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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 'T is certain and was owned
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 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 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 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 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 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 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
best 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 CHAP. VII Of their FORCES and REVENUES THE Strength and Forces of a Kingdom or State were measured in former Ages by the Numbers
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 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 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 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 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 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 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
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 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 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 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 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 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 't is 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 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 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
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 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 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 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 CHAP. IV. Of their People and Dispositions 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 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 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 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 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
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 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 faint-hearted 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 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 'T is 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 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 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 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 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 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
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 't is 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 At least wherever the perswasions from Faith are as strong as those
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 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 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 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 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 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 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
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 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 â—ora and to Navigation as 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 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 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 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 't is 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 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
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 'T is 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 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 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 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 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 FINIS Government of the City of Amsterdam Government of the Province of Holland Government of the United Provinces The Authority of the Princes of Orange Rhenus apud principium agri Batavi velut Ãn duos amnes dividitur ad Gallicam ripam latior placidior verso cognomento Vahalem accola dicuut mox id quoque vocabulum mutat Mosâ flumine ejusque immenso ore eundem in Oceanum effunditur Cum interim flexu Autumni Crebris imbribus superfusus amnis palustâ—â—m humilâ—mque Insulam in faciem Stagâ—i opplevit Queruntur Fabii Valentis Legiones orbari se fortissimorum virorum auxilio veteres illos tot bellorum auctores non abrumpendos ut corpori validissimos artus Tacit. * Vbi tempestas coeli mobilis humor Muâ—avere vias Jupiter humidus Austris Dâ—nsat erant quae rara modo quae densa relaxat â—â—â—tuntur species animorum pectora motus 〈◊〉 alios alios dum nubila ventus agebat â—â—â—cipiunt hinc ille avium concentus in agris Et 〈◊〉 pecudes ovantes gutture corvi Virg. Geor. Fiunt diversae respublicae ex civium moribus qui quocunque fluxerint caetera secum rapiunt Plat. de Rep. Magister artis ingeniique largitor Venter Pers. Crevit occulto velut arbor â—aevo Fama Marcelli