intention was to admit them, provided they
obeyed the articles of union, and conducted themselves as good patriots;
it being intended that no province or city should interfere with another
in the matter of divine service. Disputes between two provinces were to
be decided by the others, or--in case the generality were concerned--by
the provisions of the ninth article.

The confederates were to assemble at Utrecht whenever summoned by those
commissioned for that purpose. A majority of votes was to decide on
matters then brought before them, even in case of the absence of some
members of the confederacy, who might, however, send written proxies.
Additions or amendments to these articles could only be made by unanimous
consent. The articles were to be signed by the stadholders, magistrates,
and principal officers of each province and city, and by all the
train-bands, fraternities, and sodalities which might exist in the cities
or villages of the union.

Such were the simple provisions of that instrument which became the
foundation of the powerful Commonwealth of the United Netherlands. On the
day when it was concluded, there were present deputies from five
provinces only. Count John of Nassau signed first, as stadholder of
Gelderland and Zutfen. His signature was followed by those of four
deputies from that double province; and the envoys of Holland, Zealand,
Utrecht and the Frisian provinces, then signed the document.

The Prince himself, although in reality the principal director of the
movement, delayed appending his signature until May the 3rd, 1579. Herein
he was actuated by the reasons already stated, and by the hope which he
still entertained that a wider union might be established, with Matthias
for its nominal chief. His enemies, as usual, attributed this patriotic
delay to baser motives. They accused him of a desire to assume the
governor-generalship himself, to the exclusion of the Archduke--an
insinuation which the states of Holland took occasion formally to
denounce as a calumny. For those who have studied the character and
history of the man, a defence against such slander is superfluous.
Matthias was but the shadow, Orange the substance. The Archduke had been
accepted only to obviate the evil effects of a political intrigue, and
with the express condition that the Prince should be his
lieutenant-general in name, his master in fact. Directly after his
departure in the following year, the Prince's authority,