who stood forth in defence of the provincial constitutions were, in his
opinion, mere demagogues and hypocrites; their only motive being to curry
favor with the populace. Yet these charters were, after all,
sufficiently limited. The natural rights of man were topics which had
never been broached. Man had only natural wrongs. None ventured to
doubt that sovereignty was heaven-born, anointed of God. The rights of
the Netherlands were special, not general; plural, not singular;
liberties, not liberty; "privileges," not maxims. They were practical,
not theoretical; historical, not philosophical. Still, such as they
were, they were facts, acquisitions. They had been purchased by the
blood and toil of brave ancestors; they amounted--however open to
criticism upon broad humanitarian grounds, of which few at that day had
ever dreamed--to a solid, substantial dyke against the arbitrary power
which was ever chafing and fretting to destroy its barriers. No men
were more subtle or more diligent in corroding the foundation of these
bulwarks than the disciples of Granvelle. Yet one would have thought
it possible to tolerate an amount of practical freedom so different
from the wild, social speculations which in later days, have made both
tyrants and reasonable lovers of our race tremble with apprehension.
The Netherlanders claimed, mainly, the right to vote the money which was
demanded in such enormous profusion from their painfully-acquired wealth;
they were also unwilling to be burned alive if they objected to
transubstantiation. Granvelle was most distinctly of an opposite opinion
upon both topics. He strenuously deprecated the interference of the
states with the subsidies, and it was by his advice that the remorseless
edict of 1550, the Emperor's ordinance of blood and fire, was re-enacted,
as the very first measure of Philip's reign. Such were his sentiments as
to national and popular rights by representation. For the people itself
--"that vile and mischievous animal called the people"--as he expressed
it, he entertained a cheerful contempt.