Grotius, by the advice of his father, addicted himself to the profession of the law.  He was only in his seventeenth year, when he pleaded his first cause.  He acquired by it, great reputation; and this was constantly upon the increase, through the whole of his professional career.  He observed in his pleadings a rule, which he afterwards recommended to his son:  “That you may not,” he told him, “be embarrassed by the little order observed by the adversary counsel, attend to one thing, which I have found eminently useful:  Distribute all that can be said on both sides, under certain heads; imprint these strongly in your memory; and, whatever your adversary says, refer it not to his division, but to your own.”

[Sidenote:  Grotius embraces the profession of the Law.]

The brilliant success of Grotius at the bar soon procured him very considerable promotions.  The place of Advocate-General of the Fisc of the provinces of Holland and Zealand becoming vacant, it was unanimously conferred on him.  This situation was attended with great distinction and authority; the person invested with it, being charged with the preservation of the public peace, and the prosecution of public offenders.  In 1613, Grotius was advanced to the situation of Pensionary of Rotterdam; and his high character authorized him to stipulate before he accepted it, that he should hold it during his life, and not, at will, its usual tenure.  It immediately gave him a seat in the assembly of the States of Holland; and, at a future time, a seat in the assembly of the States General.

Between the time of his appointment to the advocacy of the Fisc of Holland and Zealand, and his being appointed Pensionary of Rotterdam, he married Mary Reygersburgh, of an illustrious family in Zealand.  It proved a marriage of happiness.  The most perfect harmony subsisted between Grotius and his consort:  we shall find that she was an ornament to him in prosperity, his comfort and aid in adverse fortune.  The marriage was solemnized in July 1608, and celebrated by many a Belgic bard.

[Sidenote:  CHAP II. 1597-1610.]

A dispute arising about this time between England and the States General, upon the exclusive right claimed by the former to fish in the Northern seas, the States, with a view to an amicable adjustment of it, sent Grotius to England.  Several meetings took place between him and commissioners appointed by James, the British sovereign.  If we credit the account, given by Grotius, of the point in dispute, and the negociation to which it gave rise, justice was decidedly on the side of the States General; and England only carried the point by the lion’s right,—­the droit du plus fort.

[Sidenote:  Grotius embraces the profession of the Law.]