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Proctor's handling of this complex subject is that which refers to what are termed the librations of the moon; that is, the nodding to and fro, to a small extent, of the portion of the lunar sphere which is directed towards the earth. The moon goes round the earth much as if it were placed on the end of a long rigid arm, which turned upon a pivot fixed nearly at the earth's centre; that is to say, it turns once upon itself as it revolves once round the earth, and keeps itself nearly upright as it does so, and in this way always presents the same face towards the earth. But because it does not move round the earth quite upright, and because, in its eccentric course, it shoots along sometimes a little more quickly, and sometimes a little more slowly, than it shifts round upon itself, a little more, of sometimes one part and sometimes another part, of the further half is brought forward into view. In this way about foursevenths, instead of one-half, of the entire surface of the moon become visible to human eyes. These librations or balancings of the moon are an interesting part of the consequences of perturbation, but there is one of them-that, namely, which takes place in longitude-which is of surpassing importance, on account of the evidence which it affords of the actual shape of the moon. The investigations of Newton into these balancings, and the subsequent extension of the inquiry by Lagrange, have made it obvious that the moon not only is slightly protuberant at its equatorial belt, but that it also is bulged out a little at the part which is most directly opposite to the earth. The moon is 186 feet thicker through in this particular direction than in its other next largest diameters, and Lagrange had no doubt that this bulging out towards the earth at one point is the potential cause of the moon always turning one face towards the terrestrial observer. He believed that the rotation of the moon upon itself was at some remote period of its history performed in a period that differed very materially from the term of the moon's revolution about the earth, and that the attraction of the earth, acting most powerfully upon this protuberant point, gradually dragged the rotation period down into conformity with the time of the orbital revolution.

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But of all the perturbation-manifestations of gravitating force, the one that has the most vital interest for man is unquestionably that which comes out as the tides of the ocean; and it is matter of some regret, on account of the telling illustration which these periodical swellings of the waters afford of the ruling fact that is at the bottom of all such balancings, noddings, and swayings, that this subject may not be further pursued at the end of a Review article which has already made a very large demand upon the reader's attention.

ART. IV.-The Life and Death of John of Barneveldt, Advocate of Holland, with a View of the Primary Causes and Movements of the Thirty Years' War. By JoHN LOTHROP MOTLEY, D.C.L., LL.D. Two vols. 8vo. London: 1874. WE gladly welcome Mr. Motley's reappearance in the arena of history; these two volumes are a fitting sequel to those which have already been so favourably received by the reading public in either hemisphere; and without any suspicion of ingratitude we trust we may look upon this publication with a lively hope of similar favours yet to come. They contain in fact the history of Europe during the fitful twelve years' armistice which intervened between the war of forty years' duration which established the independence of the Netherlands and the war of thirty years' duration which settled the religious peace of Europe. For the history of that period is indeed the history of one man--that of John of Barneveldt.* The pages before us are the result of long and arduous study in the archives of several countries, and especially in those of the Hague and of Brussels; and we can hardly give too much appreciation to that subtle alchemy of the brain which has enabled him to produce out of dull, crabbed, and often illegible state papers the vivid, graphic, and sparkling narrative which he has given to the world.

This history, which styles itself The Life and Death of John ' of Barneveldt,' does occupy itself in reality only with the story of the great statesman during the last ten years of his existence. In his former historical works Mr. Motley had given a narrative of the revolution in the Netherlands, in which the great Advocate played so leading a part, and followed them down to the time at which, after forty years of hard fighting, Spain virtually acknowledged the independence of the Republic and concluded with her a truce of twelve years, by which she consented to treat with her former dependency as with an independent power. But singularly enough this truce of twelve years had hardly been concluded when the death of the Duke of Cleves without an heir created a fresh crisis in European politics, which not only imperilled the existence of the truce, so painfully patched up after nearly half a century

Mr. Motley has thought fit to drop the final t in spelling the name of his hero; but we know not for what reason. He himself states that the Advocate was of the knightly house of Oldenbarneveldt,' and by most of the best English writers the true spelling of the name has been retained. We therefore adhere to it.

of war, but seemed likely to involve all Europe in a new conflict.

Few events in history have created so much interest among men as the vacancy of this inheritance of the Duke of Cleves.

'It was an apple of discord thrown directly between the two rival camps into which Christendom was divided. The duchies of Cleves, Berg, and Jülich and the counties and lordships of Mark, Ravensberg, and Ravenstein, formed a triangle political and geographical, closely wedged between Catholicism and Protestantism, and between France, the United Provinces, Belgium, and Germany. Should it fall into Catholic hands, the Netherlands were lost, trampled upon in every corner, hedged in on all sides, with the House of Austria governing the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt. It was vital to them to exclude the Empire from the great historic river which seemed destined to form the perpetual frontier of jealous powers and rival creeds. Should it fall into heretic hands, the States were vastly strengthened, the Archduke Albert isolated and cut off from the protection of Spain and of the Empire. France, although Catholic, was the ally of Holland, and the secret but well-known enemy of the House of Austria. It was inevitable that the king of that country, the only living statesman that wore a crown, should be appealed to by all parties, and should find himself in the proud but dangerous position of arbiter of Europe. In this emergency he relied upon himself, and on two men besides, Maximilian de Béthune (Sully), and John of Barneveldt.' (Vol. i. pp. 60, 61.)

