CONFERENCES AT THE HAGUE.

Besides the universal clamour excited in Holland, and the famous memorial presented to the states-general, which we have already mentioned in another place, a deputation of merchants waited four times successively on the princess regent to explain their grievances, and demand her concurrence in augmenting the navy for the preservation of their commerce. She promised to interpose her best offices with the court of Great Britain; and these co-operating with representations made by the states-general, the English minister was empowered to open conferences at the Hague, in order to bring all matters in dispute to an amicable accommodation. These endeavours, however, proved ineffectual. The British cruisers continued to take, and the British courts to condemn, all Dutch vessels containing the produce of the French sugar islands. The merchants of Holland and Zealand renewed their complaints with redoubled clamour, and all the trading part of the nation, reinforced by the whole party that opposed the house of Orange, cried aloud for an immediate augmentation of the marine, and reprisals upon the pirates of England. The princess, in order to avoid extremities, was obliged not only to employ all her personal influence with the states-general, but also to play off one faction against another, in the way of remonstrance and exclamation As far back as the month of June, she presented a memorial to the states-general, reminding them, that in the beginning of the war between France and England, she had advised an augmentation should be made in their land-forces, to strengthen the garrisons of the frontier towns, and cover the territories of the republic from invasion. She gave them to understand, that the provinces of Gueldres and Overyssel, intimidated by the proximity of two formidable armies, had resolved to demand that the augmentation of their land-forces should be taken into consideration by the other provinces; and requested her to reinforce their solicitations that this measure might immediately take place. This request, she said, she the more readily granted, as she could not but be sensible of the imminent danger that threatened the republic, especially since the Hanoverian army had passed the Rhine; and as it behoved the state to put itself in a condition to hinder either army from retiring into the territories of the republic, if it should be defeated; for in that case the conqueror, being authorized to pursue his enemy wherever he can find him, would bring the war into the heart of their country. This representation had no other effect than that of suspending the measure which each party proposed. The princess, in her answer to the fourth deputation of the merchants, declared that she beheld the present state of their trade with the most anxious concern; that its want of protection was not her fault, but that of the towns of Dort, Haerlem, Amsterdam, Torgau, Rotterdam, and the Brille, to whose conduct it was owing, that the forces of the state, by sea and land, were not now on a better footing. The deputies were afterwards referred to her minister, M. de la Larrey, to whom they represented, that the augmentation of the land-forces, and the equipment of a fleet, were matters as distinct from each other as light from darkness; that there was no pressing motive for an augmentation of the army, whereas, innumerable reasons rendered the equipment of a fleet a matter of the most urgent necessity. In a few days after this representation was made, the princess, in an assembly of the states-general, requested their high mightinesses, that, seeing their earnest and repeated efforts to induce the provinces of Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and West Friesland, to acquiesce in the proposed augmentation of forces by sea and land, had not hitherto met with success, they would now consider and deliberate upon some expedient for terminating this affair, and the sooner the better, in order on one hand to satisfy the strong and well-grounded instances made by the provinces of Gueldres, Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen; and, on the other, to comply with the ardent and just desires expressed by the commercial inhabitants of the country. She told them, that the deputation which waited on her consisted of forty merchants, a number that merited attention, no less than the speech they pronounced, of which a great number of printed copies were distributed through all parts of the country. Without making any particular remarks on the harangue, she only observed, that the drift of it did not tend to facilitate the negotiation begun with Great Britain, nor to induce the nation to prefer a convention to a rupture with that crown. From this circumstance she inferred, it was more than time to finish the deliberations on the proposal for augmenting the forces both by sea and land; a measure, without which, she was convinced in her conscience, the state was, and would always remain, exposed to all sorts of misfortune and danger both now and hereafter.

In consequence of this interposition, the states-general that same day sent a letter to the states of Holland and West Friesland, communicating the sentiments of the princess-regent, and insisting upon the necessity of complying with her proposal of the double augmentation. They observed, that an augmentation of the land-forces, for the defence of the frontiers, was unavoidable, as well as an equipment by sea for the security of commerce: that the states of the provinces of Gueldres, Utrecht, Overyssel, and Groningen, joined with them in the same opinion; and accordingly had insisted, by divers letters and propositions, on those two points so essential to the public interest. They represented the danger of delay, and the fatal effects of discord; they proposed, that by a reciprocal indulgence one party should comply with the sentiments of the other, in order to avoid a schism and dangerous division among the confederates, the consequences of which would be very deplorable; while the republic, in the meantime, would remain in a defenceless condition, both by sea and land, and depend upon the arbitrary power of its neighbours. They conjured them, therefore, as they valued the safety of their country, and all that was dear to them; as they regarded the protection of the good inhabitants, the concord and harmony which at all times but especially at the present critical juncture, was of the last necessity, that they would seriously reflect upon the exhortations of her royal highness, as well as on the repeated instances of the majority of the confederates, and take a wise and salutary resolution with regard to the proposed augmentation of the land-forces, so that this addition, together with an equipment at sea, might, the sooner the better, be unanimously brought to a conclusion. It was undoubtedly the duty of all who wished well to their country, to moderate the heat and precipitation of those, who, provoked by their losses, and stimulated by resentment, endeavoured at this period to involve their nation in a war with Great Britain. Had matters been pushed to this extremity, in a few months the republic would, in all probability, have been brought to the brink of ruin. The Dutch were distracted by internal divisions; they were altogether unprovided for hostilities by sea; the ocean was covered with their trading vessels; and the naval armaments of Great Britain were so numerous and powerful, as to render all resistance on that element equally vain and pernicious. The English could not only have scoured the seas, and made prize of their shipping, but were also in a condition to reduce or demolish all their towns in Zealand, where they would hardly have met with any opposition.