DUMAS.[34]
FOOTNOTES:
[33] This Declaration is missing.
[34] Several letters from M. Dumas, on the affairs of Holland, in the year 1778, may be found in the Commissioners' Correspondence, in the first volume of the present work.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
The Hague, January 1st, 1779.
Gentlemen,
On the 19th of December, the Grand Pensionary of Holland, before going to the Assembly of the States of Holland, received from the Duc de la Vauguyon, Ambassador of France, a note, explanatory of the Memorial presented to their High Mightinesses the 7th, as follows.
"The king, determined to have perfect certainty of the final resolution of the States, flatters himself that their High Mightinesses will explain themselves in a clear and precise manner, upon the point of perfect neutrality, which his Majesty is persuaded that they do not wish to swerve from. He expects that they will preserve to the flag of the United Provinces all the liberty that belongs to them, in consequence of their independence, and to their commerce all the integrity that the law of nations secures to it, and that treaties confirm to it. But this liberty will become illusory, and this integrity violated, if their High Mightinesses do not maintain it by a suitable protection, and if they consent to deprive their subjects of convoy, without which they cannot enjoy, in their full extent, the rights which they have acquired and claim. A resolution of whatever nature it be whose effect should be to deprive them of a protection so legitimate, whether for all branches of their commerce in general, or in particular for articles of naval stores of any kind, would be regarded under present circumstances as an act of partiality derogatory to the principles of an absolute neutrality, and would inevitably produce the consequences mentioned in the Memoir, which has been sent to their High Mightinesses. It is especially to this essential object, and with the further intention to observe a neutrality thus described, that the king asks of their High Mightinesses an answer clear and precise."
The same morning the States of Holland adopted by a majority the following answer, previously advised on the 16th by the Admiralty.