A. 1>. 1785. ^5 



off from having any communication witli the fca by a ftipulation in a 

 treaty between Holland and Spain, that no large fliip fl:iould be allowed 

 to fail up to it. The citizens, though deprived of their foreign com- 

 merce, ftill continued to carry on fome branches of manufadure with 

 great reputation, and in fome degree kept up the importance of the place 

 by the great extent of their dealings in banking and exchange ; while 

 the ingenuity of the painters and jewelers confers a new celebrity upon 

 Antwerp, and the admirable induftry of the Flemifh farmers ftill makes 

 the whole of the adjacent country a garden But many of the citizens 

 have carried their capitals and their trade to other countries, and the 

 city is not half filled with inhabitants. The emperor of Germany, de- 

 firous of reftoring this antient commercial capital to its former emin- 

 ence, demanded of the Dutch, that the navigation of the River Scheldt 

 fhould be free and uninterrupted as far as Saftingen, a meafure which 

 could not fail of reftoring to Antwerp the trade which Amflerdam had 

 acquired in confequence of that city being deprived of the enjoyment 

 of its natural advantages as a port. 



November 8''' — After many memorials and counter-memorials, and 

 fome petty hoftilities, the contending parties concluded a treaty where- 

 by the States general acknowleged the emperor's fovereignty over all 

 parts of the river as far as Saftingen, and renounced the right of levying 

 any toll on that part of the river, or of interrupting the navigation of 

 the emperor's fubjeds ; they ftiil retaining, however, the fovereignty of 

 the reft of the river, and of the canals of the Sas, the Swin, &c. They 

 alfo agreed to evacuate the fort of Lillo, beyond which they ufed to al- 

 low no veflel to fail, and fome other forts and places of lefs note. And 

 the emperor in return made feveral conceffions and renunciations of pre- 

 tenllons. 



The debts, contraded during the late war, being now all either ftmded 

 or otherways fatisfied, it may be proper to give a concife view of the 

 ftate of the national debt. 



In the year 1764 (as has been already ftated, V. iii, p. 408) the capital 

 of the national debt amounted to - £^39>5^i,^oy 2 4 



During the peace near eleven millions were paid 

 off, by railing the land tax for fome years to 4/ in 

 the pound, by fums received from the Eaft-India 

 company and the bank, and by the very languid 

 operation of the fmking fund. Neverthelefs there 

 flill remained a capital debt of - - - 135,943,051 o o 



the annual intereft on which amounted to - - 4,480,821 o o 



This year, after all the floating debts were funded, the national debt 

 conlilled of the following capital fums with their annexed annual pay- 

 ments. 



