[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D. W. ] MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, PG EDITION, VOLUME 1. THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC A History JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D. C. L. , LL. D. Corresponding Member of the Institute of France, Etc. 1855 [Etext Editor's Note: JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, born in Dorchester, Mass. 1814, died 1877. Other works: Morton's Hopes and Merry Mount, novels. Motley was the United States Minister to Austria, 1861-67, and the UnitedStates Minister to England, 1869-70. Mark Twain mentions his respectfor John Motley. Oliver Wendell Holmes said in 'An Oration deliveredbefore the City Authorities of Boston' on the 4th of July, 1863:"'It cannot be denied, '--says another observer, placed on one of ournational watch-towers in a foreign capital, --'it cannot be deniedthat the tendency of European public opinion, as delivered from highplaces, is more and more unfriendly to our cause; but the people, 'he adds, 'everywhere sympathize with us, for they know that our causeis that of free institutions, --that our struggle is that of thepeople against an oligarchy. ' These are the words of the Minister toAustria, whose generous sympathies with popular liberty no homagepaid to his genius by the class whose admiring welcome is mostseductive to scholars has ever spoiled; our fellow-citizen, thehistorian of a great Republic which infused a portion of its lifeinto our own, --John Lothrop Motley. " D. W. ] PREFACE The rise of the Dutch Republic must ever be regarded as one of theleading events of modern times. Without the birth of this greatcommonwealth, the various historical phenomena of: the sixteenth andfollowing centuries must have either not existed; or have presentedthemselves under essential modifications. --Itself an organized protestagainst ecclesiastical tyranny and universal empire, the Republic guardedwith sagacity, at many critical periods in the world's history; thatbalance of power which, among civilized states; ought always to beidentical with the scales of divine justice. The splendid empire ofCharles the Fifth was erected upon the grave of liberty. It is aconsolation to those who have hope in humanity to watch, under the reignof his successor, the gradual but triumphant resurrection of the spiritover which the sepulchre had so long been sealed. From the handbreadthof territory called the province of Holland rises a power which wageseighty years' warfare with the most potent empire upon earth, and which, during the progress of the struggle, becoming itself a mighty state, andbinding about its own slender form a zone of the richest possessions ofearth, from pole to tropic, finally dictates its decrees to the empire ofCharles. So much is each individual state but a member of one great internationalcommonwealth, and so close is the relationship between the whole humanfamily, that it is impossible for a nation, even while struggling foritself, not to acquire something for all mankind. The maintenance of theright by the little provinces of Holland and Zealand in the sixteenth, byHolland and England united in the seventeenth, and by the United Statesof America in the eighteenth centuries, forms but a single chapter in thegreat volume of human fate; for the so-called revolutions of Holland, England, and America, are all links of one chain. To the Dutch Republic, even more than to Florence at an earlier day, isthe world indebted for practical instruction in that great science ofpolitical equilibrium which must always become more and more important asthe various states of the civilized world are pressed more closelytogether, and as the struggle for pre-eminence becomes more feverish andfatal. Courage and skill in political and military combinations enabledWilliam the Silent to overcome the most powerful and unscrupulous monarchof his age. The same hereditary audacity and fertility of genius placedthe destiny of Europe in the hands of William's great-grandson, andenabled him to mould into an impregnable barrier the various elements ofopposition to the overshadowing monarchy of Louis XIV. As the schemes ofthe Inquisition and the unparalleled tyranny of Philip, in one century, led to the establishment of the Republic of the United Provinces, so, inthe next, the revocation of the Nantes Edict and the invasion of Hollandare avenged by the elevation of the Dutch stadholder upon the throne ofthe stipendiary Stuarts. To all who speak the English language; the history of the great agonythrough which the Republic of Holland was ushered into life must havepeculiar interest, for it is a portion of the records of the Anglo-Saxonrace--essentially the same, whether in Friesland, England, orMassachusetts. A great naval and commercial commonwealth, occupying a small portion ofEurope but conquering a wide empire by the private enterprise of tradingcompanies, girdling the world with its innumerable dependencies in Asia, America, Africa, Australia--exercising sovereignty in Brazil, Guiana, theWest Indies, New York, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Hindostan, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, New Holland--having first laid together, as it were, manyof the Cyclopean blocks, out of which the British realm, at a late:period, has been constructed--must always be looked upon with interest byEnglishmen, as in a great measure the precursor in their own scheme ofempire. For America the spectacle is one of still deeper import. The DutchRepublic originated in the opposition of the rational elements of humannature to sacerdotal dogmatism and persecution--in the courageousresistance of historical and chartered liberty to foreign despotism. Neither that liberty nor ours was born of the cloud-embraces of a falseDivinity with, a Humanity of impossible beauty, nor was the infant careerof either arrested in blood and tears by the madness of its worshippers. "To maintain, " not to overthrow, was the device of the Washington of thesixteenth century, as it was the aim of our own hero and his greatcontemporaries. The great Western Republic, therefore--in whose Anglo-Saxon veins flowsmuch of that ancient and kindred blood received from the nation onceruling a noble portion of its territory, and tracking its own politicalexistence to the same parent spring of temperate human liberty--must lookwith affectionate interest upon the trials of the elder commonwealth. These volumes recite the achievement of Dutch independence, for itsrecognition was delayed till the acknowledgment was superfluous andridiculous. The existence of the Republic is properly to be dated fromthe Union of Utrecht in 1581, while the final separation of territoryinto independent and obedient provinces, into the Commonwealth of theUnited States and the Belgian provinces of Spain, was in reality effectedby William the Silent, with whose death three years subsequently, theheroic period of the history may be said to terminate. At this pointthese volumes close. Another series, with less attention to minutedetails, and carrying the story through a longer range of years, willpaint the progress of the Republic in its palmy days, and narrate theestablishment of, its external system of dependencies and its interiorcombinations for self-government and European counterpoise. The lessonsof history and the fate of free states can never be sufficiently ponderedby those upon whom so large and heavy a responsibility for themaintenance of rational human freedom rests. I have only to add that this work is the result of conscientiousresearch, and of an earnest desire to arrive at the truth. I havefaithfully studied al1 the important contemporary chroniclers and laterhistorians--Dutch, Flemish, French, Italian, Spanish, or German. Catholic and Protestant, Monarchist and Republican, have been consultedwith the same sincerity. The works of Bor (whose enormous butindispensable folios form a complete magazine of contemporary state-papers, letters, and pamphlets, blended together in mass, and connectedby a chain of artless but earnest narrative), of Meteren, De Thou, Burgundius, Heuterus; Tassis, Viglius, Hoofd, Haraeus, Van der Haer, Grotius-of Van der Vynckt, Wagenaer, Van Wyn, De Jonghe, Kluit, VanKampen, Dewez, Kappelle, Bakhuyzen, Groen van Prinsterer--of Ranke andRaumer, have been as familiar to me as those of Mendoza, Carnero, Cabrera, Herrera, Ulloa, Bentivoglio, Peres, Strada. The manuscriptrelations of those