vinces. But the new "eminent head " was not a William III, and, when he acceded to power, he had the humiliation of having to place before the English Government the hopeless financial condition of the States, and their inability to carry on the war without a very large loan. The low esteem felt for the once proud Dutch Republic led to the peace of Aix-laChapelle being concluded (April 30, 1748) practically without consulting the Dutch plenipotentiaries.

It

was to the interest of Great Britain that the Austrian Netherlands should be protected against French aggression; and the colony of Cape Breton was given back to France on condition that the Barrier towns were once more placed in Dutch hands. This was a useless concession, for their fortifications had been destroyed, and the States could no longer spare the money to make them capable of serious defence

(iii) Minority Government, 1751-1766. Troubles under William V

William IV died on October 22, 1751. His widow became regent during the minority of her son, William V, who was three years old at the time of his father's death. Her co-guardian was Lewis Ernest, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, who had recently been given by William IV the post of Field-Marshal in the Dutch Army. A weak minority Government unfortunately meant that the anti-Orange factions again lifted up their head. The outbreak of the Seven Years' War, in which Austria and France were allies, meant that the Barrier Treaty had practically ceased to exist. Enfeebled by internal dissensions, with no army or navy worth the name, and with crippled finances, the Republic was impotent, and had no choice but to remain neutral.

On the death of the Princess-regent (January 12, 1759), the Duke of Brunswick was appointed Captain-General of the Union, and regent with limited

powers. His seven years' tenure of office was marked by the great tact with which he discharged his duties. On March 8, 1766, William V, having reached his eighteenth year, succeeded to his hereditary rights. A weak character, unfit to deal with the difficulties that confronted him, he married (October 6, 1767) Wilhelmina, niece of Frederick the Great and (on the mother's side) of the Duke of Brunswick, who continued to be his chief adviser. Meanwhile advanced doctrines had spread widely, and a large party had come into existence equally opposed to the Orange Stadholderate and to the patrician regent-oligarchies. The revolt of the American colonies evoked much sympathy in the States, and, when France took their part and declared war against England, this sympathy became pro-French as well as pro-American. This feeling was tuated by the strong measures taken by Great Britain to stop illicit trading with the rebels from the Dutch islands of St. Eustatius and Curaçoa. The relations between the two countries became more and more angry. In November 1780 the States-General joined the league of Armed Neutrality formed by Catherine II against Great Britain; and it was discovered that secret negotiations had been carried on between certain Amsterdam regents and the American envoys in Paris. Protests proved unavailing, and war declared by Great Britain against the Republic on December 20, 1780. Thus the alliance of ninety-two years' standing came to an end.

accen

was

The war with England was absolutely disastrous for the Republic. Its commerce was driven from the sea, its ships captured, its coasts blockaded, and nearly all its overseas possessions taken. The British Government, however, when the negotiations for peace came, through friendliness to the Stadholder and a desire to strengthen his hands against the anti-Orange proFrench party, offered more favourable terms than might have been expected. By the Treaty of Paris (1784) all their possessions, save Negapatam, were restored to the Dutch.

(iv) Difficulties with Joseph II. The "Patriot " Agitation

In 1781 the Emperor Joseph II took advantage of the war to demand the evacuation of the Barrier towns. As the fortifications were in a ruinous state and the French were no longer enemies but allies, the States complied. The surrender was humiliating, but was actually a relief in the impoverished state of the national finances. Two years later Joseph II made a further demand for the surrender of Maastricht and the opening of the Scheldt. The intervention of

