reducing the country to slavery as long as it maintained its
tranquillity, and that union which forms in itself the elements
and the cement of strength. It was from deep calculation that
he had excited the troubles, and now kept them alive. He knew
that the structure of illegal power could only be raised on the
ruins of public rights and national happiness; and the materials
of desolation found sympathy in his congenial mind.

And now in reality began the awful revolution of the Netherlands
against their tyrant. In a few years this so lately flourishing
and happy nation presented a frightful picture; and in the midst
of European peace, prosperity, and civilization, the wickedness
of one prince drew down on the country he misgoverned more evils
than it had suffered for centuries from the worst effects of
its foreign foes.

William of Nassau has been accused of having at length urged
on the stadtholderess to promulgate the final edicts and the
resolutions of the Council of Trent, and then retiring from the
council of state. This line of conduct may be safely admitted and
fairly defended by his admirers. He had seen the uselessness of
remonstrance against the intentions of the king. Every possible
means had been tried, without effect, to soften his pitiless
heart to the sufferings of the country. At length the moment
came when the people had reached that pitch of despair which is
the great force of the oppressed, and William felt that their
strength was now equal to the contest he had long foreseen. It
is therefore absurd to accuse him of artifice in the exercise of
that wisdom which rarely failed him on any important crisis. A
change of circumstances gives a new name to actions and motives;