Argus-eyed Venetian envoys who surprised so manycourts and cabinets in their most unguarded moments, and daguerreotypedtheir character and policy for the instruction of the crafty Republic, and whose reports remain such an inestimable source for the secrethistory of the sixteenth century, have been carefully examined--especially the narratives of the caustic and accomplished Badovaro, ofSuriano, and Michele. It is unnecessary to add that all the publicationsof M. Gachard--particularly the invaluable correspondence of Philip II. And of William the Silent, as well as the "Archives et Correspondence" ofthe Orange Nassau family, edited by the learned and distinguished Groenvan Prinsterer, have been my constant guides through the tortuouslabyrinth of Spanish and Netherland politics. The large and mostinteresting series of pamphlets known as "The Duncan Collection, " in theRoyal Library at the Hague, has also afforded a great variety of detailsby which I have endeavoured to give color and interest to the narrative. Besides these, and many other printed works, I have also had theadvantage of perusing many manuscript histories, among which may beparticularly mentioned the works of Pontua Payen, of Renom de France, andof Pasquier de la Barre; while the vast collection of unpublisheddocuments in the Royal Archives of the Hague, of Brussels, and ofDresden, has furnished me with much new matter of great importance. I venture to hope that many years of labour, a portion of them in thearchives of those countries whose history forms the object of my study, will not have been entirely in vain; and that the lovers of humanprogress, the believers in the capacity of nations for self-governmentand self-improvement, and the admirers of disinterested human genius andvirtue, may find encouragement for their views in the detailed history ofan heroic people in its most eventful period, and in the life and deathof the great man whose name and fame are identical with those of hiscountry. No apology is offered for this somewhat personal statement. When anunknown writer asks the attention of the public upon an important theme, he is not only authorized, but required, to show, that by industry andearnestness he has entitled himself to a hearing. The author too keenlyfeels that he has no further claims than these, and he therefore mostdiffidently asks for his work the indulgence of his readers. I would take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to Dr. Klemm, Hofrath and Chief Librarian at Dresden, and to Mr. Von Weber, Ministerial-rath and Head of the Royal Archives of Saxony, for thecourtesy and kindness extended to me so uniformly during the course of myresearches in that city. I would also speak a word of sincere thanks toMr. Campbell, Assistant Librarian at the Hague, for his numerous acts offriendship during the absence of, his chief, M. Holtrop. To that mostdistinguished critic and historian, M. Bakhuyzen van den Brinck, ChiefArchivist of the Netherlands, I am under deep obligations for advice, instruction, and constant kindness, during my residence at the Hague; andI would also signify my sense of the courtesy of Mr. Charter-Master deSchwane, and of the accuracy with which copies of MSS. In the archiveswere prepared for me by his care. Finally, I would allude in thestrongest language of gratitude and respect to M. Gachard, Archivist-General of Belgium, for his unwearied courtesy and manifold acts ofkindness to me during my studies in the Royal Archives of Brussels. THE RISE OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. Part 1. I. The north-western corner of the vast plain which extends from the Germanocean to the Ural mountains, is occupied by the countries called theNetherlands. This small triangle, enclosed between France, Germany, andthe sea, is divided by the modern kingdoms of Belgium and Holland intotwo nearly equal portions. Our earliest information concerning thisterritory is derived from the Romans. The wars waged by that nation withthe northern barbarians have rescued the damp island of Batavia, with itsneighboring morasses, from the obscurity in which they might haveremained for ages, before any thing concerning land or people would havebeen made known by the native inhabitants. Julius Caesar has saved from, oblivion the heroic savages who fought against his legions in defence oftheir dismal homes with ferocious but unfortunate patriotism; and thegreat poet of England, learning from the conqueror's Commentaries thename of the boldest tribe, has kept the Nervii, after almost twentycenturies, still fresh and familiar in our ears. Tacitus, too, has described with singular minuteness the struggle betweenthe people of these regions and the power of Rome, overwhelming, althoughtottering to its fall; and has moreover, devoted several chapters of hiswork upon Germany to a description of the most remarkable Teutonic tribesof the Netherlands. Geographically and ethnographically, the Low Countries belong both toGaul and to Germany. It is even doubtful to which of the two theBatavian island, which is the core of the whole country, was reckoned bythe Romans. It is, however, most probable that all the land, with theexception of Friesland, was considered a part of Gaul. Three great rivers--the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheld--had depositedtheir slime for ages among the dunes and sand banks heaved up by theocean around their mouths. A delta was thus formed, habitable at lastfor man. It was by nature a wide morass, in which oozy islands andsavage forests were interspersed among lagoons and shallows; a districtlying partly below the level of the ocean at its higher tides, subject toconstant overflow from the rivers, and to frequent and terribleinundations by the sea. The Rhine, leaving at last the regions where its storied lapse, throughso many ages, has been consecrated alike by nature and art-by poetry andeventful truth----flows reluctantly through the basalt portal of theSeven Mountains into the open fields which extend to the German sea. After entering this vast meadow, the stream divides itself into twobranches, becoming thus the two-horned Rhine of Virgil, and holds inthese two arms the island of Batavia. The Meuse, taking its rise in the Vosges, pours itself through theArdennes wood, pierces the rocky ridges upon the southeastern frontier ofthe Low Countries, receives the Sambre in the midst of that picturesqueanthracite basin where now stands the city of Namur, and then movestoward the north, through nearly the whole length of the country, till itmingles its waters with the Rhine. The Scheld, almost exclusively a Belgian river, after leaving itsfountains in Picardy, flows through the present provinces of Flanders andHainault. In Caesar's time it was suffocated before reaching the sea inquicksands and thickets, which long afforded protection to the savageinhabitants against the Roman arms; and which the slow process of natureand the untiring industry of man have since converted into thearchipelago of Zealand and South Holland. These islands were unknownto the Romans. Such were the rivers, which, with their numerous tributaries, coursedthrough the spongy land. Their frequent overflow, when forced back upontheir currents by the stormy sea, rendered the country almostuninhabitable. Here, within a half-submerged territory, a race ofwretched ichthyophagi dwelt upon terpen, or mounds, which they hadraised, like beavers, above the almost fluid soil. Here, at a later day, the same race chained the tyrant Ocean and his mighty streams intosubserviency, forcing them to fertilize, to render commodious, to coverwith a beneficent network of veins and arteries, and to bind by wateryhighways with the furthest ends of the world, a country disinherited bynature of its rights. A region, outcast of ocean and earth, wrested atlast from both domains their richest treasures. A race, engaged forgenerations in stubborn conflict with the angry elements, wasunconsciously educating itself for its great struggle with thestill more savage despotism of man. The whole territory of the Netherlands was girt with forests. Anextensive belt of woodland skirted the sea-coast; reaching beyond themouths of the Rhine. Along the outer edge of this carrier, the dunescast up by the sea were prevented by the close tangle of thickets fromdrifting further inward; and thus formed a breastwork which time and artwere to strengthen. The, groves of Haarlem and the Hague are relics ofthis ancient forest. The Badahuenna