ing and threatening at the gates, and ever and anon
a breach would be made, and the labor of generations annulled.
Holland could never enter upon a career of conquest, like France
or Russia; neither could she assume the great part which Britain
has played; for although the character of the Dutchmen is in
many respects as strong and sound as that of the English, and
in some ways its superior, yet the Dutch had not been dowered
with a sea-defended isle for their habitation, which might enable
them to carry out enterprises abroad without the distraction and
weakness involved in maintaining adequate guards at home. They
were mighty in self-defence and in resistance against tyranny;
and they were unsurpassed in those virtues and qualities which go
to make a nation rich and orderly; but aggression could not be
for them. They took advantage of their season of power to confirm
themselves in the ownership of lands in the extreme East and in
the West, which should be a continual source of revenue; but
they could do no more; and they wasted not a little treasure and
strength in preserving what they had gained, or a part of it, from
the grasp of others. But this was the sum of their possibility;
they could not presume to dictate terms to the world; and the
consequence was that they gradually ceased to be a considered
factor in the European problem. In some respects, their territorial
insignificance, while it prevented them from aggressive action,
preserved them from aggression; their domain was not worth
conquering, and again its conquest could not be accomplished
by any nation without making others uneasy and jealous. They
became, like Switzerland, and unlike Poland and Hungary, a neutral
region, which it was for the interest of Europe at large to let
alone. None cared to meddle with them; and, on the other hand,
they had native virtue and force enough to resist being absorbed
into other peoples; the character of the Dutch is as distinct
to-day as ever it had been. Their language, their literature,
their art, and their personal traits, are unimpaired. They are,
in their own degree, remarkably prosperous and comfortable; and
they have the good sense to be content with their condition.
They are liberal and progressive, and yet conservative; they are
even with modern ideas as regards education and civilization,
and yet the tourist within their boundaries continually finds
himself reminded of their past. The costumes and the customs