"Conformably to the first article of the instructions of the Council of State of the United Provinces, the Stadtholder is the first member of it, and has there the right of suffrage, with an appointment of twentyfive thousand florins a year. In virtue of a resolution of the States-General, of the 27th of February, the Prince of Orange had enjoyed it before his elevation to the Stadtholdership, having been placed, from the year 1670, in the Council of State. The 26th of July, 1746, their High Mightinesses granted the same appointments to the Prince Stadtholder. "He assists also, whenever he judges proper for the service of the State, at the deliberations of the States-General, there to make propositions, &c. and sometimes also at the conferences held by the Deputies of their High Mightinesses in the several departments, according to the order established at the Assemblies of the States of particular Provinces, and at those of their Counsellors, or States Deputies. In Guelderland, in Holland, and in the Province of Utrecht, his Highness participates of the sovereignty, as Chief, or President of the body of Nobles; and in Zealand, where he possesses the Marquisate of Veere and of Flessingue as First Noble, and representing alone all the nobility. In his absence, he has in Zealand his representatives, who hold the first place, who have the first voice in all the councils, and the first of whom is always First Deputy from this Province at the Assembly of their High Mightinesses. The three quarters of the Province of Guelderland conferred the dignity of Chief, or President of the Body of Nobles, on his Serene Highness, in 1750. None of his predecessors had it, but Basnage says, in his Annals of the United Provinces, that the Prince William the Second, a little before his death, had a design to get himself elected First Noble in Guelderland, where the nobility had been at all times devoted to him. "The Body of Nobles of Holland, having prayed in 1635, the Prince Frederick Henry to do them the honor of being their Chief, his Highness, who as Stadtholder had neither seat nor voice in the Assembly of the States of the Province, graciously accepted of this offer, and became thereby a permanent member of it. The Body of Nobles have done the same with regard to the successors of this Prince.