Riches), consuming the greatest part of its Buildings, and an im­mense proportion of its Wealth. Yet in the midst of these fatal Accidents, Those two Summers were renowned with Three Battels of the mightiest Fleets that ever met upon the Ocean; Whereof Two were determined by entire and unquestion'd Victories, and pursuit of our Enemies into their [Page 232] very Havens. The Third having be­gun by the unfortunate division of our Fleet, with the odds of Ninety of their Ships against Fifty of ours; And in spight of such disadvanta­ges, having continued, or been re­newed for three days together (where­in We were every morning the Ag­gressors), ended at last by the equal and mutual Weakness or Weariness of both Sides, The maims of Ships and Tackling, with want of Powder and Ammunition; Having left unde­cided the greatest Action that will perhaps appear upon Record of any Story. And in this Battel, Mon­sieur De Witt confest to me, That we gain'd more Honour to our Nation, and to the invincible Courage of our Sea-men, than by the other Two Vi­ctories. That he was sure, their men could never have been brought on the two following days, after the dis­advantages of the first; And he be­lieved no other Nation was capable of it, but Ours.

I will not judg, how we came to fail of a glorious Peace in the Six Months next succeeding, after the [Page 233] fortune of our last Victory, and with the Honour of the War: But as any rough hand can break a bone, whereas much art and care are requi­red to sett it again, and restore it to its first strength and proportion; So 'tis an easie part in a Minister of State, to engage a War; but 'tis gi­ven to few to know the times, and find the ways of making Peace. Yet when after the sensible events of an unfortunate Negligence, An indiffer­ent Treaty was concluded at Breda in 67; Within Six Months following, By an Alliance with this State in January 68 (which was received with incredible Joy and Applause among them), His Majesty became the unquestioned Arbiter of all the Affairs of Christendom; Made a Peace between the two great Crowns, at Aix la Chapelle, Which was avowed by all the World to be perfectly His Own; And was received with equal Applause of Christian Princes abroad, and of his Subjects at home; And for three years succeeding, by the unshaken Alliance and Dependance of the United States, His Majesty re­mained [Page 234] Absolute Master of the Peace of Christendom, and in a posture of giving Bounds to the greatest, as well as Protection to the weakest of his Neighbours.

IT must be avowed, That as This State in the course and progress of its Greatness for so many years past, Has shined like a Comet; So in the Revolutions of this last Summer, It seem'd to fall like a Meteor, and has equally amazed the World by the one and the other: When we consider such a Power and Wealth as was re­lated in the last Chapter, To have fallen in a manner prostrate within the space of one Month: So many Fron­tier Towns, renowned in the Sieges and Actions of the Spanish Wars, En­ter'd like open Villages by the French Troops, without defence, or almost de­nial: Most of them without any blows at all; and all of them with so few: Their great Rivers, that were esteem­ed an invincible security to the Pro­vinces of Holland and Utrecht, passed with as much ease, and as small resist­ances, [Page 236] as little Fords: And in short, the very Hearts of a Nation so vali­ant of old against Rome, so obstinate against Spain; Now subdued, and in a manner abandoning all before their Danger appeared: We may justly have our recourse to the secret and fixed pe­riods of all Human Greatness, for the account of such a Revolution: Or ra­ther to the unsearchable Decrees, and unresistable force of Divine Provi­dence; Though it seems not more im­pious to question it, than to measure it by our Scale; Or reduce the Issues and Motions of that Eternal Will and Power, to a conformity with what is esteemed Just, or Wise, or Good, by the usual Consent, or the narrow Com­prehension of poor Mortal men.

But as in the search and considera­tion even of things natural and com­mon, our Talent, I fear, is to Talk rather than to Know; So we may be allowed to Enquire and Reason upon all things, while we do not pretend to Certainty, or call that Undeniable Truth, which is every day denied by Ten thousand; Nor those Opinions Unreasonable, which we know to be held by such as we allow to be Rea­sonable [Page 237] men. I shall therefore set down such Circumstances as to me seem most evidently to have conspired in this Re­volution; leaving the Causes less dis­cernable, to the search of more discer­ning persons.

