older
was suspended until his majority; and therefore William Frederick could
not act as his lieutenant. Thus peace was restored to Overyssel, but
William Frederick was not appointed field-marshal. In the other
provinces the tact and skill of De Witt were equally successful in
allaying discord. He would not have been so successful had the Orange
party not been hopelessly divided and had it possessed capable leaders.

As an administrator and organiser the council-pensionary at once applied
himself to two most important tasks, financial reform and naval
reconstruction. The burden of debt upon the province of Holland, which
had borne so large a part of the charges of the war, was crushing. The
rate of interest had been reduced in 1640 from 6 J to 5 per cent. But
the cost of the English war, which was wholly a naval war, had caused
the debt of Holland to mount to 153,000,000 guilders, the interest on
which was 7,000,000 guilders per annum. De Witt first took in hand a
thorough overhauling of the public accounts, by means of which he was
enabled to check unnecessary outlay and to effect a number of economies.
Finding however that, despite his efforts to reduce expenditure, he
could not avoid an annual deficit, the council-pensionary took the bold
step of proposing a further reduction of interest from 5 to 4 per cent.
He had some difficulty in persuading the investors in government funds
to consent, but he overcame opposition by undertaking to form a sinking
fund by which the entire debt should be paid off in 41 years. Having
thus placed the finances of the province on a sound basis, De Witt next
brought a similar proposal before the States-General with the result
that the interest on the Generality debt was likewise reduced to 4 per
cent.

The English war had conclusively proved to the Dutch their inferiority
in the size and armament of their war-vessels, and of the need of a
complete reorganisation of the fleet. De Witt lost no time in taking the
necessary steps. The custom which had hitherto prevailed of converting
merchantmen into ships of war at the outbreak of hostilities was
abandoned. Steps were taken to build steadily year by year a number of
large, strongly-constructed, powerfully armed men-of-war, mounting 60,70
and 80 guns. These vessels were specially adapted for passing in and out
of the shallow waters and were built for strength rather than for speed.
Again, the part taken in the war by the light, swift-sailin