ever were supported by three pieces of cannon. This party was commanded by the Baron d'Averhoult, one of the new members who had come into the fenate upon the change of government in Utrecht.

Upon their approach to Jutphaas, the three companies ftationed there fell back, until they were fupported by the other four from Vreefwyk; the volunteers coming on in the dark, for it was then ten o'clock, were fuddenly fired on by the regular troops, who had opened to the right and left to receive them. The volunteers did not difplay the furprife or diforder fo natural to raw troops upon this unexpected fire, but, bringing up their artillery coolly, engaged and foon routed the enemy.

The news of this affair was brought to Utrecht after midnight, and nothing could exceed the triumph of the people, at fecing a number of firelocks and other trophies, with about 20 prifoners, appear as the fruits of their firft effay in arms. A fmall reinforcement, with a convoy of artillery and ammunition, was directly fent off to Averhoult, who continued that night at Jutphaas, but proceeding betimes in the morning to Vreefwyk, the regular forces were fo far from thewing any inclination to retrieve the honour of the preceding night, that they immediately abandoned the place.

This paltry affair, which afforded fo little credit to the military forces of the ftate, ferved to raife the fpirits of the burghers of Urecht, and the opinion they held of their own prowels, to fo high a pitch, that it feemed nothing in war could afterwards be difficult. Only two perfons, one of whom was of fome

confideration, were killed on their fide, and about a dozen wounded. The dead heroes were interred, at the expence of the ftate, with the greateft pomp; and the fenate paffed a refolution that a monument thould be raised on the ipot where they fell, to eternize the memory of thofe who had thus bravely fhed their blood, in the first conteft for the defence of the city, and the new constitution.

The ftates of Holland, upon the first news of this thirmith, did not hefitate a moment in ordering their troops to march directly into the territories of Utrecht; they placed garrifons immediately both in Vreetwyk and Jutphaas. and the troops of Salm were fent to reinforce the capital. A fbirmish foon took place between the latter and a party of the troops of the ftate, who met them on their march, and who feem to have been as unfuccesful in this fecond effay as in the first. In the mean time, the most unqualified menaces were thrown out, both in the declarations of the ftates of Holland, and of those affembled at Amersfort; while thefe applied to all the neighbouring provinces for afliftance, to repel this violent invafion of their territories; and the conduct of Holland feemed to excite a very high and general indignation. In the mean time the ftadthoter took the field with the forces attached to him, and every thing, on every fide, tended to immediate war.

A fudden and unexpected revolution, which took place in the af fairs of Holland, feened, however, to hold out hopes, that the extremities might full poffibly be avoided. We have feen the teft propofed by the ftates of that pro[B] 4

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vince to try the fidelity and obedience of their officers; the late refolution of the states general had afforded ample room for pretence to thefe, not to depart from their political opinions or principles, and a great majority of them refuted to fubfcribe to the propofed declaration. Whatever degree of diffatiffaction this defection excited, it did not feem at all to embarrass the proceedings of the ftates of Holland; for they immediately fulfilled the threat of fufpending the officers; and with equal celerity, appointed new ones to fill their places. The refractory officers were, however, foon confoled, by a refolution of the ftates general to take them under their immediate protection, and this accompanied with an order, that their customary pay thould be continued, and duly difcharged by the public treasury of the ftate at large.

But previous to thefe events, the ftadtholder had publifhed a manifefto, on the 26th of May, which could fcarcely be confidered as lefs than a declaration of war against the province of Holland, or at leaft against that aristocratical cabal, as they are called in it, who are charged, in direct terms, with having overturned the conftitution and government of several of the moft confiderable cities, and in a great measure of the province at large; while their leaders, difdaining to pay any regard even to the forms of law or the conftitution, had depofed the legal fenates by force, and compelled them, at the point of the bayonet, not only to fubmit to a furrender of their own rights, but to abandon the trufts repofed in them by their country, and the duties of which they were bound to

