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
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
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
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
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
of all Land and Sea-Forces as Captain-General and Admiral and thereby the disposition of all Military Commands The power of pardoning the Penalty of Crimes The chusing of Magistrates upon the nomination of the Towns For they presented three to the Prince who elected one out of that number Originally the States-General were convoked by the Council of State where the Prince had the greatest influence Nor since that change have the States used to resolve any important matter without his advice Besides all this As the States-General represented the Soveraignty so did the Prince of Orange the Dignity of this State by publique Guards and the attendance of all Military Officers By the application of all Forreign Ministers and all pretenders at home By the splendour of his Court and magnificence of his Expence supported not only by the Pensions and Rights of his several Charges and Commands but by a mighty Patrimonial Revenue in Lands and Soveraign Principalities and Lordships as well in France Germany and Burgundy as in the several parts of the Seventeen Provinces so as Prince Henry was used to answer some that would have flattered him into the designs of a more Arbitrary Power That he had as much as any wise Prince would desire in that State since he had all indeed besides that of Punishing men and raising Money whereas he had rather the envy of the first should lye upon the Forms of the Government and he knew the other could never be supported without the consent of the people to that degree which was necessary for the defence of so small a State against so mighty Princes as their Neighbours Upon these Foundations was this State first establisht and by these Orders maintained till the death of the last Prince of Orange When by the great influence of the Province of Holland amongst the rest the Authority of the Princes came to be shared among the several Magistracies of the State Those of the Cities assumed the last nomination of their several Magistrates The States-Provincial the disposal of all Military Commands in those Troops which their share was to pay And the States-General the Command of the Armies by Officers of their own appointment substituted and changed at their will No power remain'd to pardon what was once condemned by rigor of Law Nor any person to represent the Port and Dignity of a Soveraign State Both which could not fail of being sensibly missed by the people since no man in particular can be secure of offending or would therefore absolutely despair of impunity himself though he would have others do so And men are generally pleased with the Pomp and Splendor of a Government not only as it is an amusement for idle people but as it is a mark of the Greatness Honour and Riches of their Countrey However these Defects were for near Twenty years supplied in some measure and this Frame supported by the great Authority and Riches of the Province of Holland which drew a sort of dependance from the other Six and by the great Sufficiency Integrity and Constancy of their chief Minister and by the effect of both in the prosperous Successes of their Affairs Yet having a Constitution strained against the current vein and humour of the people It was always evident that upon the growth of this young Prince The great Virtues and Qualities he derived from the mixture of such Royal and such Princely Blood could not fail in time of raising His Authority to equal at least if not to surpass that of his glorious Ancestors CHAP. III. Of their Scituation HOLLAND Zealand Friezland and Groninguen are seated upon the Sea and make the Strength and Greatness of this State The other three with the Conquered Towns in Brabant Flanders and Cleve make only the Out-works or Frontiers serving chiefly for safety and defence of these No man can tell the strange and mighty Changes that may have been made in the face and bounds of Maritime Countreys at one time or other by furious Inundations upon the unusual concurrence of Land-Floods Winds and Tides And therefore no man knows whether the Province of Holland may not have been in some past Ages all Wood and rough unequal ground as some old Traditions go And level'd to what we see by the Sea 's breaking in and continuing long upon the Land since recovered by its recess and with the help of Industry For it is evident that the Sea for some space of years advances continually upon one Coast retiring from the opposite and in another Age quite changes this course yeilding up what it had seized and seizing what it had yeilded up without any reason to be given of such contrary motions But I suppose this great change was made in Holland when the Sea first parted England from the Continent breaking through a neck of Land between Dover and Calais Which may be a Tale but I am sure is no Record It is certain on the contrary that Sixteen hundred years ago there was no usual mention or memory of any such Changes and that the face of all these Coasts and nature of the Soil especially that of Holland was much as it is now allowing only the Improvements of Riches Time and Industry Which appears by the description made in Tacitus both of the limits of the Isle of Batavia and the nature of the Soil as well as the Climate and the very names of Rivers still remaining 'T is likely the Changes arrived since that Age in these Countreys may have been made by stoppages grown in time with the rolling of Sands upon the mouths of three great Rivers which disimbogued into the Sea through the Coasts of these Provinces That is the Rhine the Mose and the Scheld The ancient