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of all our countrymen.-Who among them will honestly maintain, that the nature of the stadtholdership gives to him who is invested with it, the power of oppressing and subjugating the citizens? Is there, besides, any one inhabitant of these provinces, unless he is entirely blinded by a party spirit, who forbears to do justice to the amiable and benevolent disposition of a prince, whose personal character and administration have constantly been marked with the stamp of benevolence, moderation, and the most scrupulous exactness in the fulfilment of his duties.

The other heads of the charge levelled against him, are not less absurd and ridiculous. How can Monseigneur the prince of Orange have broken in 1782 a treaty of alliance which was not concluded till 1785? Who has ever said, or thought seriously, that he either has or could have wished to favour the trade of the English nation at the expence of our own? Is not every mercantile influence absolutely foreign to his powers? and does not commerce open a sufficiently extensive field to employ the industrious activity of two friendly and allied nations? Who among us, lastly, has ever heard mention of the concession to the English of the Cape of Good Hope, or of the island of Ceylon? Who, therefore, does not see that all these reproaches are mere fictions? and how is it possible to alledge them in a paper designed to convey to the whole universe an account of the motives which have engaged a soi disante republic to declare a most unjust war against a free and independent state?

With equal falsehood does the paper now before us speak of the revolution of 1787, an event which foreigners, or, if you will, the enemies of our constitution, mistakenly represent as an act of violence and oppression. Every one knows, that the purport of all which was then done, was merely to re-establish and consolidate the ancient and legitimate constitution upon which this republic was founded, has increased from small beginnings, has so long been flourishing and happy, and which the efforts of a few ambitious men threatened with a total subversion.

"It is not against the Batavian nation," says the proclamation in continuation," that France has declared war: a friend to all nations, she has for her enemies despots only."-Let not our fellow-citizens allow themselves to be dazzled by these lying expressions; let them not lose sight of the signal abuse, now become so common, of the words liberty,slavery, and oppression, Those who at present govern France, and who think they have a right to dispose, in so arbitrary a way, of the lot and well-being of nations, have but too clearly proved in what the friendship consists, which they profess to other nations, and what they mean by tyranny and despotism. They testify their friendship to these nations, by sowing among them division and discord, and by violently stripping them of the privileges essential to social order, and sanctioned by their antiquity-privileges, the remembrance of which they even seek to efface, by destroying the charters on which they are founded.

The gifts they offer, under the fine titles of fraternity and liberty,

are

are no other than the very unbridled license, the self-same irreligious spirit in which they glory so openly, and these accompanied by all the evils which result from them, and under which they themselves groan; such as anarchy, murder, pillage, misery, and famine. They blacken with the names of despotism and slavery all those civil and religious institutions which have hitherto been respected by man, because they are indispensable to his happiness, and to the existence of civil society. Men cannot live in society without a government to superintend their well-being; and the principles the French, with arms in their hands, now labour to spread abroad, are calculated to overturn all governments, and to substitute for safety, repose, and good order, anarchy, and all the evils which spring from it.

Among the numerous subjects of astonishment with which the proclamation furnishes us, and the absurdity of which we are more particularly called on to demonstrate to our countrymen, we cannot silently pass over what is said on the subject of the few unknown and despicable men, who, under the title of the Batavian committee, usurp an imaginary power, and who are described to us as being charged with the provisional administration, until we also, we ourselves, shall, after the example of wretched France, have formed our national convention. Shall we then be obliged to renounce the mild authority which governs us, to submit our property, every thing that is dear to us, our lives themselves, to the caprice of a few unknown, contemptible, ignorant individuals, VOL. XXXV.

who will dispose of us and our's at their pleasure, until the administration shall pass from their hands into those of the soi-disante convention, blindly devoted to France, of a complexion with the one we now see in our neighbourhood, and whose authority will necessarily be attended with the same disastrous consequences to us, as those which have taken place in France? How can it have been conceived, that such ideas would be cherished by a wise and sensible people, little inclined by its character to adopt these disastrous inventions of our times, and accustomed to a just and moderate administration ?

We also persuade ourselves, that it is not necessary to caution the good inhabitants of this country against paying any attention to the invitation and promises made to them, to engage them to range themselves beneath the standard of this pretended liberty; or to the insignificant threats employed to intimidate them from practising the means of defence with which nature has supplied us. It is impossible that there can be found among them, men so base and so degenerate as to form an union with the enemies of their country, and, conjointly with them, to spread among their fellow-citizens, desolation, despair, and the long chain of irreparable evils, which are a necessary effect of a most cruel rapacity, and which so many countries, subdued by the French, now experience.

We rather expect that all citizens, laying aside any party spirit which disunites them, will unite their efforts to ours, and to those of all the true friends of the coun

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try, to defend and preserve, under the divine protection, the territory which has given them birth, and in which they have been bred that they will snatch religion and true liberty, those guarantees of our happiness, from the insupportable yoke of foreign and barbarous hordes. We expect every thing from their courage and bravery; and we are persuaded that they will not suffer themselves to be intimidated by the exaggerated statement of the forces which are represented as advancing against them. We persuade ourselves, that they will neither forget the invincible valour with which our immortal ancestors resisted successfully these very Frenchmen at a time when the greatest powers in Europe did not, as at this day, combat with us, but, on the other hand, were leagued with our enemies;--nor the situation of our country, which, more especially in this season, opposes insurmountable obstacles to an hostile invasion;-nor the diligence and energetic activity of the government, which will neglect nothing to secure the success of our common efforts;-nor, lastly, the efficacious succours we expect in a little time from our faithful allies. If, after so many important considerations, they may still need a motive to confirm them in their resolution to sacrifice every thing in the defence of their dear country, we will place before their view the example of our neighbours the inhabitants of the Austrian Netherlands, who have called on and welcomed as friends, the very general who dares to call himself their deliverer, and those very Frenclumen he commands:-these

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THE

HE very principal part of the public administration which has been confided to me, in my different capacities, as well political as military, by your high mightinesses, and the lords estates of the respective provinces, forbids my preserving silence under the immediate circumstances of the general cause of the country.

