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in fifteen years, viz. nothing for the first ten years, but one million every year afterwards, until the whole was paid. The intereft payable every year. The broker's commiflion, or premium, as they call it here, is from one to two per cent. on the capital at the time of your receiving it; one per cent. the merchant's commiflion for negociating the bufinefs; and one half per cent. on the annual intereft, and one per cent. commiffion on the reimbursement of the capital; which together, would carry the interest to about five and a quarter per

cent. a year.

The objections which they make against my prefent full power is, that it is therein specified for three frigates, and that there is a complication in faying, that I may negociate any indeterminate fum, instead of naming the fixed fum. This want of specific precifion affects them to that degree, that I cannot give them any fatisfaction.

Your Excellency is at prefent informed upon what condition the fum in queftion may be procured, in cafe the State fhould be in want thereof. If the laft fhould be the cafe, and if the conditions are approved of, it would be beft to lend a fit person here with such full powers and guarantee, in fending two or three copies after him; or elfe to fend the faid do cuments to Meffis. Nicholas and Jacob Van Staphorst, merchants here, or to fome other good folid Dutch houfe here, with your ordershow the faid money is to be employed here. But as the faid Meffrs. Van Staphorst have laid the foundation of this affair, I

leave it to the judgment of your Excellency, whether it would not be beft to entrust them with the execution thereof. I have had dealings with them for above ten years, and am informed that they are generally looked upon as a very folid Dutch house, of a good capital, and known integrity.

I have an opportunity of knowing what is doing here, and I have received from perfons of refpectable authority the intelligence fpecified in the paper annexed. The Dutch have defigned thefe nine months to have a person here, authorised by Congress; not that they would receive him as a public mi nifter; but they are very anxious to have the most accurate information; and fuch a perfon might have laid the foundation of a treaty with us, until affairs fhall be come to greater maturity: he might alfo have been able to get money here. The objection against the actual loan of money for the Congress here is, that it does not proceed directly from America; and to ufe the language of the Old Dutchman, it is to be franchifed.

I am perfuaded, that if the Prefident Laurens arrives here foon, he will find a reasonable and ample fum. I have taken the liberty of acquainting the noble Continental Congrefs on what terms. I am fure of being able to borrow here a fufficient fum at about five and a quarter, or five and a half per cent. including all expences.

I am in hopes of receiving foon advices from you: if not, I fhall continue as mentioned above, and do as well as I can, making all the difpatch in my power to return

home.

home. I could have wished that my fate had been to remain in America, especially as I fhould have willingly fupported all fatigues, and, with a good heart, braved all dangers, in preference to the plan of begging, which the neceffity, occafioned by frequent deceptions, has forced me to adopt.

I moft fincerely with you health and happiness, and remain with due respect, Sir,

Your Excellency's
moft obedient and
moft humble fervant,

(Signed) A. GILLON. P. S. Mr. Beaumarchais will not yet pay any thing, nor furnish any account.

His Excellency John Rutledge, Efq.
Governor and Commander in
Chief of South Carolina.

Two letters were also communicated, written by J. D. Van Der Capellan to Mr. Laurens, but as they only contain the fentiments of a private individual, we have not thought it neceflary to infert them.

Memorial prefented to the StatesGeneral on the 10th inftant, by Sir Jofeph Yorke, his Majesty's Ambaffador at the Hague, concerning the five Papers found among thofe of Mr. Laurens, late Prefident of the Congress.

High and Mighty Lords,

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founded on the durable basis of a reciprocal intereft, and as it has greatly contributed to the welfare of both nations, the natural enemy of both the one and the other is ufing his utmost policy to deftroy it; and for fome time past his endeavours have been but too fuccefsful, being fupported by a faction that aims at domineering over the republic, and which is at all times ready to facrifice the general intereft to their own private views.

The king has beheld, with equal regret and furprise, the small effect which his repeated claims for the ftipulated fuccours, and the reprefentations of his ambaffador, on the daily violation of the most folemn engagements, have pro. duced.

