ART. IV-MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC.

The Rise of the Dutch Republic. A History. BY JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D. C. L. 3 Vols., 8vo. New York: 1859.

THE work of Mr. Motley supplies a want which the student of history has long lamented. It is surprising that the Rise of the Dutch Republic should have hitherto claimed no larger space in the literature of England and America; for no subject could be more interesting to a free people than the war which wrested the Netherlands from the grasp of Spain;-a war begun, not for political or commercial, but for religious interests; a war which eventuated in the rise of the Dutch to a splendid career of wealth and greatness, while it was to Spain the beginning of that series of disasters which led to her ultimate decline; a war, of which the obstinacy has been seldom equaled, and the ferocity of which had not been witnessed on the earth since Jerusalem fell before the arms of Vespasian. It is the design of the present paper to take a rapid review of the most prominent events in this great contest, from the Insurrection of Ghent, to the death of William, Prince of Orange.

Nor can we forbear all allusion to the country in which this war was waged, and to the origin of its inhabitants. For the country, our only surprise may be, that it should ever have been thought worth defending. No beauty of landscape, such as entrances the traveler in England, or Germany, or France; no towering mountains or vine-clad hills; no cloudless skies and balmy atmosphere, invite him to linger here. A land formed by the slime of rivers, low, wet, spongy, and often overwhelmed by the sea; vast plains, whose monotony is broken only by sluggish rivers; a leaden sky, and a climate always exhaling dampness, such is no unfair picture of the land which has been aptly called Holland-"Hollow-land" or marshy land." The people of this region are partly of German, partly of Celtic origin. The Belgae of Cæsars' time

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were reckoned the bravest of all the Gauls,-a reputation which, Mr. Motley thinks, "may be attributed to the presence of several German tribes," who "lent an additional mettle to the Celtic blood." The Island of Bet-auw, having been forsaken by its inhabitants, was seized by the Cattians, a fierce German-Gehr-man-" War-man"-tribe, who, on settling in Bet-auw, assumed the name of Batavians. "Of all these na

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tions," says Tacitus,† "the Batavians are the bravest. may see other armies rushing to a battle; the Cattians march to a war. From the age of manhood they encourage the growth of their hair and beard; nor will any one, until he has slain an enemy, divest himself of that excrescence, which, by a solemn vow, he has dedicated to heroic virtue. Over the blood and spoils of the vanquished the face of the warrior is, for the first time, displayed." To the North-East of the Batavians, in the territory lying between the Rhine and the Ems, we see another element of this race in the Frisians," a name," says Tacitus, "celebrated throughout Germany." Between these German and Celtic races was a strong physical resemblance both were of fair complexion and gigantic stature; but the resemblance was only a physical one ;-in all other respects the two races were very dissimilar. A love of ostentation has always characterized the Gaul, as a contempt of it has always characterized the German. In the time of Cæsar, the nobility and priesthood formed the only orders in Gaul; the people were slaves. The German of the same era lived under a governmental system, in which the regal power was modified by a democratic element. The Gaul was fond of pastoral and agricultural occupations; the German scorned the slavery of labor, and regarded war as the only occupation worthy of a man. The Gaul built villages, but the home of the German was the pathless forest. The great difference, however, in the habits of these two races, may be traced to their religious and social systems, which are thus finely contrasted by Mr. Motley.

"The Gauls were a priest-ridden race. Their Druids were a dominant caste, presiding even over civil affairs, while in religious matters their authority was despotic. What were the principles of their wild theology, will never be thoroughly ascertained, but we know too much of its sanguinary rites. The imagination shudders to penetrate those shaggy forests, ringing with the death-shrieks of ten thousand human victims, and with the hideous hymns, chanted by smoke-and-bloodstained priests, to the savage gods whom they served.

"The German in his simplicity had raised himself to a purer belief than that of the sensuous Roman or the superstitious Gaul. He believed in a single, supreme, Almighty God, All Vater, or All Father. This Divinity was too sublime to be incarnated or imaged, too infinite to be inclosed in temples made with hands. Such is the Roman's testimony to the lofty conceptions of the German. Certain forests were consecrated to the unseen God, whom the eye of reverent Faith could alone behold. Thither, at stated times, the people repaired to worship. They entered the sacred grove with feet bound together, in token of submission. Those who fell were forbidden to rise, but dragged themselves backward on the ground. Their rites were few and simple. They had no caste of priests, nor were they, when first known to the Romans, accustomed to offer sacrifice. It must be confessed that, in a later age, a single victim, a criminal or a prisoner, was occasionally immolated. The purity of their religion was soon stained by their Celtic neighborhood. In the course of the Roman dominion it became contaminated, and, at last, profoundly depraved. The fantastic intermixture of Roman Mythology with the gloomy but modified superstition of Romanized Celts, was not favorable to the simple elements of German theology. The entire extirpation, thus brought about, of any conceivable system of religion, prepared the way for a true revelation. Within that little river territory, amid those obscure morasses of the Rhine and Scheld, three great forms of religion,—the sanguinary superstition of the Druid, the sensuous polytheism of the Roman, the elevated, but dimly-groping creed of the German, stood for centuries face-to-face, until, having mutually debased and destroyed each other, they all faded away in the pure light of Christianity.

