De Witt.—­Heaven be praised that your Majesty did not persevere in so fatal a resolution!  The United Provinces would have been ruined by it together with England.  But I cannot enough express my astonishment that you should have met with such treatment as could suggest such a thought.  The English must surely be a people incapable either of liberty or subjection.

William.—­There were, I must acknowledge, some faults in my temper and some in my government, which are an excuse for my subjects with regard to the uneasiness and disquiet they gave me.  My taciturnity, which suited the genius of the Dutch, offended theirs.  They love an affable prince; it was chiefly his affability that made them so fond of Charles II.  Their frankness and good-humour could not brook the reserve and coldness of my nature.  Then the excess of my favour to some of the Dutch, whom I had brought over with me, excited a national jealousy in the English and hurt their pride.  My government also appeared, at last, too unsteady, too fluctuating between the Whigs and the Tories, which almost deprived me of the confidence and affection of both parties.  I trusted too much to the integrity and the purity of my intentions, without using those arts that are necessary to allay the ferment of factions and allure men to their duty by soothing their passions.  Upon the whole I am sensible that I better understood how to govern the Dutch than the English or the Scotch, and should probably have been thought a greater man if I had not been King of Great Britain.

De Witt.—­It is a shame to the English that gratitude and affection for such merit as yours were not able to overcome any little disgusts arising from your temper, and enthrone their deliverer in the hearts of his people.  But will your Majesty give me leave to ask you one question?  Is it true, as I have heard, that many of them disliked your alliances on the Continent and spoke of your war with France as a Dutch measure, in which you sacrificed England to Holland?

William.—­The cry of the nation at first was strong for the war, but before the end of it the Tories began publicly to talk the language you mention.  And no wonder they did, for, as they then had a desire to set up again the maxims of government which had prevailed in the reign of their beloved Charles II., they could not but represent opposition to France, and vigorous measures taken to restrain her ambition, as unnecessary for England, because they well knew that the counsels of that king had been utterly averse to such measures; that his whole policy made him a friend to France; that he was governed by a French mistress, and even bribed by French money to give that Court his assistance, or at least his acquiescence, in all their designs.