James Edwin Thorold Rogers

“ It is said that the two years' war with England involved greater losses to the Dutch merchants than the whole of the war with Spain had. But if the Dutch were anxious for peace, the English were riot unwilling. After long negotiations, peace was effected in 1654, and on terms which gave lasting offence to the Orange party, for Cromwell bound De Witt to prevent the succession of the young prince to the office of Stadtholder.
The Dutch, in sheltering the English exiles with Charles Stewart at their head, had protected men at their own serious risk, in whom there was neither gratitude nor honour. ”

“ These, in the almost total absence of vegetables and modern condiments were the choicest flavours which men desired some centuries ago, and the Dutch tried to appropriate the whole supply. The English, who were at this time almost the only rivals of the Dutch in the East, for the Portuguese trade was well-nigh ruined, determined that they should not have this monopoly, and during the first half of the seventeenth century, the East India Company in England had been making considerable progress. ”

“ As this was the diminution of William's income, he was discontented, and the mischievous woman he had married, true to the instincts of her race, urged him to strike for more power. He imprisoned members of the States-General without form of law, because they were, or he thought they were, unfriendly to his schemes, and then attempted to effect by surprise the military occupation of Amsterdam, in which he was foiled, for the Amsterdam burghers, on discovering his plot, threatened to cut the dykes. ”