by the contracting states.  The common expenses were to be apportioned among the different provinces, “as if they were all included in the republic of a single city.”  Nine commissioners, appointed by the Prince on nomination by the estates, were to sit permanently, as his advisers, and as assessors and collectors of the taxes.  The tenure of the union was from six months to six months, with six weeks notice.

The framers of this compact having thus defined the general outlines of the confederacy, declared that the government, thus constituted, should be placed under a single head.  They accordingly conferred supreme authority on the Prince, defining his powers in eighteen articles.  He was declared chief commander by land and sea.  He was to appoint all officers, from generals to subalterns, and to pay them at his discretion.  The whole protection of the land was devolved upon him.  He was to send garrisons or troops into every city and village at his pleasure, without advice or consent of the estates, magistrates of the cities, or any other persons whatsoever.  He was, in behalf of the King as Count of Holland and Zealand, to cause justice to be administered by the supreme court.  In the same capacity he was to provide for vacancies in all political and judicial offices of importance, choosing, with the advice of the estates, one officer for each vacant post out of three candidates nominated to him by that body.  He was to appoint and renew, at the usual times, the magistracies in the cities, according to the ancient constitutions.  He was to make changes in those boards, if necessary, at unusual times, with consent of the majority of those representing the great council and corpus of the said cities.  He was to uphold the authority and pre-eminence of all civil functionaries, and to prevent governors and military officers from taking any cognizance of political or judicial affairs.  With regard to religion, he was to maintain the practice of the Reformed Evangelical religion, and to cause to surcease the exercise of all other religions contrary to the Gospel.  He was, however, not to permit that inquisition should be made into any man’s belief or conscience, or that any man by cause thereof should suffer trouble, injury, or hindrance.

The league thus concluded was a confederation between a group of virtually independent little republics.  Each municipality, was, as it were, a little sovereign, sending envoys to a congress to vote and to sign as plenipotentiaries.  The vote of each city was, therefore, indivisible, and it mattered little, practically, whether there were one deputy or several.  The nobles represented not only their own order, but were supposed to act also in behalf of the rural population.  On the whole, there was a tolerably fair representation of the whole nation.  The people were well and worthily represented in the government of each city, and therefore equally so in the assembly of the estates.  It was not till later that the corporations, by the extinction of the popular element, and by the usurpation of the right of self-election, were thoroughly stiffened into fictitious personages which never died, and which were never thoroughly alive.