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
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
former Wars But while Albert bent the whole force of the War upon France till he determin'd it in a Peace with that Crown Prince Maurice who had taken Groningue in the time of Ernest now mastered Linghen Groll and other places in Overyssel thereby adding those Provinces intire to the Body of the Union and at Albert's return into Flanders entertain'd him with the Battel of Newport won by the desperate Courage of the English under Sir Francis Vere where Albert was wounded and very near being taken After this Loss the Arch-Duke was yet comforted and relieved by the obsequious affections and obedience of his new Subjects so far as to resolve upon the Siege of Ostend which having some time continued and being almost disheartned by the strength of the place and invincible Courage of the Defendants He was recruited by a Body of Eight thousand Italians under the Marquess Spinola to whom the prosecution of this Siege was committed He took the place after Three years siege not by any want of Men or Provisions within the Haven and relief by Sea being open all the time but perfectly for want of ground which was gain'd foot by foot till not so much was left as would hold men to defend it a great example how impossible it is to defend any Town that cannot be relieved by an Army strong enough to raise the Siege Prince Maurice though he could not save Ostend made yet amends for its loss by the taking of Grave and Sluyce so as the Spaniards gain'd little but the honour of the Enterprise And Philip the Second being dead about the time of the Arch-Dukes and Dutchesses arrival in Flanders and with him the personal resentment of that War The Arch-Duke by consent of the Spanish Court began to apply his thoughts wholly to a Peace which another circumstance had made more necessary than any of those already mentioned As the Dutch Commonwealth was born out of the Sea so out of the same Element it drew its first strength and consideration as well as afterwards its Riches and Greatness For before the Revolt the Subjects of the Low-Countreys though never allowed the Trade of the Indies but in the Spanish Fleets and under Spanish Covert yet many of them had in that manner made the Voyages and become skilful Pilots as well as verst in the ways and sensible of the infinite gains of that Trade And after the Union a greater confluence of people falling down into the United Provinces than could manage their Stock or find employment at Land Great multitudes turn'd their endeavours to Sea and having lost the Trade of Spain and the Streights fell not only into that of England France and the Northern Seas but ventur'd upon that of the East-Indies at first with small Forces and Success But in course of time and by the institution of an East-India Company This came to be pursued with so general application of the Provinces and so great advantage that they made themselves Masters of most of the Collonies and Forts planted there by the Portuguesses now Subjects of Spain The Dutch Sea-men grew as well acquainted with those vast Seas and Coasts as with their own and Holland became the great Magazine of all the Commodities of those Eastern Regions In the West-Indies their attempts were neither so frequent nor prosperous the Spanish Plantations there being too numerous and strong But by the multitude of their Shipping set out with publique or private Commissions they infested the Seas and began to wait for and threaten the Spanish Indian Fleets and sometimes to attempt their Coasts in that new World which was to touch Spain in the most sensible part and gave their Court the strongest motives to endeavour a Peace That might secure those Treasures in their way and preserve them in Spain by stopping the issue of those vast sums which were continually transmitted to entertain the Low-Countrey Wars These respects gave the first rise to a Treaty of Peace the Proposal whereof came wholly from the Spaniards and the very mention of it could hardly at first be fast'ned upon the States nor could they ever be prevail'd with to make way for any Negotiation by a suspension of Arms till the Arch-Duke had declared He would treat with them as with free Provinces upon whom neither He nor Spain had any pretence However the Affair was pursued with so much Art and Industry on the Arch-Dukes part and with so passionate Desires of the Spanish Court to end this War That they were content to treat it at the Hague the Seat of the States-General And for the greater Honour and better Conduct of the whole Business appointed the Four chief Ministers of the Arch-Dukes Their Commissioners to attend and pursue it there who were Their Camp-Master-General Spinola The President of the Council and the Two Secretaries of State and of War in Flanders On the other side in Holland all the paces towards this Treaty were made with great coldness and arrogance raising punctillious-difficulties upon every word of the Arch-Dukes Declaration of treating them as Free Provinces and upon Spain's Ratification of that Form And forcing them to send Expresses into Spain upon every occasion and to attend the length of those returns For the prosperous success of their Arms at Land in the course of above Thirty years War and the mighty growth of their Naval Power and under that protection of their Trade Had made the whole Body of their Militia both at Land and Sea averse from this Treaty as well as the greatest part of the People Whose inveterate hatred against Spain was still as fierce as ever and who had the hopes or dispositions of raising their Fortunes by the War of which they had so many and great Examples among them But there was at the bottom one Forreign and another Domestick Consideration which made way for this Treaty more than all those Arguments that were the common Theams or than all the Offices of the Neighbour-Princes who concerned themselves in this Affair either from interest of their own or the desires of ending a War which had so long exercised in a manner the Arms of all Christendom upon the Stage of the Low-Countreys The greatness of the Spanish Monarchy so formidable under Charles the Fifth and Philip the Second began now to decline by the vast Designs and unfortunate Events of so many Ambitious Counsels And on the other side the Affairs of Henry the Fourth of France were now at the greatest height and felicity after having atchieved so many Adventures with incredible Constancy and Valour and ended all his Wars in a Peace with Spain The Dutch imagin'd that the hot spirits of the French could not continue long without some Exercise and that to prevent it at home it might be necessary for that King to give it them abroad That no Enterprise lay so convenient for Him as that upon Flanders which had anciently been part of the Gallick Nation and whose first Princes
derived and held of the Kings of France Besides they had intimations that Henry the Fourth was taken up in great Preparations of War which they doubted would at one time or other fall on that side at least if they were invited by any greater decays of the Spanish Power in Flanders And they knew very well they should lye as much at the mercy of such a Neighbour as France as they had formerly done of such a Master as Spain For the Spanish Power in Flanders was fed by Treasures that came by long and perillous Voyages out of Spain By Troops drawn either from thence or from Italy or Germany with much Casualty and more Expence Their Territory of the Ten Provinces was small and awed by the Neighbourhood and Jealousies both of England and France But if France were once Master of Flanders The Body of that Empire would be so great and so intire so abounding in People and in Riches That whenever they found or made an occasion of invading the United Provinces They had no hopes of preserving themselves by any opposition or diversion And the end of their mighty resistances against Spain was to have no Master and not to change one for another as they should do in this case Therefore the most intelligent among their Civil Ministers thought it safest by a Peace to give breath to the Arch-Duke's and Spanish Power and by that means to lessen the invitation of the Arms of France into Flanders under so great a King For what was Domestique The Credit and Power of Prince Maurice built at first upon that of his Father but much raised by his own Personal Virtues and Qualities and the success of his Arms Was now grown so high the Prince being Governour or