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
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 and Greece were stiled so by the Romans but whose Victories in obtaining new Seats and Orders in possessing them might make us allow them for a better polici'd people than they appeared by the vastness of their Multitude or the rage of their Battels VVherever they past and seated their Colonies and Dominions they left a Constitution which has since been called in most European Languages The States consisting of Three Orders Noble Ecclesiastical and Popular under the limited Principality of one Person with the stile of King Prince Duke or Count. The remainders at least or traces hereof appear still in all the Principalities founded by those people in Italy France and Spain and were of a piece with the present Constitutions in most of the great Dominions on t'other side the Rhyne And it seems to have been a temper first introduced by them between the Tyranny of the Eastern Kingdoms and the Liberty of the Grecian or Roman Commonwealths 'T is true the Goths were Gentiles when they first broke into the Roman Empire till one great swarm of this people upon treaty with one of the Roman Emperors and upon Concessions of a great Tract of Land to be a Seat for their Nation embraced at once the Christian Faith After which the same people breaking out of the limits had been allowed them and by fresh numbers bearing all down where they bent their march as they were a great means of propagating Religion in many parts of Europe where they extended their Conquests so the zeal of these new Proselytes warmed by the veneration they had for their Bishops and Pastors and enriched by the spoyls and possessions of so vast Countreys seem to have been the First that introduced the maintenance of the Churches and Clergy by endowments of Lands Lordships and Vassals appropriated to them For before this time the Authority of the Priesthood in all Religions seemed wholly to consist in the peoples opinion of their Piety Learning and Virtues or a reverence for their Character and Mystical Ceremonies and Institutions their Support or their Revenues in the voluntary Oblations of pious men the Bounty of Princes or in a certain share out of the Labours and Gains of those who lived under their Cure and not in any subjection of mens Lives or Fortunes which belonged wholly to the Civil Power And Ammianus though he taxes the Luxury of the Bishops in Valentinian's time yet he speaks of their Riches which occasioned or fomented it as arising wholly from the Oblations of the people But the Devotion of these new Christians introducing this new form of endowing their Churches and afterwards Pepin and Charlemaign King of the Franks upon their Victories in Italy and the favour of the Roman Bishop to their Title and Arms having annexed great Territories and Jurisdictions to that See This Example or Custom was followed by most Princes of the Northern Races through the rest of Europe and brought into the Clergy great possessions of Lands and by a necessary consequence a great share of Temporal Power from the dependances of their Subjects or Tenants by which means they came to be generally one of the Three Orders that composed the Assembly of the States in every Countrey This Constitution of the States had been establisht from time immemorial in the several Provinces of the Low-Countreys and was often assembled for determining Disputes about succession of their Princes where doubtful or contested For deciding those between the great Towns For raising a Milice for the defence of their Countreys in the wars of their Neighbours For Advice in time of Dangers abroad or Discontents at home But always upon the new Succession of a Prince and upon any new Impositions that were necessary on the people The use of this Assembly was another of those Liberties whereof the Inhabitants of these Provinces were so fond and so tenacious The rest besides those ancient Priviledges already mentioned of their Towns were Concessions and Graces of several Princes in particular Exemptions or Immunities Jurisdiction both in choice and exercise of Magigistracy and Civil Judicature within themselves or else in the customs of using none but Natives in Charges and Offices and passing all weighty Affairs by the great Council composed of the great Lords of the Countrey who were in a manner all Temporal there being but three Bishops in all the Seventeen Provinces till the time of Philip the second of Spain The Revenues of these Princes consisted in their ancient Demesnes in small Customs which yet grew considerable by the greatness of Trade in the Maritime Towns and in the voluntary Contributions of their Subjects either in the States or in particular Cities according to the necessities of their Prince or the affections of the people Nor were these frequent for the Forces of these Counts were composed of such Lords who either by their Governments or other Offices or by the tenure of their Lands were obliged to attend their Prince on Horse-back with certain numbers of men upon all his wars or else of a Milice which was call'd Les gens d' ordonnance who served on foot and were not unlike our Train-bands the use or at least stile whereof was renewed in Flanders upon the last VVar with