Convention with France-Dissentions in the United Provinces -Meeting of Parliament-Hessian Subsidy-Increase of Military Establishment-East Indian Declaratory Bill- Budget-Claims of American Loyalists-Slave Trade- Commencement of Mr. Hastings's Trial-Charges against MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE WILLIAM PIT T. CHAPTER THE SIXTH: 1784. Continental Affairs-Meeting of Parliament-Westminster ΤΗ VI. 1784. HE situation of affairs upon the continent CHAP. was at this time such, that it would not be justifiable to pass them over entirely in silence; especially, as they were considered of sufficient interest to this country to be noticed in the speech from the throne, at the opening of the next session of parliament. The emperor of Germany, taking advantage of the weak and disordered state to which Holland was reduced by the war with Great Britain, and by internal dissensions, demanded the cession of Maestricht and the contiguous territory, which were detached from the rest VI. 1784. CHAP. of the Dutch possessions; and urged, as sovereign of the Netherlands, a great variety of other claims in succession, the last and by far the most important of which was, the free navigation of the Scheldt: this would have been a fatal blow to the commerce and naval power of Holland, and might have endangered the independence and very existence of the republic. The emperor's immediate object was, to open the port of Antwerp, once the emporium of Europe, with the hope of restoring that city to some share, at least, of its former riches and splendor; and of acquiring to his dominions those benefits which arise from foreign trade. The states general defended what they conceived to be their unquestionable rights, in moderate and conciliatory language, but, at the same time, with a becoming degree of firmness; and, in particular, they stated, that the exclusive navigation of the Scheldt had been secured to them by the treaty of Munster, in 1648, and confirmed by several subsequent treaties; that, in fact, it rested upon the same authority as the possession of the Netherlands, by the house of Austria, whose right to any part of the Low Countries would never have been acknowledged, if the sovereignty of the Scheldt had not been ceded to the United Provinces. The VI. 1784. high and peremptory tone in which these CHAP. claims were made and supported, and the little disposition manifested by the emperor, to pay any regard, either to existing treaties, to which his ancestors had been parties, or to long and uninterrupted enjoyment, excited great alarm throughout the territories of the states general. These were the natural effects of conscious superiority on the one side, and of utter incompetency on the other, to resist the demands of so powerful a claimant. After numerous unavailing memorials and representations, the states general, still earnestly desirous of settling all points of difference, by an amicable adjustment, sent, in the month of April 1784, with the consent of the emperor, two plenipotentiaries to confer personally for that purpose, with his minister at the court of Brussells. But, on the very night of their arrival in that city, a detachment of Austrian soldiers, with four field pieces, seized the dismantled fort of Old Lillo, which was acknowledged to be situated within the Dutch limits; and about a week afterwards, when the negotiations were actually commenced, another detachment of Austrian soldiers seized a second place, belonging to the states general, called Hartog Eyk, near Heerle, where they pulled down the Dutch flag from the custom VI. 1784. CHAP. house, and, with severe threats, commanded the collector, in the name of the emperor of Germany, to exact no more toll or duty, and to obey no orders of the Dutch government, under whose authority he had hitherto acted. Notwithstanding these open invasions of territorial right, the negotiations continued through the summer, but with a temper on the part of the Austrian ministers, which precluded all hope of accommodation. In the autumn, the emperor, who had not been able to prevail upon the Dutch to surrender their right to the exclusive navigation of the Scheldt, determined to make trial, whether they would venture to enforce it against his ships; and with that view, he prepared two brigs, one of which was to attempt to sail from Antwerp to the sea, and the other from the sea to Antwerp. He commanded the captains to submit, in the course of their respective voyages, to no detention or examination from any of the ships belonging to the states general, and in no manner whatever to acknowledge their authority at any of the custom-houses or forts upon the river; and he formally announced, that he should consider any insult or interruption offered to either of these vessels, as an act of hostility, and a declaration of war on the part of the republic of Holland. The brigs sailed early in October, |