1648. ship. The most striking feature in their political organization CH. XIII. was localism. Holland was an aggregate of towns, each providing for its own defense, administering its own finan- Localism. ces, and governing itself by its own laws. The inhabitants of the towns were not, however, all upon an equality. To entitle a resident to every municipal franchise, the "burgher recht," or burghership, must be acquired. This Burgher burghership was generally obtained by the payment of a sum of money, and the registry of the citizen's name upon the roll of burghers. It was hereditary; it could pass by marriage; and it could be acquired by females as well as by males. Foreigners, also, after a year's probation, could become burghers. The burgher right gave to the citizen freedom of trade, exemption from tolls, special privileges and favors in prosecutions, and an exclusive eligibility to municipal office. The burghers were, generally, merchants and tradesmen. The several trades and profes- Guilds, or sions formed themselves into separate associations called tions. "guilds," or fraternities, the members of which were bound to assist each other in distress, and stand by each other in time of danger. Each guild inhabited, for the most part, a separate quarter of the town; was organized as a military company; fought under its own standard; and was presided over by a "Dekken," or Dean. associa govern The government of each town was administered by a Municipal "Wethouderschap," or Board of Magistrates, consisting of ments. several burgomasters, and a certain number of schepens, or aldermen. This board of wethouders provided for the public safety, attended to the police, mustered the burgher guard in case of danger, administered the finances, and assessed the taxes to be paid by each individual. In general, the term of office was annual. The burgomasters Burgomasand schepens were chosen by the eight or nine "good men" Men, and elected by the "Vroedschap,” or great council of the town, schap. which was itself composed, in most cases, of all the inhabitants who possessed a certain property qualification. There was also another important officer, named the "schout," who, in early times, was appointed by the schout. ters, Nine Vroed 1648. CH. XIII. Count, out of a triple nomination by the wethouders. The functions of the schout-whose name, according to Grotius, was an abbreviation of "schuld-rechter," or a judge of crimes were somewhat analogous to those of bailiff, or county sheriff; combining, however, with them some of the duties of a prosecuting attorney.* Thus the towns themselves were aggregates of voluntary associations of burghers; and the burghers, looking upon their towns as, to a certain extent, their nation, firmly insisted, through all vicissitudes, on being governed by representatives of their own classes. Effects of the munici The local municipal system of the Dutch, which jealpal system. ous enemies continually prophesied would end in disunion, was, in truth, their salvation. Bound together by the strongest ties of reciprocal interest, the community of families, of guilds, of towns, of provinces, became invincible. Subjugation was impossible, when each individual city, was endued with the spirit of the whole province, and each province was a fresh nation to conquer. As the only form of political liberty which the Dutch had really known was localism, so, in the organization of their general government, they only expanded the system which was the very core of their existence. The self-relying burghers governed the towns; the representatives of the towns and of the rural nobility governed the several provinces; and the several "states" of the respective provinces claimed supreme jurisdiction within their own precincts. The deputies which each constituent province sent to the States General were rather envoys, with limited powers, than plenipotentiary representatives. They had explicit instructions which they dared not exceed; and in every case of importance they were obliged to ask the directions of their Provincial Legislatures. Thus jealously did the Dutch restrain the limits of the political power they intrusted to their representatives. The States General was, in one sense, an aggregate as* Guicciardini, ii., 160-180; Grotius, Inleyding, 127; Meyer, Inst. Jud., iii., 160-186; Van Leeuwen's Roman Dutch Law, i., 15; Van der Linden, i., ch. ii., § 4; Wagenaar, Besch. van Amst., iii., 141-161, 269-355; Davies, 1., 76-90; ante, p. 326, 327; post, p. 474. the States sembly of the states of the provinces, each of which might CH. XIII. send an unlimited number of deputies.