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{\Large A SKETCH} \\
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{\small OF THE} \\
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{\large LIFE AND TIMES} \\
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{\small OF} \\
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{\Huge \textbf{JOHN DE WITT,}} \\
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\textbf{\textit{Grand Pensionary of Holland}} \\
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TO WHICH IS ADDED, HIS \\
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{\footnotesize TREATISE ON LIFE ANNUITIES} \\
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{\small BY} \\
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ROBERT GIBBES BARNWELL, \\
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{\small{\textbf{\textit{U.S. Consul at Amsterdam.}}}} \\
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{\small ``INTAMINATIS FULGET HONORIBUS.''} \\
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{\large NEW-YORK:} \\
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PUDNEY \& RUSSELL, PUBLISHERS, \\
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{\small NO. 79 JOHN-STREET.} \\
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1856.
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{\small Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856,} \\
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{\small By \textsc{Robert Gibbs Barnwell},} \\
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{\small in the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of} \\
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{\small New-York.}
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\textbf{\textit{To}} \\
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{\Large PROF. J.D.B. DE BOW,} \\
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{\small OF WASHINGTON CITY} \\
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SUPERINTENDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CENSUS, \\
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{\small AND EDITOR OF} \\
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\textbf{\textit{``De Bow's Review,''}} \\
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THIS SKETCH \\
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{\small IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY}
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\textsc{The Author.}
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AUTHOR'S ADVERTISEMENT
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\noindent
IN authorizing the publication of this sketch, I must acknowledge my
indebtedness to Mr. \textsc{Frederick Muller}, an intelligent bookseller of
Amsterdam---to Mr. \textsc{De Zwaan}, the obliging Archivist, for his kindness
in submitting the Archives at the Hague to my inspection---to \textsc{Charles
Gouraud}, Doctor of the Faculty of Laws in Paris, for the information
I have received from his elegant treatise, entitled, ``\textit{Histoire du
Calcul des Probabilit\'es,}'' and to Mr.\ \textsc{Frederick Hendricks},
Actuary of the Globe Insurance Company, of London, for certain
``Contributions to the History of Insurance.''
In the Appendix will be found the original letters of \textsc{De Witt}, which
Mr.\ \textsc{Hendricks} has translated into English.
The author will probably elaborate the subjects embraced in the present
sketch.
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R.G.B.
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LIFE
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OF
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JOHN DE WITT
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GRAND PENSIONARY OF HOLLAND
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CHAPTER I.
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\noindent
THE independence of the seven united provinces of the Netherlands takes
its date from the peace of Westphalia, in the year of our Lord 1648,
when Philip the Second of Spain renounced his claim to the supremacy
which he had previously exercised over them. As early as the year
1581, the Deputies of the United States had assembled at Amsterdam,
and declared in their manifesto those principles that are now considered
fundamental in all free countries, to wit:- That the prince is made for
the people, and not the people for the prince. That the prince who treats
his subjects as slaves is a tyrant, whom his subjects have a right to
dethrone when they have no other means of preserving their liberties.
That this right particularly belongs to the Netherlands; their sovereign
being bound by his coronation oath to observe the laws, under pain of
forfeiting his sovereignty.
The illustrious subject of this memoir, who was destined to become
a martyr in support of these principles was born on the twenty-fifth
of September, A.D.\ 1625, in the renowned city of Dort. His father, who
had exhibited great fortitude in the troubled times of the republic, in
consideration of his high capacity, was promoted to the high capacity
of a Burgomaster. He was also entrusted with diplomatic business by
the States-General, which he discharged much to his own credit and
greatly to the satisfaction of the Assembly; but his untiring zeal did
not save him from a close imprisonment in the castle of Louvestien, the
common recipient of state criminals who refused to obey the arbitrary
edicts of a tyrant, but which has been converted by the sufferings of
a Grotius, a Barnevelt, and a host of other worthies, into a sanctuary of
martyrs.
John de Witt indicated precocious signs of that extraordinary genius
which burst forth in a blaze of glory at its meridian, but was doomed to
go down in a sea of blood. His teachers complained that he knew more than
they, and proposed him as a model for all youthful aspirants. He early
developed a strong passion for the law and mathematics, in which he
composed a treatise on curves, which displayed ingenious and novel views,
much to the delight of his master, Des Cartes. But his ruling passion
was for the control of public affairs. He was highly accomplished in
what were then styled the seven liberal arts. After finishing his
academical course at the University of Leyden, and taking his degree as
Doctor of Laws, he travelled in foreign countries. On his return, he
was created Counsellor Pensionary of his native city, in his 25th year,
and soon after was elected Grand Pensionary of Holland and West Friezeland.
To crown his happiness, he espoused a lovely damsel, Miss Wendela Bikker,
a grand-daughter of a Burgomaster of the famous city of Amsterdam.
This painful and laborious charge prohibited him from holding any other
office while engaged in the service of the republic. He was required to
be entirely neutral in the settling of difficulties between the cities,
towns and colleges in Holland, as well as those of other countries. He
could neither give counsel or accept any pension or favor from any foreign s
tate or prince, under any pretext whatever. He was in an especial manner
enjoined to exercise all his authority in preserving unimpaired the
privileges, rights and customs of Holland. He was required to make a
regular report to be submitted to the States General, on all matters which
concerned the public welfare. He was required to have a vigilant eye upon
the financial interests of the state, and although he was not permitted
to regulate of in any way dispose of them, he was required to give his
counsel and opinion when called upon by any member of the Assembly. He
could hold a correspondence with the ambassadors of the state in foreign
countries, but he was strictly forbidden to have any written or verbal
communication with any king, prince or ambassador, either within or without
the country, concerning the secret affairs of state, unless he was expressly
authorized by a resolution of the States. For these and other powers and
duties too numerous to mention, he was rewarded by a small annual pension
and the thanks of the States-General. His office was to continue for the
space of five years,but he was eligible to a re-election on being confirmed
by a majority of votes. But in the event of his being discontinued, he
could not be employed in the service of any other state out of the Province
of Holland without the States of Holland and West Friezeland.
At the time that out hero took command of the ship of state, the public
affairs of Holland were in the most embarrassed condition. From the
commencement to the tragic end of his career, this able pilot had to
encounter storms that would have overwhelmed a statesman who did not
possess a genius of inexhaustible resources, and a fortitude that could
not be shaken by any resources.
In Holland, as in other countries, there were two great parties
engaged in constant struggle to obtain a predominating influence in the
conduct of public affairs. These were the partizans of the Prince of
Orange, or the Orange faction as it was called, who desired to enlarge
the power of the Stadholder, and the States-General, a kind of oligarchy,
who were in favor of curtailing his authority, or at least of checking
the inordinate ambition of one who might be tempted to destroy the balance
of power by an undue exercise of the rights and influences invested in
that responsible position.
The immense losses which they suffered from the piracy of their ships
in the Mediterranean and the East Indies, and the heavy debts they incurred
by the wasteful expenditure of the last Stadholder, would have sunk into
despair any nation that was not endowed with the indomitable patience and
perseverance of the Dutch. But, in addition to this, they had to wage a
protracted war against England, with the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, at
its head. The Protector having put to death the grandfather of the young
Prince of Orange, very naturally cherished a mortal hatred against this
illustrious house, and would never have terminated the war unless the
States-General would expressly stipulate in the treaty of peace that
the Prince would be excluded from the Stadholderate, a dignity which
the descendants of their great ancestor had always considered their
hereditary right. The act of exclusion declared the heirs of the house
of Stuart to be enemies to the throne, and charged all who were engaged
in restoring it as guilty of high treason.
The differences which had been brewing for some time between the two
republics at length came to an open rupture, and in the commencement of
the year 1652, the States-General published a manifesto, setting forth
the injustice of the English, and ordered a medal to be struck, on one
side of which the Dutch Republic was represented as a youthful warrior
holding a pike with the cap of liberty on its point, and surrounded with
the arms of the seven United Provinces, all bound to each other. On the
reverse of the medal was engraved a rock in the midst of the sea beaten
by the waves. The English also proclaimed their reasons in justification
of the war, and having recalled their ambassadors from each other's
territories, they put to sea with a large armament. Admiral Blake
commanded the English fleet, consisting of twenty-six vessels. The Dutch
fleet of forty sail was commanded by Admiral Tromp, who was accompanied
by Vice-Admirals De Ruyter, De Witt and Evertzen.
The commanders-in-chief were the very personification of their
respective countries. Blake possessed an ardent and fiery genius, and
was always disposed to make the attack, while the phlegmatic Tromp
defended himself by a slow but sure sagacity, which generally enabled
him to conquer his adversities. No sooner were the two fleets in sight
of each other, than the signal of battle was given. They engaged in a
deadly struggle, which ended in the loss of six of the finest English
ships, which were sunk by Tromp, while Blake narrowly escaped being
captured by De Ruyter. The loss of this battle gave much chagrin to
Cromwell, and he immediately despatched orders to Blake to renew the
battle, in these words:- ``Lord Admiral, I command you and your brave
companions to drive back those bull-frogs into their marshes, and do
not suffer them to importune you any longer with their croaking.''
The effect of this message was, to excite Blake to such a pitch
of impatience to revenge himself for his defeat, that he flattered
himself that victory was now certain. But the second engagement was
more unfortunate than the first; for in a few moments after the fleets
met, the sea was red with the blood of the slain. The smoke from their
cannon so darkened the skies, that they could scarcely see the mutilated
bodies of their enemies. After a hot fight, which continued for five
hours, without either party getting the better of the other, Blake
received a severe wound in the thigh, which put his whole fleet in
such disorder, that they fled to their own coasts, and left the Dutch
masters of the sea.
The news of this second victory created a universal rejoicing in
the United Provinces, and at the same time spread great consternation
in England. Cromwell lost his usual impassivity, but concealing his
mortification as well as he could, he devoted himself to the equipment
of a new fleet for the next year. He enlisted all the seamen who were
in the different parts of the kingdom, and raked and scraped all the
vagabonds in the streets of London, with all possible diligence. Blake,
who had recovered from his wound, again took command, thoroughly resolved
to repair the dishonor of the arms of the Republic.
In this engagement the Dutch had, at first, the advantage, but the
wind being favorable to the English, they were able to single out the
Dutch ships, and destroy or sink them in detail. Their fleet being
equal in other respects, the contest continued for many hours, and
was waged on both sides with unusual vigor. Tromp was at last killed
with a musket ball, which so disheartened his men that they availed
themselves of the night, which was setting in, to retire with their
shattered vessels to their own shores. Thus perished one of the most
distinguished naval commanders of ancient or modern times, after having
been engaged in more than thirty battles, in which he was always
victorious. But he willingly sacrificed his life rather than survive
a defeat which tarnished the glories of his former victories. He was
buried with great pomp ,at Delft, where a splendid monument has been
erected to his memory.
The Dutch, having lost their Admiral, and a considerable portion of
their fleet, resolved to make peace with Cromwell, although on terms by
no means advantageous to themselves. Four Ambassadors were sent to
London, who concluded a treaty in the following year. The treaty
required the Dutch vessels to lower their flags when they met an
English ship. It further required the States-General entirely to
abandon the interests of Charles the Second---and that they should
make a formal declaration of it to the crowns of Denmark and Sweden.
Cromwell undertook, moreover, to attempt a design which he had long
cherished---to incorporated Holland into England. His plan of
incorporation was to make the two republics one State, which was to
be governed by a sovereign and free parliament to which the United
Provinces should send their deputies, like the different provinces of
Great Britain. But the proposal was rejected, the Dutch preferring
their own form of government, and justly fearing that Oliver's
protectorate would afford them that sort of protection which the wolf
gives to the lamb.
