republic was able to preserve a strict neutrality throughout. But
this happy state of tranquillity was not, as on former occasions,
attended by that prodigious increase of commerce, and that
accumulation of wealth, which had so often astonished the world.
Differing with England on the policy which led the latter to
weaken and humiliate France, jealousies sprung up between the
two countries, and Dutch commerce became the object of the most
vexatious and injurious efforts on the part of England. Remonstrance
was vain; resistance impossible; and the decline of the republic
hurried rapidly on. The Hanseatic towns, the American colonies, the
northern states of Europe, and France itself, all entered into the
rivalry with Holland, in which, however, England carried off the
most important prizes. Several private and petty encounters took
place between the vessels of England and Holland, in consequence
of the pretensions of the former to the right of search; and had
the republic possessed the ability of former periods, and the
talents of a Tromp or a De Ruyter, a new war would no doubt have
been the result. But it was forced to submit; and a degrading but
irritating tranquillity was the consequence for several years;
the national feelings receiving a salve for home-decline by some
extension of colonial settlements in the East, in which the island
of Ceylon was included.

In the midst of this inglorious state of things, and the domestic
abundance which was the only compensation for the gradual loss
of national influence, the installation of William V., in 1766;
his marriage with the princess of Prussia, niece of Frederick
the Great, in 1768; and the birth of two sons, the eldest on
the 24th of August, 1772; successively took place. Magnificent
fetes celebrated these events; the satisfied citizens little
imagining, amid their indolent rejoicings, the dismal futurity of
revolution and distress which was silently but rapidly preparing
for their country.

Maria Theresa, reduced to widowhood by the death of her husband,
whom she had elevated to the imperial dignity by the title of
Francis I., continued for a while to rule singly her vast
possessions; and had profited so little by the sufferings of her
own early reign that she joined in the iniquitous dismemberment
of Poland, which has left an indelible stain on her memory, and on
that of Frederick of Prussia and Catherine of Russia. In her own
dominions she was adored; and her n