If it be a salutary principle in the investigation of
historical transactions to be careful in discriminating the
cause from the pretext, there is scarcely any instance in
which the application of this principle is more fertile in
results, than in that of the Dutch invasion of 1688. The real
cause of this invasion was financial. The Prince of Orange
had found that the resources of Holland, however considerable,
were inadequate to sustain him in his internecine rivalry with
the great sovereign of France. In an authentic conversation
which has descended to us, held by William at the Hague with
one of the prime abettors of the invasion, the prince did not
disguise his motives; he said, "nothing but such a
constitution as you have in England can have the credit that
is necessary to raise such sums as a great war requires." The
prince came, and used our constitution for his purpose: he
introduced into England the system of Dutch finance. The
principle of that system was to mortgage industry in order to
protect property: abstractedly, nothing can be conceived more
unjust; its practice in England has been equally injurious.
In Holland, with a small population engaged in the same
pursuits, in fact a nation of bankers, the system was adapted
to the circumstances which had created it.
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