ty of Austria and the League--Barneveld
strives to obtain Help from England--Neuburg departs for Germany--
Barneveld the Prime Minister of Protestantism--Ernest Mansfield
takes service under Charles Emmanuel--Count John of Nassau goes to
Savoy--Slippery Conduct of King James in regard to the New Treaty
proposed--Barneveld's Influence greater in France than in England--
Sequestration feared--The Elector of Brandenburg cited to appear
before the Emperor at Prague--Murder of John van Wely--Uytenbogaert
incurs Maurice's Displeasure--Marriage of the King of France with
Anne of Austria--Conference between King James and Caron concerning
Piracy, Cloth Trade and Treaty of Xanten--Barneveld's Survey of the
Condition of Europe--His Efforts to avert the impending general War.

I have thus purposely sketched the leading features of a couple of
momentous, although not eventful, years--so far as the foreign policy of
the Republic is concerned--in order that the reader may better understand
the bearings and the value of the Advocate's actions and writings at that
period. This work aims at being a political study. I would attempt to
exemplify the influence of individual humours and passions--some of them
among the highest and others certainly the basest that agitate
humanity-upon the march of great events, upon general historical results
at certain epochs, and upon the destiny of eminent personages. It may
also be not uninteresting to venture a glance into the internal structure
and workings of a republican and federal system of government, then for
the first time reproduced almost spontaneously upon an extended scale.

Perhaps the revelation of some of its defects, in spite of the faculty
and vitality struggling against them, may not be without value for our
own country and epoch. The system of Switzerland was too limited and
homely, that of Venice too purely oligarchical, to have much moral for us
now, or to render a study of their pathological phenomena especially
instructive. The lessons taught us by the history of the Netherland
confederacy may have more permanent meaning.

Moreover, the character of a very considerable statesman at an
all-important epoch, and in a position of vast responsibility, is always
an historical possession of value to mankind. That of him who furnishes
the chief theme for these pages has been either overlooked and neglected
or perhaps misunderstood by posterity. History h