The Prince of Orange, who afterwards became so illustrious as William
the Third, of England, was at this time only three years old. The masses
of the Dutch people, who were devoted to the House of Orange, suspected
that the act of exclusion was agreed to by the States-General at the
insistence of the Grand Pensionary, who was opposed to the elevation
of the young prince to such a responsible position. In their defence,
the States-General proclaimed that the province of Holland, by virtue
of its sovereignty, could pass the act of exclusion. That in doing so,
there was no breach of the union and amity between the province of
Holland and Zealand. And that there was no breach of the general alliance
between the United Provinces. And that the said exclusion was not
contrary to any precedent resolution. That in a free Republic, no
individual could claim high office by the right of birth; and that
the exclusion of the prince was not contrary to liberty. That the
act deprived no one of any lawful prerogative; and, finally, that places
of trust and dignity, should only be bestowed upon those who were worthy
and capable to discharge their duties faithfully.
The Dutch ambassadors returned to the Hague amidst the liveliest
manifestations of joy, on the part of the citizens of London. Some of
the provinces murmured that these proceedings were conducted without
their knowledge or consent; but De Witt is said to have made a powerful
and pathetic address, which succeeded, for a time, in reconciling them
to the terms of the treaty. He soon after availed himself of his first
leisure moments to prepare a report on the financial conditions of the
country, which at once displayed his marked ability as a statesman. The
object of the measure was, to reduce the rate of interest on large sums
of money which the last Stadholder had been compelled to borrow, in order
to defray the expenditure of his brief though profligate administration.
The mother of the young prince being displeased that her son should be
deprived of his titles and honors, by the act of exclusion, submitted
a remonstrance to the States-General upon the subject; but De Witt's
civilities and attentions go her, so far won her regards and respect,
that she even consented to permit him to become his tutor. He also
gained much applause by the tact and skill which he displayed in settling
disturbances between Sweden, Poland and Denmark, on the question of
maintaining a free navigation of the North Sea. By recommending rigorous
laws, he at the same time succeeded in putting an end to the barborous
custom of duelling, which had victimized some of the noblest and bravest
spirits of the land. The differences between the provinces of Holland
broke out with increased animosity, in the year 1657. The inhabitants
in Tergoes rebelled against their magistrates---those in Groeningen against
the Stadholder; and in Overyssel one city was opposed to the other. This
civil war was conducted with such bitter animosity, that they were
compelled to refer their differences to the Grand Pensionary and the
Burgomaster of Amsterdam, who succeeded in restoring the belligerents to
their ancient friendship.
The reign of Richard Cromwell was brief; and no sooner was he deposed,
than the English parliament proclaimed Charles the Second their legitimate
king. Charles had been wandering about the continent for many years,
in exile, but had recently sequestered himself at Breda, where a
deputation of five hundred noblemen and gentlemen was despatched to
escort him back to his native country. The States-General also requested
him to do them the honor to become their guest on this passage through
the Hague. He was followed by a cortege of a hundred and fifty carriages,
drawn by six horses splendidly caparisoned, accompanied by pursuivants
and outriders. The stately procession marched in great pomp to the
Hague, where they were magnificently entertained for several days. On
the morning after his arrival, the Queen of Bohemia, the Duchess-Dowager
of Orange, the foreign Ambassadors, and the Council of State, headed by
the Grand Pensionary, called to present their congratulations. His
Majesty, who excelled in the courtly accomplishments of bowing and
scraping, received them graciously, and thanked them for their cordial
salutations. De Witt was appointed to deliver and address, in the name
of the States-General, to which the king responded, in committing his
sister and his nephew to their protection. Soon after, he was escorted
by the whole court, and an immense crowd, to a small fishing town, called
Schevening, where he embarked for England amidst the deafening shouts and
cheers of the multitude. But so sudden are the vicissitudes of this mortal
life! No sooner had he reached England, than he received the mournful
intelligence that his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, and his sister,
were suddenly taken off by the small-pox. The death of the princess was
sincerely regretted, and by none more than the Grand Pensionary, to whose
guardianship she had committed her infant son. De Witt executed his trust
with the most scrupulous fidelity, notwithstanding the hostility which
arose between them at a later period, when the elevation of the young
prince to the Stadholderate seemed to be necessary, in order to avert
the calamities that had befallen the country.
Charles was welcomed home with the most tumultuous rejoicings, but
soon forgetting the hospitalities of the Dutch and abandoning himself
to pleasure, he delivered the reigns of government into the hands of
one of the most profligate cabals that ever controlled the destinies
of England. Under various plausible but flimsy pretexts they persuaded
him to declare war against Holland. It was pretended that they suffered
great wrongs and indignities by the subjects of the United Provinces,
who obstructed their commerce. The English seemed to entertain the
idea that they had a sort of divine right to a monopoly of the sea.
The Dutch, who were at this time the most industrious and wealthy nation
in Europe, had, in a great measure, monopolized the carrying trade of
the world. They had amassed immense riches by the herring fishery, in
which they surpassed all others in quality, and especially in their
manner of preserving them. They had also pursued the whale-fishery on
the coasts of Greenland and Labrador, and had there come in contact with
the English, who claimed the whole trade to themselves. Their navy, too,
had become so formidable as to excite the envy of their neighbors, who
were resolved to contend with them who should hold the trident of the
seas. The still more frivolous pretext of De Ruyter's refusing to lower
his colors when he passed an English ship, was urged as a reason why the
two nations should appeal to arms, to decide the justice of their cause.
The Duke of York, who mortally hated the Dutch, and who was ambitious
of displaying his valor, was violent in arousing the spirit of the nation
to revenge themselves for imaginary wrongs. The Dutch Ambassador in
London urged every argument to avert the dire calamities of war, but
the Court put the whole blame upon the Dutch; like Esop's wolf, who
charged the lamb with disturbing the clear stream, although it was
manifest that he had drank of the troubled water far from its source.
\begin{verse}
``But who can turn the stream of destiny, \\
Or break the chain of strong necessity.''
\end{verse}
On the first day of the year 1665, the curtains of the bloody tragedy
were uplifted. The Dutch immediately placed themselves in a posture of
defence, and ordered Admiral Opdam to protect their coast, with a numerous
fleet. The English followed their example, and captured and confiscated
many of their enemies' ships, which had been compelled to take refuge
in their ports from the storm. During the engagement, Opdam was blown
up with the ship which he commanded, and thus one of the main supports
of the Dutch navy was taken away. The Duke of York and Prince Rupert
fought with great bravery, but three of their lieutenants, Lords Falmouth,
Muskerry and Portland, were killed by a single cannon-ball. Some of the
Dutch captains were promoted for their gallant conduct, several were
declared infamous, and sentenced to dismission from the service, and
had their swords broken, while others were banished from the country,
after having been exposed to public derision with ropes around their necks.
Up to this time, the Dutch received a severe check, but were by no
means disposed to give up the contest. A new fleet was fitted out with
Admiral Tromp in command. He was the son of the famous Admiral who
contemptuously hoisted a broom to his mast-head, to indicated that he
had swept the channel clean of his enemies. Contrary to the advice of
his friends, De Witt volunteered to enter the service, as pilot, ``to
guide the whirlwind and direct the storm.'' It was represented to him,
that his enemies would take advantage of his absence to involve the State
in further embarrassments; but he replied, That the preservation of his
person and his happiness depended upon the safety and prosperity of the
state, and that the good or ill success of a second naval contest would
either make or mar them; that the sailors had enough courage, but that
they wanted the necessary discretion to enable them to come off victorious.
He at once applied himself with indefatigable zeal to inspect and
supervise the affairs of the whole marine, and his intuitive genius
discovered several defects which had escaped the penetration of old
and experienced admirals. The difficulty was to get their ships out
of the harbor of the Texel, as the winds were contrary, and they were
surrounded by sand-banks upon which the breakers ran high. The marine
experts pronounced their egress impossible, but De Witt was determined,
by a bold mathematical calculation, to make the attempt. After studying
the matter, he found that of the thirty-two currents of wind, there was
only one that was favorable. With the plumb-line in his hand, he sounded
the most dangerous places, and remarked that in those spots where the
water was lowest, it was seven fathoms deep. Thus the whole fleet rode
out triumphantly to sea. The place has retained the name of \textit{De Witt's
Deep} to this day. Their fleet was soon after joined by the division
under the command of De Ruyter. The whole fleet was composed of
ninety-two vessels, upon which there were more than four thousand
pieces of cannon, and fifteen thousand sailors, besides three thousand
foot soldiers who had heretofore served only on the land. A portion of
them was despatched to the coast of Norway, to intercept the English
vessels that were on their return from the East Indies. De Witt had
given instructions that in case of any of their vessels being captured,
they should cast into the sea whatever printed documents or other writings
they might have on board. The advanced squadrons of the Dutch fleet
sailed towards Bergen, and found that there had been several English
vessels and a convoy of ships belonging to the Dutch East India Company,
in which the former were repulsed with considerable loss. A violent
storm arose, in which the Grand Pensionary narrowly escaped being
ship-wrecked. His ship was old and leaky, but he behaved with the
greatest intrepidity. While exposed to the pelting of the storm, he
piloted the ship with his own hands, his Argus eyes watching every motion
of the sailors, and his voice animating them to the discharge of their
duties. He occasionally engaged the fleet in great sham battles, and
pointed out many errors in their man\oe uvres, which tended greatly to
increase their vigilance in taking advantage of the enemy.
The kings of France and Denmark were not idle spectators, but resolved
to enter into an alliance with the States. The plague and fire broke out
about this time in London, which carried off about a hundred thousand
inhabitants, and laid in ruins a considerable portion of the city. This
threw a damper on the ardor of the English, but did not prevent them from
continuing the war. The overture which they made to enlist the king of
Spain in alliance with them, was entirely unsuccessful, so that they were
compelled to call for the aid of the little Bishop of Munster, an ambitious
prelate who pocketed a large subsidy to enable him to revenge himself on
the Dutch, but soon concluding that ``discretion was the better part of
valor,'' he abandoned the alliance and retreated to his won dominions.
It is said that his sending a stupid Benedictine monk, as his Ambassador
to the English Court, was considered as ominous of disasters. Sir William
Temple was sent to Munster to negotiate a treaty, and considering that
it was his first debut into diplomatic life, he acquitted himself to the
satisfaction of the government, but said that between boar hunting and
wine bibbing, they came very near being the death of him.
The French fleet under the command of the Duke of Beaufort, sailed
from Toulon, and soon after effected a junction with the Dutch fleet,
notwithstanding the strenuous efforts made by the English fleet to prevent
it. On the 1st of June, Vice Admiral Sir William Berkely was killed, but
in consequence of a heavy gale, the cannon balls of the Dutch failed their
aim, and lodged in the sail and rigging. On the second day, Tromp and De
Ruyter joined their forces, and battering to pieces two-thirds of the
enemy's fleet, compelled the remainder to take refuge on their own coasts.
The veteran Albermarle and the gallant Ossory behaved with their usual
bravery in effecting a retreat, which was considered to to be more glorious
than a victory. Sir George Aiscue having struck upon a sand bank, was
captured and confined in the castle of Louvestein. On the two following
days the battle was waged with desperate valor on both sides, but night
intervening, it was impossible to say which party gained the victory.
A quatrain, written by a Dutch poetaster, would seem to entitle them to
that honor; or at least they claimed a divided empire of that element
which had been the scene of their glory.
\begin{verse}
Pugnatum est Batavos inter fortes que Brittanos \\
Et vix post quartum pugn peracta diem \\
Summa sibi retinent Batavi ima quoris Angli, \\
Divisum imperium sic juvat esse maris.
\end{verse}
Which being interpreted, signifies that the Dutch claimed the
\textit{surface} of the ocean, while the English had an indisputable
title to the bottom of it, a considerable portion of their fleet having
been consigned to that region. The States appointed a day of thanksgiving,
which was celebrated with bonfires and illuminations throughout all the
provinces of Holland.
\begin{center}
CHAPTER II.
