From The Edinburgh Review. MOTLEY'S LIFE AND DEATH OF BARNE VELDT.* |consented to treat with her former dependency as with an independent power. But singularly enough, this truce of WE gladly welcome Mr. Motley's re- twelve years had hardly been concluded appearance in the arena of history; these when the death of the Duke of Cleves two volumes are a fitting sequel to those without an heir created a fresh crisis in which have already been so favourably European politics, which not only imreceived by the reading public in either perilled the existence of the truce, so hemisphere; and without any suspicion painfully patched up after nearly half a of ingratitude we trust we may look upon century of war, but seemed likely to inthis publication with a lively hope of sim-volve all Europe in a new conflict. ilar favours yet to come. They contain Cleves. Few events in history have created so in fact the history of Europe during the much interest among men as the vacanfitful twelve years' armistice which inter-cy of this inheritance of the Duke of vened 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. between the two rival camps into which It was an apple of discord thrown directly 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 the Scheldt. It was vital to them to exclude Austria governing the Rhine, the Meuse, and 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 This history, which styles itself "The Life and Death of John of Barneveldt," strengthened, the Archduke Albert isolated 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 The Life and Death of John of Barneveldt, Ad 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, should be appealed to by all parties, and the only living statesman that wore a crown, 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 vocate of Holland, with a View of the Primary Causes and Movements of the Thirty Years War. Elector of Brandenburg and the Count By JOHN LOTHROP Motley, D.C.L., LL.D. Two Palatine of Neuburg, on the other. vols. 8vo. London: 1874. Mr. Motley has thought fit to drop the final 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. 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 |