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RIESBECK’S. TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. a85
vice of the other lates of the country they direttly call themfelves fovereigns.. ‘The af-
femblies of the States General themfelves are nothing lefs than a body reprefenting one
independent fovereign. ‘The members of it, though conitantly together, are no more
than ambaffadors for the moment, who muft inform their refpective provinces of
every event that falls out, and direct their deliberations by the wifdom of the multitude.
in thefe.
Immenfe as the anarchy appears in the contexture of the whole, it is ftill greater in
each fingle ftate and ditriat. here the collifion of oppofite interefts, the variety of
fpirits and humours, and the clownith {tupidity of the common burghers, allow the de-
magogues to make their advantage of every thing that falls out. Each particular go-
vernment is the theatre of ever-contending fatiions, the heads of which have no thought
whatever but of their own private intereft. This war has furnifhed innumerable in-
{tances of protection afforded by fa€tion to the greate(t criminals. Here, in Am{terdam,
there are four or five houfes, who can do exactly what they pleafe; whilft the public is
deluded by falfe news; venal journalifts, and every fpecies of political deception. In
proportion as the one city gets more from England, or the other more from France,
they become entirely French or Englifh, without any attention whatever to the well:
being of the whole. ‘The intereft of thofe cities which fubfilt by navigation is altogether
different from that of thofe on the main land, which depend only on agriculture and in-
dultry. As the nobility look entirely to the Stadtholder for advancement, for the fame
reafon the burghers are conftantly united againft him, and fo the war betwixt them is
endlefs. The confcioufnels of the difadvantages which the ftate mult fuffer from thefe
controverfies, in cafes where concord and activity are neceflary, are the reafons why the
Dutch have neyer been able to do without the Stadtholderfhip, as they have frequently
wifhed to do; but though they have got it, the evil genius of the republic has always
contrived to render it of no ufe in thofe very cafes where it was calculated to do the
moft good. As in time of war the fpirits of men are moft heated, and people are apt
to fee things in the falfe lights in which their own paflions or the glofs of faction repre-
fentthem; it -hasalways happened, that the time pitched upon to curb the power of the
Stadtholder, has been that in which alone the extenfion of the dictatorial power might
have been of fervice to the country ; the confequence is, that the republic bears all the
burthen, without enjoying any of the conveniences of the office. It is abfolutely ridi-
eulous to hear and to read all the reproaches which are made to the Stadtholderate,
entirely arifing from foolifh fufpicions, or the falfe reports of interefted demagogues..
Were the people cool enough to fee things in the right point of view, there are feveral
phyfical and moral confiderations fully fufficient to make them eafy, exclufive of the
perfonal qualities of the prefent Stadtholder. At one time he is reproached with his fe-
eret under{tanding with the court of St. James’s; at another, they fuppofe that he wants:
the abfolute dominion over his country. It is certain, that the Prince wifhes to be
upon good terms with England ; but he is not therefore a traitor to.the country from:
which he derives the greateft part of his fupport: his wifhes in this refpect were fuch
as the beft interefts of the republic dictated, and his objet was to put it ina fituation to:
preferve the neutrality ; but the people were deaf to all his reprefentations, and he has
been compelled to expiate the fins of others; the confequences of which he would, had
it been poffible, have prevented. Long before the breach, he reprefented to the States.
General the urgent neceflity there was for them to increafe their forces by feaand land ;
but his remon{trances were vain, and the only effet produced by them has been, that
now ill-difpofed perfons revenge themfelves on him and the Duke of Brunfwick, who
bas done the ungrateful republic fpecial fervice, for the good advice they gave. They
are:
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