History of the United Netherlands, 1603-04 | Page 4

Denmark, a Papist at heart, whose private
boudoir was filled with pictures and images of the Madonna and the
saints, had already received one hundred thousand dollars in solid cash
from the Spanish court, besides much jewelry, and other valuable
things. To negotiate with Government in England was to bribe, even as
at Paris or Madrid. Gold was the only passkey to justice, to preferment,
or to power.
Yet the foreign subsidies to the English court were, after all, of but
little avail at that epoch. No man had influence but Cecil, and he was
too proud, too rich, too powerful to be bribed. Alone with clean fingers
among courtiers and ministers, he had, however, accumulated a larger
fortune than any. His annual income was estimated at two hundred
thousand crowns, and he had a vast floating capital, always well
employed. Among other investments, he had placed half a million on
interest in Holland,' and it was to be expected, therefore, that he should
favour the cause of the republic, rebellious and upstart though it were.
The pigmy, as the late queen had been fond of nicknaming him, was
the only giant in the Government. Those crooked shoulders held up,
without flinching, the whole burden of the State. Pale, handsome,
anxious, suffering, and intellectual of visage, with his indomitable spirit,
ready eloquence, and nervous energy, he easily asserted supremacy
over all the intriguers, foreign and domestic, the stipendiariea, the
generals, the admirals, the politicians, at court, as well as over the
Scotch Solomon who sat on the throne.
But most certainly, it was for the public good of Britain, that Europe
should be pacified. It is very true that the piratical interest would suffer,
and this was a very considerable and influential branch of business. So
long as war existed anywhere, the corsairs of England sailed with the
utmost effrontery from English ports, to prey upon the commerce of
friend and foe alike. After a career of successful plunder, it was not
difficult for the rovers to return to their native land, and, with the
proceeds of their industry, to buy themselves positions of importance,
both social and political. It was not the custom to consider too

curiously the source of the wealth. If it was sufficient to dazzle the eyes
of the vulgar, it was pretty certain to prove the respectability of the
owner.
It was in vain that the envoys of the Dutch and Venetian republics
sought redress for the enormous damage inflicted on their commerce by
English pirates, and invoked the protection of public law. It was always
easy for learned juris-consuls to prove such depredations to be
consistent with international usage and with sound morality. Even at
that period, although England was in population and in wealth so
insignificant, it possessed a lofty, insular contempt for the opinions and
the doctrines of other nations, and expected, with perfect calmness, that
her own principles should be not only admitted, but spontaneously
adored.
Yet the piratical interest was no longer the controlling one. That city on
the Thames, which already numbered more than three hundred
thousand inhabitants, had discovered that more wealth was to be
accumulated by her bustling shopkeepers in the paths of legitimate
industry than by a horde of rovers over the seas, however adventurous
and however protected by Government.
As for France, she was already defending herself against piracy by
what at the period seemed a masterpiece of internal improvement. The
Seine, the Loire, and the Rhone were soon to be united in one chain of
communication. Thus merchandise might be water-borne from the
channel to the Mediterranean, without risking the five or six months'
voyage by sea then required from Havre to Marseilles, and exposure
along the whole coast to attack from the corsairs of England Spain and
Barbary.
The envoys of the States-General had a brief audience of the new
sovereign, in which little more than phrases of compliment were
pronounced.
"We are here," said Barneveld, "between grief and joy. We have lost
her whose benefits to us we can never describe in words, but we have
found a successor who is heir not only to her kingdom but to all her
virtues." And with this exordium the great Advocate plunged at once
into the depths of his subject, so far as was possible in an address of
ceremony. He besought the king not to permit Spain, standing on the
neck of the provinces, to grasp from that elevation at other empires. He

reminded James of his duty to save those of his own religion from the
clutch of a sanguinary superstition, to drive away those lurking
satellites of the Roman pontiff who considered Britain their lawful prey.
He implored him to complete the work so worthily begun by Elizabeth.
If all those bound by