Count, King, or Emperor, the same rights and privileges as a body, which the nobles possessed individually. The Sovereign, as Lord Paramount, granted these as they were desired, for he was perfectly willing that the people of the towns should commute for specific annual sums the military and other feudal services to which he was entitled, just as the nobles did. The people, however, in the Dutch provinces, always claimed and demanded the right to fix the amount of these annual sums themselves. This was always granted, and they ever held
II. O'Call. 1302.
tenaciously to this right of taxing themselves. In this manner town corporations and city corporations originated, in the Netherlands, and as such were in full vigor, with a happy, flourishing, and united population, not only when New Netherland was discovered, but for a very long period preceding that event. The magistrates of these municipalities, chosen by the people themselves, were the means by which they were united with the Sovereign power, and through which the latter communicated with the people of the municipalities themselves, just as the nobles were the point of union and communication between the same Sovereign power and their own vassals or tenants.
The nobles formed a distinct House or College in each province, and sent deputies to the States of the Province, and the States-General, and also to the three Councils, of State, Accounts, and Admiralty. In the Council of State their deputy was the President, and in the States-General his was the first vote^ cast. "The Dutch Nobility" says the English author of the "Description of Holland" in 1743, seem to observe a medium between the loftiness of those of the same rank in some countries, and the meanness of others. The Italian Nobility do not scruple to trade: The French are nicer: yet they make no difficulty to marry a tradesman's daughter, if she be rich, and thereby capable of repairing a shattered Estate.