XXIII. 1787. discussion, much less of contest, now remaining BOOK between the two courts, he was authorised to ask, whether it was the intention of his Most Christian majesty to carry into effect the notification made by his Most Christian majesty's plenipotentiary? which, by announcing that succours would be given to Holland, had occasioned the naval armaments on the part of his Britannic majesty, which armaments have been reciprocal. If the court of Versailles is disposed to explain herself satisfactorily on this subject, the ambassador proposes, that all warlike preparations should be discontinued, and that the navies of the two nations should be again placed on the footing of the peace establishment, as it stood on the 1st of January of the present year." To this memorial the count de Montmo- Unexpect rin, the new minister for foreign affairs in France, cence of replied on the very same day, in a style of exemplary forbearance and moderation," that the intention of his majesty not being, and never having been, to interfere by force in the affairs of Holland, the communication made to the court of London, on the 16th of last month, having had no other object than to announce to that court an intention, the motives of which no longer exist, especially since the king of Prussia has imparted his resolution; his majesty makes no scruple to declare, that he will not give any effect to the declaration above-mentioned; and agrees with pleasure to the VOL. VIII. ed acquies France. BOOK proposal of mutually disarming, made on the part of his Britannic majesty." XXIII. 1787. Session of Thus happily and honorably for England did this important business terminate. Foreign powers were astonished to see that country, which had a few years since been apparently reduced to the verge of ruin under an administration pre-eminently odious and contemptible, reassuming her rank among the nations of Europe, and attaining to a visible superiority over that haughty and ambitious rival, whose recent success was now seen to be dearly purchased by her consequent alarming and inextricable embarrassments. The parliament of Great Britain assembled on parliament. the 27th of November 1787. The king remarked, "that at the close of the last session he had informed them of the concern with which he observed the disputes unhappily subsisting in the republic of the United Provinces. Their situation soon afterwards became more critical and alarming. The king of Prussia having demanded satisfaction for the insult offered to the princess of Orange his sister, the party which had USURPED the government applied to the Most Christian king for assistance; and that prince having notified to his majesty his intention of granting their request, the king did not hesitate to declare that he could not remain a quiet spectator, and gave immediate orders for augmenting his forces both by sea and XXIII. 1787. land; and in the course of this transaction he had BOOK concluded a subsidiary treaty with the landgrave of Hesse Cassel. In the mean time the rapid success of the duke of Brunswic enabled the provinces to deliver themselves from the OPPRESSION under which they labored; and all the subjects of contest being thus removed, an amicable explanation had taken place between the courts of London and Versailles." This was the language rather of a zealous partisan of the house of Orange than of a great monarch, who, by a dignified and seasonable interposition, had rescued a country from ruin. It is inconceivable how the existing government of Holland could with any color of justice be stigmatized as an usurpation; for by the constitution of that country the prince of Orange, as stadtholder, was not a sovereign, but a subject possessing no share of the legislative power; and though by the formula of 1747 the office was declared hereditary, it was not therefore irrevocable any more than the hereditary offices of earl-martial or great-chamberlain under the English constitution: and the oppressions alluded to in the speech were plainly nothing else than the usual severities inflicted upon those who presumed to resist the mandates of the supreme government But in the recent measures adopted by the English court there were, notwithstanding this flagrant impropriety of language, so XXIII. 1787. BOOK much energy, and at the same time so much prac. tical wisdom, that lesser objections were ab sorbed and lost in the general merit of the transaction. To the grand proposition-" that it is contrary to the rights of nations, and a violation of the fundamental principles of political justice, for one nation forcibly to interfere in the internal concerns of another"-it must suffice to reply, that however incontrovertible this maxim may be deemed as a general truth, an interference attended with consequences thus eminently beneficial to both parties-Holland being undoubtedly preserv ed by this coercive interposition from a civil warmust be allowed, like other necessary exceptions from general rules, to deserve not pardon merely, but praise. The addresses in answer to the speech were voted with great unanimity in both houses; and the minister received from the leaders of opposition, no less than his own partisans, the most liberal commendations for his spirited and judicious conduct. The subsidy to Hesse, by which twelve thousand men were at a vast expence retained for a term of years in the service of Britain, passed without a dissentient vote; and in a short time treaties of amity and alliance were concluded between the courts of London, Berlin, and the Hague, Holland. by which the two former guaranteed the stadtholderate in perpetuity to the serene house of Orange, Alliance XXIII. 1788. as an essential part of the constitution of the BOOK United Provinces. By the treaty between the kings of Great Britain and Prussia, each of the high contracting powers engages, in case of attack, to furnish the other with a succour of sixteen thousand infantry and four thousand cavalry, or an equivalent in money, within the term of two months from the date of the requisition. Thus was Britain once again fatally intangled in the intricate and inextricable toils of continental engage ments. The army establishment, which had been reduced from seventy to sixty-four regiments at the termination of the war, was now, at the motion of the minister, raised to the customary complement, notwithstanding the vigorous opposition of Mr. Fox, under whose administration the reduction had taken place, and who justly boasted that he was the first minister since the Revolution who had been accused of establishing too small a standing army in time of peace, naval pro A very great naval promotion had also taken Unpopular place, in the contemplation of a war with France; motion. in which it was remarkable that sixteen captains had been selected for flags, while a much greater number of officers, several of whom were men of the most distinguished gallantry and merit, had been unaccountably passed over in silence and neglect. In consequence of this injurious partiality |