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very treaties allowed; they would not fuffer the republic to enjoy thofe very advantages of treaty which England herself had enjoyed in a fimilar cafe; but violating the rights of nations, they condemned the cargoes as prizes to the crown, and employed the materials in the royal arfenals; other veffels were forfeited by the arbitrary fentences of partial courts of juftice. The privateers and armed fhips of England, feeing that their piracies were legalized, multiplied their depredations, and the merchant veffels of Holland daily became the victims of their brutalities. Finally, the atrocities of the British minifters were carried to fuch a point, that they no longer refpected the flag of the States, but carried a convoy of Dutch veffels into the ports of England, declaring fhips richly laden to be lawful prizes, and violating, as well in Europe as elsewhere, our neutral territory. The only mode which could be adopted, to put a stop to thefe unprecedented injuries, without, however, breaking with the kingdom of Great Britain, was employed by their high mightineffes. This mode confifted in joining with all poffible speed the alliance of the three northern powers, concerted by the empress of Ruffia, and deftined to protect, by the force of arms, the rights of the neutral nations, each of them more or less violated by England.

Their high mightineffes, we fay, would have acceded to this treaty, had not an obftacle been thrown in the way by the perfidious machinations of the Eng lif cabinet. This was the fignal which ed England to break every tie, to diftribute letters of marque

for making reprisals on the inhabitants of the republic and their poffeffions, and to declare open war against the United Provinces. A miniftry to which all means were alike, could not want pretexts for that purpofe. It was not at the fame time difficult for their high mightineffes, to demonftrate the frivoloufnefs of all these pretended grievances; but what purpose could this anfwer with a rapacious, obftinate, and unjust miniftry, which was defirous to revenge on a peaceable ally the lofs of the Britifh colonies, and to appeafe, for a time at leaft, by the booty obtained by an unforeseen attack, the murmurs of the English nation?

It was foon after learned, that the fquadrons and armed veffels of England captured, by virtue of orders already furnished, the Dutch veffels they fell in with beyond feas, without the smallest fufpicion on our fide, and against the faith of treaties. We learned the cruel manner in which the ifland of St. Euftatia was ruined, by feizing on the poffeffions of the merchants, which, when collected, formed treafures; while richly laden vetiels, returning from the ocean, were furprifed unawares in the channel by fmail veffels, which readily made them their prey. By fuch vile means, unworthy of a generous nation, did the British- minifters difhonour the flag of their king: for, can it be confidered in any other point of view, than that of acting, under the royal flag, the part of pirates?

The Batavian republic was at length, after fo many loffes, forced to provide for her defence, to maintain her rights and independence by dint of arms, and to protect

her commerce and her poffeffions. Ah! if he could then have combated under the banners of liberty, how would the English miniftry have repented of its rafhnefs and perfidy! But the English cabinet knew all its influence in this country. It was aware that it could fucceed in fhackling within the republic the preparations of war: it was certain of finding in Holland partizans who would contrive to put into its poffeffion our ships of war, and who would find the means to prevent the difplay of all our ftrength. The event foon proved that the English minifters were not mistaken. They mocked our feeble efforts, which, even before they were carried into effect, were paralyzed in their outfet by the adherents they had in this country. Thefe adherents fupplied them with intelligence of all that was concert ing here. Supported by the stadtholderian influence, they even contrived to render nugatory the orders given by their high mightinelles for the junction of the Batavian fquadron with the French fleet. It was eafy for the English miniftry, after fuch treafons, to obtain fucceffes in that war. And this is what they call glory! But when a particular occafion prefented itself when a fleet belonging to the ftates accidentally met with an opportunity to difplay its courage and its valour, the Batavian mariners, although novices in fighting, proved that they had not degenerated from the bravery of their ancestors. They drove the English fleet, covered with confufion and fhame, into its own port, without having loft one of the merchant veffels they had under convoy.

A war carried on in fuch a way neceffarily terminated in a treaty of peace burthenfome to the states.

Inftead of being indemnified for the incalculable loffes they had fuftained in their commerce, they confidered themfelves as fortunate to be enabled by the fpeedy affist. ance of the French forces, which checked the English in the two Indies, to fave a part of their poffeffions; while they found themselves obliged to yield to the enemy the important factory of Negapatnam on the coaft of Coromandel; and to allow to British veffels the free navigation of the coafts of the Molucca iflands, notwithstanding it might have been foreseen that the navigation of the English in those feas would tend to nothing less than the complete deftruction of our trade in the Eaft Indies.

