That the constitutional government--consisting of nobles and of the vroedschaps of chartered cities--should have been in existence four hundred and seventeen years before the first charter had ever been granted to a city, was a very loose style of argument.

Thomas Wilkes, in reply; might as well have traced the English parliament to Hengist and Horsa.

"For eight hundred years;" they said, "Holland had been governed by Counts and Countesses, on whom the nobles and cities, as representing the States, had legally conferred sovereignty." Now the first incorporated city of Holland and Zeeland that ever existed was Middelburg, which received its charter from Count William I.of Holland and Countess Joan of Flanders; in the year 1217.

The first Count that had any legal recognized authority was Dirk the First to whom Charles the Simple presented the territory of Holland, by letters-patent, in 922.

Yet the States-General, in a solemn and eloquent document, gravely dated their own existence from the year 787, and claimed the regular possession and habitual delegation of sovereignty from that epoch down! After this fabulous preamble, they proceeded to handle the matter of fact with logical precision.