Hague, April the 9th. "We learn, that the States of the Province of Overyssell have sent to the Assembly of their High Mightinesses their instructions, relative to the two Memorials presented by Sir Joseph Yorke, the 28th of July, and the 26th of November, of the last year, the first purporting a demand of succors stipulated by the treaty of 1678, and the second demanding an immediate and categorical answer. The contents of the instructions are, 'That their Noble Mightinesses, after having maturely reflected upon all which concerns the matter in question, especially upon the treaties existing between the kingdom and the Republics, as well as the obligations, which the two nations had mutually laid themselves under, and also in particular, upon the present situation in which this republic now stands in several points respecting her own preservation, the maintenance of her rights and possessions, and respecting the powers actually at war, judge, that the two Memorials presented by Sir Joseph Yorke may and ought to be answered in the following manner. That all the principles alleged, and the circumstances at this time existing, oblige their High Mightinesses more than ever to watch carefully their own preservation and defence, to use every effort to ward off all further dangerous consequences, and to this end, to request his Majesty not to take it in ill part, if in the critical situation of affairs, in which the least diminution of their forces might be dangerous, their High Mightinesses think themselves lawfully authorised to refuse the succors demanded by his Majesty, although these succors, considering certain engagements, the pretended application of which it would be useless at this time to search into, may be judged indispensable by his Majesty, in the firm confidence, that, in the circumstances in which their High Mightinesses find themselves, his Majesty, not disapproving, of their conduct, will desist, not only from demanding their assistance, but on the contrary, as a proof of the affection of which his Majesty had so often given them assurances, will permit them invariably to pursue that neutrality, which from the beginning of the present troubles they have adopted.'
"It is asserted, that on the Memorial presented by the Prince Gallitzen, Envoy Extraordinary of the Empress of Russia, their High Mightinesses have provisionally concluded, 'That having taken the said Memorial into consideration, the deputies of the respective Provinces have sent copies of it, as well as of the papers annexed to it, to be communicated to their Assemblies, praying them to procure, as soon as possible, the resolutions of the States, their constituents.'
"In the meantime, since the said Memorial has been made public, it is given out, that the convention between the Courts of Petersburgh, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, will in a little time be confirmed, and that Denmark will procure, on certain conditions, five or six thousand seamen for this Republic.
"We learn that the answer of his Britannic Majesty to the representations which the Count de Walderen, Minister of the States-General at the Court of London, has been charged by their High Mightinesses to make to the British Government, relative to a prolongation of the term of three weeks, prescribed in the last Memorial of Sir Joseph Yorke, for giving him a definitive answer, &c. arrived the 31st of last month, and is found to be in the negative, the King insisting on an answer by the time fixed, which will expire next Tuesday.
"They give out, that the cities of Dantzic, Lubec, Bremen, Hamburgh, &c. will adopt, as well as most of the northern powers, the party of neutrality, and that, if England persists in the practice of visiting, stopping, and searching neutral vessels, Denmark is resolved to exclude English vessels from the Sound."
To judge of things the most impartially, no man can doubt, that proceedings so violent, and so contrary to the natural rights of nations, will make the neutral powers feel how much it imports them to set bounds to the intolerable excesses, to which their vessels, sailing under the faith of treaties, are daily exposed by the ships of one party in the present war.
I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN ADAMS.