tion into the illegal conduct of the magistrates of Amersfort, of the burgomafter van Mufchenbroek, and of the council-committee of the ftates. The fenare, urged by the delegates of the citizens, fhut their gates, brought out the cannon of their fortifications, and prepared for refiftance. Advertisements were published in the newfpapers on the part of the burghers, calling upon the different corps of volunteers in the republic to yield their immedate affiftance to the city of Utrecht in its prefent perilous fituation. The inhabitants of Overyffel, were not behind hand with the inhabitants of the province of Utrecht in the firmness of their exertions, and here there had as yet been no open mifunderstandings between the citizens and the magiftracies. The three towns which are reprefented in the states of Overyffel are Deventer, Campen and Zwol. The two last of these were attempted to be garrisoned, but the fenate fhut their gates upon the forces of the ftadtholder. The flates at the fame time came to a firong refolution, condemning in the most pointed manner the conduct of the itadtholder, in endeavouring to filence the complaints of the burghers by the violent introduction of an armed force. At the fame time the burghers of the three towns we have named, figned a very extenfive requifition to the ftates of the province, demanding the abolition of the regulation of 1674, as well as various provifions to give efficacy for the future to the defires of the inhabitants at large. In Holland the democratical spirit has made nearly an equal progrefs; and the burghers of Dort, Leyden, Delft, Schoonhoven and Amfterdam feparately demanded from their magiftrates the enforcing a meature for the recall of the garrifons, and for the effectually preventing fuch arbitrary and defpotic proceedings in future. The principle by which the oligarchical party directed their proceedings ferves greatly to illuflrate the history of the prefent diffenfiions. In conformity to their idea of waiting for and improving the events that fhould occur. they had made little progrefs fince the expulfion of the field-marfhal prince of Brunfwic, in October 1784. Some tumults had taken place in the province of Holland in the beginning of the fubfequent year, and thefe were probably in fome degree encouraged by the counsels of the ftadtholder. The flates had been equally active in endeavouring to fupprefs proceedings, which were in the utmost degree unfavourable to their caufe. But the indignation that was now excited against the ftadtholder in Utrecht, in Overyffel, among the burghers of Holland, and through the volunteer corps in the whole extent of the republic, was a fentiment too favourable, for the leaders of the prevailing party in the ftates not to endeavour to derive from it fome fignal advantage. The occafion that was afforded was as aufpicious as they could have defired. The licentious proceedings of the populace had been the conflant fubject of their expottulation; thefe proceedings had been found more frequent and inveterate in the refidence of the Hague than in any other place, and they were no where fo dangerous to the exist. encce of the republic, fince the Hague was the feat of the states of Holland, infinitely the most im portant affembly within their limits, and of the ftates general. On the fourth of September twelve volunteers of the corps of the town of Leyden appeared at the Hague, and repaired in their uniforms to the public parade. The inhabitants of the Hague in general, are enthufiaftically devoted to the prince of Orange; and the attempts of the oligarchy to inftitute a body of volunteers among them had always mifcarried. Accordingly the appearance of the Leyden volunteers was a phenomenon, that was inftantly remarked by the populace, and they determined to fignalize against them their loyalty and their duty. Accordingly they attacked them with violence, and having driven them for refuge into a neighbouring houfe, they broke the windows, and difplayed other marks of riot and diforder. A part of the garrifon detached by order of the itadtholder did not think fit to interfere with the proceedings of the populace, but contented themfelves with taking into cuftody the objects of their attack, and fending them off privately by night to the place of their habitation. This riot was not in reality of a very formidable nature, but the juncture in which it happened was fuch as to encourage the oligarchy to decifive proceedings. The deputies of Haerlem, a town which had greatly diftinguifhed itfelf in oppofition to the ftadtholder, reprefented to the fates of Holland the long continuance of the riotous difpofition of the people of the Hague, the ineffectual remonftrances that had been made for the employment of the garrifon in their fuppreffion, the connivance and fecret encouragement of the prince of Orange, and the danger that refulted to the freedom of their deliberations from thefe alarming proceedings. The ftates immediately came to a refolution on the eighth of September, to charge the deputies of Hacrlem themfelves with the care of the military patrole. The deputies immediately entered upon. their charge, gave the watch-word to the garrifon, led out a nightly patrole to the amount of two hundred foldiers, and every thing was restored to filence, tranquility and fubmiffion. No measure could have been adopted by the states productive of fo much difpleafure and