France in 1667 when the Count Egmont was made by the Governour General de gens d' ordonnance These Forces were defrayed by the Cities or Countreys as the others were raised by the Lords when occasion required and all were licensed immediately when it was past so that they were of little charge to the Prince His wars were but with other Princes of his own size or Competitors to his Principality or sometimes with the Mutineys of his great Towns Short though violent and decided by one Battel or Siege unless they fell into the quarrels between England and France and then they were engaged but in the skirts of the VVar the gross of it being waged between the two Kings and these smaller Princes made use of for the credit of Alliance or sometimes the commodiousness of a Diversion rather than for any great weight they made in the main of the Affair The most frequent VVars of the Counts of Holland were with the Frisons a part of the old Saxons and the fiercest battels of some of the Counts of Flanders were with the Normans who past that way into France and were the last of those Nations that have infested the more Southern parts of Europe I have sometimes thought how it should have come to pass that the infinite swarm of that vast Northern-Hive which so often shook the world like a great Tempest and overflowed it like a great Torrent changing Names and Customs and Government and Language and the very face of Nature wherever they seated themselves which upon record of story under the name of Gauls pierced into Greece and Italy sacking Rome and besieging the Capitol in Camillus his time under that of the Cimbers marcht through France to the very confines of
Italy defended by Marius under that of Huns or Lombards Visigoths Goths and Vandals conquered the whole Forces of the Roman Empire sackt Rome thrice in a small compass of years seated their Kingdoms in Spain and Africk as well as Lombardy and under that of Danes or Normans possest themselves of England a great part of France and even of Naples and Sicily How I say these Nations which seemed to spawn in every Age and at some intervals of time discharged their own native Countreys of so vast Numbers and with such terror to the world should about seven or eight hundred years ago leave off the use of these furious expeditions as if on a sudden 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
among them and the Sums only disputed between the Prince and the States To establish the Fourteen Bishops he had agreed with the Pope should be added to the Three that were anciently in the Low-Countreys To revive the Edicts of Charles the Fifth against Luther publish't in a Diet of the Empire about the year 1550 but eluded in the Low-Countreys even in that Emperor's time and thereby to make way for the Inquisition with the same course it had received in Spain of which the Lutherans here and the Moors there were made an equal pretence And these Points as they came to be owned and executed made the first Commotions of mens minds in the Provinces The hatred of the people against the Spaniards and the Insolencies of those Troops with the charge of their support made them look't upon by the Inhabitants in general as the Instruments of their Oppression and Slavery and not of their Defence when a general Peace had left them no Enemies And therefore the States began here their Complaints with a general Consent and Passion of all the Nobles as well as Towns and Countrey And upon the Delays that were contrived or fell in the States first refused to raise any more moneys either for the Spaniards pay or their own standing-Troops and the people run into so great despair that in Zealand they absolutely gave over the working at their Digues suffering the Sea to gain every Tide upon the Countrey and resolving as they said rather to be devoured by that Element than by the Spanish Soldiers So that after many Disputes and Intrigues between the Governess and the Provinces the King upon her Remonstrances was induced to their removal which was accordingly performed with great joy and applause of the people The erecting of Fourteen new Bishops Sees raised the next Contest The great Lords lookt upon this Innovation as a lessening of their Power by introducing so many new men into the great Council The Abbots out of whose Lands they were to be endowed pleaded against it as a violent usurpation upon the Rights of the Church and the Will of the Dead who had given those Lands to a particular use The Commons murmured at it as a new degree of Oppression upon their Conscience or Liberty by the erecting so many new Spiritual Courts of Judicature and so great a number of Judges being Seventeen for Three that were before in the Countrey and those depending absolutely upon the Pope or the King And all men declaimed against it as a breach of the Kings Oath at his accession to the Government for the preserving the Church and the Laws in the same state he found them However this Point was gain'd intirely by the Governess and carried over the head of all opposition though not without leaving a general discontent In the midst of these ill Humours stirring in Flanders the Wars of Religion breaking out in France drove great numbers of Calvinists into all those parts of the Low-Countreys that confine upon France