Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands

Introduction

In the letters about his travels which were published in 1687 the historian Gilbert Burnet referred to Sir William Temple's Observations upon the United Provinces as 'the most perfect book of its kind that is perhaps in being' and we learn from a contemporary letter that this caused it to be 'bought up mightily upon a suddaine.' It was already in its fourth edition, and it had held for fourteen years the position of the leading English authority on the Dutch republic, better in expression and arrangement and judgment than any of the numerous other books on that state, and as well-informed as any of them. When Temple published it in 1673 the Dutch and the English were at war for the third time within his recollection, and he seems to have written it for the occasion, though a remark in the Preface suggests that parts of it (especially perhaps the second chapter) were copied or adapted from a formal report after his embassy, which ended in 1670 when the war was brewing. The experience of this and his other visits to Holland, from his first private visit in 1652, were the main sources of the book. He refers in it to some historical writers, but not by name to contemporary political or economic authors. Nor, in the later editions, did he make any attempt to bring it up to date. He seems only to have corrected it once: I believe this was for the second edition, but, as this is not in the British Museum or the Bodleian, I have not seen these alterations in any edition earlier than the third. They are not important. The brief account of the provinces other than Holland at the end of chapter II is an addition; the paragraph about the Zuyder Zee is lengthened; and in chapter V the words 'and not admitted to any publick charges' are added to the account of the Roman Catholics. That is all, and the subsequent editions contribute nothing except changes in spelling and capitals and some new printer's errors. The present reprint follows the text of the fifth edition published in 1690. No alterations have been made except that obvious misprints have been corrected.

Temple was characteristically pleased with his book. He wrote that he wished King Charles II had leisure to read his two short chapters on religion and trade. As time went on he must have seen himself that the book was not perfect. Before very long it was pointed out that he had shown the reasons of the fall of the United Provinces 'before they were down.' A generation later the cosmopolitan reviewer Jean le Clerc examined it minutely. He drew attention to some minor obscurities in the constitutional part, to the needlessly guarded statements about the soundness of the Bank of Amsterdam, to the error of describing the prosperous years 1669 and 1670 as a time when Dutch foreign trade was bad, and to the too-close identification of the states-party with Arminianism. Beyond that he could find no errors of fact except that the water in the Haarlemmer Meer was not fresh but brackish. It is indeed not in errors but in omissions that a modern reader finds the book weakest. There is nothing about Dutch painting or learning or science, three of the great wonders of that age. And if Temple had known anything about Dutch poetry he would not have made his absurd remarks about the Dutch as lovers.

His purpose in writing was not merely to convey information about the Dutch, but to explain and indeed to expatiate. He gives his views not only on politics, and economics and history, but on geology and human character and medicine. As specimens of the thought of his time they are all interesting and some of them are important. His passage about the spleen may border on the irrelevant, but it belongs to the same point of view with, what he has to say about the low rate of interest and trade cycles and (not wisely) about population or the balance of trade. What holds the book together is a method of interpreting history, a method which is summed up in the dictum: 'Most national customs are the effect of some unseen, or unobserved, natural causes or necessities.' This idea and ideas related to it were kindling much of the best thought of that time, and Temple must have been in contact with them from his youth. As an undergraduate at Cambridge his humour was too lively to pursue the harsh studies of logic and philosophy and he spent most of his time on 'entertainments,' especially tennis; but, even so, two years at Emmanuel with Cudworth as his tutor may have taught him much without his knowing it.

Since the book is explanatory it requires little explanation even now. For the few rare or obsolete words, including the Gallicisms (licensed, fond, force, digues), it is not necessary to look further than the Oxford English Dictionary. Some of the place-names are oddly spelt, but they are not difficult except perhaps 'the Burse' or 'the Barse,' variants of 'the Buss,' the then familiar English name for 'den Bosch' or Bois-le-Duc. I wish I knew exactly how Temple came to pitch on the village of Molkwerum near Stavoren as a type of the old Germanic settlement: the paragraph in which he talks about it anticipates modern historical methods in a most striking way. There are indeed plenty of other passages which illustrate the scantiness and inaccuracy of the historical information at Temple's disposal; but, although in the seventeenth century modern historical methods were only beginning to be used, their emergence was a vital part of a great intellectual movement. Knowledge from every branch of science was being brought to bear on the interpretation of human history and human society, and the permanence of this book is due to Temple's belief in this study as one science among the others.