* The votes, how1648. ever, were taken, as we have already seen, not according Provincial to the number of individual deputies, but according to the equality in number of the provinces represented; and there were, there. General. fore, never more than seven. By this system, each province maintained its own due weight and influence in the affairs of the republic. The doctrine of State Rights, Doctrine of which forms so vital a principle in the American confed- Rights. eration, was, from the first, a distinguishing characteristic in the union of the provinces of the Netherlands. State sults of the litical sys The results which followed this union of self-confiding social recommunities in one firm association signally attested the Dutch powisdom of the Dutch in thus making their national gov- tem. ernment reflect the national mind. All were stimulated to a noble competition; all felt a personal interest in the common weal and the common woe. The nobles of Holland had the wisdom to identify their interests with those of the people; and, in return, the nobility were permitted, without jealousy, to enjoy a large share of political influence and public honors. "Those families who live upon their patrimonial estates," says the courtly but candid Temple, "are differently mannered from the traders, though like them in garb and habit. Their youth are generally bred up at schools and universities; and when they are rich, they travel for some years, after the course of their studies at home. The chief end of their breeding is to make them fit for the service of their country." Thus educated for the business of state, it is not surprising that the descendants of the old Dutch nobles were intrusted by a business people, who esteemed fitness above all things, with a greater proportion of important public functions. than were conferred upon men of their own order.† At the same time, the constitutional government of Holland seems from the first to have recognized the principle that her great commercial interests could be adéquately repre * Basnage, i., 14, 15. When the Twelve Years' truce with Spain was ratified at Bergen-op-Zoom, eight hundred members attended the meeting of the States General. + Temple, ch. iv.; Har. Misc., ii., 599. 1648. Prosperity of the Dutch. CH. XIII. sented only by commercial men. The success of the Dutch was attributed, by a shrewd observer, to the leading circumstance that, "in their greatest councils of state and war, they have trading merchants, who have not only the theoretical knowledge, but the practical experience of trade."* This happy absence of class jealousies consolidated the social as well as the political constitution of the republic; and thought, speech, enterprise, and commerce, unfettered by illiberal regulations, assured the prosperity of the wise people who so earnestly, so steadily, and so successfully vindicated their capacity to govern themselves. And great, indeed, was their prosperity. It was not because Holland enjoyed great natural advantages. On the contrary, nature gave her a sandy and marshy soil. The surface of Holland is flat, like the sea in a calm, and looks as if, after a long contention, it had been divided between land and water. The elements are there at constant variance. The fat soil is made into turf and burned; the excavated land is drained by countless wind-mills. Not a block of stone nor an ore of metal can be found within her territory. The granite with which the Dutch faced their dikes and built their palaces was brought from other lands. Their country yielded them "almost nothing out of its own bowels."t All the corn which was raised in Holland was not sufficient to feed the men employed in keeping the dikes in repair. Yet the indefatigable people who inhabited this barren region became one of the richest in the world. An infinity of sails crowded her endless canals. The Rhine and the Maese brought down the commodities of Germany to the magazines of her merchants, who, in the days of her power and glory, were accustomed to "vent them by their shipping into all parts of the world where the market calls for them." In the year 1650, the whole population of Holland was estimated at two millions four hundred thousand souls. Of these, De Witt supposed that six hundred and fifty thousand lived by manufactur *Sir J. Child, Discovery of Trade. Har. Misc., ii., 597. † De Witt, i., ch 9. 1648. ing articles for exportation; as many more were employed сH. XIII. in trades, and in contributing to the pleasure, ease, or comfort of those who dwelt at home; four hundred and fifty thousand subsisted by the fisheries, and other callings dependent on them; two hundred and fifty thousand by navigation and commerce; two hundred thousand by agricul ture; and a like number by civil and military public service, by rents of land, or interest on invested capital, and by taxes for the support of the poor.* The whole Bata- Aspect of vian territory was only a little larger than Wales. "But all that narrow space was a busy and populous hive, in which new wealth was every day created, and in which vast masses of old wealth were hoarded. The aspect of Holland, the rich cultivation, the innumerable canals, the ever-whirling mills, the endless fleets of barges, the quick succession of great towns, the ports bristling with thousands of masts, the large and stately mansions, the trim villas, the richly-furnished apartments, the picture galleries, the summer-houses, the tulip beds, produced on English travellers in that age an effect similar to the effect which the first sight of England now produces on a Norwegian or a Canadian."+ Holland. commerce After the sack of Antwerp, the prosperity of Amsterdam Extensive began rapidly to increase. Her merchants, finding themselves prohibited from trading to Spain, boldly sought the ends of the earth, and, in spite of all the efforts of their enemies, their expanding commerce soon covered every sea. "Each waxing moon supplied her watery store, To swell those tides which from the line did bear Their exchange presently resounded with a confused hum * De Witt, i., ch. 8; McCullagh, ii., 279. + Macaulay, i., 201. |