Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/145

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THE BATAVIAN REPUBLIC
133

republic. Had he joined to the Anglo-Russian forces an army equal to that which his father sent into Holland in 1787, or made a diversion in favour of the invaders, the French must have been driven out of the republic, and the Batavians subdued. But he maintained the most cautious neutrality, and thereby lost the best opportunity probably which will ever occur, of reinstating his relatives[1] in their possessions. — In private life he is regular and economical, having neither mistresses nor favourites to dissipate his treasures; and though his reign has yet been undistinguished by any splendid actions, no monarch that ever sat on the throne of Prussia was more respected and beloved by his subjects than Frederic-William III. From this prince it is apparent that the friends of the stadtholder have not much to expect. The present government of Holland is fully recognised by the court of Berlin, and a<references>

  1. The Princess of Orange is his aunt, ana the hereditary prince his brother-in-law.