Sir,
At length, notwithstanding the mediation of the Empress of Russia, the States-General have published the following Manifesto. It is entitled, the Counter Manifesto of the States-General of the United Provinces of the Low Countries.
COUNTER MANIFESTO.
"If ever the annals of the world have furnished an example of a free and independent State, hostilely attacked in the manner the most unjust, and without the least appearance of justice or equity, by a neighboring power, long in alliance, and strictly connected by ties founded upon common interests, it is, without contradiction, the Republic of the United Provinces of the Low Countries, which finds itself in this case, in relation to his Majesty, the King of Great Britain, and his Ministry.
"From the commencement of the troubles arisen between that Kingdom and its Colonies in America, their High Mightinesses, by no means obliged to take the smallest part in them, had formed the firm and invariable design to adopt and to follow in relation to these troubles, the system of the most perfect and the most exact neutrality; and when the same troubles had afterwards enkindled a war, which extended itself to more than one power, and spread itself to more than one part of the world, their High Mightinesses have constantly observed and maintained the same system, while at the same time they have not neglected to give, on more than one occasion, and relative to the most essential objects, the most convincing proofs of their sincere disposition to satisfy the desires of his Majesty, as far as they could advance, without wounding the rules of impartiality, and without compromising the rights of their sovereignty. It was in these views and to this end, that their High Mightinesses at first, and at the first requisition of his Britannic Majesty, published prohibitions the most express against the exportation of military stores to the Colonies of his Majesty in America, and against all fraudulent commerce with the same Colonies; and to the end, that those prohibitions should be executed the more effectually, their High Mightinesses did not hesitate, moreover, to take measures which did not fail to restrain and confine very greatly, the navigation and the commerce of their own subjects with the Colonies of the State in the West Indies.
"It was, moreover, in the same views, and to the same end, that their High Mightinesses sent orders the most precise to all the Governors and Commanders of their Colonies and of their establishments, as well as to all the officers, commanders of their vessels of wars, to take special care to do nothing towards the flag of the American Congress, from whence they might lawfully infer or deduce an acknowledgment of the independence of the said Colonies. And it was above all in these views and to this end, that their High Mightinesses having received a memorial, which was presented to them by the Ambassador of England, containing complaints the most spirited against the Governor of St Eustatia, condescended to deliberate concerning this memorial, although conceived in terms little accommodated to those respects, which sovereign powers reciprocally owe to each other.
"This deliberation was soon followed by the recall of the said Governor, whom their High Mightinesses ordered to render an account of his conduct, and whom they did not permit to return to his residence until after he had exculpated himself of all the accusations brought against him by a justification of himself in detail, a copy of which was transmitted without delay to the Ministry of his Britannic Majesty. It was by means of these measures, that their High Mightinesses, having always had it at heart to avoid giving the smallest cause of dissatisfaction to his Britannic Majesty, have constantly endeavored to entertain and to cultivate his friendship and good understanding. But the conduct of his Britannic Majesty towards the Republic has been diametrically opposite.
"The troubles between the Courts of London and Versailles had scarcely broken out, when we saw the ports of England filled with Dutch ships unjustly taken and detained. These vessels navigated under the faith of treaties, and were not loaded with other merchandises than with those which the express tenor of treaties declared free and lawful. We saw those free cargoes forced to submit to the law of an arbitrary and despotic authority. The Cabinet of St James knowing no other rules than a pretended right of temporary conveniency, thought proper to appropriate those cargoes to the Crown by a forced purchase, and to employ them to the profit of the royal navy. The representations the most energetic, and the most serious on the part of their High Mightinesses against such proceedings were to no purpose, and it was in vain that we demanded in the strongest manner the treaty of commerce, which subsisted between England and the Republic; by this treaty the rights and liberties of the neutral flag were clearly defined and stated. The subjects of Great Britain have enjoyed the full advantage of this treaty in the first and the only case, in which it pleased the Court of London to remain neuter, while the Republic was at war; at present in the reciprocal case, this Court cannot without the greatest injustice refuse the enjoyment of the same advantages to the Republic; and as little as his Britannic Majesty had a right to take away the advantageous effects of this treaty from their High Mightinesses, as little foundation had he to pretend to turn them from a neutrality, which they had embraced, and to force them to plunge themselves into a war, the causes of which had an immediate relation to rights and to possessions of his Britannic Majesty, originating without the limits of defensive treaties.
"And, nevertheless, it was this treaty, which his Majesty, from the commencement of the troubles with the Crown of France, made no scruple to infringe and violate. The contraventions and infractions of this treaty on the part of Great Britain, and the arbitrary decisions of the courts of justice of that kingdom, directly contrary to the express sanction of this same treaty, multiplied from day to day; the merchant vessels of the Republic became the innocent victims of exactions and accumulated violences of the English men-of-war and privateers. Not content with this, even the flag of the State was not spared, but openly insulted and outraged by the hostile attack of the convoy under the command of the Rear Admiral, the Count de Byland. The strongest representations on the part of the State to his Britannic Majesty were useless. The vessels taken from this convoy were declared lawful prizes; and this insult committed to the flag of the Republic was soon followed by the open violation of its neutral territory, both in Europe and in America. We shall content ourselves to cite two examples of it. At the Island of St Martins, the vessels of his Britannic Majesty attacked and took by force several vessels, which were in the Road, under the cannon of the fortress, where, according to the inviolable law of nations, these vessels ought to have found a safe asylum. The insolences committed by an English armed vessel upon the coast of the Republic, near the Island of Goedereede, furnish a second example of these violences; these insolences were pushed to such a degree, that several inhabitants of the Island, who were upon the shore, where they ought to have thought themselves sheltered from all insult, were exposed by the fire of this vessel to the most imminent danger, which they could not avoid but by retiring into the interior part of the Island. Unheard of proceedings, for which the Republic, notwithstanding the strongest and best founded representations, has not been able to obtain the smallest satisfaction.