ssembly, deliberated with the deputies of the cities.
The cities had mainly one form of government--a college of counsellors;
or wise men, 40, 32, 28, or 24 in number, of the most respectable out of
the whole community. They were chosen for life, and vacancies were
supplied by the colleges themselves out of the mass of citizens. These
colleges alone governed the city, and that which had been ordained by
them was to be obeyed by all the inhabitants--a system against which
there had never been any rebellion. The colleges again, united with those
of the nobles, represented the whole state, the whole body of the
population; and no form of government could be imagined, they said, that
could resolve, with a more thorough knowledge of the necessities of the
country, or that could execute its resolves with more unity of purpose
and decisive authority. To bring the colleges into an assembly could only
be done by means of deputies. These deputies, chosen by their colleges,
and properly instructed, were sent to the place of meeting. During the
war they had always been commissioned to resolve in common on matters
regarding the liberty of the land. These deputies, thus assembled,
represented, by commission, the States; but they are not, in their own
persons, the States; and no one of them had any such pretension. "The
people of this country," said the States, "have an aversion to all
ambition; and in these disastrous times, wherein nothing but trouble and
odium is to be gathered by public employment, these commissions are
accounted 'munera necessaria'. . . . This form of government has, by
God's favour, protected Holland and Zeeland, during this war, against a
powerful foe, without lose of territory, without any popular outbreak,
without military mutiny, because all business has been transacted with
open doors; and because the very smallest towns are all represented, and
vote in the assembly."

In brief, the constitution of the United Provinces was a matter of fact.
It was there in good working order, and had, for a generation of mankind,
and throughout a tremendous war, done good service. Judged by the
principles of reason and justice, it was in the main a wholesome
constitution, securing the independence and welfare of the state, and the
liberty and property of the individual, as well certainly as did any
polity then existing in the world. It seemed more hopeful to abide by it
yet a little longer than to adopt the throat-cutting sy