"While affairs were thus in a situation, which left to their High Mightinesses no other alternative, but to see the navigation and the commerce of their subjects, upon which depend the prosperity or the ruin of the Republic, wholly annihilated, or to come to violent measures against their ancient friend and ally, the magnanimous heart of her Majesty, the Empress of Russia, engaged her to invite the Republic with equal affection and humanity, to take measures the most just, and entirely conformable to the treaties which subsist between them and the other powers, to the end to defend and to maintain, conjointly with her Imperial Majesty and the other powers of the north, the privileges and the immunities, which the law of nations and the most solemn treaties assure to the neutral flag. This invitation could not but be infinitely agreeable to their High Mightinesses, considering that it offered them a means of establishing the protection of the commerce of their subjects upon the most solid foundation, and opened a way to place their independence in safety from all infraction, without derogating in the least from the alliances contracted, both with his Britannic Majesty and with the other belligerent powers.
"But it is this same means, which the Court of London has endeavored to take away from the Republic, by proceeding with precipitation to extremities the most outrageous, by the recall of her Ambassador, by the publication of a Manifesto containing pretended grievances, and by granting letters of marque and of pretended reprisals against the State, its subjects, and their goods; by which, this Court has but too plainly discovered her designs long since formed, of laying aside the essential interests which united the two nations, and of breaking the ties of ancient friendship, by attacking this State by a war the most unjust.
"It will not be necessary to refute at length the reasons and pretended griefs alleged in the Manifesto, to convince every impartial man of their insolidity. It is sufficient to observe, in a few words, relative to the offer made by his Britannic Majesty, to open friendly conferences, that it was the abovementioned Treaty of Marine, which alone could make the object of those conferences; that the dispositions of this treaty, conceived in the most expressive terms, could not be liable to any doubt nor equivocation, that this treaty gives neutral powers the right of transporting freely in the ports of the belligerent powers all sorts of naval stores; that the Republic proposing to itself no other end, and desiring of his Britannic Majesty no other thing, than the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the rights stipulated by this treaty, a point so evidently clear, and so incontestably just could not become the object of a negotiation, or of a new convention derogatory to this treaty, so that their High Mightinesses could not persuade themselves nor show themselves disposed to renounce, voluntarily, rights justly acquired, and to desist from these rights from regard to the Court of England; a renunciation, which, being advantageous to one of the belligerent powers, would have been little compatible with the principles of the neutrality, and by which their High Mightinesses would have exposed, on the other hand, the safety of the State to dangers, which they were obliged carefully to avoid; a renunciation, moreover, which would have caused to commerce and navigation, the principal support of the Republic, and source of her prosperity, an irreparable prejudice; since the different branches of commerce, strictly connected with each other, form a whole, whereof it is impossible to cut off so principal a part, without necessarily causing the destruction and ruin of the whole body; not to mention, that at the same time that their High Mightinesses made, with reason, a difficulty to accept the proposed conferences, they have not a little modified and tempered the actual exercise of their right by a provisional resolution.
"And as to what relates to the succors demanded, their High Mightinesses cannot dissemble, that they have never been able to conceive how his Britannic Majesty has thought, that he could insist, with the least appearance of justice or of equity, upon the succors stipulated by the treaties, at a time when he had already beforehand withdrawn himself from the obligation, which those treaties imposed upon him towards the Republic. Their High Mightinesses have not been less surprised to see, that while the troubles in America, and their direct consequences could not concern the Republic in virtue of any treaty, and that the succor had not been demanded, until after the Crown of Spain had augmented the number of belligerent powers, his Britannic Majesty has, nevertheless, taken the occasion of this event to insist upon his demand with so much earnestness, and such an ardor, as if his Majesty thought himself to have a right to pretend and to maintain, that a war, once enkindled between him and any other power, was alone sufficient to oblige the State to grant forthwith, and without any anterior examination, the succors stipulated.
"The Republic, it is true, had obliged itself by the treaties to assist Great Britain at all times, when this kingdom should find itself attacked, or threatened with an unjust war; and what is more, the Republic ought in this case, according to the same treaties, to declare war against the aggressor; but their High Mightinesses never pretended to abdicate the right, which flows necessarily from the nature of every offensive alliance, and which cannot be contested to allied powers, to examine in the first place, and before the granting of succors, or taking part in the war, the principle of the dissensions which have arisen, and the nature of the difference, which has given occasion to it, as well as also to examine and weigh thoroughly the reasons and the motives, which may establish the casus fœderis, and which ought to serve as a basis of the justice and the lawfulness of the war, on the part of that one of the confederated powers, who demands the succor. And there exists no treaty, by which their High Mightinesses have renounced the independence of the State, and sacrificed their interests to those of Great Britain, to such a degree, as to deprive themselves of the right of examination, so necessary and so indispensable, by engaging themselves to measures, by which they may be considered as obliged in duty to submit to the good pleasure of the Court of England, by granting the succors demanded, even where this Court, engaged in a quarrel with another power, judges proper to prefer the way of arms to that of a reasonable satisfaction upon just complaints.
