The administration of Leicester has been so minutely pictured, that it would be superfluous to indulge in many concluding reflections.  His acts and words have been made to speak for themselves.  His career in the country has been described with much detail, because the period was a great epoch of transition.  The republic of the Netherlands, during those years, acquired consistency and permanent form.  It seemed possible, on the Earl’s first advent, that the Provinces might become part and parcel of the English realm.  Whether such a consummation would have been desirable or not, is a fruitless enquiry.  But it is certain that the selection of such a man as Leicester made that result impossible.  Doubtless there were many errors committed by all parties.  The Queen was supposed by the Netherlands to be secretly desirous of accepting the sovereignty of the Provinces, provided she were made sure, by the Earl’s experience, that they were competent to protect themselves.  But this suspicion was unfounded.  The result of every investigation showed the country so full of resources, of wealth, and of military and naval capabilities, that, united with England, it would have been a source of great revenue and power, not a burthen and an expense.  Yet, when convinced of such facts, by the statistics which were liberally laid before her by her confidential agents, she never manifested, either in public or private, any intention of accepting the sovereignty.  This being her avowed determination, it was an error on the part of the States, before becoming thoroughly acquainted with the man’s character, to confer upon Leicester the almost boundless authority which they granted on, his first arrival.  It was a still graver mistake, on the part of Elizabeth, to give way to such explosions of fury, both against the governor and the States, when informed of the offer and acceptance of that authority.  The Earl, elevated by the adulation of others, and by his own vanity, into an almost sovereign attitude, saw himself chastised before the world, like an aspiring lackey, by her in whose favour he had felt most secure.  He found, himself, in an instant, humbled and ridiculous.  Between himself and the Queen it was, something of a lovers’ quarrel, and he soon found balsam in the hand that smote him.  But though reinstated in authority, he was never again the object of reverence in the land he was attempting to rule.  As he came to know the Netherlanders better, he recognized the great capacity which their statesmen concealed under a plain and sometimes a plebeian exterior, and the splendid grandee hated, where at first he had only despised.  The Netherlanders, too, who had been used to look up almost with worship to a plain man of kindly manners, in felt hat and bargeman’s woollen jacket, whom they called “Father William,” did not appreciate, as they ought, the magnificence of the stranger who had been sent to govern them.  The Earl was handsome, quick-witted, brave; but he