In which firm expectation, the petitioners address themselves to this grand Council with the respectful but serious request, that it may please your noble and great Lordships, to direct, by their powerful influence, thing in such sort, that, in the Assembly highly respected of their noble and grand Mightinesses the Lords the States of Holland and West Friesland, there be opened deliberations, or if already opened, carried as speedily as possible to an effectual conclusion, such as they shall find the most proper for obtaining the lawful end, and fulfilling the desires of the petitioners, or as they shall judge conformable to the general interest. So doing, &c. LEYDEN. _AN ADDRESS of Thanks, with a farther Petition_. To the noble, great, and venerable lords, the great council of the city of Leyden, The undersigned manufacturers, merchants, and other traders, interested in the manufactures and fabrics of this city, give respectfully to understand, That a number of the undersigned, having taken, the 18th of March, the liberty to present to your noble and great Lordships, a respectful request to obtain the conclusion of connections of commerce with United America, "the petitioners judge that they ought to hold it for a duty, as agreeable as indispensible, to testify their sincere gratitude, not only for the gracious manner in which your noble and great Lordships have been pleased to accept that request, but also for the patriotic resolution that your noble and great Lordships have taken upon its object; a resolution, in virtue of which the city of Leyden (as the petitioners have the best reasons to suppose) hath been one of the first cities of this province, from whose unanimous co-operation has originated the resolution of their noble and grand Mightinesses, of the date of the 28th of March last, to direct things on the part of their noble and grand Mightinesses, in the assembly of the States General, and to make there the strongest instances, to the end that Mr. Adams may be admitted and acknowledged as Minister of the United States of America." That the petitioners regard, with all honest-hearted citizens, the present epoch as one of the most glorious in the annals of our dear country, seeing that there has been manifested, in a most signal manner, on the one hand, a confidence the most cordial of the good citizens towards their regents, and on the other hand a paternal attention and deference of the regents to the respectful but well-founded prayers of their faithful citizens; and, in general, the most exemplary unanimity throughout the whole nation, to the confusion of those who, having endeavoured to sow the seeds of discord, would have rejoiced if they could say, with truth, that a dissention so fatal had rooted itself to the ruin of the country and of the people.