liberal interpretation of my conduct, and upon that fupport I have fo amply experienced fince I received his majesty's commands to repair to this country; and it will be peculiarly gratifying to me if I fhould have the good fortune, in the administration of the king's government, to imprefs upon your minds the full extent of his majefty's paternal care of this kingdom, and of my own anxiety to promote, by every means, its interefts, its fafety, and its prosperity. Manifefto against Great Britain, by the National Affembly reprefenting the Batavian Nation, May 2, 1796. The Batavian nation, once more unjustly attacked by the kingdom of Great Britain, has just taken up arms. This nation, fo often ill treated, oppreffed, trod upon, and pillaged, under the mafk of friendship, now animated and excited by liberty, and at length breathing, for the first time, after fo long an interval, refumes the primitive energy of its brave and valorous character, courageoufly rears its head, and will no longer fuffer its profperity to be undermined by envious neighbours. It will no longer allow itself to be dragged in the duft; and it will ceafe to be the fport of the infamous and ambitious minifters of England, who, by the dazzle of piratical treafures, blind the English nation, which fancies itself to be free, with refpect to the terrible calamities they have brought on Europe, and on the whole of the human race. The Batavian people will defend their rights and their independence; they will fave their country from the ruin by which it is threat Will Europe ftill doubt, that When England attempted, by the force ofarms, to fubjugate her American colonies, which fhe had driven to a juftifiable infurrection, and when the fcourge of war extended to other empires, the States General of the United Provinces were careful to observe a strict neutrality; they did not fuffer Dutch veffels to tranfport any other commodities to America, thofe excepted which were declared free by the exprefs terms of treaties. The moft efficacious precautions were carefully taken to prevent warlike stores from being conveyed to the American colonies, as well as to prevent any fraudulent commerce from being carried on with them; precautions which did not a little hackle and injure our own commerce to the West Indies. It availed the republic, however, but little, to obferve the conditions of treaties with exactness, as to what was by them prohibited: the English minifters, confulting merely their temporary convenience, went fo far as to difpute what these very treaties allowed; they would not fuffer the republic to enjoy thofe very advantages of treaty which England herself had enjoyed in a fimilar cafe; but violating the rights of nations, they condemned the cargoes as prizes to the crown, and employed the materials in the royal arfenals; other veffels were forfeited by the arbitrary fentences of partial courts of juftice. The privateers and armed fhips of England, feeing that their piracies were legalized, multiplied their depredations, and the merchant veffels of Holland daily became the victims of their brutalities. Finally, the atrocities of the British minifters were carried to fuch a point, that they no longer refpected the flag of the States, but carried a convoy of Dutch veffels into the ports of England, declaring fhips richly laden to be lawful prizes, and violating, as well in Europe as elsewhere, our neutral territory. The only mode which could be adopted, to put a stop to these unprecedented injuries, without, however, breaking with the kingdom of Great Britain, was employed by their high mightineffes. This mode confifted in joining with all poffible speed the alliance of the three northern powers, concerted by the empress of Ruffia, and deftined to protect, by the force of arms, the rights of the neutral nations, each of them more or lefs violated by England. Their high mightineffes, we fay, would have acceded to this treaty, had not an obftacle been thrown in the way by the perfidious machinations of the Eng lith cabinet. This was the fignal which led England to break every tie, to distribute letters of marque for making reprifals on the inhabitants of the republic and their poffeffions, and to declare open war against the United Provinces. Aminiftry to which all means were alike, could not want pretexts for that purpofe. It was not at the fame time difficult for their high mightineffes, to demonftrate the frivoloufnefs of all these pretended grievances; but what purpofe could this anfwer with a rapacious, obftinate, and unjuft miniftry, which was defirous to revenge peaceable ally the lofs of the Britifh colonies, and to appease, for a time at leaft, by the booty ob tained by an unforeseen attack, the murmurs of the English nation? on a It was foon after learned, that the fquadrons and armed veffels of England captured, by virtue of orders already furnished, the Dutch veffels they fell in with beyond feas, without the fmallest fufpicion on our fide, and against the faith of treaties. We learned the cruel manner in which the ifland of St. Euftatia was ruined, by feizing on the poffeffions of the merchants, which, when collected, formed treafures; while richly laden veffels, returning from the ocean, were furprifed unawares in the channel by fmall veffels, which readily made them their prey. By fuch vile means, unworthy of a generous nation, did the British minifters difhonour the flag of their king; for, can it be confidered in any other point of view, than that of acting, under the royal flag, the part of pirates? The Batavian republic was at length, after fo many loffes, forced to provide for her defence, to maintain her rights and independence by dint of arms, and to protec her commerce and her poffeffions. Ah! if the could then have combated under the banners of liberty, how would the English miniftry have repented of its rafhnefs and perfidy! But the English cabinet knew all its influence in this country. It was aware that it could fucceed in hackling within the republic the preparations of war: it was certain of finding in Holland partizans who would contrive to put into its poffeffion our fhips of war, and who would find the means to prevent the difplay of ali our strength. The event foon proved that the English minifters were not mistaken. They mocked our feeble efforts, which, even before they were carried into effect, were paralyzed in their outfet by the adherents they had in this country. Thefe adherents fupplied them with intelligence of all that was concerting here. Supported by the ftadtholderian influence, they even contrived to render nugatory the orders given by their high mightineffes for the junction of the Batavian fquadron with the French fleet. It