Among the many aspirants to the vacant duchies the real competitors were the Emperor on the one side, and the Elector of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine of Neuburg, on the other. These two princes, under the advice of Barneveldt and of a council of the Protestant princes of Germany, came to an arrangement that a Condominium should be provisionally established, by which the duchies should be held in common until the affair could be amicably settled. But meanwhile the Bishop Archduke Leopold, cousin of the Emperor, managed to instal himself in Jülich, and aimed at obtaining the sovereignty with the help of the Catholic League. The States, under the lead of Barneveldt and Henry IV., determined to support the rights of the possessory princes, the Elector of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine of Neuburg.

The great hero of the first volume of this work is Henry IV., on whose figure Mr. Motley-with perhaps some violation of the principle of unity-has in the opening chapters bestowed as much labour as on Barneveldt himself later on in the story. Few characters indeed in all history excite more interest and sympathy than the great king who was cut down in the plenitude of his strength and his power, on the very eve of

entering actively upon the conduct of his great design for curbing the power of the House of Austria and establishing on a firm basis the peace of Europe. And we can imagine no better antidote to the doctrines of that modern school of history which would make the story of the world a mere resultant of the combined action of general social forces, uninfluenced by the workings of individual will and energy, than the study of this period. If Henry IV. and Barneveldt had not both of them been suddenly snatched away from the theatre of the world just as one of its most terrible dramas was about to commence, it may with certainty be predicated that its subsequent history would have been greatly altered.

Henry IV. at once saw that the question of the duchies of Cleves afforded him the long-desired opportunity for carrying out his grand design,' and entered at once into the execution of his project with all the eager impetuosity of an indefatigably youthful nature.

'Scarcely an afternoon passed that the King did not make his appearance at the Arsenal, the residence of Sully, and walk up and down the garden with him for hours, discussing the great project of which his brain was full. The great project was to crush for ever the power of the Austrian House; to drive Spain back into her own limits, putting an end to her projects for universal monarchy, and taking the imperial crown from the House of Hapsburg. By thus breaking up the mighty cousinship which, with the aid of Rome, overshadowed Germany and the two peninsulas, besides governing the greater part of both the Indies, he meant to bring France into the preponderant position over Christendom which he believed to be her due. It was necessary, he thought, for the continued existence of the Dutch commonwealth that the opportunity should be taken once for all, now that a glorious captain commanded its armies, and a statesman unrivalled for experience, insight, and patriotism controlled its politics and its diplomacy, to drive the Spaniard out of the Netherlands.' (Vol. i. p. 98.)

No statesman of the present day, in the event of a general European war, would place much store by the alliance of Holland: far otherwise was it in the days of Henry IV. and Barneveldt. The Seven Provinces of the Netherlands had then come out of a forty years' struggle with one of the great powers of Europe, a struggle which was one long combat with foreign tyranny such as no people in history had ever waged before; and they had come out of it with need of repose indeed to recruit their strength, but with a mighty prestige attached to their name. They stood in the rank of the foremost nations of the world. It is, indeed, not easy, as Mr. Motley says, in imagination, to thrust back the present leading

empires of the earth into the contracted spheres of their not remote past. And it is only by recalling to mind what Germany, Russia, Italy, and even Great Britain were at that time, that we can comprehend how these small provinces, held together only by a loose and ill-defined treaty, contrived to play so leading a part among the powers of Europe. In point of wealth, indeed, alone, the Seven Provinces of the Netherlands could claim equality with the two great rival powers of Spain and France-each of which contained something like treble their population. As contrasted with England their revenue was even larger-the yearly income of Queen Elizabeth having barely amounted to 600,000l. or 700,0007., while the Netherlands had shown themselves capable of raising year by year a revenue amounting to one million sterling.

Unfortunately, however, the league which bound these provinces together was of so loose a character as not to deserve the name of a constitution. The ill-defined articles of the Union of Utrecht, established in 1579, still formed the foundation of the Commonwealth. This Union was a league between seven ostensibly sovereign states, in each of which states the sovereignty was disseminated through multitudinous boards of magistracy: close corporations-each self-electedby which every city was governed. These boards sent deputies to each of the seven provincial assemblies, and it was of deputies elected by these assemblies that their High Mightinesses the Lord States General' were composed. The province of Holland, by reason of its being richer and more powerful than its fellow provinces, took the lead in this confederacy, and its lead was practically allowed by the rest.

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'The Advocate and Keeper of the Great Seal of that province was therefore virtually prime minister, president, attorney-general, finance minister, and minister of foreign affairs of the whole republic. This was Barneveldt's position. He took the lead in the deliberations of both of the states of Holland and the States General, passed resolutions, advocated great measures of state, gave heed to their execution, col lected the votes, summed up the proceedings, corresponded with and instructed ambassadors, received and negotiated with foreign ministers, besides directing and holding in his hands the various threads of the home policy, and the rapidly growing colonial system of the republic. All this work Barneveldt had been doing for thirty years.' (Vol. i. p. 10.)

But there was yet another great figure in the state of the Netherlands, Prince Maurice of Nassau, the son of William the Silent, whose energetic life to the time of the conclusion of the truce, had been absorbed in the conduct of war in which he had gained imperishable renown, and between whom and

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