\end{center}
THE English having been considerably damaged, and deeply involved in
debt, became soon as desirous of peace as before they had been clamorous
for war. In his correspondence with the State, Charles took occasionally
to intimate his desire to enter into amicable relations with them, and
proposed that a treaty of peace should be negotiated at London, but the
Dutch preferring some spot within their own territories, fixed upon Breda.
De Witt perceiving that it was a favorable opportunity to revenge himself
for their arrogance in forcing such an unjust war upon his country,
managed to protract the negotiations, and made great preparations to
strike a decisive blow. De Ruyter was ordered to enter the Thames with
his fleet, where he succeeded in taking Sheerness and Chatham, and burned
many of the English ships; so that the conflagration was visible, and the
thunder of his cannon audible to the citizens of London. But finally,
on the 10th of July, 1667, the treaty was concluded and signed. Polerone,
a rich spice island in the East Indies, was awarded to the Dutch. Acadia
was given to the French, and New York was conceded to the English.
The war had scarcely been brought to a happy issue by the treaty of
Breda, when a formidable enemy threatened to involve the state in
embarrassments. Louis the Fourteenth, then in the prime of his youth,
and ambitious of glory, suddenly appeared in person, with an immense
army, commanded by his ablest generals, Cond\'e and Turenne, and capture
several of the best fortified towns on the frontiers of the Netherlands,
before any successful resistance could be opposed to them. The unexpected
movement alarmed the neighboring nations, and stirred up the indignation
of the Dutch to the highest pitch. The English, too, feeling aggrieved
by the rising power of France, were disposed to curb the rising temper
of her monarch, which threatened to disturb the balance of power, and
to destroy the liberties of Europe. His indifference to the sacred
obligations into which he had entered by renouncing the treaty of the
Pyrenees, impressed itself upon the minds of those who were desirous
of preserving peace, as a flagrant evidence of his unscrupulous ambitions.
Discontent also prevailed among the German states, but their reluctance
in taking any active steps to indicate their apprehensions, induced
the English nation to make the first advance in proposing an alliance
with Holland. Sir William Temple, who had been their minister resident
at Brussels, was instructed to proceed to the Hague, and to sound the
Dutch government, which was embodied in the person of De Witt, as to
the policy of forming an alliance, offensive and defensive, against the
French. De Witt intimated his willingness to do all in his power to
accomplish so desirable an object; but said that it was a fundamental
law of the States never to enter into any alliance but with the full
approbation and consent of all the provinces and towns of Holland, and
in the event of his negotiation not obtaining their approbation, his
head would be forfeited. And further, that as France had been long
their ally, and England but recently their bitter enemy, it could not
be expected that he would act in haste. But that necessity which is
said to have no law, overruled his apprehensions and scruples, and he
resolved to run the risk. Temple and himself put their heads together,
and without resting scarcely to sleep for five successive days and nights,
they drew up the articles of the famous treaty which gained so much
applause, and which is so will known as the Triple Alliance. It was made
triple by admitting Sweden to enter into the alliance with them. In a
letter written by Temple soon after, he says:- ``They will needs have me
pass here for one of great abilities for having finished and signed in
five days a treaty of so much importance to Christendom. But I will tell
you the secret of it. To draw things out of the centre requires labor
and address to put them into motion; but to make them return thither,
nature helps so far that there needs no more to set them agoing. Now,
I think a strict alliance is the true centre of our two nations. There
was also another accident which contributed very much to this affair,
and that was a great confidence arisen between the Pensioner and me.
He is extremely pleased with me, and my sincere, open way of dealing;
and with all the reason in the world, I am infinitely pleased with him
on the same score, and look upon him as one of the greatest geniuses I
have known, as a man of honor, and the most easy in conversation as will
as in business.''
The announcement of the treaty spread universal rejoicing throughout
Holland. De Witt gave a splendid ball at the Hague, at which the Prince
of Orange, Temple, and all the foreign ambassadors were present. The
Prince opened the dance, and De Witt deigned to testify to his joy by
participating in it, and acquitted himself to the admiration of all.
But his joy was soon turned into mourning. His beloved wife, whom he
called ``his true and better half,'' was suddenly taken from him. His
friend Temple wrote him a kind letter of condolence, to which he replied
as follows:- "In your obliging letter I find so many marks of affection
and tenderness for me, that I cannot refrain from returning my most
humble thanks, and to tell you that of all the consolations afforded
me in my affliction, none of them has been more effectual that what I
received from you. I find there that it is the heart that speaks, and
that you truly take part in my affliction, whereof I see you know the
greatness, because you know so well the inestimable loss that I have
suffered. And I am free to say, that if any remedy be capable of
healing the wound, it will doubtless be what your gentle healing hand
has applied to it. I receive it as I ought, and will endeavor to
profit by all your consolations, by combating my weakness with the
strength of your reasons, which are dictated not only by that Christian
philosophy of which you make profession, but by that sincere friendship
with which you were always pleased to honor me.''
It is well known that this distinguished diplomatist figured
conspicuously in almost all of the negotiations between England and
foreign nations at that period. He was born in the year 1628; and
after graduating with distinction, at the University of Cambridge, he
visited the continent, where he remained for several years, studying
modern languages and cultivating himself in those accomplishments by
which he attained such eminence, when called to the conduct of public
affairs. From his thirty-second to his fifty-second year, he was
constantly engaged in the management of diplomatic business with Holland;
and from his frank and statesmanlike behavior, he acquired the particular
esteem of the Grand Pensionary, with who he lived on terms of cordial
intimacy. His correspondence has been preserved with care, among the
State archives. He was the only statesman who could cope with De Witt,
and the only one who could appreciate his extraordinary talents. He
considered him the greatest genius he had ever known. In the year 1680,
he retired from public life, "being sensible that there was little in a
Court but a perpetual exchange of false friendship, pretended honesty,
seeming confidence and designing gratitude." In the latter years of his
life, he spent the most of his time at his country-seat, Sheen, which he
called ``his nest.'' He employed himself in improving his gardens after
the Dutch model, and in writing miscellaneous works for the benefit of his
son. His "Observations on the United Provinces of the Netherlands," is
the most correct and amusing of all his compositions, and is, perhaps,
the only one which is destined for a long popularity. He died in the
year 1700; and, according to his instructions, his heart was buried under
a sun-dial, which stood in front of his residence. Perhaps his graceful
translation of the 3d Book of Horace may give some idea of his philosophical
temper, as well as his poetical talents.
\begin{verse}
``He only lives content, and his own man, \\
Or rather master, who each night can say, \\
'Tis well, thanks to the gods, I've lived to-day; \\
\quad This is my own, this never can \\
Like other goods, be forced or stolen away. \\
\ \\
And for to-morrow, let me laugh or weep- \\
``Let the sun shine, or storms or trumpets ring, \\
Yet 'tis not in the power of fate, a thing \\
\quad Should ne'er have been, or not be safe, \\
Which flying time has covered with his wing. \\
\ \\
``Capricious fortune plays a scornful game \\
With human things, uncertain as the wind,- \\
Sometimes to thee, sometimes to me is kind, \\
\quad Throws about honour, wealth and fame, \\
At random, heedless, humorous and blind. \\
\ \\
``He's wise, who, when she smiles, the good enjoys, \\
And unalloyed with fears of future ill; \\
But if she frowns, e'en let her have her will. \\
\quad I can with joy resign the toys, \\
\textit{And lie wrapt up in my own virtue still.}''
\end{verse}
\begin{center}
CHAPTER III.
\end{center}
THE rapidity and success with which the triple league was ratified,
gave as great umbrage to the French monarch as it had given joy to the
Hollanders, but he was determined to revenge himself for this sudden
check on his vaulting ambition. Although he had himself proposed the
terms on which the treaty was based, he used every effort to elude it.
It was only from apprehension of the serious consequences that might
ensue, that Spain could be persuaded to relinquish her possessions, which
France had succeeded in subjugating. It was urged that certain destruction
would befall her in the event of her young monarch dying without issue.
They resolved to hold a convention at Aix-la-Chapelle to settle the terms
of a reconciliation, which, not without difficulty, procured a short though
decisive peace. For a season all Europe seemed to repose with security
under the protecting wings of that confederacy which had been formed from
motives of self-interest and self-preservation. Spain was compelled,
though with a bad grace, to accept of the alternative offered, and Lewis
was permitted to extend his garrison into the heart of the Low-Countries.
But while Temple and De Witt were commended and lionised for their
diplomatic address in forming the Triple Alliance, a fresh storm was
brewing. Temple returned to England, and De Witt went to Amsterdam to
spend the Christmas holidays with his friends. As soon as they returned
to the Hague, they had to negotiate about the right of free passage which
the English pretended to have in the territories that the Dutch owned in
the East Indies. As the English claimed the trident of the seas, they
wished to compel the Dutch ships to lower their colors whenever they
passed theirs, although it was expressly stated in the treaty of Breda
that the two nations were to be placed on precisely the same footing as
they were before the war. Another cause of difference was still more
trifling, but was one of the principal incidents which induced the king
of England to declare war against the United Provinces. The English
demanded permission to let their countrymen pass from Surinam with their
slaves to their own country, which was positively prohibited by the terms
of the last treaty. The king of France having been informed of these
dissensions through his ambassadors at the the Hague, thought it a
favorable opportunity for him to propose to De Witt to break off his
alliance with England and Sweden and form a new alliance with himself.
He said that by such a treaty they would remove the suspicion and fear
which the States entertained when his army entered Flanders, and it would
at the same time restore the mutual friendship which had formerly subsisted
between them. But De Witt was obstinate in refusing to form an alliance
which he foresaw would be of short duration, and which could not be brought
about without compromising his honor. Louis, finding himself thwarted in
concocting his treacherous proposal to the States, ordered his ambassador
at London to sound the king. He soon discovered what he had strongly
suspected, that Charles was never pleased with the Triple Alliance.
His want of money and his secret attachment to the Catholic religion
concurring with the ambitious projects of his ministers, who, with his
mistresses, exercised absolute control over him, induced him to seize
the bait that was thus temptingly offered, and he henceforth became the
salaried viceroy of France.
His ministers suggested to him that it was high time for him to rouse
himself from his lethargy, and to recover that authority which his
predecessors during so many ages had peaceably enjoyed; that the great
error, or rather misfortune of his father, was that he had not formed
any close connection with foreign princes, who, on the first breaking
out of the rebellion, would have come to his assistance. That the
present alliance having been entered into with so many weaker potentates,
who themselves stood in need of the king's protection, could never serve
to maintain, much less to augment, the royal authority. That the French
monarch, alone so generous a prince, and by blood so nearly allied to the
king, would be found both able and willing, if gratified in his ambition,
to defend the common cause of kings against usurping subjects. That a
war undertaken against Holland by the united force of two such mighty
potentates, would prove an easy enterprise, and would serve all the
purposes that were aimed at. That under pretence of that war, it would
not be difficult to levy a military force, without which, during the
prevalence of republican theories among his subjects, the king would
vainly expect to defend his prerogative. That his naval power might
be obtained partly by the supplies which on other pretences might be
easily obtained from Parliament, partly by subsidies from France, partly
by captures, which might easily be made on that opulent republic. That
in such a situation, attempts to recover the lost authority of the crown
would be attended with success; nor would any malcontents dare to resist
a prince fortified by so powerful an alliance; or if they did, they would
only draw more certain ruin on themselves and on their cause, and that by
subduing the states, a great step would be made towards a reformation of
the government, since it was apparent that the republic, by its fame and
grandeur, fortified in his factious subjects their attachment to what they
vainly called their civil and religious liberties.
Such were the deliberations of the cabal---those ``grand infernal
peers,'' as Milton would call them (Moloc, Belial, Mammon, Beelzebub and
Satan.) Shaftesbury was considered their head and front:
\begin{verse}
A fairer spirit lost not heaven; he seemed \\
For dignity composed and high exploit: \\
But all was false and hollow; tho' his tongue \\
Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear \\
The better reason, to perplex and \\
Dash maturest counsels.''
