ught down in its crash a very large number
of other firms, not merely in Holland, but also in Hamburg and other
places; for a veritable panic was caused, and it was some time before
stability could be restored.

The remaining three years of the Brunswick _regime_ were uneventful in
the home country. Differences with the English East India Company
however led to the expulsion of the Dutch from their trading settlements
on the Hooghley and Coromandel; and in Berbice there was a serious
revolt of the negro slaves, which, after hard fighting in the bush, was
put down with much cruelty. The young Prince of Orange on the attainment
of his eighteenth year, March 8,1766, succeeded to his hereditary
rights. His grandmother, Maria Louisa, to whose care he had owed much,
had died on April 9, in the previous year. During the interval the
Princess Caroline had taken her place as regent in Friesland.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXIV

WILLIAM V. FIRST PERIOD, 1766-1780

Of all the stadholders of his line William V was the least
distinguished. Neither in appearance, character nor manner was he fitted
for the position which he had to fill. He had been most carefully
educated, and was not wanting in ability, but he lacked energy and
thoroughness, and was vacillating and undecided at moments when resolute
action was called for. Like his contemporary Louis XVI, had he been born
in a private station, he would have adorned it, but like that unhappy
monarch he had none of the qualities of a leader of men in critical and
difficult times. It was characteristic of him that he asked for
confirmation from the Provincial Estates of the dignities and offices
which were his by hereditary right. In every thing he relied upon the
advice of the Duke of Brunswick, whose methods of government he
implicitly followed. To such an extent was this the case that, soon
after his accession to power, a secret Act was drawn up (May 3, 1766),
known as the Act of Consultation, by which the duke bound himself to
remain at the side of the stadholder and to assist him by word and deed
in all affairs of State. During the earlier years therefore of William
V's stadholderate he consulted Brunswick in every matter, and was thus
encouraged to distrust his own judgment and to be fitful and desultory
in his attention to affairs of State.

One of the first of Brunswick's cares was to provide for the prince a
suitable wife. William II, Willi