These letters are sufficient to prove, that France was not the place in which such a liberal-minded and philanthropic individual as Grotius would choose to reside. He could not stoop to those servile practices to which the sycophants of a despotic court have recourse; and as this circumstance did not serve to elevate him in the esteem of Cardinal Richelieu, his stipend was irregularly paid and at length totally stopped, under the pretext that the exhausted condition of the King's treasury required him to retrench his liberalities. Presuming on the strong professions of Lutherans. For you know, that the Dort Canons have been condemned by all the Protestant Universities in Germany, and that the Predestinarian controversy is now the principal cause of dissension, since the Ubiquitarian dogma has among all of them nearly become extinct. Indeed, the pastors of this place may well desire to see such a plan completed."

The last sentence alludes to the followers of Cameron, whose peculiar situation and trials have been described in the preceding Appendix C. Grotius here styles the Church of England, as well as that of Denmark and Sweden, completely Lutheran; various parts of his learned works shew that he was better acquainted with the constitution of this Church, than many natives are, who, without any previous deep research on this point, pronounce it a Calvinistic Church, from the mere assertion of some eminent man that is as well-informed as themselves.

The following brief extract, from a letter which Grotius addressed from Hamburgh in 1632 to Lusson First President of the French Mint, will shew, that the French Court were ashamed of their recent behaviour and made distant overtures to induce him again to reside at Paris : "Illustrious man, respecting the King's money my determination remains fixed, and I feel no desire to have any motion made about it; for I consider myself as much obliged by the gifts which I have received, as if I had been dismissed under a load of them. While this continues to be my resolution, to what region soever I may hereafter proceed, I shall carry with me, in the inmost recesses of my heart, not merely a sense of the benefits which that most excellent king has conferred on me, and on which I place a high value, but likewise a sense of his singular good-will towards me, of which I possess most indubitable tokens, not so much in his liberality towards me which is often extorted by unblushing effrontery, as in his COUNTENANCE and his CONVERSATION; both of which are the more worthy of credence, on account of the dignified gravity of the former, that is as great a stranger to the wish of deceiving, as the majesty of the latter is exempted from the necessity of practising deceit."

In a subsequent letter to the same gentleman, after describing a pleasant villa on the Elbe, at which he spent the autum of 1632, Grotius adds: " But what in the mean time are you doing? Are you still occupied in founding, fusing and stamping gold, silver and brass? Does not the Cardinal's favour call you to better avocations? It will be a grievous mortification to me, if, in opposition to the provisions of a very wise and salutary law, you should continue, as a horse, any longer to plough in the same yoke with asses. To whatever better situation you may be promoted, it cannot be so elevated as to make me account it a sufficient recompence to your well-tried probity, or to your very correct and refined judgment."

In another letter from Hamburgh he thus alludes again to the minting operations in which his friend Lusson was employed: "You will pardon me if I do not reject all the kind declarations which you are pleased to make concerning me, and if I assume to myself those concerning which I have an approving conscience, my desire to pass a life of innocence, and my faithful but unfortunate attachment to that [free] condition which, as a native of Holland, is my inheritance. I rejoice, in behalf of learning, that Salmasius has obtained an honourable reception from the very men who have ejected me with disgrace. The Dutch territory will now, instead of France, become his country; while I have been forced to quit Holland and repair to Hamburgh, and probably after a while I must proceed to some other corner of the world.

attachment to him which had been made by the Prince of Orange, Frederic Henry successor to Prince Maurice, and yielding to the concurring solicitations of his most prudent friends, Grotius returned to Holland at the close of the year 1631: but, instead of being received with that cordiality and distinction which his virtues and talents entitled him to expect, he was, through the machinations of his enemies, again refused an asylum in the land of his birth, and forced to retire to the city of Hamburgh.* Dr Bates gives a brief but satisfactory explanation of this affair thus: "After the death of Maurice,+

I returu my grateful acknowledgments to his most excellent Majesty, and shall continue to own my obligations, for his wish to make me a partaker of his liberality. Let it suffice for me, to have been burdensome to you while I lived in France, in which I did not exhibit any proofs of my services; for it was impossible for me to do that, although I made a tender of them. Now, when I am an absentee, shall 1, like a lazy drone, consume the provender of others? Such a course would be highly improper. Yet I shall ever account myself a debtor to the kind intentions of a most benevolent monarch, and of my numerous friends; especially to you, most honourable man, whose morals, formed of the purest metal, and whose spirit, which is the coin that imparts value to the most celebrated actions, I deservedly estimate far beyond all the gold which either passes through the hands of De Fayette, or adheres to them."