as the Troubles of Germany had before of Lutherans into the Provinces about the Rhyne and the Persecutions under Queen Mary those of the Church of England into Flanders and Brabant by the great commerce of this Kingdom with Bruges and Antwerp These Accidents and Neighbourhoods filled these Countreys in a small tract of time with swarms of the Reformed Professors And the admiration of their Zeal the opinion of their Doctrine and Piety the compassion of their Sufferings the infusion of their Discontents or the Humour of the Age gain'd them every day many Proselytes in the Low-Countreys some among the Nobles many among the Villages but most among the Cities whose Trade and Riches were much encreased by these new Inhabitants and whose Interest thereby as well as Conversation drew them on to their favour This made work for the Inquisition though moderately exercised by the prudence and temper of the Governess mediating between the rigor of Granvell in straining up to the highest his Master's Authority and the execution of his Commands upon all occasions And the resoluteness of the Lords of the Provinces to temper the King's Edicts and protect the Liberties of their Countrey against the admission of this New and Arbitrary Judicature unknown to all ancient Laws and Customs of the Countrey and for that not less odious to the people than for the cruelty of their executions For before the Inquisition the care of Religion was in the Bishops and before that in the Civil Magistrates throughout the Provinces Upon angry Debates in Council but chiefly upon the universal Ministry of Granvell a Burgundian of mean birth grown at last to be a Cardinal and more famous for the greatness of his Parts than the goodness of his Life The chief Lords of the Countrey among whom the Prince of Orange Counts Egmont and Horn the Marquess of Bergen and Montigny were most considerable grew to so violent and implacable a hatred of the Cardinal whether from Passion or Interest which was so universally spread through the whole Body of the People either by the Causes of it or the Example That the Lords first refused their attendance in Council protesting Not to endure the sight of a man so absolute there and to the ruin of their Countrey And afterwards petitioned the King in the name of the whole Countrey for his removal Upon the delay whereof and the continuance of the Inquisition the people appeared upon daily occasions and accidents heated to that degree as threatned a general Combustion in the whole Body when ever the least Flame should break out in any part But the King at length consented to Granvell's recess by the opinion of the Dutchess of Parma as well as the pursuit of the Provinces Whereupon the Lords reassumed their places in Council Count Egmont was sent into Spain to represent the Grievances of the Provinces and being favourably dispatcht by the King especially by remitting the rigor of the Edicts about Religion and the Inquisition All noise of discontent and tumult was appeased the Lords were made use of by the Governess in the Council and conduct of Affairs and the Governess was by the Lords both obeyed and honoured In the beginning of the year 1565 there was a Conference at Bayonne between Katharine Queen-Mother of France and her Son Charles the Ninth though very young with his Sister Isabella Queen of Spain In which no other person but the Duke of Alva interven'd being deputed thither by Philip who excused his own presence and thereby made this Enterview pass for an effect or expression of kindness between the Mother and her Children Whether great Resolutions are the more suspected where great Secresie is observed or it be true what the Prince of Orange affirmed to have by accident discovered That the extirpation of all Families which should profess the New Religion in the French or Spanish Dominions was here agreed on with mutual assistance of the two Crowns 'T is certain and was owned
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
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
also those Manners and Dispositions that tend to the Peace Order and Safety of all Civil Societies and Governments among men Nor could I ever understand how those who call themselves and the world usually calls Religious Men come to put so great weight upon those points of Belief which men never have agreed in and so little upon those of Virtue and Morality in which they have hardly ever disagreed Nor why a State should venture the subversion of their Peace and their Order which are certain Goods for the propagation of uncertain or contested Opinions One of the great Causes of the first Revolt in the Low-Countreys appeared to be The Oppression of men's Consciences or Persecution in their Liberties their Estates and their Lives upon pretence of Religion And this at a time when there seemed to be a conspiring-disposition in most Countreys of Christendom to seek the reformation of some abuses grown in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church either by the Rust of Time by Negligence or by Human Inventions Passions and Interests The rigid opposition given at Rome to this general Humour was followed by a defection of mighty numbers in all those several Countreys Who professed to reform themselves according to such Rules