We fhall not enter into details concerning what paffed in the se quel, when the Batavian nation, feeing how much its interefts were conftantly every where facrificed to thofe of its ancient rival, even by the perfons appointed to defend its rights, meditated a fundamental regeneration in the form of the government. We fhall not retrace how England, knowing that the limitation of the fcandalous ufurpation of power and influence, on the part of the ftadtholder, would alfo diminif its influence in this republic. How, we say, the British miniftry, far from interceding for the Batavian nation, or coming to its fuccour, when legions of foreign troops feized on thefe countries, committing the most atrocious diforders, piliages, and violences, confidered, on the contrary, this devaftation and this oppreffion with a

malignant fatisfaction; and concurred, when the mifchief was completed, in guaranteeing, in a folemn manner, the fyftem of a tyranny which refulted from it.

When the French nation, wearied

with the unfupportable tyranny of kings, fhook off its yoke, and formed itself into an independent republic, the British minifters thought that they could not have a better opportunity to dismember a part of that fine empire. They accordingly united in the treaty concluded at Pilnitz, on the 27th of Auguft, 1791, by the princes of Germany. The French republic, well knowing that that of the United Provinces of the Netherlands would be constrained by England to take a part in this plot against its liberty, declared war against the British minifters, as well as against their fubject William V. ftadtholder of the Seven United Provinces, and his partizans. It is thus that the Batavian nation was once more drawn against its will into this bloody war by its dependence on thofe fame minifters: its treasures were lavished, and its arfenals nearly emptied, to aid the extravagant plans of Pitt and his cabal. Auxiliary English troops were sent to this republic; and when a defeat, fuftained near the Meufe by a part of the French army, had procured a momentary advantage, the army of the ftates was forced to pafs the limits of our frontiers, and thofe of France, and to wage an offenfive war on the French territory. Soon, however, the victorious French repulfed their enemies on all fides, and from day to day the armies of England and the ftates retrograded towards our frontiers. The republic found itself on the brink of ruin, fince appearances pointed out that the theatre of war would be removed to the very heart of its provinces, and all the country inundated. Never were the states in fo critical a pofition fince the war with Spain; but this danger brought about their deliverance; Providence defeated 1796.

the perfidious plans of its enemies, who were defirous rather that the republic fhould be deftroyed than that it fhould be free. When the froft permitted the croffing of the rivers, the valorous French troops drove before them the English bands with fo much speed, that the latter had not time to effect their infernal defign; they fled, but their road was traced by fire and pillage. It was nothing but their speedy and precipitate retreat that preferved the republic from total devastation. We foon witneffed the extraordinary fpectacle which the citizens prefented on all fides, holding out their arms to their conquerors as to their only deliverers. We faw the allied troops fack and plunder, and thofe who were called our enemies refpect public and private pro. perty.

It was thus that the Netherlands were delivered from their most dangerous enemies. The ftadtholder abandoned, in a daftardly way, his country and his friends, and fought an afylum at the court of the king of England. The ftandard of li berty was planted in all places, while the French republic declared the Batavian nation free, and reestablished it in its primitive rights.

The British minifters, enraged at feeing this republic ftill exist without being in their hands, attempted at least to deftroy it another way, by totally undermining its extenfive commerce. Upwards of one hundred fhips, the greater part richly laden, which, either through foul winds, or as a measure of precau tion, had fought fhelter in British ports, as well as feveral Dutch fhips of war, were laid under embargo, as if to prevent them from falling into the hands of the French. Their high mightineffes, it is true, fent commiffioners to London to claim (H)

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them, demonftrating by the most folid proofs, that the Batavian republic was no longer under the dominion of France fince the folemn declaration of its independence, and that England ought to conduct itfelf towards the Batavian nation, as towards a free people; they added, that the Dutch merchants would not rifque the entry of their veffels into the ports of the republic, if it was for no other purpose than to furrender them to the French. The British minifters had, however, already made up their minds to appropriate this booty to themfelves; and, to augment it, they deffeminated on all fides falfe rumours touching the fituation of affairs in this country, to the end that they might, in the fame way, allure into their ports the merchant veffels belonging to the republic, which were ftill at fea. They have fince entirely violated the rights of nations; and all the Dutch veffels, to which his majesty the king of Great Britain had granted his high protection, were, in violation of the treaty of Breda, perfidiously declared law ful captures.