* The history of this affair is very curious; but, as the details of it would occupy too much space, I must refer the reader to the letter of Vossius in the next note. The following extract of a letter from Grotius, after his arrival in Holland, to Du Maurier, will explain some of his views and feelings: "Illustrious man, your conjecture is correct, that I have already found plenty of waves in this sea to which I have returned. Indeed, they had been previously contemplated by me; yet I had hoped to discover a little courage in those who are either good, or sufficiently good. I now behold liberty of speech destroyed in most men, through a recollection of the evils which we have been compelled to endure. I am therefore still undetermined, whether I ought to remain a little longer among those to whom I am not an unwelcome visitant, and wait in expectation of a favourable change in the minds of others, or whether I should remove to some other places of abode, to which I am invited on honourable conditions. The affairs of the King of Sweden are so prosperous, as to have raised fresh hopes even in the Elector Palatine, who has long been drooping and inactive; for he has gone to pay a visit to those who were formerly his own subjects, and is attended by our cavalry: And the ears of all those who expressed the most doleful forebodings of the war, are now closed against the bare mention of a cessation from hostilities."

+ The following extract from Burrish, descriptive of the death of Prince Maurice, is a continuation of the paragraph quoted page 587:

"It cannot be doubted, that through all this scene of violence and injustice, the Prince [Maurice] acted by CESAR's maxim, with a view to make himself sovereign of his country. But because he did not execute this when it was in his power, after having destroyed Monsieur De Barneveldt and his adherents, the friends of the House of Orange took occasion to deny that it had ever been his intention; in hopes, no doubt, to obviate the general odium which the avowal of such a design would cast upon his memory. But the Prince's actions were of too strong a dye to admit so favourable an interpretation. The truth is, that, after Monsieur De Barneveldt's death, his Highness met with more obstacles to his design than he had foreseen. Even those who had assisted to bring on the fate of that minister, were, upon the whole, as much averse to the loss of their liberty, as the deceased. And on the other hand, the Prince saw but too visibly, that by the death, imprisonment, and exile of so many persons, who were well allied and had served the State with fidelity and honour, he had entirely lost the affections of the people. In proportion as his real designs came to be discovered, the odium

Prince of Orange, his brother Frederic Henry was raised to the government of the Republic, and had then afforded hopes not only of a milder species of regimen, but likewise of the restoration of the liberty which was formerly enjoyed in the administration of public affairs. He had [in 1622] a long time before, testified in a letter the affection of his heart toward Grotius; in consequence of which, many persons believed that he would afterwards endeavour to acquire glory to himself, by reversing the iniquitous sentence which had been pronounced against that great man, and by restoring to his former blameless condition one who had been most unjustly condemned. But it too frequently happens in the Courts of Princes, that the minds of those who preside in their Councils are more under the influence of what they account useful, than under that which is honourable: Of these some were not wanting who sug

that had been artfully raised against Monsieur De Barneveldt was changed into pity; and the Prince, who was considered as the author of all the injustice that had been done him, from being the darling of the public, became its aversion. Such was the state of domestic affairs in the United Provinces; and the situation of things abroad was still more averse to the Prince's undertaking. The Elector Palatine, upon whom he had a very great dependance, was so entirely reduced by the battle of Prague, that instead of being in a condition to assist Prince Maurice upon any extremity, he was forced to be obliged to him for part of his own subsistence. And on the other hand, the Emperor, Ferdinand II, was become so absolute over the Princes and free towns of the Empire, that the Prince lost all hopes of the least assistance from Germany.

