A Tour Through the Batavian Republic/Letter XV
LETTER XV.
DURING this arduous period, the provisional representatives of Amsterdam laboured incessantly to preserve the tranquillity of the city, and their patriotic endeavours were attended with the happiest success. Some slight disturbances were attempted by an inconsiderable number of misled or ill-disposed persons, who thinking the reign of liberty and equality was to bring an exemption from taxes, refused to pay the taxes and duties required by the government. This tendency to riot was, without difficulty, suppressed, and a proclamation appeared commanding all persons to pay in every case the same contributions and imposts as formerly. At the same time the officers of the excise and customs, and all public functionaries employed in the collection of revenue, were commanded to remain at their post; and it was ordered that no magistrate or officer under the old system of police should quit Amsterdam, without having previously obtained a passport from the committee of inspection.
Some weeks before the arrival of the French, a deputation of merchants in the patriotic interest waited on the directors of the bank of Amsterdam, to ascertain the truth or falsehood of some rumours highly prejudicial to the credit of that institution, which were circulated with confidence in the city. The merchants respectfully applied to the directors for information on the subject, but instead of receiving the satisfactory answers to their enquiries which they had a right to expect, they were assured in a general way of the solvency of the bank; and it was intimated to them, that their enquiries were made only for the purposes of exciting alarm and adding to the public embarrassments.
A few years ago, the bank of Amsterdam was supposed to contain the greatest quantity of accumulated treasures in the world. It was accounted the store-house of Europe for the precious metals: and various estimates have been formed of its wealth, from the incredible sum of forty millions sterling[1], to the equally suspicious estimate of three hundred thousand pounds. The bank of Amsterdam was a bank of deposit, and the credit on its books was thought to be rigorously proportioned with the treasures in its coffers. This was indeed the spirit of the institution; for though the vulgar idea was unfounded, that no money once deposited in this bank could ever afterwards be withdrawn, it invariably professed to keep in its repositories a quantity of money or bullion equal to the sums for which credit was given on its books. In 1672, when the forces of Lewis XIV. almost thundered at the gates of Amsterdam, and the republic was filled with consternation, all demands on the bank were honourably and instantaneously discharged, and the proofs of its solvency ostentatiously displayed.
From that period, till again in 1795 the armies of France hovered on the frontiers of the republic, the bank of Amsterdam enjoyed an almost uninterrupted course of commercial confidence. The magistrates of various parties, to whose integrity the direction of the bank was successively intrusted, never accused their predecessors of any improper use of its treasures; and, therefore, though some suspicions were entertained and propagated that the bank occasionally accommodated the government with specie, these suspicions, being discountenanced by the persons possessed of the best information on the subject, were disregarded as the effects of party malice. It was also a kind of commercial heresy to doubt the stability of the bank of Amsterdam; and therefore all rumours to its disadvantage were not only received by the mercantile world with coldness, but repressed with acrimony.
The arrival of the French in Amsterdam, and the establishment of the patriotic party in power, at length produced a complete investigation of the affairs of the bank. It appeared from the official report, published by order of the provisional representatives of Amsterdam, on this subject[2], that for the last fifty years the bank had occasionally advanced on bond to the India company, under guarantee of the city of Amsterdam, various sums, amounting on the whole to upwards of six million florins. In a similar way the provinces of Holland and West Friesland were indebted to the bank nearly a million florins. The loan-office of Amsterdam had contracted with the bank a debt of one million seven hundred and fifty thousand florins, and the city was otherwise in arrears with the bank upwards of four hundred thousand florins. The whole amounting to upwards of nine million florins, or rather more than eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. For the whole of this sum there had originally been investments of cash or bullion in the bank, to remove one florin of which, by way of loan, was a violation of the compact between the bank and its creditors. But if the money so disposed of, instead of being hoarded up in the coffers of the bank, in a duplicate ratio increased the circulating medium of the country, efficiently by the cash so issued from the strong chests of the bank, and virtually by the credit which it possessed from the imaginary treasure lodged in it, giving confidence and activity to commerce, and facilitating all the operations of trade, in a mercantile point of view, the conduct of the directors, in thus departing from the letter of their establishment, was to be applauded rather than condemned.
The merchants of Amsterdam, however, thought otherwise. This deficiency in the sacred deposits of the bank excited the most vivid indignation against all who had been concerned in the management of that institution, and the spirit of party tended to keep alive and heighten the flames of commercial resentment.