Rhyne divided where Skencksconce now stands into two Rivers of which one kept the name till running near Leyden it fell into the Sea at Catwick Where are still seen at low Tides the foundations of an ancient Roman Castle that commanded the mouth of this River But this is wholly stopt up though a great Canal still preserves the Name of the old Rhine The Mose running by Dort and Rotterdam fell as it now does into the Sea at the Briel with mighty issues of water But the Sands gather'd for three or four Leagues upon this Coast makes the Haven extream dangerous without great skill of Pilots and use of Pilot-boats that come out with every Tide to welcome and secure the Ships bound for that River And it is probable that these Sands having obstructed the free course of the River has at times caused or encreased those Inundations out of which so many Islands have been recovered and of which that part of the Countrey is much composed The Scheld seems to have had its issue by Walcheren in Zealand which was an Island in the mouth of that River till the Inundations of that and the Mose seem to have been joyned together by some great Helps or Irruptions of the Sea by
mutual trust among private men so it cannot grow or thrive to any great degree without a confidence both of publique and private safety and consequently a trust in the Government from an opinion of its Strength Wisdom and Justice Which must be grounded either upon the Personal Virtues and Qualities of a Prince or else upon the Constitutions and Orders of a State It appears to every mans eye who hath travel'd Holland and observed the number and vicinity of their great and populous Towns and Villages with the prodigious improvement of almost every spot of ground in the Countrey And the great multitudes constantly employ'd in their Shipping abroad and their Boats at home That no other known Countrey in the World of the same extent holds any proportion with this in numbers of people And if that be the great foundation of Trade the best account that can be given of theirs will be by considering the Causes and Accidents that have served to force or invite so vast a confluence of people into their Countrey In the first rank may be placed the Civil-Wars Calamities Persecutions Oppressions or Discontents that have been so fatal to most of their Neighbours for some time before as well as since their State began The Persecutions for matter of Religion in Germany under Charles the Fifth in France under Henry the Second and in England under Queen Mary forced great numbers of people out of all those Countreys to shelter themselves in the several Towns of the Seventeen Provinces where the ancient Liberties of the Countrey and Priviledges of the Cities had been inviolate under so long a succession of Princes and gave protection to these oppressed strangers who fill'd their Cities both with People and Trade and raised Antwerp to such a heighth and renown as continued till the Duke of Alva's arrival in the Low-Countreys The fright of this man and the Orders he brought and Armies to execute them began to scatter the Flock of people that for some time had been nested there So as in very few Months above a Hundred thousand Families removed out of the Countrey But when the Seven Provinces united and began to defend themselves with success under the conduct of the Prince of Orange and the countenance of England and France And the Persecutions for Religion began to grow sharp in the Spanish Provinces All the Professors of the Reformed Religion and haters of the Spanish Dominion retir'd into the strong Cities of this Commonwealth and gave the same date to the growth of Trade there and the decay of it at Antwerp The long Civil-Wars at first of France then of Germany and lastly of England serv'd to encrease the swarm in this Countrey not only by such as were persecuted at home but great numbers of peaceable men who came here to seek for quiet in their Lives and safety in their Possessions or Trades Like those Birds that upon the approach of a rough Winter-season leave the Countreys where they were born and bred flye away to some kinder and softer Climate and never return till the Frosts are past and the Winds are laid at home The invitation these people had to fix rather in Holland than in many better Countreys seems to have been at first the great strength of their Towns which by their Maritime scituation and the low flatness of their Countrey can with their Sluces overflow all the ground about them at such distances as to become inaccessible to any Land-Forces And this natural strength has been improv'd especially at Amsterdam by all the Art and Expence that could any ways contribute towards the defence of the place Next was the Constitution of their Government by which neither the States-General nor the Prince have any power to invade any man's Person or Property within the precincts of their Cities Nor could it be fear'd that the Senate of any Town should conspire to any such violence nor if they did could they possibly execute it having no Soldiers in their pay and the Burgers only being employ'd in the defence of their Towns and execution of all Civil Justice among them These Circumstances gave so great a credit to the Bank of Amsterdam And that was another invitation for people to come and lodg here what part of their Money they could transport and knew no way of securing at home Nor did those people only lodg Moneys here who came over into the Countrey but many more who never left their own Though they provided for a retreat or against a storm and thought no place so secure as this nor from whence they might so easily draw their money into any parts of the World Another Circumstance was the general Liberty and Ease not only in point of Conscience but all others that serve to the commodiousness and quiet