G. N. CLARK

OXFORD

24 October 1932

Preface

Having lately seen the State of the United Provinces, after a prodigious growth in Riches, Beauty, extent of Commerce, and number of Inhabitants, arrived at length to such a height, (by the strength of their Navies, their fortified Towns, and standing-Forces, with a constant Revenue, proportion'd to the support of all this Greatness,) as made them the Envy of some, the Fear of others, and the Wonder of all their Neighbours.

We have, this Summer past, beheld the same State, in the midst of great appearing Safety, Order, Strength, and Vigor, almost ruin'd and broken to pieces, in some few days, and by very few blows; And reduced in a manner to its first Principles of Weakness, and Distress; exposed, opprest, and very near at Mercy. Their Inland Provinces swallowed up by an Invasion, almost as sudden, and unresisted, as the Inundations to which the others are subject. And the remainders of their State rather kept alive by neglect, or disconcert of its Enemies, than by any strength of Nature, or Endeavours at its own recovery.

Now, because such a Greatness and such a Fall of this State seem Revolutions unparallel'd in any Story, and hardly conceived, even by those who have lately seen them; I thought it might be worth an idle Man's time, to give some account of the Rise and Progress of this Commonwealth, The Causes of their Greatness, And the steps towards their Fall: Which were all made by motions, perhaps, little taken notice of by common Eyes, and almost undiscernible to any Man, that was not placed to the best advantage, and something concerned, as well as much enclin'd, to observe them.

The usual Duty of employments abroad, imposed not only by Custom, but by Orders of State, made it fit for me to prepare some formal Account of this Country and Government, after Two years Ambassy, in the midst of great Conjunctures and Negotiations among them. And such a Revolution as has since happen'd there, though it may have made these Discourses little important to his Majesty, or His Council; Yet it will not have render'd them less agreeable to common Eyes, who, like Men that live near the Sea, will run out upon the Cliffs to gate at it in a Storm, though they would not look out of their Windows, to see it in a Calm.

Besides, at a time when the Actions of this Scene take up, so generally, the Eyes and Discourses of their Neighbours; And the Maps of their Country grow so much in request: I thought a Map of their State and Government would not be unwelcome to the World, since it is full as necessary as the others, to understand the late Revolutions, and Changes among them. And as no Man's Story can be well written till he is dead; so the account of this State could not be well given till its fall, which may justly be Dated from the Events of last Summer, (whatever Fortunes may further attend them,) since therein we have seen the sudden and violent dissolution of that more Popular Government, which had continued, and made so much noise, for above Twenty Years in the World, without the exercise, or influence, of the Authority of the Princes of Orange, a Part so Essential in the first Constitutions of their State. Nor can I wholly lose my pains in this Adventure, when I shall gain the ease of answering this way, at once, those many Questions I have lately been used to, upon this occasion: Which made me first observe, and wonder, how ignorant we were, generally, in the Affairs and Constitutions of a Country, so much in our Eye, the common road of our Travels, as well as subject of our Talk; and which we have been of late, not only curious, but concerned, to know.

I am very sensible, how ill a Trade it is to write, where much is ventur'd, and little can be gain'd; since, whoever does it ill is sure of contempt; and the justliest that can be, when no Man provokes him to discover his own follies, or to trouble the World, if he writes well, he raises the envy of those Wits that are possest of the Vogue, and are jealous of their Preferment there, as if it were in Love, or in State; And have found, that the nearest way to their own Reputation lies, right or wrong, by the derision of other Men. But, however, I am not in pain, for 'tis the affectation of Praise, that makes the fear of Reproach; And l write without other design than of entertaining very idle Men, and, among them, my self. For I must confess, that being wholly useless to the Publique; And unacquainted with the Cares of encreasing Riches, (which busie the World:) Being grown cold to the pleasures of younger or livelier Men; And having ended the Entertainments of Building, and Planting, (which use to succeed them;) finding little taste in common Conversation, and trouble in much Reading, from the care of my Eyes (since an illness contracted by many unnecessary diligences in my Employments abroad;) there can hardly be found an idler Man, than I; Nor consequently, one more excuseable for giving way to such amusements, as this: Having nothing to do, but to enjoy the ease of a private Life and Fortune; which, as I know no Man envies, so (I thank God,) no Man can reproach.

