tter days Van
Beuningen was ready to resist to the utmost any considerable outlay on
the army or navy or any entangling alliances. They held that it was the
business of the Republic to attend to its own affairs and to leave Louis
to pursue his aggressive policy at the expense of other countries, so
long as he left them alone. The ideal which William III had set before
him was the exact reverse of this; and, unfortunately for his own
country, throughout his life he often subordinated its particular
interests to the wider European interests which occupied his attention.

The work of building up afresh a coalition to withstand the ever-growing
menace of the formidable French power could scarcely have been more
unpromising than it now appeared. Spain was utterly exhausted and
feeble. Brandenburg and Denmark had been alienated by the States
concluding a separate peace at Nijmwegen and leaving them in the lurch.
The attention of the emperor was fully occupied in defending Hungary and
Vienna itself against the Turks. England under Charles II was
untrustworthy and vacillating, almost a negligible quantity. A visit
made by William to London convinced him that nothing was at present to
be hoped for from that quarter. At the same time the very able French
ambassador at the Hague, D'Avaux, did his utmost to foment the divisions
and factions in the Provinces. He always insisted that he was accredited
to the States-General and not to the Prince of Orange, and carried on
correspondence and intrigues with the party in Amsterdam opposed to
the stadholder's anti-French policy. The cumbrous and complicated system
of government enabled him thus to do much to thwart the prince and to
throw obstacles in his way. The curious thing is, that William was so
intent on his larger projects that he was content to use the powers he
had without making any serious attempt, as he might have done, to make
the machine of government more workable by reforms in the direction of
centralisation. Immersed in foreign affairs, he left the internal
administration in the hands of subordinates chosen rather for their
subservience than for their ability and probity; and against several of
them, notably against his relative Odijk, serious charges were made.
Odijk, representing the prince as first noble in Zeeland, had a large
patronage; and he shamelessly enriched himself by his venal traffic in
the disposal of offices without a word of rebuke from William, in whose