The money thus taken from the coffers of the bank could at no time have been claimed by its creditors, being an accumulation of treasure for which the receipts were expired, by which alone payment could be demanded. The nature of these receipts, by which alone cash could be drawn from the bank of Amsterdam, may be briefly explained. When a person deposited cash or bullion in the bank, he obtained credit in its books for the sum which he so invested, and a receipt, by which, within the period of six months, after cancelling the credit that he had obtained, he could draw his cash or bullion from the bank. These receipts were renewable on payment of a small per centage to the bank, as warehouse rent for the cash lodged in it. If they were permitted to expire, the money or bullion, for which they were granted, could not be withdrawn from the bank, but the person who had so invested it, possessed an equivalent bank credit; which, however, he could convert into cash, by purchasing a receipt for the sum that he wanted in the stock-market, where they were generally to be sold.
Of the cash and bullion which had fallen to the bank, or rather was become, or ought to have been, locked up in it, from the expiration of these receipts, not a single florin remained; and the amount of this mighty and boasted treasure, had it been carefully stored in the vaults and caves of the bank, would not have reached the sum of one million sterling.
This deficiency, however, of the cash of the bank of Amsterdam, related only to the bank credit, the cash receipts of which were expired. According to the statement of the provisional representatives of Amsterdam, the quantity of cash in the bank was equal to the payment of the sums for which receipts were in force; and the holders of bank credit, in the possession of such receipts, were at liberty to withdraw their money from the bank whenever they thought proper. The circumstances of the bank consequently only were bad, according to the proportion that the bank credit, for which there were receipts, bore to the debts of the bank for which there were no receipts. On the whole, the accounts of the bank, from the report made by the provisional representatives, were in a better state than was generally expected; but, nevertheless, the public indignation was strong, that any part of its treasures should have been taken from its its repositories, Contrary to the universally received engagement between the bank and its creditors.
Enquiries took place at the same time into the affairs and conduct of the East and West India Companies, and other public bodies; various abuses were discovered; and in most cases it was judged expedient to dismiss the principal officers and servants of the companies, &c. from their employments.
These discoveries of maladministration in various branches of the public service, together with the memory of former injuries, which rankled in the breasts of many, exciting a strong desire for revenge, produced much fermentation. Addresses, powerfully supported, were presented to the provisional representatives, demanding that all the members of the old government, and other persons concerned in the management of the bank and public companies, should be put under arrest; and that the most rigorous enquiry mould be made into their delinquencies, in order that public justice, and the vengeance of an outraged nation, might overtake the guilty. The conduct of the French towards their state criminals was hinted at as an example not unworthy of imitation, and the necessity of severe measures was loudly asserted.
This inclination of an active, and, under the new system, of a weighty and formidable part of the public, towards sanguinary, or at least violent, proceedings against the members of the old government, would probably have been matured by the animosity of faction into actual execution, had not the provisional representatives of Amsterdam wisely checked in its infancy the growth of this spirit of revolutionary vengeance.
In a proclamation addressed to the people of Amsterdam, relative to the vindictive measures recommended to be pursued with the members of the old government, and other obnoxious persons, the provisional representatives, in a tone of the most admirable moderation and humanity, expressed their disapprobation of such sentiments. No state paper ever breathed a purer spirit of equity and conciliation. After noticing, with proper censure, the suggestions that had been made to them of the necessity of violent measures against the prostrate and vanquished agents of the subverted government, these enlightened and virtuous republicans proceeded to state the noble sentiments with which they were animated. "He deserves not to triumph," they said, "who basely abuses his victory." "The exercise of revenge," continue they, "may afford a transitory pleasure in the moments of passion and delirium, but its consequences are commonly sad and fatal, while the exercise of equity and of generosity leaves nothing but agreeable sensations." Unanimity and oblivion of past animosities were energetically and persuasively recommended, as the most probable and laudable means to promote the welfare and prosperity of the republic. In answer to the recommendation, that measures of precaution and severity, like those which the French revolution had given birth to, should be used with regard to all suspected persons, the great difference between the revolution of Holland and that of France was clearly pointed out, and the relatively happy situation of the Batavian patriots obviously demonstrated. It was the Dutch nation, and not a faction, which triumphed; it was the cause of liberty and equality, not the spirit of destruction and revenge. The people were exhorted to make a cordial offer of the right hand of fellowship to such of their brethren as were deluded or misled, and to attach them to the new system of government, not by terror, but by justice, moderation, and generosity[3].
This proclamation calmed the fears of many who had taken an active part under the old government, and consequently expected, as had happened in the course of former revolutions in Holland, to be persecuted by the victorious party. At the same time it extinguished in the more violent patriots, whose resentments were inflamed by a variety of causes, the sentiments of revenge which they harboured.