wood, horrid with Druidicsacrifices, extended along the eastern line of the vanished lake ofFlevo. The vast Hercynian forest, nine days' journey in breadth, closedin the country on the German side, stretching from the banks of the Rhineto the remote regions of the Dacians, in such vague immensity (says theconqueror of the whole country) that no German, after traveling sixtydays, had ever reached, or even heard of; its commencement. On thesouth, the famous groves of Ardennes, haunted by faun and satyr, embowered the country, and separated it from Celtic Gaul. Thus inundated by mighty rivers, quaking beneath the level of the ocean, belted about by hirsute forests, this low land, nether land, hollow land, or Holland, seemed hardly deserving the arms of the all-accomplishedRoman. Yet foreign tyranny, from the earliest ages, has coveted thismeagre territory as lustfully as it has sought to wrest from their nativepossessors those lands with the fatal gift of beauty for their dower;while the genius of liberty has inspired as noble a resistance tooppression here as it ever aroused in Grecian or Italian breasts. II. It can never be satisfactorily ascertained who were the aboriginalinhabitants. The record does not reach beyond Caesar's epoch, and hefound the territory on the left of the Rhine mainly tenanted by tribes ofthe Celtic family. That large division of the Indo-European group whichhad already overspread many portions of Asia Minor, Greece, Germany, theBritish Islands, France, and Spain, had been long settled in Belgic Gaul, and constituted the bulk of its population. Checked in its westwardmovement by the Atlantic, its current began to flow backwards towards itsfountains, so that the Gallic portion of the Netherland population wasderived from the original race in its earlier wanderings and from thelater and refluent tide coming out of Celtic Gaul. The modernappellation of the Walloons points to the affinity of their ancestorswith the Gallic, Welsh, and Gaelic family. The Belgae were in manyrespects a superior race to most of their blood-allies. They were, according to Caesar's testimony, the bravest of all the Celts. This maybe in part attributed to the presence of several German tribes, who, atthis period had already forced their way across the Rhine, mingled theirqualities with the Belgic material, and lent an additional mettle to theCeltic blood. The heart of the country was thus inhabited by a Gallicrace, but the frontiers had been taken possession of by Teutonic tribes. When the Cimbri and their associates, about a century before our era, made their memorable onslaught upon Rome, the early inhabitants of theRhine island of Batavia, who were probably Celts, joined in theexpedition. A recent and tremendous inundation had swept away theirmiserable homes, and even the trees of the forests, and had thus renderedthem still more dissatisfied with their gloomy abodes. The island wasdeserted of its population. At about the same period a civil dissensionamong the Chatti--a powerful German race within the Hercynian forest--resulted in the expatriation of a portion of the people. The exilessought a new home in the empty Rhine island, called it "Bet-auw, " or"good-meadow, " and were themselves called, thenceforward, Batavi, orBatavians. These Batavians, according to Tacitus, were the bravest of all theGermans. The Chatti, of whom they formed a portion, were a pre-eminentlywarlike race. "Others go to battle, " says the historian, "these go towar. " Their bodies were more hardy, their minds more vigorous, thanthose of other tribes. Their young men cut neither hair nor beard tillthey had slain an enemy. On the field of battle, in the midst of carnageand plunder, they, for the first time, bared their faces. The cowardlyand sluggish, only, remained unshorn. They wore an iron ring, too, orshackle upon their necks until they had performed the same achievement, a symbol which they then threw away, as the emblem of sloth. TheBatavians were ever spoken of by the Romans with entire respect. Theyconquered the Belgians, they forced the free Frisians to pay tribute, butthey called the Batavians their friends. The tax-gatherer never invadedtheir island. Honorable alliance united them with the Romans. It was, however, the alliance of the giant and the dwarf. The Roman gained gloryand empire, the Batavian gained nothing but the hardest blows. TheBatavian cavalry became famous throughout the Republic and the Empire. They were the favorite troops of Caesar, and with reason, for it wastheir valor which turned the tide of battle at Pharsalia. From the deathof Julius down to the times of Vespasian, the Batavian legion was theimperial body guard, the Batavian island the basis of operations in theRoman wars with Gaul, Germany, and Britain. Beyond the Batavians, upon the north, dwelt the great Frisian family, occupying the regions between the Rhine and Ems, The Zuyder Zee and theDollart, both caused by the terrific inundations of the thirteenthcentury and not existing at this period, did not then interposeboundaries between kindred tribes. All formed a homogeneous nation ofpure German origin. Thus, the population of the country was partly Celtic, partly German. Of these two elements, dissimilar in their tendencies and alwaysdifficult to blend, the Netherland people has ever been compounded. A certain fatality of history has perpetually helped to separate stillmore widely these constituents, instead of detecting and stimulating theelective affinities which existed. Religion, too, upon all greathistorical occasions, has acted as the most powerful of dissolvents. Otherwise, had so many valuable and contrasted characteristics been earlyfused into a whole, it would be difficult to show a race more richlyendowed by Nature for dominion and progress than the Belgo-Germanicpeople. Physically the two races resembled each other. Both were of vaststature. The gigantic Gaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band ofpigmies. The German excited astonishment by his huge body and muscularlimbs. Both were fair, with fierce blue eyes, but the Celt had yellowhair floating over his shoulders, and the German long locks of fiery red, which he even dyed with woad to heighten the favorite color, and woretwisted into a war-knot upon the top of his head. Here the German's loveof finery ceased. A simple tunic fastened at his throat with a thorn, while his other garments defined and gave full play to his limbs, completed his costume. The Gaul, on the contrary, was so fond of dressthat the Romans divided his race respectively into long-haired, breeched, and gowned Gaul; (Gallia comata, braccata, togata). He was fond ofbrilliant and parti-colored clothes, a taste which survives in theHighlander's costume. He covered his neck and arms with golden chains. The simple and ferocious German wore no decoration save his iron ring, from which his first homicide relieved him. The Gaul was irascible, furious in his wrath, but less formidable in a sustained conflict with apowerful foe. "All the Gauls are of very high stature, " says a soldierwho fought under Julian. (Amm. Marcel. Xv. 12. 1). "They are white, golden-haired, terrible in the fierceness of their eyes, greedy ofquarrels, bragging and insolent. A band of strangers could not resistone of them in a brawl, assisted by his strong blue-eyed wife, especiallywhen she begins, gnashing her teeth, her neck swollen, brandishing hervast and snowy arms, and kicking with her heels at the same time, todeliver her fisticuffs, like bolts from the twisted strings of acatapult. The voices of many are threatening and formidable. They arequick to anger, but quickly appeased. All are clean in their persons;nor among them is ever seen any man or woman, as elsewhere, squalid inragged garments. At all ages they are apt for military service. The oldman goes forth to the fight with equal strength of breast, with limbs ashardened by cold and assiduous labor, and as contemptuous of all dangers, as the young. Not one of them, as in Italy is often the case, was everknown to cut off his thumbs to avoid the service of Mars. " The polity of each race differed widely from that of the other. Thegovernment of both may be said to have been republican, but the Gallictribes were aristocracies, in which the influence of clanship was apredominant feature; while the German system, although nominally regal, was in reality democratic. In Gaul were two orders, the nobility and thepriesthood, while the people, says Caesar, were all slaves. The