guarantee

step led in 1743 to their bein involved in the War of the War of the

Austrlan

Succession.

the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI. This Austrian Succession, and thus being drawn into hostilities th France, which invaded the barrier country. In 1744 they formed with Great Britain, Austria and Saxony, a Quadruple Alliance, and put a contingent of troops

campaign

battle M

Revolu-

IIOH of

I 747.

in the field. The Dutch took an active part in the of 1745 and suffered heavily at Fontenoy, after which arshal Saxe overran the Austrian Netherlands. The French captured all the barrier towns, and in 1747 entered Dutch Flanders and made an easy conquest. The United Provinces, as in 1672, seemed to lie at the mercy of their enemies, and as in that eventful ear

popular feeling broke down the opposition of the burgher oligarchies, and turned to William IV., prince of Orange, as the saviour of the state. John William Friso had died William .

v young in 1711, leaving a posthumous son, William Charles Henry Friso, who was duly elected s tad holder by the two provinces Friesland and Gronin en which were

aluays faithful to his family, and in 1722 he became also, though with very limited powers, s tad holder of Gelderland. The other provinces. however, under pressure from Holland, bound themselves not to elect s tad holders, and they refused to revive the office of captain-general of the Union. By the conquest of Dutch Flanders Zeeland was threatened, and the states of that province, in which there were always many Orange partisans, elected (April 1747) William s tad holder, captain-general and admiral of Zeeland. The example once given was infectious, and was followed in rapid succession by Holland, Utrecht and Overysel. Finally the States-General (May 4) appointed the prince, vsho was the first member of his family to be s tad holder of all the seven provinces, captain and admiral-general of the Union, and a little later these offices were declared hereditary in both the male and female lines.

lliam I ., though not a man of great ability, was sincerely anxious to do his utmost for securing the maintenance of peace, and the development of the resources and commercial Sifffaff prosperity of the country, and his powerful dynastic ¢, ,, ,, ,”e connexions (he had mariied Anne, eldest daughter of George II.) gave him weight in the councils of hurope The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, in which the influence of Great Britain was exerted on behalf of the States, though it nominally restored the old condition of things, left the Provinces crippled by debt, and fallen low from their old position among the nations At first the s tad holder's efforts to promote the trade and welfare of the country were hampered by the distrust and opposition of Amsterdam, and other strong< holds of anti-Orange feeling, and just as his good Qfgfggf intentions were becoming more generally recognized, IV. William unfortunately died, on the 22nd of October I7§ I, aged forty years, leaving his three-year-old son, William , heir to his dign1t1es. The princess Anne of England became regent, but she had a difficult part to play, and on the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in which the gggigg Provinces were determined to maintain neutrality, peg, ” her English leanings brought much unpopularity upon her. She died in 1759, and for the next seven years the regency passed into the hands of the States, and the gox ernment was Practically s tad holder less. In 1766 illiam V. w as declared to be of age; and his accession to pouer was generally vselcomed. He was, however, a weak William ', man, without energy or resolution, and he allowed himself to be entirely led by his old guardian the duke of Brunswick, and by his wife Frederica Wilhelmina of Prussia, a woman of marked ability, to whom he entirely deferred In the American War of Independence Will1am's blnp21f, h1€b were strongly on the English side, while those of the majority of the Dutch people were with the revolted colonies. It is, however, certain that nothing would have driven the Provinces to take part in the u ar but for the overbearing attitude of the British government with regard to the right of neutral shipping upon the seas, and the heavy losses sustained by Dutch commerce at the hands of British privateers. The famous agreement, known as the “Armed Neutrality, ” with which in 178O the States of the continent at the The inst1gat1on of Catherine II. of Russia replied to the Armed maritime claims put forward by Great Britain drew the N°"f Provinces once more into the arena of European politics. tmhty Every effort was made by the English to prevent the Dutch from joining the league, and in this they were assisted by the s tad holder, but at last the States-General, though only by the bare majority of four provinces against three, determined to throw in their lot with the opponents of England. W ith Nothing could have been more unfortunate, for the E;;:, d country was not ready for war, and party spirit was too strong for united action to be taken or vigorous preparations to be made. When war broke out Dutch commerce was destroyed, and the Dutch colonies were at the mercy of the English fleet without the possibility of a blow being struck in their defence. An indecisive, but bravely fought action with Admiral Parker at the Dogger Bank showed, however, that the Dutch seamen had lost none of their old dogged courage, and did much to soothe the national sense of humiliation. In the negotiations of the Treaty of Paris (1783) the Dutch found themselves abandoned by their allies, and compelled gig; of to accept the disadvantageous but not ungenerous terms accorded to them by Great Britain. They had to sacrifice some of their East Indian possessions and to concede to the English freedom of trade in the Eastern seas. One result of this humiliating and disastrous war was the strengthening of the hands of the anti-Orange burgher-regents, who had now arrogated to themselves the name of “ patriots.” It was they, and not the s tad holder, who 1";, fm Iot, , had been mainly responsible for the Provinces joining p, ,., ,, “the Armed Neutrality, ” but the consequences of the war, in which this act had involved them, was largely visited upon the prince of Orange. The “patriot ” party did their utmost to curtail his prerogatives, and harass him with petty insults, and at last the Prussian king was obliged to, ,, , e, ,, e, , interfere to save his niece, who was even more un- tion of popular than her weak husband, from being driven f"°K'f'E°f from the country. In 1784 the emperor Joseph II. P"'”"" took advantage of the dissensions in the Provinces to raise the question of the opening of the Scheldt. He himself was, however, no more prepared for attack than the for defence, but the Dutch had already sunk so low, Republic

that they agreed to pay a heavy indemnity to induce %;Z°;';i" the Austrians to drop a demand they were unable to E, ,, p, ,-¢, ,. enforce. To hold the mouth of the Scheldt and prevent at all costs a revival of Antwerp as a commercial port had been for two centuries a cardinal point of Dutch policy. This difficulty removed, the agitation of the “ patriots ” against the s tad holder ate form of government increased in violence, and William speedily found his position untenable An insult offered to the prince of Orange in 1787 led to an invasion of the country by a Prussian army. Amsterdam;r:, ': ';::, ': capitulated, the country was occupied, and the patriot leaders declared incapable of holding any office. The Orange party was completely triumphant, and William V, under the protection of Prussia and England, with which states the United Provinces were compelled to ally themselves, tion to was restored to power. It was, however, impossible P°W°"°f Restora-

to make the complicated and creaking machinery of W””""' VH the constitution of the worn-out republic of the United Netherlands work smoothly, and in all probability it would have been within a very short time replaced by an hereditary monarchy, had not the cataclysm of the French Revolution swept it away from its path, never to be revived.

When war broke out between the French revolutionary government and the coalition of kings, the Provinces 1-he French remained neutral as long as they could It was not till invade thu Dumouriez had overrun all the Austrian Netherlands N°f"°" in 1702, and had thrown open the passage of the Scheldt, “nas”

that they were drawn 1nto the war. The patriot party sided with