at
body now came to sit permanently at the Hague. The number of its members,
deputies from the seven provinces-envoys from those seven immortal and
soulless sovereigns--was not large. The extraordinary assembly held at
Bergen-op-Zoom for confirmation of the truce was estimated by,
Bentivoglio at eight hundred. Bentivoglio, who was on the spot, being
then nuncius at Brussels, ought to have been able to count them, yet it
is very certain that the number was grossly exaggerated.

At any rate the usual assembly at the Hague rarely amounted to one
hundred members. The presidency was changed once a week, the envoy of
each province taking his turn as chairman.

Olden-Barneveld, as member for Holland, was always present in the diet.
As Advocate-General of the leading province, and keeper of its great
seal, more especially as possessor of the governing intellect of the
whole commonwealth, he led the administration of Holland, and as the
estates of Holland contributed more than half of the whole budget of the
confederacy, it was a natural consequence of the actual supremacy of that
province, and of the vast legal hand political experience of the
Advocate, that Holland should, govern the confederacy, and that Barneveld
should govern Holland.

The States-General remained virtually supreme, receiving envoys from all
the great powers, sending abroad their diplomatic representatives, to
whom the title and rank of ambassador was freely accorded, and dealing in
a decorous and dignified way with all European affairs. The ability of
the republican statesmen was as fully recognised all over the earth, as
was the genius of their generals and great naval commanders.

The People did not exist; but this was merely because, in theory, the
People had not been invented. It was exactly because there was a
People--an energetic and intelligent People--that the republic was
possible.

No scheme had yet been devised for laying down in primary assemblies a
fundamental national law, for distributing the various functions of
governmental power among selected servants, for appointing
representatives according to population or property, and for holding all
trustees responsible at reasonable intervals to the nation itself.

Thus government was involved, fold within fold, in successive and
concentric municipal layers. The States-General were the outer husk, of
which the separate town-council was the kernel or bulb. Yet the number of
these executive an