Holland, that the magistrates of the several cities in that province should be authorized to levy soldiers for the purpose of securing the public tranquillity. The representatives of several towns vehemently opposed this proposition, but it was adopted, after a stormy debate; and, August 4, 1617, a proclamation was issued to carry it into execution. This decree directly induced a train of circumstances, which eventually led to the death of Barneveldt, and the ruin and banishment of Grotius. Prince Maurice of Nassau, who was at that time Governor and Captain-general of the United Provinces, denounced it as an act illegal and unjustifiable in itself, and an invasion of his authority. He influenced the States-General to write to the magistrates of those provinces and cities which had acted under the decree by raising soldiers, commanding them to disband their levies; and upon the refusal of many of them to comply with this requisition, he obtained authority to proceed to the recusant cities, and enforce their obedience. Having executed this commission successfully in the towns of Nimeguen, Overyssel, and Arnheim, Maurice, who on the death of his brother in February, 1618, had assumed the title of Prince of Orange, proceeded to Utrecht, with the same object. The States of Holland had in the mean time sent thither Grotius and Hoogerbertz, the Pensionary of Leyden, for the purpose of opposing the Prince’s commission. They stimulated the magistrates of the city to resist the assumed authority of the States-General, to increase their militia, and to double the guards at the gates. They also brought letters from the States of Holland to the officers of the ordinary garrison, persuading them that it was their duty to obey the States of Utrecht, in opposition to the States-General and the Prince of Orange. Notwithstanding these preparations the Prince entered the city without forcible resistance, and having disbanded the new levies, displaced several magistrates, and arrested some of those who had been most active in their opposition, returned to the Hague. Grotius was now satisfied that all further attempts at opposition would be useless, and prevailed upon the magistrates of Rotterdam at once to dismiss the levies made under the obnoxious decree. The Prince of Orange and the States-General were highly incensed at the measures taken to excite a forcible opposition at Utrecht; and Barneveldt, Grotius, and Hoogerbertz, were arrested, August 29, 1618, upon the charge of having raised an insurrection at that place, and committed to close custody in the castle of the Hague.