condition, had there been a person competent to wield, and willing to
accept, the authority once exercised by William I. But it was also
certain that this was exactly the authority which Elizabeth had forbidden
Leicester to assume. Yet it is diffcult to understand what position the
Queen intended that her favourite should maintain, nor how he was to
carry out her instructions, while submitting to her prohibitions.
He was directed to cause the confused government of the Provinces to
be redressed, and a better form of polity to be established. He was
ordered, in particular, to procure a radical change in the constitution,
by causing the deputies to the General Assembly to be empowered to decide
upon important matters, without, as had always been the custom, making
direct reference to the assemblies of the separate Provinces. He was
instructed to bring about, in some indefinite way, a complete reform in
financial matters, by compelling the States-General to raise money by
liberal taxation, according to the "advice of her Majesty, delivered unto
them by her lieutenant."

And how was this radical change in the institutions of the Provinces to
be made by an English earl, whose only authority was that of commander-
in-chief over five thousand half-starved, unpaid, utterly-forlorn English
troops?

The Netherland envoys in England, in their parting advice, most
distinctly urged him "to hale authority with the first, to declare
himself chief head and governor-general" of the whole country,--for it
was a political head that was wanted in order to restore unity of action
--not an additional general, where there were already generals in plenty.
Sir John Norris, valiant, courageous, experienced--even if not, as
Walsingham observed, a "religious soldier," nor learned in anything "but
a kind of licentious and corrupt government"--was not likely to require