of life Every man following his own way minding his own business and little enquiring into other mens Which I suppose happen'd by so great a concourse of people of several Nations different Religions and Customs as left nothing strange or new And by the general humour bent all upon Industry whereas Curiosity is only proper to idle men Besides it has ever been the great Principle of their State running through all their Provinces and Cities even with emulation To make their Countrey the common refuge of all miserable men From whose protection hardly any Alliance Treaties or Interests have ever been able to divert or remove them So as during the great dependance this State had upon France in the time of Henry the Fourth All the persons disgraced at that Court or banisht that Countrey made this their common retreat Nor could the State ever be prevail'd with by any instances of the French Ambassadors to refuse them the use and liberty of common life and air under the protection of their Government This firmness in the State has been one of the circumstances that has invited so many unhappy men out of all their Neighbourhood and indeed from most parts of Europe to shelter themselves from the blows of Justice or of Fortune Nor indeed does any Countrey seem so proper to be made use of upon such occasions not only in respect of safety but as a place that holds so constant and easie correspondencies with all parts of the World And whither any man may draw whatever money he has at his disposal in any other place Where neither Riches expose men to danger nor Poverty to contempt But on the contrary where Parsimony is honourable whether it be necessary or no and he that is forced by his Fortune to live low may here alone live in fashion and upon equal terms in appearance abroad with the chiefest of their Ministers and richest of their Merchants Nor is it easily imagin'd how great an effect this Constitution among them may in course of time have had upon the encrease both of their People and their Trade As the two first invitations of people into this Countrey were the strength of their
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-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
another Chapter and made the Burghers of so little moment towards the defence of their Towns Whereas in the famous Sieges of Harlem Alemar and Leyden They had made such brave and fierce defences as broke the heart of the Spanish Armies and the fortune of their Affairs Next was the Peace of Munster which had left them now for above Twenty years too secure of all Invasions or Enemies at Land And so turn'd their whole application to the strength of their Forces at Sea Which have been since exercised with two English Wars in that time and enlivened with the small yearly Expeditions into the Streights against the Algerines and other Corsairs of the Mediterranean Another was their too great Parsimony in reforming so many of their best Forreign Officers and Troops upon the Peace of Munster whose Valour and Conduct had been so great occasions of inducing Spain to the Counsels and Conclusions of that Treaty But the greatest of all others that concur'd to weaken and indeed break the strength of their Land-Milice Was the alteration of their State which happen'd by the Perpetual Edict of Holland and West-Friezland upon the death of the last Prince of Orange for exclusion of the Power of Stadtholder in their Province or at least the separation of it from the Charge of Captain-General Since that time the main design and application of those Provinces has been to work out by degrees all the old Officers both Native and Forreign who had been formerly sworn to the Prince of Orange and were still thought affectionate to the Interest of that Family And to fill the Commands of their Army with the Sons or Kinsmen of Burgomasters and other Officers or Deputies in the State Whom they esteemed sure to the Constitutions of their Popular Government and good enough for an Age where they saw no appearance of Enemy at Land to attaque them But the Humour of Kindness to the young Prince both in the People and Army was not to be dissolved or dispersed by any Medicines or Operations either of Rigor or Artifice But grew up insensibly with the Age of the Prince ever presaging some Revolution in the State when he should come to the years of aspiring and managing the general Affections of the people Being a Prince who joined to the great Qualities of his Royal Blood the popular Virtues of his Countrey Silent and thoughtful Given to hear and to enquire Of a sound and steddy Understanding Much firmness in what he once resolves or once denies Great Industry and application to his business Little to his Pleasures Piety in the Religion of his Countrey but with Charity to others Temperance unusual to his youth and to the Climate Frugal in the common management of his Fortune and yet magnificent upon occasion Of great Spirit and Heart aspiring to the glory of Military Actions With strong ambition to grow Great but rather by the Service than the Servitude of his Countrey In short A Prince of many Virtues without any appearing mixture of Vice In the English War begun the year 65 the States disbanded all the English Troops that were then left in their Service dispersing the Officers and Soldiers of our Nation who staid with them into other Companies or Regiments of their own After the French Invasion of Flanders and the strict Alliance between England and Holland in 68 They did the same by all the French that were remaining in their Service So as the several Bodies of these two Nations which had ever the greatest part in the Honour and Fortune of their Wars were now wholly dissolved and their standing-Milice composed in a manner all of their own Natives enervated by the long uses and arts of Traffique