2a S. N 19., MAY 10. '56.]
371
Nobody was prosecuted, nobody was " in-
dulged." Tichelaer (ante, p. 156-) was hand-
somely rewarded. Borrebagh, one of the four
assassins who stabbed John De Wit, and had
been out of the way on that account, resumed
his office of postmaster ; Bancbem the sheriff
(schepen), who encouraged the mob, and was so
proud of his share in the murder that he had it
engraved on the hilt of his sword, obtained the
stewardship (baljuw) of the Hague, an office usu-
ally held by nobles ; Adam de Maes, who helped
in the murder and did the engraving, got the
command of a ship ; and Verhoef the silversmith,
who preserved the hearts of the brothers for
exhibition, was made Herbergier te Voorschoo-
ten* The Dutch historians ascribe all these pro-
motions to the prince, and tell, with some satis-
faction, how the promoted behaved as might have
been expected, and came to the ends which they
deserved.
It must be admitted that the prince extended to the assassins something more than "indul- gence." His share in the matter is expressed in an epigram :
" Principis injussu cecidit per nobile fratrum ; Sed data aunt jussu prsemia sicariis."
I do not impute to the prince any active share in the murder, beyond encouraging Tichelaer in a charge which he could not have believed. But he watched, and not only did not interfere to stop the proceeding, but took care that no one else should. The assassins judged that they were earning his favours, and the result showed that they were right. In his position he came within the maxim qui non prohibet facit ; and I hold him as guilty of the death of the De Wits as if he had struck the first blow with his own hand. Of the deaths not of the indignities, which were against his interest and repugnant to his character, of which cruelty formed no part. When Banquo lay in the ditch,
"With twenty trenched gashes in his head, The least a death to nature,"
Macbeth would have been satisfied with the least, and have treated the other nineteen as wasteful and ridiculous excess.
Before closing these notes I wish to say a few words on the character of William, as represented by our great modern historian. Mr. Macaulay tries men of past ages by the present standard of virtue, and is severe upon the treachery and cor- ruption of statesmen, in a time when honesty and fidelity were unknown ; but instead of being satis-
Utque novas Redes quaeret migrare coactus ; Oppidulo belli potiuntur jure Britanni.'" Henry was indulgent."
- See Beknopte Historie van 't Vaderland, p. 234. I am
so uncertain as to the office, that I leave Herbergier (qy. Auberyiste ?) untranslated,
fied with William as one of the best men then
existing, he softens hard things to adapt him to
our current notions. The latter half of the seven-
teenth century was a state of transition. The
world was mending rapidly, but politicians car-
ried out their purposes. Louis XIV. could shut
up those who thwarted him. in the Bastile; but
the constitutional governments of England and
Holland could not, and so opponents were got rid
of sometimes by emeutes, but generally by false
charges and the forms of law. William will gain,
by comparison with the best of his contemporaries.
Burnet, describing the execution of Lord Russell,
says, " this was the end of that great and good
man." The epithets were not undeserved : yet
Lord Russell must have known that Lord Staf-
ford was innocent and Gates perjured ; and when,
not content with the beheading, he disputed the
royal prerogative, and insisted upon all the cruel-
ties of an execution for treason, he tried to inflict
upon the living body of a helpless old man brutal-
ities as detestable as those exercised by the mob
on the carcases of the De Wits. I hope that Van
der Hoeven's version of the pastor's case, given by
MB. HENDRIKS (ante, p. 218.) is the right one;
but now a pastor would suffer in public opinion
for " assisting " at an execution, as then at a
murder. H. B. C.
U. U. Club.
JACOBITE SONG.
As " N. & Q." are occasionally made a reposi-
tory for the poetical remains and fragments of
by-past times, may I request a corner for the fol-
lowing " Jacobite Relic," which was taken down
from the impassioned recitation of a grey-headed
old Scotsman, whose feelings evidently warmly
sympathised with the sentiments expressed in this
hostile lyric. The historical errors in the lines
show the state of ignorance in the popular mind
regarding the new family. When we reflect that
little more than a century has passed since the
battle of Culloden, and that men now alive might
have heard from actual participators in the con-
flict the stirring recital of the ruthless deeds
commemorated by Smollett in his immortal lyric,
The Tears of Scotland, it is not to be wondered
at, that feelings like those expressed in the pre-
sent song should still linger in the minds of the
people. For ever distant be the day, however,
when the pulses of patriotism that swell the life-
blood of Scotsmen, when they read the brave
struggles of their ancestors to uphold a time-
honoured and gallant, but mistaken and misled
race of kings lovers of learning and of the fine
arts should be extinguished by the pride of a
false Cosmopolitanism, or the boasted progress of
modern refinement,
