Dear Countrymen, THE unjust and destructive war in which we have been involved by the British miniftry cannot but attract our whole attention. It is the first object of our folicitude, that by our courage and prudence in the conduct of it, we may procure an honourable peace, firmly eftablish our freedom, and maintain the independence of the state, and the glory of our ancestors. Our navy, under divine providence, is the natural and only means to fet bounds to the immeafurable infolence of the British miniftry, and to defend our country against their treacherous conduct and cruel treatment. To this object the endeavours of the best patriots have been uniformly directed fince the time when our heavy chains were broken by the affiftance of our French brethren, fince the day when the Stadtholder left the Batavian fhores, the day when we began to breathe a freer air, and were at liberty to exert ourselves for the improvement of the fources of our profperity, our trade, our fisheries, our navigation, our colonies, and our manufactures. By their navy, fellow citizens, did our ancestors become great. The Batavian flag was known, feared, and honoured in each of the four quarters of the world. Under our late government it was infulted, and became the ridicule of nations. It is therefore our first duty to restore our matine. The zeal of the committee of marine has done much, where nothing fcarcely had before been done. Its exertions were inceffant. Eut in the prefent ftate of our navy, all hands feem to have loft the habits, and all hearts the inclination neceffary for the fervice. The Batavian youth are no longer accuftomed to the laboufs requifite on board the armed fleets of their country. Is our nation then lefs brave, lefs indignant against its enemies; or do we lefs love our native land than in the time of a Ruyter or a Tromp? -No, fellow citizens, no; far from us be fuch a thought! We rely with confidence on your patriotism, and cannot doubt but you will act with vigour in the prefent critical fituation of our country; for why fhould we conceal that fuch is our fituation, when to make it known muft procure the remedy? fhips, which are very numerous, and more than fufficient to secure us a fuperiority in our seas, and to cut off from the enemy all fupplies of provifions and ftores from the north, and thus compel them to peace-our thips are in want of men. The recruitings proceed with langour, and the measures hitherto taken have had little effect. Nor fhould this excite our wonder: they were of a partial nature, and not in confequence of the expreffion of the will of the affembly, reprefentative of the whole Batavian republic. This will is now made Our known: known: fupported by you it fhall deliver our country. Let the people be called together in all the towns and villages of the Netherlands. Let the example of Haerlem be proposed to them; that town fo zealous for liberty, that it has already raised two hundred young men for the navy. Let all the conftituted authorities remind the Batavian youth, that their country looks up to them for her defence; they will not be deaf to her call. The time of oppreffion is paft. The fleet of the republic is under the command of true patriots, who do not confider their comrades as flaves, but as fellow citizens.The attention of the reprefentatives of the people will be continually directed to provide for the wants of the mariner, and they will confider the rewarding of heroism and faithful fervice, as the moft pleafing part of their great labours. Let, therefore, fathers exhort their fons; fifters, their brothers; and people in general, the youth of the country, to acts of heroifm, and to engage in the naval fervice, to maintain the honour of the Batavian flag, and defend their native land. When they fhall thus nobly have fulfilled their duty, they will find their reward in our tender care for them and their relatives, in the approbation of every noble mind, and the congratulations and gratitude of all their countymen. the VAN DE CASTEELE. Manifefto against Great Britain, by the National Aembly reprefenting the Batavian Nation. THE Batavian nation, once more unjustly attacked by the kingdom of Great Britain, has juft taken up arms. This nation, so often ill treated, oppreffed, trod upon, and pillaged, under the mafk of friendfhip, now animated and excited by liberty, and at length breathing for the first time after so long an interval, refumes the primitive energy of its brave and valorous character, courageoufly rears its head, and will no longer fuffer its profperity to be undermined by envious neighbours. It will no longer allow itself to be dragged in the duft; and it will ceafe to be the fport of the infamous and ambitious minifters of England, who, by the dazzle of piratical treasures, blind the English nation, which fancies itself to be free, with respect to the terrible calamities they have brought on Europe, and on the whole of the human race. Batavian people will defend their rights and their independence; they will fave their country from the ruin by which it is threatened. The the Will Europe ftill doubt, that the Batavian republic has