DEFECTION OP THE NETHERLANDS. 



perfonal prefence of the fovereign. By the lide of ma- 

 jeiry the moft pompous pretentions muft fubfide ; all 

 private grandeur is effaced. Inftead of barring accefs 

 to truth, but through flow and turbid channels, to the 

 di ttant throne, lb that the tardy preventatives could not 

 come till time had matured the effect of chance into an 

 oper ation of reafon, had he allowed his own discern- 

 ment to have diftinguifhed truth from error, his frigid 

 politics alone, not to mention his humanity, might 

 Lave faved the country a million of its inhabitants. 

 The nearer their fource the more forcible would his 

 edk^h have been; the clofer to their mark, fo much 

 J±l6 ' ore feebly and impotently would the ftrokes of re- 

 bellion have- fallen. It cofts infinitely more to infult a 

 man to his face, than to do him mifchievous turns at a 

 difcance. The rebellion at firft feemed to tremble at 

 its name, and for a long time hid itfelf under the fiimfy 

 pretext of efpoufmg the caufe of the fovereign againft 

 the arbitrary ufurpations of his viceroy. Philip's ap- 

 pearance in BrufTels would at once have put an end to 

 this idle impofliure. He might then have either com- 

 plied with their demands, or taken off their malk and 

 confounded them with their real afpecl. And what an 

 alleviation would jt have been to the Netherlands, had 

 he only freed them from thofe calamities, which were 

 heaped upon them without his knowledge and againft 

 his will ! What an advantage to himfelf, if it had 

 tended tq nothing farther than to open his eyes to the 

 application of the enormous fums that were unjufliy 

 levied for the fervices of the war, pafling into the ra- 

 pacious hands of his fubftkute ! What his rcprefenta^ 

 • tives were obliged to extort by the unnatural aid of 



terror, 



