beggary, and an incapacity of carrying on bufinefs, by withdrawing its allotted quota of revenue entirely from their difpofal. This meafure admitting of no alternative, ferved to cure that flackness and indecifion which had marked the conduct of the provincial ftates, and compelled them to adopt the moft vigorous measures for reducing that turbulent city to obedience. For this purpose their own troops, in concert with thofe of their allies the ftates of Guelderland, and fuch as the ftadtholder could furnish, feemed to be competent; but the great clog to the undertaking lay in the apprehenfion and danger, that HolÎand would take an open and direct part in the conteft, and, throwing its whole force into the oppofite fcale, fink the balance entirely against them. For though fuch a measure would not only be a direct breach, but amount to a diffolution of the general confederacy (Utrecht, like every other province, being abfolutely paramount and fovereign within its own territories) yet they had feen fo many inftances of the daring fpirit of that party now dominant in Holland, that they trufted as little to their prudence in weighing general confequences, as to their juftice with refpect to the rights of others.

It became accordingly the firft object of policy with the ftadtholder's friends, as well as with the ftates of Utrecht and Gaelderland, to ufe all the civil means which the nature of the conftitution and government admitted, to reftrain the violence of Holland; and if these failed of effect, their fecond object, and laft apparent refource was, to call in the aid of the provinces of Zealand and Frief

land (which they had a well-founded hope of obtaining) and prepare to defend their territorial rights, and vindicate their fovereign authority by arms.

The ftates general had hitherto preferved the most guarded neutrality through the whole course of thefe diffenfions; fo that it could not even be furmifed what their private opinions as men might be, relative to any of the questions which had been fo violently agitatcd. In fact, by the conftitution of that body, though their powers and authority were great, they were directed rather to general than to particular objects. Their high mightineffes were the watchful guardians of the interefts of the republic as a whole; they were to look particularly to them with refpect to foreign nations; they were to watch the approach of danger from without, to eftimate its degree, and to make a timely provifion for the public fecurity. In war, their powers were great, and their authority in a great measure conclufive; and in peace, they were to prefcribe the force to be fupported by fea and land, to inspect into the ftate of the fleets and armies, and to look to every part of the public defence at home and abroad. But with respect to internal affairs, or the differences between particular ftates, their powers of controul, if not abfolutely limited, are at leaft unknown, as their exertion is probably without a precedent. But in cafes of extreme neceffity, even with respect to internal affairs, where the peace or unity of the republic were endangered, the occafion would undoubtedly fanctify the application of thefe undefined powers, and the effect would be

the

towards the prefervation of peace, or the restoration of harmony; and the first blood was now publicly drawn in a military manner through thefe contefts.

We have already feen that the provincial ftates affembled at Amerffort, had at length determined to proceed to the laft extremities, in order to restore the government of their turbulent capital, and to reduce it to a due ftate of obedience to and conformity with the ancient government and conftitution. The better to effect this purpose, it was refolved in the firft inftance, as the neceffary prelude to a fiege, to feize the principal pofts which furround the city of Utrecht, and thereby cut off its communications in general, but particularly with the province of Holland, from which only it looked for fupport and affiftance.

No measures were ever worse conducted than thofe adopted upon this occafion. The poffefiion of the poft of Vreefwyk, near Utrecht, was a matter of the utmost importance to both parties, and neither feemed to make a proper estimate of its value. Its fituation upon a great canal, rendered it the medium of communication between Utrecht and South Holland, and it was befides the feat or head of the fluices, by which a confiderable part of the neighbouring territories in both provinces were liable to be laid at any time under water. Yet the city of Utrecht had not placed the fmalleft guard to protect a place fo near, and of so much confequence to its fecurity.

On the other fide, the ftates fent the Count d'Efferen, with a weak battalion of his regiment, amounting only to about 350 men, with

out artillery, and, fo far as appears, without any means of throwing up retrenchment or defence of any fort, not only to poffefs and maintain this poft, but another, at a confiderable diftance, on the way to Utrecht, which was neceflary to its prefervation, being a village called Jutphaas. It cannot but appear aftonishing, how any council, however ignorant of war, or any commander of a regiment, however little verfed in actual fervice, could deem it poffible for fuch a handful of men to maintain their ground in two pofts confiderably feparated, and in the vicinity of a great and turbulent city, poffeffing feveral thoufands of well-armed and long-difciplined burghers, whofe courage was inflamed by the violence of their enthufiafm, and the long fuccefs which had attended their proceedings.

Count d'Efferen, fully fucceeded in performing the firft part of his miffion, by taking poffeffion, on the afternoon of the 9th of May, both of Vreefwyk and Jutphaas; posting four companies of his detachment in the firft, and three in the other. The furprise, and the delay of affembling the council in Utrecht, occafioned its being about feven o'clock in the evening, before a fmall party, which feemed insufficient for the purpose, were permitted to march to repel the invaders; for, whether it proceeded from their contempt of the regular troops (whofe force they were acquainted with) or from whatever other caufe, the eagerness of the burghers to go as volunteers was fo ftrongly controuled, that only 200 of that body, accompanied with 30 light markimen, were suffered to proceed on this fervice; they how

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 furprise 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 feeing 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 fhewing 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 state, ferved to raise the fpirits of the burghers of Utrecht, and the opinion they held of their own prowess, to fo high a pitch, that it feemed nothing in war could afterwards be difficult. Only two perfons, one of whom was of fome

1

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

The ftates of Holland, upon the first news of this skirmish, did not hefitate a moment in ordering their troops to march directly into the territories of Utrecht; they placed garrifons immediately both in Vreefwyk and Jutphaas, and the troops of Salm were fent to reinforce the capital. A fkirmish foon took place between the latter and a party of the troops of the ftate, who met them on their march, and who seem to have been as unfuccefsful in this fecond effay as in the firft. In the mean time, the moft unqualified menaces were thrown out, both in the declarations of the states of Holland, and of thofe affembled at Amersfort; while thefe applied to all the neighbouring provinces for affiftance, 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 ftadtholder 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 affairs of Holland, feemed, however, to hold out hopes, that thefe extremities might ftill poffibly be avoided. We have feen the teft propofed by the ftates of that province

[B] 4

vince to try the fidelity and obedience of their officers; the late refolution of the ftates general had afforded ample room for pretence to thefe, not to depart from their political opinions or principles, and a great majority of them refufed 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 fhould be continued, and duly discharged by the public treasury of the itate at large.

But previous to thefe events, the ftadtholder had published a manifefto, on the 26th of May, which could fcarcely be confidered as lefs than a declaration of war againft 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 go vernment of feveral 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 commmit thefe exorbitances, merely through the circumftance, that their leaders had been fervants of the ftate, and treacheroufly turned thofe powers with which they had been endued for its preservation, to its abiolute 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, thereby intending to involve the whole republic in all the miferies and horrors of a civil war. That the fladtholder, whofe long bearing, and long fuffering, had been confpicuous to all the world, partly from the gentlenefs of his own nature, partly from the hope that the evils arising from the conduct of this faction would long fince have cured themselves, and partly that the nefarious defigns of their leaders might become apparent to all people, had hitherto refrained from proceeding to thofe extremes which the cafe would have fully warranted, in order to reftrain thofe enormities; but that now the neceffity and danger were fo vifible and urgent, that he could no longer abstain from the exercise 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 reftoring the legal government, and the due operation of