The following is the reply of the Dutch to your challenge:—
“‘We are glad,’ say they, ‘that the proposal for a divorce has been made by you. Let it take place, and the cloud which has darkened the horizon of our country will be dissipated. A glorious sun will then soon shine upon it. Soon will the decadence of Amsterdam and its causes cease, and the separation will give it the life and activity which it lost by the union.
But let us examine what will be the result of this divorce to the northern provinces?
Relieved from an odious manufacturing system, we shall be able to establish our customs on a perfectly commercial system: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Dort, Middleburgh, will become so many free ports, into which moderate duties, exempt from vexatious modes of collection, will bring back our old commerce in all its force. The duties at present imposed upon sugar, coffee, and other articles of trade, will be revoked.
The inhabitants will purchase fuel, clothing, stuffs, and all the commodities which trade, manufacture, and the necessities of a people require, in England, and wherever they can produce them upon better terms than in the southern provinces, where all these articles will be loaded with duties and restrictions, and will be therefore dearer.
Our country will again become the centre and mart of all the productions and riches of the world which are destined for and consumed in Germany and the provinces of France bordering on the Rhine, as well as in many other places which now escape us.
The products of our colonies will be no longer carried except to our own ports, to the exclusion of all others, and they will be freed from all the duties and charges with which they are at present burdened, and which our Sovereign has established for the advantage of the Belgians alone. Thus not only the mother country, but the colonies, also, will enjoy the advantage of the separation. The duty of 25 per cent. established at Java in favour of the Belgians will be abolished, and it is thus that, wherever the standard of Holland shall be displayed, liberty, prosperity, and public happiness will prevail; and let no one present to you as a burdensome set-off the debt which will remain to our charge.’”
[31] White, v. i, p. 124, &c.
[32] A full detail of the state of the kingdom, at the outbreak of the revolution will be found in a volume published by the Baron Keverberg, who had been governor of East Flanders under the King of Holland, Du Royaume des Pays-Bas, sous la rapport de son origine, de son developement, et de sa crise actuelle, Brussels, 1836.
[33] Essai historique et critique sur la révolution Belge. Par M. Nothcomb. Brussels, 1833.