But seeing the government of those countries resteth in the hands of merchants and advocates--the one regarding profit, the other standing upon vantage of quirks--there is no better fruit to be looked to from them." Yet it was, after all, no quirk in those merchants and advocates to urge that the Queen was not going to war with the great potentate for their sakes alone.

To Elizabeth's honour, she did thoroughly comprehend that the war of the Netherlands was the war of England, of Protestantism, and of European liberty, and that she could no longer, without courting her own destruction, defer taking a part in active military operations.

It was no quirk, then, but solid reasoning, for the States to regard the subject in the same light.

Holland and England were embarked in one boat, and were to sink or swim together.

It was waste of time to wrangle so fiercely over pounds and shillings, but the fault was not to be exclusively imputed to the one side or the other.