be admitted to a fhare in the legif. lation and government of their refpective cities, by electing delegates who were to be received as their legal reprefentatives in the public affemblies, and thus form a popular counterpoize to the ariftocratic power, nothing could exceed the fur prize and confternation which they excited. The aristocracies were aghaft and confounded at pretenfions, the poffibility of which they had never even thought of; nor were the principal leaders of the faction lefs difconcerted and alarmed; they faw they had improvidently raised a dangerous fpirit, and brought a new power into action, without a due confideration of the force and excentricity of its movements; and that thefe were evidently beyond their controul or regulation. The fituation was indeed critical and dangerous; for if they refufed to comply with the demands of the armed burghers, it was to be feared that they would change fides directly, and go over to the Orange party, by which the ftadtholder would have been rendered fo triumphantly powerful, that all oppofition must be at an end: on the other hand, if the aristocracies granted their claims, they must be for ever cut off from all the fweets of authority, now grown habitual, and which, by the means of felfelection, they hoped to have rendered as nearly immortal as human inftitutions are capable of being. In this dilemma, various means were adopted in various places, and much chicanery practifed, in order to stave off the evil hour, in the hope that fome fortunate interruption might prevent the queftion from being brought to an abfolute decifion, or at leaft, that the pref fure of the present state of affairs might be eafed before it was brought to an iffue; in which cafe, the powers of the law and of the ftate being combined against the new pretenfions, the popular party would of neceflity be obliged to fubmit. In fome places, where the claims were too impetuously urged, and the ariftocracy too ftiff to give way, the latter applied to the ftates of the province for protection, whọ accordingly ordered the military force of the ftate to reduce the armed burghers, and to restore the ancient conftitution. This extre mity was, however, only proceeded to in a few places. In the city of Utrecht, where the armed burghers amounted to feveral thousands, the popular fpirit was carried to its higheft extreme of violence; they not only fet the states of the province at defiance, but taking the government of the city entirely into their own hands, and converting it into a place of arms, prepared for defence and open war, both agaiaft the provincial and general force of the ftate. In procets of time, and after various tumults and ftruggles, the aristocracies were obliged in many places, particularly feveral towns of Holland, to give way to the prevailing neceffity, and to fubmit in fome degree to the claims of the popular party. This was the only extenfion of public liberty which thefe diffenfions have hitherto produced; and this proceeded from circumftance, occafion, and final neceffity, and not from any previous defign or wifh. The ftates of Holland and Weft Friezeland were the great and conftant impugners of the ftadtholder's authority authority and prerogatives. They affumed a fuperiority not admitted by the conftitution of the union, and derived only from the circumstances of the firft-mentioned province poffeffing a greater fhare of wealth, and a larger extent of territory, than any of the others; they paid but little regard or attention to the ftates general in the meafures which they purfued, and the continual warfare, as it may be called, which they waged againft him; acting upon these occafions rather as a fupreme dictator, than as an equal and co-regent with the other provinces. The most bitter animofity which appeared against that prince, feemed to be peculiarly lodged in the province of Holland; and the city of Amfterdam took the lead of all other places in the invariable difplay of that enmity. The pride and wealth of that city, with its paramount influence in its own province, had at all times frequently induced both to affume an odious pre eminence over their fellows; and though this had been generally fubmitted to, yet when they have carried the spirit of domination to a certain degree of excefs, it has occafionally excited such a refentment in other provin ces, as more than once feemed to threaten a diffolution of the union. Their influence cannot, however, but continue great, from the caules we have mentioned. It is easily feen, from the ftate of affairs which we have premiled, that the adverfe faction had many and great advantages over their adverfaries of the Orange party in this conteft. They were clofely united, by having had for feveral years one common object in view, to which all their meafures were directed; while their antagonists, having no object to attain which might ferve to unite their zeal, or excite their enterprize, were loose, careless, and unconnected. The adverfe party had likewife the unfpeakable advantage of being fupported by the monied men; they were befides quickened by the ardour, and kept in conftant exercise by the indefatigable zeal, and restlefs fpirit, always obfervable in fectaries. And though the measure of arming the volunteers, had been productive of much trouble and diforder among themfelves, yet it afforded them at leaft the benefits of a formidable appearance, and of a menacing afpect. It was neceflary that the prince ftadtholder fhould not be weak or unguarded, to withstand fuch a combination of adverfe interefts, parties, and circumftances. He was indeed ftrongly fortified on all fides. He was armed with great legal rights, authorities, and powers, of which he could not be deprived at lefs expence than a total rupture and nearly fubverfion of the fyftem and conftitution of the republic; at the fame time that, during the courfe of the conteft, they would have abundantly afforded him the means of their own prefervation and defence. In virtue of his offices of captain-general and admiral-general of the union, the whole military force of the republic by fea and land was in his poffeffion. This fovereign authority was confirmed and rendered more effective, by his having the fole difpofal of all military commiffions, from those of the colonels to the enfigns inclufively; by the troops being bound in an oath of fidelity to him perfonally, as well as to the states; and by the whole whole army being obliged to obey But his authority and legal pow- quality of governor-general and fupreme director of the East and Weft India companies, the ftadtholder likewife had an unbounded influence in thofe great commercial bodies. With these legal and official powers, he had a full moiety, at leaft, of the people at large either absolutely attached to his interefts, or fo far on his fide, that from their averfenefs to all violent innovations in the conftitution and government, they were well difpofed to the fupport of his authority. Even in the province of Holland, and in Amterdam itfelf, the great feat and ftrong hold of his enemies, no calculator could determine on which fide the majority would appear, if the matters in difpute were to be decided by a general poll. The fame diverfity of party and opinion