were to be drawn from the country itself. With modest simplicity, he
observed that he had been at work fifteen or sixteen years, doing his
best, with the grace of God, to secure the freedom of the fatherland and
to resist tyranny of conscience; that he alone--assisted by his brothers
and some friends and relatives--had borne the whole burthen in the
beginning, and that he had afterwards been helped by the states of
Holland and Zealand, so that he could not but render thanks to God for
His great mercy in thus granting His blessing to so humble an instrument,
and thus restoring so many beautiful provinces to their ancient freedom
and to the true religion. The Prince protested that this result was
already a sufficient reward for his labors--a great consolation in his
sufferings. He had hoped, he said, that the estates, "taking into
consideration his long-continued labors, would have been willing to
excuse him from a new load of cares, and would have granted him some
little rest in his already advanced age;" that they would have selected
"some other person more fitted for the labor, whom he would himself
faithfully promise to assist to the best of his abilities, rendering him
willing obedience proportionate to the authority conferred upon him."

Like all other attempts to induce the acceptance, by the Prince, of
supreme authority, this effort proved ineffectual, from the obstinate
unwillingness of his hand to receive the proffered sceptre.

In connection with this movement, and at about the same epoch, Jacob
Swerius, member of the Brabant Council, with other deputies, waited upon
Orange, and formally tendered him the sovereign dukedom of Brabant,
forfeited and vacant by the late crime of Anjou. The Prince, however,
resolutely refused to accept the dignity, assuring the committee that he
had not the means to afford the country as much protection as they had a
right to expect from their sovereign. He added that "he would never give