perform. That this cabal, which was reprefented as being not lefs contemptible in point of number than in all other refpects, had been enabled to commit thefe exorbitances, merely through the circumftance, that their leaders had been fervants of the state, and treacheroufly turned thofe powers with which they had been endued for its prefervation, to its abfolute subverfion. That now, in fome meafure to cover their enormities at home, and hoping to have time, during a ftate of general calamity and confufion, to establish their ufurped power, they were hoftilely preparing for a violation of the rights, and an invafion of the territories of another state, there by intending to involve the whole republic in all the miferies and horrors of a civil war. That the ftadtholder, whofe long bearing, and long fuffering, had been confpicuous to all the world, partly from the gentleness of his own nature, partly from the hope that the evils arifing from the condu& of this faction would long fince have cured themfelves, and partly that the nefarious defigns of their leaders might become apparent to all people, had hitherto refrained from proceeding to those extremes which the cafe would have fully warranted, in order to restrain thofe enormities; but that now the neceflity and danger were fo visible and urgent, that he could no longer abftain from the exercife and due application of thofe coercive powers with which he was endowed by the conftitution, for preferving the public tranquillity, preventing any farther violation of the general union, and rettoring the legal government, and the due operation.

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of the conftitution in the province of Holland. Hopes were likewife held out to the burghers, that their claims should be attentively confidered, and that the prince would do every thing in his power, towards their receiving all confiftent and reasonable fatisfaction.

In the mean time, the animofity of the contending parties had rifen to fuch a pitch of violence in Amfterdam, as to render that city a fcene of the moft dreadful diforders. An addrefs to the ftates of Holland for reftoring the stadtholder to all his rights, which we have before noticed as having received 35,000 fignatures, ferved to revive with new vigour all the feeds of animofity and contention on both fides; and the city prefented for fome days the mixed picture of cruel civil war, accompanied with the unfparing ravage of a foreign invader. The republican party, though fo much inferior with refpect to number, was, however, the conftant victor in all thefe bloody contefts. The quarter of Cattemburg, in which the thipbuilders, and other perfons belonging to the admiralty, as well as those of fimilar callings in the merchants fervice, principally refided, was fo entirely feparated from the city by a canal and a drawbridge, that it feemed a diftinct town, and the inhabitants a separate community. The people of this quarter have at all times been diftinguished for the violence of their attachment to the ftadtholder's interefts, and were apt to express it in the boisterous manner peculiar to their character.

On the 28th of May, being the day appointed for clofing the addrefs, a number of these people attended in the city on that account; and it is not at all improbable, that

their joy at the prodigious majority of the fignatures, beyond any thing that had ever appeared on the other fide, together with the effect of the ftrong liquors which are never unfparingly ufed on fuch occafious, might have infpired them with that riotous difpofition with which they are charged by their adverfaries. It is likewife to be remembered, that the very circumftance of the fignatures, which fo much excited the joy of the Cattemburghers, could not but produce a very contrary effect on the oppofite party, and was well calculated to raife their animofity to the highest pitch, and to inflame their rage to the greatest violence.

A quarrel, however, commenced, and the riot continued, without any material mifchief being done, until the evening, when the Cattemburgers were routed. The fore remembrancers which they bore of the conflict, together with the shame of the defeat, were probably the.caufes of their returning the following day in greater numbers than before. The parties being now more equal, the riot became fo alarming, that a body of armed burghers thought it neceffary to interfere. The mob of the republican party being now relieved from the labour of fighting, the most villainous part of them immediately perceived, that the happy occafion offered, while their enemy was kept at bay, and the noife and confufion ftill continued, to enter upon more profitable action, and to which they were more competent, than that in which they had already been engaged. They accordingly abandoned the field, and, dividing into bodies fufficient for the purpose, ran with the utmoft fpeed and violence to differ

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ent parts of the city, and immediately proceeded to break into and pillage thofe houfes of the principal ftadtholderians, in which they ex-. pected to find the most valuable plunder. The first house which became a victim to their rapacity was that of M. de Rendorp, who had himfelf, through a fortune fo fingular as not easily to be accounted for, efcaped the fiery ordeal of the laft reform of the regency, and still retained his office of burgomafter.

In the mean time, the Cattemburgers having been driven to their own quarter, where they drew up the bridge, and ftood upon its defence,perceiving howtheir friends were ufed in the city, whether upon a principle of retaliation, or of mere rapine, began incontinently to plunder the houfes of thofe of the adverse faction who refided among them. Nothing less than the actual fack of a capital, could afford a juft idea of the fcene of confufion and terror, which the pacific and great commercial city of Amfterdam now presented. Drums refounded in every part, not only to affemble the armed burghers, but to call the four regiments of city militia (who compofe a very numerous and well armed body) to their colours. Artillery were dragged forward on both fides, and feveral discharges, both of them and of musketry, took place from the oppofite fides of the canal which feparated the hoftile parties. The cable which fupported the drawbridge being at length cut, the pafs was forced, the Cattemburgers foon routed, and were fucceffively expofed to military rage, and to civil execution.