\end{verse}
Clifford said that the States had behaved basely; that De Witt was
a rogue and a rascal; that it was beneath the king of England or any
other king to have any thing to do with such wretches. His sentence
was for open war. In June, 1671, the designs of the cabal were matured,
and the mask was thrown aside. It was ascertained that they secretly
formed an alliance with France, and soon after they openly declared war
against the states.
\begin{verse}
``Amphibious wretches! sudden be your fall, \\
May man un-dam you, and God-damn you all,''
\end{verse}
\noindent
was the infernally heroic couplet with which Clifford doomed the whole
Dutch nation to destruction.
\begin{center}
CHAPTER IV.
\end{center}
IN order to furnish a specimen of De Witt's political writings, the
following extract has been made from a work which was originally written
in Flemish and then translated into French:
``I understand a Republic to be a State, in which an Assembly duly
elected by the people, which is the fountain of all legitimate power,
has the right to make laws, and the ability to enforce them. By a
monarchical government, I understand, not only a State in which a single
individual has the right and the power to make or unmake laws, according
to his own will and pleasure, but, also a State where a single person,
even without any right, has the power to enforce his orders, or to direct
the laws of a higher regency, or to direct the execution of them,
according to his sovereign will.
``If the shadow of a Republican government has been so agreeable to
the merchants, and other good citizens, as to increase and establish
their commerce and navigation, what effects would not a pure Republic
produce, if we would reflect upon the good and evil fruits of other
governments, where force is employed without right? For right is vain
without force, as it must always yield to a higher power.
``By a legitimate government, I means the right of compelling
obedience to the laws, where this right should be founded upon long
possession, or upon laws and customs which would be without force,
unless they were sustained by the community, who would willingly obey
them, and punish those who were disobedient. In like manner, a considerable
number of persons attached to a chief or governor, even without any
legitimate right, would enable him to overturn established laws, and
put lawful rulers out of the just possession of their authority.
``I will suppose then, a State without arms, in which the power of
the government ordinarily devolves upon him who can force the greatest
number to obey him, which is generally the lowest class of people. In
such a case, this poor and ignorant people are more disposed to destroy
their legitimate rulers, than people of honor and distinction, who constitute
the smallest number, are disposed to protect them against such violence.
With regard to an armed State, all good statesmen hold an infallible
maxim, that he who is master of the troops is master of the fortresses
in which they are garrisoned; and he who is master of these, too, is
master of the whole State; for soldiers are accustomed implicitly to
obey their officers, under pain of sever punishment. Besides, these
people having nothing to lose, and deriving their benefits by wars and
revolutions, more than by peaceful avocations; he who commands them,
or who is their chief, can easily engage them in his enterprises against
lawful rulers, who are without arms and defence, and surprise them before
they are able to protect themselves.
``If this maxim is truly, that by which one can make himself master
of a State, he who possesses with the the affection of his soldiers,
that of the lower class, can make himself master of the whole State,
since by a right, which they yield to him, he has the power to assemble
the army at his pleasure. We can consider such a minister as having in
his hands the whole power and force of a Republic, and as being effectively
the Monarch and Sovereign of a State, with the hope that the very shadow
of a Republic will insensibly pass away, without the least trace of it
remaining, and that we may regard it in this point of view, not as a
Republic, but as a true monarchy.
``The regents who have such a chief must, despite their free
government, ask his advice on all important affairs. They must flatter
him, and take good care how they contradict his will, for fear of being
dismissed from their employments, if indeed they are not treated still
more harshly. Rome affords a memorable example in this particular,
since that haughty Republic was deprived of so large a number of its
sage counsellors. If a people so jealous of their liberties, could not
protect themselves against the violence of such a chief, we must then
conclude that it is impossible. Although this Republic has had many
chiefs to command her armies, who had many differences and jealousies
among them and appeared too feeble to become masters of the State,
she has nevertheless been constrained to bend her neck as soon as one
of these chiefs has become stronger than the others, or as soon as the
three have united to divide the Republic between them; so that I still
repeat it, that when a single person in a Republic obtains the affections
of the army and the populace, the State has entirely lost her liberties,
or will certainly do so.
``\textit{A fortiori}, if the Republic of Holland admitted into her
armies strangers, born under monarchies, as those of France and England,
and garrisons them in the frontier cities which surround Holland, that
are governed by a small number of good regents, and inhabited by people
who are so ignorant of their own welfare, such a people would naturally
expect more happiness from one such formidable chief, than form a free
republic, believing that they owed more obedience to him than to their
lawful rulers. Experience has shown that the sword of war is more
efficient in the hands of a chieftain, than the sword of justice in
the hands of civil magistrates.
``It is well known that the regents and magistrates in republics,
derive very little profit from their employment, and are generally in
moderate circumstances, as they are not able to enrich themselves with
the public property. This constrains them to endeavour by commerce,
and other means, to support their families, as in the Republics of
Venice, Genoa, Ragusa, Lucca, and others. It is certain that many
of the Regents of Holland maintain themselves by commerce, manufactures,
fishery and navigation. And even when they have enough property to
enable them to subsist by their rents, as there are no convents,
nor church benefices among us, the compensation to ministers is so small,
that people who have families derive no benefit therefrom. For which
reason the regents are, for the most part, interested in maintaining
and encouraging commerce and navigation.
``I will now extend my reflections and examine if fishery, commerce,
navigation and manufactures, are favored under a monarchical government.
We will first consider if this little country, which produces little or
nothing within herself, and which fetches money from foreign countries,
and is, in other respects, burdened with oppressive imports, would be
willing to contribute millions to the expenses of a court, which would
fall upon the shoulders of the good people of the country.
``In the first place, it is certain that every prince of genius,
who would wish to rule according to his own will, would attempt to reduce
the large cities of Holland to such a condition that he would control them.
In order to break the power of the old regents, he would employ all
possible means to introduce foreigners into the regency who would favor
the small towns and villages, to the disadvantage of the large cities.
And inasmuch as the inhabitants of these cities would soon perceive
their impending ruin, he would endeavor to reduce them into further
subjection, by garrisons of foreign troops, and by the erection of
citadels and fortresses, at the public expense.
``The city of Amsterdam, in 1571, contained about two hundred
and fifty acres of land, and the regents, at that time, were all
good Catholics, and very loyal to their king. Its fine situation,
its flourishing commerce in the East, and the increase of its inhabitants,
did not so much give umbrage to King Philip the Second, but that he
formed the design of building a citadel there, and that the inhabitants
of the city had granted him two hundred thousand francs to finish the
castle which he had commenced at Flessingen. As those wise and politic
monarchs, Charles the Fifth, and Philip the Second, had discovered no
better remedy to keep eternally under the yoke those great commercial
cities, Naples, Milan, Antwerp and Ghent, but by establishing citadels,
so we have seen many examples of the same in our time.
``Besides, it does not always happen that princes and princesses
govern by themselves; particularly during the minority of a prince
there are tutors and ministers. In the flower of his youth he is
generally occupied with pleasures and amusement, and his affairs are
managed by his favorites and creatures, who are ordinarily those who
are more fitted to cater to his vicious passions, than to control
affairs of State. In a more advanced age, he is fatigued by cares
from which he is happy to be released. All is then abandoned to favorites
and courtiers, who avail themselves of their position to enrich themselves
and families.
``It is certain, then, that the sovereigns who would reign in Holland,
be they princes or princesses, tutors, favorites or courtiers, none of
them would be interested in fishery, commerce of navigation. They would
find it more to their advantage to increase the employments and benefices
in the regency, in the large cities, which they would endeavor to make
more profitable under the pretext that they would enlarge the domains of
a prince; as, in fact, when we make a detail of the domains of monarchs,
we must always count the great and honorable employments which they have
at their disposal. The favorites of a court would prefer this way of
establishing and advancing the interests of their families to the
uncertain gain of commerce and navigation. And even when they would
engage in commercial pursuits, they would make regulations in conformity
with their own interests and utility, to the prejudice of the other
inhabitants.
``In addition to this, the rich and naturally uncouth Hollanders
would not be able to gain the affection of our sovereigns by flatteries
like those polished nobles of France and England, or like the poor
Germans in our neighborhood, who are accustomed to submit like slaves,
to their lords, whom necessity would compel to abandon their country,
and introduce here their own customs, and make themselves agreeable by
their flattery and servile submissions. The prince, on the other hand,
would regard these persons as debtors to hims for their foods and
fortunes---the preservation of which would depend on his favor being
contrary to our privileges, which would be sacrificed in order to
aggrandize him a the expense and to the ruin of Holland.
``Under these circumstances, we readily believe that the regents
and magistrates would endeavor, by all possible means, each one, in
their respective cities, or in their general assemblies, to preserve
by their counsel or discretion, freedom in religious matters, a license
of monopoly which would retrench the privileges of others; to moderate
excessive taxation, and to establish justice in favor of merchants
and the common people; and, finally, to arm the citizens in self-defence.
``With regard to the Church benefices, it is known that these dignities
are of so little profit, and of so little consequence, in Holland,
that the regents or magistrates care nothing for them. It would be
very dangerous to permit other religions to hold assemblies to direct
their Church affairs; for under this pretext they would create dissensions
and excite revolutions in order to depose the magistrates, and to exercise
undue influence over the present dominant religion.
``It is well known that all prudent chiefs, and those who aspire
to sovereignty, begin by favoring seditious preachers, in order to attain
their ends; but so soon as their objects are gained, they perceive how
dangerous such ministers are in a State; and instead of rewarding them,
they make them feel the just chastisement for their rebellion, by kicking
down the ladder by which they climbed into power.
``We have a memorable example of this in France. King Henry the Fourth
favored the ministers and subjects of the Huguenot religion, because they
were useful to him; but he soon put a check on them. We have seen how
Oliver Cromwell used the Presbyterian ministers in England, and afterwards
the Independents, in order to have their influence in electing him
Protector, by sowing dissensions among them. But he soon after abandoned
them to their fate.
``Our own history, too, shows that the Prince of Orange, William
the First, would have followed in the same footsteps, since we see the
Reformed ministers who favored him extremely at first, mortally hated
him when he had attained to the highest dignity; because he was too
indulgent towards other sects. They charged him with being an Atheist,
and having neither faith or law, so that he was constrained to call an
assembly of the States of Holland to make rules for the government and
administration of the Church. These dissensions terminated in his
assassination. His successor, Prince Maurice, would probably have shared
the same fate, had he not sacrificed Olden Barnevelt to gratify his own
tyrannical ambition. We cannot believe that this State, finding itself
freed from a chief who aims at the supreme authority, will give a loose
rein to these fanatics; for freedom of religion is necessary to keep
them in check.
``Should any one assert that the most powerful sect, that is to
say the Roman Catholics, who have a Pope for their head, with other
chiefs under him, are better affected to our powerful neighbor, the
king of Spain, can by too great indulgence change this mild government,
in order to introduce themselves here, he must consider that the Roman
Catholics are governed monarchically in matters of religion; and that
wherever they are masters, they do not tolerate any other sects among
them. This would cause the other religions to take the part of the
regents, and to unite with them to punish the seditions. The examples
of the ancient church teach us that after the ecclesiastics had converted
the Roman Emperor to christianity, they subjugated the heathens more by
their political power than by examples of piety. They availed themselves
of their ministerial authority to establish a hierarchy, independent of
the State, as we see in the Roman church to this day.
