was sixteen hours, which corresponds to the latitude of 50 degrees. No European nation in that latitude understood astronomy in those early periods. The veneration of the Indians and Chinese for the Lama of Thibet is a proof that the religion of those nations originated in that quarter. 9. But does that region exhibit any traces of having been ever inhabited by a polished people? Here the theory of M. Bailly seems to be least supported by proof. He observes, that ancient mines have been discovered in those parts of Siberia, which have been wrought to great extent in a period beyond all record or tradition; that ancient sepulchres have been found, in which there were ornaments of gold of skilful workmanship; but the facts specified are so few as to warrant no positive inference. 10. This theory is an amusing specimen of the author's ingenuity; but it has not the force to draw our assent to his conclusions. We have noticed it as specifying many curious facts relative to the manners and attainments of the ancient nations, and as furnishing strong evidence of the common origin of mankind. The nations above mentioned, though many of them remote from one another, were all connected, as links of a chain, by proximity; whence it is easy to conceive that knowledge should diverge from a centre to a very distant circumference. M. Bailly has given no reasonable ground for fixing that centre in the position which he has assigned to it. SECTION LI. REIGN OF PHILIP II. OF SPAIN. REVOLUTION OF THE NETHERLANDS AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF HOLLAND. 1. AFTER a short survey of the Asiatic kingdoms, we return to the history of Europe in the sixteenth century. In the time of Philip II., the successor of Charles V., the balance of power in Europe was sustained by Spain, France, England, and Germany, all at this time highly flourishing and respectable, either from the talents of their sovereigns, or their internal strength. Elizabeth, Henry II., and Philip II., were all acute and able politicians; though the policy of Philip partook more of selfish craft, and had less of the manly and heroic, than that of either of his rival monarchs. Philip was at this time sovereign of Spain, the Two Sicilies, Milan, and the Netherlands. He had likewise, for a few years, the power of England at his command, by his marriage with Mary, the elder sister and predecessor of Elizabeth. 2. Pope Paul IV., jealous of the power of Philip, formed an alliance with Henry II. of France to deprive the Spaniards of Milan and the Two Sicilies. Philip, with the aid of the English, defeated the French at St. Quintin in Picardy, and hoped from this signal victory, to force the allies into a peace; but the duke of Guise recov ered the spirits of the French, by the taking of Calais from the English, which they had now possessed for two hundred years. Another great victory, however, obtained by Philip near Gravelines, brought on the treaty of Catteau-Cambresis in 1,559, by which the French surrendered to Spain no less than eighty-nine fortified towns in the Low Countries and in Italy. 3. Philip, now at ease from foreign disturbances, began to be disquieted on the score of religion. An intolerant bigot by nature, he resolved to extirpate every species of heresy from his dominions. The Netherlands, an assemblage of separate states, were all subject to Philip, under various titles; and he had conferred the government of Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Utrecht, on William, prince of Orange, a count of the German empire. The Lutheran and Calvinistic opinions had made great progress in those quarters; and Philip, determining to repress them, established the inquisition with plenary powers, created new bishops, and prepared to abrogate the ancient laws, and give the provinces a new political institution. These innovations created alarm and tumult; and the duke of Alva was sent into Flanders to enforce implicit submission. 4. The inquisition began its bloody work, and many of the principal nobility of the provinces were its victims. The minds of the people were completely alienated, and a chief was only wanting to give union to their measures. The prince of Orange, who was under sentence of the inquisition, found no difficulty to raise an army; and having easily reduced some of the most important garrisons, he was proclaimed stadtholder of Holland and Zealand in 1,570. Eighteen thousand persons perished by the hands of the executioner in the course of the duke of Alva's government, which was of five years' duration. His place was supplied by Requesens, a man of humanity, but bound to obey his inhuman master, who, on the death of Requesens, sent his own brother don John of Austria, to endeavour to regain the revolted states; but the attempt was fruitless. The whole seventeen provinces had suffered alike from the tyranny of their sovereign; but particular jealousies prevented a general union, and only seven of them asserted their independence, by a solemn . treaty formed at Utrecht, on the 23d of January, 1,579; by which it was agreed that they should defend their liberties as one united republic; that they should jointly determine in matters of peace and war, establish a general legislative authority, and maintain a liberty of conscience in matters of religion. These seven united provinces are, Guelderland, Holland, Zealand, Friesland, Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen. William prince of Orange was declared their chief magistrate, general, and admiral, by the title of Stadtholder. 