when we compare the characters of Henry IV. and James I., bearing in mind how much of national reputation at the time depended on the personal conduct of kings; and how political situations influence, if they do not create, the virtues and vices of a people.  Independent of the suspicions of his being altogether unfavorable to the declaration required by the United Provinces from Spain, to which James’s conduct had given rise, he had established some exactions which greatly embarrassed their fishing expeditions on the coasts of England.

The main points for discussion, and on which depended the decision for peace or war, were those which concerned religion; and the demand, on the part of Spain, that the United Provinces should renounce all claims to the navigation of the Indian seas.  Philip required for the Catholics of the United Provinces the free exercise of their religion; this was opposed by the states-general:  and the archduke Albert, seeing the impossibility of carrying that point, despatched his confessor, Fra Inigo de Briznella, to Spain.  This Dominican was furnished with the written opinion of several theologians, that the king might conscientiously slur over the article of religion; and he was the more successful with Philip, as the duke of Lerma, his prime minister, was resolved to accomplish the peace at any price.  The conferences at The Hague were therefore not interrupted on this question; but they went on slowly, months being consumed in discussions on articles of trifling importance.  They were, however, resumed in the month of August with greater vigor.  It was announced that the king of Spain abandoned the question respecting religion; but that it was in the certainty that his moderation would be recompensed by ample concessions on that of the Indian trade, on which he was inexorable.  This article became the rock on which the whole negotiation eventually split.  The court of Spain on the one hand, and the states-general on the other, inflexibly maintained their opposing claims.  It was in vain that the ambassadors turned and twisted the subject with all the subtleties of diplomacy.  Every possible expedient was used to shake the determination of the Dutch.  But the influence of the East India Company, the islands of Zealand, and the city of Amsterdam, prevailed over all.  Reports of the avowal on the part of the king of Spain, that he would never renounce his title to the sovereignty of the United Provinces, unless they abandoned the Indian navigation and granted the free exercise of religion, threw the whole diplomatic corps into confusion; and, on the 25th of August, the states-general announced to the marquis of Spinola and the other ambassadors that the congress was dissolved, and that all hopes of peace were abandoned.