Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/142

130 house of a gentleman whose prejudice would not permit a marigold to blow in his garden.

Had this young man, the hopes of the house of Orange, lived, he might have perhaps in time obtained the stadtholderate, or some honourable establishment in the country, where his person was beloved, and his abilities admired. But the survivors of his family possess none of the qualities requisite to create in their favour a party sufficiently powerful to overthrow the present system, and procure their recal. They may indeed recover the territorial estates and rights which belong to the house of Orange, but they can never hope, with any rational prospect of success, to regain that plenitude of power and extensive authority which formerly appertained to their family.

The zealous partisans of the stadtholder, whose inclinations lead them to extol with rapture every shadow which promises to favour their cause, flatter themselves with the hope, that whenever a general peace is made, the King of Prussia, who according to their