History of the United Netherlands, 1587b | Page 8

will respond immediately."
Menyn then, in the name of the deputies, expressed thanks for the
urbanity shown them in the conference, and spoke of the deep regret
with which they had perceived, by her Majesty's answer two days
before, that she was so highly offended with them and with the
States-General. He then, notwithstanding Burghley's previous hint as to
the lateness of the hour, took up the Queen's answer, point by point,
contradicted all its statements, appealing frequently to Lord Leicester
for confirmation of what he advanced, and concluded by begging the
councillors to defend the cause of the Netherlands to her Majesty,
Burghley requested them to make an excuse or reply to the Queen in
writing, and send it to him to present. Thus the conference terminated,
and the envoys returned to London. They were fully convinced by the
result of, these interviews, as they told their constituents, that her
Majesty, by false statements and reports of persons either grossly
ignorant or not having the good of the commonwealth before their eyes,
had been very incorrectly informed as to the condition of the Provinces,
and of the great efforts made by the States-General to defend their
country against the enemy: It was obvious, they said, that their
measures had been exaggerated in order to deceive the Queen and her

council.
And thus statements and counter-statements, protocols and apostilles,
were glibly exchanged; the heap of diplomatic rubbish was rising
higher and higher, and the councillors and envoys, pleased with their
work, were growing more and more amicable, when the court was
suddenly startled by the news of the Deventer and Zutphen treason. The
intelligence was accompanied by the famous 4th of February letter,
which descended, like a bombshell, in the midst of the, decorous
council-chamber. Such language had rarely been addressed to the Earl
of Leicester, and; through him; to the imperious sovereign herself, as
the homely truths with which Barneveld, speaking with the voice of the
States-General, now smote the delinquent governor.
"My Lord," said he, "it is notorious; and needs no illustration whatever,
with what true confidence and unfeigned affection we received your
Excellency in our land; the States-General, the States-Provincial, the
magistrates, and the communities of the chief cities in the United
Provinces, all uniting to do honour to her serene Majesty of England
and to yourself, and to confer upon you the government-general over us.
And although we should willingly have placed some limitations upon
the authority thus bestowed on you; in, order that by such a course your
own honour and the good and constitutional condition of the country
might be alike preserved, yet finding your Excellency not satisfied with
those limitations, we postponed every objection, and conformed
ourselves to your pleasure. Yet; before coming to that decision, we had
well considered that by doing so we might be opening a door to many
ambitious, avaricious, and pernicious persons, both of these countries
and from other nations, who might seize the occasion to advance their
own private profits, to the detriment of the country and the dishonour
of your Excellency.
"And, in truth, such persons have done their work so efficiently as to
inspire you with distrust against the most faithful and capable men in
the Provinces, against the Estates General and Provincial, magistrates,
and private persons, knowing very well that they could never arrive at
their own ends so long as you were guided by the constitutional
authorities of the country. And precisely upon the distrust; thus created
as a foundation, they raised a back-stairs council, by means of which
they were able to further their ambitious, avaricious, and seditious

practices, notwithstanding the good advice and remonstrances of the
council of state, and the States General and Provincial."
He proceeded to handle the subjects of the English rose-noble; put in
circulation by Leicester's finance or back-stairs council at two florins
above its value, to the manifest detriment of the Provinces, to the
detestable embargo which had prevented them from using the means
bestowed upon them by God himself to defend their country, to the
squandering. and embezzlement of the large sums contributed by the
Province; and entrusted to the Earl's administration; to the starving
condition of the soldiers; maltreated by government, and thus
compelled to prey upon the inhabitants--so that troops in the States'
service had never been so abused during the whole war, although the
States had never before voted such large contributions nor paid them so
promptly--to the placing in posts of high honour and trust men of
notoriously bad character and even Spanish spies; to the taking away
the public authority from those to whom it legitimately belonged, and
conferring it on incompetent and unqualified persons; to the illegal
banishment of respectable citizens, to the violation of time-honoured
laws and privileges, to the