the matter of Conrad
Vorstius, to spend reams of diplomatic correspondence, to dictate whole
volumes for orations brimming over with theological wrath, for the
edification of the States-General, against that doctor of divinity. But
what were the special interests of his son-in-law, what the danger to all
the other Protestant electors and kings, princes and republics, what the
imperilled condition of the United Provinces, and, by necessary
consequence, the storm gathering over his own throne, what the whole fate
of Protestantism, from Friesland to Hungary, threatened by the
insatiable, all-devouring might of the double house of Austria, the
ancient church, and the Papistical League, what were hundred thousands of
men marching towards Bohemia, the Netherlands, and the duchies, with the
drum beating for mercenary recruits in half the villages of Spain, Italy,
and Catholic Germany, compared with the danger to Christendom from an
Arminian clergyman being appointed to the theological professorship at
Leyden?

The world was in a blaze, kings and princes were arming, and all the time
that the monarch of the powerful, adventurous, and heroic people of Great
Britain could spare from slobbering over his minions, and wasting the
treasures of the realm to supply their insatiate greed, was devoted to
polemical divinity, in which he displayed his learning, indeed, but
changed his positions and contradicted himself day by day. The magnitude
of this wonderful sovereign's littleness oppresses the imagination.

Moreover, should he listen to the adjurations of the States and his
fellow religionists, should he allow himself to be impressed by the
eloquence of Barneveld and take a manly and royal decision in the great
emergency, it would be indispensable for him to come before that odious
body, the Parliament of Great Britain, and ask for money. It would be
perhaps necessary for him to take them into his confidence, to degrade
himself by speaking to them of the national affairs. They might not be
satisfied with the honour of voting the supplies at his demand, but were
capable of asking questions as to their appropriation. On the whole it
was more king-like and statesman-like to remain quiet, and give advice.
Of that, although always a spendthrift, he had an inexhaustible supply.

Barneveld had just hopes from the Commons of Great Britain, if the King
could be brought to appeal to Parliament. Once more he sounded the bugle
of alarm. "Day by