Stadtholder of Four of the Provinces and two of his Cousins of the other Three that several of the States headed by Barnevelt Pensioner of Holland and a man of great Abilities and Authority among them became jealous of the Prince's Power and pretended to fear the growth of it to an Absolute Dominion They knew it would encrease by the continuance of a War which was wholly managed by the Prince and thought that in a Peace it would diminish and give way to the Authority of Civil Power Which disposed this whole Party to desire the Treaty and to advance the progress and issue of it by all their assistances And these different humours stirring in the heart of the States with almost equal strength and vigour The Negotiation of a Peace came to be ended after long debates and infinite endeavours Breaking in appearance upon the points of Religion and the Indian Trade But yet came to knit again and conclude in a Truce of Twelve years dated in the year 1609 whereof the most essential points were The Declaration of treating with them as Free Provinces The Cessation of all Acts of Hostility on both sides during the Truce The enjoyment for that space of all that each party possest at the time of the Treaty That no new Fortification should be raised on either side And that free Commerce should be restored on all parts in the same manner as it was before the Wars And thus the State of the United Provinces came to be acknowledged as a Free Commonwealth by their ancient Master having before been treated so by most of the Kings and Princes of Europe in frequent Ambassies and Negotiations Among which a particular preference was given to the English Crown whose Ambassador had Session and Vote in their Council of State by Agreement with Queen Elizabeth and in acknowledgment of those great Assistances which gave life to their State when it was upon the point of expiring Though the Dutch pretend that Priviledg was given to the Ambassador by virtue of the possession This Crown had of the Briel Flussingue and Ramekins and that it was to cease upon the restitution of those Towns and repayment of those Sums lent by the Queen In the very time of treating this Truce a League was concluded between Henry the Fourth of France and the States for preserving the Peace if it came to be concluded or in case of its failing for assistance of one another With Ten thousand men on the Kings part and Five thousand on the States Nor did that King make any difficulty of continuing the Two Regiments of Foot and Two hundred Horse in the States Service at his own charge after the Truce which he had maintained for several years before it Omitting no provisions that might tye that State to his interests and make him at present Arbiter of the Peace and for the future of the War if the Truce should come to be broken or to expire of it self By what has been related it will easily appear That no State was ever born with stronger throws or nurst up with harder fare or inur'd to greater labours or dangers in the whole course of its youth which are circumstances that usually make strong and healthy bodies And so this has proved having never had more than one Disease break out in the space of Ninety three years which may be accounted the Age of this State reckoning from the Union of Utrecht enter'd by the Provinces in 1579 But this Disease like those of the Seed or Conception in a natural body Though it first appear'd in Barnevelt's time breaking out upon the Negotiations with Spain and seemed to end with his death who was beheaded not many years after yet has it ever since continued lurking in the veins of this State and appearing upon all Revolutions that seem to favour the predominancy of the one or other Humour in the Body And under the Names of the Prince of Orange's and the Arminian Party has ever made the weak side of this State and whenever their period comes will prove the occasion of their Fall The ground of this Name of Arminian was That whilst Barnevelt's Party accused those of the Prince of Orange's as being careless of their Liberties So dearly bought as devoted to the House of Orange and disposed to the admission of an Absolute Principality and in order thereunto as promoters of a perpetual War with Spain So those of the Princes Party accused the others as leaning still and looking kindly upon their old Servitude and relishing the Spaniard both in their Politicks by so eagerly affecting a Peace with that Crown and in their Religion by being generally Arminians which was esteemed the middle part between the Calvinist and the Roman Religion And besides these mutual Reproaches the two Parties have ever valued themselves upon the asserting One of the true and purer Reformed Religion and the other of the true and freer Liberties of the State The Fortunes of this Commonwealth that have happened in their Wars or Negotiations since the Truce with Spain and what Circumstances or Accidents both abroad and at home serv'd to cultivate their mighty growth and conspired to the Greatness wherein they appear'd to the World in the
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
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
that Matters of Religion were the subject of that Conference and that soon after in the same year came Letters from King Philip to the Dutchess of Parma disclaiming the Interpretation which had been given to his Letters by Count Egmont declaring His Pleasure was That all Hereticks should be put to death without remission That the Emperor's Edicts and the Councel of Trent should be published and observed and commanding That the utmost Assistance of the Civil Power should be given to the Inquisition When this was divulged at first the astonishment was great throughout their Provinces but that soon gave way to their Rage which began to appear in their Looks in their Speeches their bold Meetings and Libels and was encreased by the miserable spectacles of so many Executions upon account of Religion The Constancy of the Sufferers and Compassion of the Beholders conspiring generally to lessen the opinion of Guilt or Crime and highten a detestation of the Punishment and Revenge against the Authors of that Counsel of whom the Duke of Alva was esteemed the Chief In the beginning of the year 1566 began an open Mutiny of the Citizens in many Towns hindring Executions and forcing Prisons and Officers and this was followed by a Confederacy of the Lords Never to suffer the Inquisition in the Low-Countreys as contrary to all Laws both Sacred and Prophane and exceeding the Cruelty of all former Tyrannies Upon which all resolutions of Force or Rigor grew unsafe for the Government now too weak for such a revolution of the people and on the other side Brederode in confidence of the general Favour came in the head of Two hundred Gentlemen thorow the Provinces to Brussels and in bold terms petitioned the Governess for abolishing the Inquisition and Edicts about Religion and that new ones should be fram'd by a Convention of the States The Governess was forced to use gentle Remedies to so violent a Disease to receive the Petition without show of the resentment she had at heart and to promise a representation of their Desires to the King which was accordingly done But though the King was startled with such consequences of his last Commands and at length induced to recall them yet whether by the slowness of his nature or the forms of the Spanish Court the Answer came too late and as all his former Concessions either by delay or testimonies of ill-will or meaning in them had lost the good grace so this lost absolutely the effect and came into the Low-Countreys when all was in flame by an insurrection of the meaner people through many great Towns of Flanders Holland and Utrecht who fell violently upon the spoyl of Churches and destruction of Images with a thousand circumstances of barbarous and brutish fury which with the Institution of Consistories and Magistrates in each Town among those of the Reformed Profession with publike Confederacies and Distinctions and private Contributions agreed upon for the support of their common Cause gave the first date in this year of 1566 to the revolt of the Low-Countreys But the Nobility of the Countrey and the richest of the people in the Cities though unsatisfied with the Government yet feeling the Effects and abhorring the Rage of Popular Tumults as the worst mischief that can befall any State And encouraged by the arrival of the King's Concessions began to unite their Councels and Forces with those of the Governess and to employ themselves both with great Vigor and Loyalty for suppressing the late Insurrections that had seized upon many and shaked most of the Cities of the Provinces in which the Prince of Orange and Count Egmont were great Instruments by the authority of their great Charges One being Governour of Holland and Zealand and the other of Flanders but more by the general love and confidence of the people Till by the reducing Valenciens Maestricht and the Burse by Arms The submission of Antwerp and other Towns The defection of Count Egmont from the Councels of the Confederate Lords as they were called The retreat of the Prince of Orange into Germany and the death of Brederode with the news and preparations of King Philip's sudden journey into the Low-Countreys as well as the Prudence and Moderation of the Dutchess in governing all these circumstances The whole Estate of the Provinces was perfectly restored to its former Peace Obedience and at least Appearance of Loyalty King Philip whether having never really decreed his journey into Flanders or diverted by the pacification of the Provinces and apprehension of the Moors rebelling in Spain or a distrust of his Son Prince Charles his violent Passions and Dispositions or the expectation of what had been resolved at Bayonne growing ripe for execution in France gave over the discourse of seeing the Low-Countreys But at the same time took up the resolution for dispatching the Duke of Alva thither at the head of an Army of Ten thousand Veterane Spanish and Italian Troops for the assistance of the Governess the execution of the Laws the suppressing and punishment of all who had been Authors or Fomentors of the late Seditions This Result was put suddenly in execution though wholly against the Advice of the Dutchess of Parma in Flanders and the Duke of Feria one of the chief Ministers in Spain Who thought the present Peace of the Provinces ought not to be invaded by new occasions nor the Royal Authority lessened by being made a party in a War upon his Subjects nor a Minister employed where he was so professedly both hating and hated as the Duke of Alva in the Low-Countreys But the King was unmovable so that in the end of the year 1567 the Duke of Alva arrived there with an Army of Ten thousand the best Spanish and Italian Soldiers under the Command of the choicest Officers which the Wars of Charles the Fifth or Philip the Second had bred up in Europe which with Two thousand Germans the Dutchess of Parma had raised in the last Tumults and under the Command of so Old and Renowned a General as the Duke of Alva made up a Force which nothing in the Low-Countreys could look in the face with other eyes than of Astonishment Submission or Despair Upon the first report of this Expedition the Trading-people of the Towns and Countrey began in vast numbers to retire out of the Provinces so as the Dutchess wrote to the King That in few days above a Hundred thousand men had left the Countrey and withdrawn both their Money and Goods and more were following every day So great antipathy there ever appears between Merchants and Soldiers whilst one pretends to be safe under Laws which the other pretends shall be subject to his Sword and his Will And upon the first Action of the Duke of Alva after his arrival which was the seizing Count Egmont and Horn as well as the suspected death of the Marquess of Berghen and imprisonment of Montigny in Spain whither some Months before they had been sent
and boldest Armies are able to withstand the Torrent of a stubborn and enraged people which ever bears all down before it till it comes to be divided into different Channels by Arts or by Chance or till the Springs which are the Humours that fed it come to be spent or dry up of themselves The Forreign Forces refusing to depart are declared Rebels whereupon the Spanish Troops force and plunder several Towns and Antwerp among the rest by advantage of the Cittadel with equal Courage and Avarice And defend themselves in several Holds from the Forces of the States till Don John's arrival at Luxenburgh the only Town of the Provinces where he thought himself safe as not involved in the defection of the rest The Estates refuse to admit him without his accepting and confirming the Pacification of Ghent which at length he does by leave from the King and enters upon the Government with the dismission of all Forreign Troops which return into Italy But soon after Don John whether out of indignation to see himself but a precarious Governour without force or dependance Or desiring new occasions of Fame by a War or instructed from Spain upon new Councels He takes the occasion of complementing Queen Margaret upon her journey out of France to the Spaw and on a sudden seizes upon the Castle of Namur Whereupon the Provinces for the third time throw off their obedience call the Prince of Orange to Brussels where he is made Protector of Brabant by the States of that Province and preparations are made on both sides for the War While Spain is busie to form new Armies and draw them together in Namur and Luxenburgh the only Provinces obedient to that Crown And all the rest agree to elect a Governour of their own and send to Matthias the Emperors Brother to offer him the Charge At this time began to be formed the Malecontent-party in the Low-Countreys which though agreeing with the rest in their hatred to the Spaniards and defence of their Liberties and Laws yet were not inclin'd to shake off their Allegiance to their Prince nor change their old and establisht Religion And these were headed by the Duke of Areschot and several great men the more averse from a general defection by emulation or envy of the Prince of Orange his Greatness who was now grown to have all the influence and credit in the Counsels of the League By the assistance of this party after Don John's sudden death the Duke of Parma succeeding him gain'd strength and reputation upon his coming to the Government and an entrance upon that great Scene of Glory and Victory which made both his Person so renowned and the time of his Government signallized by so many Sieges and Battels and the reduction of so great a part of the Body of the Provinces to the subjection of Spain Upon the growth of this Party and for distinction from them who pursuing a middle and dangerous Councel were at length to become an accession to one of the Extreams The Seven Northern Provinces meeting by their Deputies at Utrecht in the year 1579 framed that Act or Alliance which was ever after called The Union of Utrecht and was the Original Constitution and Frame of that Common-wealth which has since been so well known in the World by the Name of The United Provinces This Union was grounded upon the Spaniards breach of the Pacification of Ghent and new invasion of some Towns in Gelderland and was not pretended to divide these Provinces from the generality nor from the said Pacification but to strengthen and pursue the Ends of it by more vigorous and united Counsels and Arms. The chief force of this Union consists in these points drawn out of the Instrument it self The Seven Provinces unite themselves so as if they were but one Province and so as never to be divided by Testament Donation Exchange Sale or Agreement Reserving to each particular Province and City all Priviledges Rights Customs and Statutes In adjudging whereof or differences that shall arise between any of the Provinces the rest shall not intermeddle further than to intercede towards an Agreement They bind themselves to assist one another with Life and Fortunes against all Force and Assault made upon any of them whether upon pretence of Royal Majesty of restoring Catholique Religion or any other whatsoever All frontier-Towns belonging to the Union if old to be fortified at the charge of the Province where they lye if new to be erected at the charge of the Generality All Imposts and Customs from three Months to three Months to be offered to them that bid most and with the Incomes of the Royal Majesty to be employed for the Common defence All Inhabitants to be Listed and Trained within a Month from 18 to 60 years old Peace and War not to be made without consent of all the Provinces Other cases that concern the management of both by most Voices Differences that shall arise upon the first between the Provinces to be submitted to the Stadtholders Neighbouring-Princes Lords Lands and Cities to be admitted into the Union by consent of the Provinces For Religion those of Holland and Zealand to act in it as seems good unto themselves The other Provinces may regulate