partiality in favour of the enemies of Great Britain.

MEMORIAL PRESENTED TO THE STATES BY MAJOR-GENERAL YORKE.

In the month of September, major-general Yorke, the British minister at
the Hague, presented a memorial to the states-general, remonstrating,
that the merchants of Holland carried on a contraband trade in favour
of France, by transporting cannon and warlike stores from the Baltic to
Holland, in Dutch bottoms, under the borrowed names of private persons;
and then conveying them by the inland rivers and canals, or through the
Dutch fortresses, to Dunkirk and other places of France. He desired that
the king his master might be made easy on that head, by their putting
an immediate stop to such practices, so repugnant to the connexions
subsisting by treaty between Great Britain and the United Provinces,
as well as to every idea of neutrality. He observed, that the attention
which his majesty had lately given to their representations against the
excesses of the English privateers, by procuring an act of parliament,
which laid them under proper restrictions, gave him a good title to the
same regard on the part of their high mightinesses. He reminded them
that their trading towns felt the good effects of these restrictions;
and that the freedom of navigation which their subjects enjoyed amidst
the troubles and distractions of Europe, had considerably augmented
their commerce. He observed, that some return ought to be made to such
solid proofs of the king's friendship and moderation; at least, the
merchants, who were so ready to complain of England, ought not to be
countenanced in excesses which would have justified the most rigorous
examination of their conduct. He recalled to their memories that, during
the course of the present war, the king had several times appealed to
their high mightinesses, and to their ministers, on the liberty they had
given to carry stores through the fortresses of the republic for the use
of France, to invade the British dominions; and though his majesty had
passed over in silence many of these instances of complaisance to his
enemy, he was no less sensible of the injury; but he chose rather to be
a sufferer himself, than to increase the embarrassment of his neighbours
or extend the flames of war. He took notice that even the court of
Vienna had, upon more than one occasion, employed its interest with
their high mightinesses, and lent its name to obtain passes for warlike
stores an