(Signed) G. L. ROUSE,

B. P. VAN LELYVELD. Undersigned, by reason of the absence of the greffier.

Proclamation at the Hague, 11th Pluviose, 30 January, 1795, the third Year of the French Republic, one and indivisible.

THE representatives of the French people, with the armies of the North, the Sambre, and the Meuse, decree as follows:

Art. 1. All goods, both moveable and immoveable, ships, merchandize, claims, and property of any kind whatever, belonging to governments at war with the French republic, or of French emigrants; likewise those of priests, monks, members of churches, or spiritual corporations, having emigrated from the conquered provinces be. tween the Rhine and the sea; also all goods whatever given in trust by members of churches and corporations, are seized and confiscated for the benefit of the French repub

lic.

2. All such persons as are debtors, concealers, or detainers of what is mentioned in the above article, are to give inventories of the same to the magistrates of their circuits, within eight days after the publication of these presents.

All such as neglect to conform themselves to it, are to pay a fine of double the value of the article of

which they have not given in any

account as above stated.

The fourth part of the fine, and likewise one-fourth of the value of The goods not declared, shall belong to the discoverers and informers.

3. An agent-general shall be ap

pointed for all the United Provinces, who is to collect all the above inventories, and dispose of the things mentioned therein, according to the instructions he shall receive

from the representatives of the people. The magistrates are to deliver to him all the declarations made to

them.

4. It is forbidden to accept of any notes or bills of exchange, or to make any negotiations or loans for or on account of governments at war with the French republic, upon pain of confiscation of the whole value of such objects.

The transgressors of this shall be considered and dealt with as ene mies of the French republic.

5. It is forbidden to all civil and militay agents of the French re. public, to seize upon any treasure belonging to towns, communes, or to the government of the United Netherlands, upon pain of arrest.

6. What has been decreed by these presents shall be addressed to the States General, desiring them to send it to the respective states of the United Provinces, in order to be printed in both languages, and to be sent to, and posted up, without delay, in all the towns, communes, and ports of the United Provinces. Signed upon the original,

NS. HAUSSMANN, JOUBERT, and ROBERJOT. Conformable to the original,

(Signed) Ns. HAUSSMANN.

last, you established us your provisional representatives, at the instance of the revolutionary committee, and when you called us to the town-house to take on us the provisional government of this city, we resolved that no difficulty whatever should deter us from accepting that awful trust in a moment so important.

The apprehension of the terrible consequences which might be drawn on by anarchy were of but short duration for of the lively sense we entertained of the dis order, confusion, and despair, which would infallibly result from it, we drew so strong and melancholy a picture, that all opposition, even the most well founded, vanished before it. The just fear of our faculties being perhaps unequal to a task so difficult; the sacrifice of our occupations, of our repose, and of our domestic enjoyments; all these gave way to this single decisive consideration, that your interests, and your security, required an immediate administration: and that if we desired to withdraw from that with which you charged us provisionally, we really would render our selves responsible for all the horrors that anarchy might bring upon us. Citizens, such have been our motives, such have been our views. It is in them we confide, in the purity of our intentions, in a cause the most sacred, the most just, the most sublime of all causes, that of liberty; it is in these we trust, and above all, in the assistance of the Almighty, whom we adore without superstition, and in the respectful hope of his approbation, we have courageously undertaken the arduous task which you have imposed on us.

Our first work, citizens, has been to declare solemnly, and with a lively emotion, that the sacred principles of justice and of equity should be the sole guide of our actions: that no base motive of vengeance, that no consideration different from those principles should influence our conduct; and that the preservation of order in a city so populous, that the security of persons and of property against all attack, under whatever pretext or colour, should be with us the order of the day during our provisional administration.

