others, according to the magnitude of such a crime, tending to the ruin of the country; we have thought fit to promise, as we do by these presents, a premium of a hundred ryders (fourteen hundred guilders) in favor of those who may discover or make known, the author or authors, distributor or distributors, in such manner that they may be juridically convicted and punished, concealing the name of the informer if he requires it. And we ordain, moreover, to all the officers and judges in the city, cities, and countries of this Province, to make all possible search, and to endeavor, without any negligence, dissimulation, or connivance, to discover and arrest the aforesaid malefactor, or malefactors, and to proceed and to cause to be proceeded, as is convenient, against them, as seditious persons, and disturbers of the public repose, guilty of overturning the foundations of the government of these Provinces, and of the sovereignty of the Lords, the States of the Provinces respectively, and as the enemies the most dangerous of the country; and to the end, that no man may pretend ignorance, these presents shall be published and posted up in convenient places. "Done at Utrecht, the 3d of October, 1781. I. TACTS VAN AMERONGEN. "By order of the said Lords Deputies, C.A. VOS." I have the honor to be, &c. JOHN ADAMS. * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Amsterdam, October 18th, 1781. Sir, The Committees of the Fisheries of Vlaardingen and Maaslleys have presented to their High Mightinesses a petition to give them to understand, "that they learned with the most lively sensibility that the gentlemen, the committees of the respective colleges of Admiralty had proposed to their High Mightinesses to permit the free navigation of the ports of the Republic, with or without convoy, excepting, nevertheless, until further order, the vessels destined to the greater and lesser fisheries. The petitioners represent the inevitable losses, with which they are more and more threatened, in case that all the fishery, without exception, remain longer suspended; that they might very well find a remedy in a certain manner by excepting from this prohibition the ships employed in taking fish for salting, and in the fishery of fresh cod. They solicit, that it may please their High Mightinesses to revoke in this regard the placard of the 26th of January, 1781, or at least to make in it such alteration as their High Mightinesses may find convenient." This petition, accepted by the Province of Holland, has been rendered commissorial, and sent to the colleges of the Admiralty respectively. ANOTHER PETITION,