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
which the whole Countrey was overwhelmed which now makes that Inland-Sea that serves for a common passage between Holland Zealand Flanders and Brabant The Sea for some Leagues from Zealand lyes generally upon such Banks of Sand as it does upon the mouth of the Maze though separated by something better Channels than are found in the other That which seems likeliest to have been the occasion of stopping up wholly one of these Rivers and obstructing the others Is the course of Westerly-winds which drive upon this Shore so much more constant and violent than the East For taking the Seasons and Years one with another I suppose there will be observed three parts of Westerly for one of Easterly Winds Besides that these last generally attend the calm Frosts and fair weather and the other the stormy and foul And I have had occasion to make experiment of the Sands rising and sinking before a Haven by two fits of these contrary Winds above four foot This I presume is likewise the natural reason of so many deep and commodious Havens found upon all the English side of the Channel and so few or indeed none upon the French and Dutch An advantage seeming to be given us by Nature and never to be equal'd by any Art or Expence of our Neighbours I remember no mention in ancient Authors of that which is now call'd the Zudder-Sea Which makes me imagine that may have been form'd likewise by some great Inundation breaking in between the Tessel-Islands and others that lye still in a line contiguous and like the broken remainders of a continued Coast. This seems more probable from the great shallowness of that Sea and flatness of the Sands upon the whole extent of it From the violent Rage of the Waters breaking in that way which threaten the parts of North-Holland about Medenblick and Enchusen and brave it over the highest and strongest Digues of the Province upon every High-tide and storm at North-west As likewise from the Names of East and West-Friezland which should have been one Continent till divided by this Sea And in the time of the first Counts of Holland their great and almost continual Wars were against the Frizons which could not have been if separated by this Sea or if the Frizons were only the Inhabitants of North-Holland Whatever it was whether Nature or Accident and upon what occasion soever it arrived The Soil of the whole Province of Holland is generally flat like the Sea in a calm and looks as if after a long contention between Land and Water which It should belong to It had at length been divided between them For to consider the great Rivers and the strange number of Canals that are found in this Province and do not only lead to every great Town but almost to every Village and every Farm-House in the Countrey And the infinity of Sails that are seen every where coursing up and down upon them One would imagine the Water to have shar'd with the Land and the people that live in Boats to hold some proportion with those that live in Houses And this is one great advantage towards Trade which is natural to the Scituation and not to be attained in any Countrey where there is not the same level and softness of Soil which makes the cutting of Canals so easie work as to be attempted almost by every private man And one Horse shall draw in a Boat more than fifty can do by Cart whereas Carriage makes a great part of the price in all heavy Commodities And by this easie way of travelling an industrious man loses no time from his business for he writes or eats or sleeps while he goes whereas the Time of labouring or industrious men is the greatest Native Commodity of any Countrey There is besides one very great Lake of fresh water still remaining in the midst of this Province by the name of Harlem Maer which might as they say be easily drained and would thereby make a mighty addition of Land to a Countrey where nothing is more wanted and receive a great quantity of people in which they abound and who make their Greatness and Riches Much discourse there has been about such an Attempt but the City of Leyden having no other way of refreshing their Town or renewing their Canals with fresh water but from this Maer will never consent to it On the other side Amsterdam will ever oppose the opening and cleansing of the old Channel of the Rhine which they say might easily be compassed and by which the Town of Leyden would grow Maritime and share a great part of the Trade now engrossed by Amsterdam There is in North-Holland a great Essay made at the possibility of draining these great Lakes by one of about two Leagues broad having been made firm Land within these forty years This makes that part of the Countrey called the Bemster being now the richest Soil of the Province lying upon a dead flat divided with Canals and the ways through it distinguisht with ranges of Trees which make the pleasantest Summer-Landschip of any Countrey I have seen of that sort Another advantage of their Scituation for Trade is made by those two great Rivers of the Rhyne and Mose