"Your High Mightinesses having thought proper by your resolution of the 17th of this month, which came to us the 22d, to require us to present to your High Mightinesses, without influencing, however, in anything the deliberations of the confederates, a petition for the sum of two million six hundred and twenty thousand five hundred and ninetyeight florins, to assist towards the one half of the necessary expense for an extraordinary equipment of fiftytwo vessels of war and frigates, which are to be put in a condition of service by the first of May, as well as of other articles more fully particularised in the report contained in the resolution of your High Mightinesses, and in the estimate enclosed with it, which we flatter ourselves were made with all possible accuracy, while the funds necessary for the half of the equipment abovementioned, will be found in the produce of certain duties.
"We have been the more zealous not to delay giving satisfaction to the requisition of your High Mightinesses, as we consider the said plan, as tending to accomplish what has been for so many years represented and advised, as well by His Serene Highness as by us, in general petitions addressed successively to your High Mightinesses, as well as to the confederates, that is to say, to put the Republic in a more respectable state of defence, by augmenting her marine and troops, an object upon which it has been again insisted in the petition of the current year, which employed such reasons and such urgent motives to this purpose, that expressions now fail us for adding anything to what has been already said; and persuaded, moreover, as we are, that the circumstances and facts, such of them as have passed in a manner so remarkable, render useless and superfluous all further reasonings, in such sort, that all these details being already perfectly understood, as well by your High Mightinesses as by the confederates, we think we may depend upon this knowledge, in expectation of the definitive resolutions of your High Mightinesses, equally salutary and unanimous, and the effect of which will be to prevent and ward off the new misfortunes, which may threaten the Republic; assured, moreover, and persuaded, that the serious intention of the confederates is to accomplish the equipment proposed with all that depends upon it, and that to this end, their High Mightinesses will be pleased, not only to give their consent to the petition of two millions six hundred and twenty thousand five hundred and ninetyeight florins, formed by the present, but also, what is more important, to furnish as soon as possible their quota to the general treasury, by which means the colleges of the Admiralty, whose duty it is to attend to the equipments, may be possessed of the means necessary to this operation at convenient periods; which will be thought more indispensably necessary, on casting an eye on the reasons more amply alleged in the report of the colleges of the Admiralty, and expressed in the resolution of your High Mightinesses, the 17th of February, to which we refer."
MEMORIAL.
On the twentyfirst of March, 1780, Sir Joseph Yorke, the British Ambassador, presented a Memorial to their High Mightinesses, of the following tenor.
"High and Mighty Lords,
"The King, my Master, has always cultivated the friendship of your High Mightinesses, and has always considered the alliance, which has so long subsisted between the two nations, as founded upon the wisest principles, and as essential to their mutual prosperity. The principal objects of this alliance, which stands upon the immovable basis of a common interest, are the safety and prosperity of the two States, the maintenance of the public tranquillity, and the preservation of that just balance so often disturbed by the ambitious policy of the House of Bourbon. When the Court of Versailles, in direct violation of the public faith, and of the common rights of sovereigns, had broken the peace, by a league made with the rebel subjects of his Majesty, avowed and declared formally by the Marquis de Noailles; when, by immense preparations, France manifested her designs of annihilating the maritime power of England, the King expected that your High Mightinesses, too enlightened not to see, that the safety of the Republic is closely connected with that of Great Britain, would have been zealous to come to his assistance. One of the first cares of his Majesty was, to inform your High Mightinesses of all the circumstances of this unjust war; and in the critical situation in which the King found himself he did not forget the interests of his ancient allies; but, on the contrary, has shown the most sincere desire to favor the commerce and the free navigation of the Republic, as much as the safety of his people could permit. He even desisted a long time from demanding the succors stipulated by the treaties, fulfilling thus his own engagements, without insisting on the accomplishment of those of your High Mightinesses. The demand was never made, until after the united forces of France and Spain showed themselves ready to fall upon England, and there attempt a descent by the assistance of a formidable fleet. Although frustrated in this enterprise, the enemies of the King meditate still the same project; and it is by the express order of his Majesty, that the undersigned renews, at this time, in a manner the most formal, the demand of the succors stipulated by different treaties, and particularly by that of the year 1716.
"Hitherto your High Mightinesses have been silent upon an article so essential; at the same time, you have insisted on a forced construction of the treaty of commerce of the year 1674, against the abuse of which Great Britain has protested at all times. This interpretation cannot be reconciled to the clear and precise stipulations of the secret article of the treaty of peace of the same year. An article of a treaty of commerce cannot annul an article so essential of a treaty of peace, and both are expressly comprehended in the principal treaty of alliance of 1678, by which your High Mightinesses are obliged to furnish to his Majesty the succors, which he now demands. You are too just and too wise not to feel, that all the engagements between powers ought to be mutually and reciprocally observed, and although contracted in different periods, they oblige equally the contracting parties. This incontestible principle applies itself here with so much the more force, as the treaty of 1716 renews all the anterior engagements between the Crown of England and the Republic, and incorporates them, as it were, together.
"Moreover, the subscriber had orders to declare to your High Mightinesses, that he was ready to enter into conferences with you, to regulate in an amicable manner all which might be necessary to avoid misunderstandings, and prevent every disagreeable occurrence, by concerting measures equitable and advantageous for the respective subjects.
