parties.  Though received with deserved and universal acclamation, it had not the authority of a popular document.  This, however, was the character studiously impressed upon the “Brussels Union.”  The people, subdivided according to the various grades of their social hierarchy, had been solemnly summoned to council, and had deliberately recorded their conviction.  No restraint had been put upon their freedom of action, and there was hardly a difference of opinion as to the necessity of the measure.

A rapid revolution in Friesland, Groningen, and the dependencies, had recently restored that important country to the national party.  The Portuguese De Billy had been deprived of his authority as King’s stadholder, and Count Hoogstraaten’s brother, Baron de Ville, afterwards as Count Renneberg infamous for his, treason to the cause of liberty, had been appointed by the estates in his room.  In all this district the “Union of Brussels” was eagerly signed by men of every degree.  Holland and Zealand, no less than the Catholic provinces of the south willingly accepted the compromise which was thus laid down, and which was thought to be not only an additional security for the past, not only a pillar more for the maintenance of the Ghent Pacification, but also a sure precursor of a closer union in the future.  The Union of Brussels became, in fact, the stepping-stone to the “Union of Utrecht,” itself the foundation-stone of a republic destined to endure more than two centuries.  On the other hand, this early union held the seed, of its own destruction within itself.  It was not surprising, however, that a strong declaration in favor of the Catholic religion should be contained in a document intended for circulation through all the provinces.  The object was to unite as large a force, and to make as striking a demonstration before the eyes of the Governor General as was practicable under the circumstances.  The immediate purpose was answered, temporary union was formed, but it was impossible that a permanent crystallization should take place where so strong a dissolvent as the Catholic clause had been admitted.  In the sequel, therefore, the union fell asunder precisely at this fatal flaw.  The next union was that which definitely separated the provinces into Protestant, and Catholic, into self-governing republics, and the dependencies of a distant despotism.  The immediate effect, however, of the “Brussels Union” was to rally all lovers of the fatherland and haters of a foreign tyranny upon one vital point—­the expulsion of the stranger from the land.  The foot of the Spanish soldier should no longer profane their soil.  All men were forced to pronounce themselves boldly and unequivocally, in order that the patriots might stand shoulder to shoulder, and the traitors be held up to infamy.  This measure was in strict accordance with the advice given more than once by the Prince of Orange, and was almost in literal fulfilment of the Compromise, which he had sketched before the arrival of Don John.