Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/379

 2a S. N 19., MAY 10. '56.]

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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."

so uncertain as to the office, that I leave Herbergier (qy. Auberyiste ?) untranslated,
 * See Beknopte Historie van 't Vaderland, p. 234. I am

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,