am III and William IV had all married
English princesses, but the feeling of hostility to England was strong
in Holland, and it was not thought advisable for the young stadholder to
seek for a wife in his mother's family. The choice of the duke was the
Prussian Princess Wilhelmina. The new Princess of Orange was niece on
the paternal side of Frederick the Great and on the maternal side of the
Duke of Brunswick himself. The marriage took place at Berlin on October,
4 1767. The bride was but sixteen years of age, but her attractive
manners and vivacious cleverness caused her to win the popular
favour on her first entry into her adopted country.

The first eight years of William's stadholdership passed by quietly.
There is little to record. Commerce prospered, but the Hollanders were
no longer content with commerce and aimed rather at the rapid
accumulation of wealth by successful financial transactions.
Stock-dealing had become a national pursuit. Foreign powers came to
Amsterdam for loans; and vast amounts of Dutch capital were invested in
British and French funds and in the various German states. And yet all
the time this rich and prosperous country was surrounded by powerful
military and naval powers, and, having no strong natural frontiers, lay
exposed defenceless to aggressive attack whether by sea or land. It was
in vain that the stadholder, year by year, sent pressing memorials to
the States-General urging them to strengthen the navy and the army and
to put them on a war footing. The maritime provinces were eager for an
increase of the navy, but the inland provinces refused to contribute
their quota of the charges. Utrecht, Gelderland, Overyssel and Groningen
on the other hand, liable as they were to suffer from military invasion,
were ready to sanction a considerable addition to the land forces, but
were thwarted by the opposition of Holland, Zeeland and Friesland. So
nothing was done, and the Republic, torn by divided interests and with
its ruling classes lapped in self-contented comfort and luxury, was a
helpless prey that seemed to invite spoliation.

This was the state of things when the British North American colonies
rose in revolt against the mother-country. The sympathies of France were
from the first with the colonials; and a body of volunteers raised by
Lafayette with the connivance of the French overnment crossed the
Atlantic to give armed assistance to the rebels. Scarcely less warm was
the feeling in