themselves according to the tenor establisht by Matthias or else as they shall judg to be most for the peace and welfare of their particular Provinces provided every one remain free in his Religion and no man be examined or entrapped for that cause according to the Pacification of Ghent In case of any dissention or differences between Provinces if it concern one in particular it shall be accommodated by the others if it concern all in general by the Stadtholders In both which cases sentence to be pronounced within a Month and without Appeal or Revision The States to be held as has been formerly used and the Mint in such manner as shall hereafter be agreed by all the Provinces Interpretation of these Articles to remain in the States but in case of their differences in the Stadtholders They bind themselves to fall upon and imprison any that shall act contrary to these Articles in which case no Priviledg nor Exemption to be valid This Act was signed by the Deputies of Gelderland Zutphen Holland Zealand Utrecht and the Omlands of Frize Jan. 23 1579 but was not signed by the Prince of Orange till May following and with this Signification judging that by the same the Superiority and Authority of Arch-Duke Matthias is not lessened In the same year this Union was enter'd and signed by the Cities of Ghent Nimmegue Arnhem Leewarden with some particular Nobles of Frizeland Venlo Ypers Antwerp Breda and Bruges And thus these Provinces became a Commonwealth but in so low and uncertain a state of Affairs by reason of the various motions and affections of mens minds the different Ends and Interests of the several Parties especially in the other Provinces and the mighty Power and Preparations of
beginning of the year 1665 being not only the subject of the Relations but even the Observations of this present Age I shall either leave as more obvious and less necessary to the account I intend of the Civil Government of this Commonwealth Or else reserve them till the same vein of Leasure or Humour invite me to continue this Deduction to the present time The Affairs of this State having been complicated with all the variety and memorable Revolutions both of Actions and Counsels that have since happened in the rest of Christendom In the mean time I will close this Relation with an Event which arrived soon after the conclusion of the Truce and had like to have broken it within the very year if not prevented by the Offices of the Neighbour Princes but more by a change of Humour in the United States conspiring to the conservation of the new-restored Peace in these parts of the World In the end of the year 1609 dyed the Duke of Cleves and Juliers without Heir-male leaving those Dutchies to the pretensions of his Daughters in whose Right the Duke of Brandenburgh and Nieuburgh possessed themselves of such parts of those Territories as they first could invade each of them pretending right to the whole Inheritance Brandenburgh seeks protection and favour to his Title from the United Provinces Nieuburgh from Arch-Duke Albert and from Spain The Arch-Duke newly respiring from so long a War had no desire to interess himself in this Quarrel further than the care that the Dutch should not take advantage of it and under pretext of assisting one of the Parties seize upon some of those Dominions lying contiguous to their own The Dutch were not so equal nor content to lose so fair an occasion and surprized the Town of Juliers though pretending only to keep it till the Parties agreed And believing that Spain after having parted with so much in the late Truce to end a quarrel of their own would not venture the breach of it upon a quarrel of their Neighbours But the Arch-Duke having first taken his measures with Spain and foreseeing the consequence of this Affair resolved to venture the whole State of Flanders in a new War rather than suffer such an encrease of Power and Dominion to the States And thereupon first in the behalf of the Duke of Nieuburgh requires from them the restitution of Juliers and upon their artificious and dilatory Answers immediately draws his Forces together and with an Army under the Command of Spinola marches towards Juliers which the States were in no care of as well provided for a bold defence But makes a sudden turn and sits down before Wesel with such a terror and surprise to the Inhabitants that he carries the Town before the Dutch could come in to their assistance Wesel was a strong Town upon the Rhine which the Duke of Brandenburgh pretended to as belonging to the Dutchy of Cleve but the Citizens held it at this time as an Imperial Town and under protection of the Dutch Who amazed at this sudden and bold attempt of Spinola which made him Master of a Pass that lay fair for any further Invasion upon their Provinces especially those on t'other side the Rhine engage the Offices of both the English and French Crowns to mediate an Agreement which at length they conclude so as neither Party should upon any pretence draw their Forces into any part of these Dutchies Thus the Arch-Duke having by the fondness of Peace newly made a Truce upon Conditions imposed by the Dutch now by the Resolution of making War obtains a Peace upon the very Terms proposed by himself and by Spain An Event of great Instruction and Example how dangerous it ever proves for weak Princes to call in greater to their aid which makes them a prey to their Friend instead of their Enemy How the only time of making an advantageous Peace is when your Enemy desires it and when you are in the best condition of pursuing a War And how vain a Counsel it is to avoid a War by yeilding any point of Interest or Honour which does but invite new Injuries encourage Enemies and dishearten Friends CHAP. II. Of Their GOVERNMENT IT is evident by what has been discoursed in the former Chapter concerning the Rise of this State which is to be dated from the Union of Utrecht that It cannot properly be stiled a Commonwealth but is rather a Confederacy of Seven Soveraign Provinces united together for their common and mutual defence without any dependance one upon the other But to discover the nature of their Government from the first springs and motions It must be taken yet into smaller pieces by which it will appear that each of these Provinces is likewise composed of many little States or Cities which have several marks of Soveraign Power within themselves and are not subject to the Soveraignty of their Province Not being concluded in many things by the majority but only by the universal concurrence of Voices in the Provincial-States For as the States-General cannot make War or Peace or any new Alliance or Levies of Money without the consent of every Province so cannot the States-Provincial conclude any of those points without the consent of each of the Cities that by their Constitution has a voice in that Assembly And though in many Civil Causes there lies an Appeal from the Common Judicature of the Cities to the Provincial Courts of Justice yet in Criminals there lies none at all nor can the Soveraignty of a Province exercise any Judicature seize upon any Offender or pardon any Offence within the Jurisdiction of a City or execute any common Resolution or Law but by the Justice and Officers of the City it self By this a certain Soveraignty in each City is discerned the chief marks whereof are The power of exercising Judicature levying of Money and making War and Peace For the other of Coining Money is neither in particular Cities or Provinces but in the generalty of the Union by common Agreement The main Ingredients therefore into the Composition of this State are the Freedom of the Cities the Soveraignty of the Provinces the Agreements or Constitutions of the Union and the Authority of the Princes of Orange Which make the Order I shall follow in the Account intended of this Government But whereas the several Provinces in the Union and the several Cities in each Province as they have in their Orders and Constitutions some particular differences as well as a general resemblance and the account of each distinctly would swell this Discourse out of measure and to little purpose I shall confine my self to the account of Holland as the richest strongest and of most authority among the Provinces and of Amsterdam as that which has the same Preheminencies among the Cities The Soveraign Authority of the City of Amsterdam consists in the Decrees or Results of their Senate which is composed of Six and thirty men by whom the Justice is