``This is confirmed by \textit{Otto Fresingenius}, a Roman Catholic
bishop, who states that the Roman Empire was deprived, not only of the
spiritual sword, but of the temporal sword which belonged to it, concludes
with these words, Although it is not my province to treat of these things,
it seems to me that the church is to blame for giving to the State a
sword which they have obtained from the regents and from the good will
of the Emperor, \textit{unless they thought proper to imitate King David,
who after he had vanquished the Philistines by the spirit of God, cut off
the head of Goliath with his own sword.''}
The illustrious author, after reviewing the whole history of his
country from the earliest time through its various changes of fortune,
concludes as follows:
``While we are enjoying the good fruits of a free government at
present, notwithstanding the difficulties and perils through which
we have passed, we are still in the winter of this happy change,
where the greatest part of the grain is yet under ground, and the
remainder is preparing to be sown in the spring; we may imagine how
agreeable the summer and autumn will be, when the coming harvest
will be gathered in. With the continuation of this government,
and the blessing of God, our country may become the most prosperous
and powerful nation in the world. We must then not only beseech the
Almighty to preserve our State, but we must be prepared joyfully to
sacrifice our property, our blood and our lives, rather than to permit
the foundations and principles of our free government to be undermined
by electing a Stadholder to rule over us.''
De Witt was decidedly opposed to the government either of king Log,
or king Stork. His views, as expressed in his whole treatise, prove him
to be in no respect behind the Fathers of our own great republic, whose
political faith has been proclaimed to the world in our glorious
Declaration of Independence. While he was preparing this work,
ALGERNON SIDNEY, who had been wandering in exile on the continent,
repaired to the Hague to see his friend Sir Wm.\ Temple. There he was
introduced to the Grand Pensionary, who, as it may be supposed, conceived
a high admiration for his talents and attachment to his person, as well
as sympathy for his misfortunes. During the frequent interviews between
them, Sidney exerted his ``luxuriant and insinuating address'' to
persuade De Witt to attempt the invasion of England, but the time was
not ripe for such a daring and dubious enterprise. Those immortal
``\textit{Discourses concerning government}'' were doubtless undergoing a
rigid analysis in the laboratory of his active mind, and show him to have
been the greatest master of this science the world has yet seen. What
effect these discussions produced, we are not informed, but it may be safely
conjectured that the lucid opinions of De Witt must have fortified in
no small degree, the reasonable conclusions of the undaunted republican.
De Witt's writings were proscribed in Holland, and it is well known that
Sidney's were not published until a succeeding age, and a free press
had brought about a complete revolution in public sentiment. A few
extracts from his sixth section will satisfy us that he had no faith
in the divine right of kings, as maintained by the sophistry of Sir
Robert Filmer, whose patriarchal theory has become obsolete, unless
it be confined to those nations which inhabit regions beyond the Danube
and the Red Sea.
``But our author, (Sir Robert Filmer) very wittily concludes:
That if by the law of God, the power be immediately in the people,
\textit{God is the author of democracy}. And why not as well of a tyranny?
Is there anything in it more repugnant to the being of God? Is there
more reason to impute to God Caligula's monarchy than the democracy of
Athens? Or is it more for the glory of God to assert his presence
with the Ottoman or French monarch, than with the popular governments
of the Switzers and the Grisons? Is pride, malice, luxury and violence
so suitable to his being, that they who exercise them are reputed to
be his ministers?. And is modesty, humility, equality and justice so
contrary to his nature, that they who live in them should be thought
his enemies? Is there any absurdity in saying, that since God, in
goodness and mercy to mankind, hath with an equal hand given all the
benefit of liberty, with some measure of understanding how to employ it,
'tis lawful for any nation, as occasion shall require, to give the
exercise of that power to one or other mean under certain limitations
and conditions; or to retain it to themselves, if they think it good
for them? If this may be done, we are at an end of all controversies
concerning one form of government established by God, to which all
mankind must submit; and we may safely conclude that having given to
all men, in some degree, a capacity of judging for themselves, he hath
granted to all likewise a liberty of inventing such forces as please
them best, without favoring one more than another.
``The next point is subtle; and he thinks therefore to have brought
Bellarmine and such as agree with him to a nonplus. He doubts who
shall judge of the lawful charge of changing the government; and says
it is ``a pestilent conclusion to place the power in the multitude.''
But why should this be esteemed pestilent? or to whom? If the allowance
of such a power was pestilent to Nero, it was beneficial to mankind;
and the denial of it which would have given to Nero an opportunity
of continuing in his villainies, would have been pestilent to the
best men, whom he endeavored to destroy, and to all others that received
benefit from them. But this question depends upon another: for if
governments are constituted for the pleasure, greatness of profit of
one man, he must not be interrupted; for the opposing of his will is
to overthrow the institution. On the other side, if the good of the
governed be sought, care must be taken that the end be accomplished,
though it be with the prejudice of the governor. If the power be
originally in the multitude, and one or other men to whom the exercise
of it, or a part of it, was committed, had no more than their brethren
till it was conferred on him or them, it cannot be believed that rational
creatures would advance one or a few of their equals above themselves,
unless in consideration of their own good; and then I find no inconvenience
in leaving to them a right of judging whether this be duly performed or not.
We say in general, "He that institutes, may also abrogate''---``Cujus
est instituere, ejus est abrogare;" most especially when the
institution is not only by but for himself. If the multitude therefore
do institute, the multitude may abrogate; and they themselves, or those
who succeed in the same right, can only be fit judges of the performance
of the ends of the institution. Our author may perhaps say, the public
peace may be hereby disturbed, but he ought to know that there can be no
peace where there is no justice; nor any justice, if the government
instituted for the good of a nation be turned to its ruin. But in
plain English, the inconvenience with which such as he endeavor to
affright us, is no more than that he or they to whom the power is
given may be restrained or chastised, if they betray their trust;
which I presume will displease none but such as would rather subject
Rome, with the best part of the world depending on it, to the will of
Caligula or Nero, than Caligula or Nero to the judgement of the Senate
and people; that is, rather to expose many great and brave nations
to be destroyed by the rage of a savage beast, than subject that beast
to the judgement of all, or the choicest of them, who can have no interest
to pervert them, or other reason to be severe to him, than to prevent
the mischief he would commit, and to save the people from ruin.
In the next place, he recites an argument of Bellarmine, ``That it is
evident in Scripture God hath ordained powers; but God hath given them
to no particular person, because by nature all men are equal, therefore
he hath given power to the people or multitude.'' I leave him to untie
that knot if he can; but as it is usual with imposters, he goes about
by surmise to elude the force of his argument, pretending that in some
other place he had contradicted himself, and acknowledged that every
man was prince of his posterity, "because, that if many men had been
created together, they ought all to have been princes of their
posterity.'' But it is not necessary to argue upon passages cited
from authors, when he that cites them may be justly suspected of fraud,
and neither indicates the place nor treatise, lest it should be detected;
most especially when we are in no ways concerned in the author's credit.
I take Bellarmine's first argument to be strong; and if he in some place
did contradict it, the hurt is only to himself: but in this particular
I should not think he did it, though I were sure our author did faithfully
repeat his words, for in allowing every man to be prince of his posterity,
he only says, every man should be chief in his own family, and have a power
over his children, which no man denies; but he does not understand Latin,
who thinks the word princeps doth in any degree signify an absolute power
or a right of transmitting it to his heirs and successors, upon which
the whole doctrine of our author depends. On the contrary, the same
law that gave to my father a power over me, gives me the like over
my children; and if I had a thousand brothers, each of them would
have the same over their children. Bellarmine's first argument being,
therefore, no way enervated by the alleged passage, I may justly insist
upon it, and add, that God hath not only declared in Scripture, but
written on the heart of every man, that as it is better to be clothed
than to go naked; to live in a house than to lie in the fields; to be
defended by the united force of a multitude, than to place the hopes
of his security before a savage and barbarous solitude, he also taught
them to frame such societies, and to establish such laws as were necessary
to preserve them. And we may reasonably affirm that mankind if forever
obliged to use no other clothes than leather breeches like Adam; to live
in hollow trees and eat acorns, or to seek after the model of his house
for a habitation, and to use no arms except such as were known to the
patriarchs, as to think all nations are forever obliged to be governed
as they governed their families. This I take to be the genuine sense
of the Scripture, and the most respectful way of interpreting the places
relating to our purpose. It is hard to imagine how God, who hath left
all things to our choice that are not evil in themselves, should tie
us up in this; and utterly incredible that he should impose upon us
a necessity of following his will without declaring it to us. Instead
of constituting a government over his people, consisting of many parts,
which we take to be a model fit to be imitated by others, he might have
declared in a word that the eldest man of the oldest line should be a
king, and that his will ought to be their law.
``This had been more suitable to the goodness and mercy of God, than
to leave us in a dark labyrinth full of precipices, or rather, to make
the government given to his own people a false light to lead us to
destruction. This could not be avoided, if there were such a thing as
our author calls a "lord, paramount over his children's children,
to all generations." We see nothing in Scripture, of precept or example,
that is not utterly abhorrent to this chimera. The only sort of kings
mentioned there, with approbation, is such a one ``as may not raise
his heart above his brethren.'' If God had constituted a lord,
paramount with an absolute power, and multitudes of nations were to
labor and fight for his greatness and pleasure, this were to raise
his heart to a height that would make him forget he was a man. Such
as are versed in Scripture, not only know that it neither agrees with
the letter nor spirit of that book; but that it is unreasonable in itself,
unless he were of a species different from the rest of mankind. His
exaltation would not agree with God's indulgence to his creatures,
though he were the better for it; much less, when probably he would
be made more unhappy and worse, by the pride, luxury and other vices,
that always attend the highest fortunes. It is no less incredible,
that God, who disposes all things in wisdom and goodness, and appoints
a due place for all, should, without distinction, ordain such a power,
to every one succeeding in such a line, as cannot be executed; the
wise would refuse, and fools cannot take upon them the burden of it,
without ruin to themselves and such as are under them; or to expose
mankind to a multitude of other absurdities and mischiefs; subjecting
the aged to be governed by children; the wise to depend on the will of
fools; the strong and valiant to expect defence from the weak and cowardly;
and all in general to receive justice from him, who neither knows nor
cares for it.''
Thus thought and thus wrote he who did `scribere in albo' this heroic
sentiment:
\begin{verse}
\qquad\qquad Manus h\ae c inimica tyrannis,\\
Esse petit placidam \textit{sub libertate} quietam.
\end{verse}
A sentiment that might have been engraved with propriety on the
sword of Washington.
\begin{center}
CHAPTER V.
\end{center}
IT is an old saying that ``straws tell which way the wind blows,''
and history shows that most of the wars which have desolated the world,
have arisen from petty provocations. Newton's discovery of the attraction
of gravitation was made by the accidental falling of an apple, and
Pope felicitously sings:
\begin{verse}
``That beauty draws us with a single hair.''
\end{verse}
About the middle of the seventeenth century there appeared in
the scientific world mathematical geniuses of the first order, who
more for the purposes of amusing their leisure hours, than for any
serious or practical object, indulged themselves in ingenious speculations.
A certain Chevalier de Mere, who was addicted to gambling, and making
certain curious speculations on games of chance, proposed to the
illustrious Pascal two problems, which excited his curiosity, and
which he was unable to solve. The object of the first was, to know
how one could bet with advantage in throwing two dice, with a view
to get double sixes. The second was to find a rule to make a just
distribution of funds between two players, unequally divided in the
points of the game, whenever either party might be pleased to cease
playing; and to calculate from any state of the game what would be
the reasonable hope of any party to win, in continuing to play.
The gist of the problem was to measure the mathematical degree of
belief of which simple conjecture were worthy. No one had ever
attempted the investigation before, and no precedent would lead one
to conclude that analysis could be employed successfully in solving
such a question,- There were but a few difficulties with which the
powerful intellect of Pascal would not grapple. By a new and original
mode of analysis he demonstrated that the exact degree of probability
of future events was in certain cases capable of a rigorous appreciation.
And that the most fugitive conjectures were as worthy of a certain amount
of credit as the natural quantities upon which analysis was usually employed.