and of Peace But they were too great a Match for any of the smaller Princes their Neighbours in Germany And too secure of any danger from Spain by the knowledg of their Forces as well as Dispositions And being strictly allied both with England and Sweden in two several Defensive Leagues and in one common Tripple Alliance They could not foresee any danger from France who they thought would never have the Courage or Force to enter the Lists with so mighty Confederates and who were sure of a Conjunction whenever they pleased both with the Emperor and Spain Besides They knew that France could not attaque them without passing through Flanders or Germany They were sure Spain would not suffer it through the first if they were backt in opposing it As foreseeing the inevitable loss of Flanders upon that of Holland And they could hardly believe the passage should be yeilded by a German Prince contrary to the express Will and Intentions of the Emperor as well as the common Interests of the Empire So that they hoped the War would at least open in their Neighbours Provinces For whose defence they resolved to employ the whole Force of their State And would have made a mighty resistance if the Quarrel had begun at any other doors but their own They could not imagine a Conjunction between England and France for the ruin of their State For being unacquainted with our Constitutions they did not foresee how we should find our Interest in it and measured all States by that which They esteemed to be their Interest Nor could they believe that other Princes and States of Europe would suffer such an addition to be made to the Power of France as a Conquest of Holland Besides these publique Considerations there were others particular to the Factions among them And some of their Ministers were neither forward nor supple enough to endeavour the early breaking or diverting such Conjunctures as threatned them Because they were not without hopes they might end in renewing their broken Measures with France Which those of the Commonwealth-Party were more enclin'd to by foreseeing the influence that their Alliances with England must needs have in time towards the restoring of the Prince of Orange's Authority And they thought at the worst that whenever a pinch came they could not fail of a safe bargain in one Market or other having so vast a Treasure ready to employ upon any good occasion These Considerations made them commit three fatal Oversights in their Forreign Negotiations For they made an Alliance with England without engaging a Confidence and Friendship They broke their Measures with France without closing new ones with Spain And they reckon'd upon the Assistances of Sweden and their Neighbour-Princes of Germany without making them sure by Subsidiary Advances before a War began Lastly The Prince of Orange was approaching the Two and twentieth year of his age which the States of Holland had since their Alliance with His Majesty in 68 ever pretended should be the time of advancing him to the Charge of Captain-General and Admiral of their Forces Though without that of Stadtholder But the nearer they drew to this period which was like to make a new Figure in their Government the more desirous some of their
Ministers seemed either to decline or to restrain it On the other side the Prince grew confident upon the former Promises or at least Intimations of Holland and the concurring dispositions of the other Six Provinces to his advancement And his Party spirited by their hopes and the great Qualities of this young Prince now grown ripe for Action and for Enterprise resolved to bring this point to a sudden decision Against which the other Party prepared and united all their Defences So as this strong Disease that had been so long working in the very Bowels of the State seem'd just upon its Crisis When a Conjunction of two Mighty Kings brought upon them a sudden and furious Invasion by Land and Sea at the same time By a Royal Fleet of above Fourscore Ships and an Army of as many thousand men When the States saw this Cloud ready to break upon them after a long belief that it would blow over They began not only to provide shelter at home with their usual vigor but to look out for it abroad though both too late Of the Princes that were their Allies or concern'd in their danger Such as were far off could not be in time The nearer were unwilling to share in a danger they were not enough prepar'd for Most were content to see the Pride of this State humbled Some the Injuries they had received from them revenged Many would have them mortified that would not have them destroyed And so all resolved to leave them to weather the storm as they could for one Campania Which they did not believe could go far towards their ruin considering the greatness of their Riches number of their Forces and strength of their Places The State in the mean time had encreased their Troops to Seventy thousand men and had begun to repair the Fortifications of their Frontier-Towns But so great a length of their Countrey lay open to the French Invasion by the Territories of Colen and Liege And to the Bishop of Munster their inveterate Enemy by Westphalia that they knew not where to expect or provide against the first danger And while they divided their Forces and Endeavours towards the securing of so many Garrisons They provided for none to any purpose but Maestricht Which the French left behind them and fell in upon the Towns of the Rhine and the heart of their Provinces Besides Those Ministers who had still the direction of Affairs bent their chief application to the strength and order of their Fleet rather than of their Army Whether more peckt at England than France upon the War and manner of entering into it Or believing that a Victory at Sea would be the way to a Peace with this Crown Or hoping