For that country abounding with fulphur beyond any other perhaps in the known world, and the earth being likewife impregnated with various other minerals in a prodi. gious degree, the exhalations caufed by thefe vehement conflagrations was in the highest degree noxious to every thing poffeffing animal or vegetable life. Nor was this all; but the ashes and cinders, being conveyed to prodigious distances by the winds, and being little lefs noxious than the vapours, deftroyed or contaminated the herbage wherever they fell. And the country producing but little corn, but affording a profufion of herbage, the people in the inland parts depended almost entirely upon the produce of their numerous flocks and herds for fuftenance. But this refource was now almost entirely cut off, for fuch of the cattle as efcaped being poisoned or ftarved during the fummer, either perished through the want of hay in the enfuing long winter, or died of the contagious diftempers caufed by noxious aliment and effluvia. On the other hand, fifh, whether fresh or dry, formed a principal part of the food of the people near the coafts, befides a large fupply for the inland parts, and fufficient to barter for corn and other foreign neceffaries. But as misfortunes feldom come fingle, the fisheries failed of their bounty in a degree never before known; and the length and severity of the enfuing winter was unexampled even under their polar skies.

It was estimated that five-fixths of the cattle, and three-fourths of the fheep, in the whole island perished; and, as many parts were out of the reach of the conflagrations, or of

their apparent effects, it may from thence be judged how complete the deftruction was within their immediate influence. The people adjacent to the trading towns on the coafts were relieved in fome degree from the preffure of the general calamity, through the bounty which Denmark could ill afford to bestow, under the great and general penury which prevailed at home, and the famine which at the fame time was raging in Norway. But thofe in the interior parts were cut off from all help, for their horfes having perifhed, they were deprived of the means of drawing fupplies from the coafts, if they had even poffeffed thofe of purchafing them. Thus their condition was deplorable in ' the extreme. Befides the loffes occafioned by famine and diftempers, great numbers have fince abandoned thofe houfes and farms which their ancestors had poffeffed from time immemorial, through the impoffibility of replacing their ftocks of cattle. It would feem that this stroke would in a great measure prove conclufive with refpect to the future destiny of this very unfortunate ifland; at leaft fo far as relates to its interior culture and habitation. It had in no degree recovered the deftruction of the 14th century. Before that fatal period, it is faid to have been very populous, and was held in no fmall eftimation by the nations of the North on account of its learning. The people are likewife faid to have poffeffed at that time a portion of happiness beyond what could have been expected from their climate and fituation; but to which the innocency of their paftoral lives feemed to afford no fmall claim.

СНАР.

TH

HE fpirit raifed in Holland against the house of Orange by the French or republican party, which in this respect were the fame, was too violent to be laid by conceffion. The refignation of the duke Lewis of Brunswick, and his total dereliction of the country, inftead of contributing, as was hoped, to allay the ferment, by removing the fuppofed object of uneafinefs and jealoufy, produced effects directly contrary. This intended measure of conciliation, being confidered merely as the effect of irrefolution and weakness, was regarded and treated accordingly. It ferved to fink the political character of the stadtholder still lower in the ef. timation of the republican party; and as it rendered them more fenfible of their power, to extend their views, and make them more ardent and confident in the profecution of their defigns; while that prince, being left expofed, without any intervening medium, to the ftorm, became perfonally fubject to their obloquy and invective, and the immediate object of all their attacks.

The fucceeding imminent danger from without to which the state was expofed by the conteft with the emperor, it was well to be prefumed would in this inftance (as foreign danger generally does in fimilar cafes) have proved the means of healing internal diffenfion, and of reftoring the executive power to its due fhare of weight and confideration. In defiance of all fpeculation, and experience, this circumftance, through fome peculiar infelicity, produced effects the direct reverfe of thefe which were to be expected. The immediate danger, indeed, produced fome temporary ceflation

of the violence against the stadtholder; but its confequences were exceedingly detrimental to his interefts, and ferved no lefs to exalt and to ftrengthen his adverfaries both in power and in number. For the terrors of a moft perilous invafion fucceeding clofely upon the lofs of the duke of Brunfwick's military experience and ability, the immediate prefervation of the country feemed to depend upon the procuring of a commander well verfed in war, to fupply his place. This circumftance threw the game entirely into the hands of the adverfe faction, and procured them an opportunity which of all others they most wifhed, and had leaft expected, that of placing the military force of the republic in the hands of a French general.

The military abilities of the marfhal de Maillebois, who was appointed to this important command, were too well known to admit of any objection against him on that account; and that peculiar fpirit of intrigue, and turbulence of difpofition, which had drawn fo long a courfe of degradation and fuffering upon him through a great part of his life, were probably not confidered as detracting from his eligibility for this fervice. His oftenfible command, being fubordinate to that of the stadtholder as captain general, and only fupplying the place of the duke of Brunswick, feemed to afford no room for uneafinefs or jealoufy; but the party who brought him in, confidered themfelves as having far advanced by this measure towards attaining the fummit of their wishes. Whatever the fortune of the war might be, they were well aware that they

had

had obtained a general, who from his natural character, national policy, and other concurrent circumftances, would not fail to go all the lengths they could wish with them upon the return of peace; and they would deem it their own fault, if they did not fortify his power fo ftrongly in the army, as to render him by degrees independent of the captain general.

