From The Quarterly Review.
JOHN DE WITT.*

which, at last, set bounds to the immoderate power and pretensions of France. THESE volumes record the events of a Though he failed, too, at the end of his life of high renown in a memorable age. career to free his country from foreign John de Witt was not the most illustrious invasion, it is now known that he in no of the soldiers and statesmen who, in the sense merited the furious obloquy that seventeenth century were placed at the broke out against him, and that led to his head of the Dutch republic; but there is calamitous death; his exertions, indeed, not a more noble and impressive figure for the defence of the State, if somewhat in that long procession of distinguished tardy, deserve high praise, and were frusworthies. The grand pensionary had not, trated only by causes beyond the control indeed, all the qualities of a born ruler of of men at a disastrous time; and, in fact, men; and his training and habits were he cemented the very alliances, through not of a kind that removed the inherent which, under his famous successor, the defects in his character. He had not the republic ultimately emerged from danger. quick intuitive genius which seizes the He accomplished all these things, moreoccasion at great crises, and adjusts the over, though he ruled the commonwealth course of the State to it; and, though with a doubtful title; and though, during capable of heroic conduct, he was rather the whole time of his power, he was op. too prone to a policy of device, or com- posed and thwarted by a large party in promise, and of attending events, which the State, and by a pretender of imposing he sometimes failed to foresee or to mas- claims, the efforts of both being a conter. With an intellect, too, more serene tinual source of division, strife, and nathan vivid, and essentially that of a philo- tional weakness. Nevertheless, though sophic jurist, he was apt to forget how great as a man of action, it is chiefly as a passion and feeling blind nations, like far-sighted thinker that John de Witt men, to their real interests; and being a claims the attention of history. He was member of a great middle class, accom- the most judicious statesman of his time; plished and learned but somewhat exclu- the one who most clearly perceived what sive, he was at this disadvantage in con- were the permanent interests of the States ducting affairs, that he was not versed in of Europe, apart from passing and disthe intrigues of courts, and that he stood | turbing influences; and in this respect he aloof from popular sympathies. And yet was like Richelieu, but Richelieu without this eminent man ruled the Seven Prov- his hard craft and ambition. The couninces, during a long period of danger sels he offered to Louis XIV., though abroad and trouble at home, with a suc-given with a view to national interests, cess that must be pronounced remarkable; remain a monument of his sagacious inand the commonwealth, under his auspi- sight, and attest his deep political wisdom. cious policy, attained its highest degree Had not the great king, in the pride of of power and greatness. The republic his power, turned a deaf ear to the Dutch seemed on the verge of ruin through rev-statesman, William III. might never have olution and a destructive war, when he took in his hand the reins of government; but he extricated it from this extremity of peril; and he enabled it ere long to assume a position of formidable weight among the powers of Europe. He was, besides, the principal author of the celebrated league which, for the first time, checked the ambitious violence of Louis XIV.; and he may be said to have prepared the way for the grand alliances

Jean de Witt, Grand Pensionnaire de Hollande. Par M. Antonin Lefèvre Pontalis. Paris, 1884.

ruled these kingdoms, and England, perhaps, would not have attained the su premacy on the seas she has so long enjoyed. On the other hand, France would have been spared the fierce and protracted strife with Europe, which left her exhausted at the Peace of Utrecht; her sovereign would have died the chief of the Continent; and the seeds might never have grown on her soil, of which the Revolution was the deadly harvest.

The life and career of John de Witt are not, we believe, well known in England,

cause.

partly because most of the accounts of to that intricate maze of intrigue and them were written in the Dutch tongue; statecraft, in which John de Witt played and partly because his fame has suffered a conspicuous part. Even external events from the discredit that follows a defeated are badly depicted; and such striking We eagerly turned to these vol- scenes as the great naval battles between umes to ascertain if they were worthy of the fleets of the States and of England the theme, but we cannot say very much from 1652 to 1666, and the memorable in their favor. M. Pontalis, no doubt, campaign of 1672, are feebly and indishas toiled hard at his work; he has col- tinctly portrayed. We must add that lected materials of real value from the mistakes in names abound, which we charlibrary and the archives of the Hague, itably hope are errors of the press; * and from the correspondence of the De Witt the book, in a word, is another example of family, and from State papers in London a singular fact in the literature of our and Paris; and the Duc d'Aumale, with day, how the French intellect, ever in excharacteristic kindness, has placed at his tremes, has forsaken its methods of the disposal a number of letters of the Great last century in the province of history and Condé, preserved at Chantilly, which kindred studies, and contents itself with throw fresh light on the invasion of Hol- amassing details, without an attempt to land. The author's researches on other generalize, or to observe the rules of art, points have also produced some fruitful order, or clear arrangement. results; we would especially refer to important details contained in the De Witt papers, respecting the policy of the grand pensionary, and his preparations for the defence of the States, before the campaign of 1672; and many incidents of the frightful tragedy, in which the brothers De Witt perished and William III. succeeded to power, have been disclosed, for the first time, in these pages. The book, however, is in some respects disappointing; it is a dull chronicle, and not a biography connecting important events in history; it is a mere assemblage of illdigested facts, not the well-ordered work of a skilful artist. Notwithstanding his long and assiduous labors, M. Pontalis has failed to place before us the living images of John de Witt, of the remarkable men who shared his councils, and of the statesmen with whom he played for nearly twenty years the great game of politics; and Mazarin and Cromwell, Charles II. and Temple, De Lionne, Louis XIV., and Louvois, nowhere stand out on his crowded canvas in their personality and true lineaments. His narrative, too, is confused and obscure; it is, no doubt, difficult to describe clearly the shifts and moves on the stage of Europe, of which the Peace of Breda, the Triple Alliance, the Treaty of Dover, and the war of 1672, were only the outward and visible signs; but we seek in vain for a clue in this book

