STATE PAPERS.
of honour have been hitherto. The king perfuades himfelf, that after a declaration To precife, which his majefty has been induced to make only by his affeclion for your re- public, your high mightinefles will form a juft notion of the me- thods which the court of London is ince/Tantly employing, to make your high mightinefTes (hare in the calamities and dangers of a war which his majelly undertook with regret, and not till he was forced thereto, by the mofl: unjuft and unexpected aggreflion ; and which he continues only from his fidelity to his engagements, and to fulfil the duty impofed upon him by his quality of guarantee of the laws and liberties of the Germanic body.'*
Tranflation of the famous me- morial prefented to the States Ge- neral by two hundred and fixty- nine merchants, which is kept very fecret in Holland.
- \Vetheunderfigned merchants,
infurers, and others, concerned in the commerce and navigation of the ftate, moft humbly reprefent. That the violences and unjuft de- predations committed by Englifh men of war and privateers on the veflels and efFefts of the fubjefts of the ftate, are not only continued, but daily multiplied ; and cruelty and exceftes carried to fuch a height, that the petitioners are forced to implore the afliftance of your high mightinefles, that the commerce and navigation of the republic, which are the two finews of the ftate, may fufFer no interrup- tion, and be proteded in the moft efficacious manner, in order that the being of the ftate may be pre- ferved, and that it may be kept from compleat and final ruin,
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The petitioners fhall not infert here a long recital of their (hips that have been illegally ftopped and feized, nor of the piracies and vio- lences that have been committed for a confiderable fpace of time, on the fubjefls of the republic ; nor of the afts of inhumanity with which they were often attended, even fo far, that lefs cruelly might have beea expefted from a declared enemy, than they have fufFered from the fubjeds of a power with whom the ftate is connefted by the moft fo- lemn treaties of friendlhip. The whole is public and notorious.
Nor will the petitioners enlarge on the infults offered to the Dutch flag, in contempt of your high mightineflies, the natural protedlors of the fubjeds of the republic. The fads are known to your high mightineflies.
But the petitioners beg leave to reprefent, with all due fubmif- fion, that they cannot forbear to lay their juft complaints before your high mightinefl'es, who are the protedors of their perfons, their eftates, their commerce, and navi- gation ; and to lay before you the indifpenfable neceflity of putting a flop, as foon as poflible, to thofe depredations and violences. The petitioners offer to contribute each. his contingent, and to arm, at their own charge, for the fupport and protedion of their commerce and navigation.
The petitioners flatter themfelves that their toils, and the riik to which their effeds are expofed oa the feas, will have their proper influence on the general body of the ftate, fince the traders of this country finding themfelves left to the difcreiion of a part of that na- tion with whom the ftate is moft L 3 in-