I am not ignorant, that the vein of Reading never ran lower than in this Age; and seldom goes, further than the design of raising a Stock to furnish some Calling, or Conversation. The Desire of Knowledge being either laught out of doors by the Wit, that pleases the Age; or beaten out by Interest, that so much possesses it : And the amusement of Books giving way to the liberties or refinements of Pleasure, that were formerly less known, or less avowed, than now. Yet some there will always be found in the World, who ask no more at their idle hours, than to forget themselves. And, whether that be brought about by Drink or Play, by Love or Business, or by some diversions, as idle as this, 'tis all a case.

Besides, it may possibly fall out, at one time or other, that some Prince, or great Minister, may not be ill pleased in these kind of Memorials, (upon such a Subject,) to trace the steps of Trade and Riches, of Order and Power in a State; and those likewise of weak or violent Counsels; of corrupt, or ill, Conduct; of Faction or Obstinacy, which decay and dissolve the firmest Governments: That so, by Reflections upon Foreign Events, they may provide the better and the earlier against those at home, and raise their own Honour and Happiness, by equal degrees with the Prosperity and Safety of the Nations, they Govern.

For, under favour of those who would pass for Wits in our Age, by saying things, which David tells us, the Fool said in His; And set up with bringing those Wares to Market, which (God knows) have been always in the World, though kept up in corners, because they used to mark their Owners, in former Ages, with the Names of Buffoons, Prophane, or Impudent, Men; Who deride all Form and Order, as well as Piety and Truth; And, under the notion of Fopperies, endeavour to dissolve the very Bonds of all Civil Society; though by the Favour and Protection thereof, they themselves enjoy so much greater proportions of Wealth, and of Pleasures, than would fall to their share, if all lay in common, as they seem to design, (for then such Possessions would belong of right to the strongest and bravest among us.)

Under favour of such Men, I believe, it will be found, at one time or other, by all who shall try, That whilst Human Nature continues what it is, The same Orders in State, The same Discipline in Armies, The same Reverence for things Sacred, And Respect of Civil Institutions, The same Virtues and Dispositions of Princes and Magistrates, derived by Interest, or Imitation, into the Customs and Humors of the People, will ever have the same Effects upon the Strength and Greatness of all Governments, and upon the Honour and Authority of those that Rule, as well as the Happiness and Safety of those that Obey.

Nor are we to think Princes themselves losers, or less entertain'd, when we see them employ their Time, and their Thoughts, in so useful Speculations, and to so Glorious Ends: But that rather, thereby they attain their true Prerogative of being Happier, as well as Greater, than Subjects can be. For all the Pleasures of Sense, that any Man can enjoy, are within the reach of a private Fortune, and ordinary Contrivance; Grow fainter with Age, and duller with use; Must be revived with intermissions, and wait upon the returns of Appetite, which are no more at call of the Rich, than the Poor. The flashes of Wit and good Humour, that rise from the Vapours of Wine, are little different from those that proceed from the heats of Blood in the first approaches of Fevers, or Frenzies; And are to be valued, but as (indeed) they are, the effects of Distemper. But the pleasures of Imagination, as they heighten and refine the very pleasures of Sense, so they are of larger extent, and longer duration. And if the most sensual Man will confess there is a Pleasure in Pleasing, He must likewise allow, there is Good to a Man's Self, in doing Good to others; And the further this extends, the higher it rises, and the longer it lasts. Besides, there is Beauty in Order; and there are Charms in well-deserved Praise : And both are the greater, by how much greater the Subject; As the first appearing in a well framed and well-governed State; And the other arising from Noble and Generous Actions. Nor can any veins of good Humour be greater than those, that swell by the success of wise Counsels, and by the fortunate Events of publique Affairs; since a Man that takes pleasure in doing good to Ten thousand, must needs have more, than he that takes none, but in doing Good to Himself.