their Towns would not fall so fast but that before three or four were lost the business at Sea would be decided Or perhaps content that some ill Successes should attend the Prince of Orange at his first entrance upon the Command of their Armies and thereby contribute to their Designs of restraining the Authority while they were forced to leave him the Name of Captain-General This indeed was not likely to fail considering the ill constitution of their old Army the hasty Levies of their new and the heighth of the Factions now broken out in the State Which left both the Towns and the Troops in suspence under whose Banners they fought and by whose Orders they were to be govern'd the Prince's or the States There happen'd at the same time an accident unusual to their Climate Which was a mighty Drowth in the begining of the Summer that left their waters fordable in places where they used to be navigable for Boats of greatest burthen And this gave them more trouble and distraction in the defence as their Enemies more facility in the passage of those great Rivers which were esteemed no small security of their Countrey And in this posture were the Affairs of this Commonwealth when the War broke out with those fatal Events that must needs attend any Kingdom or State where the violence of a Forreign Invasion happens to meet with the distraction of a Domestique Sedition or Discontent Which like ill Humours in a Body make any small wound dangerous and a great one mortal They were still a great Body but without their usual Soul They were a State but it was of the Disunited Provinces Their Towns were without Order Their Burgers without Obedience Their Soldiers without Discipline And all without heart Whereas in all Sieges The Hearts of Men defend the Walls and not Walls the Men And indeed it was the Name of England joining in the War against them that broke their hearts and contributed more to the loss of so many Towns and so much Countrey than the Armies of Munster or of France So that upon all circumstances consider'd it seems easier to give an account what it was that lost them so much than what sav'd them the rest No man at play sees a very great Game either in his own or another's hand unexpectedly lost but He is apt to consider whether it could have been saved and how it ought to have been play'd The same Enquiry will be natural upon the fall of this State and very difficult to resolve After the mighty growth of the French and decay of the Spanish Power which drew on the Invasion of Flanders in 1667 This State had a very hard Game to play Either they must see Flanders wholly lost and France grown to confine upon them whom they liked as an Ally but dreaded as a Neighbour Or else they must join with France to divide Flanders between them But they knew what it was to share with the Lion Or they must join with Spain to defend Flanders against France That is with their old Enemy against their old Friend Or lastly They must join with England for the defence of Flanders Neither breaking with France nor closing with Spain and frame an Arbitrage but of something a rough nature Rather prescribing than mediating a Peace And threatning a War upon that Crown that refused it They chose the last and wisely as all men thought But though this Alliance was happily planted yet it was unhappily cultivated and so the Fruit came to fall and the Root to wither upon the first change of seasons in such a manner and to such a degree as we have lately seen Whether they could have prevented a Conjunction of England with France shall be no part of my Subject For I pretend not to know or to tell Secrets of State and intend these not for the Observations of an Ambassador but of a private man as I am and such as any Gentleman might easily have made who had resided above two years as I did in Holland and had been as I was a little enclined to observe I shall only say That the Conjunction of England with France was to this State like one of those Diseases which the Physicians say are hard to discern while they
surprising than in any place I know so as a warm faint Air turns in a night to a sharp Frost with the Wind coming into the North-east And the contrary with another change of Wind. The Spring is much shorter and less agreeable than with us the Winter much colder and some parts of the Summer much hotter and I have known more than once the violence of one give way to that of the other like the cold fit of an Ague to the hot without any good temper between The flatness of their Land exposes it to the danger of the Sea and forces them to infinite charge in the continual fences and repairs of their Banks to oppose it Which employ yearly more men than all the Corn of the Province of Holland could maintain as one of their chief Ministers has told me They have lately found the common Sea-weed to be the best Material for these Digues which fastens with a thin mixture of Earth yeilds a little to the force of the Sea and returns when the Waves give back Whether they are thereby the safer against Water as they say Houses that shake are against Wind or whether as pious Naturalists observe all things carry about them that which serves for a Remedy against the Mischiefs they do in the world The extream moisture of the Air I take to be the occasion of the great neatness in their Houses and cleanliness in their Towns For without the help of those Customs their Countrey would not be habitable by such Crowds of people but the Air would corrupt upon every hot season and expose the Inhabitants to general and infectious Diseases Which they hardly escape three Summers together especially about Leyden where the Waters are not so easily renewed and for this reason I suppose it is that Leyden is found to be the neatest and cleanest kept of all their Towns The same moisture of Air makes all