pany got into debt and had to apply for help to the
State. The English war completed its ruin. In June, 1783, the Estates of
Holland appointed a Commission to examine into the affairs of the
Company. Too many people in Holland had invested their money in it, and
the Indian trade was too important, for an actual collapse of the
Company to be permitted. Accordingly an advance of 8,000,000 florins was
made to the directors, with a guarantee for 38,000,000 of debt. But
things went from bad to worse. In 1790 the indebtedness of the Company
amounted to 85,000,000 florins. Van de Spiegel and others were convinced
that the only satisfactory solution would be for the State to dissolve
the Company and take over the Indian possessions in full sovereignty at
the cost of liquidating the debt, A commission was appointed in 1791 to
proceed to the East and make a report upon the condition of the
colonies. Before their mission was accomplished the French armies were
overrunning the Republic. It was not till 1798 that the existence of the
Company actually came to an end. To the West India Company the effect of
the English war was likewise disastrous. The Guiana colonies, whose
sugar plantations had been a source of great profit, had been conquered
first by the English, then by the French; and, though they were restored
after the war, the damage inflicted had brought the Company into heavy
difficulties. Its charter expired in 1791, and it was not renewed. The
colonies became colonies of the State, the shareholders being
compensated by exchanging their depreciated shares for Government bonds.

The Orange restoration, however, and the efforts of Van de Spiegel to
strengthen its bases by salutary reforms were doomed to be short-lived.
The council-pensionary, in spite of his desire to relinquish office at
the end of his quinquennial term, was reelected by the Estates of
Holland on December 6, 1792, and yielded to the pressure put upon him to
continue his task. A form of government, which had been imposed against
their will on the patriot party by the aid of foreign bayonets, was
certain to have many enemies; and such prospect of permanence as it had
lay in the goodwill and confidence inspired by the statesmanlike and
conciliatory policy of Van de Spiegel. But it was soon to be swept away
in the cataclysm of the French Revolution now at the height of its
devastating course.

In France extreme revolutionary ideas had made rapid headway, ending