according to their different or agreeing Customs To the States-General every one sends their Deputies in what number they please some Two some Ten or Twelve Which makes no difference because all matters are carried not by the Votes of Persons but of Provinces and all the Deputies from one Province how few or many soever have one single Vote The Provinces differ likewise in the time fixed for their Deputation some sending for a year some for more and others for life The Province of Holland send to the States-General one of their Nobles who is perpetual Two Deputies chosen out of their Eight chief Towns and One out of North-Holland and with these Two of their Provincial Council of State and their Pensioner Neither Stadtholder or Governour or any person in Military-charge has Session in the States-General Every Province presides their week in turns and by the most qualified person of the Deputies of that Province He sits in a Chair with arms at the middle of a long Table capable of holding about thirty persons For about that number this Council is usually composed of The Greffier who is in nature of a Secretary sits at the lower end of the Table When a Forreign Minister has audience he is seated at the middle of this Table over-against the President Who proposes all matters in this Assembly Makes the Greffier read all Papers Puts the Question Calls the Voices of the Provinces And forms the Conclusion Or if he refuses to conclude according to the plurality he is obliged to resign his Place to the President of the ensuing Week who concludes for him This is the course in all Affairs before them except in cases of Peace and War of Forreign Alliances of Raising or Coining of Moneys or the Priviledges of each Province or Member of the Union In all which All the Provinces must concur Plurality being not at all weighed or observed This Counsel is not Soveraign but only represents the Soveraignty and therefore though Ambassadors are both received and sent in their Name yet neither are their own chosen nor Forreign Ministers answered nor any of those mentioned Affairs resolved without consulting first the States of each Province by their respective Deputies and receiving Orders from them And in other important matters though decided by Plurality They frequently consult with the Council of State Nor has this Method or Constitution ever been broken since their State began excepting only in one Affair which was in January 1668 when His Majesty sent me over to propose a League of Mutual Defence with this State and another for the preservation of Flanders from the invasion of France which had already conquered a great part of the Spanish Provinces and left the rest at the mercy of the next Campania Upon this occasion I had the fortune to prevail with the States-General to conclude three Treaties and upon them draw up and sign the several Instruments in the space of Five days Without passing the essential forms of their Government by any recourse to the Provinces which must likewise have had it to the several Cities There I knew those Forreign Ministers whose Duty and Interest it was to oppose this Affair expected to meet and to elude it which could not have failed in case it had run that circle since engaging the Voice of one City must have broken it 'T is true that in concluding these Alliances without Commission from their Principals The Deputies of the States-General ventur'd their Heads if they had been disowned by their Provinces but being all unanimous and led by the clear evidence of so direct and so important an Interest which must have been lost by the usual delays They all agreed to run the hazzard and were so far from being disowned that they were applauded by all the Members of every Province Having thereby changed the whole face of Affairs in Christendom and laid the Foundation of the Triple-Alliance and the Peace of Aix which were concluded about Four Months after So great has the force of Reason and Interest ever proved in this State not only to the uniting of all Voices in their Assemblies but to the absolving of the greatest breach of their Original Constitutions Even in a State whose Safety and Greatness has been chiefly founded upon the severe and exact observance of Order and Method in all their Counsels and Executions Nor have they ever used at any other time any greater means to agree and unite the several Members of their Union in the Resolutions necessary upon the most pressing occasions Than for the agreeing-Provinces to name some of their ablest persons to go and confer with the dissenting and represent those Reasons and Interests by which they have been induced to their opinions The Council of State is composed of Deputies from the several Provinces but after another manner than the States-General the number being fixed Gelderland sends Two Holland Three Zealand and Utrecht Two a piece Friezland Overyssel and Groninghen each of them One making in all Twelve They vote not by Provinces but by Personal Voices and every Deputy presides by turns In this Council the Governour of the Provinces has Session and a decisive voice And the Treasurer-General Session but a voice only deliberative yet he has much credit here being for life and so is the person deputed to this Council from the Nobles of Holland and the Deputies of the Province of Zealand The rest are but for two three or four years The Council of State executes the Resolutions of the States-General consults and proposes to them the most expedient ways of raising Troops and levying Moneys as well as the proportions of both which they conceive necessary in all Conjunctures and Revolutions of the State Superintends the Milice the Fortifications the Contributions out of Enemies Countrey the forms and disposal of all Passports and the Affairs Revenues and Government of all places conquered since the Union which being gain'd by the common Arms of the State depend upon the States-General and not upon any particular Province Towards the end of every year this Council forms a state of the Expence they conceive will be necessary for the year ensuing Presents it to the States-General desiring them to demand so much of the States-Provincial to be raised according to the usual Proportions which are of 100000 G rs Gelderland 3612 g rs 05 st 00 d Holland 58309 g rs 01 st 10 d Zealand 9183 g rs 14 st 02 d Utrecht 5830 g rs 17 st 11 d Friezland 11661 g rs 15 st 10 d Overyssel 3571 g rs 08 st 04 d Groningue 5830 g rs 17 st 11 d This Petition as 't is called is made to the States-General in the Name of the Governour and Council of State which is but a continuance of the forms used in the time of their Soveraigns and still by the Governours and Council of State in the Spanish Netherlands Petition signifying barely asking or demanding though implying the thing
demanded to be wholly in the right and power of them that give It was used by the first Counts only upon extraordinary occasions and necessities but in the time of the Houses of Burgundy and Austria grew to be a thing of course and Annual as it is still in the Spanish Provinces The Council of State disposes of all sums of Money destin'd for all extraordinary Affairs and expedites the Orders for the whole expence of the State upon the Resolutions first taken in the main by the States-General The Orders must be signed by three Deputies of several Provinces as well as by the Treasurer-General and then registred in the Chamber of Accounts before the Receiver-General pays them which is then done without any difficulty charge or delay Every Province raises what Moneys it pleases and by what ways or means sends its Quota or share of the general charge to the Receiver-General and converts the rest to the present use or reserves it for the future occasions of the Province The Chamber of Accounts was erected about sixty years ago for the ease of the Council of State to examine and state all Accounts of all the several Receivers to controul and register the Orders of the Council of State which disposes of the Finances and this Chamber is composed of two Deputies from each Province who are changed every Three years Besides these Colledges is the Council of the Admiralty who when the States-General by advice of the Council of State have destin'd a Fleet of such a number and force to be set out Have the absolute disposition of the Marine Affairs as well in the choice and equipage of all the several Ships as in issuing the Moneys allotted for that service This Colledg is subdivided into Five of which three are in Holland viz. one in Amsterdam another at Rotterdam and the third at Horn The fourth is at