HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
an elastic force, which not only over- 
camethatresistance, but sprang far be- 
yond the boundary at whichit would 
have been completely defeated. The 
invasion of France, by the Duke of 
Brunswick, produced the resistance 
and the triemphs of Dumourier in 
the Netherlands. France, from 
being invaded, became the inva- 
der; she not only pushed her con- 
guests to the Rhine, but crossed it, 
and took Frankfort, with other 
places beyond it. Custine, at the 
head of revolutionary legions, not 
only took Spires and Mayence, but 
threatened Hesse and Hanover. 
An union of greater force than that 
which had followed the councils of 
the French princes became neces- 
sary, and such an union was formed. 
The incursions of the French into 
the Low Countries and Germany, 
produced in their turn, the combi- 
nations, which retook Frankfort 
and Mayence, rescued Holland, 
and secured the conquest of Lan- 
drecy, Conde, Quesnoy, and Valen. 
ciennes. The irruption of the Ger- 
mans, within the frontiers of France, 
gave rise to those efforts, which*not 
only restored those places to the do- 
minion of France, but which carried 
the French arms again beyond the 
Rhine, and stretched them into the 
United Provinces, and - different 
quarters in the German territories ; 
until, as we shall see in the sequel, 
being weakened by division and ex- 
pansion they were a second time 
obliged to recross the Rhine with 
the severest losses. 
The French government, encou- 
raged by recent success, resolved to 
pursue, without relaxation, the ad- 
vantages held out to them by the 
Aituation of that country, whichwas 
nearest to those they had already re- 
[43 
duced, and which seemed, indeed, 
by every circumstance, to invite 
their immediate attack. 
This country was Holland. Its 
armies had opposed the French in 
the field; but the general mass of 
its inhabitants was friendly to them, 
and openly displayed an unfeigned 
satisfaction at their viCtorious pro- 
gress, during the whole of the cam- 
paigo. Frequent and loud were 
their complaints, that their rulers 
had involved them in a war, totally 
foreign to their concerns, and jini. 
mical to their interests; and they 
manifested a reoted determination 
to seize the first opportunity of com- 
pelling them to enter into terms of 
peace, if not of friendship, with 
France. The nearer the French 
armies drew to the confines-of the 
United Provinces, the bolder and 
more explicit was the avowal of the 
people at large, of a determined 
partiality in their favour. 
The states-general of the seven 
united provinces, had hitherto con- 
tinued firmly attached, inallappear- 
ance, tothe interests of the coalition; 
but the statesofseveralof the particu- 
lar provinces were decidedly averse 
to the continuation of the war, and 
resolutely insisted on its immediate 
termination. That which first came 
to a formal decision, was the opu- 
lent province of Friesland. By a re- 
solution of its assembled states, about 
the middle of O&. 1794, it was de- 
creed to acknowledge the French re. 
public, to abandon the connexion 
with Great Britain, and to enter 
into terms of peace and amity with 
France. This precedent was quickly 
adopted in other provinces ; and the 
ancient attachment of the Dutch to 
the'house of Orange gave way, in 
most places, to the most violent re. 
sentment 
