manner, by voluntary contributions, for the relief and maintenance of the poor, and the support of the charitable institutions of Holland. In Amsterdam, a few days after the arrival of the French, the sum of near forty thousand florins was thus collected for the relief of the indigent of that city; a circumstance not unworthy of being known, as it strongly marks the tranquillity of the place, at a time when it could only be considered as a captured town.
On the sixteenth of February, 1795, a solemn assembly of the deputies from all the provinces was held at the Hague, and at this meeting the stadtholderate was formally declared to be abolished for ever. The same day a republican festival was celebrated, at which the French representatives and the leaders of the army assisted with the Dutch legislators.
At Amsterdam the solemn promulgation of the abolition of the stadtholdership was received with the wildest testimonies of public joy. All business was suspended, to celebrate with proper exultation so auspicious
