HE national convention, after having heard the report of their committee of general defence, on the conduct of the English government;

Considering, that the king of England has persisted, especially since the revolution of the 10th of August, 1792, to give proofs of his being ill-disposed toward the French nation, and of his attachment to the coalition of crowned heads;

That at the period aforesaid, he ordered his ambassador at Paris to withdraw, because he would not acknowledge the provisional executive council created by the legislative assembly;

That the cabinet of St. James's has ceased since the same period to correspond with the French ambassador at London, on pretext of the suspension of the heretofore king of the French;

That since the opening of the national convention, it has refused to resume the usual correspondence: between the two states, and to acknowledge the powers of this convention;

That it has refused to acknow. ledge the ambassador of the French republic, although provided with letters of credence in its name;

That it has endeavoured to impede the different purchases of corn, arms, and other commodities, or dered in England, either by French citizens, or the agents of the republic;

That it has caused to be stopped several boats and ships laden with grain for France, contrary to the treaty of 1786, while exportation to other countries was free;

That in order still more effectually to obstruct the commercial operations of the republic in England, it obtained an act of parliament prohibiting the circulation of assignats;

That in violation of the 4th article of the treaty of 1789, it obtained another act in the month of January last, which subjects all French citizens residing in, or coming into England, to the most inquisitorial, vexatious, and dangerous forms;

That at the same time, and contrary to the first article of the peace of 1783, it granted protection and pecuniary aid not only to the emigrants but even to the chiefs of the rebels, who have already fought. against France; that it has maintained with them a daily correspondence, evidently directed against the French revolution; that it has also received the chiefs of the rebels of the French West India colonies; That in the same spirit, without

any

any provocation, and when all the maritime powers are at peace with England, the cabinet of St. James's has ordered a considerable naval armament and an augmentation of the land force;

That this armament was ordered at a moment when the English minister was bitterly persecuting those who supported the principles of the French constitution in England, and was employing all possible means, both in parliament and out of it, to cover the French republic with ignominy, and to draw upon it the execration of the English nation, and of all Europe;

That the object of this armament, intended against France, was not even disguised in the English parliament;

That although the provisional executive council of France has employed every measure for preserving peace and fraternity with the English nation; and has replied to calumnies and violation of treaties, only by remonstrances founded on the principles of justice, and expressed with the dignity of freemen; the English minister has persevered in his system of malevolence and hostility, continued the armaments, and sent a squadron to the Scheldt, to disturb the operations of the French in Belgium;

That, on the news of the execution of Louis, he carried his outrages to the French republic to such a length, as to order the ambassador of France to quit the British territory within eight days;

That the king of England has manifested his attachment to the cause of that traitor, and his design of supporting, by different resolutions adopted at the moment

of his death, both by nominating generals of his land army, and by applying to parliament for a considerable addition of land and seaforces, and putting ships of war in commission;

That his secret coalition with the enemies of France, particularly with the emperor and Prussia, is confirmed by a treaty concluded with them the first in the month of January; that he has drawn into the same coalition the stadtholder of Holland; that that prince, whose servile obsequiousness to the orders of the courts of St. James's and Berlin is but too well known, has in the course of the French revolution, and notwithstanding the neutrality which he professed, treated with disdain the agents of France, received the emigrants, harassed the French patriots, counteracted their operations, released, in opposition to established usage, and, notwithstanding the demand of the French minister, persons who had been guilty of forging assignats; that in the mean time, with a view to concur in the hostile designs of the court of London, he gave orders for a naval armament, named an admiral, appointed Dutch ships to join the English fleet, opened a loan to defray the expences of the war, put a stop to exportations to France, while he favoured sending supplies of provisions to the Prussian and Austrian magazines;

Considering, in fine, that all these circumstances no longer leave to the French republic any hope of obtaining, by means of amicable negociation, the redress of their grievances, and that all the acts of the British court, and of the stadtholder, of the United Provinces, are

acts

acts of hostility, equivalent to a declaration of war, the national convention decrees as follows:

Article I. The national convention declares, in the name of the French nation, that, considering the multiplied acts of hostility and aggression of the above-mentioned powers, the French nation is at war with the king of England and the stadtholder of the United Provinces.

II. The national convention charges the provisional executive council to call forth such forces as may appear to them necessary for repelling their aggression, and for maintaining the independence, the dignity, and the interests of the French republic.

ous house of Orange. You had then recourse to the French nation --but as at that time France groaned under the despotism of a perfidious court, you became the sport of the intriguing miscreants who then governed France.

"A handful of Prussians sufficed to replace the yoke upon you, commanded by that same duke of Brunswick whom I have since chaced from Champagne. Some of you have been victims to the vengeance of your despot-some have sought for refuge in France.— Since then every hope of liberty was no more, until the period of a revolution, the most astonishing which the history of the universe ever presented, sustained by success the most glorious, has given to you, in the French, allies powerful, generous, and free, who will second your efforts for liberty, or who will perish with you.

"Batavians, it is not against you that the French republic has declared war-the friend of all nations, she has for enemies only despots. The English, so proud of their liberty, suffer themselves to be misled by gold, and the falsehoods of a of whom they will soon be weary. The more enemies we have, the more shall we propagate our principles-persuasion and victory shall sustain the imprescriptible rights of man, and nations will be tired of exhausting their blood and their treasures for a small number of individuals, who keep discord alive, as the means of deceiving and enslaving the people.

