of thefe charges, fir John Burgoyne was honourably acquitted by the court martial; but he fur

vived his acquital only a few months.

IN

'N our laft volume, we traced the rife of thofe diffentions in the republic of Holland, which have fince produced the most memorable effects. We endeavoured to investigate the fpirit and principles of conduct of the two old parties in the common-wealth, the party of the ftates, and the party of the houfe of Orange; and we called the attention of the reader to a new fet of men, proceeding upon different views, and purfuing an object, which had hitherto been entirely neglected in the progrefs of the Dutch affairs. This party has been commonly and juftly styled the democratical party. We found, as may naturally be expected, a certain degree of fhock and confufion refulting from the birth of this new party, which was not regarded with a favourable eye, either by the prince or the oligarchy. They had indeed originally owed their existence to the party of the ftates, who fuggefted the idea of the inftitution of the Dutch volunteers in 1783, as a balance to the regular army of the republic, which they fufpected of being partial to the prince of Orange. But they had long feen the progrefs of the volunteers with an unapproving eye, and, in the effects which the inftitution produced, they were perhaps ready to repent of their concern in giving birth to it.

1787.

Where the fituation of a state is fuch, as to make it delirable to any confiderable part of it, that things fhould remain in their prefent fituation, it may not be an unfavourable circumftance, for three independent parties or bodies to exit, of which one may ferve as a kind of mediator or umpire, to prevent the mutual encroachments of the other two. But this was not the cafe with the republic of Holland. There was not a party, there was not an individual in the country, that wifhed to fee things remain in the fituation of the year 1785. The ftates had encroached in various inftances upon the preroga tives, and refifted the difpofitions of the ftadtholder, and the party of the prince earnestly defired to fee thofe prerogatives reinftated and confirmed. On the other hand, those who had advanced thus far, were not contented with what they had done, but defired to advance farther. They wished to reduce the prince as nearly as poffible to a cypher in the state, and to provide that no individual fhould henceforth be able to refift the measures and fyftem of policy they fhould think proper to adopt. Still lefs fatisfied than either the states or the prince of Orange, was the party of the democracy. As they felt, perhaps more strongly than either of the others, the fuppofed retiB

tude

tude of their purfuit, they were more fpirited in their conduct and bold in their measures. In this fituation, and in the crifis that must neceffarily refult, it was indifpenf ible, that there fhould be fome fort of coalition or confederacy among the three parties, fo as to bring the force of the state to act equally in every point in the ultimate extremity. If an union were effected of two entire parties, and if no foreign power interfered in the contest, to thofe two parties the victory might reafonably be expected to fall. Put fuch an union was not completely effected. The fates of the province of Holland, as we have feen, entered into concert with the democracy of Utrecht, and thus implicitly with the whole democratical party; while the ftates of the province of Utrecht now, as the states of the province Guelderland had done before, entered into concert with the prince of Orange. The immediate refult of this combination was the forcible introduction of a garrifon by the prince, into the town of Amersfort, in the month of August 1785; while on the other hand he loft, at least pro tempore, the command of the garrifon of the Hague, and was induced to withdraw himself from the place of his ufual refidence, in the following September.

This period was a fort of crifis in the affairs of the stadtholder, and it was voluntarily accelerated by the prince himself. Accordingly his partifans both at home and abroad, endeavoured to bring for ward at once all thofe circumfiances

that might be favourable to his caufe, and appeared to expect to fecure their victory by the magni tude of their effort. The king of Pruffia, who has been filent from the fpring of the year 1784, deli

vered by his ambaffador on the eighteenth of September a memorial to the fates of Holland, and another to the affembly of the states general. In the firit of these he obferved, that he had hoped to have feen far different confequences refult from his former friendly reprefentations to the republic. How great then were his furprize and regret, when he learned, that, inflead of reinftating the prince of Orange in any of his prerogatives, they had recently deprived him of the command of the garrifon of the Hague, an appointment indifputably annexed to the dignity of his rank. The king defired not to intrude himself into the interior concerns of a free ftate, but he could not be indifferent to the fortune and happiness of the prince stadtholder. He concluded with offering to the ftates his mediation, and affuring them, that, if they would accept of it, he would conduct himself with the strictest moderation and impartiality. Another circumstance, from which the prince appears to have promifed himself fome advantage, was the oppofition of five ftates of the union to the preliminaries, that had been concluded between the republic and the emperor. Rumours were indutrioutly propagated, that the perfons who negociated thefe preliminaries, had acted rather upon the private inftructions of certain distinguifhed individuals, than upon any public authority, and that their conduct would infallibly be made. the fubject of investigation and punifhment. But the oppofition of thefe five provinces did not prove lasting. The preliminaries were from the firft highly acceptable to the flates of Holland, and, as thofe fates would probably in the end pay three fourths of the fum for

the redemption of Maeftricht, which was the popular objection to the treaty, it would have been abfurd in a high degree for the other fix obftinately to oppofe. The last circumstance, from which the partifans of the ftadtholder predicted the happiest confequences, was the converfion of the ftates of Utrecht, who had for a long time remained in a flate of indecifion, between the choice of evils offered for their acceptance by the stadtholder and the democracy, but had now ultimately declared themselves for the former.