5. Philip vented his indignation by a proscription of the prince of Orange, offering 25,000 crowns for his head; and he compassed his revenge; for this illustrious man was cut off by an assassin in 1,584. His son Maurice was elected stadtholder in his room, and sustained his important office with great courage and ability. With a slender aid from Elizabeth of England, who delighted to traverse the plans of Philip, this infant commonwealth accomplished and secured its independence, which it maintained till its recent subjugation. 6. The other ten provinces, whose discontents were expressed only by murmur and complaint, were soothed by a new charter from Philip confirming their privileges; while at the same time he took every possible measure to prevent any attempt on their part to throw off the yoke. SECTION LII. OF THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED PROVINCES. 1. THE treaty of confederation of the Seven United Provinces, framed in 1,579, and solemnly renewed in 1,583, is declared to be, by its nature, indissoluble. Each province thereby preserved its own laws, magistrates, sovereignty, and independence. They form, however, one body politic, having renounced the right of making separate alliances or treaties, and established a general council, with power of assembling the states, and regulating the common affairs of the republic. The assembly of the states-general was originally held only twice a year, but became afterwards a perpetual council. 2. In all matters which regard not the general interest of the nation, each of the states or provinces is in itself a republic, governed by its own laws and magistrates, and possessing a supreme legislative authority. The deputies from each of the towns form the council of the province, in which is vested its separate government; and these deputies are regulated by the instructions of their constituents. The votes of the majority of deputies decide in the provincial council in all matters which regard not the general interest of the nation. 3. The great council of the states-general always met in assembly at the Hague, and is composed of the deputies from the seven provinces, of which Holland sends three, Zealand and Utrecht two, and the others one; each deputy being regulated by the council of his province. A majority of voices is here decisive, unless in the great questions of peace, war, and alliance, in which unanimity is requisite. The disadvantage of this constitution is the delay and difficulty in the execution of public measures. All the towns and all the nobles of a province must deliberate and instruct their deputy, before the states-general can take the matter under consideration. This great defect is partly corrected by the power and influence of the stadtholder. 4. The stadtholder is commander in chief of the sea and land forces, and disposes of all the military employments. He presides over all the courts of justice, and has the power of pardoning crimes. He appoints the magistrates of the towns, from a list made by themselves; receives and names ambassadors, and is charged with the execution of the laws. He is supreme arbiter in all differences between the provinces, cities, or other members of the state. 5. William, the first stadtholder, did not abuse these high powers; nor did his successors, Maurice and Henry-Frederick. But under William II. the states became jealous of an exorbitant authority in their chief magistrate, and on his death the office was for some time abolished. In that interval the republic was almost annihilated by the arms of Lewis XIV.; and, sensible of their error, they restored the office of stadtholder in the person of William III., who retrieved the fortunes and honour of his country. In gratitude for his services, the dignity was made hereditary in his family, a solecism in the gov ernment of a republic. On the death of William without issue, the office was once more abolished for twenty years, when it was again restored, declared hereditary in the family of Orange, and descendible even to the issue of a daughter. The only restrictions are, that the succeeding prince shall be of the protestant religion, and neither king nor elector of the German empire. SECTION LIII. REIGN ON PHILIP II. CONTINUED. 1. THE loss of the Netherlands was in some degree compensated to Philip II. by the acquisition of the kingdom of Portugal. Muley Mahomet, king of Fez and Morocco, dethroned by his uncle Muley Moluc, solicited the aid of don Sebastian king of Portugal to regain his throne. Sebastian landed with an army in Africa, but was defeated by the Moors and slain; and the contending Moorish princes perished in the same engagement. Sebastian was succeeded by his grand-uncle don Henry, who died after a reign of two years. The competitors for the crown were don Antonio prior of Crato, and Philip II., paternal and maternal uncles of the last sovereign. Philip defeated his rival in a decisive engagement at sea, and, without further opposition, took possession of the throne of Portugal, 1,580. 