REQUISITION OF SIX THOUSAND DUTCH TROOPS.

The English people were seized with consternation; the ministry were alarmed and perplexed. Colonel Yorke, the British resident at the Hague, was ordered by his majesty to make a requisition of the six thousand men whom the states-general are obliged by treaty to furnish, when Great Britain shall be threatened with an invasion; and in February he presented a memorial for this purpose. Monsieur d’Affry, the French king’s minister at the Hague, having received intimation of this demand, produced a counter-memorial from his master, charging the English as the aggressors, and giving the states-general plainly to understand, that, should they grant the succours demanded by Great Britain, he would consider their compliance as an act of hostility against himself. The Dutch, though divided among themselves by faction, were unanimously averse to any measure that might involve them in the approaching war. Their commerce was in a great measure decayed, and their finances were too much exhausted to admit of an immediate augmentation of their forces, which for many other reasons they strove to avoid. They foresaw a great increase of trade in their adhering to a punctual neutrality; they were afraid of the French by land, and jealous of the English by sea; and perhaps enjoyed the prospect of seeing these two proud and powerful nations humble and impoverish each other. Certain it is, the states-general protracted their answer to Mr. Yorke’s memorial by such affected delays, that the court of London perceived their intention, and, in order to avoid the mortification of a flat denial, the king ordered his resident to acquaint the princess regent, that he would not insist upon his demand. The states, thus freed from their perplexity, at length delivered an answer to Mr. Yorke, in which they expatiated on the difficulties they were laid under, and thanked his Britannic majesty for having freed them by his declaration from that embarrassment into which they were thrown by his first demand and the counter-memorial of the French minister. The real sentiments of those people, however, more plainly appeared in the previous resolution delivered to the states of Holland by the towns of Amsterdam, Dort, Haerlem, Gouda, Rotterdam, and Enckhuysen, declaring flatly that England was uncontrovertibly the aggressor in Europe, by seizing a considerable number of French vessels; that the threatened invasion of Great Britain did not affect the republic’s guarantee of the protestant succession, inasmuch as it was only intended to obtain reparation for the injury sustained by the subjects of his most christian majesty; finally, that the succours demanded could be of no advantage to the king of England, as it appeared by the declaration of his most christian majesty; that their granting these succours would immediately lay them under the necessity of demanding, in their turn, assistance from Great Britain. From this way of arguing, the English may perceive what they have to expect in cases of emergency from the friendship of their nearest allies, who must always be furnished with the same excuse, whenever they find it convenient or necessary to their own interest. Such a consideration, joined to other concurring motives, ought to induce the British legislature to withdraw its dependence from all foreign connexions, and provide such a constitutional force within itself, as will be fully sufficient to baffle all the efforts of an external enemy. The apprehensions and distraction of the people at this juncture plainly evinced the expediency of such a national force; but different parties were divided in their opinions about the nature of such a provision. Some of the warmest friends of their country proposed a well regulated militia, as an institution that would effectually answer the purpose of defending a wide extended sea-coast from invasion; while, on the other hand, this proposal was ridiculed and refuted as impracticable or useless by all the retainers to the court, and all the officers of the standing army. In the meantime, as the experiment could not be immediately tried, and the present juncture demanded some instant determination, recourse was had to a foreign remedy.

Towards the latter end of March, the king sent a written message to parliament, intimating, that he had received repeated advices from different persons and places, that a design had been formed by the French court to invade Great Britain or Ireland; and the great preparations of forces, ships, artillery, and warlike stores, then notoriously making in the ports of France opposite to the British coasts, together with the language of the French ministers in some foreign courts, left little room to doubt the reality of such a design; that his majesty had augmented his forces both by sea and land, and taken proper measures and precautions for putting his kingdom in a posture of defence; that, in order further to strengthen himself, he had made a requisition of a body of Hessian troops, pursuant to the late treaty, to be forthwith brought over, and for that purpose ordered transports to be prepared; that he doubted not of being enabled and supported by his parliament in taking such measures as might be conducive to an end so essential to the honour of his crown, the preservation of the protestant religion, and the laws and liberties of these kingdoms. This message was no sooner received, than both houses voted, composed, and presented very warm and affectionate addresses, in which his majesty was thanked for the requisition he had made of the Hessian troops; a measure which at any other time would have been stigmatized with all the satire and rhetoric of the opposition.