pected, in an underhand manner added fuel to the flame. The tumult had already continued fome days, before the oligarchy had exerted itfelf for its fuppreflion. But of all kinds of inattention and negleft, an inattention to the deftructive proceedings of a lawless populace, is leaft to be admitted in a wife government. The ftates were therefore right in this inftance in not waiting for the effect of expoftulations, which had already been fruitlefs; but fuddenly and decifively taking upon themfelves the remedy of an alarming abufe. They were obliged, having once affumed the command of the garrifon, to retain it for a period, fufficient to afcertain that the tumult was clearly fubfided. But the precipitation of the ftadtholder allowed them no time for the exercife of this precaution. They affumed the com mand of the garrifon on the eighth; the prince withdrew from his refi dence on the fourteenth of September. He abdicated his truft; he obviously deferted the purfuit of his immediate intereft. He depriv ed them of all difcretion, and obliged them to make that a permanent, which might otherwife have been a temporary measure.

It was probably with a view to thefe circumstances, and a defire to give them their full effect, that the fladtholder withdrew from his refidence at the Hague, and thus by his apparent degradation expected to engage the fympathy and indig nation of all men in his favour. Accordingly, in the limits of the republic, he gained an apparent preponderance in the provincial affemblies of Guelderland, of Utrecht, of Zealand, and even of Friefland; for which province the princefs of Orange fet out from the Hague, the day after her confort, and where the was received with every demonstration of loyalty and attachment.

But the adverfe party made a very different ufe of this proceeding. They appealed to their countrymen, whether or not it was poffible to have done otherwife than they had done, in a period of tumult and confufion. The ringleaders were avowedly the partifans of the prince of Orange The states had in vain expected from him in former inftances the fuppreffion of thefe irregular efforts of his friends. But, far from interfering, he had connived, he had looked on with pleasure, he had even, as was fuf

The dilatory and deliberate mode of proceeding that prevails in the republic of the United Provinces, is well known; and, though the prefent queftion was of the utmoft importance, a ferious decifion was not made upon it, for near two months after the period in which it originated. The fates of Holland appointed a committee of their body to enquire into the nature of the command of the garrifon of the Hague, and this committee prefented their report on the fourth of November. Here they justly ob ferved, that the fenates and states

B 2

of

of the different provinces were the undoubted fovereigns, and that the ftadtholder was their fervant; from which maxim they inferred, that the powers he exercised were only delegated, and that the state might refume them, whenever it faw fufficient reafon to adopt that mode of proceeding. But, not contented with this establishment, they went fill farther, and undertook to prove, from a refolution of the ftates of Holland, dated on the fourth and fifth days of March 1672, that the ftates had never meant to give the command of the garrifon out of their hands, and that confequently the poffeffion of that command by the ftadtholder had been no better than an ufurpation.

The principles of this report were implicitly adopted by the provincial affembly, and the next day they came to a determination, in conformity to the words of the refolution of March 1672, that the command of the garrifon fhould hereafter veft in the council committee of the states of Holland. In the mean time the prince of Orange prepared a long and laboious answer to the report, upon which the measure was founded; and he appears to have been fufficiently fuccefsful in proving, that the circumstances of the refolution of 1672 were fuch, as not to au thorife the conclufions the committee had drawn from them. He however found, that his affairs were fo circumftanced as not to admit of an immediate remedy, and he accordingly established a fort of court for the winter at the cattle of Loo in the province of Gulder

land.

The oligarchy felt the new fituation in which they had placed themfelves, and they acted accord ingly. It was not allowable for

them to remain in indolence and inactivity, and they were necelitated either to retreat or advance. They were furrounded with enemies. The whole body of the nobility, the whole b dy of the common people inhabiting the open country through the United Provinces, were favourable to the ftadtholder. The influence of his office, the appointments, the emoluments, the contracts that were in his gift, neceffarily enfured to him a large number of friends. Three fourths even of the inhabitants of the Hague, were ready at the fmalleft fignal, to declare their a verfion to the meafures adopted by the prefent prevailing party. But the leaders of that party acted with a refolution proportionate to their danger. They were refolved to convince their countrymen, by thofe external fymbols which are of all others beft calculated to imprefs large bodies of men, that they were the true fovereigns, and that they were determined to affert and maintain that character. They directed, thar, with the commencement of the enfuing year, the arms of the house of Orange fhould be taken out of the colours of the troops in the fervice of Holland, and that the arms of the province should be fubftituted in their room. They refolved, that the prefident of the provincial affembly fhould receive military honours and the falute of the garrifon, as the prefident of the fates general already did, and that thofe honours fhould be attributed to no other individual. They came to a determination, under cover of the military reduction which was now taking place, to disband the corps of one hundred Swifs guards, ufually attendant on the perfon of the prince of Orange; and this motion was only qualified