John de Witt was born in 1625. The family of the future head of the commonwealth had been originally feudal nobles; but, like many of their order, they had turned from the land to commerce in the sixteenth century; and they had long formed a part of the high burgher caste, which had freely lavished its wealth and its blood in the protracted struggle with the monarchy of Spain. Jacob de Witt, father of his illustrious son, had, like many of his ancestors, filled offices in the governing bodies of his native town, Dort; and he had even risen to high place in the States, for he was an ambassador from the republic to the court of Sweden. The boy was brought up with the attentive care bestowed by his class in that day on their offspring; he was sent at an early age to the high school of Dort, a seminary of European fame, and in time he became a student at Leyden, the chief university of the seventeenth century. Young John gave proof at these places of learning, of great industry, and the finest parts; he showed an extraordinary turn for law, especially in its noblest branch, developed lately by the hand of Grotius; and he not

We mention some of these, and could mention more: Vol. i., p. 7, 46 Spinosa" for "Spinola ;" p. 143, "Askue" for "Ascue;" p. 371, "Robert" for "Rupert; "Hartman" for "Harman ; p. 378, p. 402, "Sherness" for "Sheerness." Vol. ii., p. 103, " Ossery" for "Ossory;" p. 314, "Solsbay" for "Sole

bay."

only mastered mathematics with ease, but | movement, which, after a series of rapid displayed much aptitude in applying the changes, ended in assuring the ascenscience to numerous inventions of his in- dency, for a time, of the high burgher genious countrymen. The influences, too, families that ruled Holland. William II., which surrounded the youth in the circle the stadtholder, the hot-brained chief of of home were well fitted to make the stu- the illustrious house of Orange-Nassau, dent a cultivated man of the world. At had for years aspired to a higher position this period many eminent men of let than that of a mere chief magistrate. Alters in France held close relations with lied by marriage with the king of England, the aristocracy of the burghers of the he naturally desired to wear a crown; and States; Montaigne and other distin- with the connivance, perhaps, of Charles guished Frenchmen had found an asylum | I., and certainly of the crafty Mazarin, he or home in the Provinces, and the philosophy and manners of France flourished at Dort and other chief towns of Holland. John de Witt, in his teens, had the great advantage of mixing with this brilliant society; he became a disciple and friend of Descartes; and the French sympathies, which he felt through life, were largely due to the memories of these days. As the high burgher, too, like the noble of Venice, received a very comprehensive training, John de Witt became versed in many accomplishments; he learned fencing, tenuis, music, and so forth; and, like other future heads of States, he dabbled in verse with some success. To complete an education of the most liberal kind, he made, with his elder brother Cornelius, for in life, as in death, the pair were united, the grand tour of the seventeenth century; the brothers travelled through a large part of France, and visited London and the southern counties. It was the time of the troubles of the Fronde, of the close of the civil wars of England, and of the tragical fate of Charles I.; but, curiously enough, the letters of the De Witts take no notice of these great events, though they certainly must have impressed them deeply. Very probably, with characteristic caution, the young men were unwilling, when in foreign lands, to place on record their views respecting affairs of State of the highest moment.