knightsor nobles were all trained to arms. Each went forth to battle, followedby his dependents, while a chief of all the clans was appointed to takecommand during the war. The prince or chief governor was electedannually, but only by the nobles. The people had no rights at all, andwere glad to assign themselves as slaves to any noble who was strongenough to protect them. In peace the Druids exercised the main functionsof government. They decided all controversies, civil and criminal. Torebel against their decrees was punished by exclusion from thesacrifices--a most terrible excommunication, through which the criminalwas cut off from all intercourse with his fellow-creatures. With the Germans, the sovereignty resided in the great assembly of thepeople. There were slaves, indeed, but in small number, consistingeither of prisoners of war or of those unfortunates who had gambled awaytheir liberty in games of chance. Their chieftains, although called bythe Romans princes and kings, were, in reality, generals, chosen byuniversal suffrage. Elected in the great assembly to preside in war, they were raised on the shoulders of martial freemen, amid wild battlecries and the clash of spear and shield. The army consisted entirely ofvolunteers, and the soldier was for life infamous who deserted the fieldwhile his chief remained alive. The same great assembly elected thevillage magistrates and decided upon all important matters both of peaceand war. At the full of the moon it was usually convoked. The noblesand the popular delegates arrived at irregular intervals, for it was aninconvenience arising from their liberty, that two or three days wereoften lost in waiting for the delinquents. All state affairs were in thehands of this fierce democracy. The elected chieftains had ratherauthority to persuade than power to command. The Gauls were an agricultural people. They were not without many artsof life. They had extensive flocks and herds; and they even exportedsalted provisions as far as Rome. The truculent German, Ger-mane, Heer-mann, War-man, considered carnage the only useful occupation, and despised agriculture as enervating and ignoble. It was base, in hisopinion, to gain by sweat what was more easily acquired by blood. Theland was divided annually by the magistrates, certain farms beingassigned to certain families, who were forced to leave them at theexpiration of the year. They cultivated as a common property the landsallotted by the magistrates, but it was easier to summon them to thebattle-field than to the plough. Thus they were more fitted for theroaming and conquering life which Providence was to assign to them forages, than if they had become more prone to root themselves in the soil. The Gauls built towns and villages. The German built his solitary hutwhere inclination prompted. Close neighborhood was not to his taste. In their system of religion the two races were most widely contrasted. The Gauls were a priest-ridden race. Their Druids were a dominant caste, presiding even over civil affairs, while in religious matters theirauthority was despotic. What were the principles of their wild Theologywill never be thoroughly ascertained, but we know too much of itssanguinary rites. The imagination shudders to penetrate those shaggyforests, ringing with the death-shrieks of ten thousand human victims, and with the hideous hymns chanted by smoke-and-blood-stained priests tothe savage gods whom they served. The German, in his simplicity, had raised himself to a purer belief thanthat of the sensuous Roman or the superstitious Gaul. He believed in asingle, supreme, almighty God, All-Vater or All-father. This Divinitywas too sublime to be incarnated or imaged, too infinite to be enclosedin temples built with hands. Such is the Roman's testimony to the loftyconception of the German. Certain forests were consecrated to the unseenGod whom the eye of reverent faith could alone behold. Thither, atstated times, the people repaired to worship. They entered the sacredgrove with feet bound together, in token of submission. Those who fellwere forbidden to rise, but dragged themselves backwards on the ground. Their rules were few and simple. They had no caste of priests, nor werethey, when first known to the Romans, accustomed to offer sacrifice. Itmust be confessed that in a later age, a single victim, a criminal or aprisoner, was occasionally immolated. The purity of their religion wassoon stained by their Celtic neighborhood. In the course of the Romandominion it became contaminated, and at last profoundly depraved. Thefantastic intermixture of Roman mythology with the gloomy but modifiedsuperstition of Romanized Celts was not favorable to the simple characterof German theology. The entire extirpation, thus brought about, of anyconceivable system of religion, prepared the way for a true revelation. Within that little river territory, amid those obscure morasses of theRhine and Scheld, three great forms of religion--the sanguinarysuperstition of the Druid, the sensuous polytheism of the Roman, theelevated but dimly groping creed of the German, stood for centuries, faceto face, until, having mutually debased and destroyed each other, theyall faded away in the pure light of Christianity. Thus contrasted were Gaul and German in religious and political systems. The difference was no less remarkable in their social characteristics. The Gaul was singularly unchaste. The marriage state was almost unknown. Many tribes lived in most revolting and incestuous concubinage; brethren, parents, and children, having wives in common. The German was loyal asthe Celt was dissolute. Alone among barbarians, he contented himselfwith a single wife, save that a few dignitaries, from motives of policy, were permitted a larger number. On the marriage day the German offeredpresents to his bride--not the bracelets and golden necklaces with whichthe Gaul adorned his fair-haired concubine, but oxen and a bridled horse, a sword, a shield, and a spear-symbols that thenceforward she was toshare his labors and to become a portion of himself. They differed, too, in the honors paid to the dead. The funerals of theGauls were pompous. Both burned the corpse, but the Celt cast into theflames the favorite animals, and even the most cherished slaves anddependents of the master. Vast monuments of stone or piles of earth wereraised above the ashes of the dead. Scattered relics of the Celtic ageare yet visible throughout Europe, in these huge but unsightly memorials, The German was not ambitious at the grave. He threw neither garments norodors upon the funeral pyre, but the arms and the war-horse of thedeparted were burned and buried with him. The turf was his only sepulchre, the memory of his valor his onlymonument. Even tears were forbidden to the men. "It was esteemedhonorable, " says the historian, "for women to lament, for men toremember. " The parallel need be pursued no further. Thus much it was necessary torecall to the historical student concerning the prominent characteristicsby which the two great races of the land were distinguished:characteristics which Time has rather hardened than effaced. In thecontrast and the separation lies the key to much of their history. HadProvidence permitted a fusion of the two races, it is, possible, fromtheir position, and from the geographical and historical link which theywould have afforded to the dominant tribes of Europe, that a world-empiremight have been the result, different in many respects from any which hasever arisen. Speculations upon what might have been are idle. It iswell, however; to ponder the many misfortunes resulting from a mutualrepulsion, which, under other circumstances and in other spheres, hasbeen exchanged for mutual attraction and support. It is now necessary to sketch rapidly the political transformationsundergone by the country, from the early period down to the middle of thesixteenth century; the epoch when the long agony commenced, out of whichthe Batavian republic was born. III. The earliest chapter in the history of the Netherlands was written bytheir conqueror. Celtic Gaul is already in the power of Rome; the Belgictribes, alarmed at the approaching danger, arm against the universal, tyrant. Inflammable, quick to strike, but too fickle to prevail againstso powerful a foe, they hastily form a league of almost every clan. Atthe first blow of Caesar's sword, the frail confederacy falls asunderlike a rope of sand. The tribes scatter in all directions. Nearly all are soon