"Chagrined with these disappointments, and penetrated, it may be, with remorse for his injustice to Monsieur De Barneveldt, Prince Maurice, from being fat, robust, and indefatigable, became lean, languished, and died in the beginning of the year 1625. Breda was at that time besieged by the famous Spinola. The Prince had taken it by surprize from the Spaniards, thirty four years before, when he was yet young in the command of the army; and it being a city of his own patrimony, a report was spread that he died of grief, for not being able to relieve it; but others, with more probability, ascribed his death to the disquiet and chagrine he had conceived upon the ill success of the schemes he had formed to acquire the sovereignty of his country."

Judge not that ye be not judged, is a Divine Command, which it would be well for all men to observe. I do not consider it a breach of this command, but rather a great and allowable source of instruction, when judicious historians invite their readers to behold the striking retaliative acts of God's Providence, in punishing the sins of public men; which become national crimes when they obtain the sanction, and are perpetrated in the name, of the government of any country. But it requires the exercise of a sound discretion, to distinguish such acts of Divine Justice from others which do not bear that character. Some modern writers,-who have called public attention to the marked chastisement which the House of Bourbon received, in a long banishment from their paternal dominions,-seem, in the warmth of their just animadversions, to have forgotten, that the very country which afforded an asylum to the scattered remains of the French Royal Family, contained at the same time another illustrious exile, who is now King of the Netherlands, and whose ancestors treated the innocent Arminians in a most harsh and cruel manner. But while we, as Britons, admire some of the blessings of liberty which, in 1688, were wafted over from Holland in the gales which conveyed the person of the intrepid Stadtholder, we may very naturally forget, in our admiration of a generous William, that the House of Orange likewise produced a tyrannical Maurice.

gested to the Prince, how dangerous it might be to his affairs again to admit into the Republic a man who was such a tenacious lover both of liberty and of his country.* In compliance with these insinuations, he preferred to consult the security of his power before the permanence of his reputation; and when, at the close of 1632, it was debated in the Assembly of the Nobles, whether Grotius, who had returned to Holland, should be suffered any longer to remain, Prince Henry Frederic united with those who voted that Grotius should be prohibited from residing any longer in the country !" +

Grotius was indeed a passionate lover of his native soil, and he had flat. tered himself with the expectation of spending the remainder of his days among the dearest of his friends, some of whom had been long imprisoned, and an order had then recently been given for their emancipation. When these his just hopes were frustrated, his lacerated feelings found relief in such effusions as the following to his friend Vossius. "Most excellent man among the learned, and the most learned among the excellent, the arrival of my wife and the sight of your writing not only served to relieve my solitude, but produced great gladness. For, while I am thus oppressed with such a host of enemies, to whom can I more properly betake myself, than to that exemplary woman who has been my companion in every variation of fortune, and to you whose fidelity to me, unsullied by a doubt, has illumined so many of my misfortunes, and has never been with-held from me in any of my preceding adversities? I have not yet determined any thing about my own affairs; but so far as I can estimate my prospects, I shall have some diversity on which to exercise my power of choosing. I ought not to consider it a hardship to live under the dominion of a master, when I behold my countrymen, who have expended so much for their liberties, retain little else except the name. undoubtedly think I must adopt any plan sooner than that of supplicating those individuals to whom, after a patience which I have practised these many years, I appear worthy of being again traduced and defamed: I cannot esteem that man who has wasted all his natural generosity. I wish Pontanus, and others whose names flourish in the annals of literature, to allow me to live in their remembrance; not that 1 can hereafter account this as my country, but that. whatever part of the world may be chosen for a residence, it may prove agreeable, especially to those who are the victims of undeserved hatred."

