Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/297

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THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC
285

laws. These pathetic addresses to the nation were ridiculed or disregarded; and wherever torpor and inactivity did not possess men's minds, the spirit which prevailed was hostile to the government and its allies. — The disastrous retreat of the British army is too well known to be dwelt on here!

On the 16th of January, 1795, the English troops precipitately evacuated the province of Utrecht, the capital of which had capitulated the day before; and on the 20th of the same month a deputation of citizens from Amsterdam conducted General Pichegru with five thousand French troops into that city.

Early in the morning of this important day, the patriotic corps of Amsterdam took possession of the stadthouse, and mounted guard in the principal parts of the city. The tri-coloured flag was displayed from all the steeples of the town; the French cockade was universally worn; and the tree of liberty solemnly planted in the square before the stadthouse. So admirably had the whole