2. Elizabeth of England had warmly espoused the cause of the revolted Netherlands, and her admiral sir Francis Drake had taken some of the Spanish settlements in America. To avenge these injuries, the invincible armada, of 150 ships of war, 27,000 men, and 3,000 pieces of cannon, was equipped by Philip for the invasion of England. The English fleet, of 108 ships, attacked them in the night, and burnt and destroyed a great part of the squadron. A storm, which drove them on the rocks and sands of Zealand, completed their discomfiture, and only 50 shattered vessels, with 6,000 men returned to Spain, 1,588. 3. The restless spirit of Philip II. was engaged at the same time in the reduction of the Netherlands, the project for the invasion of England, and the dismembering of the kingdom of France. The last scheme was as ineffectual as the two former. It was defeated at once by the conversion of Henry IV. to the catholic religion. The policy of Philip had nothing in it great or generous. His restless ambition was fitted to embroil Europe; but he had not the judgment to turn the distresses which he occasioned to his own advantage. In his own kingdoms, as in his domestic life, he was a gloomy and inhuman tyrant. Yet, from the variety and magnitude of his designs, the power by which they were supported, and the splendour of his dominion, the character of Spain was high and respectable in the scale of the nations of Europe. SECTION LIV. STATE OF FRANCE IN THE END OF THE SIXTEENTH CEN- 1. THE reformed religion had made the greater progress in France from the impolitic persecution which it sustained from Ilenry II., the son and successor of Francis I., who, though he aided the protestants of Germany in resisting the despotism of Charles V., showed no mercy to their brethren in his own kingdom. 2. On the death of Henry II. the conspiracy of Amboise was planned by the prince of Conde, for the destruction of the duke of Guise, who ruled the kingdom under Francis II., and to whose intolerance and cruelty the protestants attributed all their calamities. Guise owed his ascendancy chiefly to the marriage of his niece, Mary queen of Scots with the young monarch; and the detection of this conspiracy, the massacre of its principal leaders, and the barbarous punishment of all who partook in it, while they confirmed his power, served only to increase the rancour of the contending parties." 3. Francis II. died after a reign of one year, 1,560, and was succeeded by ms brother Charles IX., a boy of ten years of age. The queen-mother, Catharine de Medicis, who had no other principle but the love of power, was equally jealous of the influence of the Condes and the Guises. An ecclesiastical assembly, held by her desire at Poissy, gave toleration to the protestants to exercise their worship through all France, without the walls of the towns. The zeal or the imprudence of the duke of Guise infringed this ordinance. and both parties flew to arms. The admiral Coligni commanded the troops of the protestants, who were aided by 10,000 Germans from the Palatinate. Philip of Spain, to increase the disorders, sent an army to the aid of the catholics. 4. The horrors of civil war were aggravated by murders and assassinations. The duke of Guise was the victim of the frantic zeal of an enthusiast. After many desperate engagements, with various success, a treacherous peace was agreed to by the catholics; and Coligni, with the chiefs of the protestant party, were invited to court, and received by the queen-mother and her son with the most extraordinary marks of favour: among the rest Henry of Navarre, to whom the young monarch had given his sister in marriage. Such were the preparatives to the infernal massacre of St. Bartholomew. On the night of the 23d of August, 1,572, at the ringing of the matin bell, the catholics made a general massacre of all the protestants throughout the kingdom of France. Charles IX., a monster of cruelty assisted in the murder of his own subjects. 5. Amid those horrors Henry duke of Anjou, brother of Charles IX., was elected king of Poland; but had scarcely taken possession of his throne, when he was called to that of France by the death of its execrable sovereign, 1,574. The weakness of the new monarch, Henry III., was unfit to compose the disorders of the kingdom. Equally bigoted and profligate, he became the scorn of his subjects, and the dupe of the contending factions. 6. The protestant party was now supported by the prince of Conde and young Henry of Navarre, descended from Robert of Bourbon, a younger son of Lewis IX. The duke of Alencon, the king's brother, had likewise joined their party. The catholics, to accumulate their strength, formed a bond of union, termed the league, nominally for detence of the state and its religion, but in reality for usurping all the powers of government, and suppressing the protestant faith. Of this dangerous association Henry III., with the weakest policy, declared himself the head, and thus the avowed enemy of one half of his subjects. He saw his error when too late, and, dreading the designs of the duke of Guise, and his brother the cardinal of Lorraine, whose authority had superseded his own, he basely rid himself of his fears by procuring their assassination. This vicious and contemptible tyrant, after a reign of fifteen years, was assassinated |