"The King, my master, has discovered during the whole course of his reign the most sincere desire to maintain the union, which has subsisted for more than a century between his Crown and this Republic. This union rests upon the immovable basis of reciprocal interest; and as it has contributed much to the prosperity of the two nations, the natural enemy of both employs all the resources of his policy to destroy it. For sometime past, this enemy has not labored but with too much success, being supported by a faction, which seeks to govern the Republic, and which is always ready to sacrifice the general interest to private views. The King has seen with as much surprise as regret, the little effect which has been produced by his repeated demands of the succors stipulated by the treaties, and the representations of his Ambassadors, concerning the daily violations of engagements the most solemn. "The moderation of the King has induced him to attribute this conduct of your High Mightinesses, to the intrigues of an _overbearing cabal_; and his Majesty would still persuade himself, that your justice and your intelligence will determine you to fulfil your engagements towards him, and to prove by all your proceedings your resolution to put in vigor the system formed by the wisdom of your ancestors, and the only one which can ensure the safety and glory of the Republic. The answer of your High Mightinesses to this declaration, which the subscriber makes by the express order of his Court, will be the touchstone of your sentiments and intentions towards the King. "His Majesty has had for sometime indications without number of the dangerous designs of an _unbridled cabal_. But the papers of Mr Laurens, who calls himself a President of a pretended Congress, have made a discovery of a conspiracy without example in the annals of the Republic. It appears by these papers, that the gentlemen of Amsterdam have commenced a clandestine correspondence with the rebels of America, from the month of August, 1778, and that there were instructions and full powers given by them, relative to the conclusion of an indissoluble treaty of amity with these rebels, subjects of a sovereign, to whom the Republic is bound by engagements the most strict. The authors of this conspiracy pretend not to deny it; on the contrary, they avow it, and endeavor in vain to justify it. It is in these circumstances, that his Majesty, depending on the equity of your High Mightinesses, demands a formal disavowal of a conduct so irregular, not less contrary to your engagements the most sacred, than to the fundamental laws of the Batavian Constitution. The King demands also, a prompt satisfaction proportioned to the offence, and an exemplary punishment of the Pensionary, Van Berckel, and of his accomplices, as disturbers of the public peace, and violators of the law of nations.