The first question was solved with entire exactness, but in the
second, although he displayed great ingenuity, the solution was not
perfect. A certain magistrate of Thoulouse, named Fermat, to whom Pascal
submitted the question, was more fortunate in his attempt. He found
a rule for dividing the undecided property of a stake in the game,
not only in the particular hypothesis of the question proposed,
but in all imaginable hypothesis between an indefinite number of players,
and to count from all possible moments which it might suit one of
the parties to interrupt the game. The correspondence of Pascal
was not published during his life, but for the remainder of his days
he devoted himself chiefly to religious meditations, and to the
composition of his celebrated Thoughts and the Provincial Letters,
in which he blasted the Jesuitical theory of the doctrine of intentions;
but soon after, as his biographer states, ``he entered into a long and
eloquent delirium, when dead to science as to the world, he conceived
a great disgust and contempt for mathematics as for all other worldly
affairs.''
These discoveries attracted no great attention at the time, but not
many years after, \textsc{Christian Huygens}, who was already celebrated as
a geometrician, published a little treatise, entitled \textit{De ratiociniis
in ludo al\ae a}, in which the elements of the new theory were expressed with
a remarkable sagacity and precision. The fundamental proposition deduced
from these labors was, that the probability of any event happening or not
happening, might be expressed by the ratio of the number of chances for
its happening, (or not happening as the case might be,) to the total number
of chances for its happening and for its not happening.
In 1674 the Grand Pensionary found, or rather made sufficient
leisure to enter into a calculation, to determine the probability of a man,
in each year of his life, dying within a prescribed time. With this
view, he consulted the registers of deaths and births of the different
towns in Holland, from which he drew the necessary elements for the
formation of an extraordinary table of a nature until then unknown,
where the probability of the life of a man of his country and of his
time was at each age mathematically estimated, and on the basis of this
comparative state of their number of years of life, which still remained
to the different members of the society, whose probable partiality he
had calculated, he deduced therefrom the actual values of life annuities
upon different ages in such society. He prepared a Report upon the subject,
which was submitted to the States-General, and ordered to be printed in
the ``Resolutions of the States of Holland and West Friesland.'' The
novelty of the treatise attracted some notice, but the famous Liebnitz
complained that he could never have an inspection of the original,
although he made every effort to do so. It was he who first drew the
public attention to the subject. It is entitled to be considered as
the first known production of any age, treating in a formal manner on
the valuation of life annuities. The careful process by which he arrived
at his conclusions, is worthy of notice, aside from the practical
importance and peculiar history of the treatise, and the interest
attaching to it, from the honored memory of its author.\footnote{See
``Hendrik's Contributions.''} It has been conjectured that the reason
why no publicity was given to De Witt's researches at the time, was owing
to the increased rates leading to unpleasant remarks, from financial
economists of the day. The capitalists, moreover, were not disposed to
enlighten the government upon the subject, as it was not their interest to
do so. It remained for a future age to make the whole theory of life
annuities a subject of minute investigation, and to reduce it to practical
purposes. It must be admitted, however, that De Witt was justly entitled
to the credit of having been the author of the system. The science which
appeared with so little outward eclat, was destined for a time to be
eclipsed by the glories of other inventions. The discoveries of Newton
and Halley in the science of astronomy, threw all other kinds of scientific
knowledge into a temporary shade.
There was another distinguished mathematician by the name of
Bernouilli, who wrote a treatise, entitled Ars conjectandi, which,
however, he did not live to finish. If we consider the time at which
it was composed, the originality, the extent and depth of thought which
are displayed in the composition of this treatise, it will hold first
rank among the extraordinary mathematical productions of the age in
which he lived. It was his aim to expose the whole philosophy of the
calculation of probabilities, to deduce the reasons for which, according
to his idea, probability could be expressly considered as a number,
which doctrine he said could be employed in civil and moral, as well
as in political affairs. He considered knowledge as a quantity,
certainty as an entire quantity, and probability as one of its fractions.
This fraction is susceptible like ordinary numerical fractions, of
becoming infinitely great or infinitely small. Infinitely great, it is
confounded with entire quantity or certainty; infinitely small, it
vanishes into nothing, and is no more than the mathematical expression
of impossibility. Its different values between this double infinite,
expresses all the imaginable states of knowledge, from the highest to
the lowest degree of probability. They are all relative to entire
quantity or certainty, which is considered as a unit. This idea of
designating quantity as a unit, and the different degrees of probability
as fractional parts, was esteemed at the time as sound logic, if not,
indeed, a mathematical necessity.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century, Malebranch and De
Montmort undertook to compose a general analysis of games of chance,
which obtained some applause, but were destined to be obscured by the
extraordinary geniuses who foreshadowed the dawn of the French
Revolution.\footnote{See Gourard's ``Calcul des Probabilit\'es.''}
The great discoveries which were made by Euler, Laplace, D'Alembert
and Condorcet, engaged the minds of all the scientific men in Europe.
Honorable mention should also be made of Buffon, who wrote a treatise
of moral arithmetic, in which he demonstrated with great eloquence,
that in all games of chance in which money was the object, the chance
of winning was infinitely small in proportion to the chance of losing.
That the contract was vicious in essence, alike in being injurious to
the player and to the good of society. He was the first who attempted
to show, that in all lotteries, the banker was a cheat, and the speculator
must necessarily become a victim. Condorcet, who was the boldest and
most adventurous of all theses theorists, smitten with the prevailing
idea that the human species were capable of indefinite perfectibility,
undertook to apply the rules of algebra, to demonstrate the time in which
it was probable that he would arrive at a state of perfection; but his
melancholy suicide, not long after, put an end to his ingenious speculations.
He left among his papers a scheme in which he represented human
societies as great geometrical constructions, where all operated as in
nature in conformity with certain and fixed laws, to which the free
will of each individual, after more or less variation, always ended
by obeying. In following this idea, he imagined that it was no more
impossible to determine the probability of future events by the observation
of passed events in the world of liberty, than in that of destiny.
He proposed a new science, to which he gave the name of Social
Mathematics, where the geometrician proposed to calculate the future
revelations of human society as he calculated the periodical returns
of eclipses and comets. But his ardent and philanthropic genius did
not permit him to rest in mere general abstractions. His great object
was to develop the resources of human improvement. For if he did not
believe in the absolute perfectibility of man, he indulged an enthusiastic
hope that a vast field might be opened for the amelioration of his social
condition. With this view, he composed a treatise of the application
of analysis to the probability of decision rendered by a majority of
votes. He divided all the decisions made by human assemblies into two
great classes. In the first class he places those decisions which he
regarded as valid. In the second class he places those decisions which
are considered just in the opinion of the minority, only when made in
their favor. He considers four points essential in relation to the
probability of all kinds of decisions: the probability that an assembly
will not make a false decision, that it will make a true decision,
that it will make a decision either true or false, and finally, the
probability that the decision made by the majority will remain certain
and fixed. He undertakes to show that, according to these principles,
a geometrician can with great exactness determine the probability of
the justness of decision, either in civil or criminal matters, the
comparative excellence of the different forms of election, as well as
the various modes by which balloting should be conducted. He prophesied
that the day was not far distant when statistics would exhibit a collection
of facts to render legislation, jurisprudence and commerce a proper
subject of this method of analysis. The ardent fire of enthusiasm,
which glowed beneath these endless series of equations and formulas,
induced his friend, D'Alembert, to compare him to a ``volcano covered
with snow.'' Condorcet says, that he considered De Witt to be the first
mathematician who thought of applying calculation to political equations,
and that he had very superior ideas to those of his age upon the interests
of nations and upon the freedom of trade.\footnote{\textsc{Note}---Whether
the illustrious South Carolina statesman can be compared to ``cast iron''
or a ``volcano,'' we will not undertake to determine, but he seems to have
entirely coincided with Condorcet:
``If, by metaphysics, is meant that scholastic refinement which makes
distinctions without difference, no one can hold it in more utter contempt
than I do; but if, on the contrary, is meant the power of analysis and
combination---that power which reduces the most complex idea into its
elements, which traces causes to their first principle, and by the power
of generalization and combination unites the whole into one harmonious
system---then, so far from deserving contempt, it is the highest attribute
of the human mind. It raises man above the brute, which distinguishes his
faculties from mere sagacity which he holds in common with inferior
animals.'' It is this power which has raised the astronomer from being a
mere gazer at the stars to the high intellectual eminence of a Newton or
a Laplace, and astronomy itself from a mere observation of insulated facts
into that noble science which displays to our admiration the system of the
universe. And shall this high power of the mind which has effected such
wonders when directed to the laws which control the material world, be
forever prohibited under a senseless cry of metaphysics, from being applied
to the high purpose of political science and legislation!. I hold them to
be subject to laws as fixed as matter itself, and to be as fit a subject
for the highest intellectual power. Denunciation may, indeed, fall upon
the philosophical inquirer into those first principles, as it did upon
Galileo and Bacon, when they first unfolded the great discoveries which
have immortalized their names; but the time will come when truth will prevail
in spite of prejudice and denunciation, and when politics and legislation
will be considered as much a science as astronomy and
chemistry.''---\textsc{J.\ C.\ Calhoun}.}
\begin{center}
CHAPTER VI.
\end{center}
TO THOSE who may be curious to know what were De Witt's sentiments
with regard to that relation upon which the happiness of society so
much depends, an extract from a letter to his brother on the subject
of the marriage of his daughter, will be highly approved by heads of
families who appreciate merit more than money. But alas! for the
degenerate days in which we live---``virtus post nummos seems to
be the golden rule, and matrimony is, after all, but a matter of
money. The letter runs thus: ``In the first place, this person has
no occupation, so that I must consider him a good-for-nothing fellow.
I have always had a great aversion for this sort of people, having
known many instances where as soon as they were married, they did
not know how to employ their leisure hours, and consequently became
addicted to bad company.
``In the second place, although this young man may be of good habits
and pleasing address, and may desire to better his condition by desiring
to to form an alliance with my family, I do not think he can aspire to
any honorable employment in Holland, for I have been exposed myself to
so much hatred and envy, that my influences would avail him nothing.
``In the third place, I have always considered that the greatest
happiness in this life was to be enjoyed in a union contracted with a
person of an agreeable and conciliating temper. All the wealth of the
universe cannot in my opinion compensate for the disgust which a peevish
temper occasions not only to those who are united in the marriage state,
but also to the whole family in which such an unsociable humor has been
introduced. I do not know precisely what kind of temper the young man has,
but I have learned this lesson from my parents, that in the affair of
marriage, we should never unite our children when the temper of one of
the parents is disagreeable. I have known the father of the young man,
and have some acquaintance with the mother, but both of them had such
a temper, that even if the son were more amicable than either, I would
rather see my daughter carried to the grave than that she should form
a connection with such a man.''
He maintained an extensive correspondence with his female
acquaintance, and especially with one of his nieces, to whom he was
in the habit of propounding queries at the conclusion of his letters.
We find the following:-
``Three hundred and thirty-three thousand two hundred and
twenty-seven persons were employed in building the tower of Babel.
They worked at it for two years, seven months, and three days,
when they were prevented by the confusion of tongues. The height of
the tower was then two miles, or three thousand two hundred rods.
How long would it require thirty thousand persons to be employed in
constant labor to raise such a tower to the same height?''
A ludicrous anecdote is related of him, that while taking a promenade
to refresh himself after the severe labors of the day, he met in the
narrow streets of the Hague, Don Gomara, the Spanish Ambassador,
who was in a coach drawn by four horses, and Mr. De Thou, the French
Ambassador, who was in a coach and six. The coaches having met,
neither one nor the other would retreat or advance one step. The
coachmen, who are generally very punctilious in matters of etiquette,
threatened to use their whips, and their suite, who were armed with swords,
were about to draw them, when the populace, who were attracted to the scene,
bellowed out, that if the French dared to draw their swords or pistols,
\textit{their jawbones would not want a supply of stones and brickbats}.
