GENERAL HISTORY. 



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dopted at the Hague, Rotterdam, 

 and other places. The inteUigence 

 of these events was brought over 

 on the 21st to London, by the 

 Baron Perponcher and Mr. James 

 Fagel, deputed by the provisional 

 government to inform the Prince 

 Regent and the Prince of Orange 

 of the revolution which had taken 

 place. They waited on the latter 

 at his house in Harley-street, and 

 invited him in the name of his 

 countrymen to come and put him- 

 self at their head ; a call which he 

 readily obeyed. A cabinet council 

 was immediately summoned, at 

 which his Highness was present ; 

 and the unanimous resolution was 

 taken, of affording instant aid to 

 the Dutch patriots with all the 

 force that the country could fur- 

 nish ; and never was a political 

 measure adopted in which the 

 English nation more heartily or 

 universally concurred. On Novem- 

 ber 25th the prince of Orange 

 embarked at Deal, for Holland, on 

 board his Majesty's ship Warrior 

 of lit guns, accompanied by the 

 earl of Clancarty. So unpreme- 

 ditated had been the revolutionary 

 movement of the Dutch, that no 

 regular military force was at hand 

 to support thehazardous enterprize 

 of abolishing an organized domi- 

 nation ; and although the French 

 troops in the country were upon a 

 low establishment, there was no- 

 thing but an half-armed populace 

 to oppose them. Their command- 

 ers seem however to have been 

 struck with a panic by the sudden- 

 ness of the change. Gen. Bouvet 

 marched out of the Hague at the 

 head of 300 soldiers, mostly Ger- 

 mans, who, when they had pro- 

 cetdod about twelve miles, hoisted 

 the Orangt cockade, severely beat 

 Vol. £v. ' 



their commander, and joined the 

 patriots. It was, indeed, impos- 

 sible in the present state of the 

 European public to foresee how 

 far defection from the French 

 usurped authority might proceed. 

 The evacuation of Amsterdam and 

 Rotterdam was equally precipitate; 

 and the armed douaniers, who 

 seem to have formed the chief mi- 

 litary force, were glad to escape in 

 safety from places where they were 

 peculiar objects of detestation. The 

 first foreign aid that arrived to 

 give confidence to the revolution- 

 ists was a body of 300 Cossacks, 

 which presented itself before Am- 

 sterdam on the 23rd of November, 

 and was admitted into the city on 

 the following day. The remaining 

 French, shut up in the old town- 

 house, thereupon surrendered ; and 

 the Cossacks, with a party of 

 burghers, took possession of the 

 fort between Amsterdam and 

 Haarlem, which surrendered by 

 capitulation. These Cossacks were 

 the forerunners of the Russian ar- 

 my under general Winzingerode, 

 who, on entering the Dutch ter- 

 ritory, issued a proclamation calling 

 upon the people to rise in support 

 of the good cause ; and marching 

 along the Yssel by Zwoll, Zut- 

 phen, and Deventer, reached Am- 

 ersfort on the 23rd, whence he dis- 

 patched his Cossacks. On the 

 24th the French, whose main force 

 was posted at Gorcum, having 

 recovered their spirits, made a ge- 

 neral advance upon Amsterdam, 

 Woerden, and Dordrecht. The 

 attack ujjon Amsterdam was re- 

 pulsed, the assailants losing five 

 pieces of cannon. The body which 

 advanced on Dordrecht, being op- 

 posed by the armed burghers and 

 the gun-boats, was driven back 

 [M] 



