sture
of defence which was requisite during the truce with Spain: and that the
Spaniards were perpetually insisting with the king on the restitution of
these towns, as belonging to their crown; and no cordial alliance could
ever be made with that nation, while they remained in the hands of the
English.[**] These reasons, together with his urgent wants, induced the
king to accept of Caron's offer; and he evacuated the cautionary towns,
which held the states in a degree of subjection, and which an ambitious
and enterprising prince would have regarded as his most valuable
possessions. This is the date of the full liberty of the Dutch
commonwealth.

* An annuity of fourteen thousand pounds during fifteen
years, money being at ten per cent., is worth, on
computation, only one hundred and six thousand five hundred
pounds; whereas the king received two hundred and fifty
thousand pounds. Yet the bargain was good for the Dutch, as
well as the king; because they were both of them freed from
the maintenance of useless garrisons.

** Rushworth, vol. i. p. 3.

{1617.} When the crown of England devolved on James, it might have been
foreseen by the Scottish nation, that the independence of their kingdom,
the object for which their ancestors had shed so much blood, would now
be lost; and that, if both states persevered in maintaining separate
laws and parliaments, the weaker would more sensibly feel the
subjection, than if it had been totally subdued by force of arms.
But these views did not generally occur. The glory of having given a
sovereign to their powerful enemy, the advantages of present peace and
tranquillity, the riches acquired from the munificence of their master;
these considerations secured their dutiful obedience to a prince who
daily gave such sensible proofs of his friendship and partiality towards
them. Never had the authority of any king who resided among them, been
so firmly established as was that of James, even when absent; and as
the administration had been hitherto conducted with great order and
tranquillity, there had happened no occurrence to draw thither our
attention. But this summer the king was resolved to pay a visit to
his native country, in order to renew his ancient friendships and
connections, and to introduce that change of ecclesiastical discipline
and government on which he was extremely intent. The three chief points
of this kind, which James proposed to