But these Thoughts lead me too far, and to little purpose: Therefore I shall leave them for those I had first in my Head, concerning the State of the United-Provinces.

And whereas the Greatness of their Strength, and Revenues, grew out of the vastness of their Trade, into which, their Religion, their Manners, and Dispositions, their Scituation, and the Form of their Government, were the chief Ingredients. And this last had been raised partly upon an old Foundation, And partly with Materials brought together, by many and various Accidents; It will be necessary for the Survey of this great Frame, to give some account of the Rise and Progress of their State, by pointing out the most remarkable Occasions of the first, and Periods of the other. To discover the Nature and Constitutions of their Government in its several parts, and the motions of it, from the first and smallest Wheels. To observe, what is peculiar to them in their Scituation, or Dispositions, And what in their Religion. To take a Survey of their Trade, and the Causes of it; Of the Forces and Revenues, which composed their Greatness; And the Circumstances, and Conjunctures, which conspired to their Fall. And these are the Heads, that shall make the Order and Arguments in the several parts of these Observations.

Of the Rise and Progress of the United Provinces

Whoever will take a view of the Rise of this Commonwealth, must trace it up as high as the first Commotions in the Seventeen Provinces, under the Duchess of Parma's Government; and the true Causes of that more avowed and general Revolt in the Duke of Alva's time. And, to find out the natural Springs of those Revolutions, must reflect upon that sort of Government under which the Inhabitants of those Provinces lived for so many Ages past, in the subjection of their several Dukes or Counts; till by Marriages, Successions or Conquest, they came to be united in the House of Burgundy, under Philip sirnamed The Good: And afterwards in that of Austria, under Philip Father of Charles in the Person of that great Emperor incorporated with those vast Dominions of Germany and Spain, Italy and the Indies.

Nor will it be from the purpose upon this search, to run a little higher into the Antiquities of these Countries: For though most Men are contented only to see a River as it runs by them, and talk of the changes in it, as they happen; when 'tis troubled, or when clear; when it drowns the Country in a Flood, or forsakes it in a Drowth: Yet he, that would know the nature of the Water, and the Causes of those Accidents (so as to guess at their continuance or return), must find out its source, and observe with what strength it rises, what length it runs, and how many small streams fall in, and feed it to such a height, as make it either delightful or terrible to the Eye, and useful or dangerous to the Country about it.

The Numbers and Fury of the Northern Nations, under many different names, having by several Inundations broken clown the whole frame of the Roman Empire, extended in their Provinces as far as the Rhine; either gave a birth, or made way for the several Kingdoms and Principalities, that have since continued in the parts of Europe on this side that River, which made the ancient Limits of the Gallick and German Nations. The Tract of Land, which we usually call the Low-Countries, was so wasted by the Invasions or Marches of this raging People, (who past by them to greater Conquests,) that the Inhabitants grew thin; and being secure of nothing they possest, fell to seek the support of their Lives, rather by hunting, or by violence, than by Labour and Industry; and thereby the grounds came to be uncultivated, and in the course of years turned either to Forrest, or Marshes; which are the two natural Soils of all desolated Lands in the more temperate Regions. For by soaking of frequent show'rs, and the course of Waters from the higher into lower Grounds, when there is no issue that helps them to break out into a Channel, the flat Land grows to be a mixture of Earth and Water, and neither of common use nor passage to Man or Beast, which is call'd a Marsh. The higher, and so the drier, parts, moistned by the Rain, and warm'd by the Sun, shoot forth some sorts of Plants, as naturally as Bodies do some sort of Hair; which, being preserved by the desolateness of a place untrodden, as well as untill'd, grow to such Trees or Shrubs as are natural to the Soil, and those in time producing both Food and Shelter for several kind of Beasts, make the sort of Country we call a Forest.

