between the great powers in the North and Eaft of Europe, was commenced too late in the year for the production of any confiderable military operation; thofe immediate caufes which accelerated that event will accordingly be the introduction to the narrative of their mutual hoftilities in our next volume. Other matters have, for the prefent, neceffarily given way to thofe of greater importance, and will form an article of future retrofpect. Our domestic affairs have not been lefs carefully attended to, as we hope the difcuffion of the commercial treaty with France, and other fubjects of national importance, will fufficiently teftify. We have been informed by a gentleman not long arrived from Italy, of fome mifreprefentation and exaggeration of circumftances, in the account of the new cemetery near Florence, given in our laft volume. We have ever embraced with pleasure every occafion that offered of bestowing due praise upon the excellent government of the Grand Duke; and are too deeply impreffed with a regard for the humanity and beneficence of his character, to fuffer any thing derogatory from it to appear without concern; and this we teftified in the paffage alluded to, although we could not refuse stating facts which feemed perfectly authenticated. We are not, however, ignorant that fome of his reforms have, as well as the cemetery, been the cause of much diffatisfaction and complaint among his subjects; and that even his admirable code of penal law, notwithstanding the philanthropy and beneficence that breathe through every part of it, has not been received without diflike and cenfure, and has even been productive of much diftrefs to individuals; a confequence perhaps which no fyftem of general reform, haftily adopted, can ever be entirely free from. With respect to the matter in queftion, if we have been impofed upon in the accounts which we received of the cemetery, we are not fingular in the impofition; for an English gentleman, whofe poetical and literary talents are well known, and who was immediately upon the fpot, published a very fevere fatire upon the fubject, from which it is evident, that it appeared to him in the fame light that it was afterwards reprefented to us. THE THE ANNUAL REGISTER, For the YEAR 1787. THE HISTORY OF EUROPE. CHA P. I. Mediation of France and Pruffia in the affairs of Holland. Reafons for doubting the fuccefs of that mediation confirmed by the event. Negociations carried on at Nimeguen and the Hague. Conditions laid down by the States of Holland as the bafis of an accommodation with the Stadtholder. Caufes which rendered thefe propofitions inadmifible.' M. de Rayneval fuddenly breaks off the negociation and returns to Paris. Count de Goertz receives a letter of recal, and returns to Berlin. Violent animofity and mutual recrimination of the contending parties on the failure of the negociation. The new form of government, eftablished in the city of Utrecht, confidered as a model of perfection by the democratical party in other places. Difficult fituation and temporizing conduct of the States of Holland, with respect to the prevalent democratic fpirit. Sudden and unaccountablę changes in the political conduct and principles of the party in oppofition to the Stadtholder difplayed in various places. States of Friefland first waver, and then, from being among the foremost in oppofition, appear decidedly in favour of the Prince. M. de Rendorp changes fides in Amfterdam, and carries over a majority of the fenate along with him. Immediate confequences of this change; great alarm spread by it among the republican party. Means purfued by the leaders to remedy the defection of Amfterdam. Procure addreffes from feveral towns, with a view of gaining thereby a decided majority of votes in the offembly of provincial states. VOL. XXIX. Failing Failing in this attempt, they propófe in the affembly a refolution to fufpend the Prince of Orange from his remaining high offices of ftadtholder and admiral-general. Foiled likewife in this, they endeavour to increaje the number of votes in the provincial affembly, by affording a right of reprefentation to feveral new towns; in which they are also defeated. Eftimate of the comparative ftrength and numbers of the contending parties. RetroSpect of the meajures pursued by Holland, for fupporting the city of Utrecht in its contumacious oppofition to the ftates of the province. Unexpected revolution in the affembly of the ftates of Holland, who, following the example of Amfterdam, adopt measures evidently favourable to the Stadtbolder's interefts. General confternation and critical fituation of the republican party. Defeated in all their late attempts with now a great majority of the provinces, and a greater of the people decidedly against them. Bold and hazardous measures become acts of prudence. Obliged to throw themselves upon the democratical party for Jupport, and to call in the armed burghers to new model and fettle the state and conftitution. Thefe furround the fenate-houses of Amfterdam and Rotterdam, purge them of those members who were adverse to their defigns, place all power in the hands of their own party, and establish a determined majority in the ftates of Holland. Thefe prepare to afft Utrecht by force of arms against the Provincial States. States general, who had hitherto preferved a strict neutrality, now take a decided part in oppofing the defign of Holland to support Utrecht by force of arms. Council of ftate iffue an order ftrictly forbidding the officers in the fervice of Holland from marching their troops inte the territories of any other province. Prohibition confirmed by the States general. Reply from the fates of Holland. First blood drawn in a fkirmish at Futphaas, a village near Utrecht. States of Holland order troops to the fuccour of Utrecht. Propofe a teft to their officers. A great majority refufe the teft; are fufpended and new ones appointed. Suspended officers taken into the protection of the States general, and their pay continued. Manifefto published by the Stadtholder, amounting nearly to a declaration of war against the ruling party in the province of Holland. Riots at Amfterdam. States general iffue an order to general Van Reyffel, to break up the cordon or line of troops formed on the frontiers of Holland. Counter orders from the ftates of Holland. Colonel Balneavis carries off the regiment which he lately commanded himself, with a battalion of another, from the fortress of Oudewater to the Stadtholder. This example caufes a general revolt in the troops of Holland. in any degree tend to prevent thofe very irkfome and dangerous confequences, which the prefent state of things and the