How flattering and consolatory must it be to us, dear citizens! to have been able to accomplish this great object of our appointment! How happy is it for you, and all of us, that the sublime cause of liberty has not been sullied by any irregularity! How honourable for humanity, that at the dawn of liberty this town has been the theatre of the most pure sentiments of joy and fraternity, and not of those of animosity, of hatred, and of vengeance! What sweet emotions does not the true patriot and the friend of humanity feel in being able to say, that in a city so populous as Amsterdam, we have, in the moment of the restoration of li berty, seen tears of joy flow, but not one drop of the blood of our fellow citizens! What an admi. rable example for our Batavian brethren in the other cities of the republic! The Batavians shew themselves generous in the midst of their victories: they forget, they despise the injuries that have been done to them; they cordially hold out the hand of fraternity to all those who have erred: they seek not vengeance nor pillage,

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but

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but liberty: they are generous in respect to the past, but they will punish the more severely the fu. ture offences against the cause of freedom.

Such, citizens, are our prin ciples: you have shewn by your steady and tranquil conduct that they are also your's: it is to them that you owe the quiet of this city; and the great end of our provisional administration is fulfilled.

It is time then, citizens, as we, think, to terminate our administration; and cordially thanking you all for the confidence you have testified in us, we return into the class of our fellow-citizens, and remit into their hands the powers you have given us: let ambitious tyrants, let cowards in posts, into which they have intruded themselves, endeavour to support their usurped authority by a thousand secret plots; the true patriot knows no post more noble, nor no place more elevated, than the state of a citizen, and he remits with satisfaction his powers into the bosom of those from whom he received them.

But though every thing goes on with order at present, previous to resigning our administration there must be made, in a regular man. ner, and in a proper place for that object, an appeal to all the citi. zens and inhabitants of this city, on purpose that they may choose for their supreme administration a proper number of representatives who may be able to replace us, under the name of a municipality, or under any other name whatever; and who chosen by your voice, freely given, to be the presentatives of the people of

Amsterdam, may take care of your interests, and constitute all the subdivisions of the administrations of this city, and its different branches, in such manner as the nature of things shall require. In the mean time, the different committees shall remain in their func. tions till the assembly which will replace us shall have made in that respect the proper arrangements.

For these reasons, and to the end that the appeal to the citizens, and the manner of voting for the election of new representatives may be conducted in a manner, the least subject to corruption, to confusion, or to illicit influence, we have thought it our duty, as your provisional representatives, and for accomplishing this desirable end, to make use of the understanding of all the patriots, and to summon them by the love they have for their country to send us, in the space of fifteen days after this publication, detailed plans on the manner of calling the citizens together, and of taking their suf. frages; subjoining to them that which relates to the age and the other qualifications required for exercising the right of voting; the number of members, of which the assembly of the representatives of this city ought to be composed, and the name most becoming for it to bear, on purpose that the provisional representatives, after ma ture deliberation, and after taking the advice of the different com. mittees on the plan best calculated for attaining the end we have proposed to you, and after having agreed on one, may put it in execution.

Proclaimed and published at Amsterdam, February, 3, 1795,

the

the first year of Batavian liberty.

By order of the provisional representatives of Amsterdam,

R. W. TADAMa, Sec.

Second Proclamation by the same. LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY.

Citizens,

THE assembly of provisional representatives of the commune of Amsterdam having received, from time to time, and on the part of different citizens, demands, tending to the embracing of measures which would put into a state of arrest in general the former meinbers of the now-abolished govern. ment, and other suspected per sons; the assembly has not only been constantly of opinion that it ought not to embrace such measures, but it also thinks itself obliged to explain to all its compatriots in general, and to the inhabitants of Amsterdam in particular, whom it represents, what is its manner of thinking on a subject of this importance, and what are the principles on which its opinion is founded.