And first, I take their vast Trade, which was an occasion of their Great­ness, to have been One likewise of their Fall, by having wholly diverted the Genius of their Native Subjects and Inhabitants, from Arms to Traf­fique, and the Arts of Peace; Leaving the whole fortune of their later Wars, to be managed by Forreign and Mer­cenary Troops; Which much abased the Courage of their Nation (as was observed in another Chapter), and made the Burghers of so little moment towards the defence of their Towns; Whereas in the famous Sieges of Har­lem, Alemar, and Leyden, They had made such brave and fierce defences, as broke the heart of the Spanish Ar­mies, and the fortune of their Af­fairs.

Next was the Peace of Munster, which had left them now, for above Twenty years, too secure of all Inva­sions or Enemies at Land; And so [Page 238] turn'd their whole application to the strength of their Forces at Sea; Which have been since exercised with two En­glish Wars in that time, and enlivened with the small yearly Expeditions into the Streights against the Algerines, and other Corsairs of the Mediterranean.

Another was their too great Parsi­mony in reforming so many of their best Forreign Officers and Troops, up­on the Peace of Munster; whose Va­lour and Conduct had been so great occasions of inducing Spain to the Counsels and Conclusions of that Treaty.

But the greatest of all others that concur'd to weaken, and indeed break the strength of their Land-Milice, Was the alteration of their State, which happen'd by the Perpetual Edict of Holland and West-Friezland, upon the death of the last Prince of Orange, for exclusion of the Power of Stadt­holder in their Province, or at least the separation of it from the Charge of Captain-General. Since that time, the main design and application of those Provinces, has been to work out by degrees all the old Officers both Native and Forreign, who had been [Page 239] formerly sworn to the Prince of Orange, and were still thought affectionate to the Interest of that Family; And to fill the Commands of their Army with the Sons or Kinsmen of Burgomasters, and other Officers or Deputies in the State, Whom they esteemed sure to the Constitutions of their Popular Govern­ment, and good enough for an Age where they saw no appearance of E­nemy at Land to attaque them.

But the Humour of Kindness to the young Prince, both in the People and Army, was not to be dissolved or dis­persed by any Medicines or Operati­ons either of Rigor or Artifice; But grew up insensibly with the Age of the Prince,Crevit occulto velut ar­bor [...]aevo, Fama Marcelli. ever presaging some Revolu­tion in the State, when he should come to the years of aspiring, and ma­naging the general Affections of the people: Being a Prince, who joined to the great Qualities of his Royal Blood, the popular Virtues of his Countrey; Silent and thoughtful; Gi­ven to hear, and to enquire; Of a sound and steddy Understanding; Much firmness in what he once resolves, or once denies; Great Industry and appli­cation to his business; Little to his [Page 240] Pleasures: Piety in the Religion of his Countrey, but with Charity to o­thers; Temperance unusual to his youth, and to the Climate; Frugal in the common management of his For­tune, and yet magnificent upon occa­sion: Of great Spirit and Heart, as­piring to the glory of Military Acti­ons: With strong ambition to grow Great, but rather by the Service than the Servitude of his Countrey. In short, A Prince of many Virtues, with­out any appearing mixture of Vice.

In the English War begun the year 65, the States disbanded all the English Troops that were then left in their Ser­vice, dispersing the Officers and Soldi­ers of our Nation who staid with them, into other Companies or Regiments of their own. After the French Invasion of Flanders, and the strict Alliance between England and Holland in 68: They did the same by all the French that were remaining in their Service. So as the several Bodies of these two Nations, which had ever the greatest part in the Honour and Fortune of their Wars, were now wholly dissolved, and their standing-Milice composed in a manner all of their own Natives, [Page 241] enervated by the long uses and arts of Traffique and of Peace.

But they were too great a Match for any of the smaller Princes their Neighbours in Germany; And too se­cure of any danger from Spain, by the knowledg of their Forces, as well as Dispositions; And being strictly allied both with England and Sweden, in two several Defensive Leagues, and in one common Tripple Alliance; They could not foresee any danger from France, who they thought would ne­ver have the Courage or Force to en­ter the Lists with so mighty Confede­rates; and who were sure of a Con­junction, whenever they pleased, both with the Emperor and Spain.

