CITIZENS OF THE NETHERLANDS!

Dear Countrymen,

THE unjust and destructive war in which we have been involved by the British ministry cannot but attract our whole attention. It is the first object of our solicitude, that by our courage and prudence in the conduct of it, we may procure an honourable peace, firmly establish our freedom, and maintain the independence of the state, and the glory of our ancestors. Our navy, under divine providence, is the natural and only means to set bounds to the immeasureable insolence of the British ministry, and to defend our country against their treacherous conduct and cruel treatment. To this object the endeavours of the best patriots have been uniformly directed since the time when our heavy chains were broken by the assistance of our French brethren, since the day when the Stadtholder left the Batavian shores, the day when we began to breathe a freer air, and were at liberty to exert ourselves for the improvement of the sources of our prosperity, our trade, our fisheries, our navigation, our colonies, and our manufactures. By their navy, fellow

citizens, did our ancestors become great. The Batavian flag was known, feared, and honoured, in each of the four quarters of the world. Under our late government it was insulted, and became the ridicule of nations. It is therefore our first duty to restore our marine. The zeal of the committee of marine has done much, where nothing scarcely had before been done. Its exertions were incessant. But in the present state of our navy, all hands seem to have lost the habits, and all hearts the inclination necessary for the service. The Batavian youth are no longer accustomed to the labour requisite on board the armed fleets of their country. Is our nation then less brave, less indignant against its enemies; or do we less love our native land than in the time of a Ruyter or a Tromp?

Our

No, fellow-citizens, no; far from us be such a thought! We rely with confidence on your patriotism, and cannot doubt but you will act with vigour in the present critical situation of our country; for why should we conceal that such is our situation, when to make it known must procure the remedy? ships, which are very numerous, and more than sufficient to secure us a superiority in our seas, and to cut off from the enemy all supplies of provisions and stores from the north, and thus compel them to peace-our ships are in want of men. The recruitings proceed with languor, and the measures hitherto taken have had little effect. Nor should this excite our wonder: they were of a partial nature, and not in consequence of the expression of the will of the assembly, representative of the whole Batavian republic, This will is now made

known;

known supported by you it shall deliver our country. Let the people be called together in all the towns and villages of the Netherlands. Let the example of Haeriem be proposed to them; that town so zealous for liberty, that it has already raised two hundred young men for the navy. Let all the constituted authorities remind the Batavian youth, that their country looks up to them for her defence; they will not be deaf to her call. The time of oppression is past. The fleet of the republic is under the command of true patriots, who do not consider their comrades as slaves, but as fellow citizens.The attention of the representatives of the people will be continually directed to provide for the wants of the mariner, and they will consider the rewarding of heroism and faithful service, as the most pleasing part of their great labours. Let, therefore, fathers exhort their sons; sisters, their brothers; and the people in general, the youth, of the country, to acts of heroism, and to engage in the naval service, to maintain the honour of the Batavian flag, and defend their native land. When they shall thus nobly have fulfilled their duty, they will find their reward in our tender care for them and their relatives, in the approbation of every noble mind, and the congratulations and gratitude of all their countrymen.

VAN DE CASTEELE.

Manifesto against Great Britain, by the National Assembly representing the Batavian Nation.

THE Batavian nation, once more unjustly attacked by the kingdom of Great Britain, has just taken up

arms.

This nation, so often ill treated, oppressed, trod upon, and pillaged, under the mask of friendship, now animated and excited by liberty, and at length breathing for the first time after so long an interval, resumes the primitive energy of its brave and valorous character, courageously rears its head, and will no longer suffer its prosperity to be undermined by envious neighbours. It will no longer allow itself to be dragged in the dust; and it will cease to be the sport of the infamous and ambitious ministers of England, who, by the dazzle of piratical treasures, blind the English nation, which fancies itself to be free, with respect to the terrible calamities they have brought on Europe, and on the whole of the human race. The Batavian people will defend their rights and their independence; they will save their country from the ruin by which it is threatened.

Will

Will Europe still doubt, that the Batavian republic has not rightfully drawn the sword from the sheath, when she is constrained to a just defence? Will Europe still doubt that the Batavian republic has been led to the very brink of utter destruction, by the disastrous policy of the same ministry? Europe still doubt that the regenerated Batavian republic will not, with the help of its illustrious ally, vigorously repel the arrogant domination of the English cabinet, and will not consolidate the liberty so dearly and perilously acquired, at the expence even of all by which she is interested?

