and, with a manly refolution, they chofe that this deviation fhould rather operate in favour of the rights of the people, than for the increafe of the prerogatives and domination of an individual. The power of filling up the vacancies of their body had long been their mot favourite privilege; but, notwithflanding the unpalatablenefs of the draught that was propofed, they fubmitted with apparent alacrity to the neceffity of the cafe, and from this time co-operated with more or lefs fincerity or conftancy in favour of the views of the popular party.

We know not whether or no the alteration which now took place in the fentiments and conduct of the fenate of Utrecht, was owing to the interference of the magiftrates of the other provinces. Be that as it will, fix deputies were appointed, in the beginning of Auguft, by an affembly of magiftrates at Amfter dam from the different parts of the United Netherlands, for the purpofe of mediating in the differences that had arifen between the magiftrates and the citizers of Utrecht; and at the fame time the fenate published their report, which had been prepared twelve months before, upon the fubject of the projected reform, which was certainly intended as a conciliatory meafure, In the mean time this proceeding by no means obtained the fuccefs which was predicted. The people had been held fo long in fufpence, and their paffions had been fo great ly irritated and alarmed, that it is poffble that the indulgence, which would have fatisfied them in the first instance, would now be treated with jealoufy and diffatisfaction, The burghers, proceeding upon a true feeling of democratical, principles, had, in the year 1784, at the fame time that nine commiffi

oners had been appointed on the part of the flates, and two depu ties on the part of the fenate, to conduct the fytem of the reform, elected twenty-feven perfons, as the delegates of the inhabitants at large, to watch over the interests of the democracy in this great bufinefs. These delegates, at the fame time that they expreffed their approbation of the general fpirit of the report which was now published, were extremely offended at not having been confulted during the pendency of the deliberations, and at the report's having now been made public, without having been previoufly communicated to them. Actuated by the fpirit of freedom which had fo long animated the proceedings of their conflituents, they did not value the acquifition that was made in favour of the democracy, because the manner in which it was made, favoured rather of the principles of a narrower form of government. Accordingly they prefented an address to the fenate, demanding to know, whe-. ther they were acknowledged in the character of delegates, and of confequence admitted to deliver the fentiments of their conflituents. Their conduct was imitated by the deputies of the eight wards of the burghers of Utrecht, who prefented an addrefs, making a fimilar demand of the fenate refpecting themfelves.

The oligarchical party probably imagined that they had yielded far enough in the publication of the report, and regarded the objection of the delegates as captious and fophiftical. Inficad therefore of returning an immediate answer to the demand that was made, they de puted their two burgomafters to make inquifition into the affair, and for this purpofe to propofe interro

gatories

gatories to the delegates and deputies. Not chufing to fubmit to this examination, thefe, latter, having obtained an adjournment, immediately called an affembly of the burghers at large, to inftruct them refpecting the conduct it might become them to purfue. The burghers, offended at a proceeding on the part of their magistrates to immediately hoftile to the principles of democratical exertion, thought proper to repair in a body to the fenate, to the number of 3330, and in this manner to affure them, that their delegates were actually cho fen by them, and were fully authorized to speak and act in their behalf. The fenate was again alarmed by this ftrong and peremptory appearance, and, under the influence of this alarm, fuppreffed the report that had been published, and appointed a new commiffion ultimate ly to concert with the delegates of the citizens the regulation it might be proper to introduce inftead of the obnoxious regulation of 1074.

If the oligarchical party in the province of Utrecht were difpleafed with the fpirit of the projected municipal reform, it was not probable that they would be reconciled to it by the measures which were adopted for its introduction. Long inured to the confidering the fladtholder as their only rival, and accustomed to a paffive and implicit obedience on the part of their citizens, they could not tamely brook the violence and compulfion with which they were treated. Such would have been in all cafes the feelings of a confiderable body in the political balance under thefe circumftances: and these feelings were extremely improved by the natural obtinacy and perfeverance of a Dutch conflitution. They waited therefore only for an opportunity of figna

lizing their refentment; and an occalion prefently occurred, fuch as they desired. The city of Utrecht was an object beyond their strength. The firmnefs of the burghers proved that they would ultimately fucceed against all internal oppofition; and there was fcarcely a military force in the whole extent of the republic fufficient to reduce them to compulfory fubmiffion. But if they could not be conquered they might be terrified, and if the ftates dare not meet them in the most unqualified ftyle of controverfy, they might at least prove in an indirect manner how averfe their inclinations were to the measures that were pursued.

