s are so filled with prejudices and so bound by mutual
engagements of long date as to make one fear an unfruitful issue. We are
occupied upon this point in our assembly of Holland to devise some
compromise and to discover by what means these difficulties may be
brought into a state of tranquillity."

It will be observed that in all these most private and confidential
utterances of the Advocate a tone of extreme moderation, an anxious wish
to save the Provinces from dissensions, dangers, and bloodshed, is
distinctly visible. Never is he betrayed into vindictive, ambitious, or
self-seeking expressions, while sometimes, although rarely, despondent in
mind. Nor was his opposition to a general synod absolute. He was probably
persuaded however, as we have just seen, that it should of necessity be
preceded by provincial ones, both in due regard to the laws of the land
and to the true definition of the points to be submitted to its decision.
He had small hope of a successful result from it.

The British king gave him infinite distress. As towards France so towards
England the Advocate kept steadily before him the necessity of deferring
to powerful sovereigns whose friendship was necessary to the republic he
served, however misguided, perverse, or incompetent those monarchs might
be.

"I had always hoped," he said, "that his Majesty would have adhered to
his original written advice, that such questions as these ought to be
quietly settled by authority of law and not by ecclesiastical persons,
and I still hope that his Majesty's intention is really to that effect,
although he speaks of synods."

A month later he felt even more encouraged. "The last letter of his
Majesty concerning our religious questions," he said, "has given rise to
various constructions, but the best advised, who have peace and unity at
heart, understand the King's intention to be to conserve the state of
these Provinces and the religion in its purity. My hope is that his
Majesty's good opinion will be followed and adopted according to the most
appropriate methods."

Can it be believed that the statesman whose upright patriotism,
moderation, and nobleness of purpose thus breathed through every word
spoken by him in public or whispered to friends was already held up by a
herd of ravening slanderers to obloquy as a traitor and a tyrant?

He was growing old and had suffered much from illness during this
eventful summer, but his anxiety for the Commonwealth,