the feven provinces must confent before any confiderable measure can be carried into execution.

The government does not feem to appear from this general view, provided the reprefentation in each of thefe affemblies were just and adequate, to include any effen ial imperfections. It is for the fpeculative politician to confider whether a gradation of two deliberative affemblies, as in the United States of America, or of three as here, is the most perfect form of government. In the mean time it may be observed, that the flowness which is ufually imputed to the Dutch republic, is not perhaps a very confiderable defect unleis in tranfactions with foreign ftates; that thele tranfactions are not the firit and moft confiderable object of political conftitution; and that even here the government of Holland under a wife and fpirited adminiftration has found a remedy in adopting an irregular conduct fuitable to the emergency of the occafion. But it was not with thefe fpeculative confiderations that the friends of liberty in Holland were chiefly concerned. They were not bound to produce the beft poffible conftitution, but to effect fuch amendments in the existing forms, as fhould be at once practicable and fraught with valuable benefit.

Accordingly the first object of their attention was the contitution of the magiftracies and town fenates, as lying at the root of every other imperfection. Here there were two leading defects: that the stadtholder, the fervant of the republic, had too much weight, and that the people, the conftituents of the republic, had no weight at all. The prerogatives of the ftadtholder, exclusively of his influence in the election of the fenates, were very 1786.

confiderable. He poffeffed the appointment of inferior officers in the navy, of officers in the army, from the colonel to the enfign, and a voice in the difpofition of all other pofts of honour and emolument. Accordingly the plan of the citi zens of Utrecht, was e tirely to exclude him from any influence in the nomination of the town govern ments, and at the fame time to communicate to the people a cer tain degree of authority in the bufinefs. This authority they did not propofe immediately to beftow upon the people at large, but to give to them the privilege of electr ing a college of tribunes, who were to have a thare in the election of the fenates and magiftrates, as well as feveral other prerogatives of no inconfiderable importance.

It does not appear that the whole of this plan was fubmitted at first by the citizens of Utrecht to the deliberative affemblies, and it is probable that it was not thus early digefted by them, in the extent in which we have flated it. The first meafure they adopted was the prefenting a petition to the states of the province of Utrecht, to demand from them the abolition of the regulation of regency, eftab'ifhed by violence in 1674, by William III, prince of Orange, and which was the foundation of the principal part of the obnoxious authority of the ftadtholder in the election of the town governments. This petition was figned by 2243 burghers of Utrecht, which appears to have been at this time the amount of the corps of volunteers in that city. The felection of this regulation was wifely and politically made by the democratical party. The power of the ftadtholder, by which he was accustomed arbitrarily to introduce whatever perfons he pleafed to a

feat in the fenate, ftruck at the root of the oligarchical power, and had long been an object of extreme regret to the leaders of the party against the pince of Orange. It is probable that the fame circumfcribed habits of thinking, which had prevented the leaders of that party from fore.eeing the confequences that might refult from the inftitution of the volunteers, had its effect in this inftance upon the affembly of the ftates of Utrecht. The regulation of 1674 was the object of their averfion, and they were happy in thus procuring the countenance of their citizens for its abrogation. But a measure of fo great importance was not to be adopted by them with lightnefs and precipitation. Previously to the attempt of repealing a law, the influence of which was of the extremeft magnitude, it was neceffary that it fhould be declared a fource of grievance, and that an enquiry fhould be inflituted into the michiefs that refulted from it. Accordingly, on the fifth of February 1784, an extraordinary commiflion was nominated by the affembly of the flates, to enquire into, and report to the affembly, the meafures it might be proper to take, in order to re-establish harmony among the citizens, and to remove the fources of their just complaints against their prefent form of government.

At the fame time that the petition of the burghers was prefented to the affembly of the fates, addreffes of a fimilar nature were delivered to the town fenate of Utrecht, and to the prince of Orange. In the 3aft cafe the addrefs was figned only by 725 of the most confiderable inhabitants, probably from the idea that fo limited a mode of application implied in a higher degree the refpectfulness and decency of their

proceedings. The aufwer of the prince of Orange may be naturally fuppofed to have been unfavourable, both from the inflexibility of principles that marked every stage of his conduct, and from the nature of the demand, which did not convey to him, as it did to the oligarchical leaders, any features of attraction and plaufibility. The fenate of Utrecht on the other hand, received the application of their citizens with much good will, and appointed, on the 17th of April, a committee, who were to receive the reprefentations, which the burghers and the inhabitants were indifcriminately invited to fubmit to their infpection during the space of five weeks. The committee of the fenate digefted in one general view the complaints of the burghers, and fubmitted them in the form of a report, to the affembly of the ftates. A public declaration was made in the following September, under the joint authority of the two committees, that four capital defects had been recognized in the conftitution of the town government, as it had been fettled in 1674; buɛ they did not proceed to any more detailed fpecification of their future intentions.

