this law the female child of a first wife was the heir in preference
to the male child of a later marriage. The Dutch dreaded the approach of
the French military power to their frontiers, and yet the decrepitude of
Spain seemed to render it inevitable. There appeared to De Witt to be
only two solutions of the difficulty. Either what was styled "the
cantonment" of the southern Netherlands, _i.e._ their being formed into
a self-governing republic under Dutch protection guaranteed by a French
alliance, or the division of the Belgic provinces between the two
powers. The latter proposal, however, had two great disadvantages: in
the first place it gave to France and the Republic the undesirable
common frontier; in the second place Amsterdam was resolved that Antwerp
should not be erected into a dangerous rival. The last objection proved
insuperable; and, although De Witt had many confidential discussions
with D'Estrades, in which the French envoy was careful not to commit
himself to any disclosure of the real intentions of his government, no
settlement of any kind had been arrived at, when the threatening state
of relations with England threw all other questions into the background.

The accession of Charles II placed upon the throne of England a man who
had no goodwill to Holland and still less to the council-pensionary, and
who, like all the Stewart kings, had a keen interest in naval and
maritime matters. The Navigation Act, far from being repealed, was
vigorously enforced, as were the English claims to the sovereignty of
the narrow seas. The grievances of the English East India Company
against its Dutch rival with regard to the seizure of certain ships and
especially as to the possession of a small island named Poeloe-Rum in
the Moluccas led to a growing feeling of bitterness and hostility. A
special embassy, headed by De Witt's cousin, Beverweert, was sent to
London in the autumn of 1660 to try to bring about a friendly
understanding, but was fruitless. At the same time George Downing, a
skilful intriguer and adventurer, who after serving Cromwell had
succeeded in gaining the confidence of the royal government, had been
sent as ambassador to the Hague, where he worked underhand to exacerbate
the disputes and to prevent a settlement of the differences between the
two peoples. The position and treatment of the Prince of Orange had
likewise been a source of difficulty and even of danger to the supremacy
of the States party.