"The subscriber, Minister Extraordinary of their High Mightinesses, the States-General of the United Provinces, to his Majesty, the King of Sweden, by express orders received from his masters, has the honor to propose to his Majesty,

"That their High Mightinesses, by their resolution of the 20th of November, having acceded to the confederation of the armed neutrality, according to the invitation given by the powers of the North, placing the most perfect confidence in the power, the magnanimity, and the fidelity of their Imperial and Royal Majesties, for fulfilling their engagements, and maintaining their dignity, by completing a work so gloriously undertaken, to wit, the liberty of the seas for neutral nations, did not suffer themselves to be diverted by the consideration of the consequences, which this accession and this declaration might draw upon the Republic from the part of the belligerent powers; but their High Mightinesses declared themselves for this accession and this declaration, relying, without reserve, upon the sentiments of their Imperial and Royal Majesties, which they manifested in the season, by the steps taken in this respect.

"That the event has entirely justified the instances of their High Mightinesses in regard to the British Court, since its Minister, after several vain attempts tending to impede the accession to the alliance in question, resolved, from the time when he had the first intimation of it, to speak a language altogether unheard of, and such as is scarcely agreeable to those respects, which sovereigns respectively owe each other, without allowing to the Republic the time necessary to take the affair into deliberation, conformably to a political system, which his Britannic Majesty fully understands; the Minister, nevertheless, insisting on a prompt and immediate satisfaction, and the punishment of a pretended offence, occasioned by the discovery of a negotiation with North America, without being satisfied by the provisional answer, or by the formal disavowal of their High Mightinesses touching the said negotiation, in which, as his Britannic Majesty has acknowledged, they had in nowise participated, nor had any knowledge of it; a negotiation relative to a pretended treaty, which, at the first glance of the eye, indicates sufficiently by its proper terms, to be nothing more than a project of an eventual treaty made by certain individuals, without being formally authorised thereto by the magistrates of Amsterdam, as a body, nor by the States of the Provinces of Holland, and still less by the States-General, who alone are authorised to contract engagements in the name of the Republic. The Minister in question refused even to accept the resolution, which enjoined on the Court of Holland, (the Province, which alone this affair concerns,) to deliberate, whether the laws of the country could authorise to pursue in justice the persons accused, and to punish them? A formality, without which no punishment can be inflicted, either in England, in this Republic, or in any other country. This Minister added menaces, that his Sovereign would procure for himself the satisfaction demanded; he was, at the same time, determined to attack the Republic by surprise, and to precipitate so violently the measures taken to commence hostilities, that my Lord Stormont, making use of vain pretences, would not even accept, on the part of the Count de Welderen, the said declaration, and answered him in writing, that he could not consider him any longer as the Minister of a friendly power, after having announced to him officially the manifesto of the King; while the same manifesto, which is remarkable, was sent to the Count do Welderen one hour before the time fixed the evening before by Lord Stormont, after repeated requests to have a conversation with him.

"Besides, although in the manifesto in question, they make no mention of the accession of the Republic to the armed confederacy, (which it was necessary most carefully to pass over in silence,) it appears, however, distinctly to the penetrating eye of your Majesty, as well as to that of all Europe, if they will compare together the whole progress of this action, the time and the manner, in which the Manifesto was published, that the hatred occasioned by the accession of the Republic to the armed neutrality, is the true motive of the resentment of his Britannic Majesty, and has prompted him to a manifest aggression against the Republic, by capturing immediately a great number of merchant vessels belonging to her subjects, as well as some vessels of war. Besides, that this same Manifesto, known to your Majesty, discovers sufficiently the original of this hatred; considering, that among the pretended causes of offence serving to justify the hostile measures against the Republic, they there allege, that she has declared herself neuter. The Cabinet of St James, disdaining to observe, that this answer ought to offend the Powers of the North, to whom the treaties subsisting between England and the Republic are perfectly known, and that these powers could not be taxed with concluding a treaty of neutrality with a power, which they had not judged to be lawfully neuter in the present war, and without observing, that this liberty of negotiating has been by England herself put out of all doubt, since by her suspension of the treaty of 1674, made the 17th of April, 1780, she has declared, that she would hereafter regard the Republic as a neutral power, not advantaged by any treaty.

