English cruisers opened the eyes of the Dutch statesmen to the fact, that notwithstanding their rejection in 1778 of the offer of a Treaty of Amity and Commerce,[1] by the American Commissioners Franklin, Lee, and Adams, they stood in serious danger of becoming involved in the war.
In their demand for succour the English Government had expressed an opinion that the stipulations of a treaty like that of 1674, founded on the interest of trade only, must give way to those founded on the general interests of the two nations, in other words to the Treaty of 1716. The States-General however denied that the origin of the war in which England was engaged came within the terms of the latter treaty, and contrasted the conduct of England, in claiming the benefit of one treaty, and rejecting the obligations of the other. A long exchange of memorials and counter-memorials followed, but meanwhile the English cruisers continued to prey on Dutch commerce. Finally in December 1779 a Dutch fleet of merchant vessels, laden with articles not generally regarded as contraband of war, was attacked while sailing under convoy in the Channel, by the English fleet, and five ships of war and five merchant vessels were captured. In April 1780 an Order in Council suspended all treaties between the two countries, and Dutch ships were seized as blockade runners, and condemned on the preposterous theory that the geographical position of England constituted an effective blockade of the whole Spanish and French coasts. Almost simultaneously Russia proclaimed the Armed Neutrality, and invited the other powers of Europe to accede to the proposals contained in it. The temptation to Holland was sore. She had been subject to the grossest provocation, she had seen her most cherished rights openly violated, and she had a manifest interest in the destruction of the English colonial system, to support which the Navigation Acts had been passed against her own trade. Nor could anything be more overbearing than the language of the English
- ↑ Suffolk to Yorke, July 17th, 1778.
