It maintained what it found. It guaranteed religious liberty, and
accepted the civil and political constitutions already in existence.
Meantime, the defects of those constitutions, although visible and
sensible, had not grown to the large proportions which they were destined
to attain.

Thus by the Union of Utrecht on the one hand, and the fast approaching
reconciliation of the Walloon provinces on the other, the work of
decomposition and of construction went Land in hand.