mortification to the prince of Orange. He immediately remonftrated with them upon their proceedings, and claimed the undivided command of the garrifon, as an appointment conflantly annexed to the dignity of his fituation. The refult of his remonftrance was a farther refolution of the flates confirming and justifying the measure they had adopted. Finding that he could obtain nothing by the mode of remonttrance, the ftadtholder withdrew himself from the Hague on the fourteenth of September 1785, with a refolution never to return to the palace of his ancestors, till he fhould be completely reinflated in the prerogatives with which they had been invested. Various were the reafons that induced him to this mode of proceeding. He was tired with the long and unprofitable controverfy into which he had been drawn with the ftates, and neither he nor his minifters had been able to difcover any line of conduct by which it could advantageoufly be terminated. Forbearance and delay had been found barren and unproductive. It was time to try the effect of contrary measures. The whole people of Holland would be ftruck with the neceffity which had driven him from the feat of fupreme power, and would feel more vividly than they had yet done, how unprovok ed ed and undeferved had been the extremities that had been employed against him. The inhabitants of the Hague depended upon his court for the half of their fubfiftence, and would join to compel the states to pacific proceedings. All the princes of Europe would be ftruck with the misfortunes of fo illuftri ous an exile. Great Britain, in whofe caufe he had fuffered, and whofe influence in Holland fo evidently depended upon the continuance of his power, would loudly declare herself in his favour; and the king of Pruffia, the uncle of h's confort, would bring forth his innumerable troops to revenge his multiplied wrongs. If the oligarchical party were judicious in feizing upon and improving every opportunity that favoured their defigns, it is equally true that the opportunities which occurred were beyond all expectation aufpicious to the revolution they meditated. The war with Great Britain had ftruck a deep and dangerous blow at the power of the ftadtholder, at the fame time that it had been the natural occafion of leading the republic into the alliance, and putting them under obligations to the generofity of the court of France. The incroachments and the plan of refumptions, that had been formed by the emperor, obliged them to advance fill farther in the fame direction. The claims of Maeftricht and the Schelde inevitably thruft the Dutch out of the habits of confederacy, in which they had food during the prefent century with Great Britain and the houfe of Auftria. Of course fhe was obliged to recur to the example of a more diftant period, and the intervention of the French king in faving them from the humilia tion that would otherwife have been impofed upon them by the emperor, gave him a title to their moft fervent gratitude. Such were the events, which conftituted the field upon which politicians were to difplay their ingenuity; and the profoundnefs and fagacity of the leaders of the party in the ftates of Holland on the one fide, together with the dexterity and infinuation of the ministry of Verfailles on the other, derived every poffible advan tage from fo uncommon a fituation. The inquifition into the failure of the expedition to Breft in the month of September 1783, was not the leaft important engine in the hands of thefe able statesmen. This inquifition had commenced in the clofe of the year 1783. But, owing partly to the obstacles, which, either in appearance or reality, were oppofed to its progrefs by the party of the ftadtholder, and partly to the tardiness of all proceedings in this complicated republic, the commiffioners appointed for this purpofe, did not make their report till the month of June 1785. In this paper no accufations were brought home to the prince of Orange or his minifters. Many judicious remarks were exhibited upon the imperfection of the conftitution of the admiralties of Holland. It feems, that, according to the standing orders of their navy, the captains of each fhip in the fervice of govern ment, were obliged to take provifions on board at their own rifque; and were not permitted to charge any more to the public account than appeared to have been actually confumed. Owing to this injudicious regulation, the commanders were in the habit of providing their fhips with as finall a ftore of provifions as the exigency of the public fervice would allow; and the admiralties, aware of the icantinefs of the • demand, demand, did not keep their maga zines in fufficient abundance to fupply any fudden and unforeseen occafion. In the mean time the comwiffioners, though they admitted the difadvantages under which the fquadron confequently laboured, did not allow them to amount to an evident impoffibility of performing the voyage to Breit. They maintained that the commanders of the fquadron had allowed themfelves too wide a difcretion upon the fubject, and were unjuftifiable, after having received the pofitive orders of the ftates, in affuming to judge for themfelves upon the expediency and eligiblenefs of the measure. The criminal profecution of the officers, though not directly recommended, feemed to be the inevitable inference from the report of the commiffioners. The clofe of the year 1784, fhould appear