When England attempted, by the force of arms, to subjugate her American colonies, which she had driven to a just insurrection, and

when the scourge of war extended to other empires the states general of the United Provinces were careful to observe a strict neutrality; they did not suffer Dutch vessels to transport any other commodities to America, those excepted which were declared free by the express terms of treaties. The most efficacious precautions were carefully taken to prevent war-like stores from being conveyed to the American colonies, as well as to prevent any frau dulent commerce from being carried on with them; precautions which did not a little shackle and injure our own commerce to the West Indies. It availed the republic, however, but little, to observe the conditions of treaties with exactness, as to what was by them prohibited; the English ministers consulting merely their temporary convenience, went so far as to dispute what these very treaties allowed; they would not suffer the republic to enjoy those very advantages of treaty which England herself had enjoyed in a similar case; but violating the rights of nations, they condemned the cargoes as prizes to the crown, and employed the materials in the royal arsenals; other vessels were forfeited by the arbitrary sentences of partial courts of justice. The privateers and armed ships of England, seeing that their piracies were legalized, multiplied their depredations, and the merchantvessels of Holland daily became the victims of their brutalities. Finally, the atrocities of the British ministers were carried to such a point, that they no longer respected the flag of the states, but carried a convoy of Dutch vessels into the ports of England, declaring ships richly laden to be lawful prizes, and violating, as well in Europe,

as elsewhere, our neutral territory. The only mode which could be adopted to put a stop to these unprecedented injuries, without, however, breaking with the kingdom of Great Britain, was employed by their high mightinesses.This mode consisted in joining with all possible speed the alliance of the three northern powers, concerted by the empress of Russia, and destined to protect, by the force of arms, the rights of the neutral nations, each of them more or less violated by England.

Their high mightinesses, we say, would have acceded to this treaty, had not an obstacle been thrown in the way by the perfidious ma. chinations of the English cabinet. This was the signal which led England to break every tie, to distribute letters of marque for making reprisals on the inhabitants of the republic and their possessions, and to declare open war against the United States. A ministry to which all means were alike, could not want pretexts for that purpose. It was not at the same time difficult for their high mightinesses to demonstrate the frivolity of all these pretended grievances; but what purpose could this answer with a rapacious, obstinate, and unjust ministry, which was desirous to revenge on a peaceable ally the loss of the British colonies, and to ap pease, for a time at least, by the booty obtained by an unforeseen attack, the murmurs of the English nation?

It was soon after learned, that the squadrons and armed vessels of England captured, by virtue of orders already furnished, the Dutch vessels they fell in with beyond seas, without the smallest suspicion on our side, and against the faith of

treaties.

treaties. We learned the cruel manner in which the island of St. Eustatia was devastated, by seizing on the possessions of the merchants, which, when collected, formed treasures; while richly laden vessels returning from the ocean, were surprised unawares in the channel by small vessels, which readily made them their prey. By such vile means, unworthy of a generous nation, did the British ministers dishonour the flag of their king; for can it be considered in any other point of view, than that of acting, under the royal flag, the part of pirates? The Batavian republic was at length, after so many losses, forced to provide for her defence, to maintain her rights and independence by the dint of arms, and to protect her commerce and her possessions. Ah! if she could then have combated under the banners of liberty, how would the English ministry have repented of its rashness and perfidy! But the English cabinet knew all its influence in this country. It was aware that it could succeed in shackling within the republic the preparations of war: it was certain of finding in Holland partizans who would contrive to put into his possession our ships of war, and who would find the means to prevent the display of all our strength. The event soon proved that the English ministers were not mistaken. They mocked our feeble efforts, which, even before they were carried into effect, were paralized in their outset by the adherents they had in this country. These adherents supplied them with intelligence of all that was concerting here. Supported by the Stadtholderian influence, they even contrived to render

war.

nugatory the orders given by their high mightinesses for the junction of the Batavian squadron with the French fleet. It was easy for the English ministry, after such treasons, to obtain successes in that And this is what they call glory! But when a particular occasion presented itself-when a fleet belonging to the states accidentally met with an opportunity to display its courage and its valour the Batavian mariners, although novices in fighting, proved that they had not degenerated from the bravery of their ancestors. They drove the English fleet, covered with confusion and shame, into its own port, without having lost one of the merchant vessels they had under convoy.

A war carried on in such a way necessarily terminated in a treaty of peace burthensome to the States. Instead of being indemnified for the incalculable losses they had sustained in their commerce, they considered themselves as fortunate to be enabled by the speedy assistance of the French forces, which checked the English in the two Indies, to save a part of their possessions; while they found themselves obliged to yield to the enemy. the important factory of Negapatnam on the coast of Coromandel ; and to allow to British vessels the free navigation of the coasts of the Molucca islands, notwithstanding it might have been foreseen that the navigation of the English in those seas would tend to nothing less than the complete destruction of our. trade in the East Indies.

We shall not enter into details concerning what passed in the sequel, when the Batavian nation, seeing how much its interests were constantly