But what puts the feal to the acts of hoftility and bad faith which the prefent British minifters have exercifed against this republic, is the treacherous mode in which they have endeavoured to make themfelves mafters of her colonies. For this purpose they fent letters, figned by the prince of Orange, and dated at Kew, the 7th of February, 1795, to feveral of the colonies of the republic of the Netherlands in the Eaft Indies, and to the Cape of Good Hope. In thefe letters, this perfidious and ci-devant minifter and commander in chief of thefe ftates, after having abandoned all his pofts, ordered, on his individual authority, the refpective go

vernors to put the colonies of the ftates under the protection of the British arms; that is to fay, in the artful and cuftomary language of the English miniftry, to furrender them to England. them to England. Notwithstanding this felonious ftratagem has failed in the greater part of the colonies, through the fidelity of their governors, it was impoffible to prevent the Cape of Good Hope from falling into the hands of the Englifh; and feveral important pofleffions of these states, in the Eaft Indies, have fhared the fame fate.

While all this was taking place, the British miniftry conceived the plan of attacking alfo by land this free republic, and of employing for that purpofe thofe foldiers, who, being more attached to the prince of Orange than to their country, emigrated on the flattering promifes of England.-Thefe fugitives were not only well received in the states of his Britannic majefty in Germany, but were even kept in the pay of England; and if the defertion of the greater part of the army of the republic could have been brought about, there is no doubt but they would have been led againft their country under English commanders, for the purpose of renewing here, if the fact were poffible, the fcenes of 1787; of kindling up, as in LaVendée, a difaftrous civil war, and of thus deftroying the Batavian republic by inteftine commotions.

Is it therefore furprising that the Batavian nation, now free, feeks to reinforce itself againft fuch unprecedented and numerous outrages, by an intimate alliance with a republic which fnatched it from the gripes of its enemies? A treaty of peace and alliance was accordingly concluded at the Hague, on the 16th of May, 1795, between the

two

two free republics of France and Holland. That treaty of mutual defence by which the independent Batavian nation, fupported by a powerful neighbour, and unflaken by the influence of a foreign minifter, will be put in a condition to employ for the future its forces against its aggreffors, and of paying them in their own coin, has alfo been cemented.

His majefty, the king of Great Britain, after fo many hoftilities have been exercifed, was at length pleased to proclaim, on the 19th of September, 1795, by his council of ftate, a declaration of war against this republic, but in which no ground of complaint was alleged. His majefty, it is true, fays in this manifefto," that for fome time divers acts of outrage, contrary to the honour of his majesty's crown, and to the legitimate rights of his fubjects, had been committed in the United Provinces, and that the ships of war which failed from the ports of the United Provinces, had received orders to take and fink all British veffels." The acts contrary to the honour of his majesty's crown which had been committed in the Netherlands, are the acts of his majesty's own troops, and the English nation will, undoubtedly, fooner or later, punish their authors; and with refpect to the orders given to the fhips of war of the republic, to repel violence by violence, has not the independent republic, fo cruelly treated, a right of refiftance? His majefty had forgotten that the Netherlands were no longer under the ftadtholderian yoke, and that his majefty's minifters had loft for ever, as we truft, for the safety of the country, all influence over the independent Batavian republic.

It is therefore with a perfect con

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fidence in that love of the country, in that energy, and in that courage with which liberty alone can infpire a nation, for a long time infulted and oppreffed, that the independent Batavian nation folemnly declares in the face of Europe, through the organ of its legitimate reprefentatives, that, obliged to defend itfelf against the acts of perfidy and violence of the neighbouring kingdom of Great Britain, it will repel every act of aggreffion on its liberty, its independence, its rights, and its legitimate poffeffions; and that it will put in execution all poffible means to receive fatisfaction and indemnity for the incalculable loffes it has fuftained through a perfidious ally:-in the firm hope that Divine Providence, who has fo miracu loufly preferved this country from a total ruin, will blefs its arms, and will not allow violence and oppreffion ever to fix their fatal abode on its free territory.

Done at the Hague, May 2, 1796, fecond year of Batavian freedom.

Manifefto of the Court of Spain against Great Britain, Oct. 5, 1796.

One of the principal motives that determined me to make peace with the French republic, as soon as its government had begun to affume a regular and stable form, was the manner in which England behaved to me during the whole of the war, and the juft miftruft which I ought to feel for the future from the experience of her bad faith, which began to be manifetted at the most critical moment of the first campaign; in the manner with which admiral Hood treated my fquadron at Toulon, where he was employed folely in ruining all that he could (H 2)

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