trade and industry were paralyzed. Universal
misery took place of opulence, and not even the consolation of a
free constitution remained to the people. They vainly sought that
blessing from each new government of the country whose destinies
they followed, but whose advantages they did not share. They saw
themselves successively governed by the states-general, a national
assembly, and the directory. But these ephemeral authorities had
not sufficient weight to give the nation domestic happiness,
nor consideration among the other powers.

On the 11th of October, 1797, the English admiral, Sir Adam Duncan,
with a superior force, encountered the Dutch fleet under De Winter
off Camperdown; and in spite of the bravery of the latter he was
taken prisoner, with nine ships of the line and a frigate. An
expedition on an extensive scale was soon after fitted out in
England, to co-operate with a Russian force for the establishment
of the House of Orange. The Helder was the destination of this
armament, which was commanded by Sir Ralph Abercrombie. The Duke of
York soon arrived in the Texel with a considerable reinforcement.
A series of severe, and well-contested actions near Bergen ended
in the defeat of the allies and the abandonment of the enterprise;
the only success of which was the capture of the remains of the
Dutch fleet, which was safely conveyed to England.

From this period the weight of French oppression became every
day more intolerable in Holland. Ministers, generals, and every
other species of functionary, with swarms of minor tyrants, while
treating the country as a conquered province, deprived it of all
share in the brilliant though checkered glories gained by that
to which it was subservient. The Dutch were robbed of national
independence and personal freedom. While the words "liberty" and
"equality" were everywhere emblazoned, the French ambassador
assumed an almost Oriental despotism. The language and forms of a
free government were used only to sanction a foreign tyranny; and
the Batavian republic, reduced to the most hopeless and degraded
state, was in fact but a forced appendage chained to the triumphal
car of France.

Napoleon Bonaparte, creating by the force of his prodigious talents
the circumstances of which inferior minds are but the creatures, now
rapidly rose to the topmost height of power. He not only towered
above the mass of prejudices which long custom had legalized,
but spurned the multitude by