William, Prince of Orange; his Appearance--His early Life and Education--His Theological Opinions--His Military Qualifications--His Love of Danger; his bad Health--Coldness of his Manners and Strength of his Emotions; his Friendship for Bentinck--Mary, Princess of Orange--Gilbert Burnet--He brings about a good Understanding between the Prince and Princess--Relations between William and English Parties--His Feelings towards England--His Feelings towards Holland and France--His Policy consistent throughout--Treaty of Augsburg--William becomes the Head of the English Opposition--Mordaunt proposes to William a Descent on England--William rejects the Advice--Discontent in England after the Fall of the Hydes--Conversions to Popery; Peterborough;Salisbury--Wycherley; Tindal; Haines--Dryden--The Hind and Panther--Change in the Policy of the Court towards the Puritans--Partial Toleration granted in Scotland--Closeting--It is unsuccessful--Admiral Herbert_--Declaration of Indulgence--Feeling of the Protestant Dissenters--Feeling of the Church of England--The Court and the Church--Letter to a Dissenter; Conduct of the Dissenters--Some of the Dissenters side with the Court;Care; Alsop--Rosewell; Lobb--Venn--The Majority of the Puritans are against the Court; Baxter; Howe,--Banyan--Kiffin--The Prince and Princess of Orange hostile to the Declaration of Indulgence--Their Views respecting the English Roman Catholics vindicated--Enmity of James to Burnet--Mission of Dykvelt to England;Negotiations of Dykvelt with English Statesmen--Danby--Nottingham--Halifax--Devonshire--Edward Russell; Compton;Herbert--Churchill--Lady Churchill and the Princess Anne--Dykvelt returns to the Hague with Letters from many eminent Englishmen--Zulestein's Mission--Growing Enmity between James and William--Influence of the Dutch Press--Correspondence of Stewart and Fagel--Castelmaine's embassy to Rome THE place which William Henry, Prince of Orange Nassau, occupies in the history of England and of mankind is so great that it may be desirable to portray with some minuteness the strong lineaments of his character.208He was now in his thirty-seventh year. But both in body and in mind he was older than other men of the same age. Indeed it might be said that he had never been young. His external appearance is almost as well known to us as to his own captains and counsellors. Sculptors, painters, and medallists exerted their utmost skill in the work of transmitting his features to posterity; and his features were such as no artist could fail to seize, and such as, once seen, could never be forgotten. His name at once calls up before us a slender and feeble frame, a lofty and ample forehead, a nose curved like the beak of an eagle, an eye rivalling that of an eagle in brightness and keenness, a thoughtful and somewhat sullen brow, a firm and somewhat peevish mouth, a cheek pale, thin, and deeply furrowed by sickness and by care. That pensive, severe, and solemn aspect could scarcely have belonged to a happy or a goodhumoured man. But it indicates in a manner not to be mistaken capacity equal to the most arduous enterprises, and fortitude not to be shaken by reverses or dangers.
Nature had largely endowed William with the qualities of a great ruler; and education had developed those qualities in no common degree. With strong natural sense, and rare force of will, he found himself, when first his mind began to open, a fatherless and motherless child, the chief of a great but depressed and disheartened party, and the heir to vast and indefinite pretensions, which excited the dread and aversion of the oligarchy then supreme in the United Provinces. The common people, fondly attached during a century to his house, indicated, whenever they saw him, in a manner not to be mistaken, that they regarded him as their rightful head. The able and experienced ministers of the republic, mortal enemies of his name, came every day to pay their feigned civilities to him, and to observe the progress of his mind. The first movements of his ambition were carefully watched: every unguarded word uttered by him was noted down; nor had he near him any adviser on whose judgment reliance could be placed. He was scarcely fifteen years old when all the domestics who were attached to his interest, or who enjoyed any share of his confidence, were removed from under his roof by the jealous government. He remonstrated with energy beyond his years, but in vain. Vigilant observers saw the tears more than once rise in the eyes of the young state prisoner. His health, naturally delicate, sank for a time under the emotions which his desolate situation had produced. Such situations bewilder and unnerve the weak, but call forth all the strength of the strong. Surrounded by snares in which an ordinary youth would have perished, William learned to tread at once warily and firmly. Long before he reached manhood he knew how to keep secrets, how to baffle curiosity by dry and guarded answers, how to conceal all passions under the same show of grave tranquillity. Meanwhile he made little proficiency in fashionable or literary accomplishments.