states-general, to whom the requisition was addressed, in a proclamation which betrayed their fears or their imbecility, commanded that the articles required by the French should be furnished with the promptest obedience: all persons in possession of any of the articles wanted, were ordered to deliver them up to commissioners appointed for that purpose; and the provincial administrations were directed to furnish with all possible dispatch their several quota towards defraying the expence of the requisition.
Shortly afterwards, the inhabitants of the United Provinces were called upon to contribute voluntarily to the relief of the French army. Persons soliciting assistance went from house to house throughout the republic; and as few chose by their want of generosity to be suspected of being hostile to the French, and many endeavoured to extenuate their faults under the old system, by a more than ordinary zeal for the new government and its allies, the contributions so levied amounted to a considerable sum.
A large revenue is yearly collected in this
