all who attend to the course of the conteft, that these qualities were in no degree counterbalanced on the other fide. A great fuperiority in policy, and all party manoeuvres, was the neceffary confequence.

The affairs of Utrecht had long been a fource of great embarraff ment to the ftates of Holland. It was effential to the views of the dominant party to fupport that city; but the doing of it by open force was fo flagrant a violation of the anion, and would appear fo daring an inroad upon the rights of another ftate, which was in all refpects their equal, and whose powers of jurifdiction and government were as completely and firmly efta blished as their own, was fo alarming and hazardous a meafure, that it could not without much difficulty be adopted.

Pretty early in the fummer of the year 1786, the republican party finding or thinking themfelves fufficiently ftrong, brought this fubject forward in the affembly of the ftates of Holland, by moving a refolution, that they should by force of arms refift all attempts of coercion that were made against the city of Utrecht. This queftion produced long and vehement debates, which were maintained with great perfeverance, and no fmall degree of animofity on both fides. The parties, however, appeared fo nearly equal in ftrength, that neither fide feemed much difpofed to bring the queftion to an abfolute decifion, and it feemed to be dropped by a fort of mutual tacit confent.

But in the following September, when the capture of Elbourg and Hattem had blown up the flame of discontent to the highest pitch, against the stadtholder in the pro

vince of Holland, the ftates, on the 6th of that month, iffued a fudden order, that all their troops fhould be in readiness to march at a moment's warning. On the following day they granted permiffion to feveral bodies of armed burghers, who had addreffed them for the purpofe, to march directly to the affiftance or relief of their brethren in Utrecht; at the fame time opening their military magazine at Woerden for the ufe of that city.

The day after, being the 8th of the fame month, in order partly to give the greater weight and ap pearance of folemnity to their proceedings, partly to explain the caufes of thefe extraordinary mea fures to the reprefentative of the whole republic, and thereby reconcile them to those which they intended farther to purfue, they exhibited to the people the unufual fpectacle of their repairing in a body, to the amount of about fifty perfons, to the affembly of the states general, where they reprefented them as indifpenfably neceffary in the prefent critical state of affairs, in order to withstand the hoftile proceedings and dangerous defigns of the ftadtholder. It may be neceffary here to obferve, that altho no town has more than one vote, and that these amount in all only to nineteen, in the ftates of Holland, yet that there is no limitation as to the number of deputies which any town may fend, who are all equally members of that affembly, and have an equal right to fit and to debate in it; fo that ability, with the powers of argument and perfuafion, may be branched out into feveral parts, although the vote is fingle.

It was not confonant to the proceedings of the ftates general, to

give any present answer to, or to make any immediate obfervation on these representations.

The ftates of Holland followed up these proceedings with an order to the troops of the province to march immediately to the frontiers on the fide of Utrecht; and, to render them the more ftedfaft in the intended fervice, voted an augmentation of twelve fous per week to their pay. They likewife took into their fervice a corps of light troops, which, under the ill-founded denomination of a legion, had been raifed by a Rhingrave of Salm, during the late conteft with the emperor, for the service of the republic in that feafon of apparent danger. The fuppreffion of this corps, which had been intended along with other military reductions of the fame nature, had long been prevented through the influence of the republican leaders, on account of the violent part which their commander took, or affected to take, in behalf of that party. The ftates general having, however, at length difcharged them from the fervice of the republic, thofe of Holland took them into the immediate pay of that province, in order to their being employed in the war of Utrecht.

We have, in our hiftory of the year 1786, taken notice of the fubfequent measures purfued by the ftates of Holland against the stadtholder previous to Monf. de Rayneval's negociation; particularly bis fufpenfion fom the office of captain-general, the difcharging the troops from their military oath to him, and their forbidding that title to be applied to him in the public prayers of the churches. We likewife took notice of the ftrong proteft made by the prince against thefe proceedings.

The defection of the fenate of Amfterdam from their party, feemed to be little lefs than a mortal fhock to the republican leaders; and the failure of their late attempts of tripping the ftadtholder of his remaining great offices in the province of Holland, and of increafing the number of voters in the affembly of the ftates, could not but increase their confternation and defpondence. The effect produced by this ftate of things was visible for fome time after the commencement of the year 1787, by that unusual fpirit of moderation which apparently prevailed in their conduct. But they were foon to experience a more fenfible fhock than even the lofs of Amsterdam.