Middlebourgh in Zealand and the fifth at Harlinguen in Friezland Each of these is composed of Seven Deputies Four of that Province where the Colledg resides and Three named by the other Provinces The Admiral or in his absence the Vice-Admiral has Session in all these Colledges and presides when he is present They take cognizance of all Crimes committed at Sea judg all Pirates that are taken and all Frauds or Negligences in the payment or collections of the Customs which are particularly affected to the Admiralty and appliable to no other use This Fond being not sufficient in times of Wars is supplied by the States with whatever more is necessary from other Fonds but in time of Peace being little exhausted by other constant charge besides that of Convoys to their several Fleets of Merchants in all parts The remainder of this Revenue is applied to the building of great Ships of War and furnishing the several Arsenals and Stores with all sorts of Provision necessary for the building and rigging of more Ships than can be needed by the course of a long War So soon as the number and force of the Fleets designed for any Expedition is agreed by the States-General and given out by the Council of State to the Admiralty Each particular Colledg furnishes their own proportion which is known as well as that of the several Provinces in all Moneys that are to be raised In all which the Admiral has no other share or advantages besides his bare Salary and his proportion in Prizes that are taken The Captains and Superior Officers of each Squadron are chosen by the several Colledges the number of men appointed for every ship After which each Captain uses his best diligence and credit to fill his number with the best men he can get and takes the whole care and charge of Victualling his own Ship for the time intended for that Expedition and signifi'd to him by the Admiralty and this at a certain rate of so much a man And by the good or ill discharge of his Trust as well as that of providing Chirurgeons Medicines and all things necessary for the health of the men each Captain grows into good or ill credit with the Sea-men and by their report with the Admiralties Upon whose opinion and esteem the fortune of all Sea-Officers depends So as in all their Expeditions there appears rather an emulation among the particular Captains who shall treat his Sea-men best in these points and employ the Moneys allotted for their Victualling to the best advantage Than any little Knavish Practises of filling their own Purses by keeping their men's Bellys empty or forcing them to corrupted unwholsome Diet Upon which and upon cleanliness in their Ships the health of many people crowded up into so little Rooms seems chiefly to depend The Salaries of all the great Officers of this State are very small I have already mentioned that of a Burgo-master's of Amsterdam to be about fifty pounds sterling a year That of their Vice-Admiral for since the last Prince of Orange's death to the year 1670 there had been no Admiral is Five hundred and that of the Pensioner of Holland Two hundred The Greatness of this State seems much to consist in these Orders how confused soever and of different pieces they may seem But more in two main effects of them which are the good choice of the Officers of chief Trust in the Cities Provinces and State And the great simplicity and modesty in the common port or living of their chiefest Ministers without which the Absoluteness of the Senates in each Town and the Immensity of Taxes throughout the whole State would never be endured by the people with any patience being both of them greater than in many of those Governments which are esteemed most Arbitrary among their Neighbours But in the Assemblies and Debates of their Senates every man's Abilities are discovered as their Dispositions are in the conduct of their Lives and Domestick among their fellow-Citizens The observation of these either raises or suppresses the credit of particular men both among the people and the Senates of their Towns who to maintain their Authority with less popular envy or discontent give much to the general opinion of the people in the choice of their Magistrates By this means it comes to pass that though perhaps the Nation generally be not wise yet the Government is Because it is composed of the wisest of the Nation which may give it an advantage over many others where Ability is of more common growth but of less use to the Publique If it happens that neither Wisdom nor Honesty are the Qualities which bring men to the management of State-Affairs as they usually do in this Commonwealth Besides though these people who are naturally Cold and Heavy may not be ingenious enough to furnish a pleasant or agreeable Conversation yet they want not plain down-right sence to understand and do their business both publique and private which is a Talent very different from the other and I know not whether they often meet For the first proceeds from heat of
the brain which makes the spirits more aiery and volatile and thereby the motions of Thought lighter and quicker and the range of Imagination much greater than in cold heads where the spirits are more earthy and dull Thought moves slower and heavier but thereby the impressions of it are deeper and last longer One imagination being not so frequently nor so easily effaced by another as where new ones are continually arising This makes duller men more constant and steddy and quicker men more inconstant and uncertain whereas the greatest ability in business seems to be the steddy pursuit of some one thing till there is an end of it with perpetual application and endeavour not to be diverted by every representation of new hopes or fears of difficulty or danger or of some better design The first of these Talents cuts like a Razor the other like a Hatchet One has thinness of edg and fineness of metal and temper but is easily turn'd by any substance that is hard and resists T'other has toughness and weight which makes it cut thorough or go deep wherever it falls and therefore one is for Adornment and t'other for Use. It may be said further that the heat of the Heart commonly goes along with that of the Brain so that Passions are warmer where Imaginations are quicker And there are few men unless in case of some evident natural defect but have sence enough to distinguish in gross between Right and Wrong between Good and Bad when represented to them and consequently have judgment enough to do their business if it be left to it self and not swayed nor corrupted by some Humour or Passion by Anger or Pride by Love or by Scorn Ambition or Avarice Delight or Revenge so as the coldness of Passions seems to be the natural ground of Ability and Honesty among men as the government or moderation of them the great End of Philosophical and Moral Instructions These Speculations may perhaps a little lessen the common wonder How we should meet with in one Nation so little show of Parts and of Wit and so great evidence of Wisdom and Prudence as has appeared in the Conduct and Successes of this State for near a Hundred years Which needs no other testimony than the mighty Growth and Power it arrived to from so weak and contemptible Seeds and Beginnings The other Circumstance I mentioned as an occasion of their Greatness was the simplicity and modesty of their Magistrates in their way of living which is so general that I never knew One among them exceed the common frugal popular air And so great That of the two chief Officers in my time Vice-Admiral De Ruiter and the Pensioner De Wit One generally esteemed by Forreign Nations as great a Sea-man and the other as great a States-man as any of their Age I never saw the first in Clothes better than the commonest Sea-Captain nor with above one man following him nor in a Coach And in his own House neither was the Size Building Furniture or Entertainment at all exceeding the use of every common Merchant and Trades-man in his Town For the Pensioner De Wit who had the great influence in the Government The whole train and expence of his Domestique went very equal with other common Deputies or Ministers of the State His Habit grave and plain and popular His Table what only serv'd turn for his Family or a Friend His Train besides Commissaries and Clerks kept for him in an Office adjoining to his House at the publique charge was only one man who performed all the Menial service of his House at home and upon his Visits of Ceremony putting on a plain Livery-Cloak attended his Coach abroad For upon other occasions He was seen