About the same time an ordinance, tending further to tranquillise the minds of the people, was issued by the provisional representatives of Holland, concerning the circulation of French assignats, of which mention had been made in one of the proclamations of General Pichegru, and in another of General Daendals to his countrymen. By this ordinance, all shopkeepers and dealers in the necessaries of life, were obliged to take as payment for their articles, from French soldiers and other persons employed in the French army, at a stipulated rate, assignats; and on delivering to the municipality a weekly account of the assignats which they thus received, they were to be paid by the municipality the amount in specie, or paper, for which the government was responsible. At the same time, the sum to be taken from a French soldier in assignats on one occasion was limited to ten livres; and further, to prevent frauds, and circumscribe the circulation of assignats, no soldier was permitted to tender assignats for any purchase he might make, without a written sanction to that effect from his officer; and the officers of the French army, to whom the use of assignats was permitted, in proportion to their rank and pay, were not allowed to pass them without a written leave from the general of their division. All other circulation of assignats was forbidden.
To relieve the pressing necessities of the French army, a requisition was made by the representatives of the French people for a supply of clothing and provisions to be delivered in the space of one month[4]. The states-general, to whom the requisition was addressed, in a proclamation which betrayed their fears or their imbecility, commanded that the articles required by the French should be furnished with the promptest obedience: all persons in possession of any of the articles wanted, were ordered to deliver them up to commissioners appointed for that purpose; and the provincial administrations were directed to furnish with all possible dispatch their several quota towards defraying the expence of the requisition.
Shortly afterwards, the inhabitants of the United Provinces were called upon to contribute voluntarily to the relief of the French army. Persons soliciting assistance went from house to house throughout the republic; and as few chose by their want of generosity to be suspected of being hostile to the French, and many endeavoured to extenuate their faults under the old system, by a more than ordinary zeal for the new government and its allies, the contributions so levied amounted to a considerable sum.
A large revenue is yearly collected in this manner, by voluntary contributions, for the relief and maintenance of the poor, and the support of the charitable institutions of Holland. In Amsterdam, a few days after the arrival of the French, the sum of near forty thousand florins was thus collected for the relief of the indigent of that city; a circumstance not unworthy of being known, as it strongly marks the tranquillity of the place, at a time when it could only be considered as a captured town.
On the sixteenth of February, 1795, a solemn assembly of the deputies from all the provinces was held at the Hague, and at this meeting the stadtholderate was formally declared to be abolished for ever. The same day a republican festival was celebrated, at which the French representatives and the leaders of the army assisted with the Dutch legislators.
At Amsterdam the solemn promulgation of the abolition of the stadtholdership was received with the wildest testimonies of public joy. All business was suspended, to celebrate with proper exultation so auspicious an event. On every steeple the tri-coloured flag was displayed; salutes of artillery were fired from the men-of-war and bastions, and all the clocks of the city chimed patriotic airs[5]. In the evening the town was illuminated, and in the square before the stadthouse fire-works were exhibited. — The representatives of the French people on this occasion re-assured the Dutch of their independence.
By resigning almost entirely into the hands of the Dutch the management of their own affairs, the French representatives and generals during this period of revolutionary movement occupied comparatively but an inconsiderable proportion of the public attention. Of the representatives I learnt no particulars which deserve to be preserved; but General Pichegru, notwithstanding the clouds which have of late obscured his fortunes, and the treasons that have tainted his character, is still spoken of in Holland with sentiments of respect and esteem. I have heard his military talents questioned by persons well qualified to pronounce on the subject; but the astonishing success of his campaigns has always made me receive such reports with scepticism. If he is not to be ranked with the first generals whom the present contest has produced, he undoubtedly deserves to hold a distinguished place among the leaders, who have covered with laurels the arms of the French republic. His conduct as general of the army which conquered Holland, is represented by the Dutch as extremely amiable. It was moderate, humane, and unassuming. The vast authority which was lodged in his hands, was sullied by no acts of oppression or injustice; and lastly, he quitted Holland unenriched by the plunder of the people whom he protected.
