the States of Holland formally disavowed Van Berckel and their example was followed by the States-General. Stormont however insisted on the punishment of the Amsterdam offenders, and on the 16th hearing that the States-General had decided to accede to the Armed Neutrality he ordered Sir Joseph Yorke, the English Minister, to quit Holland without taking leave and without waiting for an answer, and himself sent secret orders to seize the Dutch settlements in the West Indies, and at once to sweep the sea of the Dutch ships wherever found. These orders were given several days before Yorke had quitted the Hague.[1] Such is the discreditable history of the rupture between England and Holland. The Administration, deeming itself secure at home and calculating on success abroad, only looked on the plunder of St. Eustatia and the other Dutch settlements as an additional means of increasing their own popularity and that of the American war.
The whole history of these transactions, "the bullying and oppressive conduct pursued by England" towards the Dutch, the contrast it afforded to the offer which shortly before had been made to yield to Russia[2] on the question of Free Ships Free Goods, the peculiar institutions of the Dutch, which taken in connection with the ancient alliance between the two countries was a reason for treating the States-General with great consideration, and the successive diplomatic steps taken during the negotiation, had been already brought before the House of Lords by Shelburne in a speech on the 1st of June 1780.[3] He now returned to the subject, and, while declaring himself, as did Lord Camden, in favour of the old principles of the law of nations if not unduly extended, commented with special severity on the seizure of the Dutch ships, in what was practically a time of peace, and before the English Minister had left the Hague.[4] He reminded the House of the indignation which had been excited throughout Europe against England by the seizure in 1756 of the French
