e present circumstances, there
opens in their favour an issue for arriving at the re-establishment
desired.

That from the time when the rupture between Great Britain and the
Colonies upon the continent of North America appeared to be irreparable,
every attentive spectator of this event perceived, or at least was
convinced, that this rupture, by which there was born a republic, as
powerful as industrious, in the new world, would have the most important
consequences for commerce and navigation; and that the other commercial
nations of Europe would soon share in a very considerable commerce,
whereof the kingdom of Great Britain had reserved to itself, until that
time, the exclusive possession by its Act of Navigation, and by the
other acts of parliament prescribed to the Colonies; that in the time of
it, this reflection did not escape your petitioners; and they foresaw,
from that time, the advantage which might arise, in the sequel, from a
revolution so important for the United Provinces in general, and for
their native city in particular. But that they should have been afraid
to have placed this favourable occasion before the eyes of your noble
and grand Lordships, at an epoch when the relations which connected our
Republic with Great Britain, her neighbour, seemed to forbid all
measures of this nature, or at least ought to make them be considered as
out of season.

That, in the mean time, this reason of silence has entirely ceased, by
the hostilities which the said kingdom has commenced against our
Republic, under pretences, and in a manner the injustice of which has
been demonstrated by the supreme government of the State, with an
irrefragable evidence, in the eyes of impartial Europe; whilst the
petitioners themselves, by the illegal capture of so large a number of
Dutch ships, and afterwards by the absolute stagnation of navigation,
and of voyages to foreign countries, have experienced in the most
grievous manner, the consequences of this hostile and unforeseen attack,
and feel them still every day, as is abundantly known to your noble and
grand Lordships. That since that epoch, a still more considerable number
of workmen must have remained without employment, and several fathers of
families have quitted the city, abandoning, to the farther expense of
the treasury of the poor, their wives and their children plunged in
misery.

That during this rupture, which has subsisted now for fifteen months,
there has occurre