Besides, They knew that France could not attaque them without pas­sing through Flanders, or Germany: They were sure Spain would not suffer it through the first, if they were backt in opposing it, As foreseeing the in­evitable loss of Flanders upon that of Holland: And they could hardly be­lieve the passage should be yeilded by a German Prince, contrary to the ex­press Will and Intentions of the Em­peror, as well as the common Interests [Page 242] of the Empire: So that they hoped the War would at least open in their Neighbours Provinces, For whose de­fence they resolved to employ the whole Force of their State. And would have made a mighty resistance, if the Quarrel had begun at any other doors but their own.

They could not imagine a Conjun­ction between England and France for the ruin of their State; For, being unacquainted with our Constitutions, they did not foresee how we should find our Interest in it, and measured all States by that which They esteemed to be their Interest. Nor could they believe that other Princes and States of Europe would suffer such an addi­tion to be made to the Power of France, as a Conquest of Holland.

Besides these publique Considerati­ons, there were others particular to the Factions among them; And some of their Ministers were neither forward nor supple enough to endeavour the early breaking or diverting such Con­junctures as threatned them; Because they were not without hopes, they might end in renewing their broken Measures with France; Which those of [Page 243] the Commonwealth-Party were more enclin'd to, by foreseeing the influence that their Alliances with England must needs have in time towards the resto­ring of the Prince of Orange's Autho­rity: And they thought at the worst, that whenever a pinch came, they could not fail of a safe bargain in one Mar­ket or other, having so vast a Trea­sure ready to employ upon any good occasion.

These Considerations made them com­mit three fatal Oversights in their For­reign Negotiations: For they made an Alliance with England, without en­gaging a Confidence and Friendship: They broke their Measures with France, without closing new ones with Spain: And they reckon'd upon the Assistan­ces of Sweden, and their Neighbour-Princes of Germany, without making them sure by Subsidiary Advances, be­fore a War began.

Lastly, The Prince of Orange was approaching the Two and twentieth year of his age, which the States of Holland had, since their Alliance with His Majesty in 68, ever pretended, should be the time of advancing him to the Charge of Captain-General, and [Page 244] Admiral of their Forces, Though with­out that of Stadtholder. But the nearer they drew to this period, which was like to make a new Figure in their Government; the more desirous some of their Ministers seemed either to de­cline, or to restrain it. On the other side, the Prince grew confident upon the former Promises, or at least Inti­mations of Holland, and the concur­ring dispositions of the other Six Pro­vinces to his advancement: And his Party, spirited by their hopes, and the great Qualities of this young Prince (now grown ripe for Action, and for Enterprise), resolved to bring this point to a sudden decision; Against which, the other Party prepared and united all their Defences; So as this strong Disease that had been so long working in the very Bowels of the State, seem'd just upon its Crisis, When a Conjun­ction of two Mighty Kings brought upon them a sudden and furious Inva­sion by Land and Sea, at the same time, By a Royal Fleet of above Fourscore Ships, and an Army of as many thou­sand men.

When the States saw this Cloud rea­dy to break upon them (after a long be­lief [Page 245] that it would blow over), They began not only to provide shelter at home, with their usual vigor; but to look out for it abroad, though both too late. Of the Princes that were their Allies, or concern'd in their danger, Such as were far off, could not be in time; The nearer, were unwilling to share in a danger they were not enough prepar'd for; Most were content to see the Pride of this State humbled; Some, the Injuries they had received from them, revenged; Many would have them mortified, that would not have them destroyed; And so all resolved to leave them to weather the storm as they could for one Campania; Which they did not believe could go far to­wards their ruin, considering the great­ness of their Riches, number of their Forces, and strength of their Places.

The State, in the mean time, had en­creased their Troops to Seventy thou­sand men, and had begun to repair the Fortifications of their Frontier-Towns: But so great a length of their Coun­trey lay open to the French Invasion by the Territories of Colen and Liege; And to the Bishop of Munster (their inveterate Enemy) by Westphalia, that [Page 246] they knew not where to expect or provide against the first danger: And while they divided their Forces and Endeavours towards the securing of so many Garrisons, They provided for none to any purpose but Maestricht; Which the French left behind them, and fell in upon the Towns of the Rhine, and the heart of their Pro­vinces.

