JAMES THE SECOND.

5

placed at the head of the administration. At twenty-three he chap.was renowned throughout Europe as a soldier and a politician. —

He had put domestic factions under his feet: he was the soulof a mighty coalition; and he had contended with honour inthe field against some of the greatest generals of the age.

His personal tastes were those rather of a warrior than ofj^™ 1 ^-a statesman: but he, like his greatgrandfather, the silentlifici-prince who founded the Batavian commonwealth, occupies a tl0n ’ 4far higher place among statesmen than among warriors. Theevent of battles, indeed, is not an unfailing test of the abilitiesof a commander; and it would be peculiarly unjust to applythis test to William: for it was his fortune to be almost alwaysopposed to captains who were consummate masters of then-art, and to troops far superior in discipline to his own. Yetthere is reason to believe that he was by no means equal, as ageneral in the field, to some who ranked far below him in in-tellectual powers. To those whom he trusted he spoke onthis subject with the magnanimous frankness of a man who haddone great things, and who could well afford to acknowledgesome deficiencies. He had never, he said, served an ap-prenticeship to the military profession. He had been placed,while still a boy, at the head of an array. Among his officersthere had been none competent to instruct him. His ownblunders and their consequences had been his only lessons.

“I would give,” he once exclaimed, “a good part of myestates to have served a few campaigns under the Prince ofCondd before I had to command against him.” It is not im-probable that the circumstance which prevented William fromattaining any eminent dexterity in strategy may have beenfavourable to the general vigour of his intellect. If his battleswere not those of a great tactician, they entitled him to becalled a great man. No disaster could for one moment de-prive him of his firmness or of the entire possession of all hisfaculties. His defeats were repaired with such marvellouscelerity that, before his enemies had sung the Te Deum, hewas again ready for conflict; nor did his adverse fortune everdeprive him of the respect and confidence of his soldiers.

That respect and confidence he owed in no small measure to