The harmony that fubfifted between the magiffrates and the inħabitants of Utrecht, appeared to promife the moft aufpicious conclufion to the great projet of democratical reforin. The affections of the fenate in particular, were fo warmly engaged on the fide of the burghers, that they came to a voluntary refolution, even in the month of January, to fill up a vacancy, which happened then to occur in their body, without any previous communication with the ftadtholder. This refolution was taken by a majority of twenty-fix

fenators,

and decifive. The armed burghers having affembled to the number of 2000, repaired in a body to communicate their difcontents to the fenate; and declared their refolution not to quit the pofition they had taken, till the election of one of the new fenators, Mr. Sigterman, was annulled. To fo fpirited a ftyle of petition no alternative was found applicable. The fenate fubmitted to the ncceffity of their fituation. But the violence they experienced was fo little relifhed by the members of their body, that nineteen fenators immediately feceded, and declared their refolution never more to enter the walls of the affembly, till the lawlefs proceedings of the democratical party was fuppreffed, and the magiftrates were reinstated in the whole of their prerogatives.

The government of Utrecht was by this conduct reduced to an alarming fituation. The affairs of the public could no longer be put under any regular direction while the diffentient fenators maintained their refolution; and unless fome mode of conciliation could be difcovered, there was reafon to apprehend that every thing might be reduced to a flate of anarchy and confufion. Accordingly the fenators who had not feceded, immediately deputed two of their body to expoftulate with their refractory members, and the speaker upon this occafion was Mr. van Mufchenbroek, one of the burgomaiters of Utrecht, and who appears to have maintain ed a fecret correfpondence with the court of the stadtholder. The requeft was enforced by a fimilar application on the part of the provincial ftates; and farther, to induce them to compliance, as well as to countenance the meafures which were in the contemplation of

the oligarchical party, a petition was prepared in the name of 150 eminent citizens to the ftates of the province, in which they expreffed their confidence in the difpofition of government to comply with the wishes of the more moderate inha bitants in favour of a reform, at the fame time that they condemned in the ftrongest language the tumultuary proceedings of the armed burghers, and intreated the states to take proper meafures to prevent future violences of a fimilar nature, which would be infallibly deftruc tive of the trade and prosperity of the city of Utrecht.

The feceding fenators were at length induced to refume their feats; and in confequence of their return a proclamation was immediately iffued by the magiftrates, indirectly condemning the late conduct of their burghers, and prohibiting under fevere penalties all proceedings that tended to disturbance and tu mult. To this proclamation the armed burgherscontented themfelves with entering their proteft. The fenate however, encouraged by the paffive manner in which this proclamation had been recei ed, proceeded in the month of June to inftitute a criminal enquiry into the conduct of the preceding March, and to imprifon Mr. Ondaatje, an active leader of the democratical party, and who had delivered the fentiments of the burghers to the fenate upon the fubject of the election of Mr. Sigterman upon that occafion, with equal eloquence and intrepidity. In July, a fill more defpotic proclamation was iffued by the provincial ftates, forbidding any perfon to prepare a petition to be figned by two or more, under pain of being treated as a difturber of the public tranquility, and directing, that every one, who should

have any complaint to addrefs to the government, fhould prefent it individually and feparately.

Thefe violent and untemporifing measures ferved extremely to alienate and inflame the minds of the citizens. The difcountenance they received, did not in any degree weaken their defires, or diminish their refolution to obtain the reform, which had been the object of their original affociation. As they conftituted an unquestionable majority of the inhabitants of Utrecht, they conceived themselves to be able in the last refort, to obtain the redrefs they demanded by their fingle energy. But they were willing to seek the alliance of fome other power in the republic, and thus to leffen the perils that impended over them. It was yet a question, whether in this cafe their alliance would ultimately be made with the oligarchy or with the stadtholder. The former of thefe parties had treated them with fo much duplicity and feverity in their own province, as to give them little hopes of an amicable adjustment of claims on this fide. The oligarchy of Holland and the other provinces, was far from having declared in their favour; and there were fufficient reafons to expect that they would not receive a very generous fupport from a party, to whofe interefts their views were inimical, and who un questionably afpired to a defpotic and unlimited authority. The itadtholder on the other fide was naturally tenacious of his influence in the election of the fenates. But he stood in need of friends and adherents; and, if a compromife could be effected between him and the citizens, he would be able by their afliftance to obtain an eafy victory over the incroachments and pretenfions of his original adverfaries.

Difgufted by the treatment they received from their government at home, the democratical party in Utrecht, appears to have been at this time inclined in favour of the ftadtholder; and the court of the prince, willing to encourage them in this difpolition, published a declaration in which they obferved, provided the fpirit of the regulation of 1674 were preferved inviolate in behalf of the fladtholder, that he would be willing to co-operate with the burghers in mitigation of their taxes, and in the redefs of every other circumftance by which they imagined themfelves aggrieved.

The fituation of the fate of Hol land, and the other bodies who had originally entered into the contest with the ftadtholder, was at this time extremely critical. The profpect of being fupported by the army had already been regarded by them as vague and uncertain. The burghers they expected to make fubfervient to their view; but, contrary to their expectations, they had no fooner taken up arms, than they found an object relative to their own intercits and privileges, which better deferved their purfuit than the blind and implicit fupport of a felf-elective magiftracy. All the views of the latter, in favour of the restoration of the best days of the republic, as it had exifted in the time of a de Ruyter and a de Witte, must be tacrificed, unless fome immediate alternative was found applicable to their prefent fituation. Thus ci cumftanced, the party of the magistrates in Holland, appear to have been generally convinced of the propriety of that line of conduct, which it was indifpenfibly neceflary for them to adopt. Some deviation they must inevitably make from the plan they had originally purposed to purfue;