De Witt perceiving that they were about to put their threat into execution,
intervened, and pushing his way through the crowd, he exhorted them to
disperse, upon which the coaches passes to the right and left, and so
the affair ended.
As an instance of his urbanity, when a clergyman ventured to reprove
him vehemently from the pulpit for opposing the elevation of the young
prince to the Stadholderate, instead of dismissing him from his charge,
he requested him to repair to his residence, where, after he had
admonished him to keep within the line of his duties, he invited him
to dinner.
On another occasion, when one of his clerks abstracted a letter
from his office, and revealed certain matters which it was important
to keep secret, instead of delivering him into the hands of justice
to be severely punished, he mildly reprimanded him, and bade him
``go sin no more.''
\begin{center}
CHAPTER VII.
\end{center}
BUT De Witt's days were numbered. The insurrections and disturbances,
to which we have alluded in a previous chapter, extended into Rotterdam,
Leyden, Delft, Haarlaem, and other cities, where many of the residences
of the magistrates were pillaged. As the province of Zealand had declared
the prince Stadholder of the second of July, the States of Holland having
assembled on the day following for the purpose of abrogating the perpetual
edict, unanimously resolved, that ``In consideration of the troubled state
of affairs, the members agree to absolve each other from their oath,
as well as those who had sworn to preserve the perpetual edict,
remitting all into the same liberty they enjoyed before, to elect a
Stadholder as they may see fit for the greatest good and advantage of
the republic. They then deputed several of their members to repair
to Bodegrave, where the prince was encamped, to inform him of his election.
He returned his thanks and went to the Hague to take the oath of office,
as he had previously done at an assembly of the States-General. Meanwhile,
scandalous falsehoods had been circulated, tending to impeach the
integrity and honor of the Grand Pensionary, by charging him with
converting to his private use the secret service money which had been
entrusted to his hands to enable him to baffle the intrigues of the enemy.
But whatever credit his enemies might have attached to these rumors,
the sagacious prince, who knew him to be incorruptible by such sordid
considerations, charged the whole blame upon his own officers, who
betrayed the chief towns on the frontiers into the hands of the French.
He did not neglect to employ his address in endeavoring to engage the
friendship of De Witt, and to solicit him to lend his aid in this
eventful crisis. In this interview, De Witt is said to have replied,
with fixed candor and decision, that his principles were fixed after
the most mature reflections; that he had resolved never to renounce
those rules which he had deemed just and equitable, and by which he
had always been governed in the discharge of his public duties; and that
he could not then do, from considerations of interest, what was directly
opposed to his own settled convictions of duty; that the people now hated
him without cause, and, therefore, would never forgive him; that while
he prayed for the prosperity of the State under whatever form of
government the people may see fit to establish, he would not retain
an office which he could only hold by betraying the confidence which
the States-General had always reposed in him. He, therefor, respectfully
declined the honor of serving the State under the Stadholderate,
an office which he considered as anti-republican in its tendencies,
and calculated to be subversive of the public liberty.
On the 3d of May, the King of France, with an army of twenty
thousand men arrived at Charleroi, which he had divided into four bodies,
one commanded by himself in person, and the others by the Prince of Cond‚
the Duke of Orleans, and Marshal Turenne. He opened the siege of several
of their principal cities by a simultaneous movement, which created such
terror among the inhabitants of the provinces that by the advice of the
Grand Pensionary, the States-General deputed four of their members to
repair to the king, and request him to state on what terms, and for what
amount of money, he would be willing to evacuate the Dutch territory;
but the demands of the magnificent king were so exorbitant that the
deputies returned without having accomplished anything. The young
Stadholder never forgot or forgave the humiliating exaction, and hurled
back with stern contempt the audacious pretensions of his haughty oppressor.
The disasters which had befallen the nation created bitter animosity
towards the illustrious brothers, who were soon to atone for the misfortunes
of the country by a cruel death. While the Grand Pensionary was returning
home at night from an assembly of the States-General, he was attacked
by four men with drawn swords, one of whom gave him a thrust in the neck,
which felled him to the ground. After struggling with his adversary,
he received a severe blow on the head, and was left for dead. But by
the aid of skilful surgeons, he was soon enabled to attend to his usual
duties. Some of the populace at Dort were stirred up to declare that
the perpetual edict should be rescinded to prevent the utter ruin of
the State, and were bent on deposing all the magistrates who insisted
on maintaining it. They ran like madmen through the streets, exclaiming,
``Long live the prince, and may the devil take the De Witts.'' Others
hoisted orange-colored and white flags on the cupola of the Stadhouse,
on which were painted the significant Dutch couplet:-
\begin{verse}
Orange boven, De Witt onder, \\
Die tandere maund de slaet den donder:
\end{verse}
which may thus be inelegantly translated-
\begin{verse}
The Princes of Orange above, the De Witts under, \\
And those who resist will see thunder.
\end{verse}
As a natural consequence of these disasters, the government funds
could not be sold at a discount of seventy per cent., and the
obligations of the East India Company, which were worth a thousand florins,
could be purchased for two hundred and fifty. The archives of the
city were carried in haste to Amsterdam, and many tons of silver were
deposited in the vaults of the famous bank of that city. The Hague
being exposed to the attack of the enemy, they were compelled to
remove the seat of government to the great commercial emporium.
Having determined to withdraw himself from public affairs,
De Witt tendered his resignation to the States-General in the following
address:-
``HIGH AND MIGHTY LORDS: Nineteen years have elapsed since I had
the honor to serve in your assembly in the capacity of Grand Pensionary
of Holland and West Friesland. During that time the State has been
disturbed by wars and other calamities which, by God's help and the
courage and wisdom of your lordships, I had good reason to hope would
have been happily terminated. Your lordships well know with what zeal
and labor I have endeavored for several years to remove the occasions
of discontent and dissensions which we have now with the powerful
enemies of the State. You are not ignorant, my lords, how often I have
taken the liberty to represent to you the misfortunes that may befall
us in the course of time, if we do not promptly apply the necessary
remedies to the evils with which we are menaced. But God, whose providence
we ought always humbly to adore, however incomprehensible it may be,
has permitted a ruinous and fatal war to rage, although the State in
general and the province of Holland in particular have sufficient
time to prepare and provide whatever may be necessary for a vigorous
defence. With what application and urgent solicitation I have exhorted
your lordships to be vigilant in protecting yourselves against the devices
of the enemy, this assembly can bear abundant testimony. Our allies
in this assembly have moved with as much promptness and diligence as
possible in a body composed of so many members and of such a constitution,
that it is rather influenced by the prospect of a present and pressing
necessity than by exhortations to avoid those perils which they could
not foresee. But notwithstanding all their cares and all their efforts
to avert this evil, it has pleased God in his anger to inflict upon this
State those calamities in which it is now enveloped, and that in a manner
so difficult to comprehend, that posterity will scarcely believe it,
so rapid are the conquests of the enemy, and so weak the resistance on
the part of our army. What is most mortifying in this melancholy
conjuncture is, that these disasters have excited in the minds of the
people not only a general panic, but also sinister impressions against
their magistrates, and especially against those who have in any way had
the management of public affairs. Atrocious calumnies have been circulated
against me. Base libels, accusing me of converting the secret service
money to my own purposes, have been brought against me. I have always
thought that the most effectual way of destroying these calumnies was to
treat them with contempt. However unjust and unfounded these suspicions
have been, as I am but an humble servant of the State, having no other
object but to promote its welfare and prosperity, I have deemed it my
duty no longer to retain an office which would require me to compromise
my own self-respect, and, perhaps, would be prejudicial to the interests
of the country.
``For these reasons I have only to request that your lordships will
do me the favor to dispense with my services as Grand Pensionary. I must
conclude by expressing my profound obligations to this august assembly
for the many testimonials of their confidence and friendship which I
have so often received at their hands, and I trust I will always
continue to be your faithful friend, as I have always been your very
faithful and humble servant.''
The States-General having taken the subject into serious consideration,
concluded to accept his resignation, and testified their acknowledgement
of the great services which he had rendered to the State in a resolution
which honorably discharged him from his high and painful responsibilities.
On the day following he notified his friend De Ruyter of his dismissal
in the following letter:
``SIR: The taking of the cities on the Rhine in so short a time,
the ravages of the enemy to the very boarders of the Ysel, and the
total loss of the provinces of Guilders, of Utrecht, and Overyssel,
almost without resistance and by an unheard of act of treachery,
have more than confirmed me in the truth of that saying which was formerly
applied to the Roman republic: ``\textit{Prospera omnes sibi vindicant,
adversa uni imputantur:}'' ``All take the credit to themselves when things
are prosperous, but when they are adverse they lay the blame upon one.''
It is what I have experienced myself. The people of Holland have not
only charged me with all the calamities and disasters that have befallen
this Republic, not content with seeing me fall into the hands of armed
assassins who intended to murder me, but when with the help of divine
Providence I have escaped from their hands and been cured of the wounds
that I had received, they have conceived a mortal hatred against those
magistrates whom they believed to have the greatest influence in the
management of affairs, and especially against me, who have been but
an humble servant of the State. Their lordships have done me the
kindness to grant my discharge, as you will see by the resolution
which I enclose.''
But the wrath of the populace was stirred up to such a pitch of
frenzy that it could not be appeased, nor could the sanguinary vengeance
be satiated by shedding the blood of one innocent victim. Cornelius,
the brother of the Grand Pensionary, was charged, by a perjured scoundrel
named Tichelaer, who followed the trade of a barber, with suborning
him to assassinate the Prince of Orange. This abominable falsehood
was conveyed by General Zulestein to his Highness, who ordered
Tichelaer to detail the facts to him. The wretch told his story with
such an air of veracity that an order was issued to arrest Cornelius at Dort,
where illness had confined him to his bed, and to incarcerate him in
the State's Prison at the Hague. To this falsehood was added a tissue
of base lies, accusing him of shirking the renewal of a battle with the
French fleet, and of actually engaging in a disgraceful fisticuff with
De Ruyter, who remonstrated with him for showing the white feather by
hiding himself behind a coil of cables.
This magnanimous admiral who narrowly escaped assassination,
at the instance of John De Witt addressed the following letter to the
States-General from his ship, which was lying at anchor near Goree:
``HIGH AND MIGHTY LORDS: I have learned with extreme surprise
that it has been rumored that the Deputy Commissary and myself had
quarrelled and had come to blows, and that I had wounded him in the
arm. Further, that he did not wish to fight the enemies of the State,
and especially the French, and that the prevented a renewal of the
engagement on the second day, and many other things of this sort,
have been imputed to him. I hold myself obliged, for my own honor,
and for the defence of truth and justice, to declare to your lordships,
in the sincerity of my heart, and to testify as I do now that the Ruard
of Putten, (Cornelius De Witt,) in his capacity of Deputy Commissary
of the fleet, has lived with me on terms of cordial friendship, and
that there has never been any difference whatever, between us. I feel
myself also conscientiously bound to bear testimony that the Ruard
always exhibited a marked zeal to engage the enemy, and that he manifested
as great an animosity towards the French as the English. This was clearly
proved by the fact that when he proposed to a council of war to attack
the enemy, it was carried by a unanimous resolution.''
The Ruard made an elaborate defence, and proved, by unimpeachable
witnesses, that he was entirely innocent of the heinous crime of which
he had been accused by a man who had been compelled to perpetual infamy,
and who was compelled, in open court, to fall upon his knees and beg
pardon of God and justice; that there was no other witness against him,
and that the substantial evidence against him was totally devoid of all
truth and probability. But the court, which seems to have been affected
with the popular contagion, and smitten with judicial blindness, convicted
the prisoner, and sentenced him to the terrible torture of the thumb-screw,
in order to force him to confess his guilt. But he replied that if they
would rend him in pieces he would never acknowledge himself to be guilty
of a crime of which he had never conceived. While undergoing the dreadful
torture he repeated those lofty lines of Horace, which fortified his soul
in this fiery crisis:
\begin{verse}
Justum et tenacem propositi virum, \\
Num civium ardor prava jubentium, \\
Non vultus instantis tyranni, \\
\quad Mente quatit solida, \&c. \\
\ \\
The man of firm and noble soul \\
No factious clamor can control, \\
No threatening tyrant's darkling brow \\
\quad Can swerve him from his just intent.