"Thus contrasted were Gaul and German in religious and political systems. The difference was no less remarkable in their social characteristics. The Gaul was singularly unchaste. The marriage state was almost unknown. Many tribes lived in most revolting and incestuous concubinage, brethren, parents, and children having wives in common. The German was loyal as the Celt was dissolute. Alone among barbarians, he contented himself with a single wife, save that a few dignitaries, from motives of policy, were permitted a larger number. On the marriageday, the German offered presents to his bride,-not the bracelets and golden necklaces with which the Gaul adorned his fair-haired concubine,-but oxen and a bridled horse, a sword, a shield, and a spear, symbols that thenceforward she was to share his labors, and to become a portion of himself. They differed, too, in the honors paid to the dead. Both burned the corpse, but the Celt cast into the flames the favorite animals and even the most cherished slaves and dependents of the master. Vast monuments of stone or piles of earth were raised above the ashes of the dead. Scattered relics of the Celtic age are yet visible throughout Europe, in these huge but unsightly memorials.

"The German was not ambitious at the grave. He threw neither garments nor odors upon the funeral pyre, but the arms and war-horse of the departed were

burned and buried with him. The turf was his only sepulchre; the memory of his valor his only monument. Even tears were forbidden to the men. 'It was esteemed honorable,' says the historian, 'for women to weep, for men to remember."

Such were the characteristics of the races by which the Netherlands were peopled. Our limits will not allow us to follow this most accomplished historian in his narrative of the convulsions that agitated the country previous to the Great Revolt. The insurrection of Civilis against the Roman power, the thundering march of the barbarian tribes, the dominion of Charlemagne, the five succeeding feudal centuries-the reign of Philip the Good, of Charles the Bold, of the Lady Mary, and the Austrian Succession, with Philip the Fair, these we can only mention, as our purpose is with the events of a succeeding age. Of the marriage of Philip the Fair, Archduke of Austria, with Joanna, Queen of Spain, was born Count Charles the Second, of Holland, "better known as Charles the Fifth, King of Spain, Sicily, and Jerusalem, Duke of Milan, Emperor of Germany, Dominator in Asia and Africa, Autocrat of half the world."

Three centuries have passed away since Charles V. swayed the sceptre of this wide dominion, yet his character looms up above those of his royal cotemporaries, and stands out, in colossal proportions, amid the men of ten generations. It was his destiny to be ushered into life at a time when the advancing and the receding ages were separated by a great gulf which no human art could span. It was his destiny, too, to see the first onset of that moral Revolution which has changed the face of the globe; which has struck down the once puissant German Empire from the position of the first power in Europe; and, while raising fourth and fifth-rate kingdoms to an unprecedented height of power and splendor, plunged old and powerful nations into exhaustion and decay. In contemplating the character of Charles V., we are at a loss whether to wonder more at the fortunate circumstances in which his early life was cast, or at the extent of his sagacity and the greatness of his ambition. Born with the memorable sixteenth century, we find him, at the age of sixteen, a youth of graceful figure and fine address, writing Commentaries on the "Book of Sen

tences," and devoted to every species of manly and athletic exercise. At this early age, the last will of Ferdinand leaves to Charles the kingdom of Spain; but the kingdom is in a turbulent condition, and nothing but the masterly address of Cardinal Ximenes can induce the Castilian nobility to acknowledge Charles as king. But Charles having, by the peace of Noyon, secured a passage to Spain, by his presence reconciles the antagonistic elements, and lays the basis of a permanent tranquility in that kingdom. Scarcely, however, has the young king seated himself on the throne of Castile, when the death of Maximilian, Emperor of Germany, opens for him the way to a still more splendid career. The throne of Germany was, in that age, the dearest object of royal ambition, as the German empire ranked first among the powers of Europe. For such a prize it was to be expected that there would be many competitors; but the eyes of the world were fixed on two kings, both of whom desired it with equal ardor, and each of whom was already too powerful. These two were Charles and his great rival, Francis of France. Between the claims of these two kings, the electors of the empire were divided. But, Frederic, Duke of Saxony, whom they ultimately selected, to the exclusion of both Charles and Francis, having declined the honor in favor of the abler Charles, the latter ascended the throne of Germany in spite of the exertions of Francis and the intrigues of Leo X. The great prize was now attained: it brought with it an immense influence and glory; it made Charles the foremost man of the world, but it gave him no increase of absolute power. For the liberties of Germany were fenced in by the most careful guards; nor are statesmen yet agreed whether the genius of the old German empire was monarchical or republican,-so carefully were the two elements combined. Yet, the fruits of his elevation were enough to

*Among the members of the Germanic body, which is a great republic composed of states almost independent, the first principle of patriotism is, to depress and limit the power of the Emperor, and of this idea, so natural under such a form of government, a German politician seldom loses sight. To this prudent precaution many of the great families in Germany owed the splendor and independence which they had acquired during that period.-Robertson's Charles V., lib. I., p. 86.