was forced to acknowlege, was faid to the Prince in confidence: but this haughty and violent conduct only ferved to increafe the indignation of the public, and to heighten the degree of hatred and contempt under which he had long laboured. This defire of revenge accelerated his fall, and, which was worfe, the whole tranfaction gave the people unfavourable ideas of the Prince himself. M. RENDORP declares that he never would have agreed to the measure, had he fuppofed that his Highness would have communicated the converfation to any one, and efpecially to the Duke :-but it is highly probable, that, if the Burgermafters had not taken this step, fome other method would have been adopted in order to acquaint the Stadtholder with the public fentiments, and which might not have been conducted with equal propriety and moderation. M. RENDORP expresses his conviction that the popular fufpicions that the Duke was bribed by the English court were entirely groundless: but he obferves that he had given great offence by his remarkable intimacy with the English Ambaffador, at a time when this minifter, on account of his haughty and imperious memorials, was the object of general abhorrence at the Hague. His imprudence in this refpect was fo obvious, that even the Prince had feveral times exprefled his difapprobation of it. About this time, a circumftance, which had long been known to the Burgermafters of Amfterdam, was brought before the public by M. Van Lynden; who, on being offered an embaffy to Vienna, declared that he would not accept of any fuch commiffion, as long as the Duke of Brunswick fhould retain his influence over the councils of the Prince, and the adminiftration of public meafures. It appeared that, in 1768, a written engagement had been drawn up by M. Bleifwyk, then Penfionary of Delft, by which the Duke was bound at all times to afford the Prince his advice and affittance: but the words, in which this obligation was expreffed, feemed to imply that his Highness was indefinitely bound in every thing to afk the Duke's advice. This agreement was made without the knowlege of the Stadtholder's best friends; and it is remarkable that both Count Bentinck and Sir Jofeph Yorke, when they heard of it, expreffed their difapprobation in very ftrong terms. It appears, in fact, to have been a moft difingenuous artifice, by which the Duke took advantage of the Prince's youth and inexperience, in order to perpetuate his own authority. How much this tranfaction increased the refentment of the people, is well known; and the confequences of it may be a useful leffon to Princes; it may teach them not to facrifice the confidence of the public, to a weak partiality for their favourites. We We have been the more particular in our account of this part of the Burgermafter's work, because we are perfuaded that it contains an impartial view of facts, which have been often and variously reprefented by party zeal and national prejudice. The remainder of the firft volume contains an account of the origin of that hatred toward our author, which was afterward difplayed by Burgermafter Hooft, and the Penfionary Van Berckel. It appears that, when the Stadtholder had laid before the States the papers found on Mr. Laurens, the Penfionary was feized with fuch a panic, that he declared to the Burgermasters that he dared not venture to go to the Hague, left the Prince should imprifon him, unless they would firft fend the other Penfionary to know the intentions of his Highnefs, and to obtain an af furance that nothing of the kind fhould be attempted against him. With this ridiculous meffage, M. Viffcher went to the Prince, who immediately gave him the ftrongeft affurances that his colleague had nothing to apprehend. Notwithstanding this, Van Berckel perfifted in his refufal to truft himself at the Hague, and pretended that his wife was fo terrified, that she would not fuffer him to go. The Burgermafters, though they despised him for his pufillanimity, indulged him in his wifhes; and the rather, as, by the roughness of his manners, he had fo difgufted the Prince and the Grand Penfionary, that they had declared that they neither could, nor would, tranfact any bufinefs with him:-but, fome months after this, the Penfionary finding that the affair of the American treaty was no longer mentioned, recovered his courage, and refolved to go to the Hague, in order to make a report of fome bufinefs in the Affembly of the States of Holland. The Burgermafters, hearing of his intention, ordered him to deliver his report in writing, and forbad his perfonally appearing in the affembly:-but, in the year 1782, the anti-Orange party, infligated by the French Ambaffador, were defirous of having Van Berckel at the Hague; and Burgermafter Hooft propofed that the prohibition fhould be annulled: not being able to obtain this measure, he declared, with great warmth, that he would not go on the deputation to the States, unless the Penfionary might be permitted to attend him. few weeks afterward, fome of the Penfionary's friends in the council represented to the Burgermafters, that their refufing to fuffer Van Berckel to accompany their deputies to the Hague, had occafioned great difcontents among the people, the confequences of which might be dangerous; and they therefore propofed that the prohibition fhould be withdrawn, on his making a written apology for fome expreffions which had given offence to the magiftrates. This apology he could not be perfuaded to make; and, inftead of it, gave a verbal declaration of his 13 readiness readiness to execute all the commiffions with which the Burgermafters might entrust him; on which the Prefident told him that he fhould be allowed to accompany the deputies. Our author, forefeeing that his oppofition to this meafure would be of no avail, chofe not to countenance it by his prefence. The fecond volume commences with an account of the overtures for a feparate peace made to the author by the Marquis de Cordon, through M. Triquetti the Sardinian agent, in May 1781. Similar propofals were afterward offered by Paul Wentworth, Efq. who went over to Holland for this purpose. After Mr. Wentworth's return, feveral letters paffed between M. RENDORP and this gentleman; who, in his laft, feemed to complain that his negociations had been revealed to Sir Jofeph Yorke, and that the difpofition of the ambaffador toward him was not the most friendly. Sir Jofeph then interefted himself in the bufinefs, and Mr. Wentworth was again fent over in the beginning of 1782: but the negociations were interrupted by the change of the