Besides, Those Ministers who had still the direction of Affairs, bent their chief application to the strength and order of their Fleet, rather than of their Army: Whether more peckt at England than France, upon the War, and manner of entering into it; Or be­lieving that a Victory at Sea would be the way to a Peace with this Crown; Or hoping their Towns would not fall so fast, but that before three or four were lost, the business at Sea would be decided; Or perhaps content that some ill Successes should attend the Prince of Orange at his first entrance upon the Command of their Armies, and thereby contribute to their Designs of restraining the Authority, while they were forced to leave him the Name of Captain-General. This indeed was not [Page 247] likely to fail, considering the ill con­stitution of their old Army, the hasty Levies of their new, and the heighth of the Factions now broken out in the State; Which left both the Towns and the Troops in suspence, under whose Banners they fought, and by whose Orders they were to be govern'd, the Prince's, or the States.

There happen'd at the same time, an accident unusual to their Climate, Which was a mighty Drowth in the begin­ing of the Summer, that left their wa­ters fordable in places where they used to be navigable for Boats of greatest burthen. And this gave them more trouble and distraction in the defence, as their Enemies more facility in the passage of those great Rivers, which were esteemed no small security of their Countrey.

And in this posture were the Affairs of this Commonwealth when the War broke out, with those fatal Events, that must needs attend any Kingdom or State, where the violence of a Forreign Invasion happens to meet with the di­straction of a Domestique Sedition or Discontent, Which, like ill Humours in a Body, make any small wound dan­gerous, [Page 248] and a great one mortal. They were still a great Body, but without their usual Soul; They were a State, but it was of the Disunited Provinces. Their Towns were without Order; Their Burgers without Obedience; Their Soldiers without Discipline; And all without heart: Whereas in all Sieges, The Hearts of Men defend the Walls, and not Walls the Men: And indeed, it was the Name of England joining in the War against them, that broke their hearts, and contributed more to the loss of so many Towns, and so much Countrey, than the Armies of Munster, or of France. So that upon all circumstances consider'd, it seems easier to give an account, what it was that lost them so much, than what sav'd them the rest.

No man at play sees a very great Game either in his own, or another's hand, unexpectedly lost, but He is apt to consider, whether it could have been saved, and how it ought to have been play'd. The same Enquiry will be na­tural upon the fall of this State, and very difficult to resolve.

After the mighty growth of the French, and decay of the Spanish Power, [Page 249] which drew on the Invasion of Flan­ders in 1667, This State had a very hard Game to play; Either they must see Flanders wholly lost, and France grown to confine upon them (whom they liked as an Ally, but dreaded as a Neighbour); Or else they must join with France to divide Flanders between them; But they knew what it was to share with the Lion: Or they must join with Spain to defend Flanders against France; That is, with their old Enemy, against their old Friend: Or lastly, They must join with England for the defence of Flanders, Neither breaking with France, nor closing with Spain; and frame an Arbitrage, but of something a rough nature; Rather pre­scribing than mediating a Peace, And threatning a War upon that Crown that refused it.

They chose the last, and wisely, as all men thought; But though this Al­liance was happily planted, yet it was unhappily cultivated, and so the Fruit came to fall, and the Root to wither upon the first change of seasons, in such a manner, and to such a degree, as we have lately seen. Whether they could have prevented a Conjunction [Page 250] of England with France, shall be no part of my Subject; For I pretend not to know, or to tell Secrets of State; and intend these, not for the Observa­tions of an Ambassador, but of a pri­vate man as I am, and such as any Gen­tleman might easily have made, who had resided above two years as I did in Holland; and had been, as I was, a little enclined to observe. I shall only say, That the Conjunction of England with France, was to this State like one of those Diseases which the Physicians say, are hard to discern, while they are easie to cure; but when once they come to be plainly discovered, they are past remedy.

But as Holland had ever defended it self against Spain, by England and France; So it ought to have done against France, by England and Spain, and provided early against their own danger, as well as▪ that of Flanders, by improving and advancing their Con­federate-League with England and Swe­den, into a strict Defensive-Alliance with Spain, as a Principal in the League; And by agreeing with that Crown, to furnish between them some constant Subsidiary Payments to Sweden, for the [Page 251] support of their standing-Forces, even in time of Peace. This was the desire of Spain, The Interest of all that meant to secure the Peace of Christendom; And the opinion of some of the Dutch Ministers, Though not of the Chiefest, till it was too late; And the omission of This, was the greatest fault ever committed in their Politicks; And pro­ceeded in a great measure from their ancient animosity to Spain; Which as it was the beginning, so, by this effect, it almost prov'd the end of their State.