not rightfully drawn the fword from fheath, when the is conftrained to a juft defence? Will Europe ftill doubt that the Batavian republic has been led to the very brink of utter deftruction, by the difaftrous policy of the fame miniftry? Will Europe ftill doubt that the regenerated Batavian republic will not, with the help of its illuftricus ally, vigorously repel the arrogant domination of the English cabinet, and will not confolidate the liberty fo dearly and perilously acquired, at the expence even of all by which the is interefted? When England attempted, by the force of arms, to fubjugate her American colonies, which the had driven to a juft infurrection, and when when the fcourge of war extended as elsewhere, our neutral territory. to other empires, the ftates general of the united provinces were careful to obferve a ftrict neutrality; they did not fuffer Dutch veffels to tranfport any other commodities to America, thofe excepted which were declared free by the exprefs terms of treaties. The most efficacious precautions were carefully taken to prevent war-like ftores from being conveyed to the American colonies, as well as to prevent any fraudulent commerce from being carried on withthem; precautions which did not a little fhackle and injure our own commerce to the West Indies.. It availed the republic, however, but little, to obferve the conditions of treaties with exactnefs, as to what was by them prohibited; the English minifters confulting merely their temporary convenience, went fo far as to difpute what these very treaties allowed; they would not fuffer the republic to enjoy thofe very advantages of treaty which England herself had enjoyed in a fimilar case; but violating the rights of nations, they condemned the cargoes as prizes to the crown, and employed the materials in the royal arfenals; other veffels were forfeited by the arbitrary fentences of partial courts of juftice. The privateers and armed fhips of England, feeing that their piracies were legalized, multiplied their depredations, and the merchant veifels of Holland daily became the victims of their brutalities. Finally, the atrocities of the British minifters were carried to fuch a point, that they no longer refpected the flag of the ftates, but carried a convoy of Dutch veffels into the ports of England, declaring fhips Fichly laden to be lawful prizes, and violating, as well in Europe The only mode which could be adopted to put a stop to these unprecedented injuries, without, however, breaking with the kingdom of Great Britain, was employed by their high mightineffes.— This mode cónfifted in joining with all poffible speed the alliance of the three northern powers, concerted by the emprefs of Ruffia, and deftined to protect, by the force of arms, the rights of the neutral nations, each of them more or lefs violated by England. Their high mightineffes, we say, would have acceded to this treaty, had not an obftacle been thrown in the way by the perfidious machinations of the English cabinet. This was the fignal which led England to break every tie, to dif tribute letters of marque for making reprifals on the inhabitants of the republic and their poffeffions, and to declare open war against the United States. A miniftry to which all means were alike, could not want pretexts for that purpose. It was not at the fame time difficult for their high mightineffes to demonftrate the frivolity of all these pretended grievances; but what purpofe could this anfwer with a rapacious, obftinate, and unjust miniftry, which was defirous to revenge on a peaceable ally the lofs of the British colonies, and to appeafe, for a time at leaft, by the booty obtained by an unforeseen attack, the murmurs of the English nation? It was foon after learned, that the fquadrons and armed veffels of England captured, by virtue of orders already furnished, the Dutch veffels they fell in with beyond feas, without the fimallett fufpicion on our fide, and against the faith of treaties. 1 treaties. We learned the cruel manner in which the island of St. Euftatia was devastated, by feizing on the poffeffions of the merchants, which, when collected, formed treasures; while richly laden veffels returning from the ocean, were furprifed unawares in the channel by fmall veffels, which readily made them their prey. By fuch vile means, unworthy of a generous nation, did the British minifters difhonour the flag of their king; for can it be confidered in any other point of view, than that of acting, under the royal flag, the part of pirates? The Batavian republic was at length, after so many loffes, forced to provide for her defence, to maintain her rights and independence by the dint of arms, and to protect her commerce and her poffeffions. Ah! if she could then have combated under the banners of liberty, how would the English miniftry have repented of its rafhnefs and perfidy! But the English cabinet knew all its influence in this country. It was aware that it could fucceed in thackling within the republic the preparations of war: it was certain of finding in Holland partizans who would contrive to put into his poffeflion our fhips of war, and who would