At the same time it may be doubted whether the instinct for political freedom only would have sustained them in the long contest, and whether the bonds which united them to the Spanish Crown would have been broken, had it not been for the stronger passion for religious liberty, by which so large a portion of the people was animated.  Boldly as the united states of the Netherlands laid down their political maxima, the quarrel might perhaps have been healed if the religious question had admitted of a peaceable solution.  Philip’s bigotry amounting to frenzy, and the Netherlanders of “the religion” being willing, in their own words, “to die the death” rather than abandon the Reformed faith, there was upon this point no longer room for hope.  In the act of abjuration, however, it was thought necessary to give offence to no class of the inhabitants, but to lay down such principles only as enlightened Catholics would not oppose.  All parties abhorred the Inquisition, and hatred to that institution is ever prominent among the causes assigned for the deposition of the monarch.  “Under pretence of maintaining the Roman religion,” said the estates, “the King has sought by evil means to bring into operation the whole strength of the placards and of the Inquisition —­the first and true cause of all our miseries.”

Without making any assault upon the Roman Catholic faith, the authors of the great act by which Philip was for ever expelled from the Netherlands showed plainly enough that religious persecution had driven them at last to extremity.  At the same time, they were willing—­for the sake of conciliating all classes of their countrymen—­to bring the political causes of discontent into the foreground, and to use discreet language upon the religious question.

Such, then, being the spirit which prompted the provinces upon this great occasion, it may be asked who were the men who signed a document of such importance?  In whose-name and by what authority did they act against the sovereign?  The signers of the declaration of independence acted in the name and by the authority of the Netherlands people.  The estates were the constitutional representatives of that people.  The statesmen of that day discovering, upon cold analysis of facts, that Philip’s sovereignty was, legally forfeited; formally proclaimed that forfeiture.  Then inquiring what had become of the sovereignty, they found it not in the mass of the people, but in the representative body, which actually personated the people.  The estates of the different provinces—­ consisting of the knights, nobles, and burgesses of each—­sent, accordingly, their deputies to the general assembly at the Hague; and by this congress the decree of abjuration was issued.  It did, not occur to any one to summon the people in their primary assemblies, nor would the people of that day, have comprehended the objects of such a summons.  They were accustomed to the action of the estates, and those bodies represented as large