was
inexorable. He clearly explained to her the perilous career on
which the prince proposed to enter; he showed how great, how
independent, how almost absolute, he might continue, without
shocking the principles of republicanism by grasping at an empty
dignity, which could not virtually increase his authority, and
would most probably convulse the state to its foundation and
lead to his own ruin. The princess, convinced by his reasoning,
repaired to Maurice; but instead of finding him as ready a convert
as she herself had been, she received as cold an answer as was
compatible with a passionate temper, wounded pride, and disappointed
ambition. The princess and Barneveldt recounted the whole affair
to Maurier, the French ambassador; and his son has transmitted
it to posterity.

We cannot follow the misguided prince in all the winding ways
of intrigue and subterfuge through which he labored to reach his
object. Religion, the holiest of sentiments, and Christianity,
the most sacred of its forms, were perpetually degraded by being
made the pretexts for that unworthy object. He was for a while
diverted from its direct pursuit by the preparation made to afford
assistance to some of the allies of the republic. Fifty thousand
florins a month were granted to the duke of Savoy, who was at
war with Spain; and seven thousand men, with nearly forty ships,
were despatched to the aid of the republic of Venice, in its
contest with Ferdinand, archduke of Gratz, who was afterward
elected emperor. The honorary empire of the seas seems at this
time to have been successfully claimed by the United Provinces.
They paid back with interest the haughty conduct with which they
had been long treated by the English; and they refused to pay
the fishery duties to which the inhabitants of Great Britain
were subject. The Dutch sailors had even the temerity, under
pretext of pursuing pirates, to violate the British territory.
They set fire to the town of Crookhaven, in Ireland, and massacred
several of the inhabitants. King James, immersed in theological
studies, appears to have passed slightly over this outrage. More
was to have been expected from his usual attention to the affairs
of Ireland; his management of which ill-fated country is the
best feature of his political character, and ought, to Irish
feelings at least, to be considered to redeem its many errors.
But he took fire at the news that the states had prohibited the
importation of cloth dy