violence of the republican party could not otherwife fail to produce. For the attainment of this purpose he fhewed himfelf difpofed to try any means however unpromising, and to coin cide with any interefts however difcordant, that afforded even a poffibility of fuccefs. Perhaps he thought it neceffary, at the opening of a new reign, to hold out fuch inftances of moderation, justice, and a defire of preferving the general tranquillity, as might ferve to fecure the opinions of mankind in his favour, and to prepare them for that future decifion which he forefaw would be inevitable. Perhaps likewife the character of his predeceffor, or the public impreffion founded on it, might not have been without its effect in regulating his conduct upon this occafion. As the offer of his joint-mediation with Great Britain had been flighted by the adverse faction (their mutual connections with the ftadtholder, and avowed predilection for his interefts, affording no fmall room for objecting to their arbitration) he endeavoured to remove this impediment, by propofing that France, the avowed friend and clofe ally of the republic, fhould, along with himfelf, undertake the kind office, but arduous task, of fettling and compofing the differences by which it was diftracted. The feason of the year was favourable, as the near approach of winter muft neceffarily reftrain the active violence of the contending parties, afford leifure for mediation, and, as men's minds cooled by inaction, they would become more placable, and be the better difpofed to liften to the voice of conciliation. The propofal being communicated by the Pruffian minister to the court of Verfailles, was received in fuch a manner, as feemed flattering to the king's difcernment in adopting the project. That court embracing it with every mark of the greateft cordiality, immediately appointed M. de Rayneval (who had already acquired fome confider. able credit in negociation, particu larly in concluding the late treaty of commerce with England) to be the French king's representative in the office of mediation; and fo hear. ty did that court appear in the bufinefs, that the French minifter ar rived at the Hague before the end of November 1786, where he was to act in concert with the Baron de Goertz, the extraordinary, and M. Thulemeyer, the refident minister of Pruffia, in endeavouring to ac complish the desired settlement. But fair as thefe appearances were, it was little hoped by thofe who looked clofely into the ftate and nature of things, that this ne gociation fhould produce the effect apparently fought by one mediator, and eagerly wished by the other. They could not bring themselves to believe that France, who they knew to be not only the nurse, protectress, and encourager of the adverfe faction, but to have been the prime fomenter and inftigator of all their violences, fhould now at once undo the effects of all her former craft and labour, by becoming the inftrument of reftoring the prince of Orange to any thing near that fhare of weight and power which he before held in the republic. This would have been to facrifice her own immediate interefts to the gratification of the king of Pruffia, to abandon one of the longest and deareft objects of her policy, to mifs the only opportunity that had ever offered of her establishing a supreme and permanent controul in the affairs of the republic, and for ever to lofe, without benefit or effect, all that gold which he had for [4] 2 feyeral feveral years fo unfparingly bestowed in fupporting her influence in Holland, and, in feeding the contention. This was a fource of expence fo abundantly supplied, that a writer who appears to have poffeffed very unusual fources of information, and more than a common share of political acumen, has ventured to affert, that one half of the money thus expended, if it had been properly applied in the ftadtholder's court, would have produced an influence there, infinitely more beneficial in advancing and eftablishing her purposes, than any thing the derived or could derive from the fervices of the republican leaders on whom it was bestowed *. It was argued, that fuch a coincidence on the part of France, with the views of the king of Pruffia, would not merely be a dereliction of the caufe and party which he had fo long efpoufed, but a fcandalous act of treachery. She had led them into a courfe of violent and indefenfible measures, and confequently involved them in circumftances of great danger; and now to abandon them in the inftant of their warmeft hopes, when the object of their long and mutual purfuit feemed nearly within reach, would fhock the feelings of all mankind, and appear as foolish as it would infamous. The crooked policy which fhe had purfued for fome ages, by which The became confidered as the common disturber of the tranquillity of Europe, and as facrificing all faith and principle to her own advantage, had been the means of involving her in the greateft difficulties, and moft dangerous fituations, fo that her very existence at one time feem ed little lefs than trufted to the caft of a die. She feemed of late to adopt a fairer policy, and to be ftudious of establishing a different character; but if the relapfed now, it would have a worse effect than merely overthrowing what she had hitherto done for that purpose. On the other hand, it could fcarcely be fuppofed, that the king of Pruffia would facrifice the interefts of the ftadtholder fo far, as to admit of thofe great conceffions, which could alone anfwer the views of France, or afford any fatisfaction to the high republicans. All conceffions merely palliating would undoubtedly be agreed to: fome limitations perhaps admitted, in order to prevent any encroachment of the executive power upon the other orders of the ftate and government; and every thing that tended to a perfect oblivion of all that was paft, to the conciliation of parties, to the fecurity, and even gratification of the adverfe faction, would certainly have been granted with a good grace and a willing mind. But it was not to be conceived from any part of the king of Pruffia's conduct which had yet appeared, much lefs from any due confideration of the clofe ties of affinity and policy which united the two families, that he would ever confent to, or indeed fuffer, except through inevitable neceflity, the abridgement in any effential degree of thofe rights, which, by the general voice of the nation, and the univerfal concurrence of all the parts and orders of the commonwealth, had, in the year 1749, been annexed to the office of fadtholder, and rendered heredita ry in the family. * See Introduction to the History of the Dutch Republic, &c. p. 272. |