This was the President de Thou, a name never to be mentioned without veneration.  He had been employed by his sovereign on many delicate and important commissions, and had acquitted himself in all, with ability and honour.  He had filled the office of Maitre des Requetes, and been advanced to that of President a Mortier.  He was employed, at this time, upon his immortal History.  In the account which it gives of the events, that took place in France, it is entitled to almost unqualified praise:  in regard to what happened to other countries, he necessarily depended on the information which he received from them, and cannot therefore be equally relied upon.  The prolixity, with which he is now reproached, was not felt at the time in which he wrote; every event, however small, was then thought to be important, and multitudes were personally interested in it.  But the charm of his work is, that every page of it shews a true lover of his country, an impartial judgment, and an honourable mind.  The memoirs, which he has left us of his own life, recently translated into English by Mr. Collinson, are interesting and entertaining.  He collected a very large library, both of printed books and manuscripts, and had them splendidly bound.  The whole was sold by auction in the reign of Louis XIV, and scarcely produced half the sum which the binding of its volumes had cost:  The same has been said of the Harleian collection, sold in our times.

[Sidenote:  His Birth and Education.]

Having remained a twelvemonth at Paris, Grotius returned to Holland.  Immediately after his arrival, he addressed a letter to the president de Thou, in which he expressed great mortification at not having seen him, and requested his acceptance of a book accompanying his letter, which he had dedicated to the Prince of Conde.  The president de Thou was highly pleased with this letter:  a correspondence took place between them.  Grotius furnished the president with materials for that portion of his history which related to the troubles in the Low Countries.

In the last letter of the President de Thou, in this correspondence, he earnestly dissuades Grotius from engaging in the religious disputes of the times.  In reply to it, Grotius respectfully intimates to the president, that “he found himself obliged to enter into them by his love of his country; his wish to serve his church, and the request of those to whom he owed obedience:”  promising, at the same time, “to abstain from all disputes that were not necessary.”  After the death of the President, Grotius celebrated his memory in a poem, which was considered by the bard’s admirers to be one of his best performances.

CHAPTER II.

GROTIUS EMBRACES THE PROFESSION OF THE LAW.  HIS FIRST PROMOTIONS.

1597-1610.