Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/298

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286
TOUR THROUGH

business been arranged, that not the slightest tumult or confusion occurred; and, to use the words, of an intelligent eye-witness[1], which give a clearer idea than twenty sentences could do —- "it seemed on this occasion at Amsterdam as if it were fairtime."

On the day that the French entered Amsterdam two proclamations were issued; one from the patriots, styling themselves the revolutionary committee of Amsterdam, tending to tranquillise the minds of the citizens, and recommending several individuals to be chosen as provisional representatives; the other a proclamation of the representatives of the French people, assuring the Dutch that they should be treated as an independent nation, that persons and property should be protected, that the strictest military discipline should be observed by the republican army, and that the freedom of religious worship should suffer no restraint. They<references>

  1. A merchant residing at Amsterdam, to whom I am under various obligations.