HOLLAND. 419 



rately in the time of queen Anne ; and he now seemed willing to 

 encroach upon their territories. A conference concerning the 

 boundaries of their respective nations was proposed to the states ; 

 but before this could take place, he began to commit some "acts of 

 hostility, and extended his dominions a little by way of preliminary. 

 Two small forts, St. Donat and St. Paul, were seized upon, as well 

 as some part of the marshes in the neighbourhood of Sluys. As a 

 prelude to the negotiations, he also demanded that the Dutch guard- 

 ship should be removed from before Lillo, in acknowledgment that 

 one of the prerogatives of his imperial majesty was the free naviga- 

 tion of the Scheldt. This being complied with, the negotiations were 

 opened at Brussels, on the 24th of April, 1784, when several other 

 demands of small portions of territory, and little sums of money were 

 made ; the most material requisition being the town of Maestricht 

 and its territory. For some time the conferences were carried on in, 

 that dry and tedious manner which generally marks the proceedings 

 of the Dutch ; but the emperor urged on his demands with great 

 Vigour, and matters seemed fast tending towards an open rupture. 

 On the 25d of August he delivered in his ultimatum to the commis- 

 sioners at Brussels, in which he offered to give up his demand on 

 Maestricht, in consideration of having the free and unlimited naviga- 

 tion of the Scheldt, in both its branches, to the sea ; and, in token of 

 his confidence of the good intentions of the states, he determined to 

 consider the river as open from the date of that paper. Any insult 

 on his flags in the execution of these purposes, he would conclude 

 to be a direct act of hostility, and a formal declaration of war on the 

 part of the republic. To prevent all injuries contrary to the incon- 

 testible rights of his imperial majesty, and to leave no doubts of his 

 unalterable resolution to adhere to the propositions contained in the 

 ultimatum, his majesty could not forbear determining to send to sea, 

 from Antwerp, a ship under his flag, after having declared long enough 

 before in what manner he should consider all violent opposition that 

 might be made to the free passage of the said ship. 



The ship was stopped in its passage, as was another, ordered to 

 sail from Ostend up the Scheldt to Antwerp. But the Dutch offered 

 to dismiss the vessels, if the captains would engage to return to their 

 respective places, and not continue their voyage on the river; which 

 they refused to do. This the emperor called insulting his flag, and 

 declared to all foreign courts, he could not look on this fact but as 

 "an effective declaration of war on the part of the republic". In 

 answer to their conduct in stopping the imperial ships, which the 

 emperor styled an insult to his fia^, and by which he declared them 

 to have begun hostilities, the Dutch ministers at Brussels, in a paper 

 delivered to that court, protested " that as their sole aim was to sup- 

 port their incontrovertible right, they could not, with any appearance 

 of justice, be considered as guilty of a hostile aggression." 



Great preparations were made for immediate hostilities against 

 the Dutch ; and several hundred of the Imperialists, with some field- 

 pieces, advancing towards the counterscarp of Lillo, the command- 

 ing officer of that place ordered the sluices to be opened, Novem- 

 ber 7, 1784, which effected an inundation that laid under water many 

 miles of the flat country around the forts on the Scheldt, to preserve 

 them from an attack. Both parties exerted themselves in case they 

 should be called forth to open a campaign in the next spring ; but 