"This friendly offer was refused, in a manner as unexpected as it was extraordinary and unusual among friendly powers; and without taking notice of repeated representations, both public and secret, upon the subject of convoys, your High Mightinesses have not only granted convoys for different kinds of naval stores, but you have moreover expressly resolved, that a certain number of vessels of war should be held ready to convoy in the sequel naval stores of every species, destined for the ports of France; and this at a time when the subjects of the Republic enjoyed by the force of treaties, a freedom and an extent of commerce and of navigation far beyond that, which the law of nations allows to neutral powers. This resolution, and the orders given to Admiral Byland, to oppose himself by force to the visits of merchant ships, have given place to the incident, which the friendship of the King would have greatly desired to have prevented; but it is notorious, that this Admiral, in consequence of his instructions, first fired upon the sloops bearing the English flag, which were sent to make the visit in the manner prescribed by the treaty of 1674. It was then a manifest aggression, a direct violation of the same treaty, which your High Mightinesses seem to look upon as the most sacred of all. His Majesty has made beforehand repeated representations of the necessity and justice of this visit, practised in all similar circumstances, and fully authorised by this treaty. They were informed in London, that there were in the Texel a great number of vessels loaded with naval stores, and particularly with masts and large ship timber, ready to set sail for France immediately after, or under, a Dutch convoy. The event has but too fully proved the truth of these informations, since some of these vessels have been found even under this convoy. The greatest number have escaped, and have carried to France the most efficacious succors, of which she stood in the greatest necessity.
"At the same time your High Mightinesses thus aided the enemy of the King, by favoring the transportation of these succors, you imposed a heavy penalty upon the subjects of the Republic, to restrain them from carrying victuals to Gibraltar, although this place was comprehended in the general warranty of all the British possessions in Europe, and although at that time Spain had vexed the commerce of the Republic, in a manner the most outrageous and unexampled.
"It is not only on these occasions, that the conduct of your High Mightinesses towards the King, and towards the enemy of his Majesty, forms a most striking contrast in the eyes of all the impartial world. No one is ignorant of that, which passed in the too well known affair of Paul Jones. The asylum granted to this pirate was directly contrary to the treaty of Breda, of 1667, and even to the proclamation of your High Mightinesses of 1776. Further, although your High Mightinesses have kept, and still keep a silence the most absolute, with regard to the just demands of his Majesty, you have been forward, at the simple request of the King's enemies, to assure them of an absolute and unconditional neutrality, without any exception of the ancient engagements of the Republic, founded upon the most solemn treaties. Nevertheless the King would still persuade himself, that all which has passed ought to be attributed less to the disposition of your High Mightinesses, than to artifices of his enemies, who, after having excited discord among the members of the State, seek alternately by menaces and by promises to animate them against their natural ally. His Majesty cannot believe, that your High Mightinesses have taken the resolution to abandon a system, which the Republic has pursued for more than a century, with so much success and so much glory.
"But if such was the resolution of your High Mightinesses, if you were determined to forsake the alliance with Great Britain, in refusing to fulfil the engagements of it, there would arise from this resolution a new order of things. The King would perceive such an alteration with a sensible regret; but the consequences, which would follow from it, would be necessary and unavoidable. If by an act of your High Mightinesses, the Republic should cease to be the ally of Great Britain, the relations between the two nations will be totally changed, and they will no longer have any other ties or relation than those, which subsist between nations neutral and friendly. Every treaty being reciprocal, if your High Mightinesses will not fulfil your engagements, the consequence will be, that those of his Majesty will cease to be obligatory. It is in pursuance of these incontestible principles, that his Majesty has ordered the subscriber to declare to your High Mightinesses, in a manner the most friendly, but at the same time the most serious, that, if contrary to his just expectations, your High Mightinesses do not give him, within the term of three weeks, to be computed from the day of presentation of this memorial, a satisfactory answer, touching the succors demanded eight months ago, his Majesty, considering this conduct as a departure from the alliance on the part of your High Mightinesses, will no longer consider the United Provinces in any other light than that of other neutral powers not privileged by treaties, and consequently will, without further delay, suspend conditionally, and until further orders, in regard to their subjects, all the particular stipulations of the treaties between the two nations, particularly those of the treaty of 1674, and will hold himself simply bound by the general principles of the law of nations, which ought to serve as rules between powers neutral and not privileged.
JOSEPH YORKE."
On the 24th of March, the States-General made the following answer to Sir Joseph Yorke.
"That their High Mightinesses had resolved to represent to his Britannic Majesty by the Count de Welderen, their Envoy Extraordinary, that having seen by the memorial of the Ambassador, dated the 21st of March, that his Majesty fixed a term of three weeks to have a satisfactory answer touching the succors demanded, their High Mightinesses wished to satisfy, as soon as possible, the desires of his Britannic Majesty, by giving him a positive answer; but they foresaw, that the form of government inherent in the constitution of the Republic would not permit them to complete their answer in the time specified, as the memorial of the Ambassador, having become an object of the deliberations of the representative Provinces, it was necessary to wait the resolution of the several States, the Assemblies of which were now sitting, or about to sit; that their High Mightinesses assured themselves, that his Majesty, considering these reasons, would not persist rigorously in the time fixed, to the end, that their High Mightinesses might have that of forming in a manner conformable to the constitution of the Republic (in which their High Mightinesses had not a right to make any alteration) an answer to the memorial of the Ambassador, their High Mightinesses promising to neglect nothing for accelerating, as much as possible, the deliberations upon the subject, and they pray the Ambassador to support these representations, with his good offices, with the King, his master."
Sir Joseph Yorke, after reading this answer, replied, that whatever might be his desire to satisfy the inclinations of their High Mightinesses, the orders of the King, his master, would not permit him upon this occasion; that, however, he doubted not, that they would be equally satisfied by the representations with which their High Mightinesses had charged the Count de Welderen at the Court of London.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, &c.