3 The statement of a sharp-eyed contemporary, the English ambassador, Sir William Temple, is here of interest and applies in the first place to Amsterdam, then exceeding in importance all the other Dutch towns: “It is evident, to those who have read the most, and travelled the farthest, that no country can be found either in the present age (i.e. 1672), or upon record of any story, where so vast a trade has been managed, as in the narrow compass of the four maritime Provinces of this commonwealth (i.e. the Dutch Republic): nay, it is generally esteemed that they have more shipping belong to them, than there does to the rest of Europe.” (_Observations on the United Provinces_, Chap. VI, p. 182). 4 It is interesting to note here the following opinions of a contemporary, Sir William Temple: “There are some customs or dispositions, that seem to run generally through all these degrees of men among the them; as great frugality, and order, in their expenses. Their common riches lie in every man’s having more than he spends; or, to say it more properly, in every man’s spending less than he has coming in, be that what it will: nor does it enter into men’s heads among them, that the common port or course of expence should equal the revenue and, when this happens, they think at least they have lived that year to no purpose; and the train of it discredits a man among them, as much as any vicious or prodigal extravagance does in other countries. This enables every man to bear their extreme taxes, and makes them less sensible than they would be in other places.” (_Observations upon the United Provinces_, Chap. IV, p. 158.) 5 Sir William Temple writes in 1672: “It is hardly to be imagined, how all the violence and sharpness, which accompanies the differences of religion in other countries, seems to be appeased or softened here, by the general freedom which all men enjoy, either by allowance or connivance. No man can here complain of pressure in his conscience. The power of religion among them, where it is, lies in every man’s heart.” (_Observations_, Chap. V, p. 180.)