of Edinburgh , Session 1877 - 78 . 
509 
Embassy in Russia; but, after having been for some time in St 
Petersburg, he resigned the appointment. Thenceforward, for nearly 
ten years, American biographical authorities represent him as living 
privately at home, engaged in miscellaneous studies and contributing 
miscellaneously to American periodicals. A second novel, which he 
published in 1849, under the title of “ Merry Mount, a Romance of 
the Massachusetts Colony,” had no better fortune than the first. 
Meanwhile he had been finding his true vein. The passion for 
history, apparent in the title and conception of this novel, had 
been manifesting itself more seriously and effectively in occasional 
historical essays. A review of Tocqueville’s work on American 
Democracy and a paper on Peter the Great of Russia are mentioned 
as having attracted especial notice. By this time, indeed, it had 
became known among Mr Motley’s friends that he had fastened on 
a great subject for elaborate historical treatment by himself. No 
one had adequately written the History of the Dutch People and 
their Commonwealth; there were affinities and attractions recom- 
mending this subject in a peculiar manner to an American of the 
United States ; Mr Motley had been meditating these, and had 
determined to make the subject his own. To qualify himself by the 
necessary researches, he came to Europe again in 1850, and lived 
for several years at the Hague, and in Dresden and Berlin, im- 
mersed in documents. The result was the appearance, in 1856, 
when Mr Motley was forty-two years of age, of his “ Rise of the 
Dutch Republic : A History,” in three volumes. The work, published 
simultaneously in London and New York, was eagerly hailed by 
readers and reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic ; translations of 
it into several European languages were at once begun ; and the 
author at once took his place among the most eminent writers of his 
generation. Undisturbed by applauses and honours, Mr Motley 
persevered in his task. The volumes he had published, extending 
from the accession of Philip II. of Spain in 1555 to the death of 
William the Silent in 1584, had told only the story of the heroic 
revolt of the Dutch from the Spanish tyranny and of the triumphant 
foundation and beginnings of their little Republic of the Seven 
United Provinces. But, in 1860, there appeared the first two 
volumes, and in 1867, the last two, of what was virtually a sequel 
in four volumes, though it bore the independent title of “ History of 