This was no less than a .revolution of fentiment and conduct in the affembly of the ftates of Holland: Indeed the change which had taken place in the fenate of Amfterdam, confidering the lead which that city had always taken in public affairs, and the almoft unbounded influence which fhe had ever maintained in the affembly of the provincial states, afforded alarming indications of the confequences which were likely to enfue. From that period the flates had vifibly grown more indecifive in their conduct; the republican zeal feemed much flackened, and the numbers ran clofer on every divifion.

It seemed to be a capital error in the republican party, to admit the appointment of the celebrated Van Berkel, the firft penfionary of Amfterdam, to the office of reprefenting the republic as minister to the new ftates of America. This man had long been the leader, oracle, and it may be said, the foul of that, party; and no man was ever

better

better calculated for fuch a fituation. His ambition was boundleís; but he poffeffed all the great qualities neceffary to its fupport and gratification in as unlimited a degree. His love of money, however, balanced his love of power, and feemed to preponderate on this occafion of facrificing his profpects at home to the American employment. Perhaps he was encouraged in this project by fome of the leaders on his own fide, who wished to be his fucceffor; and who would not believe that his popularity and power were the effect of fuperior talents. However that was, it is certain that Van Berkel's abfence was now feverely felt by the party; and it is highly probable that neither the deféction in Amfterdam, nor the confequent change in the affembly of the ftates, would have taken place if he had been present.

March 30th

After fome weeks feeming hefitation, the affembly of the ftates of Holland afforded an unequivocal proof of the change which had taken place in their fentiments, by partly reverfing and partly altering a former refolution of their 1787. own, upon a motion made for that purpofe by the friends of the prince of Orange. This was followed by another meafure not lefs convincing. The refugees from Hattem and Elburg, who were confidered as martyrs to the republican party, were treated by them nearly with the reverence fuited to that character, and had early received the protection of the ftates of Holland; but they now paffed a refolution, recommending thefe refugees to the clemency of the ftates of Guelderland, and requefting that they might be permitted to return to their refpective VOL. XXIX.

habitations; and thus virtually withdrew the protection which they had fo lately granted.

Nothing could have been more highly refented by the adverfe party than this dereliction of the refugees; nor could any thing appear more dreadful to themselves than the change in condition and character which they were to undergo; to be driven from all the fweets of an idle and plentiful life, from the pleasure of being idolized as the forward champions and willing victims to a righteous cause, then to return to their cuftomary labours and native obfcurity, and to appear in the garb of fuppliants and penitents to their natural rulers, was a tranfition almost intolerable to humanity.

Nothing could accordingly exceed the exclamations raifed against the ftates of Holland, and the indignation expreffed at their conduct. To give up the fugitives to the mercy of their enemies in Guelderland, was not only reprefented as a most flagrant and glaring violation of good faith, but as an act of direct and fhameless treachery. Several of the most factious cities, in this fpirit, took up the caufe of the refugees, and determined, fo far as they were capable, to remedy the evil, by voting their protection to them, offering them all the privi leges of burghership, and promifing them every other accommodation which it fhould be in their power to confer.

Thus was the door opening to a new and ftrange face of things in the province of Holland; and it was foon to reveal afpects ftill more novel and unexpected.

In the mean time numberless clubs and affociations were formed, [B]

and

and large fums of money, it was faid, fubfcribed, for the prefervation of the antient conftitution, and the stadtholder's rights; while every new measure or incident on either fide increased the animofity on the other, until nothing could exceed the virulence of their mutual reproach and accufation; the ftadtholder's friends openly charging the republican party with having been long the betrayers of their country to French gold, and thefe retorting, that their adverfaries wanted to overthrow the free conftitution of the republic, and to eftablish a regal defpotifm, though at first perhaps without the name, in the perfon of the prince of Orange.

The fituation of the republican party became exceedingly critical. They had been foiled in all their late attempts; they had loft their principal and fuppofed impregnable fortrefs in Amfterdam. In the next great city, that of Rotterdam, they were entirely mastered; a majority of the provinces, thofe of Friefland, Zealand, Utrecht, and Guelderland, were decidedly againft them; and they had now finally loft their influence in the affembly of the ftates of Holland; fo that the two fmall and weak provinces of Groningen and Overyffel were all that continued firmly on their fide.

