CHAPTER VII. SPIRITED REMONSTRANCE ... ANECDOTE OF A REGICIDE ... INTERESTING ANECDOTE OF FRANK HALS AND VANDYKE ... A DUTCH BLOOMFIELD ... DELIGHTFUL PASSAGE TO THE HAGUE ... DUTCH DISCUSSION OF DESDEMONA’S WISH ... RYSWICK ... APPROACH TO THE HAGUE ... DUTCH REVIEW ... OLD AND NEW CONSTITUTIONS COMPARED ... BRIEF REVIEW OF THE ANCIENT CONSTITUTION OF HOLLAND ... ALSO OF THE POLITICAL HISTORY ... REMARKS ON THE PRINCES OF THE HOUSE OF ORANGE. It is but just to state, however, that, during their political change, many of the people displayed great firmness, and none more than the manufacturers of this town, who in the year 1803 presented to the executive government of the Batavian republic, a very spirited remonstrance against the temporary suspension of an edict passed in 1802, prohibiting the importation of foreign manufactures of which the following is an extract: “Should we be left destitute,” said they, “of that just and lawful support, which we still hope to obtain, we shall be compelled to demand, that the laws which forbid the exportation of manufacturing tools and implements be repealed, in order that we may be enabled to sell our valuable tools and implements, which will then become altogether useless to us, to foreigners who know how to appreciate their value, or to transplant our manufactories into countries where they daily experience the encouragement which they so highly deserve.” Not far from the old church, the tower of which is alarmingly out of its perpendicular, is the identical house in which William I. was murdered by a bigoted hireling of the King of Spain in 1584. A Dutch inscription, placed over two holes in the wall on the stairs, made by the pistol bullets after they had passed through his body, communicates the savage circumstance. The bigots of Spain celebrated the murderer as a martyr, and his family were ennobled and pensioned. A solitary instance of honours being paid to a regicide. Well has our immortal bard observed: ——If I could find example Of thousands, that had struck anointed kings, And flourish’d after, I’d not do’t; but since Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment bears not one, Let villainy itself forswear’t. _Winter’s Tale._