And such was Flanders for many years before Charlemaign's time, when the Power of the Francs, having raised and establisht a great Kingdom of their own, upon the entire Conquest of Gaul, began to reduce the disorders of that Country to the form of a Civil, or (at least) Military Government; To make divisions and distributions of Lands and Jurisdictions, by the Bounty of the Prince, or the Services of his chief Followers and Commanders; To one of whom, a great extent of this Land was given, with the Title of Forester of Flanders. This Office continued for several descents, and began to civilize the Country, by repressing the violence of Robbers and Spoilers, who infested the Woody and Fast-places, and by encouraging the milder People to fall into Civil Societies, to trust to their Industry for subsistence, to Laws for protection, and to their Arms united under the Care and Conduct of their Governours, for Safety and Defence.

In the time of Charlemaigne, as some write; or, as others, in that of Charles the Bald, Flanders was erected into a County, which changed the Title of Forester for that of Count, without interrupting the Succession.

What the extent of this County was at first, or how far the jurisdiction of Foresters reached, I cannot affirm; nor whether it only bordered upon, or included, the lower parts of the vast Woods of Ardenne, which in Charlemaigns's time, was all Forest as high as Aix, and the rough Country for some Leagues beyond it, and was used commonly by that Emperor for his Hunting: This appears by the ancient Records of that City, which attribute the discovery, or at least, retrieving the knowledge of those hot Baths, to the fortune of that Prince, while he was Hunting: For his Horse poching one of his Legs into some hollow ground, made way for the smoaking water to break out, and gave occasion for the Emperor's building that City, and making it his usual Seat, and the place of Coronation for the following Emperors.

Holland, being an Island made by the dividing-branches of the ancient Rhyne, and called formerly Batavia, was esteemed rather a part of Germany than Gaul, (between which it was seated,) in regard of its being planted by the Catti, a great and ancient People of Germany, and was treated by the Romans rather as an Allied than Subjected Province; who drew from thence no other Tribute besides Bands of Soldiers, much esteemed for their Valour, and joyned as Auxiliaries to their Legions in their Gallick, German, and Brittish Wars.

'Tis probable, this Island changed in a great measure Inhabitants and Customs, as well as Names, upon the inroads of the barbarous Nations, but chiefly of the Normans and Danes, from whose Countries and Language the Names of Holland and Zealand seem to be derived. But about the Year 860. a Son of the Count of Frize, by a Daughter of the Emperor Lewis the Second, was by him instituted Count of Holland, and gave beginning to that Title; which, running since that time through so many direct or collateral Successions and some Usurpations, came to an end at last in Philip the Second, King of Spain, by the defection of the United Provinces.

Under these first Foresters and Counts, who began to take those wasted Countries and mixed People into their Care, and to intend the growth, strength, and riches of their Subjects, which they esteemed to be their own; Many old and demolisht Castles were re-built, many new ones erected, and given by the Princes to those of their Subjects or Friends whom they most loved or esteemed, with large circuits of Lands for their support, and Seigneurial Jurisdiction over the Inhabitants. And this upon several easie Conditions, but chiefly of attendance on their Prince at the necessary times of either honouring him in Peace, or serving him in War. Nay possibly, some of these Seigneuries and their jurisdictions, may, as they pretend, have been the remains of some old Principalities in those Countries among the Gallick and German Nations, the first Institutions whereof were lost in the immensity of time that preceded the Roman Discoveries or Conquest, and might be derived perhaps from the first Paternal Dominion, or Concurrence of loose People into orderly Neighborhoods, with a deference, if not subjection, to the wisest or bravest among them.

Under the same Counts were either founded or restored many Cities and Towns; of which the old had their ancient Freedoms and Jurisdictions confirmed, or others annexed; and the New had either the same granted to them by example of the others; or great Immunities and Priviledges for the encouragement of Inhabitants to come and People in them: All these Constitutions agreeing much in substance perhaps by imitation, or else by the agreeing nature of the People, for whom, or by whom, they were framed; but differing in form according to the difference of their Original, or the several Natures, Customs and Interests of the Princes, whose Concessions many of them were, and all their Permissions.

