238 ft 0 L T. 
derable, and moft reponfible, citizens. The firft objeft 
which now excited the attention of the oligarchy was the 
conftitution of the magiftracy and the town-fenates. The 
power of the ftadtholder, exclulive of his influence in the 
election of the fenates, was yery coniiderable. He pol- 
feffed the appointment of inferior officers in the .navy; of 
officers in the army from the colonel to the eniign, and a 
voice in the dil'pofition of all other places of honour and 
emolument. It was the intention of h:s enemies to 
abridge his authority both in the army and the State; and 
to veft the fupreme power in the republic. The prince of 
Orange was neither blind to their defigns, nor inactive to 
prevent a meafure which ftruck at his prerogative : but, 
when the revolution which occurred in France came to 
be contemplated in Holland, it re-infpired the hopes of 
the dilaffefted, which were for the prefent only kept .down 
by the approach of war. No fooner did intelligence ar¬ 
rive of the aflault of the Thuilleries, and the imprifon- 
meat and execution of the king of France, than the States- 
general recalled their ambaffador; and, in conjunction with 
Great Britain, rei’olved to oppofe the opening of the 
Scheldt, an event likely, beyond every other, to affect 
the profperity of Holland. Upon the difmiiTal of the 
French ambaffador from the Hague, in 1793, war was de¬ 
clared in France againll Great Britain and Holland jointly ; 
but the complaints againll the latter were directed 1'olely 
againll the prince of Orange. The firft efforts of the 
French were therefore directed to the expulfion of the 
ftadtholder; and Dumourier marched towards Holland, 
with an army of thirteen thoufand men. It was well 
known that there were many of the Dutch ready to join 
the French arms, and not a moment therefore was to be 
loft. Breda, Klundert, and Gertruydenberg, after a fliort 
refiftance, furrendered. Wiiliamftadt, however, made a 
refolute defence; and the arrival of the duke of York 
with a body of Britiih troops, faved Holland from the 
miferies of invalion, and forced the French to retire within 
their own territories. 
In 1794, the French, having been Angularly fuccefsful 
againll the Auftrians, once more commenced their march 
towards Holland, under the command of Pic’negru and 
Moreau. Slavs wasfpccdily taken, the Englilh repulfed at 
Soxtel, and Bois-le-duc and Crevecceur furrendered. On 
the 19th of October, the Englilh were attacked and de¬ 
feated at Pufiiech; after which they retired behind the Wa- 
hal; while the invading arm}r, encouraged by the natives, 
prepared to befiege the neighbouring garriforis, notwith- 
ftanding the advanced feafon of the year. Venloo was 
taken, and Maeftricht foon afterwards furrendered, as did 
Nimeguen on the 8th of November, after a very lhort 
fiege, though covered by the army of the duke of York. 
The fuperiority of the French having induced the allied 
armies to retire, the French determined on crofting the 
Wahal. But this was no ealy enterprife. The water on 
every fide oppofed obftacles, nearly infurmountable to an 
invading army ; and the ftadtholder, if reduced to de- 
1’pair, might probably recur to the fame means againll the 
French republic, that his predeceffors had employed with 
fuccefs againft the monarchy. In other countries, a mild 
feafon is in general necellary for the purpofes of conqueft; 
but nothing lefs than an intenfe froft here, which, by con¬ 
verting the water into folid ice, might facilitate the tranf- 
port or armies, cannon, and ammunition, could effeft the 
deftruflion of the houfe of Naffau. The froft, however, 
fet in with an aftonilhing degree of rigour, and general 
Pichegru availed himlelf of that opportunity to order two 
brigades to march acrofs the ice to the ifle of Bommel, 
which, with Fort Saint Andrew, immediately furrender- 
ed ; as did alfo the town of Grave. 
