511 



BARNEVELDT, JOHAN VAN OLDEN". 



BARNEY, JOSHUA. 



61Z 



to invest him with almost supreme authority. His son, a bold and 

 ambitious prince, of great military capacity, bred up in camps and in 

 habits of command, succeeded to the same authority, but it soon 

 became manifest that, unless the ascendancy of the laws were firmly 

 established, the great struggle in which the nation had been so long 

 engaged against Spain would end in a mere change of masters. Hence 

 the nation was divided into two great opposing parties the war and 

 the peace party ; the contest in fact of the civil power with the mili- 

 tary between Maurice the Stadtholder and Coinmander-in-Chief, and 

 Barneveldt the Grand Pensionary. Unfortunately for the issue of this 

 struggle, fanaticism, under the name of religion, became an element 

 of the contest. All the wars and intestine broils indeed of the 16th 

 century were more or less mixed up with sectarian controversy. 

 Though the progress of the Reformation led to measures favourable 

 to civil liberty, religious liberty was the growth of institutions and 

 habits of thought which found no favour in the eyes of the leaders 

 of the secession from the Church of Rome, many of whom, both in 

 theory and practice, were far from tolerant. This was particularly 

 the case in those countries (the Netherlands for example) in which 

 the change in religion was effected in opposition to the civil magis- 

 trate. Barneveldt had early braved the prejudices of the Calvinistic 

 clergy and the multitude, by his efforts to procure liberty of con- 

 science throughout the provinces, and by his open protection of 

 Arminiu>, in the controversy between that divine and his antagonist 

 Gomar. Prince Maurice, on the other hand, lent his aid to the 

 Gomarists, knowing that they were the more numerous and powerful 

 party, counting them by their voices in the States-General, though 

 there is every reason to suppose that he was in belief an Arminian. 



It is not necessary to particularise the steps by which Maurice of 

 Nassau, after a struggle of ten years, triumphed over Barneveldt and 

 tho States, and usurped the sovereign power. The army was ardently 

 devoted to him, and the ignorance of the populace, and the fierce 

 intolerance of the Calvinistic preachers, powerfully ministered to his 

 ambition. As the truce of twelve years was mainly owing to the 

 firmness and sagacity of Barneveldt, he was denounced by Maurice's 

 party as one who had sold himself and country to Spain and popery ; 

 and as he had openly espoused the doctrines of Arminius, he was 

 denounced by the Calvinist preachers as leagued with the Catholic 

 monarch in Ms designs against the Protestant worship. Still, however, 

 the weight of his character, his eloquence, and the undeniable benefits 

 which followed from his administration, enabled him to keep his 

 ground against all the attacks and stratagems of his adversaries. In 

 1616 Barneveldt's influence was increased by his having obtained from 

 Jamea I. the restoration of the Cautionary Towns, which had been 

 given up to Elizabeth as securities for the money which she had lent 

 the States by the treaty of 1585. The debt due at the time by the 

 United Provinces to England amounted to 8,000,000 florins; but 

 Barneveldt, by adroitly taking advantage of James's necessities and 

 avarice, had the debt cancelled by a prompt payment of about one- 

 third of the amount. 



It was about this time that Prince Maurice endeavoured to win the 

 consent of Barneveldt to his assuming the sovereignty of the republic. 

 For this purpose he sent his step-mother, the celebrated Louisa de 

 Coligny, to sound him as to his feelings ; but that princess, instead of 

 seducing Barneveldt from his duty to his country, was so convinced 

 by his arguments of the danger of such a measure, that she laboured 

 to divert Maurice from his purpose. Thus baffled and exposed, he 

 nought to remove Barneveldt, the great obstacle to his ambition. 



The question upon which the great struggle between Barneveldt 

 and the Stadtholder finally turned was the calling a national synod, 

 to which tho point at issue between the Arminians and the Gomarites 

 should be referred. Barneveldt was well aware of the object which 

 those who clamoured for this assembly had in view ; he opposed it 

 with all his influence, as a project fraught with danger to internal 

 peace and the interests of true religion ; and would probably have 

 succeeded in defeating it altogether, but for the intrigues of Carleton, 

 the English ambassador, acting by orders of James 1., who had been 

 grievously offended by Barneveldt affording protection to Vorstius, 

 one of James's literary antagonists. The point at issue between 

 Barneveldt and his opponents was simply whether any other form of 

 religion should be tolerated in the states save that of the Church of 

 Geneva. Barneveldt contended, that HS the War of Independence 

 did not originate in religion, but in hostility to the political oppression 

 of Spain, in which even the Catholics were as eager as the Protestant 

 inhabitants, each state should be at liberty to choose its own form of 

 worship. He appealed to the declarations and conduct of William, 

 the late Stadtholder, who, to the last, had openly tolerated all forms 

 of worship, not excluding the Catholic. His opponents, on the other 

 lianil, maintained that, by tho act of union of the revolted provinces, 

 the Calvinistic religion was declared to bo the national religion of the 

 new state. Barneveldt however induced the States of Holland and 

 Utrecht to act upon his views, and moreover to issue a proclamation, 

 in which b veto over the appointment of the clergy was asserted by 

 the civil magistrate. Great disturbances followed this declaration in 

 some of the states : Barneveldt called upon Maurice, as the commander 

 of the military force, to aid the civil authorities in suppressing them ; 

 but Maurice encouraged the confusion, and the Arminians were every- 

 where assaulted and persecuted. 



