her to the above, that if this advice was rejected,
and if the affair was negotiated on the basis of the previous opinion,
exhibited on the 23d of June last, in the Assembly of Holland, the
consequence of it will be that the Russian squadron, which, according
to orders of her Imperial Majesty of Russia, must have already put to
sea, will appear in the seas bordering on this country, without giving
any protection to the commerce of this country; while, on the other
side, though commerce has been a long time charged with double duties,
their High Mightinesses, meantime, grant it no protection, because the
Colleges of Admiralty of this country profess themselves unable to do
it, or at least to put to sea sufficient convoys to avoid affronts
like those which the squadron under the orders of Rear-Admiral de
Byland had lately endured.

That from this total failure of protection to the navigation of this
country, on the one side, and from the continual insults of which
their High Mightinesses every day receive grievous complaints on the
other, there must naturally ensue an entire suspension of the commerce
of this country; and thence, it is easy to foresee, that this commerce
will be diverted and take its course by other European channels, and
that the burdensome impositions with which it is charged, in order to
obtain means for its protection being continued, will precipitate its
ruin.

That in this confusion of affairs, and in the extreme necessity in
which they find themselves, to take advantage of an offer of
assistance and succor so generously and magnanimously made and
proposed by her Imperial Majesty of Russia to this State, on a footing
so easy and so little burdensome; the Lords Constituents will leave
posterity to judge of the weight of the reasons alleged by some
members of the Assembly of their Noble and Grand Mightinesses in the
deliberation on this subject, as if the acceptance of said means for
the necessary protection of the commerce of this country, and in
particular of foreign succor, could be considered a means of drawing
on a war on the part of those, against whom it is found necessary to
defend ourselves, in making use of said means to all lawful purposes;
and as if we ought, for this reason, to decline the said offer of
assistance, unless her Imperial Majesty of Russia, beside her said
magnanimous plan of re-establishing the liberty of the seas, will also
engage with the other neutral powers to guaranty