A few days after, Pichegru crofted the Wahal, with 
his whole army, in the neighbourhood of Nimeguen ; and 
Gcrcum, the head-quarters of the prince of Orange, was 
threatened with an aliault. The luperior-ity of the enemy 
in point of numbers was lb great, that not all the gallan¬ 
try of the Englilh army, and the exertions of its officers, 
A N D. 
though they obtained feveral brilliant fucceffes, were able 
to flop the progrefs of the enemy. The allies retreated 
behind the Leek, and abandoned the province of Utrecht 
to the enemy. The fituation of the prince of Orange was- 
now deplorable. He had publilhed many animated ad- 
dreffes to the people, entreating them to rife in arms and- 
defend their country, but no exhortations could infpire 
the Dutch with a fpirit of refiftance; and his plan of a 
grand inundation round Amfterdam was vehemently cp- 
poled, though the only means of faving that city. The 
difcontented party now began to raife their heads, and 
the ftadtholder, finding it impoflible to refill the llorm, de- 
lired leave to withdraw; and, after waiting fora lhort time 
the event of a negociation, he failed for England, where, 
in 1795, he found an afylum worthy of the country. Such 
are the ways of Providence! in the year 1688, a prince of 
Orange came to England to obtain a crown; and in the 
year 1795, a prince of Orange fled hither for proteiSion. 
While the ftadtholder was thus forced to fly from a 
country, where his anceftors by their intrepidity and pa- 
triotifm had rendered themfelves adored, a French officer 
with dilpatches from Pichegru entered Amfterdam, and 
repaired to' the houfe of the burgomafter. The tree of 
liberty was planted the next morning, while de Winter 
took pofleffion of the fleet, which he was afterwards def- 
tined to command. A complete revolution was thus ef¬ 
fected through the Seven United Provinces. At Utrecht 
the adminiftration was changed without the leaft diforder; 
new municipal officers were chofen by the burghers, and 
the orders of the nobility and clergy iupprefled. Events, 
nearly fimilar, occurred at the fame time in the other prin¬ 
cipal towns._ Pichegru entered Amfterdam in triumph, 
and was received with acclamation. The principal cities 
were next occupied by French troops ; and, to complete 
the wonders of the campaign, a body of horle and a de¬ 
tachment of light artillery aftually advanced along the 
ice, and forced a fquadron of men of war,' frozen in a 
tlrait of the Zuyder Zee, to furrender. 
The conqueft of Holland by the French, and the treaty 
of alliance which fpeedily followed this event, produced 
an entire change in the conneclion between that country 
and England. War was confequently declared by the 
latter, and a great number of Dutch veliels were detained, 
and all the property of that nation in England feized. 
All the Dutch colonies in Afia were alfo captured af¬ 
ter a lhort and ineffectual refiftance. Flolland naturally 
looked up to the French for protection ; while France, 
requiring loans and relburces of every kind, continued, 
by means of the wealth of her new ally, to fupport her own 
neceffities. Though by the treaty a ftipulated fum only 
was required from the Dutch as an indemnification for 
the expences of the war, this price of redemption, enor¬ 
mous as it was, ferved rather to excite than allay the ra¬ 
pacity of the French ; and new demands were made under 
the various forms of loans, requifitions of clothing and 
provifions, voluntary contributions, fubfidies, and the 
forced circulation of aflignats. The treatment of the 
Dutch troops 1 in the French fervice was alio peculiarly* 
unjuft. They were placed in the moft expoled lituations 
in every battle, and in the exchange of prifoners their 
interefts were- invariably neglected. In 1799, the republic 
leems to have reached the lowelt ebb of depreftion. The 
people, worn out with unceafing exactions, the annihila¬ 
tion of commerce, the lofs of their colonies, and the arbi¬ 
trary acts of the government, became impatient for a 
change in the fyltem of affairs. Thele difeontents were 
miitaken, by the Itadtholderian party, for a general incli¬ 
nation in the people to re-eltablilh the old form.of go¬ 
vernment ; and ftrong reprefentations were in confequence 
made to England, of the expediency of fending into Hol¬ 
land a fufficient force to aflift the friends of the lladthol- 
der, and refcue the republic from the bondage of France. 
Thefe reprefentations, coinciding with the inclinations of 
the Britiih government, produced, in the autumn of the 
year, an expedition into Holland 5 for the operations and 
event 