reaching up and Navigable so mighty a length into so rich and populous Countreys of the Higher and Lower Germany which as it brings down all the Commodities from those parts to the Magazines in Holland that vent them by their Shipping into all parts of the World where the Market calls for them so with something more Labour and Time it returns all the Merchandizes of other parts into those Countreys that are seated upon these streams For their commodious seat as to the Trade of the Streights or Baltique or any parts of the Ocean I see no advantage they have of most parts of England and they must certainly yeild to many we possess if we had other equal circumstances to value them The lowness and flatness of their Lands makes in a great measure the richness of their Soil that is easily overflowed every Winter so as the whole Countrey at that season seems to lye under water which in Spring is driven out again by Mills But that which mends the Earth spoils the Air which would be all Fog and Mist if it were not clear'd by the sharpness of their Frosts which never fail with every East-wind for about four Months of the year and are much fiercer than in the same Latitude with us because that Wind comes to them over a mighty length of dry Continent but is moistned by the Vapours or softned by the warmth of the Seas motion before it reaches us And this is the greatest disadvantage of Trade they receive from their Scituation though necessary to their health Because many times their Havens are all shut up for two or three Months with Ice when ours are open and free The fierce sharpness of these Winds makes the changes of their Weather and Seasons more violent and
Dutchess of Parma against the Inquisition and for some liberty in point of Religion Those persons which attended him looking mean in their Clothes and their Garb were called by one of the Courtiers at their entrance into the Palace Gueses which signifies Beggars a Name though raised by chance or by scorn yet affected by the Party as an Expression of Humility and Distress and used ever after by both sides as a Name of distinction comprehending all who dissented from the Roman Church how different soever in opinion among themselves These men spread in great numbers through the whole extent of the Provinces by the accidents and dispositions already mentioned After the appeasing of their first Sedition were broken in their common Counsels and by the Cruelty of the Inquisition and Rigor of Alva were in great multitudes forced to retire out of the Provinces at least such as had means or hopes of subsisting abroad Many of the poorer and more desperate fled into the Woods of the upper Countreys where they are thick and wild and liv'd upon spoil and in the first descent of the Prince of Orange his Forces did great mischiefs to all scatter'd parties of the Duke of Alva's Troops in their march through those parts But after that attempt of the Prince ended without success and he was forced back into Germany the Count of Marcke a violent and implacable Enemy to the Duke of Alva and his Government with many others of the broken Troops whom the same fortune and disposition had left together in Friezland mann'd out some Ships of small force and betook themselves to Sea and with Commissions from the Prince of Orange began to prey upon all they could master that belonged to the Spaniards They sometimes sheltered and watered and sold their Prizes in some Crekes or small Harbours of England though forbidden by Queen Elizabeth then in peace with Spain sometimes in the River Ems or some small ports of Friezland till at length having gain'd considerable Riches by these Adventures whether to sell or to refresh whether driven by storm or led by design upon knowledg of the ill blood which the new Taxes had bred in all the Provinces they landed in the Island of the Briel assaulted and carried the Town pull'd down the Images in the Churches professed openly their Religion declared against the Taxes and Tyranny of the Spanish Government and were immediately followed by the revolt of most of the Towns of Holland Zealand and West-Friezland who threw out the Spanish Garrisons renounced their obedience to King Philip and swore Fidelity to the Prince of Orange The Prince returned out of Germany with new Forces and making use of this fury of the people contented himself not with Holland and Zealand but marcht up into the very heart of the Provinces within five Leagues of Brussels seizing upon Mechlin and many other Towns with so great Consent Applause and Concourse of people that the whole Spanish Dominions seemed now ready to expire in the Low-Countreys if it had not been revived by the Massacre of the Protestants at Paris which contrived by joynt Councels with King Philip and acted by a Spanish party in the Court of France and with so fatal a blow to the contrary Faction encouraged the Duke of Alva and dampt the Prince of Orange in the same degree so that one gathers strength enough to defend the heart of the Provinces and the other retires into Holland and makes