Motley's History of the United Netherlands [pp. 223-238]

228 MOTLEY S HISTORY OF TIHE UNITED NETHERLANDS.
advantageous alliance perhaps ever made by En,gland, our
author does not appear to enter sufficiently into the feelings of
Elizabeth in her long hesitancy. Let it be remembered that,
at that time, the annual revenue of England was not more
than five hundred thousand pounds, nor her population more
than four millions; Ireland and Scotland held by the fiailest
tenure, both ready for revolt; and Philip, the wealthiest and
most powerfill monarch in Europe, threatening the extinction
of the English empire, and the reader will see the awful con sequences that menaced the queen.
A war with Philip was inevitable. He had sworn vengeance
ag(rainst Protestantism the world over, and if Elizabeth under took the cause of the Netherlands, she undertook thle cause of
* Protestanism; and upon the settlement of the international
affairs of France, she, too, might be arrayed against England
and the Netherlands, as the sole defenders of the Protestant
relig(ion. History must do Elizabeth, then, this justice, too
long denied, that in entering into alliance with the I)utclh, no
sovereign ever faced a more dreadflil threatening, or displayed
more unalloyed heroism. But the step was taken, never to be
retraced, and the consequences have left a lasting and ineffac able glory upon England, and a benefit upon mankind, as
brilliant and as extensive as the Protestant religion. Wherever
man is free, and in quiet enjoyment of the eternal principles
of liberty, wherever tyranny, bigotry and persecution has been
hushed and forever buried, wherever the Bible is read and God
worshipped in that freedom and purity of conscience which
springs fi'om an uncorrupted religion, there will its votary
cherish the recollections of that contest which drove Philip
from the Netherlands, and planted the true seeds of liberty
amidst the dykes and lagoons of HIolltnd and the United
Provinces. England herself reaped immeasurable advantages
therefrom. Elizabeth, though Protestant, -was bigoted and
intolerant; and it was from the political school of Willia.m the
Silent that English statesmen learned political and r eligious
toleration. It was from the United I'rovinces that England
caught, by happy contact, the principles that inaungurated the
revolution of 1688; banished forever the cruel and relentless
Stuart firom the English government, and finally achieved a
bloodless revolution, which placed a IHanoverian line in per manent and prosperous reign upon tlhe English throne.
But, to return to the history before us. After Elizabeth had
promised and sent substantial aid and comfort to the Dutch,
she exhibited much parsimony, and even meanness, in with holding supplies. Never was greater sutffo-ing(, gretter Cendur ance, than was exhibited by the English and Dutch soldiery;
but, unclad, almost starving, the poor soldiers and officers stood
to their duty. Had the queen exhibited any administrative
capacity, she could have ended this contest years sooner; but