Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/144

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TOUR THROUGH

furnishes little hope, that he will espouse their cause, to the stadtholderian party. He is said to inherit the talents which have distinguished the house of Brandenburg for a century and a half, without much of that dangerous passion for military glory which signalised the reigns of some of his predecessors. His ministers differ in their principles and views from those whom his father employed, and he himself is indefatigable in his attention to the cares of government. His chief ambition is to continue to his subjects the blessings of peace, and to promote in his dominions agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. He possesses the hereditary dislike of his family to the house of Austria, and is thought to entertain sentiments unfavourable to Great Britain, on account of her intimate connection with that power. When the English and Russian troops invaded Holland, large offers, amounting to a dismemberment of the United Provinces in his favour, as a reward for his services, were made him, if he would assist to expel the French from the territories of the