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at Paris, that M. de Montmorin, literally c pleuroit comme un enfant, when obliged to sign this counter-declaration ; so distress ed was he by the dishonor of sacrificing the Patriots, after assu rances so solemn of protection, and absolute encouragement to pro ceed. The Prince of Orange was reinstated in all his powers, now become regal. A great emigration of the Patriots took place ; all were deprived of office, many exiled, and their property con fiscated. They were received in France, and subsisted, for some time, on her bounty. Thus fell Holland, by the treachery of her Chief, from her honorable independence, to bacome a province of England ; and so, also, her Stadtholder, from the high station of the first citizen of a free Republic, to be the servile Viceroy of a foreign Sovereign. And this was effected by a mere scene of bullying and demonstration ; not one of the parties, France, England, or Prussia, having ever really meant to encounter actual war for the interest of the Prince of Orange. But it had all the effect of a real and decisive war.
Our first essay, in America, to establish a federative government had fallen, on trial, very short of its object. During the war of Independence, while the pressure of an external enemy hooped us together, and their enterprizes kept us necessarily on the alert, the spirit of the people, excited by danger, was a supplement to the Confederation, and urged them to zealous exertions, whether claimed by that instrument or not ; but, when peace and safety were restored, and every man became engaged in useful and pro fitable occupation, less attention was paid to the calls of Congress. The fundamental defect of the Confederation was, that Congress was not authorised to act immediately on the people, and by its own officers. Their power was only requisitory, and these requi sitions were addressed to the several Legislatures, to be by them carried into execution, without other coercion than the moral prin ciple of duty. This allowed, in fact, a negative to every Legisla ture, on every measure proposed by Congress ; a negative so fre quently exercised in practice, as to benumb the action of the Fe deral government, and to render it inefficient in its general objects, and more especially in pecuniary and foreign concerns. The want, too, of a separation of the Legislative, Executive and Judi ciary functions, worked disadvantageously in practice. Yet this state of things afforded a happy augury of the future march of our Confederacy, when it was seen that the good sense and good dis positions of the people, as soon as they perceived the incompe tence of their first compact, instead of leaving its correction to in surrection and civil war, agreed, with one voice, to elect deputies to a general Convention, who should peaceably meet and agree on
