JAMES, a great civilian, politician, and Dutch poet, was born at Browershaven, in Zealand, in the year 1577. After having made several voyages, he fixed at Middleburg; and acquired by his pleadings such reputation, that the city of Dort chose him for its pensionary; as did also, some time after, that of Middleburg. In 1634, he was nominated pensionary of Holland and West Friesland; and in 1648, he was elected keeper of the seal of the same state, and stadtholder of the fiefs: but some time after, he resigned these employments, to enjoy the repose which his advanced age demanded. As the post of grand pensionary had been fatal to almost all those who had enjoyed it, from the beginning of the republic till that time, Catz delivered up his charge on his knees, before the whole assembly of the states, weeping for joy, and thanking God for having preserved him from the inconveniences that seemed attached to the duties of that office. But though he was resolved to spend the rest of his days in repose, the love of his country engaged him to comply with the desires of the states, who importuned him to go on an embassy to England, in the delicate conjuncture in which the republic found itself during the protectorate of Cromwell. At his return, he retired to his fine country seat at Sorgvliet, where he lived in tranquillity till the year 1660, in which he died. He wrote a great number of poems in Dutch; most of which are on moral subjects, and so esteemed, that they have been often printed in all the different sizes; and, next to the Bible, there is no work so highly valued by the Dutch.