was eafy for the English miniftry, after fuch treafons, to obtain fucceffes in that war. And this is what they call glory! But when a particular occafion prefented itfelf-when a fleet belonging to the states accidentally met with an opportunity to difplay its courage and its valour, the Batavian mariners, although novices in fighting, proved that they had not degenerated from the bravery of their ancestors. They drove the Englifh fleet, covered with confufion and fhame, into its own port, with out having loft one of the merchant veffels they had under convoy. A war carried on in fuch a way neceflarily terminated in a treaty of peace burthenfome to the frates. Instead of being indemnified for the incalculable loffes they had suftained in their commerce, they confidered themselves as fortunate to be enabled by the fpeedy affiftance of the French forces, which checked the English in the two Indies, to fave a part of their poffeffions; while they found themselves obliged to yield to the enemy the important factory of Negapatnam on the coaft of Coromandel; and to allow to British veffels the free navigation of the coafts of the Molucca iflands, notwithstanding it might have been foreseen that the navigation of the English in those feas would tend to nothing less than the complete deftruction of our trade in the East Indies. We fhall not enter into details concerning what paffed in the fequel, when the Batavian nation, feeing how much its interefts were conftantly every where facrificed to thofe of its ancient rival, even by the perfons appointed to defend its rights, meditated a fundamental regeneration in the form of the government. We fhall not retrace how England, knowing that the limitation of the fcandalous ufurpation of power and influence, on the part of the stadtholder, would alfo diminish its influence in this republic. How, we fay, the British mis niftry, far from intereeding for the Batavian nation, or coming to its fuccour, when legions of foreign troops feized on thefe countries, committing the most atrocious diforders, pillages, and violences, confidered, on the contrary, this de vaftation and this oppreffion with a malignant fatisfaction; and concurred, when the mifchief was completed, in guaranteeing, in a folemn manner, the fyftem of a tyranny which refulted from it. When the French nation, wearied with the unfupportable tyranny of the perfidious plans of its enemies, It was thus that the Netherlands were delivered from their most dangerous enemies. The ftadtholder abandoned, in a daftardly way, his country and his friends, and fought an afylum at the court of the king of England. The standard of liberty was planted in all places, while the French republic declared the Batavian nation free, and re-, established it in its primitive rights. The British minifters, enraged at feeing this republic ftill exist without being in their hands, attempted at least to destroy it another way, by totally undermining its extenfive commerce. Upwards of one hundred hips, the greater part richly laden, which, either through foul; winds, or as a measure of precaution, had fought shelter in British ports, as well as feveral Dutch hips of war, were laid under embargo, as if to prevent them from falling into the hands of the French. Their high mightineffes, it is true, fent commiflioners to London to claim (H) them, vernors to put the colonies of the ftates under the protection of the British arms; that is to fay, in the artful and cuftomary language of the English miniftry, to furrender them to England. Notwithitanding this felonious ftratagem has fail them, demonftrating by the most folid proofs, that the Batavian republic was no longer under the do. minion of France fince the folemn declaration of its independence, and that England ought to conduct itself towards the Batavian nation, as towards a free people; they added in the greater part of the coloed, that the Dutch merchants would nies, through the fidelity of their not rifque the entry of their veffels governors, it was impoffible to preinto 'the ports of the republic, if vent the Cape of Good Hope from it was for no other purpofe than falling into the hands of the Englifh; and several important poffefto furrender them to the French. The British minifters had, however, fions of these states, in the Eaft Inalready made up their minds to ap- dies, have shared the fame fate. propriate this booty to themselves; and, to augment it, they deffeminated on all fides falfe rumours touching the fituation of affairs in this country, to the end that they might, in the fame way, allure into their ports the merchant veffels belonging to the republic, which were ftill at fea. They have fince entirely violated the rights of nations; and all the Dutch veffels, to which his majesty the king of Great Britain had granted his high protection, were, in violation of the treaty of Breda, perfidioufly declared law ful captures. But what puts the feal to the acts of hoftility and bad faith which the prefent British minifters have exercifed against this republic, is the treacherous mode in which they have endeavoured to make themfelves mafters of her colonies. For this purpose they fent letters, figned by the prince of Orange, and dated at Kew, the 7th of February, 1795, to feveral of the colonies of the republic of the Netherlands in the East Indies, and to the Cape of Good Hope. In thefe letters, this perfidious and ci-devant minifter and commander in chief of thefe ftates, after having abandoned all his pofts, ordered, on his individual authority, the refpective go While all this was taking place, the British miniftry conceived the plan of attacking alfo by land this free republic, and of employing for that purpofe thofe foldiers, who, being more attached to the prince of Orange than to their country, emigrated on the flattering promifes of England.-Thefe fugitives were not only well received in the states of his Britannic majefty in Germany, but were even kept in the pay of England; and if the defertion of the greater part of the army of the republic could have been brought about, there is no doubt but they would have been led against their country under English commanders, for the purpose of renewing here, if the fact were poffible, the fcenes of 1787; of kindling up, as in LaVendée, a difaftrous civil war, and of thus destroying the Batavian republic by inteftine commotions. Is it therefore furprifing that the Batavian nation, now free, feeks to reinforce itself against fuch unprecedented and numerous outrages, by an intimate alliance with a republic which snatched it from the gripes of its enemies? A treaty of peace and alliance was accordingly concluded at the Hague, on the 16th of May, 1795, between the two |