The Republic was so integral a part of that system which divided Europe
into two great hostile camps according to creeds rather than frontiers
that the history of its foremost citizen touches at every point the
general history of Christendom.

The great peculiarity of the Dutch constitution at this epoch was that no
principle was absolutely settled. In throwing off a foreign tyranny and
successfully vindicating national independence the burghers and nobles
had not had leisure to lay down any organic law. Nor had the day for
profound investigation of the political or social contract arrived.
Men dealt almost exclusively with facts, and when the facts arranged
themselves illogically and incoherently the mischief was grave and
difficult to remedy. It is not a trifling inconvenience for an organized
commonwealth to be in doubt as to where, in whom, and of what nature is
its sovereignty. Yet this was precisely the condition of the United
Netherlands. To the eternal world so dazzling were the reputation and
the achievements of their great captain that he was looked upon by many
as the legitimate chief of the state and doubtless friendly monarchs
would have cordially welcomed him into their brotherhood.

During the war he had been surrounded by almost royal state. Two hundred
officers lived daily at his table. Great nobles and scions of sovereign
houses were his pupils or satellites. The splendour of military
despotism and the awe inspired by his unquestioned supremacy in what was
deemed the greatest of all sciences invested the person of Maurice of
Nassau with a grandeur which many a crowned potentate might envy. His
ample appointments united with the spoils of war provided him with almost
royal revenues, even before the death of his elder brother Philip William
had placed in his hands the principality and wealthy possessions of
Orange. Hating contradiction, arbitrary by instinct and by military