ority of four provinces to three) to join the League of
Armed Neutrality. Better open war than a sham peace. Instructions
were therefore sent to the ambassador Yorke to demand the
punishment of the Amsterdam regents for their clandestine transactions
with the enemies of England. The reply was that the matter
should be brought before the Court of Holland; and Van Welderen,
the Dutch ambassador in London, in vain endeavoured to give
assurances that the States were anxious to maintain a strict neutrality.
Yorke demanded immediate satisfaction and once more called
upon the Republic to furnish the aid in men and ships in accordance
with the treaty. Further instructions were therefore sent
to Van Welderen, but they were delayed by tempestuous weather.
In any case they would have been of no avail. The British
government was in no mood for temporising. On December 20,
1780 war was declared against the United Provinces; and three
days later Yorke left the Hague.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXV

STADHOLDERATE OF WILLIAM V, _continued_, 1780-1788

The outbreak of war meant the final ruin of the Dutch Republic. Its
internal condition at the close of 1780 made it hopelessly unfitted to
enter upon a struggle with the overwhelming sea-power of England. Even
had William V possessed the qualities of leadership, he would have had
to contend against the bitter opposition and enmity of the anti-Orange
party among the burgher-regents, of which Van der Capellen was one of
the most moving spirits, and which had its chief centre in Amsterdam.
But the prince, weak and incompetent, was apparently intent only on
evading his responsibilities, and so laid himself open to the charges of
neglect and mal-administration that were brought against him by his
enemies.

Against an English fleet of more than 300 vessels manned by a force of
something like 100,000 seamen, the Dutch had but twenty ships of the
line, most of them old and of little value. Large sums of money were now
voted for the equipment of a fleet; and the Admiralties were urged to
press forward the work with all possible vigour. But progress was
necessarily slow. Everything was lacking--material, munitions,
equipment, skilled labour--and these could not be supplied in time to
prevent Dutch commerce being swept from the seas and the Dutch colonies
captured. The Republicans, or Patriots, as they began to name
themselves, were at first delighted that the