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3.

ye W. India trade was not so flourishing; & they lost ye Brazils which they might have kept if they would have trusted P. Maurice of Nassau. Tho' they are at present not so powerful in ye W. Indies as they were, yet they have so profitable Islands, & ye settlement of Surinam on ye Coast of S. America; they have also still some places in Africa.

If We consider how their Trade encreas'd, & f addition o /addition utuation ye rest of ye Powers of Europe; we shall not be surpriz'd yt they soon had ye greatest Fleet in Europe; & at ye same time if we examine how afterwards all ye other Powers employ'd themselves in enlarging their Commerce we shall not be surpriz'd yt this is alter'd.

What also push'd them to seek for something new was yt ye soil was so bad in Holland & W. Friesland, yt ye people could not submit; also ye mildness of their govern. brought many to live there out of those prov-s. which yet remain'd to Spain, which weaken'd ye Enemy.

When William II P. of Orange died deletion they /deletion addition ye States Gen. /addition took ye executive, as well as legislative power into their own hands, which till then had been in ye Stadtholder, so fearful were they of falling into ye Power of any one Man. ye Louvestein party procur'd addition unclear /addition edict by which ye Stadtholdership was abolish'd, & ye troops disbanded; & by degrees all ye Posts were fill'd with their own Party & all excluded who were connected with ye H of Orange; this occasion'd Discontent & animosities.

ye Dutch being at yt time in ye Zenith of their Glory, declar'd war against England, which at yt time was Govern'd by Cromwell, but were very unsuccessful. A second war was declar'd in which none but ye Louvesteins had an command; in this they were prosperous; but it made ye Party be hated for tho' John de Witt who was at ye Head of affairs was very modest yet his Bro. Cornelius was very vane, which mad eye better sort of People Envy him, & ye Populace jealous.

Lewis XIV. was so powerful, yt they were forc'd to court him, but by not doing this constantly, He invaded them in 1672. which made ye people murder ye two de Witts, & overturn ye Louvestein system by deletion unclear /deletion addition making /addition William III. P. of Orange Stadtholder & by canceling ye Perpetual Edict.

This P. conduct during ye whole war gave him a Character not inferior to yt of his Grandfather, & extricated his Country from ye greatest difficulness. When he was made K. of England He remain'd Stadtholder, which would have devolv'd after his death to his Children if he had had any; his constant absense by degrees lessen'd his power tho' outwardly it appear'd to be as great as ever.