conduct with respect to the past shall be noble and generous. It is a great mistake, citizens, to compare the circumstances of France in the course of her revolution, with our's. It was not in France a spirit of revenge for the crimes committed under the old government which occasioned these repeated scenes of terror; but the violent opposition to the revolution itself which occasioned the necessity of a proportionable vigilance to crush all conspiracies. But what opposition, citizens, have we to expect? if a wise and just administration com. pletes this revolution, is not the doctrine of freedom and equality so amiable in itself, so deeply graven in our nature, that it will soon pe. netrate all hearts with irresistible energy? Will not all who have been misled by court artifices re. turn from their error? Let us shew by facts, that a democratical go. vernment, well ordered, is not only possible, but that it is the sole form of government that accords with. the dignity of man; and soon will this order of things be established by universal consent upon the surest foundations. Let us prove the falsehood of all the rumours that have been spread among the mul. titude, whether they proceed (O shame!) from the chair, or from the bosom of the councils, and soon will the multitude itself despise its seducers. Slander painted the doc. trine of freedom and equality, as the immediate source of confusion, and the grave of religion. But, citizens, where will slander now hide her head, when every citizen is protected in his person, in his property; and when the gates of the temples are open to every one, that he may adore our common father in the manner to which he is prompted by the feelings of his heart? These are the lively effects of a wise and philosophic policy, which can and ought happily to accomplish this revolution. All the political dissentions, all the revolutions that have taken place in this state since its origin, vanish before so interesting a revolution as the present. They were only disputes between party and party; trials of skill for the most part between knaves and knaves; in which the people had no part to play but the part of the dupe. To-day it is the cause of the people itself in which we labour, in which you all ought to labour. To-day it is not a fac tion, but the nation herself, who is victorious. We must direct our views, not to the welfare of a few despots, but to the happiness of the whole nation. Let us then always, citizens, consider our revolution under this important regard. Let us endeavour to give it such a direction that it shall be in vain to seek to foment, new political dissentions; let the example of our deposed despots be to us a lesson to avoid the base as well as the impolitic faults they have committed. Have their sense. less persecutions made the prisons of this country cry for vengeance, and the complaints of the Dutch become fugitives in all parts of the world, call forth curses upon their administration? Let us make it our glory to convince Europe, that it is the Dutch nation, and not a fac tion, that now triumphs; that it is the cause of freedom and equality, not the spirit of revenge and destruction; in short, that sound policy w reigns on one side to P 4 make make a cordial offer of the right hand of fellowship to her stray brethren, and not to drive them to despair; on the other, to hoid high the sword of punishment, in order to strike the first traitor that henceforth shall presume to oppose the freedom and supremacy of the people. For though the first part of this alternative be the true end of the real friend of humanity, the other ought no less to fix the attention of the severe republican, that those who lie in ambush against freedom, may see even from afar, that their actions are carefully watch. ed, and that the nation which so generously pardons, is ready to in. flict exemplary punishment on criminals the moment her freedom is attacked. Such, citizens, are the motives of the conduct we have pursued; such is the rule of our actions. We believe that a firm adherence to this system is the only method of completing the revolution, and of fixing the universal national happi ness on the soil of Batavia. Decreed the 11th of February, G. BRENDER. Proclamation of the Council of State in the Regency of Neufchatel, a Prussian Principality in Switzerland. THE council of state having lately taken into consideration the case of French emigrants hitherto tolerated in this country from sen. timents of humanity, and perceiving with some inquietude the increasing scarcity of provisions, and that the conduct of some among the emigrants is very censurable and direly in defiance of our public orders, by keeping up upon the frontiers of France secret intelli. gence, and by committing acts of violence, which tend to disturb the present tranquillity of the state and good neighbourhood. The council having given attention to the duty it owes to the Helvetic association of this sovereignty, from which results its present happy neutrality, it is judged indispen sable for the good of the state, which ought to be the first object of our solicitude, to order the ge. neral expulsion of the above-named emigrants before the 1st of April next. In pursuance of which, the proper officers are directed in the first instance, to make out immediately a new list of French emigrants who reside in their respective jurisdic. tions, particularizing the age, sex, and vocation of each, and likewise the name of the person at whose house they live, and to send this list with as much dispatch as pos. sible to the council of state. In the second place, they are directed to have this edict publicly read at the conclusion of divine service next Sunday, in cach place of public worship, in order that such emi. grants may prepare themselves to obey it, and that those at whose houses they reside may not hereafter pretend ignorance; and if any emigrants shall be found in this country after the period fixed, they shall be expelled by an es cort, as dangerous and suspicious people. The council also apprises those ir those who harbour emigrants, that if any such person shall be found under their protection, after the time fixed for their departure, every person giving that protection, will be regarded as connivers in the disobedience to this edict, and will be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law, as enemies to the public welfare. Finally, the council declares, that if such emigrants, before their departure, dare to commit any act of violence on the territory of France, they shall be apprehended and given up to the French. Given in council held under our presidence in the castle of Neufchatel, the 27th of Ja Declaration of the Prince of Orange. THE prince of Orange has hitherto thought it unnecessary to publish the motives which induced him to absent himself for some time from his country, being con. vinced that no person cold, with any shadow of justice, accuse him of the smallest crime in having quitted the territories of the provinces of Holland, after the states of that province had thought proper to send deputies to the commanders of the enemy's forces to capitulate, or rather to submit to them; but the resolution taken by the pretended States General the 24th of February last, on the motion made in that assembly the 31st of January by the deputies of the pretended provisional representatives of the people of Holland, having come to his knowledge, in which they thought proper to abolish the office of stadtholder, captain general and hereditary admiral, with which this prince was invested, alleging, as a motive for this resolution, that he himself had abdicated them, he feels it incumbent on himself to be, no longer silent, and to repel this calumny by a simple and exact statement