THE YOUTH'S INSTRUCTER AND GUARDIAN. FEBRUARY, 1852. THE FIRST WILLIAM, PRINCE OF ORANGE. (With a Portrait.) ORANGE, once a principality in the south of France, but now merged into the province of Dauphiné, gave his title to the subject of this sketch, than whom few advocates of civil and religious liberty have better deserved honourable remembrance. And it must not be forgotten that he was an ancestor of William III. of England. The Netherlands began to be agitated in consequence of the creation of several new bishoprics, in order to increase the power of the Church of Rome in those provinces of Spain. The direction of ecclesiastical affairs there was confided to the Cardinal de Granville, Archbishop of Mechlin; while the Spanish Inquisitors at Madrid, with the Pope's Nuncio, were fanning the zeal of Philip II. into such intensity as equalled that of Nero. Then it was that the Prince of Orange dared to oppose wiser counsels to those of the Inquisition and the tyrant. Being a Stadtholder, and Member of the Council of State, it was in his power to do so; but finding that the Cardinal and his Clergy, bent on the ruin of the country, were supported by the King, having first remonstrated, but without effect, he withdrew from the Council, and, with some others, especially the Counts Egmont and Horn, was marked as disaffected to the Church. Philip, perceiving that the Cardinal would provoke a general insurrection, reluctantly withdrew him from that part of his dominions; and on his removal from the Council, Orange VOL. XVI. Second Series. C THE YOUTH'S INSTRUCTER AND GUARDIAN. FEBRUARY, 1852. THE FIRST WILLIAM, PRINCE OF ORANGE. (With a Portrait.) ORANGE, once a principality in the south of France, but now merged into the province of Dauphiné, gave his title to the subject of this sketch, than whom few advocates of civil and religious liberty have better deserved honourable remembrance. And it must not be forgotten that he was an ancestor of William III. of England. The Netherlands began to be agitated in consequence of the creation of several new bishoprics, in order to increase the power of the Church of Rome in those provinces of Spain. The direction of ecclesiastical affairs there was confided to the Cardinal de Granville, Archbishop of Mechlin; while the Spanish Inquisitors at Madrid, with the Pope's Nuncio, were fanning the zeal of Philip II. into such intensity as equalled that of Nero. Then it was that the Prince of Orange dared to oppose wiser counsels to those of the Inquisition and the tyrant. Being a Stadtholder, and Member of the Council of State, it was in his power to do so; but finding that the Cardinal and his Clergy, bent on the ruin of the country, were supported by the King, having first remonstrated, but without effect, he withdrew from the Council, and, with some others, especially the Counts Egmont and Horn, was marked as disaffected to the Church. Philip, perceiving that the Cardinal would provoke a general insurrection, reluctantly withdrew him from that part of his dominions; and on his removal from the Council, Orange VOL. XVI. Second Series. C and his friends returned, and pleaded with great earnestness, force of argument, and eloquence, for the repeal of persecuting laws, the recall of the inquisitorial edicts, and permission for every one to worship God according to the persuasion of his conscience. Intrusted by the Sovereign with authority, he discountenanced, and, so far as possible, repressed, every attempt to violate existing laws; yet he represented the hopelessness of carrying the strongholds of conscience by force of sword and faggot; and, no less bound by his oath, as Stadtholder, to guard the rights of the people, he took the difficult position of mediator between the Court of Madrid, on one hand, and the magistracy and population of the Netherlands, on the other. The King required the Prince of Orange, and all others in authority, to swear unconditional obedience to whatever it might please him to command; but, as a conscientious man, already bound by more reasonable and more honourable obligations, he refused to swear. He knew that, if taken in that snare, he would have but one alternative,-to break the oath, or to consent to the slaughter of multitudes whom the Inquisition and the King were resolved to destroy, if possible, and to light up such fires in Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Brussels, as they had recently lit in Seville, Toledo, and other towns beyond the Pyrenees. Unable to obey his King, and equally unable to betray his country, he begged permission to resign the office of a Stadtholder; but the Duchess of Parma, then Governess of the Netherlands, knowing that she could not retain her government if Orange ceased to exert his influence to keep the disaffected States in check, and to appease tumults in the great cities, would not accept his resignation. At that time, however, his views were those of a patriot and statesman, rather than a Christian. With an enlightened mind he had not yet a renewed heart; and, although persuaded of the oppression and immorality of his Church, he had not exchanged its doctrinal errors for the truth as it is in Jesus. Wrongs were multiplied beyond sufferance. Hundreds of persons were put to death for Christ's sake; and each day, as it witnessed new atrocities, brought out new confessions to the power of the grace of God. One part of the magistracy refused to persecute; but others, to keep the letter of the law, allowed themselves to shed blood, in spite of the remonstrances of conscience. And some, whether in bigotry and hatred of all that is holy, or with servility to those above them, vied with one another in burning, drowning, stabbing, and shooting the reputed heretics. The Prince of Orange, unable to prevent those butcheries, withdrew into Germany; and then it was that the Duke of Alva marched his hosts into the Netherlands, with full authority, and with fixed intention, to kill every dissident from Romanism, and rather to depopulate the States than suffer one heretic to live. On the 28th of August, 1567, he entered Brussels, erected the "Council of Blood," and quickly caused one thousand eight hundred persons to pass under the axe of the executioner. Many thousands fled at every outport, but many were murdered for attempting to escape. The crusade was horrible. It is described, but too minutely, on the pages of history. From those descriptions we gladly turn away, and look on the Prince of Orange as first leader of a movement which issued in the separation of the Netherlands from Spain, and the establishment of the blessed Reformation, with the national benefits of liberty and wealth, in the States of Holland. Alva summoned him to return from Germany; but that would have been to volunteer himself to the block, or to the stake. For, at the same time that Alva was perpetrating his murders at Brussels, the sub-Inquisitors were forwarding their reports to their chiefs at Madrid, who formally told the King, from a meeting of their Supreme Council, that they were of opinion that the shortest and best method would be to declare all the Netherlanders, excepting those whose names were sent to them, guilty of heresy and high treason, and to deal with them accordingly. Philip II. approved of their sentence, and commanded it to be carried into execution, which the Duke of Alva proceeded to do by military force. Then it was that these proscribed Netherlanders, marked for slaughter, entreated the Prince of Orange to place himself at their head, and endeavour to repel force by force. Without hesitation he answered to their call. His first care was to |