defeated, and sue for mercy. The Nervii, true to theGerman blood in their, veins, swear to die rather than surrender. They, at least, are worthy of their cause. Caesar advances against them at thehead of eight legions. Drawn up on the banks of the Sambre, they awaitthe Roman's approach. In three days' march Caesar comes up with them, pitches his camp upon a steep hill sloping down to the river, and sendssome cavalry across. Hardly have the Roman horsemen crossed the stream, than the Nervii rush from the wooded hill-top, overthrow horse and rider, plunge in one great mass into the current, and, directly afterwards, areseen charging up the hill into the midst of the enemy's force. "At thesame moment, " says the conqueror, "they seemed in the wood, in the river, and within our lines. " There is a panic among the Romans, but it isbrief. Eight veteran Roman legions, with the world's victor at theirhead, are too much for the brave but undisciplined Nervii. Snatching ashield from a soldier, and otherwise unarmed, Caesar throws himself intothe hottest of the fight. The battle rages foot to foot and hand to handbut the hero's skill, with the cool valor of his troops, provesinvincible as ever. The Nervii, true to their vow, die, but not a mansurrenders. They fought upon that day till the ground was heaped withtheir dead, while, as the foremost fell thick and fast, their comrades, says the Roman, sprang upon their piled-up bodies, and hurled theirjavelins at the enemy as from a hill. They fought like men to whom lifewithout liberty was a curse. They were not defeated, but exterminated. Of many thousand fighting men went home but five hundred. Upon reachingthe place of refuge where they had bestowed their women and children, Caesar found, after the battle, that there were but three of theirsenators left alive. So perished the Nervii. Caesar commanded hislegions to treat with respect the little remnant of the tribe which hadjust fallen to swell the empty echo of his glory, and then, with hardly abreathing pause, he proceeded to annihilate the Aduatici, the Menapii, and the Morini. Gaul being thus pacified, as, with sublime irony, he expresses himselfconcerning a country some of whose tribes had been annihilated, some soldas slaves, and others hunted to their lairs like beasts of prey, theconqueror departed for Italy. Legations for peace from many German racesto Rome were the consequence of these great achievements. Among othersthe Batavians formed an alliance with the masters of the world. Theirposition was always an honorable one. They were justly proud of payingno tribute, but it was, perhaps, because they had nothing to pay. Theyhad few cattle, they could give no hides and horns like the Frisians, andthey were therefore allowed to furnish only their blood. From this timeforth their cavalry, which was the best of Germany, became renowned inthe Roman army upon every battle-field of Europe. It is melancholy, at a later moment, to find the brave Bataviansdistinguished in the memorable expedition of Germanicus to crush theliberties of their German kindred. They are forever associated with thesublime but misty image of the great Hermann, the hero, educated in Rome, and aware of the colossal power of the empire, who yet, by his genius, valor, and political adroitness, preserved for Germany her nationality, her purer religion, and perhaps even that noble language which her late-flowering literature has rendered so illustrious--but they are associatedas enemies, not as friends. Galba, succeeding to the purple upon the suicide of Nero, dismissed theBatavian life-guards to whom he owed his elevation. He is murdered, Othoand Vitellius contend for the succession, while all eyes are turned uponthe eight Batavian regiments. In their hands the scales of empire seemto rest. They declare for Vitellius, and the civil war begins. Otho isdefeated; Vitellius acknowledged by Senate and people. Fearing, like hispredecessors, the imperious turbulence of the Batavian legions, he, too, sends them into Germany. It was the signal for a long and extensiverevolt, which had well nigh overturned the Roman power in Gaul and LowerGermany. IV. Claudius Civilis was a Batavian of noble race, who had served twenty-fiveyears in the Roman armies. His Teutonic name has perished, for, likemost savages who become denizens of a civilized state, he had assumed anappellation in the tongue of his superiors. He was a soldier of fortune, and had fought wherever the Roman eagles flew. After a quarter of acentury's service he was sent in chains to Rome, and his brotherexecuted, both falsely charged with conspiracy. Such were the triumphsadjudged to Batavian auxiliaries. He escaped with life, and was disposedto consecrate what remained of it to a nobler cause. Civilis was nobarbarian. Like the German hero Arminius, he had received a Romaneducation, and had learned the degraded condition of Rome. He knew theinfamous vices of her rulers; he retained an unconquerable love forliberty and for his own race. Desire to avenge his own wrongs wasmingled with loftier motives in his breast. He knew that the sceptre wasin the gift of the Batavian soldiery. Galba had been murdered, Otho haddestroyed himself, and Vitellius, whose weekly gluttony cost the empiremore gold than would have fed the whole Batavian population and convertedtheir whole island-morass into fertile pastures, was contending for thepurple with Vespasian, once an obscure adventurer like Civilis himself, and even his friend and companion in arms. It seemed a time to strike ablow for freedom. By his courage, eloquence, and talent for political combinations, Civilis effected a general confederation of all the Netherland tribes, both Celtic and German. For a brief moment there was a united people, aBatavian commonwealth. He found another source of strength in Germansuperstition. On the banks of the Lippe, near its confluence with theRhine, dwelt the Virgin Velleda, a Bructerian weird woman, who exercisedvast influence over the warriors of her nation. Dwelling alone in alofty tower, shrouded in a wild forest, she was revered as an oracle. Her answers to the demands of her worshippers concerning future eventswere delivered only to a chosen few. To Civilis, who had formed a closefriendship with her, she promised success, and the downfall of the Romanworld. Inspired by her prophecies, many tribes of Germany sent largesubsidies to the Batavian chief. The details of the revolt have been carefully preserved by Tacitus, andform one of his grandest and most elaborate pictures. The spectacle of abrave nation, inspired by the soul of one great man and rising against anoverwhelming despotism, will always speak to the heart, from generationto generation. The battles, the sieges, the defeats, the indomitablespirit of Civilis, still flaming most brightly when the clouds weredarkest around him, have been described by the great historian in hismost powerful manner. The high-born Roman has thought the noblebarbarian's portrait a subject worthy his genius. The struggle was an unsuccessful one. After many victories and manyoverthrows, Civilis was left alone. The Gallic tribes fell off, and suedfor peace. Vespasian, victorious over Vitellius, proved too powerful forhis old comrade. Even the Batavians became weary of the hopelesscontest, while fortune, after much capricious hovering, settled at lastupon the Roman side. The imperial commander Cerialis seized the momentwhen the cause of the Batavian hero was most desperate to send emissariesamong his tribe, and even to tamper with the mysterious woman whoseprophecies had so inflamed his imagination. These intrigues had theireffect. The fidelity of the people was sapped; the prophetess fell awayfrom her worshipper, and foretold ruin to his cause. The Bataviansmurmured that their destruction was inevitable, that one nation could notarrest the slavery which was destined for the whole world. How large apart of the human race were the Batavians? What were they in a contestwith the whole Roman empire? Moreover, they were not oppressed withtribute. They were only expected to furnish men and valor to their proudallies. It was the next thing to liberty. If they were to have rulers, it was better to serve a Roman emperor than a German witch. Thus murmured the people. Had Civilis been successful, he would havebeen deified; but his misfortunes, at last, made him odious in spite ofhis heroism. But the Batavian was not a man to be crushed, nor had helived so long in the Roman service to be outmatched