as they thought were necessary for the reformation of the Church These persons though they agreed in the main of disowning the Papal Power and reducing Belief from the authority of Tradition to that of the Scripture Yet they differ'd much among themselves in other circumstances especially of Discipline according to the Perswasions and Impressions of the Leading-Doctors in their several Countreys So the Reformed of France became universally Calvinists But for those of Germany though they were generally Lutherans yet there was a great mixture both of Calvinists and Anabaptists among them The first Persecutions of these Reformed arose in Germany in the time of Charles the Fifth and drove great numbers of them down into the Seventeen Provinces especially Holland and Brabant where the Priviledges of the Cities were greater and the Emperor's Government was less severe as among the Subjects of his own Native Countreys This was the occasion that in the year 1566 when upon the first Insurrection in Flanders those of the Reformed Profession began to form Consistories and levy Contributions among themselves for support of their Common Cause It was resolved upon consultation among the Heads of them that for declining all differences among themselves at a time of common exigence The publique Profession of their Party should be that of the Lutherans though with liberty and indulgence to those of different Opinions By the Union of Utrecht concluded in 579 Each of the Provinces was left to order the matter of Religion as they thought fit and most conducing to the welfare of their Province With this provision that every man should remain free in his Religion and none be examined or entrapped for that cause according to the Pacification at Gant But in the year 583 it was enacted by general agreement That the Evangelical Religion should be only professed in all the Seven Provinces Which came thereby to be the establisht Religion of this State The Reasons which seem to induce them to this settlement were many and of weight As first Because by the Persecutions arrived in France where all the Reformed were Calvinists multitudes of people had retired out of that Kingdom into the Low Countreys And by the great commerce and continual intercourse with England where the Reformation agreed much with the Calvinists in point of Doctrine though more with the Lutherans in point of Discipline Those Opinions came to be credited and propagated more than any other among the people of these Provinces So as the numbers were grown to be greater far in the Cities of this than of any other Profession Secondly The Succours and Supplies both of Men and Money by which the weak Beginnings of this Commonwealth were Perserved and Fortified came chiefly from England from the Protestants of France when their affairs were successful and from the Calvinist Princes of Germany who lay nearest and were readiest to relieve them In the next place Because those of this Profession seem'd the most contrary and violent against the Spaniards who made themselves Heads of the Roman-Catholiques throughout Christendom And the hatred of Spain and their Dominion was so rooted in the Hearts of this People that it had influence upon them in the very choice of their Religion And lastly Because by this Profession all Rights and Jurisdiction of the Clergy or Hierarchy being suppressed There was no Ecclesiastical Authority left to rise up and trouble or fetter the Civil Power And all the Goods and Possessions of Churches and Abbies were seized wholly into the hands of the State which made a great encrease of the publique Revenue A thing the most necessary for the support of their Government There might perhaps be added one Reason more which was particular to one of the Provinces For whereas in most if not all other parts of Christendom the Clergy composed one of the Three Estates of the Countrey And thereby shar'd with the Nobles and Commons in their Influences upon the Government That Order never made any part of the Estates in Holland nor had any Vote in their Assembly which consisted only of the Nobles and the Cities and this Province bearing always the greatest sway in the Councils of the Union was most enclined to the settlement of that Profession which gave least pretence of Power or Jurisdiction to the Clergy and so agreed most with their own ancient Constitutions Since this Establishment as well as before the great Care of this State has ever been To favour no particular or curious Inquisition into the Faith or Religious Principles of any peaceable man who came to live under the protection of their Laws And to suffer no Violence or Oppression upon any Mans Conscience whose Opinions broke not out into Expressions or Actions of ill consequence to the State A free Form of Government either making way for more freedom in Religion Or else having newly contended so far themselves for Liberty in this point they thought it the more unreasonable for them to oppress others Perhaps while they were so threatened and endanger'd by Forreign Armies they thought it the more necessary to provide against Discontents within which can never be dangerous where they are not grounded or fathered upon Oppression in point either of Religion or Liberty But in those two Cases the Flame often proves most violent in a State the more 't is shut up or the longer concealed The Roman-Catholique Religion was alone excepted from the common protection of their Laws Making Men as the States believed worse Subjects than the rest By the acknowledgment of a Forreign and Superior Jurisdiction For so must all Spiritual Power needs be as grounded upon greater Hopes and Fears than any Civil At least wherever the perswasions from Faith are as strong as those