actually to have terminated all profpect of a war between the emperor and Holland. The decifive and peremptory countenance that was then affumed by the court of France, and the humane averfion to war, that we have remarked in the imperial claimant, amounted to a fufficient grantee of the truth of this prediction. But a fecret determination not to enter upon actual hoftilities, did not preclude the emperor from gaining as much as he could in the mode of negociation. This way of thinking in the court of Vienna, together with the reluctance of the Dutch in yielding to any important conceffion, drew out the fettlement of the affair, and afforded a theme for the conjectures of fpeculators during the greater part of the year 1785. A condition required by the emperor, before he would admit of any interview between his ambaffadors and the commiffioners of Hol land, was the fending on the part of the Dutch, two envoys to the capital of their adverfary, whofe bufinefs fhould be to make a formal and public fubmiflion and apology to the emperor, for the infult that had been committed upon his flag in the affair of Lillo. To this condition the Dutch were obliged to fubmit, and the barons Waffenaer and Leyden, two very diftinguished members of the nobility of the republic were felected for this purpose, and executed their commiffion on the twenty-fifth of July. The humiliation was undoubtedly fuch, as could fcarcely have been expected to take place between two equal powers; and fuch an oftentation of hauteur on the part of the head of the empire, would in other circumftances have excited an univerfal indignation in Europe. But the character of the emperor was too well understood, and his verfatility and want of fyftem too notorious, to render the meafure in the prefent inftance in any degree alarming. The conferences were now opened without delay between the ambaffadors of Holland and Austria at the court of Verfailles, under the aufpices of the count de Vergennes. The difcuffion however was yet far from being eafy; and the emperor, having long infifted in vain upon the ceffion of Maeftricht, now changed his demand into that of a confiderable fum of money, as a compenfation for his claim upon this important fortrefs. The amount of this fum was eagerly debated; and at length, after both fides had yielded fomewhat in their determinations upon the subject, it was fixed that nine millions five hundred thousand florins fhould be the compenfation for Maestricht, and five hundred thousand florins for the damage which had been suffer ed ed by the Auftrian farmers, from the inundations of Lille; the whole being equal to 750,000 pounds fterling. This was the principal article of the treaty, the preliminaries of which were figned on the twelfth of September. The emperor at the fame time renounced his claims upon Maeftricht, and the Dutch agreed to destroy the forts of Kruickshank and Frederic Henry, and to cede to the emperor the forts of Liefkenshoek and Lillo, with their fortifications. The definitive treaty was concluded on the eighth of November. A treaty of perpetual friendship and alliance had been for fome time in negociation between the courts of France and the Hague, and it was concluded with refpect to its fubftance, in the beginning of the prefent year. From an idea of what it was that was becoming in the office of a mediator, which was the fituation in which France ftood between Holland and the emperor, the publication of the treaty was fuppreffed, till the final arrangement should be formed of the differences between thefe two powers. It accordingly appeared from authority on the tenth of November, two days after the fignature of the definitive treaty of peace. Thus it was that the party of the ftates in the republic of Holland, arrived at one of the most confiderable ob jects in their fyftem of politics. The alliance between the governments of Verfailles and the Hague was of the most intimate and cordial nature. They agreed for mutual affiftance in all cafes of attack that fhould be made upon either party, the auxiliary force to be propor tioned to the occafion, and its expences to be defrayed by the government by which it was furnished. Such indeed are the nature of the articles, that, taken together, they feemed to amount to a coun terpart of the celebrated family compact. A revolution of a very memorable nature was thus introduced into the affairs of Europe. The policy, which had been voluntarily chofen by Louis the Fourteenth, and which had afterwards been continued contrary to the inclinations of France, by the powers which had entered into alliance against him, was now reverfed. The ambitious ideas of univerfal monarchy, which had fcarcely been formed by that monarch, and had fpeedily been renounced, ceafed to be any longer the terror of the neighbouring countries. France, from being avoided as a monster, entered once more into the list of the members of the European com monwealth, and was confidered upon a level with her neighbours in the delineations of policy, and the fpeculations of commerce. CHAPTER IV. Meeting of Parliament. Speech from the Throne. Addrefs. Alteration of the Mutiny Bill. Duke of Richmond's Fortifications rejected. Bill for regulating the Militia. Mr. Marfbam's Election Bill. Lord Mahon's Bill. HERE were two trains of expected to have confiderable influthe year 1785, and which might be feffion of 1786, the third feffion of the |