The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, 1613-15 | Page 9

done far less than justice to a statesman and
sage who wielded a vast influence at a most critical period in the fate of
Christendom, and uniformly wielded it to promote the cause of
temperate human liberty, both political and religious. Viewed by the
light of two centuries and a half of additional experience, he may
appear to have made mistakes, but none that were necessarily
disastrous or even mischievous. Compared with the prevailing idea of
the age in which he lived, his schemes of polity seem to dilate into
large dimensions, his sentiments of religious freedom, however limited
to our modern ideas, mark an epoch in human progress, and in regard to
the general commonwealth of Christendom, of which he was so leading
a citizen, the part he played was a lofty one. No man certainly

understood the tendency of his age more exactly, took a broader and
more comprehensive view than he did of the policy necessary to
preserve the largest portion of the results of the past three-quarters of a
century, or had pondered the relative value of great conflicting forces
more skilfully. Had his counsels been always followed, had illustrious
birth placed him virtually upon a throne, as was the case with William
the Silent, and thus allowed him occasionally to carry out the designs
of a great mind with almost despotic authority, it might have been
better for the world. But in that age it was royal blood alone that could
command unflinching obedience without exciting personal rivalry. Men
quailed before his majestic intellect, but hated him for the power which
was its necessary result. They already felt a stupid delight in cavilling
at his pedigree. To dispute his claim to a place among the ancient
nobility to which he was an honour was to revenge themselves for the
rank he unquestionably possessed side by side in all but birth with the
kings and rulers of the world. Whether envy and jealousy be vices more
incident to the republican form of government than to other political
systems may be an open question. But it is no question whatever that
Barneveld's every footstep from this period forward was dogged by
envy as patient as it was devouring. Jealousy stuck to him like his
shadow. We have examined the relations which existed between
Winwood and himself; we have seen that ambassador, now secretary of
state for James, never weary in denouncing the Advocate's haughtiness
and grim resolution to govern the country according to its laws rather
than at the dictate of a foreign sovereign, and in flinging forth
malicious insinuations in regard to his relations to Spain. The man
whose every hour was devoted in spite of a thousand obstacles strewn
by stupidity, treachery, and apathy, as well as by envy, hatred, and
bigotry--to the organizing of a grand and universal league of
Protestantism against Spain, and to rolling up with strenuous and
sometimes despairing arms a dead mountain weight, ever ready to fall
back upon and crush him, was accused in dark and mysterious whispers,
soon to grow louder and bolder, of a treacherous inclination for Spain.
There is nothing less surprising nor more sickening for those who
observe public life, and wish to retain faith in the human species, than
the almost infinite power of the meanest of passions.

The Advocate was obliged at the very outset of Langerac's mission to
France to give him a warning on this subject.
"Should her Majesty make kindly mention of me," he said, "you will
say nothing of it in your despatches as you did in your last, although I
am sure with the best intentions. It profits me not, and many take
umbrage at it; wherefore it is wise to forbear."
But this was a trifle. By and by there would be many to take umbrage at
every whisper in his favour, whether from crowned heads or from the
simplest in the social scale. Meantime he instructed the Ambassador,
without paying heed to personal compliments to his chief, to do his best
to keep the French government out of the hands of Spain, and with that
object in view to smooth over the differences between the two great
parties in the kingdom, and to gain the confidence, if possible, of
Conde and Nevers and Bouillon, while never failing in straightforward
respect and loyal friendship to the Queen-Regent and her ministers, as
the legitimate heads of the government.
From England a new ambassador was soon to take the place of
Winwood. Sir Dudley Carleton was a diplomatist of respectable
abilities, and well trained to business and routine. Perhaps on the whole
there was none other, in that epoch of official mediocrity, more
competent than he to fill what was then certainly the most important of
foreign posts. His course of