But it was on the sea that the Netherlanders were really at home, and they always felt it in their power—­as their last resource against foreign tyranny—­to bury their land for ever in the ocean, and to seek a new country at the ends of the earth.  It has always been difficult to doom to political or personal slavery a nation accustomed to maritime pursuits.  Familiarity with the boundless expanse of ocean, and the habit of victoriously contending with the elements in their stormy strength, would seem to inspire a consciousness in mankind of human dignity and worth.  With the exception of Spain, the chief seafaring nations of the world were already protestant.  The counter-league, which was to do battle so strenuously with the Holy Confederacy, was essentially a maritime league.  “All the maritime heretics of the world, since heresy is best suited to navigators, will be banded together,” said Champagny, “and then woe to the Spanish Indies, which England and Holland are already threatening.”

The Netherlanders had been noted from earliest times for a free-spoken and independent personal demeanour.  At this epoch they were taking the lead of the whole world in marine adventure.  At least three thousand vessels of between one hundred and four hundred tons, besides innumerable doggers, busses, cromstevens, and similar craft used on the rivers and in fisheries, were to be found in the United Provinces, and one thousand, it was estimated, were annually built.

They traded to the Baltic regions for honey, wax, tallow, lumber, iron, turpentine, hemp.  They brought from farthest Indies and from America all the fabrics of ancient civilisation, all the newly discovered products of a virgin soil, and dispensed them among the less industrious nations of the earth.  Enterprise, led on and accompanied by science, was already planning the boldest flights into the unknown yet made by mankind, and it will soon be necessary to direct attention to those famous arctic voyages, made by Hollanders in pursuit of the north-west passage to Cathay, in which as much heroism, audacity, and scientific intelligence were displayed as in later times have made so many men belonging to both branches of the Anglo-Saxon race illustrious.  A people, engaged in perennial conflict with a martial and sacerdotal despotism the most powerful in the world, could yet spare enough from its superfluous energies to confront the dangers of the polar oceans, and to bring back treasures of science to enrich the world.

Such was the spirit of freedom.  Inspired by its blessed influence this vigorous and inventive little commonwealth triumphed over all human, all physical obstacles in its path.  It organised armies on new principles to drive the most famous legions of history from its soil.  It built navies to help rescue, at critical moments, the cause of England, of Protestantism, of civil liberty, and even of French nationality.  More than all, by its trade with its arch-enemy, the republic constantly multiplied its resources for destroying his power and aggrandizing its own.