Towns and nature of their Government So two others have grown with the course of time and progress of their Riches and Power One is the Reputation of their Government arising from the observation of the Success of their Arms the Prudence of their Negotiations the Steddiness of their Counsels the Constancy of their Peace and Quiet at home and the Consideration they hereby arrived at among the Princes and States of Christendom From all these men grew to a general opinion of the Wisdom and Conduct of their State and of its being establisht upon Foundations that could not be shaken by any common Accidents nor consequently in danger of any great or sudden Revolutions And this is a mighty inducement to industrious people to come and inhabit a Countrey who seek not only safety under Laws from Injustice and Oppression but likewise under the strength and good conduct of a State from the violence of Forreign Invasions or of Civil Commotions The other is the great Beauty of their Countrey forced in time and by the improvements of Industry in spight of Nature Which draws every day such numbers of curious and idle persons to see their Provinces though not to inhabit them And indeed their Countrey is a much better Mistress than a Wife and where few persons who are well at home would be content to live but where none that have time and money to spare would not for once be willing to travel And as England shows in the beauty of the Countrey what Nature can arrive at so does Holland in the number greatness and beauty of their Towns whatever Art can bring to pass But these and many other matters of Speculation among them filling the Observations of all common Travellers shall make no part of mine whose design is rather to discover the Causes of their Trade and Riches than to relate the Effects Yet it may be noted hereupon as a piece of wisdom in any Kingdom or State By the Magnificence of Courts or of Publique Structures By encouraging beauty in private Buildings and the adornment of Towns with pleasant and regular plantations of Trees By the celebration of some Noble Festivals or Solemnities By the institution of some great Marts or Fairs and by the contrivance of any extraordinary and renowned Spectacles To invite and occasion as much and as often as can be the concourse of busie or idle people from the neighbouring or remoter Nations whose very passage and intercourse is a great encrease of Wealth and of Trade and a secret incentive of people to inhabit a Countrey where men may meet with equal advantages and more entertainments of life than in other places Such were the Olimpick and other Games among the Grecians Such the Triumphs Trophees and Secular Plays of old Rome as well as the Spectacles exhibited afterwards by the Emperors with such stupendious effects of Art and Expence for courting or entertertaining the people Such the Jubilees of new Rome The Justs and Tournaments formerly used in most of the Courts of Christendom The Festivals of the more celebrated Orders of Knighthood And in particular Towns the Carnavals and Faires The Kirmeshes which run through all the Cities of the Netherlands and in some of them with a great deal of Pageantry as well as Traffique being equal baits of Pleasure and of Gain Having thus discover'd what has laid the great Foundations of their Trade by the multitude of their People which has planted and habituated Industry among them and by that all sorts of Manufacture As well as Parsimony and thereby general Wealth I shall enumerate very briefly some other Circumstances that seem next to these the chief Advancers and Encouragers of Trade in their Countrey Low Interest and deerness of Land are effects of the multitude of People and cause so much Money to lye ready for all Projects by which gain may be expected as the cutting of Canals making Bridges and Cawsies leveling Downs and draining Marshes besides all new essays at Forreign Trade which are proposed with any probability of advantage The use of their Banks which secures Money and makes all Payments easie and Trade quick The Sale by Registry which was introduced here and in Flanders in the time of Charles the Fifth and makes all Purchases safe The Severity of Justice not only against all Thefts but all Cheats and Counterfeits of any Publique Bills which is capital among them and even against all common Beggars who are disposed of either into Work-houses or Hospitals as they are able or unable to labour The Convoys of Merchant-Fleets into all parts even in time of Peace but especially into the Streights which give their Trade security against many unexpected accidents and their Nation credit abroad and breeds up Sea-men for their Ships of War The lowness of their Customs and easiness of paying them which with the freedom of their Ports invite both Strangers and Natives to bring