The financial embarrassments of the republic early in the new order of things demanded the attention of the provisional representatives of Holland, and an ordinance was published requiring that every person should deliver up all the uncoined gold and silver, or plate (except spoons or forks), in his possession. For the precious metals thus furnished a receipt was granted, which was taken as a part of the further contributions which the holder was bound to pay to the state; or if the quantity of plate furnished exceeded the amount of the taxes otherwise to be paid by the person so furnishing, he received at his option government currency, or the obligation was funded. In this ordinance were included personal ornaments, if they exceeded the value of three hundred florins, and all medals and foreign coins not current in the republic. This measure of terrible state-necessity and embarrassment, far from exciting murmurs or discontents, was obeyed throughout the United Provinces with the utmost alacrity and cheerfulness; and in this instance perhaps the love of country prevailed over avarice, for from the quantity of plate received, which was considerably more than the estimate that had been formed of this resource, it was presumed that none had been withheld.
The leading cause of this promptitude in the Dutch to assist their new government, was the animosity which the nation entertained against Great Britain, with whom a war was now become inevitable. The detention of Dutch ships and property in England, the contemptuous treatment of the deputies sent to reclaim them, and the hostile measures obviously intended to be pursued against the colonial possessions of the republic, conspired to increase in Holland the flame of hatred that had long gone forth against the British nation. Every measure was embraced with avidity that tended to strengthen the republic against its odious and ancient rival; and the government, profiting by this enthusiasm of the people, ventured on expedients for the restoration of public credit which would not have been attempted at a period of less national spirit and ardour.
The utmost activity reigned in all the naval arsenals of the republic, and large sums were voted to place the marine forces of the state in a respectable condition. Scarcely any thing tended more to exasperate the people against the old government than the neglect into which it had permitted the navy of the republic to fall. One of the principal accusations against the stadtholder was, that, listening to the suggestions of England, which dreaded to see the marine of Holland in a prosperous condition, the wants of the navy were not only unattended to, but every artifice was used further to enfeeble it. The measures adopted by the provisional government relative to the navy, were the most popular steps that could have been pursued. The enthusiasm of the people was kept alive by constant allusions to the bright annals of the republic, to the days of Ruyter, Tromp, and Van Brakel, when the fleets of Holland proudly insulted the coasts of England, or, audaciously forcing the narrow pass of the Baltic, gave laws to the north[6].As the spring advanced, large bodies of the French troops, which had been cantoned in the United Provinces, were, to the great relief of the inhabitants, marched out of the territories of the republic. In requisitions, contributions of various kinds, forced and voluntary, the French were thought to have levied in a short period a sum amounting to near four millions sterling. This, with the exertions that the Dutch were making to put their navy on a respectable footing, and the severe losses they sustained by the detention of their ships and property in England, would have occasioned considerable financial embarrassments, and consequently much discontent, had not the nation approved of the new government, and seconded with zeal its measures. The large advances made to the French were paid with less reluctance, as they were considered as a kind of ransom for the public arsenals and stores, and the price paid by the nation for liberty to make what alterations it pleased in its constitution, without the degrading intervention of the conqueror. The admirable discipline of the French army, and the justice and humanity of its leaders, also materially tended to reconcile the people to the heavy imposts laid upon them for the support of their new allies.
- ↑ Nothing but the most absurd credulity could ever have adopted this supposition.
- ↑ See Appendix, paper C.
- ↑ In the Appendix (paper D), I have given a few extracts from this interesting proclamation. It was published about the time when General Daendals and some other patriots, who had fled from Holland in 1787, and returned with the French army, were anxious to promote violent measures against their adversaries the members of the old government.
- ↑ At Nimeguen, Bois le Duc, and Thiel. 200,000 quintals of wheat averdupois weight, 5 millions of rations of hay, 200,000 rations of straw, 150,000 pair of shoes, 20,000 pair of boots, 20,000 coats and waistcoats, 40,000 pair of breeches, 150,000 pair of pantaloons, 200,000 shirts, 50,000 hats, and 12,000 oxen. The value of the whole was estimated, probably with much exaggeration, at a million and a half sterling.
- ↑ The Dutch patriotic airs possess much of that plaintiveness for which the Irish melodies are distinguished. — I cannot refrain from mentioning in this place, that when the British army entered Alkmaer, the carillons or chimes of that town regaled the ears of the troops with "God save the king."
- ↑ In 1659 the Dutch sent a fleet to the relief of the king of Denmark, their ally, then besieged in his capital, Copenhagen, by the Swedes. The castles of Cronenburg and Elsineur, which were thought to command the passage of the Sound, were garrisoned by Swedish troops; but, notwithstanding the vigorous opposition which they made, the Dutch fleet sailed triumphantly through the Sound, and defeating the Swedish navy before Copenhagen, obliged Sweden to grant a peace to Denmark on equitable terms.