in politics by thebarbarous Germans. He was not to be sacrificed as a peace-offering torevengeful Rome. Watching from beyond the Rhine the progress ofdefection and the decay of national enthusiasm, he determined to bebeforehand with those who were now his enemies. He accepted the offer ofnegotiation from Cerialis. The Roman general was eager to grant a fullpardon, and to re-enlist so brave a soldier in the service of the empire. A colloquy was agreed upon. The bridge across the Nabalia was brokenasunder in the middle, and Cerialis and Civilis met upon the severedsides. The placid stream by which Roman enterprise had connected thewaters of the Rhine with the lake of Flevo, flowed between the imperialcommander and the rebel chieftain. *********************************************** Here the story abruptly terminates. The remainder of the Roman'snarrative is lost, and upon that broken bridge the form of the Batavianhero disappears forever. His name fades from history: not a syllable isknown of his subsequent career; every thing is buried in the profoundoblivion which now steals over the scene where he was the most imposingactor. The soul of Civilis had proved insufficient to animate a whole people;yet it was rather owing to position than to any personal inferiority, that his name did not become as illustrious as that of Hermann. TheGerman patriot was neither braver nor wiser than the Batavian, but hehad the infinite forests of his fatherland to protect him. Every legionwhich plunged into those unfathomable depths was forced to retreatdisastrously, or to perish miserably. Civilis was hemmed in by theocean; his country, long the basis of Roman military operations, wasaccessible by river and canal, The patriotic spirit which he had for amoment raised, had abandoned him; his allies had deserted him; he stoodalone and at bay, encompassed by the hunters, with death or surrender ashis only alternative. Under such circumstances, Hermann could not haveshown more courage or conduct, nor have terminated the impossiblestruggle with greater dignity or adroitness. The contest of Civilis with Rome contains a remarkable foreshadowing ofthe future conflict with Spain, through which the Batavian republic, fifteen centuries later, was to be founded. The characters, the events, the amphibious battles, desperate sieges, slippery alliances, the traitsof generosity, audacity and cruelty, the generous confidence, the brokenfaith seem so closely to repeat themselves, that History appears topresent the self-same drama played over and over again, with but a changeof actors and of costume. There is more than a fanciful resemblancebetween Civilis and William the Silent, two heroes of ancient Germanstock, who had learned the arts of war and peace in the service of aforeign and haughty world-empire. Determination, concentration ofpurpose, constancy in calamity, elasticity almost preternatural, self-denial, consummate craft in political combinations, personal fortitude, and passionate patriotism, were the heroic elements in both. Theambition of each was subordinate to the cause which he served. Bothrefused the crown, although each, perhaps, contemplated, in the sequel, a Batavian realm of which he would have been the inevitable chief. Both offered the throne to a Gallic prince, for Classicus was but theprototype of Anjou, as Brinno of Brederode, and neither was destined, in this world, to see his sacrifices crowned with success. The characteristics of the two great races of the land portrayedthemselves in the Roman and the Spanish struggle with much the samecolors. The Southrons, inflammable, petulant, audacious, were the firstto assault and to defy the imperial power in both revolts, while theinhabitants of the northern provinces, slower to be aroused, but of moreenduring wrath, were less ardent at the commencement, but; alone, steadfast at the close of the contest. In both wars the southern Celtsfell away from the league, their courageous but corrupt chieftains havingbeen purchased with imperial gold to bring about the abject submission oftheir followers; while the German Netherlands, although eventuallysubjugated by Rome, after a desperate struggle, were successful in thegreat conflict with Spain, and trampled out of existence every vestigeof her authority. The Batavian republic took its rank among the leadingpowers of the earth; the Belgic provinces remained Roman, Spanish, Austrian property. V. Obscure but important movements in the regions of eternal twilight, revolutions, of which history has been silent, in the mysterious depthsof Asia, outpourings of human rivets along the sides of the Altaimountains, convulsions up-heaving r mote realms and unknown dynasties, shock after shock throb bing throughout the barbarian world and dyingupon the edge of civilization, vast throes which shake the earth asprecursory pangs to the birth of a new empire--as dying symptoms of theproud but effete realm which called itself the world; scattered hordes ofsanguinary, grotesque savages pushed from their own homes, and hoveringwith vague purposes upon the Roman frontier, constantly repelled andperpetually reappearing in ever-increasing swarms, guided thither by afierce instinct, or by mysterious laws--such are the well known phenomenawhich preceded the fall of western Rome. Stately, externally powerful, although undermined and putrescent at the core, the death-stricken empirestill dashed back the assaults of its barbarous enemies. During the long struggle intervening between the age of Vespasian andthat of Odoacer, during all the preliminary ethnographical revolutionswhich preceded the great people's wandering, the Netherlands remainedsubject provinces. Their country was upon the high road which led theGoths to Rome. Those low and barren tracts were the outlying marches ofthe empire. Upon that desolate beach broke the first surf from therising ocean of German freedom which was soon to overwhelm Rome. Yet, although the ancient landmarks were soon well nigh obliterated, theNetherlands still remained faithful to the Empire, Batavian blood wasstill poured out for its defence. By the middle of the fourth century, the Franks and Allemanians, alle-mannez, all-men, a mass of united Germans are defeated by the EmperorJulian at Strasburg, the Batavian cavalry, as upon many other greatoccasions, saving the day for despotism. This achievement, one of thelast in which the name appears upon historic record, was therefore astriumphant for the valor as it was humiliating to the true fame of thenation. Their individuality soon afterwards disappears, the race havingbeen partly exhausted in the Roman service, partly merged in the Frankand Frisian tribes who occupy the domains of their forefathers. For a century longer, Rome still retains its outward form, but theswarming nations are now in full career. The Netherlands aresuccessively or simultaneously trampled by Franks, Vandals, Alani, Suevi, Saxons, Frisians, and even Sclavonians, as the great march of Germany touniversal empire, which her prophets and bards had foretold, wentmajestically forward. The fountains of the frozen North were opened, the waters prevailed, but the ark of Christianity floated upon the flood. As the deluge assuaged, the earth had returned to chaos, the last paganempire had been washed out of existence, but the dimly, groping, faltering, ignorant infancy of Christian Europe had begun. After the wanderings had subsided, the Netherlands are found with muchthe same ethnological character as before. The Frank dominion hassucceeded the Roman, the German stock preponderates over the Celtic, butthe national ingredients, although in somewhat altered proportions, remain essentially the same. The old Belgae, having become Romanized intongue and customs, accept the new Empire of the Franks. That people, however, pushed from their hold of the Rhine by thickly thronging hordesof Gepidi, Quadi, Sarmati, Heruli, Saxons, Burgundians, move towards theSouth and West. As the Empire falls before Odoacer, they occupy CelticGaul with the Belgian portion of the Netherlands; while the Frisians, into which ancient German tribe the old Batavian element has melted, notto be extinguished, but to live a renovated existence, the "freeFrisians;" whose name is synonymous with liberty, nearest blood relationsof the Anglo-Saxon race, now occupy the northern portion, including thewhole future European territory of the Dutch republic. The history of the Franks becomes, therefore, the history of theNetherlands. The