"We enter Holland therefore as friends to the Dutch, but as irreconcileable enemies to the house of Orange. Its yoke appears to you too insupportable for your

choice to be doubtful. See you not that this demi-despot, who tyrannizes over you, sacrifices to his personal interest the most solid interests of the said republic? Has he not, in 1782, engaged you to break, with dishonourable perfidy, the treaty of alliance concluded with us? Since then, has he not constantly favoured the English commerce at the expence of yours? Does he not, at this moment, surrender to that perpetual rival, the only nation you can dread, the most important establishments, the Cape of Good Hope, the isle of Ceylon, nay, the whole of your commerce with the Indies? Think you that the English, insatiable of power and wealth, will ever restore you those important places which secure to them the empire of India? No; you will never regain your rank among the first maritime nations until you shall have become free.

"Send back, therefore, into Germany that ambitious house, which, for a century, has sacrificed you to its ambition. Send back that sister of Frederick William, who retains at her command his ferocious Prussians, when you shall attempt to throw off your chains. The calling in of those Prussians is every time an insult to the standard of your brave troops. The house of Orange fears, and with reason, that the spirit of liberty will subdue it. A republican army will not long be subservient to tyrants. Soon the troops of Holland, soon the conquerors on the Dogger bank, will join to the French their armies and their fleets.

"The first who unite themselves under the standard of liberty shall receive, not only the certainty of

those places which they occupy in the service of the republic; but promotion, and at the expence of the slaves of the house of Orange.

"I enter among you surrounded by the generous martyrs of the revolution of 1787. Their perseverance and their sacrifices merit your confidence and mine. They form a committee, which will increase speedily in number. This committee will be very useful in the first moments of your revolution; and its members with no ambition but to be the deliverers of their country, will re-enter the different classes of social order whenever your national convention shall assemble.

"I enter your territories at the head of 60,000 Frenchmen, free and victorious. Sixty thousand more are defending Brabant, ready to follow me if I meet with resistance. We are by no means the aggressors. The Orange party has long waged against us a secret and perfidious war, It is at the Hague that all the attempts have been plotted against our liberty. — We shall seek at the Hague the authors of our woes.-Our wrath and our vengeance are only for them.

"We will pass through your rich provinces like friends and brothers.-You will see the difference of proceeding between freemen who offer you their hands, and of tyrants who inundate and devastate your country.

"I promise the peaceful husbandmen whose harvests are sacri ficed to the terror of the tyrant, to indemnify them by the sale of their possessions who have ordered the fruitless inundations. I promise also to deliver into their hands, and to their just vengeance, the

persons

persons of those wicked functionaries, magistrates, or military commanders, who shall have ordered those inundations.

However, to avoid all the ruin they occasion, I exhort all the inhabitants of the country, by the sentiment of liberty they have within them, to oppose them; and I will closely follow up my proclamation, to support the brave and punish the wicked.

"Batavians! have confidence in a man whose name is known to you-who has never failed to fulfil what he promised, and who is leading freemen to battle-before whom have fled, and will fly, the Prussian satellites of your tyrant.

"The Belgians call me their deliverer-I hope speedily to be yours.

"The general in chief of the army of the French Repub

lic,

"DUMOURIER."

THE tenor of this paper, printed at Antwerp in the Dutch and French languages, leads to a presumption that it was intended by general Dumourier to announce and precede the attack with which he has long threatened this republic; to expose to the view of Europe, and, in particular, to that of the inhabitants of these provinces, the aim of this enterprise; and, if it were possible, to justify its motives. A writing, however, so filled with the grossest falsehoods and absurdities, as well as the most atrocious calumnies, has never perhaps been publislied in a similar conjuncture. On examining with attention the contents of this proclamation, every attentive reader will, like ourselves, find it difficult

to persuade himself, that it can in reality be ascribed to him whose name it carries; to a man who has the reputation of being enlightened and intelligent, and who makes a profession of uprightness and morality. Thus do we feel no repug nance in abandoning the examination of the offensive sophisms and facts alledged in it, to the good sense of all the well-disposed inhabitants of this country; and with this view we have not hesitated to contribute, ourselves, to the publicity of this piece, by inserting it in the present manifesto. We think it, however, a duty we owe to our honour, to the whole nation, to the present age, and to posterity, not to leave without reply, at a time when these pacific states are threatened by a most unjust invasion, all the falsehoods advanced against us; and certainly, had we sought an occasion to discuss the present subject, we could never have found one presenting more advantages.

The author of the proclamation sets out by representing Monseigneur the prince, hereditary stadtholder, as a tyrant who holds the good people of these provinces in oppression, and as one who possesses no other power than that of captain general. It is impossible to display a more profound ignorance of our constitution, according to which the illustrious charge of captain general, and that of the hereditary stadt holder, are two absolutely distinct dignities. As to what regards the manner in which Monseigneur the prince, hereditary stadtholder, exercises those functions which are confided to him under these two distinct relations, we appeal to the testimony

of