The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 06

by Unknown

"Nevertheless, the beforementioned Robert Jasper Van der Capellan de Marsch, insisting that the voices should be collected upon the proposition and advice in question, and thereupon having deliberated, their Noble Mightinesses have thought fit to resolve, that although the motives alleged by this nobleman in his advice, appear to merit a serious consideration, nevertheless, for the reasons before alleged, they judge that they ought to suspend the decision of it, until the commercial Provinces have formed their resolutions concerning it, and that upon the requisition of Robert Jasper Van der Capellan de Marsch, there be delivered to him an extract of the present, upon one as well as the other.

HERM. SCHOMAKER."

LEYDEN.

"To the Noble, Great, and Venerable Lords of the Grand Council of the city of Leyden.

"The undersigned, all manufacturers, merchants, and other traders, interested in the manufactures of this city, most respectfully give to understand, that it is a truth as melancholy as it is universally known, that the declension of the said manufactures, which all the well disposed citizens have remarked with the most lively grief, from the beginning of this century, has increased more and more for several years; and that this principal branch of the subsistence of the good citizens has fallen into such a state of languor, that our city, once so flourishing, so populous, so celebrated on account of its commerce, and of its traders, appears to be threatened with total ruin; that the diminution of its merchant houses, on one hand, and, on the other, the total loss or the sensible decrease of several branches of commerce, furnish an evident proof of it; which the petitioners could demonstrate by several examples, if there were need of them to convince your Noble and Grand Lordships, to whom the increase of the multitude of the poor; the deplorable situation of several families, heretofore in easy circumstances; the depopulation of the city, which we cannot observe without emotion, in the ruins of several streets, once neat and well inhabited, are fully known, will recollect no doubt upon this occasion, with grief, that this state of languor must appear so much the more desperate, if your Noble and Grand Lordships will take into consideration, that in this decay of trades and manufactures, we find a new reason of their further fall, considering, that from the time, that there is not continual employment, and an uninterrupted sale, the workmen desert in such a manner, that when considerable commissions arrive, we cannot find capable hands, and we see ourselves entirely out of a condition to execute these orders.

"That the petitioners, with all the true friends of their country, extremely affected with this alarming situation of so rich a source of the public prosperity, have, indeed, sought the means of a remedy, in amending some defects from which it seemed to arise, at least in part; but that the measures taken in this view, as is well known to your Noble and Grand Lordships, have not had the desired effect; at least, that they have not produced a re-establishment so effectual, that we have been able to observe a sensible influence in the increase of the sales of the manufactures of Leyden, as appears most evidently by a comparison of the pieces fabricated here, which have been heretofore carried to the divers markets of this city, with those, which are carried there at this day; a comparison which a true citizen cannot consider without regret.

"That experience has also taught the petitioners, that the principal cause of the decay of the manufactures of Holland, particularly those of Leyden, is not to be found in any internal vice, either in the capacity or the economy of the inhabitants, but in circumstances, which have happened abroad, and to which it is, consequently, beyond the power of the petitioners, or of any citizen whatever, to provide a remedy; that we might cite, for example, the commerce of our manufactures with Dantzick, and, through that commercial city, with all Poland; a commerce which was carried on with success and advantage heretofore in our city, but is absolutely interrupted at this day, and vanished by the revolution, which has happened in that kingdom, and by the burthensome duties, to which the navigation of the Vistula has been subjected, but that, without entering into a detail of similar particular shackles, of which we might reckon a great number, the principal cause of the languishing state of our manufactures, consists in the jealous emulation of the neighboring nations, or rather of all the people of Europe, considering that in this age, the several Princes and governments, enlightened in the real sources of the public prosperity and the true interests of their subjects, attach themselves with emulation, to revive in their kingdoms and states, the national industry, commerce, and navigation; to encourage them and promote them, even by exclusive privileges, or by heavy impositions upon foreign merchandises, which lend equally to the prejudice of the commerce and manufactures of our country, as your Noble and Grand Lordships will easily recollect the examples in the Austrian States and elsewhere; that in the midst of these powers and nations, emulous, or jealous, it is impossible for the citizens of our Republic, however superior their manufactures may be in quality and fineness, to resist a rivalry so universal, especially considering the dearness of labor, caused by that of the means of subsistence, which, in its turn, is a necessary consequence of the taxes and imposts, which the inhabitants of this State pay in a greater number and a higher rate, than in any other country, by reason of her natural situation, and of its means to support itself; so that, by the continual operation of this principal, but irreparable cause of decline, it is to be feared, that the impoverishment and the diminution of the good citizens increasing with want of employment, the Dutch nation, heretofore the purveyor of all Europe, will be obliged to content itself with the sale of its own productions in the interior of the country; (and how much does not even this resource suffer by the importation of foreign manufactures?) and that Leyden, lately so rich and flourishing, will furnish in its declining streets, desolated quarters, and its multitude disgraced with want and misery, an affecting proof of the sudden fall of countries formerly overflowing with prosperity.

"That, if we duly consider these motives, no citizen, whose heart is upright, (as the petitioners assure themselves) much less your Noble and Great Mightinesses, whose good dispositions they acknowledge with gratitude, will take it amiss, that we have fixed our eyes, in the present conjuncture of affairs, to inquire, whether these times might not furnish them some means of reviving the languishing manufactures of Leyden; and that, after a consideration well matured, they flatter themselves with a hope, (a hope, which unprejudiced men will not regard as a vain chimera) that in fact, by the present circumstances, there opens in their favor an issue for arriving at the re-establishment desired.

"That from the time, when the rupture between Great Britain and the Colonies upon the Continent of North America, appeared to be irreparable, every attentive spectator of this event perceived, or at least was convinced, that this rupture, by which there was born a Republic, as powerful as industrious, in the new world, would have the most important consequences for commerce and navigation, and that the other commercial nations of Europe would soon share in a very considerable commerce, whereof the kingdom of England had reserved to itself, until that time, the exclusive possession by its act of navigation, and by the other acts of Parliament prescribed to the colonies; that, in the time of it, this reflection did not escape your petitioners, and that they foresaw from that time the advantage, which might arise in the sequel from a revolution so important for the United Provinces in general, and for their native city in particular; but they should have been afraid to place this favorable occasion before the eyes of your Noble and Grand Lordships at an epoch, when the relations, which connected our Republic with Great Britain, her neighbors seemed to forbid all measures of this nature, or at least ought to make them be considered as out of season.

"That, in the meantime, this reason of silence has entirely ceased, by the hostilities, which the said kingdom has commenced against our Republic, under pretences, and in a manner, the injustice of which has been demonstrated by the supreme government of the State, with an irrefragable evidence in the eyes of impartial Europe; whilst the petitioners themselves, by the illegal capture of so large a number of Dutch ships, and afterwards by the absolute stagnation of navigation, and of voyages to foreign countries, have experienced in the most grievous manner, the consequences of this hostile and unforeseen attack, and feel them still every day, as is abundantly known to your Noble and Grand Lordships; that, since that epoch, a still more considerable number of workmen must have remained without employment, and that several fathers of families have quitted the city; abandoning to the further expense of the treasury of the poor, their wives and their children, plunged in misery.