At the age of twenty-four John de Witt became an advocate of the Supreme Court at the Hague. He carried to the bar precocious fame, and some of his youthful pleadings are extremely good; but he was not destined to devote to law abilities fit for a nobler calling. In 1650 the Seven Provinces were shaken by a revolutionary

had secretly plotted to subvert the republic. A proposition made by the States of Holland to reduce the army under his command, gave the prince the opportunity he sought; at the head of a soldiery devoted to him, he attempted to surprise and take Amsterdam; and he suddenly arrested and cast into prison* six deputies of the obnoxious province. His supremacy seemed, for the moment, complete, for, though loud murmurs of discontent were heard, the different States of the Seven Provinces were not agreed on the vote for the army, and in many respects were ill in accord; but death unexpectedly closed his career, and, for a time, defeated the hopes of his party. A counter-revolution speedily followed; and as the stadtholder's heir was only an infant-William III. was born eight days after his father's death and the States-General had little real power without the support of the chief magistrate, authority passed to the States of Holland, at all times the first of the United Provinces, and, as we have said, centred in its great burgher houses. The occasion brought John de Witt forth from the obscurity of a learned profession. His father had been one of the imprisoned deputies; he was known to be a young man of parts; and he was chosen, accordingly, by his fellow-townsmen, as pensionary, or head of its governing body, to represent Dort in the States of the prov ince. He took a prominent part in the long debates which followed the recent change of government; sustained with great force a scheme to exclude the young child of the late stadtholder from the

The attempt of Charles I. to arrest the leaders of

the opposition in the House of Commons will recur to the mind of the reader of English history.

hereditary place of chief of the army; and enough concerning the right of search; gave proof of such talent and ripe discretion, that he became known in the States as the "wise youth of Holland." His rise, in fact, was so complete and sudden, that in 1652 he was selected to fill the office, temporarily, of grand pensionary, or head of the province; and this, too, at a critical juncture, when the commonwealth was in extreme danger. The choice, nevertheless, was well justified; he showed ability of the highest order in negotiations with foreign powers; and he succeeded by admirable skill and firmness in preventing an Orange rising in Zealand, which threatened to overthrow the existing government. Already recognized as the real leader of the class now dominant in the republic, John de Witt was confirmed, in 1653, in the high place he had held for a time, and he was made grand pensionary for the legal term of five years. He was a little older than Pitt when that great minister came to the helm of affairs in England; and, like Pitt, he was for nearly twenty years supreme.

The office to which John de Witt succeeded made him president of the States of Holland, and administrative head of the whole province, through the governing bodies of the leading towns; and it gave him large influence in the States-General, especially in their external relations. By the law, however, the grand pensionary was in no sense chief of the entire commonwealth; and his prerogatives, in fact, were strictly limited to the narrow bounds of a single province. Partly, however, because, as we have said, after the decline of constitutional powers, authority naturally passed to Holland, which was always the dominant State, but chiefly perhaps, because a great man almost always draws authority to himself, John de Witt became, in a short time, the virtual ruler of the Dutch republic. It was fortunate that he attained this position, for a master hand was needed, at this time, to guide the nation through a sea of troubles. The jealousy of a rival maritime power had brought on a terrible war with England; but, though Tromp had upheld the glory of his flag, the fleets of the States had been defeated in a series of fiercely contested actions, and had taken refuge within their harbors, and the victorious enemy was preying upon the vast commerce of the defenceless commonwealth, and was sapping its resources by a strict blockade, from the mouths of the Scheldt to those of the Ems. Meanwhile a quarrel had broken out with France, curiously

and other States, which had felt the arms or envied the wealth of the Venice of the north, had tacitly combined in a league against her. The Portuguese had reconquered Brazil and certain Dutch settlements in the Indian seas; the court of Sweden was openly hostile; and even the Empire and its subject princes anticipated gladly the ruin of a power which, in many respects, had presented a contrast humiliating to their own needy arrogance. Revolution, besides, with its train of evils, had, as we have seen, disturbed the nation; it had envenomed faction, destroyed credit, and generally impaired that steadfast patriotism which is the best hope of a people in danger. The disasters that soon overtook a community depending for the most part on commerce were grievous, and threatened to become intolerable. The public distress was so great that " grass," it was said, "grew in the streets of Amsterdam, and hundreds of ships rotted along the wharves;" many of the chief citizens of the large trading towns shut up their houses and shops in despair; a whole population was reduced to want, deprived of its yearly harvests of the sea; even the peasantry suffered and murmured loudly; and it had become impossible to collect the taxes, the State being menaced with general bankruptcy. The nation which, a few years before, had emerged victorious from a death-struggle, which had founded colonies in many lands, had extended its commerce to distant continents, and had made Europe minister to its wealth, seemed about to fall from its high estate.

The grand pensionary contrived to rescue his countrymen from these depths of disaster by a policy necessarily not brilliant, and even, in some degree, tortuous, but well considered and ably conducted. The one great enemy of the States was England, which, under the vigorous rule of Cromwell, was making Europe feel how intense may be the energy of a revolutionary power, and which seemed to have so completely beaten down the republic, that the Protector contemplated its annexation. To make peace with England, on any fair conditions, John de Witt perceived was therefore essential; and he addressed himself to the arduous task with characteristic skill and judgment. The existing English and Dutch governments had one common ground of feeling and interest: Cromwell was naturally jealous of the Prince of Orange, a kinsman of the fallen house of Stuart; the high