66

France enabled the States to stand firm in their refusal to make these concessions. Meanwhile civil strife in the Republic was becoming inevitable. The aim of the new democratic or patriot "party was to effect an entire change in the antiquated system of government, which was hopelessly out of date and was more and more bringing ruin upon the State. Had the Stadholder been in any way a leader of men, he might have put himself at the head of the movement of reform; but such was his weakness and incompetence that his adversaries attributed the disasters of the war to his remissness, and even the Orangists despaired of him. Brunswick, accused of being his evil counsellor, was driven out of the country (1784), and through common enmity to the Stadholder the democrats allied themselves with the aristocratic regents against him. Free corps were raised in many towns by permission of the town council, and armed collisions were frequent. Holland being the hotbed of the "patriot" agitation, William left The Hague and retired to Nymegen. Things went from bad to worse; and the ultra-democrats, now in the possession of power in the majority of the provinces, took measures to deprive the Stadholder of his authority and hereditary rights. But the Orange party were strong in the army and among the preachers and the country folk. The Prince himself made no move, but his wife, a woman of energy and determination, resolved to return to The Hague and to encourage the efforts of the Orange sympa[2009]

D

thisers in Holland. On her way (June 28, 1787) she was turned back at Woerden by the commandant of a "free corps." She at once appealed to her brother, the King of Prussia, to avenge this insult. Frederick William II responded by sending an army of 20,000 men, who quickly made themselves masters of the entire country. The patriot "leaders fled to France; and, on September 20, the Prince made his triumphant entry into The Hague amidst general rejoicings. The result was the re-establishment of the hereditary Stadholderate on a firm basis and with added powers.

(v) Prussian Intervention. French Conquest The military action of Prussia had the strong diplomatic support of England, and was followed by a definite treaty (April 15, 1788) by which these two Powers bound themselves to defend the Republic against attack and to maintain the hereditary Stadholderate. Had the Stadholder been a strong man, like William II or William III, he would have seized this opportunity for sweeping away the cumbrous and complicated machinery of government in the so-called United Provinces, which had long been unworkable, and made himself the Sovereign of a really unified State. But William V had neither inclination nor energy for drastic reform, and he preferred to rely on the foreigner for protection against internal disturbances, and to leave the Princess and the new Grand Pensionary, Van de Spiegel, to carry out a policy of reconstruction under almost impossible conditions. Van de Spiegel, a really able and far-seeing statesman, did his utmost to restore the financial credit of the republic and to rescue the East and West India Companies from bankruptcy; but the weakness of the Prince and the selfishness of the burgher-regents made any attempt at serious reform of the Constitution impracticable. Fear of the democratic principles of the exiled " patriots" had converted the close patrician corporations from opponents into supporters of the Orange Stadholderate.

The outbreak of the French Revolution found the Republic in a moribund condition, and an easy prey to the revolutionary armies. Early in 1793 the French Convention declared war against Holland. Invasion was attempted, but an Austrian victory at Neerwinden (March 1, 1793), followed by the defection of Dumouriez, gave a brief respite to the Dutch. In the following year a French army under Pichegru, with whom marched a Batavian Legion of patriot exiles, advanced into Holland at a time when the marshes and rivers were hard frozen, and speedily overran the country. On January 18, 1795, Amsterdam surrendered, and on the same day William V, with his two sons, set sail for England. With his departure the Stadholderate and the Republic of the United Provinces came to an end.

IV. THE UNITED PROVINCES IN THE PERIOD OF
FRENCH DOMINATION, 1795-1813

(i) The Batavian Republic

The coming of the French with their message of liberty, fraternity, and equality" was the cause of much premature rejoicing in Holland. It was soon seen, however, that the French conquest was far from disinterested. By The Hague Treaty (May 16, 1795) the conditions under which the French Government recognised the independence of the "Batavian Republic were the payment of 100,000,000 fl. indemnity, the cession of Dutch Flanders, Dutch Limburg, and Upper Gelderland, the occupation of Flushing by a French garrison, free navigation on the Scheldt, the Rhine, and the Meuse, and an offensive and defensive alliance. Secret Articles provided for the loan to the French of a number of Dutch warships and for the entire maintenance until a general peace of a force of 20,000 French soldiers on Dutch territory.

The results of this treaty were ruinous. Great Britain declared war (September 1795); Dutch com[2009] D 2