The States-General have appointed M. Brantzen their Minister Plenipotentiary to treat concerning peace, and he will set off for Paris in about three weeks. His instructions are such as we should wish. The States of Holland and West Friesland have determined the last week upon our project of a treaty of commerce, and I expect to enter into conferences with the States-General this week, in order to bring it to a conclusion. I hope for the ratification of the contract for a loan, which has been sent five different ways. Upon the receipt of this ratification, there will be thirteen or fourteen hundred thousand guilders ready to be paid to the orders of Congress by Messrs Wilhem and Jean Willink, Nicholas and Jacob Van Staphorst, and De la Lande and Fynjè.
The States and the Regencies are taking such measures with the Stadtholder, by demanding his orders and correspondence about naval affairs, and by re-assuming their own constitutional rights in the appointment of officers, &c. as will bring all things right in this Republic, which we shall find an affectionate and a useful friend. The communication of the following instructions to me is such a piece of friendship and such a mark of confidence, as makes it my duty to request of Congress that it may be kept secret.
INSTRUCTIONS,
Projected and passed for the Ambassador Lestevenon de Berkenrode, and M. de Brantzen.
"1. His Most Christian Majesty, having manifested in the most obliging manner by his Ambassador Extraordinary, the Duc de la Vauguyon, who resides here, his favorable intention to have an eye to the interests of the Republic in the negotiation for a general peace, the aforesaid Ministers will neglect nothing, but, on the contrary, will employ all their diligence and all their zeal to preserve and fortify more and more this favorable disposition of his Majesty towards this State.
"2. To this end those gentlemen, in all which concerns the objects of their commission, or which may have any relation to them, will act in a communicative manner, and in concert with the Ministry of his said Majesty, and will make confidential communications of all things with them.
"3. They will not enter into any negotiation of peace between the British Court and the Republic, nor have any conferences thereupon with the Ministers of the said Court, before they are assured beforehand, in the clearest manner, and without any equivocation, that his British Majesty has in fact, and continues to have, a real intention to acquiesce, without reserve, that the Republic be in full possession and indisputable, enjoyment of the rights of the neutral flag, and of a free navigation, in conformity to, and according to the tenor of, the points enumerated in the declaration of her Imperial Majesty of Russia, dated the 28th of February, 1780.
"4. When these gentlemen shall be certain of this, and shall have received the requisite assurances of it, they shall conduct in such a manner in the conferences, which shall then be held thereupon with the Ministers of his Britannic Majesty, as to direct things to such an end, that, in projecting the treaty of peace and friendship between his said Majesty and the Republic, all the points concerning the free navigation be adopted word for word, and literally from the said declaration of her Imperial Majesty, and inserted in the said treaty; and, moreover, in regard to contraband, (upon the subject of which the said declaration refers to the treaties of commerce then subsisting between the respective powers) that they establish henceforward a limitation, so precise and so distinct, that it may appear most clearly in future, that all naval stores, (les munitions ou matières navales) be held free merchandises, and may not by any means be comprehended under the denomination of contraband; as also, that with regard to the visitation of merchant vessels, they establish the two following rules as perpetual and immutable, viz; first, that the masters (patrons) of merchant ships shall be discharged upon exhibiting their documents, from whence their cargoes may be known, and to which faith ought to be given, without pretending to molest them by any visitation; secondly, that when merchant ships shall be convoyed by vessels of war, all faith shall be yielded to the commanding officers, who shall escort the convoy, when they shall declare and affirm, upon their word of honor, the nature of their cargoes, without being able to require of vessels convoyed, any exhibition of papers, and still less to visit them.
"5. These gentlemen shall insist also, in the strongest manner, and as upon a condition sine qua non, upon this, that all the possessions conquered from the Republic by the ships of war or privateers of his British Majesty, or by the arms of the English East India Company during the course of this war, or which may be further conquered from it before the conclusion of the peace, be restored to it, under the eventual obligation of reciprocity; and this, as far as possible, in the same state in which they were at the time of the invasion. And, whereas the greatest part of these possessions have been retaken from the common enemy, by the arms of His Most Christian Majesty, these gentlemen will insist in the strongest manner, with his Majesty and his Ministry, that, by the promise of restitution of these possessions to the State, immediately after the conclusion of the peace, the Republic may receive real proofs of the benevolence and of the affection, which his Majesty has so often testified for it.
"6. These gentlemen will insist also, in the strongest manner, upon the just indemnification for all the losses unjustly caused by Great Britain, to the State and to its inhabitants, both in Europe and elsewhere.