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early Batavians pass from history, but they melt into the Frisians, whose name is synonymous with liberty, nearest blood-relations of the Anglo-Saxon race. When Charlemagne established his dominion they came into the empire and accepted chiefs of his appointment, but they were still governed according to their own laws. The feudal system, which stifled liberty in so many regions, never was imposed on them. "The Frisians," said their statute-books, "shall be free as long as the wind blows out of the clouds, and the world stands."*

With the political history of the Netherlands down to the time of their great war with Spain, we need concern ourselves but little. It is sufficient for our purpose to briefly trace the general outline, and sketch some of the more salient features, the chief interest centring about the development of their material prosperity and the growth of their institutions. But before entering upon these subjects, one fact must be noticed which, often overlooked or not given its due prominence, furnishes the key to much of Continental as well as of English history during and just subsequent to the period which we call the Middle Ages.

When discussing the subject of the Roman civil law in the Introduction, a brief allusion was made to the high civilization attained by the Romans, and its influence on modern Europe. Hereafter, when we come to consider the history of England, we shall see how much of this civilization was introduced into Britain, and how it was utterly blotted out by the Anglo-Saxon conquerors. On the Continent, however, the overthrow

*Motley, i. 22. The Asega book, containing their statutes, is still extant.

of the old governments was followed by a very different condition of affairs. In Britain, the conquerors cleared the soil before them, supplanting the former occupants, and introducing their own language. The movement, though slow, taking a century and a half for its completion, was that of the avalanche carrying destruction in its path. In other parts of Europe, the conquerors settled down peaceably among the conquered, to a large extent adopted their life, and finally were themselves absorbed. Applying the test of speech, we see which race became predominant from the simple fact that the French, the Spanish, and the Italian tongues are the languages, not of the new-comers, the Franks, the Goths, and the Lombards, but of the people whom they found upon the soil. The effect in these countries was more like that of a river overflowing its banks; the waste may for a time seem universal, but when the flood subsides, the face of nature remains substantially unchanged.

It is this fact, the difference between the conquest of Britain and that of the Continent, which must be kept in view when we think of the Dark Ages which succeeded the barbarian irruption. They were very dark in England, which then received its modern name, and the gloom lasted there almost undisturbed for many centuries; but the hue was quite different upon the Continent, where the ancient civilization still survived. Looking through colored glasses, it is but natural to confuse the shading of the landscape. Hence the Englishman. or American, if he would view the Middle Ages on the Continent aright, must disabuse his mind of many notions derived from reading English history alone.*

"Parchment and paper, printing and engraving, improved glass and steel, gunpowder, clocks, telescopes, the mariner's compass, the

CAUSES OF NETHERLAND CIVILIZATION

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Let us now see if we can account in any measure for the high civilization which undoubtedly prevailed in the Netherlands at the time of their revolt from Spain. This is a question which has probably excited the interest of every one who has paid any attention to their history, for writers like Davies and Motley have left it substantially undiscussed, leading some critics to consider their descriptions overdrawn.

The first Germanic and Gallic inhabitants of this country must have learned much from Rome. As we have seen, the Batavian Island was for many years an important base of Roman military operations. Many of its natives held high posts in the imperial army, and brought home some of the culture of the capital. The Menapians, who occupied the present provinces of Flanders and Antwerp, also shared in the benefits of this connection. The remains of their ancient towns, discovered in places at present covered by the sea, often bring to light traces of Roman constructions and Latin inscriptions in honor of the Menapian divinities. Even at this period the Netherlanders were a maritime people, exporting salt to England, and salted meat (which was in high repute) to Italy. The men were handsome and richly clothed; and the land was well cultivated, and abounding in fruits, milk, and honey.* Later on, when the Roman empire went down, they had as near neighbors on the south the quick-witted Franks, and on the

reformed calendar, the decimal notation, algebra, trigonometry, chemistry, counterpoint-which was equivalent to a new creation. of music-these are all possessions which we inherit from that which has been so disparagingly termed the stationary period.”—Whewell's "History of the Inductive Sciences," i. 331. None of them, as every reader knows, came from England. *Grattan, pp. 20-25.

east was Germany, the head of the renewed empire, still preserving some portion of the ancient civilization, and very soon to gain much more. There were to grow up the cities of the Hanseatic League, the pioneers of modern progress, of which famous confederation, formed in the thirteenth century, several of the towns of Holland were among the earliest members.*

But more important than all were the close relations which the Netherlands maintained with Italy. To appreciate the influence of this connection, it must be remembered that Italy never became barbarian. The race was not Teutonized; that is to say, not crushed and transformed to anything like the same degree as the people of the other European countries by the invasion of the northern tribes.+

In the end, the Italians might have shared the fate of their contemporaries, and have lost their civilization under the slow, brutalizing influence of the conquerors; but this disaster was largely averted by the results which followed in the train of the Crusades. In 1096,

"The Hansa Towns," Zimmern, p. 214.

"The barbarians established themselves on the soil temporarily or imperfectly. The Visigoths, the Franks, the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, all abandoned it or were soon driven away. If the Lombards remained there, they rapidly profited by the Latin culture. In the twelfth century the Germans, under Frederic Barbarossa, expecting to find men of their own race, were surprised to find them so Latinized, having discarded the fierceness of barbarians and taken from the influences of the air and soil something of Roman finesse and gentleness; having preserved the elegance of the language and the urbanity of primitive manners, even imitating the skill of the ancient Romans in the constitution of their cities and in the government of their public affairs. Latin is spoken in Italy up to the thirteenth century."-Taine's "Art in Italy," p. 28.

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Peter the Hermit led out the first of the vast horde of visionary enthusiasts who for centuries poured into Asia Minor, whitening two continents with their bones in the chivalric attempt to redeem the holy sepulchre. These gigantic expeditions brought to the greater part of Europe only a fearful loss of life and property, compensated for mainly by the impoverishment of the nobles, which aided in breaking up the feudal system. Upon Italy, however, the effect was very different. There dwelt the head of the Church, who acted as guardian for all the pilgrims, regulated their movements, and levied a general tax on the faithful laity of Europe to sustain the wars against the infidels. This tax, known as Saladin's Tenth, poured an unfailing stream of treasure into Rome; while the people of all Italy were also acquiring wealth by furnishing the crusaders with supplies and transportation to the Holy Land.

Still more important, however, was the impetus given to commerce by this opening-up of the unknown regions of the East. In 1295, Marco Polo, with his father and uncle, after an absence of nearly a quarter of a century, returned to Venice, bringing back their fairy tales of the wonders of far Cathay, and the whole of the Old World was spread out before these enterprising merchants. It was the commerce thus developed that built up the Italian republics, and bred the race of merchant princes who made the Italy of the Renaissance the mother of literature, art, and science.

It is probable that the connection between the Neth

The crusaders introduced silk and sugar into Europe. They also introduced the windmill, which, invented in Asia Minor and transported to the Netherlands, was to prove of untold value in the development of that country. See Gibbon, vi. 193.