Commodities hither not only as to a Market but as to a Magazine where they lodg till they are invited abroad to other and better Markets Order and Exactness in managing their Trade which brings their Commodities in credit abroad This was first introduced by severe Laws and Penalties but is since grown into custom Thus there have been above Thirty several Placarts about the manner of curing pickling and barreling Herrings Thus all Arms made at Utrecht are forfeited if sold without mark or marked without trial And I observed in their Indian-House that all the pieces of Scarlet which are sent in great quantities to those parts are marked with the English Arms and Inscriptions in English by which they maintain the credit gain'd to that Commodity by our former trade to parts where 't is now lost or decay'd The Government manag'd either by men that trade or whose Families have risen by it or who have themselves some Interest going in other men's Traffique or who are born and bred in Towns The soul and beeing whereof consists wholly in Trade Which makes sure of all favour that from time to time grows necessary and can be given it by the Government The custom of every Towns affecting some particular Commerce or Staple valuing it self thereupon and so improving it to the greatest heighth as Flussingue by that of the West-Indies Middleburgh of French-Wines Terveer by the Scotch Staple Dort by the English Staple and Rhenish-Wines Rotterdam by the Rnglish and Scotch Trade at large and by French-Wines Leyden by the Manufacture of all sorts of Stuffs Silk Hair Gold and Silver Haerlem by Linnen Mixt-Stuffs and Flowers Delf by Beer and Dutch-Purcelane Surdam by the built of Ships Enchusyen and Mazlandsluys by Herring-fishing Friezland by the Greenland-Trade and Amsterdam by that of the East-Indies Spain and the Streights The great application of the whole Province to the Fishing-Trade upon the Coasts of England and Scotland which employs an incredible number of Ships and Sea-men and supplies most of the Southern parts of Europe with a rich and
necessary Commodity The last I shall mention is the mighty advance they have made towards engrossing the whole Commerce of the East-Indies by their successes against the Porteguesses and by their many Wars and Victories against the Natives whereby they have forced them to Treaties of Commerce exclusive to all other Nations and to the admission of Forts to be built upon Streights and Passes that command the entrances into the Traffique of such places This has been atchieved by the multitude of their people and Mariners that has been able to furnish 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
best Native Commodities and the other drain all the Treasures of the West-Indies By all this account of their Trade and Riches it will appear That some of our Maxims are not so certain as they are current in our common Politicks As first That Example and Encouragement of Excess and Luxury if employ'd in the consumption of Native Commodities is of advantage to Trade It may be so to that which impoverishes but is not to that which enriches a Countrey And is indeed less prejudicial if it lie in Native than in Forreign Wares But the custom or humour of Luxury and Expence cannot stop at certain bounds What begins in Native will proceed in Forreign Commodities and though the Example arise among idle persons yet the Imitation will run into all Degrees even of those men by whose Industry the Nation subsists And besides the more of our own we spend the less we shall have to send abroad and so it will come to pass that while we drive a vast Trade yet by buying much more than we sell we shall come to be poor Whereas when we drove a very small Traffique abroad yet by selling so much more than we bought we were very rich in proportion to our Neighbours This appear'd in Edward the Third's time when we maintain'd so mighty Wars in France and carri'd our Victorious Arms into the heart of Spain Whereas in the 28 year of that King's Reign the Value and Custom of all our Exported Commodities amounted to 294184 l. 17 s. 2 d. And that of our Imported but to 38970 l. 03 s. 06 d. So as there must have enter'd that year into the Kingdom in Coin or Bullion or else have grown a Debt to the Nation 255214 l. 13 s. 08 d. And yet we then carri'd out our Wools unwrought and brought in a great part of our Clothes from Flanders Another common Maxim is That if by any Forreign Invasion or Servitude the State and consequently the Trade of Holland should be ruin'd the last would of course fall to our share in England Which is no consequence For it would certainly break into several pieces and shift either to us to Flanders to the Hans-Towns or any other parts according as the most of those circumstances should any where concur to invite it and the likest to such as appear to have formerly drawn it into Holland By so mighty a confluence of People and so general a vein of Industry and Parsimony among them And whoever pretends to equal their growth in Trade and Riches by other ways than such as are already enumerated will prove I doubt either to deceive or to be deceived A third is That if that State were reduced to great extremities so as to become a Province to some greater Power They would chuse our Subjection rather than any