have no reprefentatives in the affembly of the provincial ftates, while the latter, like the decayed boroughs in England, ftill retain their reprefentation; and, however infignificant as to population or property, preferve their rank, tho' not entirely their confequence, as members of the original confederacy and union.

The republican party, in order, as we have feen, to increase the number of votes in the affembly of the ftates, procured or introduced petitions from Heufden, Woerden, and other new towns which were grown into confideration, requiring a fhare in the general reprefentation. This attempt was fo little likely to fucceed, that it feemed rather the offspring of paffion and a premature confidence and eagernefs, than the result of a cool judgment and any well-founded hope. It was accordingly fo ill received by the ftates, that the towns foon withdrew their petitions, and the party found themfelves again foiled, without their being able to bring the question to an abfolute decifion.

We have heretofore stated, that the two great parties for and against the house of Orange, into which the inhabitants of the United Provinces were divided, were so nearly balanced in point of number, that, if tried by the test of a poll or a general vote, it would be a matter of doubt on which fide the majority would appear. Our opinion was neceffarily founded on fuch information as we could then obtain. This, however, was fo defective as to lead us, in that refpect, into an error. It now appears from the moft indubitable authority, that although the prince of Orange had, through

various caufes and much mismanagement, loft, within a few years, a very confiderable and alarming fhare of his popularity and influence, yet, that he poffeffed ftill fo faft a hold of the affections or opinion of the great bulk of the people throughout the republic, that, were any decifion by numbers to take place, the majority in his favour would be fo vaft, that the adverse party would appear only a mere handful in the comparifon. The peafantry or yeomanry, including in that defcription all the inhabitants of the open country, were, almoft to a man, not only warm, but, it might be faid, violent in their attachments to him. The inhabitants of the inferior towns, and many of their magiftracies, were little lefs fo. And even in the great cities, where it was probably but little expected even by his friends, it appeared, as foon as the test was applied, that a majority of the inhabitants was on his fide.

This was fully fhewn in the city of Amfterdam, the great and original fource of all the oppofition he had encountered, and of all the mortification which he had endured. We have feen that the adverse party had procured near 17,000 fignatures to an addrefs inimical to the interefts of the stadtholder, which they reprefented as being a majority of the inhabitants, and as conveying the unquestionable fenfe of that great city; but an affociation having been foon after entered into there for fupporting the rights of that prince, the fubfcribers in three days more than doubled the number of the addreffers, and amounted to above 35,000. In Rotterdam, it was well known that his friends would have been found ftill

more

more numerous in proportion to the general number of the inhabitants. We have heretofore rightly obferved, that the nobility, (or, in the language of the country, the equeftrian order) together with the army and the navy, were generally ftrongly attached to the houfe of Orange. To these orders of men we thall now add the clergy of the eftablished church, a body whofe opinions and example muft carry great weight and influence in all countries where religion is not nearly extinct; and who, in this, exclufive of all other motives of attachment, had, ever fince the days of Arminius, confidered that family as their principal fhield of protection and defence, againft the heterodox doctrines which they imputed to that vifionary innovator Now as many of the republican leaders had early adopted and ftill held thefe opinions, and the party were generally difpofed to them, it was no very difficult nor unutual matter, that fome confiderable share of that abhorrence which was conceived againft doctrines that were regarded as abominable, should be transferred to the perfons and party who adopted them; while party zeal, being thus quickened and embittered by religious contefts and prejudices, the enthufiafm excited by the combination could not fail to place the clergy among the foremoft fupporters of the Orange caufe and interefts.

With fuch fupports, added to that of the bulk of the people, and fortified with fuch ftrong mounds of defence as great legal and official powers, with a long-established authority, it may appear almoft paradoxical how the fabric could have been fhaken as we have seen by a comparatively fmall party. To aç

count for this, it is to be observed, that the defect in point of number was compenfated, on the fide of the party in oppofition, by a great fuperiority with refpect to wealth, of which they poffeffed not only more than a proportionate share, but, it is probable, confiderably more than a moiety of what was contained in the whole republic; and every body will allow, that the more wealth is concentrated, by being lodged in fuch a moderate number of hands as will not be much more than fufficient for its due application to any given purpose, the more powerful its effects will prove. The fame apparent defect will account, even independent of feveral other caufes which may be eafily pointed out, for the clofe union, the eafy management, and the effective concert, in all cafes, of that party, which appearing like the difcipline of a wellregulated army, afforded frequent and great advantages over their loofe and disjointed antagonists. They were likewife in pofleflion of most of the offices of magiftracy, and in many provinces of the authority and name of the conftitutional government; a circumftance of no fmall weight in the estimate of political ftrength. The fpringing up of the democratical fpirit, however ruinous to the aristocracies in the iffue, was for the present a wonderful acceffion of ftrength to the adverfe party, by throwing that great body of the burghers on whom it operated directly into their arms. To all thefe may with juftice be added, and certainly will not be confidered as an inefficient caufe, that feveral of the leaders of the republican party were men of very confiderable parts and abilities; while it must be acknowledged by

all

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

The affairs of Utrecht had long been a fource of great embarraffment 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 union, and would appear fo daring an inroad upon the rights of another state, which was in all refpects their equal, and whofe powers of jurifdiction and government were as completely and firmly eftablished as their own, was fo alarming and hazardous a measure, that it could not without much difficulty be adopted.

Pretty early in the fummer of the year 1786, the republican party finding or thinking themselves 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 small 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 difcontent to the highest pitch, against the flatdholder 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 afliftance 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 appearance of folemnity to their proceedings, partly to explain the caufes of thefe extraordinary meafures to the reprefentative of the whole republic, and thereby reconcile them to thofe 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 fiates general, where they reprefented them as indifpenfably neceflary in the prefent critical ftate 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

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

The ftates of Holland followed up thefe 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 service, 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 fervice of the republic in that feafon of apparent danger. The fuppreflion 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 ftadtholder previous to Monf. de Rayneval's negociation; particularly hisfufpenfion from 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 like wife 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 less than a mortal fhock to the republican leaders; and the failure of their late attempts of ftripping the ftadtholder of his remaining great offices in the province of Holland, and of increating the number of voters in the affembly of the states, 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 Amsterdam, confidering the lead which that city had always taken in public affairs, and the almost unbounded influence which the had ever maintained in the affembly of the provincial ftates, afforded alarining indications of the confequences which were likely to enfue. From that period the ftates 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 minifter to the new ftates of America. This man had long been the leader, oracle, and it may be faid, the foul of that party; and no man was ever

better

better calculated for fuch a fituation. His ambition was boundless; 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 be lieve 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 defection in Amfterdam, nor the confequent change in the affembly of the ftates, would have taken place if he had been present.

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 own, upon a motion

March 30th 1787. made for that purpofe by the friends of the prince of Orange. This was followed by another measure 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 respective VOL. XXIX

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

Nothing could have been more highly refented by the adverse party than this dereliction of the refugees; nor could any thing appear more dreadful to themfelves 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 caufe, then to return to their customary la bours and native obfcurity, and to appear in the garb of fuppliants and penitents to their natural rulers, was a tranfition almoft intolerable to humanity.

Nothing could accordinglyexceed 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 moft flagrant and glaring violation of good faith, but as an act of direct and fhameleís treachery. Several of the most factious cities, in this fpirit, took up the cause 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 privileges 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 aspects still more novel and unexpected.

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