into the ports of the republic, a contract was agreed upon between some members of the executive body and a mercantile house in Rotterdam to furnish the requisition of clothing for the French army by an importation of cloth from England; and accordingly eight thousand French soldiers were clothed from the looms of Yorkshire; when, if a single yard had been discovered on board a private trader's vessel, he would have been liable to the severest penalties and confiscations.
Shortly after the commencement of hostilities with England, a singular system of depredation was successfully practised against the underwriters of London and Amsterdam, by merchants of wealth and reputation in this place. They were the real, though of course not the nominal, owners of privateers which sailed under the flag of the French republic, and having insured vessels in Amsterdam and London, the ships so secured and the privateers sailed from the Maese together, and an amicable capture ensued. The condemnation of property so
