STABLE STADTHOLDER. 



369 



Sanota mater ! istud agas, 

 Cruetfixi tige plagas 



t drill meo valide. 

 Tui nati vulnerati, 

 Turn tiifjnati pro me pati, 



Pcenas mecum divide. 



Far me vere tecum fiere, 

 Crucifixo condoler", 



Donee ego vixero. 

 . Juxta rrurcm tcrum stare, 

 Te libentcr snriarc, 



In planctu desidero. 



Virgo virginum praedara ! 

 Mihi jam non sis amara, 



Fac me tiTiim plang-ere; 

 Fac ut portem Christi mortem, 

 Fassinnis ejiis snrtem, 



Et plagas recolere. 



Fac me plagis vulnerari, 

 Once Iwc inebriari. 



Oh amorem filii. 

 Inflammatus et aceensivs, 

 Per te, virgo ! sim delensus 



In die judicii. 



Fac me cruce custodiri, 

 Morte Christi prsemuuiri, 



Confoveri gratia. 

 Quando corpus morietur, 

 t ac ut animae donetur, 



Paradisi gloria. 



STABLE. See Herculaneum. 



STACCATO (Italian, separated'), in music, is 

 designated by a few small dots or dashes over the 

 notes, which are then to be played more or less 

 abruptly, and unconnected with each other. 



STADIUM ; an ancient measure of length, about 

 equal to a furlong, or the eighth of a mile. It was 

 six hundred feet in length; but, as the foot was 

 different, the stadium, also, differed exceedingly. 

 The most known measures of this name were the 

 little stadium of Aristotle, of 19^; the stadium of 

 Cleomedes, of 13-91 ; the Pythian or Delphian, of 

 12-79; the stadium of Eratosthenes, of 11-64; that 

 of Herodotus, or the nautical or Persian stadium, 

 of 11-12; the Olympic, of 10-1; the Phileterian, 

 of 9 ; and the great stadium (called, also, the 

 Alexandrian or the Egyptian), of 8-35 to a geogra- 

 phical mile. The race-course of a gymnasium was, 

 originally, called stadium, and was of a certain 

 length, whence was derived the name of the mea- 

 sure. It consisted of an oblong causeway, open at 

 one end, and terminated at the other by a semi- 

 circle. The two sides, running parallel with each 

 other, were, likewise, enclosed: and from these 

 three enclosed sides the seats of the spectators rose 

 step- wise. 



STADT; the German word for town and city: 

 hence many geographical names are compounds of 

 this word or stad. 



STADTHOLDER, in the republic of the 

 United Netherlands; the commander-in-chief of 

 the military forces (Dutch, stadhouder, governor). 

 The title was derived from the period when Spain 

 and Burgundy had dominion in that country. The 

 United Netherlands were then under a governor- 

 general, and the separate provinces had particular 

 governors. After hficoming independent, the re- 

 public retained the office of stadtholder, partly 

 from gratitude to the house of Nassau-Orange, but 

 chiefly to secure the obedience of the people, which 

 would not have been rendered to the states while 

 their authority was new, and not yet confirmed. 

 Philip II., on leaving the Netherlands, had intrusted 

 the government of Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht, 

 to William I., prince of Orange; but, when the 

 duke of Alva arrived in the Netherlands, in 1567, 

 ar, the head of the Spanish forces, with the purpose 



VI. 



of spreading the Catholic faith by fire and sword, 

 William retired to Germany to escape the threat- 

 ening danger. But, being proceeded against during 

 his absence, he took up arms to deliver the Nether- 

 lands from the tyranny of Alva. The first attempt 

 failed; but, after the capture of Briel, in 1572, by 

 the Gueux, fortune favoured the Dutch arms. 

 Most of the cities of Holland and Zealand joined 

 the prince against the Spaniards, and he was once 

 more acknowledged royal stadtholder in Holland, 

 Zealand, and Utrecht. Two years afterwards, the 

 two first of these provinces committed the govern- 

 ment to him during the war. But the powers of 

 this government were extremely indefinite : orders 

 were issued at one time in the name of the king of 

 Spain; at another, in that of the gentry and cities; 

 sometimes in the name of the prince of Orange and 

 of the gentry and cities ; and sometimes in the 

 name of the prince alone. This fluctuation con- 

 tinued even after the accession of Utrecht (1579), 

 till the authority of the king of Spain was wholly 

 shaken off, in 1581. In 1582, the powers previously 

 intrusted to the prince were renewed without re- 

 striction, and all public decrees and ordinances were 

 issued in his name alone. At length, Holland and 

 Zealand were on the point of formally investing 

 him with the supreme authority, when he was 

 assassinated, at the instigation of the Spaniards, in 

 1584. After the death of William, the states- 

 general declared the earl of Leicester (who was 

 sent with a body of troops by Elizabeth, queen of 

 England, to aid them against the Spaniards) stadt- 

 holder. The states of Holland and Zealand, how- 

 ever, had conferred the government of their pro- 

 vinces on prince Maurice, second son of the murdered 

 prince of Orange ; and he was the first stadtholder 

 who had been appointed by the separate provinces. 

 When Leicester resigned the stadtholderate, Maurice 

 was chosen, in 1590, stadtholder of Guelders, 

 Utrecht, and Overyssel. He was succeeded by his 

 brother Frederic Henry and his son William II., in 

 the government of the five above-mentioned pro- 

 vinces. William Louis, count of Nassau, a son of 

 the count of Nassau-Dillenburg, the younger 

 brother of William I., was stadtholder of Fries- 

 land, and afterwards of Groningenv He was suc- 

 ceeded in Friesland, after his death, by his brother 

 Ernest Casimir, count of Nassau- Dietz ; but Grbn- 

 ingen, and the province of Drenthe, elected prince 

 Maurice, so that he was now governor of six pro- 

 vinces. After his decease, count Ernest Casimir 

 was also elected by Groningen and Drenthe. The 

 next stadtholder in Friesland and Groningen was 

 his son Henry Casimir; and, after his decease, 

 Frederic Henry, prince of Orange, attempted to 

 unite the stadtholderate of these provinces with 

 that of Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Overyssel, and 

 Guelders, which he already enjoyed. But he only 

 acquired Groningen, to which his son William II. 

 succeeded. In Friesland, William Frederic, brother 

 of count Henry Casimir, was made stadtholder; 

 and, on the early death of William II. prince of 

 Orange, he was likewise elected stadtholder of 

 Groningen. The government of both these pro- 

 vinces thenceforward devolved on the male pos- 

 terity of William Frederic. In the five remaining 

 provinces Guelders, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, and 

 Overyssel after the death of William II., the stadt- 

 holderate ceased. By his disputes with the states of 

 Holland, he had made himself many enemies; and, 

 by the artifices of John de Witt, grand pensionary of 

 Holland, his son William III. was excluded from the 

 2 A 