that the seat of the War This Countrey was strong by its nature and seat among the Waters that encompass and divide it but more by a rougher sort of people at that time less softned by Trade or by Riches less used to Grants of Money and Taxes and proud of their ancient Fame recorded in the Roman Stories of being obstinate Defenders of their Liberties and now most implacable haters of the Spanish Name All these dispositions were encreased and hardened in the War that ensued under the Duke of Alva's Conduct or his Sons By the slaughter of all innocent persons and sexes upon the taking of Naerden where the Houses were burnt and the Walls levelled to the ground By the desperate defence of Haerlem for ten months with all the practises and returns of ignominy cruelty and scorn on both sides while the very Women listed themselves in companies repaired breaches gave alarms and beat up quarters till all being famisht Four hundred Burgers after the surrender were kill'd in cold blood among many other Examples of an incensed Conqueror Which made the Humour of the parties grow more desperate and their hatred to Spain and Alva incurable The same Army broken and forced to rise from before Alcmaer after a long and fierce siege in Alva's time and from before Leyden in the time of Requisenes where the Boors themselves opened the Sluyces and drown'd the Countrey resolving to mischief the Spaniards at the charge of their own ruin gave the great turn to Affairs in Holland The King grows sensible of Danger and apprehensive of the total defection of the Provinces Alva weary of his Government finding His violent Counsels and Proceedings had raised a Spirit which was quiet before he came and was never to be laid any more The Duke is recalled and the War goes under Requisenes who dying suddenly and without provisions made by the King for a Successor the Government by customs of the Countrey devolved by way of interim upon the great Council which lasted some time by the delay of Don John of Austria's coming who was declared the new Governour But in this Interim the strength of the Disease appears for upon the Mutiny of some Spanish Troops for want of their pay and their seizing Alost a Town near Brussels the people grow into a rage the Trades-men give over their Shops and the Countrey-men their Labour and all run to Arms In Brussels they force the Senate pull out those men they knew to be most addicted to the Spaniards kill such of that Nation as they meet in the streets and all in general cry out for the expulsion of Forreigners out of the Low-Countreys and the assembling of the States to which the Council is forced to consent In the mean time the chief persons of the Provinces enter into an agreement with the Prince of Orange to carry on the common Affairs of the Provinces by the same Counsels so as when the Estates assembled at Ghent without any contest they agreed upon that Act which was called The Pacification of Ghent in the year 1576 whereof the chief Articles were The expulsion of all Forreign Soldiers out of the Provinces Restoring all the ancient Forms of Government And referring matters of Religion in each Province to the Provincial Estates And that for performance hereof the rest of the Provinces should for ever be confederate with Holland and Zealand And this made the first period of the Low-Countrey Troubles proving to King Philip a dear Experience how little the best Conduct
in the Service and Worship of God Nor is any more notice taken or more censure past of what every one chuses in these cases than in the other I believe the force of Commerce Alliances and Acquaintance spreading so far as they do in small circuits such as the Province of Holland may contribute much to make conversation and all the offices of common life so easie among so different Opinions Of which so many several persons are often in every man's eye And no man cheeks or takes offence at Faces or Customs or Ceremonies he sees every day As at those he hears of in places far distant and perhaps by partial relations and comes to see late in his life and after he has long been possest by passion or prejudice against them However it is Religion may possibly do more good in other places But it does less hurt here And where-ever the invisible effects of it are the greatest and most advantageous I am sure the visible are so in this Countrey by the continual and undisturbed Civil Peace of their Government for so long a course of years And by so mighty an encrease of their people Wherein will appear to consist chiefly the vast growth of their Trade and Riches and consequently the strength and greatness of their State CHAP. VI. Of their TRADE 'T Is evident to those who have read the most and travel'd farthest That no Countrey can be found either in this present Age or upon Record of any Story Where so vast a Trade has been managed as in the narrow compass of the Four Maritime Provinces of this Commonwealth Nay it is generally esteemed that they have more Shipping belongs to them than there does to all the rest of Europe Yet they