Metals apt to rust and Wood to mould which forces them by continual pains of rubbing and scouring to seek a prevention or cure This makes the brightness and cleanness that seems affected in their Houses and is call'd natural to them by people who think no further So the deepness of their Soil and wetness of Seasons which would render it unpassable forces them not only to exactness of paving in their Streets but to the expence of so long Cawsies between many of their Towns and in their High-ways As indeed most National Customs are the Effect of some unseen or unobserved natural Causes or Necessities CHAP. IV. Of their People and Dispositions THE People of Holland may be divided into these several Classes The Clowns or Boors as they call them who cultivate the Land The Mariners or Schippers who supply their Ships and Inland-Boats The Merchants or Traders who fill their Towns The Renteeners or men that live in all their chief Cities upon the Rents or Interest of Estates formerly acquired in their Families And the Gentlemen and Officers of their Armies The first are a Race of people diligent rather than laborious dull and slow of understanding and so not dealt with by hasty words but managed easily by soft and fair and yeilding to plain Reason if you give them time to understand it In the Countrey and Villages not too near the great Towns they seem plain and honest and content with their own so that if in bounty you give them a shilling for what is worth but a groat they will take the current price and give you the rest again if you bid them take it they know not what you mean and sometimes ask if you are a Fool. They know no other Good but the supply of what Nature requires and the common encrease of Wealth They feed most upon Herbs Roots and Milks and by that means I suppose neither their Strength nor Vigor seems answerable to the Size or Bulk of their Bodies The Mariners are a plain but much rougher people whether from the Element they live in or from their Food which is generally Fish and Corn and heartier than that of the Boors They are surly and ill-manner'd which is mistaken for Pride but I believe is learnt as all Manners are by the conversation we use Now theirs lying only among one another or with Winds and Waves which are not mov'd or wrought upon by any language or observance or to be dealt with but by Pains and by Patience These are all the Qualities their Mariners have learnt their Valour is passive rather than active and their Language is little more than what is of necessary use to their Business The Merchants and Trades-men both the greater and Mechanick living in Towns that are of great resort both by strangers and passengers of their own Are more Mercurial Wit being sharpned by commerce and conversation of Cities though they are not very inventive which is the gift of warmer heads yet are they great in imitation and so far many times as goes beyond the Originals Of mighty Industry and constant application to the Ends they propose and pursue They make use of their Skill and their Wit to take advantage of other men's Ignorance and Folly they deal with Are great Exacters where the Law is in their own hands In other points where they deal with men that understand like themselves and are under the reach of Justice and 〈◊〉 they are the plainest and best dealers in the world Which seems not to grow so much from a Principle of Conscience or Morality as from a Custom or Habit introduced by the necessity of Trade among them which depends as much upon Common-Honesty as War does upon Discipline and without which all would break up Merchants would turn Pedlars and Soldiers Thieves Those Families which live upon their Patrimonial Estates in all the great Cities are a people differently bred and manner'd from the Traders though like them in the modesty of Garb and Habit and the Parsimony of living Their Youth are generally bred up at Schools and at the Universities of Leyden or Utrecht in the common studies of Human Learning but chiefly of the Civil Law which is that of their Countrey at least as far as it is so in France and Spain For as much as I understand of those Countreys No Decisions or Decrees of the Civil Law nor Constitutions of the Roman Emperors have the force or current of Law among them as is commonly believed but only the force of Reasons when alledged before their Courts of Judicature as far as the Authority of men esteemed wise passes for Reason But the ancient Customs of those several Countreys and the Ordonnances of their Kings and Princes consented to by the Estates or in France verified by Parliaments have only the strength and authority of Law among them Where these Families are rich their Youths after the course of their studies at home travel for some years as the Sons of our Gentry use to do but their journeys are chiefly into England and France not
much into Italy seldomer into Spain nor often into the more Northern Countreys unless in company or train of their Publique Ministers The chief End of their Breeding is to make them fit for the service of their Countrey in the Magistracy of their Towns their Provinces and their State And of these kind of men are the Civil Officers of this Government generally composed being descended of Families who have many times been constantly in the Magistracy of their Native Towns for many Years and some for several Ages Such were most or all of the chief Ministers and the persons that composed their chief Councils in the time of my residence among them and not men of mean or Mechanick Trades as it is commonly received among Forreigners and makes the subject of Comical Jests upon their Government This does not exclude many Merchants or Traders in gross from being often seen in the Offices of their Cities and sometimes deputed to their States Nor several of their States from