Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: " The Rise of the Dutch Republic," published some four years ago, won its way, not perhaps rapidly, but very surely. The subject was well chosen, and, on the whole, worthily handled. Hence the " History of the United Netherlands" was anxiously looked for. It has fulfilled, and more than fulfilled, the most favourable expectations. Though called by another name, the present work is a direct continuation of the former. The "Rise of the Dutch Republic" closed with the death of William the Silent in 1584; the " History of the United Netherlands " takes up the tale at the date of that calamity, and carries it on till after the destruction of the Armada. The narration of that destruction is a theme of which Englishmen can never grow weary. Yet, on the whole, these volumes are not so rich in scenes of striking and varied interest as were their predecessors. There is nothing here to compare, in wild romance, with the famous submarine expeditions of Philipsland and Zierickzee; there are no horrors like the horrors of the " Spanish Fury," or the sack of Haarlem ; nor are our hearts stirred by any such picture of noble endurance, rewarded by happy triumph, as is presented in the agony and relief of Leyden. On the other hand, the drama has broadened and deepened. We are no longer concerned with the rebellion of a province. The revolt of the "Beggars of the Sea" has expanded into the long strife of which the Reformation was the real beginning, and which was to end only with the peace of Westphalia. Mr. Motley's two volumes comprise the history of not more than six years. But in that brief period came the crisis of the most momentous struggle the world has ever seen— Despotism and Popery striving against Freedom and Toleration for the possession of the civilised world. It should always be re...