usually in the streets on foot and alone like the commonest Burger of the Town Nor was this manner of life affected or used by these particular men but was the general fashion or mode among all the Magistrates of the State For I speak not of the Military Officers who are reckon'd their Servants and live in a different garb though generally modester than in other Countreys Thus this stomachful People who could not endure the least exercise of Arbitrary Power or Impositions or the sight of any Forreign Troops under the Spanish Government Have been since inured to all of them in the highest degree under their own Popular Magistrates Bridled with hard Laws Terrified with severe Executions Environ'd with Forreign Forces And opprest with the most cruel Hardship and variety of Taxes that was ever known under any Government But all this whilst the way to Office and Authority lyes through those qualities which acquire the general esteem of the people Whilst no man is exempted from the danger and current of Laws Whilst Soldiers are confin'd to Frontier-Garrisons the guard of Inland or Trading-Towns being left to the Burghers themselves And whilst no great Riches are seen to enter by Publique Payments into private Purses either to raise Families or to feed the prodigal Expences of vain extravagant and luxurious men But all Publique Moneys are applied to the Safety Greatness or Honour of the State and the Magistrates themselves bear an equal share in all the Burthens they impose The Authority of the Princes of Orange though intermitted upon the untimely death of the last and infancy of this present Prince Yet as it must be ever acknowledged to have had a most essential part in the first frame of this Government and in all the Fortunes thereof during the whole growth and progress of the State So has it ever preserved a very strong root not only in Six of the Provinces but even in the general and popular affections of the Province of Holland it self Whose States have for these last Twenty years so much endeavoured to suppress or exclude it This began in the person of Prince William of Nassaw at the very birth of the State And not so much by the quality of being Governour of Holland and Zealand in Charles the Fifth's and Philip the Second's time As by the esteem of so great Wisdom Goodness and Courage as excell'd in that Prince and seems to have been from him derived to his whole Race Being indeed the qualities that naturally acquire esteem and authority among the people in all Governments Nor has this Nation in particular since the time perhaps of Civilis ever been without some Head under some Title or other but always a Head subordinate to their Laws and Customs and to the Soveraign Power of the State In the first Constitution of this Government after the Revolt from Spain All the Power and Rights of Prince William of Orange as Governour of the Provinces seem to have been carefully reserved But those which remain'd inherent in the Soveraign were devolved upon the Assembly of the States-General so as in them remained the power of making Peace and War and all Forreign Alliances and of raising and coining of Moneys In the Prince the command
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
of Native and Warlike Subjects which they could draw into the Field upon any War with their Neighbours National quarrels were decided by National Armies not by Stipendiary Forces raised with Money or maintained by constant Pay In the several Kingdoms and Principalities of Europe the Bodies of their Armies were composed as they are still in Poland Of the Nobility and Gentry who were bound to attend their Princes to the Wars with certain numbers of armed men according to the tenure and extent of the several Lordships and Lands they held of the Crown Where these were not proportionable to the occasion The rest were made up of Subjects drawn together by love of their Prince or their Countrey By desire of Conquest and Spoils or necessity of defence Held together by Allegiance or Religion And Spirited by Honour Revenge or Avarice not of what they could get from their Leaders but from their Enemies A Battel or two fairly fought decided a War and a War ended the quarrel of an Age and either lost or gain'd the Cause or Countrey contended for Till the change of Times and Accidents brought it to a new decision Till the Virtues and Vices of Princes made them stronger or weaker either in the love and obedience of their people or in such Orders and Customs as render'd their Subjects more or less Warlike or Esseminate Standing-Forces or Guards in constant pay were no where used by lawful Princes in their Native or Hereditary Countreys But only by Conquerors in subdued Provinces or Usurpers at home And were a defence only against Subjects not against Enemies These Orders seem first to have been changed in Europe by the two States of Venice and Holland Both of them small in Territories at Land and those extended in Frontier upon powerful Neighbours Both of them weak in number of Native Subjects and those less warlike at Land by turning so much to Traffique and to Sea But both of them mighty in Riches and Trade Which made them endeavour to balance their Neighbours strength in Native Subjects by Forreign Stipendiary Bands And to defend their Frontiers by the Arts of Fortification and strength of places which might draw out a War into length by Sieges when they durst not venture it upon a Battel And so make it many times determine by force of Money rather than of Arms. This forced those Princes who frontier'd upon these States to the same provisions Which have been encreast by the perpetual course of Wars upon the Continent of Europe ever since the rise of This State until the Peace of the Pirenees between Princes bordering one upon the other and so ready for sudden Inroads or Invasions The Force therefore of these Provinces is to be measur'd not by the number or dispositions of their Subjects But by the strength of their Shipping and standing-Troops which they constantly maintain even in time of peace And by the numbers of both which they have been able to draw into the Field and to Sea for support of a War By their constant Revenue to maintain the first And by the temporary charge they have been able to furnish for supply of the other I will not enumerate their Frontier-Towns which is a common Theam or the Forces necessary for the Garrisons of them Nor the nature and variety of their Taxes and Impositions Though I have an exact List of them by me expressing the several kinds rates and proportions upon every Province and Town But this would swell a Discourse with a great deal of tedious matter and to little purpose I shall therefore be content only to observe what I have informed my self of their Forces and Revenues in general from persons among them the best able to give that account The ordinary Revenue of this State consists either in what is levied in the conquered Towns and Countrey of Brabant Flanders or the Rhine Which is wholly administred by the Council of State Or else the ordinary Fonds which the Seven Provinces provide every year according to their several proportions upon the Petition of the Council of State and Computation of the Charge of the ensuing year given in by them to the States-General And this Revenue commonly amounts to about One and twenty Millions of Gilders a year Every Million making about Ninety thousand pounds Sterling intrinsick value The chief Fonds out of which this rises Is the Excise and the Customs The first is great and so general that I have heard it observed at Amsterdam That when in a Tavern a certain Dish of Fish is eaten with the usual Sawce above thirty several Excises are paid for what is necessary to that small Service The last are low and applied particularly to the Admiralty Out of this Revenue is supplied the charge of the whole Milice Of all publique Officers of the State and Ambassadors or Ministers abroad And the Interest of about Thirteen Millions owing by the States-General The standing-Forces in the year 70 upon so general a Peace and after all Reformations Were Twenty six thousand two hundred men in Ten Regiments of Horse consisting of Fifty Troops And Nineteen of Foot consisting of Three hundred and Eighty Companies The constant charge of these Forces stood them in Six Millions one hundred and nineteen thousand Gilders a year Their Admiralties in time of Peace maintain between Thirty and Forty Men of War employ'd in the several Convoys of their Merchants Fleets In a Squadron of Eight or Ten Ships to attend