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POLITICAL CONSEQUENCESthe one advantage of allowing free scope to the individualactivity and genius of her great men.In such a state of things, the Reformed religion, althoughit was the main cause of the insurrection, and, when established as the national mode of worship, the foundation ofthe republic,could exercise no direct influence upon itsfurther organization. But as the whole existence of thisstate was grounded on the Reformation, and as It was toreligious enthusiasm that its citizens owed theirwe heroicspirit, must not be astonished that the bigotry of Protestantism was no where else carried so far, or so deeplyrooted, as here. The consequence of this was, that the Protestant clergy had much more easy access to the springs ofpublic opinion in this than in any other country ; and thusacquired the means of exercising a considerable influenceupon the affairs of the state; an influence of which thehistory of the republic affords but too many traces. Thetwelve years' trace of 1609 had no sooner afforded a shortperiod of repose, than the clergy were busy in lighting upthe flames of party violence ;and Arminians and Gomaristspersecuted each other with the same animosity as the Protestants and Catholics had in former times displayed. It iswell known by what ties these religious differences becameconnected with politics.,and thus produced the first andbloody struggle between the party of the states and the Orangists.No sooner was itapparent that the doctrines ofAratinius found their chief supporters in the higher andmore educated classes, and among the members of the states,than Maurice of Orange declared himself for the oppositeand orthodox party, and at the head of the majority of thenation dared to bring Oldenbarneveld to the block (1619).Although it was religion, however, which gave a pretextto the partiesfor a commencement of the feud, with whichthe subsequent history of this state is almost exclusively concerned, the true cause must be sought elsewhere. It layinthe very groundwork of their constitution, and it is only bya full explanation of this a task beyond our limits that itcan be clearly pointed out.SWEDEN.IN the four kingdoms which, as long as Poland existed,formed the north of Europe, the political consequences of