&20 DEFECTION OF THE NETHERLANDS, &C« 



*' fits a good and juft prince and lord to do. So help 

 66 me God, and all his faints." 



The awe which the arbitrary government of the em- 

 peror had infpired, and the diftruft of the ftates to- 

 wards his fon, are already vhible in this form of the 

 oath, which is far more cautioufly and accurately 

 compofed, than thofe to which even Charles the fifth, 

 and all the former dukes of Burgundy had fworn. Phi- 

 lip mull fwear that he will maintain entire the cuftoms, 

 fucceffions, and ufages, a thing that never was re- 

 quired before him. In the oath which the ftates took 

 to him, they promife him no other obedience than 

 may confift with the privileges and immunities of the 

 country. His officers have only then to reckon upon 

 fubmiffion and affiftance, when they discharged their 

 offices according to their duty. Philip, in fhort, in 

 this oath of allegiance taken by the eftates, is only 

 termed the natural, the native prince, not fovereign or 

 lord, as the emperor had expreffly delired. Teftimo- 

 ny fufficient, how fmall the expectations that were 

 formed of the juftice and magnanimity of the new 

 ruler ! 



WHETHER THERE BE MEANS FOR PROLONGING 

 HUMAN LIFE FAR BEYOND ITS NATURAL 



TERM. 



Many philofophers, both antient and modern, 

 have admired the wife benignity of nature in removing 

 man, after a Ihort fpaee, from the theatre of life, 



and 