find the means to prevent the difplay of all our ftrength. The event foon proved that the English minifters were not mistaken. They mocked our feeble efforts, which, even before they they were carried into effect, were paralized in their outfet by the adherents they had in this country. These adherents fupplied them with intelligence of all that was concerting here. Supported by the Stadtholderian influence, they even contrived to render nugatory the orders given by their high mightineffes for the junction of the Batavian squadron with the French fleet. It was eafy for the English miniftry, after fuch treafons, to obtain fucceffes in that war. And this is what they call glory! But when a particular occafion prefented itself-when a fleet belonging to the ftates accidentally met with an opportunity. to difplay its courage and its valour, the Batavian mariners, although novices in fighting, proved that they had not degenerated from the bravery of their ancettors. They drove the English fleet, covered with confufion and fhame, into its own port, without having loft one of the merchant vessels they had under convoy. A war carried on in fuch a way neceffarily terminated in a treaty of peace burthenfome to the States. Inftead of being indemnified for the incalculable loffes they had fuftained in their commerce, they confidered themselves as fortunate to be enabled by the speedy affistance of the French forces, which checked the English in the two Indies, to fave a part of their poffeffions; while they found themfelves obliged to yield to the enemy the important factory of Negapatnam on the coaft of Coromandel; and to allow to British veffels the free navigation of the coafts of the Molucca iflands, notwithstanding it might have been forefeen that the navigation of the English in thole feas would tend to nothing less than the complete deftruction of our trade in the East Indies. We shall not enter into details concerning what paffed in the fequel, when the Batavian nation, feeing how much its interefts were conftantly cenftantly every where facrificed to thofe of its ancient rival, even by the perfons appointed to defend its rights, meditated a fundamental regeneration in the form of the government. We shall not retrace how England, knowing that the limitation of the fcandalous ufurpation of power and influence, on the part of the Stadtholder, would alfo diminish its influence in this republic. How, we fay, the British miniftry, far from interceding for the Batavian nation, or coming to its fuccour, when legions of foreign troops feized on these countries, committing the moft atrocious disorders, pillages, and violences, confidered, on the contrary, this devastation and this oppression with a malignant fatisfaction; and concurred, when the mifchief was completed, in guaranteeing, in a folemn manner, the fyftem off a tyranny which refulted from it. When the French nation, wearied with the infupportable tyranny of kings, fhook off its yoke, and formed itself into an independent republic, the British minifters thought that they could not have a better opportunity to difmember a part of that fine empire. They accordingly united in the treaty concluded at Pilnitz, on the 27th of Auguft, 1791, by the princes of Germany. The French republic, well knowing that that of the United Provinces of the Netherlands would be constrained by England to take a part in this plot againft its liberty, declared war against the British minifters, as well as against their fubject William V. ftadtholder of the Seven United Provinces, and his partizans.-It is thus that the Batavian nation was once more drawn against its will into this bloody war by its dependence on those fame ministers: its treasures were lavished, and its arsenals nearly emptied, to aid the extravagant plans of Pitt and his cabal. Auxiliary English troops were fent to this republic, and when a defeat, fuftained near the Meufe by a part of the French army, had procured a momentary advantage, the army of the States was forced to pafs the limits of our frontiers, and those of France, and to wage an offenfive war on the French territory. Soon, however, the victorious French repulfed their enemies on all fides, and from day to day the armies of England and the States retrograded towards our frontiers. The republic found itself on the brink of its ruin, fince appearances pointed out that the theatre of war would be removed to the very heart of its provinces, and all the country inundated. Never were the States in fo critical a position fince the war with Spain; but this danger brought about their deliverance; Providences defeated the perfidious plans of its enemies, who were defirous rather that the republic fhould be deftroyed than that it fhould be free. When the froft permitted the croffing of the rivers, the valorous French troops drove before them the English bands with fo much speed, that the latter had not time to effect their infernal defign; they fled, but their road was traced by fire and pillage. It was nothing but their speedy and precipitate retreat that preferved the republic from a total devaftation. We foon witneffed the extraordinary |