FROM THE SPANISH MONARCHY. 183 



terror, the majefty of the prince would have readily- 

 found in the " difpofitions of all men. What rendered 

 them the objects of abhorrence and deteftation would 

 Have procured him a fovereign dread ; for the abufe of 

 native authority preffes with lefs painful fenfations, 

 than the abufe of .delegated power. His prefence would 

 have been the falvation of thoufands had he but been 

 an ceconomical defpot ; if he had even not been that, 

 yet would the awe of his perfon have preferved him a 

 territory, which was loft through the hatred and con- 

 tempt that was had for his inftruments. 



In like manner as the oppreffion of the people of the 

 Netherlands was the common concern of all men who 

 were fenfible to their natural rights, fo one would have 

 thought that the difobedience and defection of this 

 people would have been an incentive to all princes, in 

 the prerogatives of their neighbours to have defended 

 their own. But the jealoufy with which Spain was 

 beheld, gained the afcendant this once over political 

 fympathy, and the principal powers of Europe engaged 

 either openly or in private on the fide of freedom. The 

 emperor Maximilian the fecond, though bound to the 

 houfe of Spain by the ties of blood, furnifhed it with a 

 juft caufe of complaint, that he favoured in fecret the 

 party of the rebels. By the offer of his mediation, 

 he tacitly allowed their complaints a degree of juft- 

 ice which muft have encouraged them, to prefer 

 them with more inflexible perfeverance. Under an 

 ^emperor lincerely devoted to the fpaniih court, Wil- 

 liam of Orange could hardly have drawn from Germany 

 fuch great fuppli'es of troops and money. France, 

 without openly and formally breaking the peace, placed 



n 4 a prince 



