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.