Frisians struggle, for several centuries, against theirdominion, until eventually subjugated by Charlemagne. They even encroachupon the Franks in Belgic Gaul, who are determined not to yield theirpossessions. Moreover, the pious Merovingian faineans desire to plantChristianity among the still pagan Frisians. Dagobert, son of the secondClotaire, advances against them as far as the Weser, takes possession ofUtrecht, founds there the first Christian church in Friesland, andestablishes a nominal dominion over the whole country. Yet the feeble Merovingians would have been powerless against ruggedFriesland, had not their dynasty already merged in that puissant familyof Brabant, which long wielded their power before it assumed their crown. It was Pepin of Heristal, grandson of the Netherlander, Pepin of Landen, who conquered the Frisian Radbod (A. D. 692), and forced him to exchangehis royal for the ducal title. It was Pepin's bastard, Charles the Hammer, whose tremendous blowscompleted his father's work. The new mayor of the palace soon drove theFrisian chief into submission, and even into Christianity. A bishop'sindiscretion, however, neutralized the apostolic blows of the mayor. Thepagan Radbod had already immersed one of his royal legs in the baptismalfont, when a thought struck him. "Where are my dead forefathers atpresent?" he said, turning suddenly upon Bishop Wolfran. "In Hell, withall other unbelievers, " was the imprudent answer. "Mighty well, " repliedRadbod, removing his leg, "then will I rather feast with my ancestors inthe halls of Woden, than dwell with your little starveling hand ofChristians in Heaven. " Entreaties and threats were unavailing. TheFrisian declined positively a rite which was to cause an eternalseparation from his buried kindred, and he died as he had lived, aheathen. His son, Poppa, succeeding to the nominal sovereignty, did notactively oppose the introduction of Christianity among his people, buthimself refused to be converted. Rebelling against the Frank dominion, he was totally routed by Charles Martell in a great battle (A. D. 750) andperished with a vast number of Frisians. The Christian dispensation, thus enforced, was now accepted by these northern pagans. Thecommencement of their conversion had been mainly the work of theirbrethren from Britain. The monk Wilfred was followed in a few years bythe Anglo-Saxon Willibrod. It was he who destroyed the images of Wodenin Walcheren, abolished his worship, and founded churches in NorthHolland. Charles Martell rewarded him. With extensive domains aboutUtrecht, together with many slaves and other chattels. Soon afterwardshe was consecrated Bishop of all the Frisians. Thus rose the famousepiscopate of Utrecht. Another Anglo-Saxon, Winfred, or Bonifacius, hadbeen equally active among his Frisian cousins. His crozier had gone handin hand with the battle-axe. Bonifacius followed close upon the track ofhis orthodox coadjutor Charles. By the middle of the eighth century, some hundred thousand Frisians had been slaughtered, and as many moreconverted. The hammer which smote the Saracens at Tours was at lastsuccessful in beating the Netherlanders into Christianity. The labors ofBonifacius through Upper and Lower Germany were immense; but he, too, received great material rewards. He was created Archbishop of Mayence, and, upon the death of Willibrod, Bishop of Utrecht. Faithful to hismission, however, he met, heroically, a martyr's death at the hands ofthe refractory pagans at Dokkum. Thus was Christianity established inthe Netherlands. Under Charlemagne, the Frisians often rebelled, making common cause withthe Saxons. In 785, A. D. , they were, however, completely subjugated, andnever rose again until the epoch of their entire separation from theFrank empire. Charlemagne left them their name of free Frisians, and theproperty in their own land. The feudal system never took root in theirsoil. "The Frisians, " says their statute book; "shall be free, as longas the wind blows out of the clouds and the world stands. " They agreed, however, to obey the chiefs whom the Frank monarch should appoint togovern them, according to their own laws. Those laws were collected, andare still extant. The vernacular version of their Asega book containstheir ancient customs, together with the Frank additions. The generalstatutes of Charlemagne were, of course, in vigor also; but that greatlegislator knew too well the importance attached by all mankind to localcustoms, to allow his imperial capitulara to interfere, unnecessarily, with the Frisian laws. Thus again the Netherlands, for the first time since the fall of Rome, were united under one crown imperial. They had already been once united, in their slavery to Rome. Eight centuries pass away, and they are againunited, in subjection to Charlemagne. Their union was but in forming asingle link in the chain of a new realm. The reign of Charlemagne had atlast accomplished the promise of the sorceress Velleda and othersoothsayers. A German race had re-established the empire of the world. The Netherlands, like-the other provinces of the great monarch'sdominion, were governed by crown-appointed functionaries, military andjudicial. In the northeastern, or Frisian portion, however; the grantsof land were never in the form of revocable benefices or feuds. Withthis important exception, the whole country shared the fate, and enjoyedthe general organization of the Empire. But Charlemagne came an age too soon. The chaos which had brooded overEurope since the dissolution of the Roman world, was still too absolute. It was not to be fashioned into permanent forms, even by his bold andconstructive genius. A soil, exhausted by the long culture of Paganempires, was to lie fallow for a still longer period. The discordantelements out of which the Emperor had compounded his realm, did notcoalesce during his life-time. They were only held together by thevigorous grasp of the hand which had combined them. When the greatstatesman died, his Empire necessarily fell to pieces. Society had needof farther disintegration before it could begin to reconstruct itselflocally. A new civilization was not to be improvised by a single mind. When did one man ever civilize a people? In the eighth and ninthcenturies there was not even a people to be civilized. The constructionof Charles was, of necessity, temporary. His Empire was supported byartificial columns, resting upon the earth, which fell prostrate almostas soon as the hand of their architect was cold. His institutions hadnot struck down into the soil. There were no extensive and vigorousroots to nourish, from below, a flourishing Empire through time andtempest. Moreover, the Carlovingian race had been exhausted by producing a raceof heroes like the Pepins and the Charleses. The family became, soon, as contemptible as the ox-drawn, long-haired "do-nothings" whom it hadexpelled; but it is not our task to describe the fortunes of theEmperor's ignoble descendants. The realm was divided, sub-divided, attimes partially reunited, like a family farm, among monarchs incompetentalike to hold, to delegate, or--to resign the inheritance of the greatwarrior and lawgiver. The meek, bald, fat, stammering, simple Charles, or Louis, who successively sat upon his throne--princes, whose onlyhistoric individuality consists in these insipid appellations--had notthe sense to comprehend, far less to develop, the plans of theirancestor. Charles the Simple was the last Carlovingian who governed Lotharingia, in which were comprised most of the Netherlands and Friesland. TheGerman monarch, Henry the Fowler, at that period called King of the EastFranks, as Charles of the West Franks, acquired Lotharingia by the treatyof Bonn, Charles reserving the sovereignty over the kingdom during hislifetime. In 925, A. D. , however, the Simpleton having been imprisonedand deposed by his own subjects, the Fowler was recognized King, ofLotharingia. Thus the Netherlands passed out of France into Germany, remaining, still, provinces of a loose, disjointed Empire. This is the epoch in which the various dukedoms, earldoms, and otherpetty sovereignties of the Netherlands became hereditary. It was in theyear 922 that Charles the Simple presented to Count Dirk the territory ofHolland, by letters patent. This narrow hook of land, destined, infuture ages, to be the cradle of a considerable empire, stretchingthrough both hemispheres, was, thenceforth, the inheritance of Dirk'sdescendants. Historically, therefore, he is Dirk I. , Count