The fpirit of reform, which began in the city of Utrecht, fpeedily communicated its influence to the other towns of the province. Thefe towns fo far as they are reprefented in the affembly of the fates, are four, Amersfort, Wyk, Montfort, and Rhenen. The two first of these had copied, with precifion, the steps of the capital. They had fubmitted their grievances, and had appointed delegates to co-operate with the magistracy in the conftruction of the reform. In Wyk, as in Utrecht, the fenate appears at first to have been fufficiently favourable to the burghers, and to have proceeded to provisional clections; in Amersfort they were more confiftent and uniform. Here therefore it was, that the fandard of hoftil ties, (for fuch, notwithstanding the great length to which its confequences were procrastinated, it deferves to be confidered) was defined to be unfurled. The plan of the citizens was to keep pace in their democratical meafures with the burghers of Utrecht; and accordingly, early in Auguft they directed their delegates to propofe D 4

the

the queftion to their magiftrates, whether or not they were to be confidered as recognized for the legal reprefentatives of the citizens at large. This question was an fwered in the negative; and the burghes, lefs peremptory than thofe of Utrecht, contented themfelves with holding their meeting at a diftance from the Guild-hall, or place of the affembly of the fenate, and fending meflage after meffage to the magiftrates, repeating the fame demand. To put an end to this importunate application, the fenate pretended to come to an abrupt adjournment; and, the armed burghers having imitated their example, they immediately reaffembled, and voted that very night, the eighth of Auguft, that a requifition fhould be made to the ftates of the province, demanding of them a body of troops to keep under restraint the violence of the citizens. This requifition, by the contrivance of the burgomafter van Mufchenbroek, was not fubmitted to the fiates at large, but to their council-committee fitting for the dispatch of bufinefs. The requifition was immediately confirmed, and being figned by four of the members was difpatched to the prince of Orange.

The ftadt older was by this violent and unqualified meature placed in a very critical fituation. His original enemies were not the citizens, but the refolute adherents of the oligarchy in the different fates and fenates of the republic; and in thefe original enemies he had more to encounter, than be well knew how to fubdue. If indeed the republic came to blows upon the mere oligarchical queftion, it was probable that a great number of the inhabicants would join the prince of Orange, and the reft

holding themselves neuter, the vic tory would not be difficult to fecue. But even in this cafe the fuperiority of the prince could not be made permanent, without fuch an entire change in the whole form of the conftitution, as it would have been perilous and unpopular to attempt. To throw the burghers in this fituation into the arms of the oligarchy, had the appearance of a very impolitic meafure. If their claims were adverse to the prerogatives of the ftadtholder, they were not lefs adverfe to the privileges of the municipal affemblies. On the other hand the facrifice that was demanded from the ftadtholder was great; and the protiered alliance of the fates of Utrecht valuable. To concede what was demanded by the burghers, appears to have been regarded by the court of the prince as a meafure uncertain in its effect. His policy had hitherto been to defend with inflexibility the prerogatives defcended to him from his anceffors, and it was only by this magnanimity that he could expect to intereft all the princes of Europe in his favour. The demand of troops was accordingly granted, the towns of Amersfort and Rhenen received the garrison; and a new coalition was produced, avowedly between the magiftrates of Utrecht and the stadtholder on the one hand, and in a more covert manner between the democracy of Utrecht and the oligarchy of Hol. land on the other.

The compliance of the stadtholder excited the most unbounded spirit of indignation and refistance in various parts of the republic. The affembly of the armed burghers of Utrecht, in their own name and in the name of 3360 inhabitants of different conditions, called upon the fenate to make the fricteft inquifi

tion into the illegal conduct of the magiftrates of Amersfort, of the burgomafter van Mufchenbroek, and of the council-committee of the states. The fenate, urged by the delegates of the citizens, fhut their gates, brought out the cannon of their fortifications, and prepared for refiftance. Advertisements were published in the newspapers on the part of the burghers, calling upon the different corps of volunteers in the republic to yield their immedate affistance to the city of Utrecht in its prefent perilous fituation. The inhabitants of Overyffel, were not behind hand with the inhabitants of the province of Utrecht in the firmnefs of their exertions, and here there had as yet been no open mifunderstandings between the citizens and the magiftracies. The three towns which are reprefented - in the states of Overyffel are Deventer, Campen and Zwol. The two last of these were attempted to be garrisoned, but the fenate fhut their gates upon the forces of the ftadtholder. The ftates at the fame time came to a ftrong refolution, condemning in the moit pointed manner the conduct of the itadtholder, in endeavouring to filence the complaints of the burghers by the violent introduction of an armed force. At the fame time the burghers of the three towns we have named,figned a very extentive requifition to the fates of the province, demanding the abolition of the regulation of 1674, as well as various provifions to give efficacy for the future to the defires of the inhabitants at large. In Holland the democratical spirit has made nearly an equal progrefs; and the burghers of Dort, Leyden, Delft, Schoonhoven and Amfterdam feparately demanded from their magiftrates the enforcing a meature for

the recall of the garrifons, and for the effectually preventing fuch arbitrary and defpotic proceedings in future.