In this embarrassment Barneveldt formed a militia, composed of 

 the citizens, in Arnhem, Leyden, and Utrecht : this body was called 

 by the Dutch name of Waartgelders. Maurice immediately marched 

 his army against the militia, disarmed them, took possession of the 

 Arminian towns, deposed the Arminiau magistrates, and openly 

 assumed absolute authority. The States-General, overawed by his 

 boldness, and jealous of the fame and iufluence of Barneveldt, ratified 

 all his proceedings, and at his bidding took decisive steps towards 

 summoning a national synod, which met at Dort November 13, 1618. 

 Previous to this, Barneveldt and his friends Grotius and Hooger- 

 beets had been arrested (February 21, 1618) by the States-General, 

 acting under Maurice. This bold step induced the state of Holland, 

 which had at first opposed the Synod, to consent, under the influence 

 of fear and the violent measures of Maurice. 



The trial soon followed. " Whatever becomes of the other prisoners," 

 writes Carleton, the English ambassador, who openly avowed that his 

 master approved of Maurice's proceedings, " Barueveldt is sure to lose 

 his head." Such seems also to have been Barneveldt's conviction, all 

 his efforts being directed to save his family from the consequence of 

 this punUhmeut. He expressed no regret at his own fate, except so 

 far as it might implicate his friends ; and was particularly concerned 

 for Grotius, then in the prime of life, and, like himself, devoted to 

 his country's welfare. The trial of the prisoners commenced on tho 

 19th of November 1618. It was in vain that Barneveldt protested 

 that the whole proceedings were illegal, and that he triumphantly 

 refuted all the charges urged against him : he was found guilty, 

 among other things, for " having brought the church of God into 

 trouble," and sentenced to death. It was deemed however expedient 

 not to carry the sentence into effect till it had received the sanction 

 of the decision of the Synod, which then held its sittings. The Synod 

 closed its sittings on the 9th of May 1619, with a denunciation of all 

 those who had opposed the Calviuist clergy. On the 14th of May 

 Barneveldt was beheaded on a scaffold erected in the court-yard of 

 the Hague, meeting his fate with that calm courage which attended 

 him throughout life. A letter which he wrote the night before his 

 execution to his wife is still preserved, and is a touching monument 

 of his firmness and affection. 



BARNEY, JOSHUA, a commodore in tho navy of the United States 

 of America, was born at Baltimore on the 6th of July 1759. Being 

 one of fourteen children, he was taken from school at the early age of 

 ten years, and was first sent for a short time to assist in a retail store 

 in Baltimore, and afterwards to be a clerk in a merchant's office in 

 Alexandria. About a year later, when only eleven years of age, he 

 entered on board a pilot- boat. In his sixteenth year he was appointed 

 second mate of a ship which was dispatched with a cargo of grain 

 from Baltimore to Nice, in the Sardinian territory. The first mate 

 having left the ship, and the captain dying during the voyage, this lud 

 was left to his own energies for the due performance of the remainder 

 of the voyage. This he successfully accomplished, in the face of 

 many difficulties, and brought home the ship to the full satisfaction of 

 its owners. 



On his return to America, Barney finding that the disagreements ot 

 the provinces with England had come to an open rupture, imme- 

 diately offered his services to the provincial government, and was 

 appointed master's mate in a sloop of war called the ' Hornet.' !; 

 this he so signalised himself by his bravery and good conduct, that, 

 when scarcely seventeen, he obtained the commission of lieutenant in 

 the United States' navy. After this Lieutenant Barney was for some 

 time employed on board small vessels of war, and exhibited great zeal 

 and activity in the performance of his duty. In the course of four 

 years he was twice taken by the English and exchanged, and in 1780, 

 when not yet twenty-one years of age, he had married, and was again 

 in active service on board the United States' ship ' Saratoga.' This 

 vessel captured several British merchant vessels, and Barney being 

 placed as prize-master on board one of these, which was in an almost 

 sinking condition, was again captured by an English ship, and sent as 

 a prisoner to England. 



Having escaped from the prison in which he was confined, and 

 having spent some weeks in London, he embarked for Oateud, visited 

 France and Spain, and reached his home in March 1782. He was 

 immediately appointed to command a small ship of war, one of a 

 squadron fitted out for the protection of trade in the Delaware. 

 While thus employed, Barney was attacked by two ships and a brig 

 belonging to the British navy, and by a combination of stratagem and 

 bravery, succeeded in capturing and securing one of the ships. For 

 this gallant action he received the thanks of the legislature of Penn- 

 sylvania, accompanied by a gold-hilted sword ; and his prize being 

 fitted out and commissioned in the American navy, he received the 

 command. 



Commodore Barney was afterwards sent with dispatches to Dr. 

 Franklin at Paris, and returned to America with a British passport, 

 bearing dispatches which announced the signing of preliminary articles 

 of peace between England and America. 



At this time the commodore was only twenty-five years of age, and 

 the public having no further occasion for his services, he embarked in 

 commercial speculations connected with the sea, but was unsuccessful. 

 In the course of these pursuits he visited France in 1794, and in the 

 following year received a commission as captain in the French navy. 