of Holland. Of this small sovereign and his successors, the most powerful foe forcenturies was ever the Bishop of Utrecht, the origin of whose greatnesshas been already indicated. Of the other Netherland provinces, now orbefore become hereditary, the first in rank was Lotharingia, once thekingdom of Lothaire, now the dukedom of Lorraine. In 965 it was dividedinto Upper and Lower Lorraine, of which the lower duchy alone belonged tothe Netherlands. Two centuries later, the Counts of Louvain, thenoccupying most of Brabant, obtained a permanent hold of Lower Lorraine, and began to call themselves Dukes of Brabant. The same principle oflocal independence and isolation which created these dukes, establishedthe hereditary power of the counts and barons who formerly exercisedjurisdiction under them and others. Thus arose sovereign Counts ofNamur, Hainault, Limburg, Zutphen, Dukes of Luxemburg and Gueldres, Barons of Mechlin, Marquesses of Antwerp, and others; all pettyautocrats. The most important of all, after the house of Lorraine, were the Earls of Flanders; for the bold foresters of Charles the Greathad soon wrested the sovereignty of their little territory from hisfeeble descendants as easily as Baldwin, with the iron arm, had deprivedthe bald Charles of his daughter. Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overyssel, Groningen, Drenthe and Friesland (all seven being portions of Frieslandin a general sense), were crowded together upon a little desolate cornerof Europe; an obscure fragment of Charlemagne's broken empire. They wereafterwards to constitute the United States of the Netherlands, one of themost powerful republics of history. Meantime, for century after century, the Counts of Holland and the Bishops of Utrecht were to exercise dividedsway over the territory. Thus the whole country was broken into many shreds and patches ofsovereignty. The separate history of such half-organized morsels istedious and petty. Trifling dynasties, where a family or two were everything, the people nothing, leave little worth recording. Even the mostdevout of genealogists might shudder to chronicle the long succession ofso many illustrious obscure. A glance, however, at the general features of the governmental system nowestablished in the Netherlands, at this important epoch in the world'shistory, will show the transformations which the country, in common withother portions of the western world, had undergone. In the tenth century the old Batavian and later Roman forms have fadedaway. An entirely new polity has succeeded. No great popular assemblyasserts its sovereignty, as in the ancient German epoch; no generals andtemporary kings are chosen by the nation. The elective power had beenlost under the Romans, who, after conquest, had conferred theadministrative authority over their subject provinces upon officialsappointed by the metropolis. The Franks pursued the same course. In Charlemagne's time, the revolution is complete. Popular assembliesand popular election entirely vanish. Military, civil, and judicialofficers-dukes, earls, margraves, and others--are all king's creatures, 'knegton des konings, pueri regis', and so remain, till they abjure thecreative power, and set up their own. The principle of Charlemagne, that his officers should govern according to local custom, helps themto achieve their own independence, while it preserves all that is leftof national liberty and law. The counts, assisted by inferior judges, hold diets from time to time--thrice, perhaps, annually. They also summon assemblies in case of war. Thither are called the great vassals, who, in turn, call their lesservassals; each armed with "a shield, a spear, a bow, twelve arrows, and acuirass. " Such assemblies, convoked in the name of a distant sovereign, whose face his subjects had never seen, whose language they could hardlyunderstand, were very different from those tumultuous mass-meetings, where boisterous freemen, armed with the weapons they loved the best, and arriving sooner or later, according to their pleasure, had beenaccustomed to elect their generals and magistrates and to raise them upontheir shields. The people are now governed, their rulers appointed by aninvisible hand. Edicts, issued by a power, as it were, supernatural, demand implicit obedience. The people, acquiescing in their ownannihilation, abdicate not only their political but their personalrights. On the other hand, the great source of power diffuses less andless of light and warmth. Losing its attractive and controllinginfluence, it becomes gradually eclipsed, while its satellites fly fromtheir prescribed bounds and chaos and darkness return. The sceptre, stretched over realms so wide, requires stronger hands than those ofdegenerate Carlovingians. It breaks asunder. Functionaries becomesovereigns, with hereditary, not delegated, right to own the people, totax their roads and rivers, to take tithings of their blood and sweat, toharass them in all the relations of life. There is no longer ametropolis to protect them from official oppression. Power, the moresub-divided, becomes the more tyrannical. The sword is the only symbolof law, the cross is a weapon of offence, the bishop is a consecratedpirate, every petty baron a burglar, while the people, alternately theprey of duke, prelate, and seignor, shorn and butchered like sheep, esteem it happiness to sell themselves into slavery, or to huddle beneaththe castle walls of some little potentate, for the sake of his wolfishprotection. Here they build hovels, which they surround from time totime with palisades and muddy entrenchments; and here, in these squalidabodes of ignorance and misery, the genius of Liberty, conducted by thespirit of Commerce, descends at last to awaken mankind from its sloth andcowardly stupor. A longer night was to intervene; however, before thedawn of day. The crown-appointed functionaries had been, of course, financialofficers. They collected the revenue of the sovereign, one third ofwhich slipped through their fingers into their own coffers. Becomingsovereigns themselves, they retain these funds for their privateemolument. Four principal sources yielded this revenue: royal domains, tolls and imposts, direct levies and a pleasantry called voluntarycontributions or benevolences. In addition to these supplies were alsothe proceeds of fines. Taxation upon sin was, in those rude ages, aconsiderable branch of the revenue. The old Frisian laws consistedalmost entirely of a discriminating tariff upon crimes. Nearly all themisdeeds which man is prone to commit, were punished by a money-boteonly. Murder, larceny, arson, rape--all offences against the personwere commuted for a definite price. There were a few exceptions, such as parricide, which was followed by loss of inheritance; sacrilegeand the murder of a master by a slave, which were punished with death. It is a natural inference that, as the royal treasury was enriched bythese imposts, the sovereign would hardly attempt to check the annualharvest of iniquity by which his revenue was increased. Still, althoughthe moral sense is shocked by a system which makes the ruler's interestidentical with the wickedness of his people, and holds out a comparativeimmunity in evil-doing for the rich, it was better that crime should bepunished by money rather than not be punished at all. A severe tax, which the noble reluctantly paid and which the penniless culprit commutedby personal slavery, was sufficiently unjust as well as absurd, yet itserved to mitigate the horrors with which tumult, rapine, and murderenveloped those early days. Gradually, as the light of reason broke uponthe dark ages, the most noxious features of the system were removed, while the general sentiment of reverence for law remained. ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: A country disinherited by nature of its rightsA pleasantry called voluntary contributions or benevolencesAnnual harvest of iniquity by which his revenue was increasedBatavian legion was the imperial body guardBeating the Netherlanders into ChristianityBishop is a consecrated pirateBrethren, parents, and children, having wives in commonFor women to lament, for men to rememberGaul derided the Roman soldiers as a band of pigmiesGreat science of political equilibriumHolland, England, and America, are all links of one chainLong succession of so many illustrious obscureOthers go to battle, says the historian, these go to warRevocable benefices or feudsTaxation upon sinThe Gaul was singularly unchaste