That in the midst of these powers and nations, emulous or jealous, it is impossible for the citizens of our Republic, however superior their manufactures may be in quality and fineness, to resist a rivalry so universal; especially considering the dearness of labour, caused by that of the means of subsistence; which, in its turn, is a necessary consequence of the taxes and imposts which the inhabitants of this State pay in a greater number, and a higher rate, than in any other country, by reason of her natural situation, and of its means to support itself; so that by the continual operation of this principal, but irreparable cause of decline, it is to be feared, that the impoverishment and the diminution of the good citizens increasing with the want of employment, the Dutch nation, heretofore the purveyor of all Europe, will be obliged to content itself with the sale of its own productions in the interior of the country; (and how much does not even this resource suffer by the importation of foreign manufactures?) and that Leyden, lately so rich and flourishing, will exhibit desolated quarters in its declining streets; and its multitude, disgraced with want and misery; an affecting proof of the sudden fall of countries formerly overflowing with prosperity. That, if we duly consider these motives, no citizen, whose heart is upright, (as the petitioners assure themselves) much less your noble and grand Lordships, whose good dispositions they acknowledge with gratitude, will take it amiss, that we have fixed our eyes on the present conjuncture of affairs, to enquire whether these times might not furnish them some means of reviving the languishing manufactures of Leyden; and that after a consideration well matured, they flatter themselves with the hope (a hope which unprejudiced men will not regard as a vain chimera) that in fact, by the present circumstances, there opens in their favour an issue for arriving at the re-establishment desired.