When the War began in the midst of the Conjunctures related, 'Tis hard to say what could have defended them; But as men in a Town, threatned with a mighty Siege, abandon their Suburbs, and slight those Out-works which are either weak of themselves, or not well defensible for want of men; And re­solve only to make good those Posts which they are able fully to man, and easily to relieve; Because the loss of every small Outwork does not only weaken the Number, but sink the Cou­rage of the Garrison within.

So this State, which came to be in a manner besieged by the mighty and [Page 252] numerous Armies of France and of Munster; Ought, in my opinion, to have left themselves but three Out-works to maintain (I mean, three Posts standing without the Lines, that enclo­sed the main Body of their Provinces); These should have been, Mastricht, We­sel, and Coeverden. They should have slighted all the rest of their places that lay without these upon the Rhyne, or in Overyssel; And drawn the men into these Towns, so as to have left them rather like Camps, than Garrisons; That is, Eight thousand Foot, and Two thou­sand Horse in Maestricht, as many in Wesel, and half the number in Coever­den, if the place would contain them; If not, they might have formed and fortified a Camp with something a greater number, upon the next Pass into Friezland and Groninguen.

Of the rest of their Horse (which were I suppose about Five thousand), with at least Fifteen thousand Foot, they should have formed a great stand­ing Camp, within their Rivers, some­where near Arnhem; Fortifi'd it with Canon, and all the Art that could be; Furnisht it with the greatest care, and plenty of Provisions. The remainder [Page 253] of their Infantry would have been enough for the rest of their Garrisons; Of which the Towns upon the Yssel, Doesburgh, Zutphen, Doventer, and Swoll, would have been in a manner flankt (though at some distance) by the strong Garrisons of Wesel and Coeverden; And breasted by the main Camp.

If with this disposition of their For­ces, They had provided well for the strength and defence of Skinksconce, Nimmeguen, and Grave (which would likewise have lien all within the cover of these out-posts); They might, for ought I know, have expected the War, without losing the heart and steddiness of their Counsels, and not without pro­bability of making a defence worthy the former Greatness and Atchievements of their State.

For a Siege of Maestricht or Wesel (so garrison'd and resolutely defended) might not only have amused, but en­danger'd the French Armies; As Coever­den might have done that of Munster. The resistance of one of these Towns, would have encreased the strength of all the rest: For the Fortune of Bat­tels and Sieges, turns upon the hearts of men, as they are more or less capa­ble [Page 254] of general Confidences or Fears, which are very much raised by Acci­dents and Opinions. It would not have been within any common Rules, to march so far into the Countrey, as to attaque the Burse or Breda, Nimme­guen or Grave, leaving such Camps be­hind as those at Wesel and Maestricht, and having so much a greater before them, as that about Arnhem. If any of these three Posts had been lost, Yet it could not have happen'd without good Conditions, and so retiring the men to strengthen either the more in­ward Garrisons, or the main Camp, Which would have lien ready to de­fend the Passes of their Rivers. And if at the worst they had fail'd in this, yet the French Army must afterwards, either have attaqued a fortifi'd Camp of Twenty thousand men, or left such an Army behind them when they marcht towards Utrecht, and into the heart of the Provinces; Both of which would have been Attempts, that I think have hardly been enterprised with success upon any Invasion.

There seems at least some appear­ance of Order and Conduct in this Scheam of Defence; Whereas there [Page 255] was none in theirs: But perhaps the greatness of the Tempest from abroad, and of the Factions at home, either broke the heart, or distracted the course of their Counsels. And besides, such old Sea-men in so strong a Ship that had weathered so many storms without loss, could not but think it hard to throw over-board so much of their Lading before This began. After all, I know very well, That nothing is so hard, as to give wise Counsel before Events; And nothing so easie, as after them, to make Wise Reflections. Many things seem true in Reason, and prove false in Experience: Many that are weakly consulted, are executed with Success. Therefore, to conclude, We must all acknowledg, That Wisdom and Happiness dwell with God alone; And among mortal men (both of their Persons and their States), Those are the wisest that commit the fewest Fol­lies; and those the happiest that meet with the fewest Misfortunes.