strong maritime state, such as France or Russia.
Joseph's demand was backed by a recommendation from the Russian empress.
He sent ships to sail up and down the river, and they were forcibly
stopped by the Dutch. War seemed imminent. France, however, was then
gaining great influence in Holland, and though she compelled the Dutch
to assent to some of the emperor's demands, she upheld their refusal
with regard to the Scheldt, and negotiated a treaty concluded at
Fontainebleau in November, 1785, between the emperor and the republic,
by which Joseph renounced his demand for the opening of the river.

[Sidenote: _FRENCH INFLUENCE IN HOLLAND._]

He was already occupied in renewing a scheme, which had been defeated in
1778, for exchanging his Netherland provinces for Bavaria. This project
was highly prejudicial to Prussian interests in Germany; and Frederick
of Prussia baulked it by forming a Furstenbund, or alliance of princes,
to maintain the integrity of the Germanic constitution. In February,
1785, he invited King George as Elector of Hanover to join in this
projected alliance. George willingly assented, for the alliance was
beneficial to Hanover; and in a letter to his Hanoverian minister he
expressed the hope that his assent would lead to an understanding
between England and Prussia. This was merely an expression of his
private feelings; the Furstenbund was not a matter of English politics
and did not, in fact, bring about an Anglo-Prussian alliance.[199] Such
an alliance was highly desirable for England as a means of defeating the
intrigues of France in the United Provinces. The more republican or
"patriot" party in Holland, which had led the states to break their
ancient friendly relations with England, was completely under French
influence, and, relying on the support of France, designed to compel the
stadholder, William V. of Orange, a feeble and irresolute prince, to
resign his office. Their victory would have made the republic virtually
a French province, and would have brought France a great accession of
naval power. Sir James Harris, the British ambassador at the Hague,
laboured to counteract their designs by encouraging the party in the
republic opposed to the policy of Holland. The stadholder's wife, a
princess of high spirit, was a niece of Frederick the Great, and Harris
was anxious for an alliance between England and Prussia as a means of
overthrowing the French party. Ewart, the ambassador at Berlin, shared