every where appeared. Nor was there a much greater concurrence in the aristocracies themselves than among the people. Even in Amfterdam, Rotterdam, and the greater cities of Holland, which were those moft peculiarly adverse to the stadtholder, the domineering party could only build upon majorities, nothing like unanimity being any where to be obtained. In the fmaller towns, the parties in the government were generally more nearly upon an equality. With refpect to the provincial ftates, thofe of Guelderland and Utrecht were entirely on his fide; thofe of the three other provinces fluctuating, and difpofed to be mediatorial; fo that thofe only of Holland and Weft Friezeland were abfolutely inimical to him. Yet, even in the affembly of the ftates of Folland, the grand queftion relative to the government of the Hague, after being long and vio lently lently agitated, was only carried against him by a fingle vote. The equeftrian order, or nobles, which may in fome degree be compared with what is called in England the landed intereft, were, in the province of Holland, as every where elfe, generally on the prince's fide. Their fhare in the government of that province is, however, but very fmall, as they hold only one voice in the affembly of the ftates, which confifts of nineteen. In fuch an estimate of the prince ftadtholder's powers and refources, it fhould not be entirely overlooked, that he held in his own inherent right, as derived from his ances tors, very confiderable eftates and poffeffions, including cities, caftles, palaces, lordships, and marquifates, in various parts of the country, and that these, of old right, endued him with feveral important privileges and authorities, independent of his offices under the ftate. Nor fhould that great external refource be forgotten, which he poffeffed in the friendship and protection of the Pruffian monarch; a connection cemented by all the bands of policy, as well as by the ties of a near affinity: and which effectually fhield, ed him from the apprehenfion of his adverfaries being ever fuffered to proceed beyond certain limited measures of violence against him. The faction, however, found themselves fo potent at home, and placed fo unbounded a confidence in the fupport of France, which they now confidered as the great palladium of the ftate, as well as of the party, that they paid less attention to the admonitions of the great Frederic, than a well-advised policy would at any time have admitted; and without even waiting for the abfolute conclufion of the negociations with the emperor at Paris, proceeded at once to fhew that they were no longer difpofed to obferve any measures of amity with the prince ftadtholder, nor even to preserve thofe outward appearances which might indicate a difpofition to future conciliation. This was announced by divesting him of the government and command of the garrifon of the Hague; a measure not more violent in the act, than it was degrading in the execution, through the unufual circumftances with which it was accompanied.. The immediate and oftenfible motive affigned for this meafure, was a riot which had taken place at the Hague. The garrison were charged with not taking immediate and effectual measures for preventing or fuppreffing it. The riot in itfelf, compared with thofe which every day occurred in other places, was a matter of little confequence. A few armed volunteers from fome neighbouring town came to parade at the Hague, equipped in their uniforms and peculiar badges, a proceeding which could not fail to irritate the inhabitants, who they knew were zealoudly attached to the perfon and interests of the prince of Orange. It was fcarcely in the nature of things that a riot fhould not be the confequence; and the intruders were with fome difficulty preserved from becoming victims to their own temerity, and to the fury of the people: they, however, efcaped without any material injury. This affair was refented with a violence disproportioned to its magnitude, and taken up with a high hand by the adverfe faction. In dependent dependent of their defire to leffen the prince's authority, they like. wife wifhed, and fcarcely lefs, to fubdue the fpirit of the inhabitants of the Hague. The acting committee of the ftates of Holland, determining not to let the meafure cool, iffued a hafty reSept. 8th, folution or decree, by 1785. which they deprived the prince of his government and command, forbidding the troops to receive the word from him, to obey his orders in any manner, or even to pay him any of the customary military honours. To render the degradation complete, and as it were to add the incurable fting of a perfonal infult, they at the fame time ftripped him of his own body guards, and even of the hundred Swifs, who were destined merely to civil purposes, and to the fupport of ftate parade and magnificence. The prince's remonftrances and proteftations, in which he termed this refolution a violent breach of the conftitution, an invafion of his rights, an outrage offered to his authority, and an indignity to his perfon and character, could produce no other fatisfaction, than the contemptuous intimation, that the guards were maintained for the purpofe of fup. porting the grandeur of the ftate, and not for the aggrandizement of the ftadtholder. It was impoffible that the prince and princefs, after fuch a public, indignity, could, with any degree of propriety, continue longer in a place, which was the feat of the court, of public bufinefs, and of government, as well as the refidence of all the foreign minifters: they accordingly abandoned the Hague immediately, the prince retiring to his own city of Breda, and the princess with the children, to Weft Friezeland, where the people, notwithstanding the implacable enmity of the ftates of that province, were generally well affected to the Orange family. The prince and princess were obliged to perform these journies without any other guard or fecurity to their perfons than their own domeftics, although it was a feafon of the most lawless violence and tumult, and that the virulence of the oppofite party was risen to fuch a pitch, that on a late journey, tho' then attended by their guards, fuch a riot was raised in a confiderable town which they paffed, that fome of their attendants were killed; and their happening to quit the carriage, and go into a house before it commenced, was perhaps fortunate with respect to their own fafety. This measure was foon followed by an order for furnishing the guards with new colours, in which the arms of the house of Orange were totally omitted, and those of the province of Holland fubftituted in their place. These were prefented in the name of the ftates, and a special order given to the officers, that the arms of the province, and no other, fhould be engraved on their gorgets. The king of Pruffia regarded this violent attack upon the authority, and perfonal infult offered to the ftadtholder, with great but regulated indignation; he still preferved the most temperate language in his remonftrances; and while his expoftulations placed in the fulleft light the wrongs and undeferved injuries fuftained by that prince, and fufficiently indicated that he was too much interested in his caufe to permit his becoming ukimately a victim |