other or those at least that are the Maritime and the Richest of the Provinces But it will be more reasonably concluded from all the former Discourses That though they may be divided by absolute Conquests they will never divide themselves by consent But all fall one way and by common agreement make the best terms they can for their Countrey as a Province if not as a State And before they come to such an extremity they will first seek to be admitted as a Belgick-Circle in the Empire which they were of old and thereby receive the protection of that Mighty Body which as far as great and smaller things may be compar'd seems the likest their own State in its main Constitutions but especially in the Freedom or Soveraignty of the Imperial Cities And this I have often heard their Ministers speak of as their last refuge in case of being threatned by too strong and fatal a Conjuncture And if this should happen the Trade of the Provinces would rather be preserved or encreased than any way broken or destroy'd by such an alteration of their State Because the Liberties of the Countrey would continue what they are and the Security would be greater than now it is The last I will mention is of another vein That if the Prince of Orange were made Soveraign of their Country though by Forreign Arms he would be a great Prince because this now appears to be so great a State Whereas on the contrary those Provinces would soon become a very mean Countrey For such a Power must be maintain'd by force as it would be acquir'd and as indeed all Absolute Dominion must be in those Provinces This would raise general Discontents and those perpetual Seditions among the Towns which would change the Orders of the Countrey endanger the Property of private men And shake the Credit and Safety of the Government Whenever this should happen The People would scatter Industry would faint Banks would dissolve And Trade would decay to such a degree as probably in course of time their very Digues would be no longer maintain'd by the Defences of a weak People against so furious an Invader But the Sea would break in upon their Land and leave their chiefest Cities to be Fisher-Towns as they were of old Without any such great Revolutions I am of opinion That Trade has for some years ago past its Meridian and begun sensibly to decay among them Whereof there seem to be several Causes As first The general application that so many other Nations have made to it within these two or three and twenty years For since the Peace of Munster which restor'd the quiet of Christendom in 1648 not only Sueden and Denmark but France and England have more particularly than ever before busied the thoughts and counsels of their several Governments as well as the humours of their People about the matters of Trade Nor has this happen'd without good degrees of Success though Kingdoms of such extent that have other and Nobler Foundations of Greatness cannot raise Trade to such a pitch as this little State which had no other to build upon No more than a man who has a fair and plentiful Estate can fall to Labour and Industry like one that has nothing else to trust to for the support of his life But however all these Nations have come of late to share largely with them And there seem to be grown too many Traders for Trade in the World So as they can hardly live one by another As in a great populous Village the first Grocer or Mercer that sets up among them grows presently rich having all the Custom till another encouraged by his success comes to set up by him and share in his gains At length so many fall to the Trade that nothing is got by it and some must give over or all must break Not many Ages past Venice and Florence possest all the Trade of Europe The last by their Manufactures But the first by their Shipping and the whole Trade of Persia and the Indies whose Commodities were brought Those by Land and These by the Arabian-Sea to Egypt from whence they were fetcht by the
Venetian Fleets and dispersed into most of the parts of Europe And in those times we find the whole Trade of England was driven by Venetians Florentines and Lombards The Easterlings who were the Inhabitants of the Hans-Towns as Dantzic Lubeick Hamburgh and others upon that Coast fell next into Trade and managed all that of these Northern parts for many years and brought it first down to Bruges and from thence to Antwerp The first Navigations of the Portuguesses to the East-Indies broke the greatness of the Venetian Trade and drew it to Lisbon And the Revolt of the Netherlands that of Antwerp to Holland But in all this time The other and greater Nations of Europe concern'd themselves little in it Their Trade was War Their Counsels and Enterprizes were busied in the quarrels of the Holy Land or in those between the Popes and the Emperors both of the same Forge engaging all Christian Princes and ending in the greatness of the Ecclesiastical State throughout Christendom Sometimes in the mighty Wars between England and France Between France and Spain The more general between Christian and Turks Or more particular quarrels between lesser and Neighbouring-Princes In short The Kingdoms and Principalities were in the World like the Noblemen and Gentlemen in a Countrey The Free-States and Cities like the Merchants and