ining
papers overboard. The lead which was attached to this box was not
sufficiently heavy to sink it immediately, and a British sailor leaped
into the sea and caught it as it was sinking. The papers which it
contained were found to contain a treaty of amity and commerce between
the republic of Holland and the States of America, some articles of
which had been provisionally agreed to and signed two years before
at Aix-la-Chapelle, by William Lee, agent for congress, and John de
Neufville, a merchant of Amsterdam, acting under powers delegated to him
by Van Berkel, the grand pensionary of that city. Laurens, the bearer
of these papers, was brought to England, and committed to the Tower on
a charge of high-treason; and our government transmitted the papers to
their ambassador at the Hague, and instructed him to present a memorial
to the States General, requiring them to disavow the proceedings of Van
Berkel and his accomplices, and to punish them for their offence. No
answer was returned to this memorial on the 12th of December, and Sir
Joseph Yorke sent in another, expressing, in diplomatic language, his
astonishment at the silence of the States General. The truth was, that
although the Statholder neither approved of the treaty with the United
States nor of war with England, the great trading interest of Amsterdam
and the whole French party in Holland were eager for the completion of
the treaty, and fondly imagined that Great Britain, through the number
and power of her enemies and the Armed Neutrality, must succumb. Hence
the memorial of the British ambassador was still treated with silent
contempt, and there was no alternative left for our government but to
declare war against Holland. Sir Joseph Yorke was recalled, and a royal
manifesto was issued, declaring that Great Britain had issued letters of
reprisals against the Dutch, and justifying her conduct in taking this
hostile step. This manifesto was issued, on the 20th of December, and
it would appear that the States General were alarmed at this firmness of
the British government, for they did not put forth their answer to the
manifesto of his Britannic majesty till the March following. The States
General were, in truth, ill prepared for war with England, and they had
soon reason to repent that they had even provoked it: it brought them
only loss and degradation.

GENERAL ELECTION.

Parliament was unexpectedly dissolved, on the 1st of September, by royal
proc