between the great powers in the North and Eaft of Europe, was commenced too late in the year for the production of any confiderable military operation; those immediate caufes which accelerated that event will accordingly be the introduction to the narrative of their mutual hoftilities in our next volume. Other matters have, for the prefent, neceffarily given way to thofe of greater importance, and will form an article of future retrofpect. Our domeftic affairs have not been lefs carefully attended to, as we hope the difcuffion of the commercial treaty with France, and other fubjects of national importance, will fufficiently teftify. We have been informed by a gentleman not long arrived from Italy, of fome mifreprefentation and exaggeration of circumstances, in the account of the new cemetery near We have ever emFlorence, given in our last volume. braced with pleasure every occafion that offered of bestowing due praife upon the excellent government of the Grand Duke; and are too deeply impreffed with a regard for the humanity and beneficence of his character, to suffer any thing derogatory from it to appear without concern; and this we teftified in the paffage alluded to, although we could not refuse stating facts which feemed perfectlyauthenticated. We are not, however, ignorant that fome of his reforms have, as well as the cemetery, been the cause of much diffatisfaction and complaint among his fubjects;and that evenhis admirable code of penal law, notwithstanding the philanthropy and beneficence that breathe through every part of it, has not been received without diflike and cenfure,and has even been productive of much diftrefs to individuals; a confequence perhaps which no fyftem of general reform, haftily adopted, can ever be entirely free from. With respect to the matter in queftion, if we have been impofed upon in the accounts which we received of the cemetery, we are not fingular in the impofition; for an English gentleman, whofe poetical and literary talents are well known, and who was immediately upon the fpot, published a very fevere fatire upon the fubject, from which it is evident, that it appeared to him in the fame light that it was afterwards reprefented to us. THE THE ANNUAL REGISTER, For the YEAR 1787. THE HISTORY OF EUROPE. CHAP. I. Mediation of France and Pruffia in the affairs of Holland. Reafons for doubting the fuccefs of that mediation confirmed by the event. Negociations carried on at Nimeguen and the Hague. Conditions laid down by the States of Holland as the bafis of an accommodation with the Stadtholder. Caufes which rendered these propofitions inadmiffible. M. de Rayneval fuddenly breaks off the negociation and returns to Paris. Count de Goertz receives a letter of recal, and returns to Berlin. Violent animofity and mutual recrimination of the contending parties on the failure of the negociation. The new form of government, eftablifbed in the city of Utrecht, confidered as a model of perfection by the democratical party in other places. Difficult fituation and témporizing conduct of the States of Holland, with refpect to the prevalent democratic fpirit. Sudden and unaccountable changes in the political conduct and principles of the party in oppofition to the Stadtholder difplayed in various places. States of Friefland first waver, and then, from being among the foremost in oppofition, appear decidedly in favour of the Prince. M. de Rendorp changes fides in Amsterdam, and carries over a majority of the fenate along with him. Immediate consequences of this change; great alarm spread by it among the republican party. Means purfued by the leaders to remedy the defection of Amfterdam. Procure addrefes VOL. XXIX. [4] from from feveral towns, with a view of gaining thereby a decided majority of votes in the affembly of provincial flates. Failing in this attempt, they "propofe in the affembly a refolution to Jufpend the Prince of Orange from bis remaining bigh offices of ftadeholder and admiral-general. Foiled like-wife in this, they endeavour to increase the number of votes in the provincial assembly, by affording a right of reprefentation to feveral new towns; in which they are alfo defeated. Eftimate of the comparative strength and numbers of the contending parties. Retrofpect of the measures purfued by Holland, for fupporting the city of Utrecht in its contumacious oppofition to the states of the province. Unexpected revolution in the affembly of the States of Holland, who, following the example of Am fterdam, adopt measures evidently favourable to the Stadtbolder's interefts. General confternation and critical fituation of the republican party. Defeated in all their late attempts; with now a great majority of the provinces, and a greater of the people decidedly against them. Bold and hazardous measures become acts of prudence. Obliged to throw themselves upon the democratical party for Supports and to call in the armed burghers to new model and fettle the fate and conftitution. Thefe furround the fenate boufes of Amfterdam and Rotterdam, purge them of those members who were adverfe to their defigns, place all power in the hands of their own party, and establish a determined majority in the ftates of Holland. These prepare to assist Utrecht by force of arms against the Provincial States. States general, who had hitherto preserved a strict neutrality, now take a decided part in opposing the defign of Holland to fupport Utrecht by force of arms. Council of flate issue an order ftrictly forbidding the officers in the fervice of Holland from marching their troops into the territories of any other province. Prohibition confirmed by the States general. Reply from the States of Holland. First blood drawn in a skirmish at Futphaas, a village near Utrecht. States of Holland order troops to the fuccour of Utrecht. Propose a test to their officers. A great majority refuse the left; are suspended and new ones appointed. Sufpended officers taken into the protection of the States general, and their pay continued. Manifefto published by the Stadtholder, amounting