"That in virtue of the reasons alleged, the hatred of Great Britain pierces, still more visibly, through the reproach inserted in the said Manifesto against the Republic, that she has advanced and favored the transportation of naval stores to France, by the suspension of duties upon those effects; at the same time, that it appears, that this suspension has never taken place, and that the Republic has a well founded right to make this transportation, not only during the continuance of the treaty of 1674, but also according to the principle prescribed to the neutral powers by the convention of the confederation; that a further examination of this manifesto should be superfluous, since his Majesty may himself estimate its value, and must, moreover, be convinced, that the conduct of their High Mightinesses, observed from the commencement of the troubles in regard to America, has evidently proved, that they have in nowise favored the revolted Colonies of America; witness the condescension in favor of England, to which the Republic was not obliged by the shackles imposed upon the commerce of her Colonies, by the prohibition to take under convoy vessels loaded with ship-timber, and by the recall of the Governor of St Eustatia, upon the ill founded complaints of the British Ministry; condescensions, which have been rewarded by the attack and capture of the convoy sailing under the command of Count de Byland, by a violation of the territory of the Republic, and by the capture of American ships under the cannon of St Martins. That since their High Mightinesses have faithfully observed this system of moderation, it is manifest, that the resentment of his Britannic Majesty cannot be regarded, but as an effect of a resentment occasioned by the engagement taken for the neutrality, and to this effect their High Mightinesses are well founded to claim the tenor and the sense of the articles seventh, eighth, and ninth of that alliance, which forms the basis of the union of the neutrality contracted with their Imperial and Royal Majesties; that thus, there ought not to exist any further difficulty in fulfilling towards their High Mightinesses, become allies, the engagements, which are contracted in virtue of the known convention, of which they ought to be regarded as members, at the very moment even when this convention has been formed and concluded by their High Mightinesses at the Hague, and when their declaration has been despatched to the belligerent powers, conformably to the said accession and convention.

"That if their High Mightinesses had occasion to complain of a single act of offence, or attack committed against them, and liable to be redressed upon general representations to their allies, they would have demanded their intervention for the redress of such a grievance, rather than to have recourse to arms; but as at present their High Mightinesses see themselves positively attacked by his Britannic Majesty, on occasion and in resentment of the aforesaid alliance, they find themselves obliged to defend themselves, and to repel the attack in the same manner in which it has been made, by returning hostilities for hostilities; being moreover persuaded, that the allied powers will not make any difficulty to make common cause with them, to procure to the Republic the satisfaction and indemnification of the losses sustained, by an attack as unjust as it is violent, and that the allies will concur with their High Mightinesses, in taking such further arrangements as the present circumstances require. This is what their High Mightinesses solicit earnestly, expecting it with so much more confidence, as they are intimately convinced that the generous and equitable sentiments which animate their Imperial and Royal Majesties will prevent them from suffering the Republic to become the victim of a political system as glorious as it is equitable, conceived for the maintenance of the safety and the right of neuters, while the Republic alone exposed to all the violence of this unjust attack of England, might with difficulty make head against it, and thereby run the risk of becoming entirely useless to the confederation.

"For these causes, the undersigned insisted upon the motives alleged above, fully convinced that the ratifications of the treaty signed at Petersburg will be made as soon as possible, and he has the honor, in the name and by the express order of his masters to demand the accomplishment of the articles seventh, eighth, and ninth of the said treaty, and to require in virtue of it a prompt and sufficient succor of his Majesty, whose equitable and magnanimous sentiments, known to all Europe, will not permit him to abandon a work worthy of all praise.

"The friendship and affection of your Majesty towards their High Mightinesses, appear to assure them beforehand of the succors which they expect from his Majesty, and to promise to the subscriber an answer as prompt as satisfactory, which he ought to press with so much the more zeal, as every moment of delay occasions great and irreparable losses to the Republic.

D. W. VAN LYNDEN."

I have the honor to be, &c.