f the attitude
of France both the disputants were after lengthy negotiations brought to
terms, which were embodied in a treaty signed at Fontainebleau on
November 8,1785. The Dutch retained the right to close the Scheldt, but
had to dismantle some of the forts; the frontier of Dutch Flanders was
to be that of 1664; and Joseph gave up all claim to Maestricht in
consideration of a payment of 9,500,000 florins. A few days later an
alliance between France and the Republic, known as "the Defensive
Confederacy" of Fontainebleau, was concluded, the French government
advancing 4,500,000 florins towards the ransom of Maestricht. The return
of peace, however, far from allaying the spirit of faction in the
Republic, was to lead to civil strife.

The situation with which William V now had to deal was in some ways
more difficult and dangerous than in the days of his greater
predecessors. It was no longer a mere struggle for supremacy between the
Orange-Stadholder party (_prins-gezinderi_) and the patrician-regents of
the town corporations (_staats-gezinderi_); a third party had come into
existence, the democratic or "patriot" party, which had imbibed the
revolutionary ideas of Rousseau and others about the Rights of Man and
the Social Contract. These new ideas, spread about with fiery zeal by
the two nobles, Van der Capellen tot de Pol and his cousin Van der
Capellen van den Marsch, had found a fertile soil in the northern
Netherlands, and among all classes, including other nobles and many
leading burgomasters. Their aim was to abolish all privileges whether in
Church or State, and to establish the principle of the sovereignty of
the people. These were the days, be it remembered, which immediately
succeeded the American Revolution and preceded the summoning of the
States-General in France with its fateful consequences. The atmosphere
was full of revolution; and the men of the new ideas had no more
sympathy with the pretensions of an aristocratic caste of
burgher-regents to exclude their fellow-citizens from a voice in the
management of their own affairs, than they had with the quasi-sovereign
position of an hereditary stadholder. Among the Orange party were few
men of mark. The council-pensionary Bleiswijk was without character,
ready to change sides with the shifting wind; and Count Bentinck van
Rhoon had little ability. They were, however, to discover in burgomaster
Van de Spiegel of Goes a statesman destined soon to play a great