ring an annual expense of six
hundred thousand pounds sterling, was everywhere neglected. The
sea inundated the country, and threatened to resume its ancient
dominion. No object of ambition, no source of professional wealth
or distinction, remained to which a Hollander could aspire. None
could voluntarily enter the army or navy, to fight for the worst
enemy of Holland. The clergy were not provided with a decent
competency. The ancient laws of the country, so dear to its pride
and its prejudices, were replaced by the Code Napoleon; so that
old practitioners had to recommence their studies, and young
men were disgusted with the drudgery of learning a system which
was universally pronounced unfit for a commercial country.

Independent of this mass of positive ill, it must be borne in
mind that in Holland trade was not merely a means of gaining
wealth, but a passion long and deeply grafted on the national
mind: so that the Dutch felt every aggravation of calamity,
considering themselves degraded and sacrificed by a power which
had robbed them of all which attaches a people to their native
land; and, for an accumulated list of evils, only offered them
the empty glory of appertaining to the country which gave the
law to all the nations of Europe, with the sole exception of
England.

Those who have considered the events noted in this history for
the last two hundred years, and followed the fluctuations of
public opinion depending on prosperity or misfortune, will have
anticipated that, in the present calamitous state of the country,
all eyes were turned toward the family whose memory was revived by
every pang of slavery, and associated with every throb for freedom.
The presence of the Prince of Orange, William IV., who had, on
the death of his father, succeeded to the title, though he had
lost the revenues of his ancient house, and the re-establishment
of the connection with England, were now the general desire.
Some of the principal partisans of the House of Nassau were for
some time in correspondence with his most serene highness. The
leaders of the various parties into which the country was divided
became by degrees more closely united. Approaches toward a better
understanding were reciprocally made; and they ended in a general
anxiety for the expulsion of the French, with the establishment
of a free constitution, and a cordial desire that the Prince of
Orange should be at its head. It may be safely affirmed, that,
at