His Majefty's moderation has induced him to attribute this conduct of your High Mightineffes to the intrigues of a prevailing faction; and he would ftill perfuade himself, that your juftice and difcernment will determine you to fulfil your engagements towards him, and to prove by your whole conduct, that you are refolved vigoroutly to adhere to the fyftem formed by the wisdom of your ancestors, which is the only one that can fecure the fafety and glory of the republic.

The answer which your High Mightineffes return to this declaration, which the undersigned makes by the exprefs order of his

THE King, my matter, has, Court, will be confidered as the

through the whole courfe of his reign, fhewed the moft fincere defire for preferving the union, which has fubfifted upwards of an age, between his Crown and

touchstone of your intentions and fentiments refpecting the King.

For a long time paft the King has had innumerable indications of the dangerous defigns of an un [A a] 3

ruly

ruly cabal; but the papers of Mr. Laurens, who ftyles himself Prefident of the pretended Congrefs, furnishes the difcovery of a plot, unexampled in all the annals of the republic. It appears by thefe papers, that the Gentlemen of Amfterdam have been engaged in a clandeftine correfpondence with the American rebels, from the month of Augutt 1778, and that inftructions and full powers had been given by them for the conclufion of a treaty of indifputable amity with thofe rebels, who are the fubjects of a fovereign to whom the republic is united by the clofeft engagements. The authors of this plot do not even attempt to deny it, but on the contrary vainly endeavour to juftify their conduct.

In these circumftances, his Majefty, relying on the equity of your High Might ineffes, demands a formal difavowal of fuch irregular conduct, which is no lefs contrary to your most facred engagements than to the funda mental laws of the conftitution of Batavia. The King demands equally a prompt fatisfaction, proportioned to the offence, and an exemplary punishment on the penfioner Van Berkel, and his accomplices, as difturbers of the public peace, and violaters of the Jaw of nations.

His Majefty perfuades himself, that the anfwer of your High Mightineffes will be ipeedy and fatisfactory in all refpects; but should the contrary happen,-if your High Mightineffes fhould refuse fo juft a demand, deavour to elude it by filence, which will be regarded as a refufal: then the King cannot but confider the republic itself as ap

or en

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T'

HAT Count Welderen, the Minifter Plenipotentiary from their High Mightineffes to the British Court, be charged to make the ftrongeft complaints of the faid infults and violences, and to reprefent in the most energetic manner, That their High Mightineffes think themfelves in the moft fupreme degree aggrieved by the premeditated violence of the inconteftable territory of the State at the island of St. Martin, done by the officers of his British Majefty, according to the exprefs orders of the King, and in confequence of a written declaration of thofe officers.

That no power ever doubted but all bays and roads belonged to the fame powers as the lands annexed to them, and that all who might be in them were fheltered from the rights of war, and from all hoftile purfuits; and that no power is in any way authorised to take, or in any respect to moleft, vetiels fo fheltered, against the wilt

of

of the fovereign, without its being looked upon as an indirect attack that notwithstanding this, the men of war of the King of Great-Britain, fent on purpofe by his Admiral, had by his order feized fome American veffels which had taken refuge in the ifland of St. Martin, under the cannon of the fort, and took them 'via facti,' threatening, if the leaft refittance was made by the fort, that it, together with the whole village belonging to their High Mightineffes, fhould be burnt to the ground, and a force fufficient was fent to carry these their orders into execution.

That their High Mightineffes cannot look upon this violent step in any other light than as an open violation of their territory, and a contempt of the independent fovereignty of the State; and flatter themfelves that his Majefty must perceive, that, if an independent power of Europe is to be expofed to fuch infults as this, all liberty and fecurity, both in and out of Europe, will then only depend upon force; and confequently, that the King will be difpleafed at this hoftile action committed by his officers against the territory of a power, which has not only had the honour to be allied to Great-Britain for upwards of a century, and to live in peace and friendship with her, but from the beginning of the prefent troubles in America has not refufed to reftrain its fubjects from trading with North-America in a manner for which his Majefty has acknow. ledged his fatisfaction.