It was then evident, that nothing lefs than the moft prompt and decifive measures could retain or retrieve any part of their power and confequence as a party. Thefe could not but be hazardous and dangerous, but it was the last stake, and all things must be rifqued; if fortune favoured, fuccefs would afford a fufficient fanction to the proceedings. They faw, at the fame time, that in fuch circumftances,

all farther temporifing with the democratical parties must be at an end; that the ariftocracies muft now cordially admit their claims; and that they had no other alternative than that of fubmiffion to the prince of Orange; an idea more dreadful than even that of a foreign conqueft. It was accordingly determined that the armed burghers fhould be the inftruments of reforming the ftate and government; and that when they had effectually fucceeded in fubverting the old, their order fhould be entitled to fuch a fhare in the new conftitution, as they might hereafter agree upon.

It was not to be fuppofed, that the burghers would be flack in embracing an opportunity of fulfilling their own purposes, and attaining thofe objects which they had long fo eagerly fought. They had fome time before entered into a combination for introducing a democratical revolution in the city of Rotterdam; and petitioned the states of Holland for their fanction in new-modelling the fenate, by increafing the number from twenty-four, the prefent eftablishment, to forty perfons. But this petition was received very unfavourably by the ftates, who referred them back to their own magiftracy; and these immediately published a declaration, in which they ftrongly infifted, that the sense of the different towns of the republic could not be legally known or communicated through any other medium than that of their refpective fenates, and that confequently the ftates of Holland had no right or authority to take any petition from their citizens into confideration.

Notwithstanding this defeat, which took place about the clofe of the paft, or the commencement of the prefent

the democratic party to overturn, and the refiftance of their oppofers to preserve inviolate the established conftitution and government, had fince kept that city in a conftant ftate of tumult and diforder. In this courfe of domeftic warfare, counter affociations were formed and fubfcribed to by the contending parties, when it foon appeared that the number of thofe who united in favour of the prince, more than doubled that of their antagonists.

April 23d.

But the new and powerful energy which was at length communicated, the confidence derived from having arms in their hands, and the courage infpired by the correfpondence and advice received from their brethren in other places, rendered the burghers regardless of the fuperior number of their adverfaries, and induced them fearlessly to proceed to the laft extremities. In this determination they furrounded the fe1787. nate-house, compelled the fenate to depofe feven fuch members of their body as they confidered the most adverse to their defigns, and, under the form of a mock election, had their places in ftantly filled up with feven of the moft violent of their own party. The deputies of the city in the affembly of the provincial ftates being among the degraded fenators, the reprefentation of Rotterdam was of course totally changed. It was to little purpofe that the injured fenators appealed to the laws, to the conftitution, and to the ftates of Holland; no redrefs was any where to be obtained. The deputies at the Hague had the courage to endeavour to keep their feats, alledging that they were the only

the new ones being ufurpers brought in by force and violence; but the provincial affembly itfelf being by. that time garbled, had likewife changed its nature, and, pretending that they had no right to interfere in the private difputes of any city, received the new deputies without regard to the complaints or rights of the old.

On the very fame day that the fenate of Rotterdam was purged in this manner by the armed burghers, fimilar measures were purfued by their brethren at Amfterdam. They furrounded the fenate-house betimes in the morning, and the affrighted magiftrates entered into a negociation with them, which was fpun out until the evening, when finding that they had no alternative, they were obliged to fubmit to the demands of the burghers, by declaring that nine members of their body, who were thofe nominated to them, had abdicated their offices. Among these victims to the revolution, were three deputies to the affembly of the provincial ftates, who had lately voted on fome occafion on the fide of the ftadtholder. At the fame time that they were clearing the fenate of their adverfaries, the four colonels of the city militia, and confequently the only legal commanders of the burghers, were doomed to undergo their perfecution, and obliged to fend in their refignations.

About the fame time the city of Utrecht, proud in its wealth, and confident in the circumftance of its contributing as much or more towards the public expence than the reft of the province, determined at once to fhew its fuperiority, and to reduce the ftates at Amersfort to

[B] 2

beggary,