r need
of a very large loan, if they were to take any further part in the war.
This pitiful revelation of the condition of their ally decided Great
Britain to respond to the overtures for peace on the part of France. The
representatives of the powers met at Aix-la-Chapelle; and, as the
English and French were both thoroughly tired of the war, they soon came
to terms. The preliminaries of peace between them were signed on April
30, 1748, on the principle of a restoration of conquests. In this treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle the United Provinces were included, but no better
proof could be afforded of the low estate to which the Dutch Republic
had now fallen than the fact that its representatives at
Aix-la-Chapelle, Bentinck and Van Haren, were scarcely consulted and
exercised practically no influence upon the decisions. The French
evacuated the southern Netherlands in return for the restoration to them
of the colony of Cape Breton, which had fallen into the hands of the
English; and the barrier towns were again allowed to receive Dutch
garrisons. It was a useless concession, for their fortifications had
been destroyed, and the States could no longer spare the money to make
them capable of serious defence.

The position of William IV all this time was exceptionally responsible,
and therefore the more trying. Never before had any Prince of Orange
been invested with so much power. The glamour attaching to the name of
Orange was perhaps the chief asset of the new stadholder in facing the
serious difficulties into which years of misgovernment had plunged
the country. He had undoubtedly the people at his back, but
unfortunately they expected an almost magical change would take place in
the situation with his elevation to the stadholderate. Naturally they
were disappointed. The revolution of 1747 was not carried out in the
spirit of "thorough," which marked those of 1618, 1650 and 1672. William
IV was cast in a mould different from that of Maurice or William II,
still more from that of his immediate predecessor William III. He was a
man of wide knowledge, kindly, conciliatory, and deeply religious, but
only a mediocre statesman. He was too undecided in his opinions, too
irresolute in action, to be a real leader in a crisis.

The first business was to bring back peace to the country; and this was
achieved, not by any influence that the Netherlands government was able
to exercise upon the course of the negotiations at Aix-la-Chapelle,