Your high mightinesses certainly did justice to my sentiments, and my conduct, when in your letter to the states of the provinces, and in your declaration relative to the manifesto of general Dumourier, you defended this conduct and these sentiments against the calumnies and falsehoods of my enemies. But

I owe to your high mightinesses, to the states of the provinces, to the Dutch nation, for which my ancestors shed their blood-I owe to the faithful allies of the states, who, at so critical a moment, have flown to our succour to fight with us for the republic-I owe to all Europe, whose attention is fixed on so injurious an attack-and I owe it not less to myself, to make known, not only my views, but likewise the foundation of my confidence.

The state is most unjustly attacked; the territory of the generality is invaded; and the arms of the enemy have unexpectedly met with a success which might extend to the cities having voices in the state, and the consequences of which would be incalculable.

Such, high and mighty lords, are the dangers which either harass us already, or which still menace

us.

It is not my wish to dissemble them; I do not even wish to flatter myself, that the losses we have already sustained will be the last. It is not surprising that this republic should experience great checks at the commencement of a war; but in the midst of these disasters, she elevates herself, as if her losses awaken her activity, support her courage, and multiply her strength.

As little as the dangers of the state should be dissembled, so little ought her advantages and succours to be misunderstood. The situation of the country, intersected by rivers, canals, and lakes, holds out advantages capable of disputing the ground with the enemy, even were their successes still more considerable. The fidelity of our citizens, their love for their country, is equally efficacious in a republican

state. The troops of the republic are full of courage, and burn with a zeal to try their strength in the defence of their altars and fire-sides. The seamen are animated by the very spirit that has never failed so honourably to distinguish the Dutch, on an element which is natural to them, and on which they have so often confounded the pride of their enemies. I ought, finally, to assure myself, that not only the allies of the state, but also the formidable powers, which, equally with the republic, have but one interest and one common enemy, will unite their efforts to ours, to repel from the frontiers of this republic violence and injustice. But, high and mighty lords, I found my confidence more especially in the sovereign arbiter of the world, who out of nothing has caused this country to attain its present strength, and who has preserved it by miracles, and supported the arm of my courageous predecessors. This God is eternal: his omnipotence, his sagacity are equally so; and he is still desirous of supporting those who repose their trust in him.

Upon these foundations it is that I declare, in the face of the whole universe, that, far from being discouraged, I will watch till my last moment in the defence of the state, and that, notwithstanding a part of my possessions and domains is already occupied by the enemy, what continues to be mine, as well as my blood and my life, is still for the service of the state. With these sentiments I have been educated; they are those which have distinguished my ancestors; and these illustrious examples have been inculcated by myself, and the princess;

my dear consort, to her children :— they already pant to distinguish themselves in SO honourable a

career.

Let the nation rouse itself; let it form an union with me against an enemy desirous of seizing on its Liberty, its property, and its independence. I trust to be unceasingly found in the career of honour, and the love of my country: and since I neither seek nor know any other grandeur than that of the country, I shall esteem myself happy, provided Heaven shall deign to direct and bless my efforts to that end.

Done at the Hague, Feb. 28, 1793. *(Signed)

PRINCE OF OKANGE.

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HE Junto established for the provisory administration of the conquered countries declare,

:

1. That all authorities whatever, constituted since the revolution of 1759, are abolished; that in consequence thereof, the magistracies of the conquered towns, burghs, and villages, are re-established, such as they existed previously to the revolution at the same time be it well understood, that the indivi, duals who then composed those magistracies, cannot resume their place, without being especially so admitted by the junto; and that, whereas it is impossible to know at the first moments, the conduct observed since the revolution by those individuals, provisory magis

tracies will be chosen, without prejudice to the rights of the respective lords, and in concert with them, as much as it will be possible, till such time as it shall be judged if and to what point those said individuals shall be reinstalled. The lords of the manors, or their officers, shall therefore remit as soon as possible to the junto, the lists of the persons of whom the magistrates or judicial bodies, or corps of police, might be provisorily formed.

2. The laws relative to general policy and property are re-established as they existed in the beginning of 1789.

3. In appeals of judgment in the first instance, the order of the jurisdictions which was established at that epoch, shall be followed; and in cases where, according to that order, the appeal shall refer to a superior tribunal resident in a place still subject to France, the appeal shall be suspended till there shall be a tribunal of appeal appointed under the government of his majesty.

4. With regard to public imposts and taxes, they shall be provisorily, and till further orders, maintained on the footing on which they have been since 1789.

5. All the administrators, receivers, or collectors of imposts and public taxes, the receivers of the domains, and all others who handled any public money in the extent of the conquered country, are to present themselves to the junto, in the term of three days, with a proper account of their chest and administration, under pain of being discharged from their place.

6. The lawful circulation of the assignats is abolished, but they

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