CHAPTER IV.
HISTORICAL MINUTES OF THE UNITED PROVINCES, FROM THEIR DECLARATION OF
INDEPENDENCE, TILL THE ARMINIAN CONTROVERSY.
The present chapter will lead our readers to the public life of Grotius:
in a former page we succinctly mentioned the principal events in the
history of the United Provinces, from their first insurrection against
Philip II. till their declaration of independence. On that event, they
continued Prince William of Orange in the Stadtholderate: he was
entitled to it by his civil and military talents. Application, activity,
liberality, eloquence, intrepidity, enterprise and discretion, were
united in him in an extraordinary degree: he could accommodate himself
to all persons and occurrences, accelerate or retard events, as best
served the interests of his cause, or his own designs. In the rare
talent of governing popular assemblies, and procuring the co-operation
of persons of opposite views, he has had few equals. He wanted no
quality, which a chief of a party should possess, either to insure the
success of the public object, or to further his private aims.
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