conducted negotiations with the foreign ambassadors at the Hague. It is
easy to see how a man like Oldenbarneveldt, of great industry and
capacity for affairs, although nominally the paid servant of the
Estates, gradually acquired an almost complete control over every
department of administration and became, as it were, a Minister of State
of all affairs. In Oldenbarneveldt's time the post was held for life;
and, as Maurice did not for many years trouble himself about matters of
internal government and foreign diplomacy, the Advocate by the length of
his tenure of office had at the opening of the 17th century become the
virtual director and arbiter of the policy of the State. After his death
the title of advocate and the life-tenure ceased. His successors were
known as Council-Pensionaries, and they held office for five years only,
but with the possibility of re-election. The career of John de Witt
showed, however, that in the case of a supremely able man these
restrictions did not prevent a _Raad-Pensionarius_[4] from exercising
for eighteen years an authority and influence greater even than that of
Oldenbarneveldt.

An account of the multiplied subdivision of administrative control in
the United Provinces would not be complete without some mention of the
Admiralty Colleges in Holland. Holland with Zeeland furnished the fleets
on which the existence and well-being of the republic depended. Both
William the Silent and his son Maurice were, as stadholders, admirals of
Holland and of Zeeland, and both likewise were by the States-General
appointed Admirals-General of the Union. They thus wielded a double
authority over maritime affairs in the two provinces. In 1574 William
had at his side a Council of Admiralty erected by the Provincial
Estates, but Leicester in 1585 was annoyed by the immediate control of
naval matters being withdrawn from the governor-general and the
Council of State. He succeeded therefore in obtaining a division of the