miniftry. Mr. Fox was inclined to conclude a peace with Holland: but, before his intentions could be known. the French Ambaffador, by an infolence of conduct, his authority for which was denied by his own court, and by his influence with many of the members of the government, had contrived to precipitate the republic into an engagement to form a plan of operations in concert with the French court for carrying on the war; and to acknowlege Mr. Adams in the public character of Ambassador from the United States of America. Thus ended all hopes of a feparate peace; which the Dutch might then have obtained on much more favourable terms, than were afterward fecured for them by the perfidious court of France. What happened after this, fays the author, fhews how exceedingly imprudent it is for the republic to involve itfelf in circumstances, which oblige it to adopt whatever meafures a more powerful ally may think fit to prefcribe. • I will not affirm, (adds he,) that any other court would not have treated us in the fame manner. All courts think and ac alike; provided they can gain their end, they are very indifferent concerning the means. To involve an ally in a ruinous war, to contribute as little as poffible to its affiitance, and to facrifice its intereft, whenever by fo daing they can promote their own, are the maxims by which all princes have, in all times, regulated their conduct.' It appears, from the Burgermafter's account, that the conduct of the French miniftry was the most treacherous that could be imagined; and that the proposal, of combining their naval force with that of the Dutch, was only intended to prevent the latter from making peace with England; they never propofed any definite plan of operations to the the republic, in which it could join; and they refused to convoy the Dutch East India fhips even from Cadiz to Breft. When preffed to do this, the French Ambaffador pretended that nothing more was meant by the plan of combining their naval operations, than that the parties fhould inform each other of what was to be done by their refpective fleets. This minifter afterward infifted that a fquadron of ten fhips fhould be fent to Breft, at a time when he knew that it could not be done without expofing the republic to the greatest danger; and he made their non-compliance a pretence to justify his court in violating the promife of not concluding a peace, without procuring the moft favourable conditions for its ally. We shall not enter into the author's obfervations on this treatment, nor detain our readers with those on the peace, which was afterward concluded. The fourth article, by which Negapatnam was to be ceded to the English, and the fixth, by which the free navigation of the eastern feas was granted to British fubjects, excited great diffatisfaction, and are repre fented as hard. We cannot, however, confider these terms as inequitable on the part of England; as it could not be pretended that our ministry fhould give up Trinquemale, without what might be deemed fome equivalent, efpecially to an enemy who had no conquefts to return, and who, by rejecting the offers of a separate peace, had forfeited all title to advantageous conditions: with refpect to our free navigation in the eaftern feas, it was furely highly inconfiftent that the Dutch, who had always profelled themfelves advocates for the freedom of the feas in Europe, fhould wish to deftroy this freedom in the East Indies. The truth is, republican as well as monarchical politicians are regardlefs of equity, when their interefts are concerned. The Dutch were apprehensive that this conceffion might endanger their fpice trade; which every impartial perfon must confider as a moft unjust monopoly, obtained by the most infamous and cruel conduct toward the English, and fupported in a manner highly difgraceful to any nation that makes the leaft pretenfions to liberality of character. As an inftance of the inhuman fpirit, which their mean jealousy of this ufurped claim infpires, we may mention the behaviour of the Governor of Macaffar to Captain Carteret and his people, when driven thither by diftrefs *. We are by no means inclined to palliate thofe measures of the British miniftry, which we confider as difgraceful to our own country: but the fame impartiality obliges us to obferve, that the feififh monopolizing *See Hawkefworth's Account of Voyages to the Southern Hemifphere: alfo Monthly Review, vol. xlix. p. 366. policy of the Dutch in the Eaft Indies, and the mean manner in which they court the favour of the piratical ftates of Barbary, might warrant us in applying to the republic, as a political body, the reflection of M. RENDORP refpecting kings,provided they gain their ends, they are very indifferent about the means. Sow..n. ART. IX. Tabule Motuum Solis, &c. i. e. New and correct Solar HEARTILY difgufted with the odious fcenes of guilt and violence, which are obtruded on us in the ftudy of poli tical history, we turn with peculiar fatisfaction to those subjects which increase the treasures of knowlege, without exciting those painful feelings that are always awakened by viewing the depravity of mankind, whether exhibited in the favage fury of licentious demagogues, or in the more fpecious, but not lefs cruel and iniquitous, fchemes of ambitious princes and statesmen. Nor do we more deteft thofe who, to gratify their luft of power, plunge their own country and thofe around them into the horrors of war, than we love and refpect those who are friends to the juft rights of mankind, who cultivate the benignant arts of peace, and encourage the purfuits of science. In the latter of thefe views, as a liberal patron of the study of aftronomy, and no inconfiderable proficient in it*, we are here invited to confider the Duke of Saxe Gotha. We are informed. that he has caufed an obfervatory to be erected, under the direction of M. DE ZACH, on a hill called Seeberg, in the neighbourhood of his palace, conftructed in the most advantageous manner for aftronomical obfervations, and furnished with every neceffary apparatus made by the best artists in London. Of this building and its furniture, M. DE ZACH gives a very minute. defcription, illuftrated by a plate. The principal inftruments are, an achromatic tranfit telescope, by Ramfden, eight feet long; an aftronómical circle of eight, a zenith fector of twelve, and a quadrant of two, feet radius; an equatorial inftrument by Smeaton, of three, a catoptric telefcope by Herschel, of * We are told that feveral of the tables were calculated by the Doke. APP. REV. VOL. IX. Pp feven, |