xperienced statesmen who had served under William III and inherited his
traditions. Heinsius, the wise and prudent council-pensionary, continued
in office until his death cm August 3, 1720, when he was succeeded by
Isaac van Hoornbeck, pensionary of Rotterdam. Hoornbeck was not a man of
great parts, but he was sound and safe and he had at his side Simon
van Slingelandt, secretary of the Council of State since 1690, and
others whose experience in public office dated from the preceding
century. In their hands the external policy of the Republic, conducted
with no lack of skill, was of necessity non-interventionist. In internal
matters they could effect little. The finances after the war were in an
almost hopeless condition, and again and again the State was threatened
with bankruptcy. To make things worse an epidemic of wild speculation
spread far and wide during the period 1716-1720 in the bubble companies,
the Mississippi Company and the South Sea Company, associated with the
name of Edward Law, which proved so ruinous to many in England and
France, as well as in Holland. In 1716 such was the miserable condition
of the country that the Estates of Overyssel, under the leadership of
Count van Rechteren, proposed the summoning of a Great Assembly on the
model of that of 1651 to consider the whole question of government and
finance. The proposal was ultimately accepted, and the Assembly met at
the Hague on November 28. After nine months of ineffectual debate and
wrangling it finally came to an end on September 14, 1717, without
effecting anything, leaving all who had the best interests of the State
at heart in despair.

In the years immediately succeeding the Peace of Utrecht difficulties
arose with Charles XII of Sweden; whose privateers had been seizing
Dutch and English merchantmen in the Baltic. Under De Witt or William
III the fleet of the Republic would speedily have brought the Swedish
king to reason. But now other counsels prevailed. Dutch squadrons sailed
into the Baltic with instructions to convoy the merchant vessels, but to
avoid hostilities. With some difficulty this purpose was achieved; and
the death of Charles at the siege of Frederikshald brought all danger of
war to an end. And yet in the very interests of trade it would have been
good policy for the States to act strongly in this matter of Swedish
piracy in the Baltic. Russia was the rising power in those regions. The
Dutch had really nothing to fear from