him. It was unjust to blame him for not at once transferring to
our island the love which he bore to the country of his birth.
If, in essentials, he did his duty towards England, he might well
be suffered to feel at heart an affectionate preference for
Holland. Nor is it a reproach to him that he did not, in this
season of his greatness, discard companions who had played with
him in his childhood, who had stood by him firmly through all the
vicissitudes of his youth and manhood, who had, in defiance of
the most loathsome and deadly forms of infection, kept watch by
his sick-bed, who had, in the thickest of the battle, thrust
themselves between him and the French swords, and whose
attachment was, not to the Stadtholder or to the King, but to
plain William of Nassau. It may be added that his old friends
could not but rise in his estimation by comparison with his new
courtiers. To the end of his life all his Dutch comrades, without
exception, continued to deserve his confidence. They could be out
of humour with him, it is true; and, when out of humour, they
could be sullen and rude; but never did they, even when most
angry and unreasonable, fail to keep his secrets and to watch
over his interests with gentlemanlike and soldierlike fidelity.
Among his English councillors such fidelity was rare.67 It is
painful, but it is no more than just, to acknowledge that he had
but too good reason for thinking meanly of our national
character. That character was indeed, in essentials, what it has
always been. Veracity, uprightness, and manly boldness were then,
as now, qualities eminently English. But those qualities, though
widely diffused among the great body of the people, were seldom
to be found in the class with which William was best acquainted.
The standard of honour and virtue among our public men was,
during his reign, at the very lowest point. His predecessors had