§-TiA Teh IP A P. ERS: 
traordinary spectacle which the 
_ citizens presented on all sides, hold 
‘ing out. their arms to their con- 
| querors as to their only deliverers. 
7 We saw the allied troops sack and 
| pluni:er, and those who were called 
our enemies respect public and 
private properties. 
It was thus that the Netherlands 
were delivered from their most 
- dangerous enemies» ‘The © stadt- 
holder abandoned, in a dastardly 
¥ way, his country and his_ friends, 
; and sought an asylum at the court 
of the king of England. ‘The 
_ standard of ‘liberty was planted in 
all places, while the French re- 
_ public declared the Batavian nation 
free, and re-established it in its 
_ ‘primitive nghts. 
__ , The British ministers, enraged at 
seeing this republic still exist with- 
: out being in their hands, attempted 
at least to destroy it another way, 
‘ by totally undermining its extensive 
_ commerce. Upwards of one hun. 
_ dred ships, the greater -part richly 
Jaden, which, either through foul 
- winds, or as a measure of precau- 
tion, had sought shelter in British 
ports, as well as several Dutch 
ships of war, were laid under em- 
 bargo, as if to prevent them from 
falling into the hands. of the 
rench. Their high mightinesses, 
is trae, sent commissioners 
‘ Lendon to claim them, de- 
_Monstrating, by the most solid 
proofs, that the Batavian republic 
was. no longer under the dominion 
of France, since the solemn decla- 
_ ration of its independence, and that 
England ought to conduct. itself 
towards the Batavian nation, as to- 
wards a free people; they added, 
that the Dutch merchants would 
not risque the entry of their vessels 
into the ports of the republic, if it 
Vou. XXXVIII. 
[193 
was for no other purpose than to 
surrender them to the French. 
The British ministers had, however; 
already made up their minds to ap 
propriate this booty to themselves ; 
and to augment it, they dissemi« 
nated on all sides false rumours 
touching tbe situation of affairs in 
this country, to the end that they 
might, in the same way, allure into 
their ports the merchant vessels be= 
longing to the republic; which 
were still at seas They have since 
entirely violated the rights of na- 
tions; and all the Dutch vessels, 
tormiich . his majesty the king of 
Great Britain had granted his high 
protection, were, in violation ‘of 
the treaty of Breda, perfidiously 
declared lawful captures. 
But what puts the seal to the 
acts ‘of hostility and bad faith 
which the present British ministers 
have exercised against this republic, 
is the treacherous mode in which 
they have endeavoured to make 
themselves masters of her colonies. 
For this purpose they sent letters, 
signed by the Prince of Orange, and 
dated at Kew, the 7th of Feb. 1795, 
to’ several of the colonies of the 
republic of the Netherlands in the 
Exst Indies and to the Cape of 
Good Hope. In these letters, this 
perfidious and ci-devant minister 
and commander in chief of these 
States, after having abandoned all 
his posts, ordered, on his individual 
authority, the respective governors 
to put the colonies of the States 
under the protection of the British 
arms; that is to Say, in the artful 
and customary language of the 
English ministry, to surrender 
them to England. Notwithstands 
ing this felonious stratagem bas 
failed in the greater. part of the 
colonies, through th¢ fidelity of 
O their 
