This result, together with the physical causes already indicated, made the downfall of the commonwealth probable whenever it should be attacked by an overwhelming force from without.
The States-General, however, at this epoch--although they had in a manner usurped the sovereignty, which in the absence of a feudal lord really belonged to the whole people, and had silently repossessed themselves of those executive functions which they had themselves conferred upon the state council--were at any rate without self-seeking ambition.

The Hollanders, as a race, were not office seekers, but were singularly docile to constituted authority, while their regents--as the municipal magistrates were commonly called--were not very far removed above the mass by birth or habitual occupation.

The republic was a social and political fact, against which there was no violent antagonism either of laws or manners, and the people, although not technically existing, in reality was all in all.

In Netherland story the People is ever the true hero.

It was an almost unnoticed but significant revolution--that by which the state council was now virtually deprived of its authority.
During Leicester's rule it had been a most important college of administration.