\end{verse}
It would be impossible, at this day, for the impartial historian
entirely to acquit the Prince of Orange, the \textit{vultus instantis tyranni},
of influencing the court to punish an individual whom he considered
his hereditary enemy. His subsequent career of glory, and the great
and memorable service which he afterwards rendered to the establishment
of the Protestant religion, the expelling of the last of the reigning
tyrants of the house of Stuart, would incline us to believe that although
he exercised no undue influence in instigating the judges in making so
unjust and unlawful a decision, there is good cause to suspect that
it was not done without his knowledge. It is very certain that he
made no efforts to prevent it, and that he afterwards bestowed pensions
and offices upon the murderers of the two brothers, and not many days after.
The \textit{arda prava civium jubentium} was at that crisis so ungovernable
that no earthly power could have checked it but the direct personal
intervention of the illustrious prince, whom they considered their last hope
and only saviour. The desolation of the most lovely portions of Holland by
the powerful enemies of the State, treachery under every disguise, misery
and starvation staring them in the face, it will not excite surprise that
in a moment of panic or terror, and madness, these black crimes should have
been committed. The finger of the ``taciturn'' prince, whose counsels
saved the country form destruction by the mercenary fanatics under the
wolfish dukes of Alva and Parma, seemed to point to the young prince,
who had inherited his valor and patriotism.
``That great man,'' says Macaulay, ``rose at once to the full
dignity of his part, and approved himself a worthy descendent of a
line of heroes who had vindicated the liberties of Europe against
the house of Austria. Nothing could shake his fidelity to his country,
not his close connexion with the royal family of England, not the most
earnest solicitations, nor the most tempting offers. The spirit of the
nation, that spirit which had maintained the great conflict against the
gigantic power of Philip revived in all their strength. Counsels, such
as are inspired by a genuine despair, and are almost always followed by
a speedy dawn of hope, were gravely concerted by the statesmen of Holland.
To open their dykes, to man their ships, to leave their country with all
its miracles of art and industry, its cities, its villas, its pastures,
and its tulip gardens, buried under the waves of the German Ocean;
to bear to a distant climate their Calvinistic faith and their old
Batavian liberties, to fix, perhaps, with happier auspices, the new
Stadhouse of their commonwealth under other stars and under a strange
vegetation in the Spice islands of the eastern seas. Such were the plans
which they had the spirit to form, and it is seldom that men who have
the spirit to form such plans are reduced to the necessity of executing
them.''
The Ruard was sentenced to be discharged from all his offices and
dignities, and to be forever banished from his country. The last act
of the tragedy was now to be performed. The populace was disappointed
that the court did not sentence him to be executed, and were determined
to glut their savage vengeance by a bloody massacre. They gathered
round the prison where he was remanded, and stationed sentinels near
the doors in order to prevent his escape. They then sent a messenger
to the residence of the Grand Pensionary, with a request that he would
hasten to the prison to see his brother, who, they said, urgently
solicited his presence. His children, who suspected that foul play
was intended, entreated him with tears to remain. But his fraternal
affection overcame all considerations of prudence, and he resolved to go.
No sooner had he entered his brother's chamber than his doom was sealed.
The victims were at last in the power of their deadly enemies.
They drew the Ruard from his sick bed and hurled him backwards to the
bottom of a flight of steps which led to the outer door of the prison.
John De Witt was struck down with the butt-end of a musket, and they
were both taken to a lamp-post where they were suspended and butchered
in a manner so shocking and disgusting that it is impossible to read
the details of it without having the blood to curdle in the veins.
The hearts of those noble brothers were torn from their bodies and
dashed against their faces with fiendish imprecations. Under the
chancel of the old Protestant church in the Hague, their bodies rest
in hope, awaiting the resurrection of the just, but their memory will
be embalmed in the hearts of the virtuous and the brave, so long as
virtue and valour are honored among men:
\pagebreak
\begin{center}
{\large THE EPITAPH.} \\
\smallskip
HERE LIE \\
THE REMAINS OF A MAN OF UNIVERSAL GENIUS, \\
THE PROFOUNDEST STATESMAN \\
AND THE MOST ADROIT DIPLOMATIST OF HIS AGE, \\
IN WAR AS WELL AS IN PEACE; \\
THE PROP OF THE REPUBLIC OF WHICH EVEN HIS ENEMIES REGARDED HIM \\
AS THE SUREST ORACLE. \\
HE WAS LABORIOUS, INDEFATIGABLE, \\
VIGILANT, SOBER, AND MODEST; \\
ALWAYS SERIOUS, BUT EASY, AFFABLE AND AGREEABLE,
AS DISINTERESTED AS A MAN COULD BE, \\
OPPOSING TO HIMSELF NO OTHER OBJECT BUT THE GOOD OF HIS \\
COUNTRY AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HER LIBERTIES. \\
ALTHOUGH HE WAS CIVIL TO ALL MEN, \\
HE NEVER COURTED THE APPLAUSE OF A DEMAGOGUE. \\
ALWAYS EQUAL TO HIMSELF, \\
AND UNDISTURBED IN THE MIDST OF THE GREATEST CALAMITIES, \\
HIS MIND NEVER LOST ITS EQUANIMITY, AND TO THE LAST SIGH OF \\
HIS LIFE \\
HE EXHIBITED, BY HEROIC FORTITUDE, \\
A MEMORABLE EXAMPLE OF WHAT A MAN IS CAPABLE \\
WHOSE CONSCIENCE REPROACHES HIM NOTHING.''
\end{center}
\bigskip
Could more be said of him whose ashes repose beneath the shades
of Mount Vernon?
\pagebreak
\begin{center}
CONCLUSION.
\end{center}
\begin{verse}
``None but the actions of the just \\
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.''
\end{verse}
IN order to disabuse the public mind of unfounded suspicions with
regard to the illustrious martyr whose life we have briefly sketched,
the States-General assembled and deputed several persons of distinction
to repair to his residence and to examine and seal all of his papers,
which were deposited in the State Archives at the Hague. It is
scarcely necessary to add that nothing was discovered which tended
in the slightest degree to impeach his integrity or his honor.
It is said that he preserved such exact order in the arrangement of
his official papers that, like Cardinal Mazarin, he could at any hour
of the night lay his hand upon any document he desired with unerring
accuracy. Although his administration was unfortunate at its close,
he was universally esteemed one of the most enlightened statesmen in
Europe, and his fame has continued to grow brighter as the clouds and
tempests in which he was enveloped have been dispersed, and we are
enabled to form a more just estimate of his character. Mr.\ Fox has
truly described him as the best, and most patriotic minister that ever
appeared upon the stage.
So incomprehensible are the ways of Providence, and so often do we
see good deduced from the evil which at times we are constrained to deplore!
No sooner was the beardless prince elevated to the Stadholderate and
took command of the army, than the hearts of all were disburdened of
the perilous stuff which had well nigh sunk them all into despair.
The struggle which the Republic then maintained against the combined
forces of France and England constitutes its heroic age, much more so,
indeed than the eighty years' war, which it conducted with such
indomitable perseverance against the forces of Alma and Parma.
In a few weeks a powerful army was raised, which effected a complete
evacuation of the territories, while it required years to shake off
the Spanish yoke. It is worthy of remark, that the most glorious epochs
in the history of almost all nations are not so often the effect of
enthusiasm among the masses, as the work of men, sometimes of an individual,
who, by superior energy and genius, understands the great art of arousing
the public mind to conquer or die in defence of their country.
The insatiable thirst of conquest which influenced the French monarch
to effect the rule of the Dutch Republic, has been justly condemned
by all historians who have any regard for truth and justice. There
was not even any decent pretext for such an attempt. But the English
sovereign whom he attracted to his alliance was a stranger alike to
the sentiments of decency or honor. As we have before intimated,
at the time that the young prince took command, the victorious armies of
Louis had effected the fall of some of the strongest fortifications
on the frontiers of Holland, after wading through rivers which were
though to be impassable by a foreign enemy. The French army was more
powerful in numbers and the accomplishments of its generals, while the
real advantage of the Dutch consisted in the nature of the soil and the
ardent spirit of patriotism and sacred fire of liberty which animated
the heart of the whole nation. A William at the head of her armies,
and a De Ruyter in command of her fleet, were sufficient to repel the
invaders and drive them back discomfited.
The Dutch temper is proverbially phlegmatic, and their military
enthusiasm is not easily aroused; but let it be made apparent to them
that the country demands the unanimity of all hearts, and the ardor of
their devotion will prompt them to make any sacrifice. They will
patiently support the heaviest burdens and affront the greatest hardships
and dangers with the most indomitable perseverance. A powerful enthusiasm
was inspired by the \textit{Patri\ae pater} who personified the country, and
who had sacrificed his own personal interests by indignantly refusing the
seducing offers of the French monarch. Like Lord Brooke, addressing
his raw reinforcements from old Warwick castle, he told them, ``That
if the nobility of the cause was not sufficient to animate the most stolid,
he knew not what could make mortal men put on undaunted resolutions.''
Although he made no pretensions to the graces of oratory, yet,
when occasions called it forth, he showed himself a perfect master
of that sort of eloquence which convinces the head and goes direct
to the heart and conscience of a nation. His letter to De Ruyter,
on the 23d of May, 1673, is a model of Dutch military eloquence.
While he regretted that pressing cares and responsibilities prevented
him from visiting the fleet in person, he wrote to De Ruyter, ``that the
hearts and eyes of all Netherlanders and all Christendom were turned
towards him and his gallant fleet, and that it would be the last degree
of infamy for them to fail to discharge their duty on so illustrious
a theatre. He devoutly hoped that God would bestow sufficient firmness
and wisdom on him to add a new lustre to the maritime glory of his country.
So that the day would soon arrive when they would rejoice that they
were made the instruments in the hands of Providence to conduct so
sacred a cause to a happy termination. He would conclude by promising
them that he would reward each one according to his works:- Honor and
glory to the brave, shame and chastisement to the cowardly. He would
desire him to instil into the minds of all that no pardon would be
granted to those who could conduct themselves otherwise than brave
soldiers and seamen, and that the iron hand of justice as well as the
imprecations of all his compatriots would inevitably fall upon the heads
of all who failed to do their whole duty to their country.''
\textsc{Michael Adrian De Ruyter}, one of the most renowned captains
in the naval history of the world, was born at Flessingen, in the Province
of Zealand, in the year of our Lord 1607. His father, who was a plain
and honorable farmer, in his eleventh year procured for his son a place
as cabin-boy. From this humble position he ran through the degrees of
scullion, chief cook, pilot, captain, commander, vice-admiral, and
finally attained the highest naval dignity. Endowed by nature with a
vigorous understanding and a bold heart, it was long before his genius
blazed forth in meridian splendor. In the 70th year of his age,
in the month of April, 1676, he died covered with laurels near the
coast of Palermo, in Sicily, in an engagement with the French.
He suffered the most excruciating pains, which he endured with
admirable fortitude, repeating to himself the Psalms of David,
which he knew by heart. His body was embalmed and conveyed to Amsterdam,
where he was buried with great pomp in the chancel of the New Protestant
Church, over which may be seen to this day, \textit{Tremor immensi oceani},
engraved in capital gold letters. A marble pillow represents him
with his head reclining on a pillow of cannon balls, his hands reposing
on his heart, and a serene smile of resignation on his majestic face,
as if he were peacefully awaiting the sound of the last trump.
\begin{verse}
``He lays like a warrior taking his rest, \\
With his martial cloak around him.''
\end{verse}
\end{document}
%