"It was not then by a spirit of party, or by the device of a predominant cabal, but after a mature deliberation, and in a sincere desire to maintain the most precious interests of the Republic, that the States of the respective Provinces have all unanimously testified, that they were of opinion, that the succor demanded ought to be refused in a manner the most polite; and their High Mightinesses would not have failed to have transmitted to his Britannic Majesty conformable to these resolutions, an answer to the repeated demands of succors, if they had not been prevented by the violent and unheard of attack of the flag of the State under the command of Rear Admiral Byland, by the refusal to give satisfaction upon a point so grave, and by the declaration not less strange than unjust, which his Majesty thought fit to make relative to the suspension of the treaties, which subsisted between him and the Republic. Also many events, which by requiring deliberations of quite another nature, put an end to those, which had taken place on the subject of the said requisition.
"It is in vain, and contrary to all truth, that they have endeavored to multiply the number of grievances, by alleging the suppression of the duties of exportation as a measure tending to facilitate the transportation of naval stores to France; for besides, that this suppression forms an object, which regards the interior direction of commerce, to which all the sovereigns have an incontestible right, and whereof they are not obliged to give an account to any body, this point has, it is true, been taken into consideration, but has never been concluded; so that these rights are still received upon the ancient footing; and that which is advanced in this regard in the manifesto, is found destitute of all foundation, although we cannot refrain from saying, that the conduct of his Britannic Majesty towards the Republic, furnished but too many motives to justify a similar measure on the part of their High Mightinesses.
"The discontent of his Britannic Majesty, on the subject of what passed with the American, Paul Jones, is also quite as ill grounded. Already for several years, their High Mightinesses had resolved, and published everywhere, precise orders concerning the admission of privateers and armed vessels of foreign nations with their prizes, in the ports of their domination, orders, which to that time had been observed and executed without the least exception. In the case in question, their High Mightinesses could not depart from those orders, in regard to an armed vessel, who, furnished with a commission of the American Congress, was found in the Road of the Texel, combined with frigates of war of a sovereign power, without erecting themselves into judges, and pronouncing a decision upon matters, in which their High Mightinesses were in nowise obliged to take any part, and in which it did not appear to them convenient to the interests of the Republic to meddle in any manner. Their High Mightinesses then thought fit not to depart from the orders given so long ago, but they resolved to give the most express prohibition to hinder the said armed vessel from providing herself with warlike stores, and enjoined upon her to quit the Road as soon as possible, without remaining there longer than the time absolutely necessary to repair the damages suffered at sea, with the formal denunciation, that in case of a longer delay we should be obliged to compel his departure, to which end the officer of the State, commanding at the said Road, took care to make the requisite dispositions, whereof this armed vessel had scarcely the time to prevent the effects.
"In regard to what has passed in the other parts of the world, the informations which their High Mightinesses have received from time to time from the East Indies, are directly opposite to those, which appear to have come under the eyes of his Britannic Majesty. The repeated complaints, which the directors of the East India Company have addressed to their High Mightinesses, and which the love of peace has made them stifle in their bosoms, are incontestible proofs of it. And the measures taken with regard to the West Indies, enumerated heretofore, ought to serve in all times as an irrefragable proof of the sincerity, the zeal, and the attention with which their High Mightinesses have taken it to heart, to maintain in those countries the most exact and the most strict neutrality; and their High Mightinesses have never been able to discover the smallest legal proof of any infraction of their orders in this respect.
"As to what concerns the project of an eventual treaty with North America, conceived by a member of the government of the Province of Holland, without any public authority, and the memorials presented upon this subject by Sir Joseph Yorke, the affair happened in the following manner. As soon as the Ambassador had presented the memorial of the 10th of November of the last year, their High Mightinesses, without stopping at expressions little suitable among sovereigns, with which this memorial was filled, did not delay to commence a deliberation the most serious upon this subject, and it was by their resolution of the 27th of the same month, that they did not hesitate to disavow and to disapprove publicly all which had been done in this respect; after which, they had all reason to expect that his Britannic Majesty would have acquiesced in this declaration, since he could not be ignorant that their High Mightinesses exercise no jurisdiction in the respective Provinces, and that it was to the States of the Province of Holland to whom, as clothed like the States of the other Provinces, with a sovereign and exclusive authority over their subjects, ought to be remitted an affair relatively to which their High Mightinesses had no reason to doubt, that the States of the said Province would act according to the exigence of the case, and conformably to the laws of the State and the rules of equity.