It was obvious enough that the contest was, the same in reality, as it had ever been.

No approximation had been made towards reconciling absolutism with national liberty, persecution with toleration.

The Pacification of Ghent had been a step in advance.

That Treaty opened the door to civil and religious liberty, but it was an agreement among the provinces, not a compact between the people and the monarch.

By the casuists of Brussels and the licentiates of Louvain, it had, to be sure, been dogmatically pronounced orthodox, and had been confirmed by royal edict.