Traders These at first despised by the others The others serv'd and rever'd by them till by the various course of Events in the World Some of these came to grow Rich and Powerful by Industry and Parsimony And some of the others Poor by War and by Luxury Which made the Traders begin to take upon them and carry it like Gentlemen and the Gentlemen begin to take a fancy of falling to Trade By this short account it will appear no wonder either that particular places grew so Rich and so Mighty while they alone enjoyed almost the general Trade of the World nor why not only the Trade in Holland but the advantage of it in general should seem to be lessen'd by so many that share it Another Cause of its decay in that State may be That by the mighty progress of their East-Indy Company The Commodities of that Countrey are grown more than these parts of the World can take off and consequently the Rates of them must needs be lessened while the Charge is encreast by the great Wars the Armies and Forts necessary to maintain or extend the Acquisitions of that Company in the Indies For instead of Five or Six East-Indy Ships which used to make the Fleet of the year they are now risen to Eighteen or Twenty I think Two and twenty came in one year to the United Provinces This is the reason why the particular persons of that Company in Holland make not so great advantage of the same Stock as those of ours do in England Though their Company be very much richer and drives a far greater Trade than ours Which is exhausted by no charge of Armies or Forts or Ships of War And this is the reason that the Dutch are forced to keep so long and so much of those Commodities in their Magazines here and to bring them out only as the Markets call for them or are able to take off And why they bring so much less from the Indies than they were able to do if there were vent enough here As I remember one of their Sea-men newly landed out of their East-Indy Fleet in the year 69 upon discourse in a Boat between Delf and Leyden said he had seen before he came away three heaps of Nutmegs burnt at a time each of which was more than a small Church could hold which he pointed at in a Village that was in sight Another Cause may be the great cheapness of Corn which has been for these dozen years or more general in all these parts of Europe and which has a very great influence upon the Trade of Holland For a great vent of Indian Commodities at least the Spices which are the gross of them used to be made into the Northern parts of Europe in exchange for Corn while it was taken off at good rates by the Markets of Flanders England France Spain or Italy In all which Countreys it has of late years gone so low as to discourage the Import of so great quantities as used to come from Poland and Prussia and other parts of the North. Now the less value those Nations receive for Corn the less they are able to give for Spice Which is a great loss to the Dutch on both sides lessening the vent of their Indian Ware in the Northern and the Traffique of Corn in the Southern parts The cause of this great cheapness of Corn seems to be not so much a course of plentiful and seasonable years As the general Peace that has been in Europe since the year 59 or 60 by which so many Men and so much Land have been turned to Husbandry that were before employ'd in the Wars or lay wasted by them in all the Frontier-Provinces of France and Spain as well as throughout Germany before the Peace of Munster and in England during the Actions or Consequences of a Civil War And Plenty grows not to a heighth but by the Succession of several peaceful as well as seasonable Years The last Cause I will mention is the mighty enlargement of the City of Amsterdam by that which is called the New Town The Extent whereof is so spacious and the Buildings of so much greater Beauty and Cost than the Old that it must have employ'd a vast proportion of that Stock which in this City was before wholly turned to Trade Besides there seems to have been growing on for these later years a greater Vie of Luxury and Expence among many of the Merchants of that Town than was ever formerly known Which was observed and complained of as well as the enlargement of their City by some of the wisest of their Ministers while I resided among them who designed some Regulations by Sumptuary Laws As knowing the very Foundations of their Trade would soon be undermined if the habitual Industry Parsimony and Simplicity of their People came to be over-run by Luxury Idleness and Excess However it happen'd I found it agreed by all the most diligent and circumspect Enquiries I could make That in the years 69 and 70 there was hardly any Forreign Trade among them besides that of the Indies by which the Traders made the returns of their money without loss and none by which the gain was above Two in the hundred So as it seems to be with Trade as with the Sea its Element that has a certain pitch above which it never rises in the highest Tides And begins to ebb as soon as ever it ceases to flow And ever loses ground in one place proportionably to what it gains in another CHAP. VII Of their FORCES and REVENUES THE Strength and Forces of a Kingdom or State were measured in former Ages by the Numbers
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