On the following day the depredations on the friends of the ftadtholder were renewed with freflivio

lence; while the city police feemed to be entirely taken up with two favourite objects; the one being to punish the Cattemburgers, and the other (which was even, if poflible, more eagerly fought) to procure fuch evidence, as might enable them to bring a charge against the prince of Orange, that all the mifchief had originated with him; an attempt in which they failed, notwithstanding the terror which preffed upon the minds of the unhappy perfons who were the objects of the fcrutiny. In the mean time Amfterdam was deferted by numbers of its moft refpectable and opulent citizens; not a few of whom, despairing of any return of order and fecurity, retired, with whatever they could fave of their wealth, to foreign countries. Others, who ftood the brunt, and endeavoured to weather the storm, had their windows lined with mufketeers, and two pieces of cannon were planted before the great mercantile houfe of the Hope's for its protection. In the mean time all bufinefs was at an end, the countinghoufes fhut up, the principal merchants removing their effects to their country feats, a total ftop put to paper currency of whatever fort, and all orders from the banks for money rejected. It was reported that fourteen of the ftadtholder's party were hanged in the fireets, without any form or pretence of trial; but the reports propagated in fuch fituations, of violence and mutual animofity, are little to be relied on as to particular facts, tho' fuch events are their natural confequences.

We have already feen the decided part taken by the flates general against thofe of Holland, by taking the refractory officers into their

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protection, and into the public pay. This was undoubtedly a mortification,butwas foon fucceededbyothers much greater, and of a nature not a little alarming. For the ftates general iffued an order to general Van Reyffel, who commanded the troops of Holland, to break up the cordon or line which they formed on the frontiers of Utrecht, under pain to him and them, of inftant difmiffion from the fervice. The ftates of Holland immediately infued counter orders, charging Van Reyffel and his officers, under the fame penalty, to preferve their fiation. Both parties now seemed disposed to carry this civil hoftility to its utmoft extreme; for while the states general fufpended Van Reyffel from the command of the army, the states of Holland voted him full fupport, protection, and the most complete indemnity from all confequences. These measures were followed by another very important event. It was no less than a revolt of a great majority of the troops of Holland from the orders and jurifdiction of their masters the states of that province.

We have before had occafion to obferve, that the army in general held difpofitions very favourable to theinterefts of the prince of Orange. This had been lately confirmed, with refpect to the officers, by their refufal, at the rifque of their commiffions, to comply with the propofed teft. The difpofition of the private men remained, however, itill doubtful; and, whatever it might be, required the operation of fome active agent, to excite its vifible exertion; at the fame time, that the late augmentation of their pay by the ftates, a meature fo uni

verfally powerful in its effect upon foldiers, feemed to preclude all hope of fuccefs in fuch an experiment.

1787.

Colonel Balneavis (of a noble family in Scotland) had been among the firft of thofe officers who refufed to obey the orders of the states, and had accordingly retired from his regiment; but now, conJune 10th, fiding probably in the affection of his men, he returned to them at Oudewater, and not only induced them, but a battalion of another regiment who were ftationed along with them in that fortress, to march off with their artillery, and to join the stadtholder. This fpirited and dangerous adventure ferved as a general fignal of revolt, and the example feemed inftantly to infect the whole line, fo that in less than a week the cordon was broken up, the frontiers of Holland left defenceless and about two-thirds of their troops were gone over to the stadtholder.

The alarm and confufion which this mifadventure occafioned, in fuch a feafon and state of things, when the pride and affected fuperiority of Holland had not only difgufted, but nearly excited a general confederacy against her,will be easily conceived. The volunteers and armed burghers were now the only refuge, and they were immediately called out to fupply the place of the troops, and to take up arms in the defence of their country. The states allowed them pay and maintenance; and, as a latt refort, in a cafe of such imminent danger, they appointed a commiflion of defence, being a kind of field or military deputies, who were to be acioned at Woerden, and to act in concert with general

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