We shall set out, citizens, with declaring, that we neither could nor would, for a single moment, suppose that the repeated instances of a part of our fellow-citizens to make us take rigorous measures, could proceed from any motive of hatred or revenge. The Dutch, from the very moment when they first broke their chains, gave to astonished Europe too grand an example of generosity and huma. nity, to let us believe that they would sully that glory in the mo. ments of tranquillity, by avenging themselves on a set of humbled

despots, deprived of all strength. He deserves not to triumph who basely abuses his victory. He alone can promise himself the constant and agreeable fruits of victory, who makes his vanquished foes blush by his justice and generosity, and convinces them that they are the persons who have chosen the worst side of the cause to defend. Citizens, generosity and justice. carry with them irresistible force. Nothing can save the cause of our country but a constant adherence

to these virtues. The exercise of

revenge may afford a transitory pleasure in the moments of passion and delirium, but its conse. quences are commonly sad and fatal, while the exercise of equity and of generosity leaves nothing but agreeable sensations.

Such, citizens, are our senti. ments; such ought to be your's. Real guardians of freedom and equality, you are capable of perceiving their value and their force; and woe betide the country if this doctrine shall not become the universal doctrine of the nation..

Since then, citizens, we cannot differ on these principles, it will be easy to convince the virtuous patriot, that the system which we have adopted in our assembly, is in effect the only one that agrees with the real interests of the country.

Let us begin by presenting to your view the great end that every honest man, and above all, every citizen entrusted with any public authority, ought to propose to him. self. This end ought to be, to settle this revolution upon the most immoveable foundations, to the end that all the inhabitants of the land may feel the permanent bene P 3 fits

fits of the social life under the administration founded on the principles of freedom and equality.See here, citizens, the great end that a good man ought perpetually to have before his eyes; and he, who has other views, whether he be placed in the senate, whether he labour in another sphere, or whether he be in a private situation (the most enviable, doubtless, of all situ. ations) plays, under the mask of patriotism, the part of an hypocrite, and a deceiver of the people.

But how to attain this end! No method more likely than to shew on the one hand, grandeur and generosity with respect to the past; on the other, to be severe and inexorable to all attempts against freedom and the supremacy of the people. Citizens, philosophers of all nations and ages have invariably judged, that when civil dissentions are over, the conquering party has always been guilty of injustice, when it has thought worthy of punishment actions which the chiefs of the conquered party have done to maintain their cause, and has, in consequence of these principles, set on foot a general persecution.Actions, which are at all times criminal; actions, which are morally bad, independently of all politi. cal relations, and consequently al. ways punishable, are then the only ones that can, according to the principles of justice, be taken into consideration. These are also the only actions which a righteous judge, whose judgment ought not to be directed by any influence of political passions, will esteem criminal and worthy of punishment; and not those actions which we at present most justly consider as high. ly pernicious,, but which have been

committed under the eyes, and with the plenary approbation of the preceding government.

If we reject these principles, there is no longer security for any human action; and let it not be dissembled, that he who preaches a contrary doctrine, proclaims in effect the right of the strongest, and consequently the favourite right of tyrants.

Let none imagine, citizens, that the true interest of the nation can, either in this point of veiw, or in any other, differ from the rules of justice. Never do the true interests of a nation exact the slightest de viation from the rules of justice ́ and good faith, under whatsoever pretext. Our country will support itself or be crushed, as it shall adopt or reject these truths. The system of terror, already quite ba nished from the French republic, cannot be tolerated a single instant in that spot of the earth where we live; it would sink us in ruin for ever. Our political constitution, our local situation, our commercial relations, are all circumstances too delicate to support repeated scenes of violence and political shocks.

Cast your eyes, citizens, upon the state of the finances of your country, of your city. Will it not require all the zeal, all the elasticity of a commercial nation, to fill your exhausted coffers ? But are this zeal and this elasticity compatible with a system of terror? Doubtless not: in bringing to perfection this revo lution, one sort of terror only ought to be tolerated: terror to those who have the hardiness and malice to undertake any thing against the revolution. The most severe penalties against such men will be so much the more equitable, as our

Conduct