That their High Mightineffes could not pafs over in filence what has happened, but at the fame

time muft proteft folemnly againft it, and moft ftrongly defire of his Majefty, what they hope from his juftice, his friendship, and his equity, to obtain, which is, a full fatisfaction for the violation of their territory, in which the intentions of his Majefty may be made appear relative to the treatment of powers not included in the troubles of the prefent war, and of their territories in general, and of thofe of the Republic of the United Provinces in particular, &c.

Memorial prefented to the States-
General, by Sir Jofeph Yorke,
on the 12th of December, 1780.

High and Mighty Lords,
THE

King towards the Republic;

the friendship which hath fo long fubfifted between the two nations; the right of fovereigns, and the faith of the moft folemn engagements, will decide, without doubt, the answer of your High Mightineffes to the Memorial which the under-figned prefented fome time ago, by exprefs order of his Court. It would be to miftruft the wifdom and the juftice of your High Mightineffes to fuppofe that you could paufe a moment in giving the fatisfaction demanded by his Majefty.

Ás the refolutions of your High Mightinetles of the 27th of November, were the result of a deliberation which regarded only the interior of your government, and did not enter upon an Anfwer to the faid Memorial, the only remark to be made on thofe refo

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lutions

lutions is, that the principles which have dictated them evidently prove the juftice of the demand made by the King.

In deliberating upon that Me. morial, to which the under-figned here requires, in the name of his Court, an immediate and fatiffactory answer in every refpect, your High Mightine fles will doubtlefs confider that the affair is of the laft importance; that it relates to the complaint of an of fended fovereign; that the offence, for which he demands an exemplary punishment, and a complete fatisfaction, is a violation of the Batavian Conftitution, of which the King is a guarantee; an infraction of the public faith; an attempt against the dignity of his Crown! The King has never imagined that your High Mightineffes had approved of a treaty with his rebellious fubjects. That had been railing the buckler on your part; a declaration of war. But the offence has been committed by the magiftrates of a city which makes a confiderable part of the State; and it belongs to the fovereign power to punith and give fatisfaction for it.

His Majesty, by the complaints made by his Ambaffador, has placed the punishment and the reparation in the hands of your High Mightineffes; and it will not be till the laft extremity, that is to fay, in the cafe of a denial of juftice, or of filence, which must be interpreted as a refufal, that the King will take them upon himself.

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MANIFESTO

Of the Court of Great-Britain.

GEORGE R.

(L.S.) T

(L.S.)~ HROUGH the whole courte of our reign, our conduct towards the StatesGeneral of the United Provinces has been that of a fincere friend and faithful ally. Had they adhered to those wife principles which used to govern the Republic, they must have shewn themfelves equally folicitous to maintain the friendship which has fo long fubfifted between the two nations, and which is essential to the interefts of both but from the prevalence of a faction devoted to France, and following the dictates of that court, a very different policy has prevailed. The return made to our friendship, for fome time paft, has been an open contempt of the moft folemn engagements, and a repeated violation of public faith.

On the commencement of the defenfive war, in which we found ourselves engaged by the aggreffion of France, we fhewed a tender regard for the interetts of the StatesGeneral, and a defire of fecuring to their fubjects every advantage of trade, confiftent with the great and juft principle of our own defence, Our Ambaffador was inftructed to offer a friendly negociation, to obviate every thing that might lead to difagreeable difcuffion; and to this offer, folemnly made by him to the StatesGeneral, the 2d of November, 1778, no attention was paid.

After the number of our enemies, increased by the aggreffion of Spain, equally unprovoked with

Done at the Hague, the 12th of December, 1780. (Signed) LE CHEVAL. YORKE, that of France, we found it ne

ceffary

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