the Algerines and other Corsairs in the Mediterranean And some always lying ready in their Havens for any sudden accidents or occasions of the State The common Expence of the Admiralties in this Equipage and the built of Ships Is about Six Millions a year Besides the Debt of the Generalty The Province of Holland owes about Sixty five Millions for which they pay Interest at Four in the Hundred But with so great ease and exactness both in Principal and Interest That no man ever demands it twice They might take up whatever money they desired Whoever is admitted to bring in his money takes it for a great deal of favour And when they pay off any part of the Principal Those it belongs to receive it with tears Not knowing how to dispose of it to Interest with such safety and ease And the common Revenue of particular men lies much in the Cantores either of the Generalty or the several Provinces which are the Registries of these publique Debts Of the several Imposts and Excises Those that are upon certain and immovable possessions as Houses and Lands are collected by the Magistrates of the several places and by them paid in to the Receivers because both the number and value of them are constant and easily known Those which arise out of uncertain Consumptions are all set out to farm And to him that bids most some every three Months some every six and some yearly The Collection Receit and Distribution of all Publique Moneys are made without any
Fee to Officers who receive certain constant Salaries from the State which they dare not encrease by any private practises or Extortions So as whoever has a Bill of any publique Debt has so much ready money in his Coffers being paid certainly at call without charge or trouble and assign'd over in any payment like the best Bill of Exchange The extraordinary Revenue is when upon some great occasions or Wars the Generalty agrees to any extraordinary Contributions As sometimes the Hundredth penny of the Estates of all the Inhabitants Pole or Chimney-money Or any other Subsidies and Payments according as they can agree and the occasions require Which have sometimes reached so far as even to an Imposition upon every man that travels in the common ways of their Countrey by Boat or in Coach in Wagon or on Horseback By all these means in the first year of the English War in 1665 There were raised in the Provinces Forty Millions of which Twenty two in the Province of Holland And upon the Bishop of Munster's invading them at the same time by Land they had in the year 66 above Threescore thousand Land-men in pay And a Fleet of above a Hundred great Men of War at Sea The greatness of this Nation at that time seems justly to have raised the glory of Ours Which during the years 65 and 66 maintained a War not only against this Powerful State but against the Crowns of France and Denmark in conjunction with them And All at a time when This Kingdom was forced to struggle at home with the Calamitous Effects of a raging Plague that in Three Months of the first year swept away incredible numbers of people And of a prodigious Fire that in Three days of the Second laid in ashes that Ancient and Famous City of LONDON the Heart and Center of our Commerce and Riches consuming the greatest part of its Buildings and an immense proportion of its Wealth Yet in the midst of these fatal Accidents Those two Summers were renowned with Three Battels of the mightiest Fleets that ever met upon the Ocean Whereof Two were determined by entire and unquestion'd Victories and pursuit of our Enemies into their very Havens The Third having begun by the unfortunate division of our Fleet with the odds of Ninety of their Ships against Fifty of ours And in spight of such disadvantages having continued or been renewed for three days together wherein We were every morning the Aggressors ended at last by the equal and mutual Weakness or Weariness of both Sides The maims of Ships and Tackling with want of Powder and Ammunition Having left undecided the greatest Action that will perhaps appear upon Record of any Story And in this Battel Monsieur De Witt confest to me That we gain'd more Honour to our Nation and to the invincible Courage of our Sea-men than by the other Two Victories That he was sure their men could never have been brought on the two following days after the disadvantages of the first And he believed no other Nation was capable of it but Ours I will not judg how we came to fail of a glorious Peace in the Six Months next succeeding after the fortune of our last Victory and with the Honour of the War But as any rough hand can break a bone whereas much art and care are required to sett it again and restore it to its first strength and proportion So 't is an easie part in a Minister of State to engage a War but 't is given to few to know the times and find the ways of making Peace Yet when after the sensible events of an unfortunate Negligence An indifferent Treaty was concluded at Breda in 67 Within Six Months following By an Alliance with this State in January 68 which was received with incredible Joy and Applause among them His Majesty became the unquestioned Arbiter of all the Affairs of Christendom Made a Peace between the two great Crowns at Aix la Chapelle Which was avowed by all the World to be perfectly His Own And was received with equal Applause of Christian Princes abroad and of his Subjects at home And for three years succeeding by the unshaken Alliance and Dependance of the United States His Majesty remained Absolute Master of the Peace of Christendom and in a posture of giving Bounds to the greatest as well as Protection to the weakest of his Neighbours CHAP. VIII The Causes of their FALL in 1672. IT must be avowed That as This State in the course and progress of its Greatness for so many years past Has shined like a Comet So in the Revolutions of this last Summer It seem'd to fall like a Meteor and has equally amazed the World by the one and the other When we consider such a Power and Wealth as was related in the last Chapter To have fallen in a manner prostrate within the space of one Month So many Frontier Towns renowned in the Sieges and Actions of the Spanish Wars Enter'd like open Villages by the French Troops without defence or almost denial Most of them without any blows at all and all of them with so few Their great Rivers that were esteemed an invincible security to the Provinces of Holland and Utrecht passed with as much ease and as small resistances as little Fords And in short the very Hearts of a Nation so valiant of old against Rome so obstinate against Spain Now subdued and in a manner abandoning all before their Danger appeared We may justly have our recourse to the secret and fixed periods of all Human Greatness for the account of such a Revolution Or rather to the unsearchable Decrees and unresistable force of Divine Providence Though it seems not more impious to question it than to measure it by our Scale Or reduce the Issues and Motions of that Eternal Will and Power to a conformity with what is esteemed Just or Wise or Good by the usual Consent or the narrow Comprehension of poor Mortal men But as in the search and consideration even of things natural and common our Talent I fear is to Talk rather than to Know So we may be allowed to Enquire and Reason upon all things while we do not pretend to Certainty or call that Undeniable Truth which is every day denied by Ten thousand Nor those Opinions Unreasonable which we know to be held by such as we allow to be Reasonable men I shall therefore set down such Circumstances as to me seem most evidently to have conspired in this Revolution leaving the Causes less discernable to the search of more discerning persons And first I take their vast Trade which was an occasion of their Greatness to have been One likewise of their Fall by having wholly diverted the Genius of their Native Subjects and Inhabitants from Arms to Traffique and the Arts of Peace Leaving the whole fortune of their later Wars to be managed by Forreign and Mercenary Troops Which much abased the Courage of their Nation as was observed in
another Chapter and made the Burghers of so little moment towards the defence of their Towns Whereas in the famous Sieges of Harlem Alemar and Leyden They had made such brave and fierce defences as broke the heart of the Spanish Armies and the fortune of their Affairs Next was the Peace of Munster which had left them now for above Twenty years too secure of all Invasions or Enemies at Land And so 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