when describing the institutions, leading personages, and customs of
other countries, seemed ever to speak of the United Provinces in terms of
eulogy. In commerce, as in war, the naval supremacy of the republic was
indisputable. It was easy for the States to place two thousand vessels
of war in commission, if necessary, of tonnage varying from four hundred
to twelve hundred tons, to man them with the hardiest and boldest sailors
in the world, and to despatch them with promptness to any quarter of the
globe.

It was recognised as nearly impossible to compel a war-vessel of the
republic to surrender. Hardly an instance was on her naval record of
submission, even to far superior force, while it was filled with the
tragic but heroic histories of commanders who had blown their ships,
with every man on board, into the air, rather than strike their flag.
Such was the character, and such the capacity of the sea-born republic.

That republic had serious and radical defects, but the design remained to
be imitated and improved upon, centuries afterwards. The history of the
rise and progress of the Dutch republic is a leading chapter in the
history of human liberty.

The great misfortune of the commonwealth of the United Provinces, next to
the slenderness of its geographical proportions, was the fact that it was
without a centre and without a head, and therefore not a nation capable
of unlimited vitality. There were seven states. Each claimed to be
sovereign. The pretension on the part of several of them was ridiculous.
Overyssel, for example, contributed two and three-quarters per cent. of
the general budget. It was a swamp of twelve hundred square miles in
extent, with some heath-spots interspered, and it numbered perhaps a
hundred thousand inhabitants. The doughty Count of Embden alone could