Studies in American History 
5 
ditions.^ The Dutch government compromised by issuing or- 
ders forbidding the export of munitions to the American 
colonies, but refused to lend the Scotch Brigade to England or 
to release the troops of Waldeck from the Dutch service. 
Soon it appeared, however, that the Dutch were shipping mu- 
nitions and supplies to the American colonies directly and by 
way of France or St. Eustatius in spite of the prohibitory 
orders of their government.^^ When Franklin, Arthur Lee, 
and Silas Deane were sent to France in 1776, William Lee 
and Ralph Izard were sent as agents to Holland, Prussia, 
and Italy with the hope of securing aid in these coun- 
tries. They, however, accomplished nothing except that 
Lee drew a treaty with Van Berckel which later 
gave the British a pretext for waging war on the Dutch.^ 
After France began to prepare herself to go into the struggle, 
the Dutch began to supply her with ship’s timbers and naval 
stores from the north. By the treaty of 1674 between the 
Dutch and the British, the former had a perfect right to do 
this, even if England and France were at war.® England, how- 
ever, threatened to disregard that treaty if the Dutch did not 
give the aid stipulated in the alliance treaties of 1678 and 1716,® 
while the French government of course strongly urged the 
Dutch to enforce their rights under the first treaty. The 
States-General of the Netherlands were unable to come to any 
decision, meeting threats with evasive answers and with stub- 
born delay. Meantime the Dutch merchants traded with 
French, English, and Americans alike. American privateers 
taking refuge in Dutch waters called forth further threats 
from the British agents, but remained undisturbed until they 
were ready to leave. On the other hand, the Dutch could not 
be induced to espouse the cause of the Americans openly, and 
Adams, who was in Holland most of the time from 1780, could 
get neither formal recognition nor money until after the Eng- 
lish had declared war on the Dutch.^® There is no doubt that 
it was this commercial prosperity of the Dutch that finally 
® Edler, The Dutch Republic and the American Revolution, 29. 
® York to Suffolk, March 22, 1776 ; November 25, 1777 ; December 3, 1776 ; April 30, 
1776, in Sparks MSS., LXXII. 
■^Charles Francis Adams, Wm'ks of John Adams (10 vols„ Boston, 1856), VII, 329. 
® Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, Life of William, Earl of Shelbourne (3 vols., London, 
1875-1876), III, 112. 
® Suffolk to York, September 29, 1778, and April 14, 1778, in Sparks MSS,, LXXII. 
Adams, Works of John Adams, I, 329. 
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