turning their Stocks in the management of some very beneficial Trade by Servants and Houses maintained to that purpose But the generality of the States and Magistrates are of the other sort Their Estates consisting in the Pensions of their Publique Charges in the Rents of Lands or Interest of Money upon the Cantores or in Actions of the East-Indy Company or in Shares upon the Adventures of great Trading-Merchants Nor do these Families habituated as it were to the Magistracy of their Towns and Provinces usually arrive at great or excessive Riches The Salaries of Publique Employments and Interest being low but the Revenue of Lands being yet very much lower and seldom exceeding the profit of Two in the Hundred They content themselves with the hohour of being useful to the Publique with the esteem of their Cities or their Countrey and with the ease of their Fortunes which seldom fails by the frugality of their living grown universal by being I suppose at first necessary but since honourable among them The mighty growth and excess of Riches is seen among the Merchants and Traders whose application lyes wholly that way and who are the better content to have so little share in the Government desiring only security in what they possess Troubled with no cares but those of their Fortunes and the management of their Trades and turning the rest of their time and thought to the divertisement of their lives Yet these when they attain great wealth chuse to breed up their Sons in the way and marry their Daughters into the Families of those others most generally credited in their Towns and versed in their Magistracies And thereby introduce their Families into the way of Government and Honour which consists not here in Titles but in Publique Employments The next Rank among them is that of their Gentlemen or Nobles who in the Province of Holland to which I chiefly confine these Observations are very few most of the Families having been extinguished in the long Wars with Spain But those that remain are in a manner all employ'd in the Military or Civil Charges of the Province or State These are in their Customs and Manners and way of living a good deal different from the rest of the people and having been bred much abroad rather affect the Garb of their Neighbour-Courts than the Popular Air of their own Countrey They value themselves more upon their Nobility than men do in other Countreys where 't is more common and would think themselves utterly dishonoured by the marriage of one that were not of their Rank though it were to make up the broken Fortune of a Noble Family by the Wealth of a Plebean They strive to imitate the French in their Meen their Clothes their way of Talk of Eating of Gallantry or Debauchery And are in my mind something worse than they would be by affecting to be better than they need making sometimes but ill Copies whereas they might be good Originals by refining or improving the Customs and Virtues proper to their own Countrey and Climate They are otherwise an Honest Well-natur'd Friendly and Gentlemanly sort of men and acquit themselves generally with Honour and Merit where their Countrey employs them The Officers of their Armies live after the Customs and Fashions of the Gentlemen And so do many Sons of the rich Merchants who returning from travel abroad have more designs upon their own pleasure and the vanity of appearing than upon the Service of their Countrey Or if they pretend to enter into that it is rather by the Army than the State And all these are generally desirous to see a Court in their Countrey that they may value themselves at home by the Qualities they have learnt abroad and make a Figure which agrees better with their own Humour and the manner of Courts than with the Customs and Orders that prevail in more Popular Governments There are some Customs or Dispositions that seem to run generally through all these Degrees of men among them As great Frugality and order in their Expences Their common Riches lye in every man's having more than he spends or to say it more properly In every man's spending less than he has coming in be that what it will Nor does it enter into men's heads among them That the common port or course of Expence should equal the Revenue and when this happens they think at least they have liv'd that year to no purpose And the train of it discredits a man among them as much as any vicious or prodigal Extravagance does in other Countreys This enables every man to bear their extream Taxes and makes them less sensible than they would be in other places For he that lives upon Two parts in Five of what he has coming in if he pays Two more to the State he does but part with what he should have laid up and had no present use for Whereas he that spends yearly what he receives if he pays but the Fiftieth part to the Publique it goes from him like that which was necessary to buy Bread or Clothes for himself or his Family This makes the beauty and strength of their Towns the commodiousness of travelling in their Countrey by their Canals Bridges and Cawseys the pleasantness of their Walks and their Grafts in and near all their Cities And in short the Beauty Convenience and sometimes Magnificence of all Publique Works to which every man pays as willingly and takes as much pleasure and vanity in them as those of other Countreys do in the same circumstances among the Possessions of their Families or private Inheritance What they can spare besides the necessary expence of their Domestique the Publique Payments and the common course of still encreasing their Stock Is laid out in the Fabrick Adornment or Furniture of their Houses Things not so transitory or so prejudicial to Health and to Business as the constant Excesses and Luxury of Tables Nor perhaps altogether so vain as the extravagant Expences of Clothes and