have no Native Commodities towards the building or rigging of the smallest Vessel Their Flax Hemp Pitch Wood and Iron coming all from abroad as Wool does for cloathing their men and Corn for feeding them Nor do I know any thing properly of their own growth that is considerable either for their own necessary use or for Traffique with their Neighbours besides Butter Cheese and Earthen Wares For Havens they have not any good upon their whole Coast The best are Helversluys which has no Trade at all and Flussingue which has little in comparison of other Towns in Holland But Amsterdam that triumphs in the spoils of Lisbon and Antwerp which before engrost the greatest Trade of Europe and the Indies seems to be the most incommodious Haven they have Being seated upon so shallow waters that ordinary Ships cannot come up to it without the advantage of Tides Nor great ones without unlading The entrance of the Tessel and passage over the Zudder-Sea is more dangerous than a Voyage from thence to Spain lying all in blind and narrow Channels so that it easily appears that 't is not a Haven that draws Trade but Trade that fills a Haven and brings it in vogue Nor has Holland grown rich by any Native Commodities but by force of Industry By improvement and manufacture of all Forreign growths By being the general Magazine of Europe and furnishing all parts with whatever the Market wants or invites And by their Sea-men being as they have properly been call'd the common Carriers of the World Since the ground of Trade cannot be deduced from Havens or Native Commodities as may well be concluded from the survey of Holland which has the least and the worst and of Ireland which has the most and the best of both it were not amiss to consider from what other source it may be more naturally and certainly derived For if we talk of Industry we are still as much to seek what it is that makes people industrious in one Countrey and idle in another I conceive the true original and ground of Trade to be great multitude of people crowded into small compass of Land whereby all things necessary to life become deer and all men who have possessions are induced to Parsimony but those who have none are forced to industry and labour or else to want Bodies that are vigorous fall to labour Such as are not supply that defect by some sort of Inventions or Ingenuity These Customs arise first from Necessity but encrease by Imitation and grow in time to be habitual in a Countrey And wherever they are so If it lies upon the Sea they naturally break out into Trade both because whatever they want of their own that is necessary to so many mens lives must be supply'd from abroad and because by the multitude of people and smallness of Countrey Land grows so deer that the improvement of money that way is inconsiderable and so turns to Sea where the greatness of the Profit makes amends for the Venture This cannot be better illustrated than by its contrary which appears no where more than in Ireland Where by the largeness and plenty of the Soil and scarcity of People all things necessary to life are so cheap that an industrious man by two days labour may gain enough to feed him the rest of the week Which I take to be a very plain ground of the laziness attributed to the people For men naturally prefer Ease before Labour and will not take pains if they can live idle Though when by necessity they have been inured to it they cannot leave it being grown a custom necessary to their health and to their very entertainment Nor perhaps is the change harder from constant Ease to Labour than from constant Labour to Ease This account of the Original of Trade agrees with the experience of all Ages and with the Constitutions of all places where it has most flourished in the World as Tyre Carthage Athens Syracuse Agrigentum Rhodes Venice Holland and will be so obvious to every man that knows and considers the scituation the extent and the nature of all those Countreys that it will need no enlargement upon the comparisons By these Examples which are all of Commonwealths and by the decay or dissolution of Trade in the Six first when they came to be conquered or subjected to Arbitrary Dominions It might be concluded That there is something in that form of Government proper and natural to Trade in a more peculiar manner But the heighth it arrived to at Bruges and Antwerp under their Princes for four or five descents of the House of Burgundy and two of Austria shows it may thrive under good Princes and legal Monarchies as well as under Free States Under Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power it must of necessity decay and dissolve Because this empties a Countrey of people whereas the others fill it This extinguishes Industry whilst men are in doubt of enjoying themselves what they get or leaving it to their Children The others encourage it by securing men of both One fills a Countrey with Soldiers and the other with Merchants Who were never yet known to live well together Because they cannot trust one another And as Trade cannot live without