The authority described in the last chapter, so princely and powerful, in all human probability would have continued in the family of the prince upon whom it was conferred to this hour, and descended to their posterity, had the last stadtholder possessed the virtue, spirit, and wisdom of his ancestors: but the imbecility of his character, more than those wonderful events which were agitating other portions of Europe, was the principal cause of the overthrow of his house. Without any portion of ability, William the Fifth was alive only to his own aggrandizement and depraved pleasures. The attachment which he had been taught to cherish for the politics of England, had long marked him out as an object of hatred with the Dutch: under his auspices they saw their own trade deteriorated, and the ocean covered with the commercial vessels of the British empire, wafting wealth into her ports from every quarter of the globe, the resources and energies of the republic consuming without any attempt to resuscitate them, until at length his weak and culpable conduct closed in the conquest of the country, and the precipitate retreat of himself and family. The conduct of the Princess of Orange also contributed not a little to augment the displeasure of the people. She had that influence over him which strong minds always have over weak ones, but in no instance were her counsels advantageous to the state, and she had no one quality to conciliate the lower classes of the people. During the troubles of 1787, she created uncommon disgust by answering in her own name an address of the States General to the prince her husband, when she had no recognised character in the republic, and consequently no right whatever to interfere in its affairs. Amongst other acts of presumption in the same year, so memorable in the Dutch annals, when the Orange party, supported by Prussia, and Great Britain, acquired the ascendency, she managed the negotiations between the Duke of Brunswick, who commanded the Prussian army, and the city of Amsterdam, in the course of which she declared in a tone of angry insolence, that the generosity of her disposition induced her to spare the lives of the guilty, but that they should be held incapable of discharging the duties of any public trust in future. Among the persons whom she caused to be dismissed were several distinguished and popular citizens, the survivors of whom were, upon the overthrow of the house of Orange, called to participate in the government of the country with the most flattering marks of congratulation.