nearly to a declaration of war against the ruling party in the province of Holland. Riots at Amfterdam. States general issue an order to general Ván Reyssel, to break up the cordon or line of troops formed on the frontiers of Holland Counter orders ~ from the States of Holland. Colonel Balneavis carries off the regiment which he lately commanded bimfelf, with a battalion of another, from the fortress of Quderwater to the Stadtholder. This example causes a general revolt in the troops of Holland, } in any degree tend to prevent those very, irkfome and dangerous, confequences, which the prefent ftate URING the adverfe tide of affairs which was fetting in foftrongly against the interefts of the ftadtholder, in the United Proof things and the violence of the vinces, towards the clofe of the year 1786, his brother-in-law, the new king of Pruffia, was unceafing in his endeavours to promote all fuch measures of conciliation as could in republican party could not otherwife fail to produce. For the attainment of this purpofe he fhewed himfelf difpofed to try any means however unpromifing, and to coin. cide with any interefts, however difcordant, that afforded even a poffibility of fuccefs. Perhaps he thought it neceffary, at the opening of a new reign, to hold out fuch inftances of moderation, juftice, and a defire of preferving the general tranquillity, as might ferve to fecure the opinions of mankind in his favour, and to prepare them for that future decifion which he forefaw would be inevitable. Perhaps likewife the character of his predeceffor, or the public impreffion founded on it, might not have been without its effect in regulating his conduct upon this occafion. As the offer of his joint mediation with Great Britain had been flighted by the adverfe faction (their mutual connections with the ftadtholder, and avowed predilection for his interefts, affording no fmall room for objecting to their arbitration) he endeavoured to remove this impediment, by propofing that France, the avowed friend and clofe ally of the republic, fhould, along with himself, undertake the kind office, but arduous taik, of fettling and compofing the differences by which it was diftracted. The feafon of the year was favourable, as the near approach of winter muft neceffarily reftrain the active violence of the contending parties, afford leifure for mediation, and, as men's minds cooled by inaction, they would become more placable, and be the better difpofed to liften to the voice of conciliation. The propofal being communicated by the Pruffian minifter to the court of Verfailles, was received in fuch a manner, as feemed flattering to the king's difcernment in adopting the project. That court embracing it with every mark of the greatest cordiality, immediately appointed M. de Rayneval (who had already acquired fome confiderable credit in negociation, particularly in concluding the late treaty of commerce with England) to be the French King's reprefentative in the office of mediation; and fo hearty did that court appear in the bufi nefs, that the French minister arrived at the Hague before the end of November, 1788, where he was to act in concert with the Baron de Goertz, the extraordinary, and M. Thulemeyer, the refident minister of Pruffia, in endeavouring to ac complith the defired fettlement. But fair as thefe appearances were, it was little hoped by those who looked closely into the state and nature of things, that this negociation fhould produce the effect: apparently fought by one mediator, and eagerly wished by the other. They could not bring themselves to believe that France, who they knew to be not only the nurfe, protectress, and encourager of the adverfe faction, but to have been the prime fomenter and inftigator of all their violences, fhould now at once undo the effects of all her former craft. and labour, by becoming the inftrument of reftoring the prince of Orange to any thing near that thare of weight and power which he before held in the republic. This would have been to facrifice her own immediate interefts to the gratification of the king of Pruffia, to abandon one of the longeft and deareft objects of her policy, to mifs the only opportunity that had ever offered of her eftablishing a fupreme and permanent controul in the affairs of the republic, and for ever to lofe, without benefit or effect, all that gold which he had for [4] 2 feveral feveral years ed little less than trusted to the caft of a die. She seemed of late to adopt à fairer policy, and to be ftudious of eftablishing a different character; but if the relapfed now, it would have a worse effect than merely overthrowing what she had hitherto done for that purpose. On the other hand, it could fcarcely be fuppofed, that the king of Pruffia would facrifice the interefts of the ftadtholder fo far, as to admit of those great conceffions, which could alone answer the views of France, or afford any fatisfaction to the high republicans. All conceffions merely palliating would undoubtedly be agreed to; fome limitations perhaps admitted, in order to prevent any encroachment of the executive power upon the other orders of the state and government; and every thing that tended to a perfect oblivion of all that was past, to the conciliation of parties, to the fecurity, and even gratification of the adverfe faction, would certainly have been granted with a good grace and a willing mind. But it was not to be conceived from any part of the king of Pruffia's conduct which had yet appeared, much lefs from any due confideration of the close ties of affinity and policy which united the two families, that he would ever confent to, or indeed fuffer, except through inevitable neceffity, the abridgement in any effential degree of those rights, which, by the general voice of the nation, and the univerfal concurrence of all the parts and orders of the commonwealth, had, in the year 1749, been annexed to the office of stadtholder, and rendered hereditary in the family. *See Introduction to the Hiftory of the Dutch Republic, &c. p. 272. |