reluctance which I find in persons to deliver their genuine sentiments respecting the present condition of the republic. Complaints of past abuses are frequent and copious; but no approbation accompanies the measures of the present administration of the country; their edicts, or rather the edicts of the French minister, are obeyed in silence: the clamours of the factious are not heard; — but where are the acclamations of a grateful people?
In no town within the territory of the United Provinces was the progress of the French arms, in ninety-four and ninety-five, viewed with more alarm than in Rotterdam. It was a season of general mourning and dismay. The most respectable inhabitants of the town were connected with England either by descent or intermarriage, and all classes of society experienced the benefits of an extensive commerce with the British empire. To this partiality for the enemies of the French republic, they joined a strong attachment to the stadtholderian government, as it was established by the influence of England and Prussia in 1787, and a loyal respect
