Note 191 — THE DUEL BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY, WITH ITS LESSON TO CIVILIZATION.

Hume, History of England, Ch. LXV., March 17, 1672.—The terms of the Declaration on this point were,—“Scarce a town within their territories that is not filled with abusive pictures.” (Hansard’s Parliamentary History, Vol. IV. col. 514.) Upon which Hume remarks: “The Dutch were long at a loss what to make of this article, till it was discovered that a portrait of Cornelius de Witt, brother to the Pensionary, painted by order of certain magistrates of Dort, and hung up in a chamber of the Town-House, had given occasion to the complaint. In the perspective of this portrait the painter had drawn some ships on fire in a harbor. This was construed to be Chatham, where De Witt had really distinguished himself,” during the previous war, in the way here indicated,—“the disgrace” of which, says Lingard, “sunk deep into the heart of the King and the hearts of his subjects.”—History of England, Vol. IX. Ch. III., June 13, 1667.