n.

That although the petitioners may be convinced that their noble and
grand Mightinesses, having taken a resolution so agreeable to all true
patriots, will not neglect to employ means to carry it to an efficacious
conclusion among the other confederates, and to procure to the good
citizens the real enjoyment of the commerce with United America, they
cannot, nevertheless, dissemble that, lately, some new reasons have
arisen, which make them conceive some fears respecting the prompt
consummation of this desirable affair.

That the probability of an offer of peace, on the part of Great-Britain,
to United America, whereof the petitioners made mention in their former
request, having at present become a full certainty by the revolution
arrived since in the British ministry, they have not learned without
uneasiness the attempt made, at the same time, by the new ministers of
the court of London, to involve this state in a negociation for a
separate peace, the immediate consequence of which would be (as the
petitioners fear) a cessation of all connections with the American
Republic, whilst that in the mean time our Republic, deprived on the one
hand of the advantages which it reasonably promises itself from these
connections, might, on the other hand, be detained by negociations, spun
out to a great length, and not effect till late, perhaps after the other
belligerent powers, a separate peace with England.

That, in effect, the difficulties which oppose themselves to a like
partial pacification are too multiplied for one to promise himself to
see them suddenly removed, such as the restitution of the possessions
taken from the state, and retaken from the English by France, a
restitution which is become thereby impracticable, the indemnification
of the immense losses that the unexpected and perfidious attack of
England hath caused to the Dutch nation in general, to the petitioners
in particular; the assurance of a free navigation for the future, upon
the principles of the armed neutrality, and conformably to the law of
nations; the dissolution of the bonds which, without being productive of
any utility to the two nations, have been a source of contestations,
always springing up, and which, in every war between Great-Britain and
any other power, have threatened to involve our Republic in it, or have
in effect done it; the annihilation, if possible, of the act of
navigation, an act which carries too evident marks of the supremac