I

+ A few weeks prior to this decision, Daniel Tilenus addressed to Grotius the following letter of condolence, which breathes much of the generous indignation of friendship: "Most eminent man, 1 cannot do otherwise than approve of your determination, in preferring to bid a final farewell to that cruel country, rather than stain your innocence by unbecoming supplica tion, or make yourself the obiect of unworthy rumours. Nay, the ungrateful land, which has spurned to receive your extraordinary endowments, does not deserve to hold your bones or to cover your remains. I venture to prognosticate, that those who hate the virtuous man, when he is present and alive, will enquire for him in vain when he is removed out of their sight. What a dignified State [is Holland] which contains no other inhabitants than Jews and Manichees, and which rejects from its bosom those with whom piety itself may justly seem to take its departure! Yet the period will arrive, when those who have been unwilling to render due rewards to the men who have merited them, will suffer the just punishment incurred by the injuries which they have inflicted. What, I pray, could you do in those provinces in which the most eminent honour and integrity are exposed to the deepest disgrace, and in which virtue not only receives no reward, but is subjected to punishment? What could you do among men, who have not a particle of humanity in their composition? Yet it is not my intention to account that man an exile from his country who will be most affectionately entertained, and cherished with avidity, in any region of the globe that is not entirely excluded from the rays of the sun : For you will find no want of Holland, but

1

As some readers may wish to know why he did not come over to England at that juncture, when, many of our historians pretend, vast encouragement was afforded to Arminians, I subjoin the following extract of a letter from Dr. Laud, Bishop of London, in answer to one from the learned Gerard Vossius,* describing the ungrateful reception which had been given to his intimate friend: I have a few things to communicate to you respecting that famous and learned individual, Hugh Grotius; Holland will feel her want of you! It is a source of grief to me, to perceive that I must hereafter be deprived of your most delightful converse and company. But my hope is, that neither this dolorous circumstance, nor the pain arising from the gout, my old and now too intimate acquaintance, will be perpetual: for I know, that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle. (2 Pet. 1, 14.)" This personal allusion to his own case was too soon verified; for Tilenus died about a year afterwards, to the deep regret of Grotius, who had, twelve years before, been welcomed by his fellow exile (from Sedan) on his arrival in France, and the two friends and their families had for some time afterwards resided together in the same house in Paris. Tilenus had been for several years a martyr to the gout: In a letter to Du Maurier in 1633, Grotius said: "In Tilenus, each of us has lost a great friend. Yet we might congratulate him on his liberation, even by death, from his murderous disorder." *The following is the portion of his letter which relates to Grotius,-and bears the date of Feb. 13, 1632: "At the persuasion of several eminent men, some of whom occupy diguified stations in the Republic, that right honourable person, Hugh Grotius, has returned to his native land. But this was done without the privity of those who, twelve years before, had sentenced him to perpetual imprisonment; and it was not communicated to the individuals, who, in the days of faction, had attained to the highest honours in the State, after they had ejected the former occupants: All these persons, with very few exceptions, consider themselves personally interested in not suffering a man, with whose celebrity and endowments they are well acquainted, to enjoy among his fellow-citizens the light of heaven which is common to all men. They have therefore contended against him in the Assembly of the States, with great warmth and asperity. Yet Grotius has not been destitute of patronage either among the order of the Nobility, or among the three great cities-of Rotterdam of which he was formerly pensionary, of Delft the place of his birth,—and of Amsterdam which now excels, not more in riches and power, than it does in prudence. But the greater the interest thus created in his favour, the more strenuous were the exertions of the members for Leyden, the first Counsellor of which had been one of his judges; and of those for Haerlem, who were under the influence of a cause not much dissimilar. Some of the members for the other cities confine themselves within the bounds of neutrality; but there are more of them who unite with the Leyden members, especially those who are deputed by the little towns and whose votes are generally considered to depend on the opinions of their pastors. Wherefore I cannot easily say what kind of termination this affair will have: Grotius has the flower of all Holland in his favour; but it is no uncommon circumstance among us, for the zealots, such as the more rigid kind of Puritans in England, to overcome by threats and clamours the modesty of the better party. Should matters proceed onward in this course, I am afraid this very great and excellent man will be wearied and disgusted with his grievances, and will again spontaneously depart out of his ungrateful country: I dread this event the more, because I know very well what a great desire some kings and several princes have expressed about engaging him in their service, and they endeavour to entice him into their dominions by promises of vast honours and advantages. But if he be compelled to reside in a foreign land, I had almost said I should envy his abode in all other countries except Great Britain, where I foresee how exceedingly useful he might become to our royal master, his most serene Majesty king Charles, and to the whole kingdom."