fied with the Dutch, he
did not think himself obliged to employ his time for people void of
gratitude. "Let them seek among my Judges (said he by way of irony on
their ignorance) for one to answer the Spaniard[55]." As to Selden's
book, Grotius seemed not to mind it; he looked on himself as no longer
concerned in the controversy. "I wholly forget what I have been, says
he, when I see those to whom I have done so great services, remember me
only to hurt me." These sentiments of an indifference bordering on
hatred he did not entertain till after the Dutch had done every thing to
make him uneasy, as we shall see in the sequel.

FOOTNOTES:

[53] Ep. 144. p. 796.

[54] Ep. 364. p. 858.

[55] Ep. 144. p. 796.

XX. The year after the publication of the treatise _Of the Freedom of
the Ocean_, Grotius printed his work _De antiquitate reipublicae Batavae_,
divided into seven chapters. In the first the author shews what is an
aristocratical government: In the second he gives the history of the
ancient Batavi, whose government, he says, was aristocratical, under the
command of a head, who was sometimes styled King. He explains, in the
third, the state of the Republic of the Batavi in the time of the Roman
empire; and building on a passage of Tacitus he pretends they were
allies, and not subjects of the Romans. In the fourth he enquires into
the government of the Batavi after the fall of the Roman empire; from
which aera till the establishment of the Counts of Holland we know very
little of that nation. The author treats, in the fifth chapter, of the
government of Holland in the time of the Counts. The first elected to
that dignity was named Diederic, of Friesland, and was Count of the
whole nation: He was not a vassal of the Empire, and, as Philip of
Leyden observes, he was Emperor in his County. He was not so absolute as
a Monarch, and though the Dutch in chusing their Counts generally
followed the order of primogeniture, they never set up a Prince without
first requiring of him an oath, to conform to the laws: so that he
reigned rather by the consent of the people, than by right of
succession. The power of the Counts was limited by law; and the taxes
were always imposed by the States. In the sixth chapter the author shews
that Philip II. King of Spain, endeavouring to change their form of
government, occasioned the grand war which procured Holland her liberty.
Grotius explains, in his seventh and last chapter, the form of