the parliament. It was long before the envoy of the English
commonwealth could obtain an audience of the states general. The
murderers of Dorislaus were not pursued with such vigor as the
parliament expected. And much regard had been paid to the king, and many
good offices performed to him, both by the public, and by men of all
ranks, in the United Provinces.

After the death of William, prince of Orange,[****] which was
attended with the depression of his party and the triumph of the Dutch
republicans, the parliament thought that the time was now favorable for
cementing a closer confederacy with the states.

* Whitlocke, p. 496. Heathe's Chronicle, p. 307.

** See note Y, at the end of the volume.

*** 1647.

**** October 17, 1650.

St. John, chief justice, who was sent over to the Hague, had entertained
the idea of forming a kind of coalition between the two republics, which
would have rendered their interests totally inseparable; but fearing
that so extraordinary a project would not be relished, he contented
himself with dropping some hints of it, and openly went no further than
to propose a strict defensive alliance between England and the United
Provinces, such as has now, for near seventy years taken place between
these friendly powers.[*] But the states, who were unwilling to form a
nearer confederacy with a government whose measures were so obnoxious,
and whose situation seemed so precarious, offered only to renew the
former alliances with England. And the haughty St. John, disgusted with
this disappointment, as well as incensed at many affronts which had been
offered him with impunity by the retainers of the Palatine and Orange
families, and indeed by the populace in general, returned into England,
and endeavored to foment a quarrel between the republics.

The movement of great states are often directed by as slender springs as
those of individuals. Though war with so considerable a naval power as
the Dutch, who were in peace with all their other neighbors, might seem
dangerous to the yet unsettled commonwealth, there were several motives
which at this time induced the English parliament to embrace hostile
measures. Many of the members thought, that a foreign war would serve
as a pretence for continuing the same parliament, and delaying the
new model of a representative, with which the nation had so long
been flattered. Others hoped, that the war would furnish a reason for
maintainin