The principle by which the oli garchical party directed their proceedings ferves greatly to illuftrate the history of the prefent diffenfions. In conformity to their idea of waiting for and improving the events that fhould occur, they had made little progrefs fince the expulfion of the field-marfhal prince of Brunfwic, in October 1784. Some tumults had taken place in the province of Holland in the beginning of the fubfequent year, and these were probably in fome degree encouraged by the counfels of the fladtholder. The states had been equally active in endeavouring to fupprefs proceedings, which were in the utmost degree unfavourable to their caufe. But the indignation that was now excited against the ftadtholder in Utrecht, in Overyffel, among the burghers of Holland, and through the volunteer corps in the whole extent of the republic, was a fentiment too favourable, for the leaders of the prevailing party in the ftates not to endeavour to derive from it fome fignal advantage. The occation that was afforded was as aufpicious as they could have defired. The licentious proceedings of the populace had been the confiant fubject of their expoitulation; thefe proceedings had been found more frequent and inveterate in the refidence of the Hague than in any other place, and they were no where to dangerous to the cxiftencce of the republic, fince the Hague was the feat of the fates of Holland, infinitely the most im portant affembly within their limits, and of the itates general.

On the fourth of September

twelve volunteers of the corps of the town of Leyden appeared at the Hague, and repaired in their uniforms to the public parade. The inhabitants of the Hague in general, are enthufiaftically devoted to the prince of Orange; and the attempts of the oligarchy to inflitute a body of volunteers among them had always miscarried. Accordingly the appearance of the Leyden volunteers was a phenomenon, that was inftantly remarked by the populace, and they determined to fignalize against them their loyalty and their duty. Accordingly they attacked them with violence, and having driven them for refuge into a neighbouring houfe, they broke the windows, and difplayed other marks of riot and disorder. A part of the garrifon detached by order of the itadtholder did not think fit to interfere with the proceedings of the populace, but contented themfelves with taking into cuftody the objects of their attack, and fending them off privately by night to the place of their habitation.

This riot was not in reality of a very formidable nature, but the juncture in which it happened was fuch as to encourage the oligarchy to decifive proceedings. The deputies of Haerlem, a town which had greatly diftinguifhed itfelf in oppofition to the ftadtholder, reprefented to the ftates of Holland the long continuance of the riotous difpofition of the people of the Hague, the ineffectual remonftrances that had been made for the employment of the garrifon in their fuppreffion, the connivance and secret encouragement of the prince of Orange, and the danger that refulted to the freedom or their deliberations from thefe alarming proceedings. The ftates immediately came to a refolution on the eighth

of September, to charge the depu ties of Haerlem themselves with the care of the military patrole. The deputies immediately entered upon their charge, gave the watch-word to the garrifon, led out a nightly patrole to the amount of two hundred foldiers, and every thing was reftored to filence, tranquility and fubmiffion.

No measure could have been adopted by the ftates productive of fo much difpleasure and mortification to the prince of Orange. He immediately remonstrated with them upon their proceedings, and claim-ed the undivided command of the garrifon, as an appointment confiantly annexed to the dignity of his fituation. The refult of his remonftrance was a farther refolution of the ftates confirming and justifying the measure they had adopted. Finding that he could obtain nothing by the mode of remonttrance, the ftadtholder withdrew himself from the Hague on the fourteenth of September 1785, with a refolution never to return to the palace of his ancestors, till he fhould be completely reinflated in the prerogatives with which they had been invefted. Various were the reafons that induced him to this mode of proceeding. He was tired with the long and unprofitable controverfy into which he had been drawn with the fates, and neither he nor his minifters had been able to discover any line of conduct by which it could advantageoufly be terminated. Forbearance and delay had been found barren and unproductive. It was time to try the effect of contrary measures. The whole people of Holland would be ftruck with the neceflity which had driven him from the feat of fupreme power, and would feel more vividly than they had yet done, how unprovok

ed