The conclufion of the conteft with the emperor, and the circumftances with which it was accompanied, were ftill more favourable to the views of that party than its commencement or progrefs. The diftinguished part which the court of Verfailles had taken in procuring if not forcing that accommodation, was fo fignal an obligation and fervice, the value being estimated by the greatnefs of the apprehenfion, as well as of the danger which it removed, that no limits could be prescribed to the gratitude which it excited in all or. ders, parties, and degrees of the people. This of courfe threw into the hands of France (independent of the vast influence which the derived from the late war) nearly an unbounded sway, not only in the collective councils of the state, but in its numberless component parts, where every province was an 'independent fovereign, and every city à diftin&t republic.

Much, however, would have been ftill wanting to confirm the ftrength, and to complete the views of the republican party, if it had not been for that fingular treaty of alliance between Holland and France, which accompanied, or feemed rather to grow out of the conteft with the emperor. That alliance, which feemed rather founded upon the principle of confolidating two naVOL. XXVIII.

tions into one, under the fame common fovereign, than upon ideas of parity, mutual convenience and fecurity, between independent ftates, endued France with fuch powers, and afforded her fuch rights or pretences for intermeddling in the internal as well as external affairs of the republic, that the most inconfiderable party muft have become dominant under her countenance; while the ftadtholder, without any direct invation of his rights, mult have dwindled into a cypher, and the leffer country, in the ufual courfe of things, muft, without fome extraordinary interruption, have gradually become, either actually or virtually, a province to the greater.

It may be neceflary here to premife, fomewhat more fully than we have heretofore done, what the cau-> fes were of that coincidence of views which fubfifted between France and the antiftadtholderian faction in Holland.

For this purpose it will be fufficient barely to observe, upon a subject generally known, that William the firft of Orange, with the princes his brothers, had laid and cemented with their blood the foundations of that republic. The cruel and treacherous affaffination of the former happened juft at the time when the flates of the country were upon the point of establishing in his perfon, and rendering hereditary in his family, fuch a limited fovereignty, as had been held by their ancient counts, and was afterwards transfer red by marriage to the princes of the houfe of Burgundy. The nonage of his fon, and fucceffor in the ftadt holdership, the celebrated prince Maurice, prevented his being able to profit of the occafion while it lafted; and it could never be recovered. It is [F]

well

well known that in the long and arduous wars which involved the greatest part of his life, and in which he became the first captain of the age, he not only established the independence of the republic, but carried its power and fplendour to a height which aftonished all the world.

It was natural that Maurice and his fucceffors fhould look back with regret to that fovereignty, which had been fo nearly obtained, and fo unfortunately miffed in the first inftance; and that they fhould endeavour to enlarge their official powers as ftadtholders to the utmost extent. Nor was it lefs natural that the potent citizens, who had grown up, along with the fortune of the republic, to great power and immenfe wealth, fhould not only oppose their designs, but that they fhould endeavour by all means to circumfcribe a power, which they confidered as becoming dangerous to public liberty, and inimical to the principles of the conftitution. The bitterness of fuch a conteft foon effaced all memory of the fervices which the ftate had received from the Orange family, in the minds of those who had been deeply engaged in the oppofition, or who had fuffered from the part which they had taken. Great generals feemed no longer neceffary in a feafon of peace and profperity, nor did it follow, be caufe it had hitherto so proved, that every prince was to be a great general. The party accordingly extended their views to the total abolition of the office of ftadtholder, and to a diftribution of its various powers amongst their own leaders.

Such was the origin and foundasion of that celebrated republican party, which holds fo fplendid a

are in the hiftory of Holland;

which has produced men of the firft eminence for patriotism and ability; and which, under various denominations, has fubfifted from the days of prince Maurice and Barnaveldt to the present time.

It has been the constant and the obvious policy of France, to maintain her influence in the councils of Holland, and, at the fame time, to restrain or weaken as much as poffible the power and political activity of the republic. The princes of the house of Orange were generally inimical to the views of France, and linked by blood and alliance with powers who acted upon principles diametrically oppofite to her politics. This ftate of things occafioned a standing enmity on her fide against the houfe of Orange; and their views entirely coinciding in that refpect, naturally produced an

intimate connection between her and the republican party.

This policy was accordingly steadily purfued, and her intereft with that powerful party diligently cultivated by France, excepting only in that fingle inftance, when the pride and vanity of Louis XIV, co-operating with his immenfe power, led him to difdain all motives of prudence, and all bonds of political amity, and impelled him to the wanton attack which he made upon the united provinces in the year 1672. The party of which we treat, under the auspices of the celebrated De Witt, was then in the zenith of its power, having fucceeded in totally abolishing the ftadtholderate, and having for feveral years conducted the affairs of the republic with uncommon abilities, fplendour, and fuccefs: but that unexpected and violent irruption occafioned its total degradation

and