The Making of Settlements 1645–60

Abstract

The federal assembly of the United Provinces, the States-General, was not a sovereign body. Its members were the spokesmen of their own individual and sovereign provinces, and their unanimity was necessary before action could be authorised. To avoid general paralysis of the administration, the tradition of unanimity, observed at all levels of government, had given rise to another tradition, by which the dissentient voices to a majority decision were won over by the chairman of each committee or assembly. Sir William Temple, during a tour of duty in the United Provinces, thought this to be an admirable practice: ‘In these Assemblies, tho’ all are equal in voices, and one hinders a result, yet it seldom happens but that united by a common bond of interest, and having all one common end of public good, they come after full debates to easy resolutions … so as the smaller part seldom contests hard and long what the greater agrees of.’