Had the Hollanders basely sunk before the power of Spain, the proud history of England, France, and Germany would have been written in far different terms.

The blood and tears which the Netherlanders caused to flow in their own stormy days have turned to blessings for remotest climes and ages.

A pusillanimous peace, always possible at any period of their war, would have been hailed with rapture by contemporary statesmen, whose names have vanished from the world's memory; but would have sown with curses and misery the soil of Europe for succeeding ages.

The territory of the Netherlands is narrow and meagre.

It is but a slender kingdom now among the powers of the earth.