of the facts which preceded and rendered necessary his departure from the territories of the United States. The inundations formed for the defence of the republic, and in particular for that of the province of Holland (as well as the rivers in that country), being frozen in December last, there no longer remained any means of defending the provinces of Utrecht and Hol. land, after the retreat of the army commanded by general count Wal moden from the borders of the Waal and of the Rhine; the troops of the state, which might have. been employed in the defence of these two provinces, being reduced (as well by hardships which the army sustained during the last cam. paign, as by sickness) to too small a number to garrison sufficiently those posts which it was necessary should be occupied in order to prevent the enemy from penetrating. It must here be observed, that a great part of the troops which were in these two provinces could not be employed against the enemy, in virtue of the capitulations which many places had made, and in which it was stipulated that their garrisons should be sent into the interior of the republic, after having sworn not to serve against the armies of France during the war until they were exchanged. The states of Utrecht therefore, thought it right to capitulate on Friday the 16th of January, after having some days before informed the States General of their intention, and found themselves obliged to submit to those conditions which the conqueror thought fit to grant it will suffice to state, that the states of that province having requested that their constitution and form of government might be preserved, would only provisionally agree to it, which afforded no security for the future. The prince of Orange being informed, that the states of the pro. vinces of Holland were about to adopt the same resolution on the same day, found himself under the necessity of sending away the princesses his wife and daughter-inlaw, with the prince his grandson, on board a fishing-boat, on Sunday morning the 18th of January, and was himself obliged to follow them on the same day (with the two princes his sons), which however he did not do till he had acquainted the States General, as also the states of the Seven Provinces, and of the country of Dronthe, with his intended departure; writing to them, "That he easily foresaw, from the present situation of the republic, what lot he must expect if the enemy should penetrate further into the country; and, not wishing to be any obstacle to peace, he had resolved to absent himself and his family for a time from the territories of the states, and hoped that their high mightinesses would approve of this step." It should here be remarked, that the prince did not depart till after his letter had been read, as well in the assembly of the States General as in that of the state of Holland; that his departure from the Hague and his embarkation were fully known to both assemblies, who did not take any step to oppose the measure; and that his departure did not take place till the states of Holland had resolved to capitulate, and had required it in their name, from the prince of Orange, as captain-general of that province, an officer and a trumpet to an nounce the commission from the states of Holland, who were to repair to the general of the enemy to ascertain what articles should form a capitulation for that province. The prince knew their deputies were commissioned not to make any difficulties, but to yield to every article. The same day after the prince had notified his intention of quitting the Dutch territories, four members of the college of counsellors, deputed by Holland, demanded an audience of the prince, and begged he would hasten his departure; that they could give no reply to any thing; and that even if it was insisted upon in the French general's answer that the prince and his family should not be permitted to quit the country, they would be under the necessity of taking measures to prevent their departure, especially in case the French general, or the commissioners of the national conven. tion, should require that the colhege of the deputed counsellors should be made responsible, if the prince absented himself before the arrival of the French troops. After such a declaration the prince of Orange thought it no longer safe to remain at the Hague, and embarked at Scheveling on board a fishing-boat. Having consulted the marine officers and pilot who were on board the vessel what course he should steer, they were unanimously of opinion that the best plan would be be to make for an English port. The prince, before he quitted the road of Scheveling, wrote to M. Van Spiegel, counsellor pensionary of the province of Holland, with the opinion of the marine officers and pilot of the above-mentioned vessel, signed by them. The counsellor pensionary having commu. nicated the same to their high mightinesses, they, by their resolution of the 19th of January, approved of the prince of Orange's de. parture, as a measure of absolute necessity; declaring, moreover, that they were desirous of hearing of that prince's safe arrival in one of the ports of the kingdom of Great Britain on board a ship of war be. longing to the states, and that he might shortly be able to return to the republic, in order to continue assisting them with his counsel and presence for the maintenance of the independence and constitution of the republic. The prince's intention, of which he had already informed M. Van de Spiegel, pensionary counsellor, in his letter, was to in form himself, during his stay in England, of the situation of affairs, as well in the provinces of Zeeland as in the provinces of Friezland and Groningen, and to embark on board a ship of war of the states for either of those provinces in which it should appear his presence might be most useful. It is right to ob. serve, that all correspondence be tween those provinces and the Hague was at that time intercepted, not only by the enemy but by the frost. As soon as the states of Holland had resolved to admit forces ini. mical to the republic of the United Provinces into the place where the States General were assembled, and had given orders to their different garrisons no longer to oppose the progress of the French, the prince of Orange was desirous that the States General, to whom this reso lution had been communicated, should determine to dissolve their assembly, and to call it together again in one of the provinces which had not submitted to the yoke of the conqueror. The States General thought pros per to remain assembled in a place where the enemy's troops, joined by a number of malcontents, deprived them of the liberty of deliberating and doing what the public good required. The French troops having ar rived at the Hague, the States General were compelled to do every thing that was exacted from them. The deputics lawfully named by the provinces of Holland were obliged to quit that assembly, and have been replaced by deputies named by those who havs taken upon themselves the supreme power of that province, under the name of provisional representatives of the people. These latter being ad mitted into the assembly of the States General, that assembly ceases to be legal, and the resolutions taken since that time cannot be considered as resolutions dictated by the real States General. The prince of Orange's design was, as has already been observed, to go into Zeeland, as soon as he should have received information relative to the situation of affairs in that province, hoping that his presence there might be useful. But the States General having given orders soon after the prince's departure, and nearly at the time of the arrival of the French troops at the Hague, to the commanding officers of Bergen-op-Zoom, Breda, |