Another Constitution which entred deep into their Government, may be derived from another source. For those Northern Nations whose unknown Language and Countries perhaps made them be called Barbarous, (though indeed almost all Nations out of Italy and Greece were styled so by the Romans,) but whose Victories in obtaining new Seats, and Orders in possessing them, might make us allow them for a better policy'd People, than they appeared by the vastness of their multitude, or the rage of their Battels.

Wherever they past, and seated their Colonies and Dominions, they left a Constitution which has since been called in most European Languages, The States; consisting of Three Orders, Noble, Ecclesiastical, and Popular, under the limited Principality of one Person, with the style of King, Prince, Duke, or Count. The remainders at least, or traces hereof, appear still in all the Principalities founded by those People in Italy, France and Spain; and were of a piece with the present Constitutions in most of the great Dominions on t'other side the Rhyne: And it seems to have been a temper first introduced by them between the Tyranny of the Eastern Kingdoms, and the Liberty of the Grecian or Roman Commonwealths.

'Tis true, the Goths were Gentiles when they first broke into the Roman Empire, till one great swarm of this People, upon Treaty with one of the Roman Emperors, and upon Concessions of a great Tract of Land to be a Seat for their Nation, embraced at once the Christian Faith. After which, the same People breaking out of the Limits had been allowed them, and by fresh numbers bearing all down where they bent their march; as they were a great means of propagating Religion in many parts of Europe where they extended their Conquests; so the Zeal of these new Proselytes, warmed by the veneration they had for their Bishops and Pastors, and enriched by the spoils and possessions of so vast Countries, seem to have been the First that introduced the maintenance of the Churches and Clergy, by endowments of Lands, Lordships, and Vassals, appropriated to them: For before this time the Authority of the Priesthood in all Religions seemed wholly to consist in the Peoples Opinion of their Piety, Learning, or Virtues, or a Reverence for their Character and Mystical Ceremonies and Institutions; their Support, or their Revenues, in the voluntary Oblations of pious Men, the Bounty of Princes, or in a certain share out of the Labours and Gains of those who lived under their Cure, and not in any subjection of Mens Lives or Fortunes, which belonged wholly to the Civil Power: And Ammianus, though lie taxes the Luxury of the Bishops in Valentinian's time, yet he speaks of their Riches which occasioned or fomented it, as arising wholly from the Oblations of the People. But the Devotion of these new Christians introducing this new form of endowing their Churches; and afterwards Pepin and Charlemaign King of the Franks, upon their Victories in Italy, and the favour of the Roman Bishop to their Title and Arms, having annexed great Territories and Jurisdictions to that See: This Example, or Custom, was followed by most Princes of the Northern Races through the rest of Europe, and brought into the Clergy great possessions of Lands, and by a necessary consequence a great share of a Temporal Power, from the dependances of their Subjects or Tenants; by which means they came to be generally one of the three Orders that composed the Assembly of the States in every Country.

This Constitution of the States had been establisht from time immemorial in the several Provinces of the Low Countries, and was often assembled for determining Disputes about succession of their Princes, where doubtful or contested; For deciding those between the great Towns: For raising a Milice for the defence of their Countries in the Wars of their Neighbors; For Advice in time of Dangers abroad, or Discontents at home; But always upon the new Succession of a Prince, and upon any new Impositions that were necessary on the People. The use of this Assembly was another of those Liberties, whereof the Inhabitants of these Provinces were so fond and so tenacious. The rest, besides those antient Priviledges already mentioned of their Towns, were Concessions and Graces of several Princes, in particular Exemptions or Immunities, jurisdiction both in choice and exercise of Magistracy and Civil Judicature within themselves; or else in the customs of using none but Natives in Charges and Offices, and passing all weighty Affairs by the great Council composed of the great Lords of the Country, who were in a manner all Temporal, there being but three Bishops in all the Seventeen Provinces, till the time of Philip the Second of Spain.