"The alliance, which has subsisted so many years between Great Britain and the States-General, has always been considered by his Majesty as a connexion founded on the most natural relations, and which was not only conformable to the interests of the two nations, but as essential to their mutual well-being. The King has done everything on his part to maintain these connexions and to strengthen them; and if the conduct of their High Mightinesses had been answerable to that of his Majesty, they would have subsisted at this hour in all their force. But from the commencement of the present troubles, the single return with which the Republic has requited the constant friendship of the King, has been the renunciation of the principles of an alliance, the primary object of which was the mutual defence of the two nations; an obstinate refusal to fulfil the most sacred obligations; a daily violation of the most solemn treaties; an assistance given to those very enemies against whom the King had a right to demand succor; an asylum granted to American pirates in the ports of Holland, in public violation of the clearest stipulations; and to fill up the measure, a denial of justice and of satisfaction for the affront offered to the dignity of the King by a secret league with his rebel subjects. "All these accumulated grievances have not permitted the King to act any other part, than that which he has taken with the most sensible reluctance. When we laid before the public the motives which had rendered this rupture inevitable, the King attributed the conduct of the Republic to its true cause, viz. the unfortunate influence of a faction, which sacrificed the interest of the nation to private views; but the King at the same time manifested the sincerest desire to be able to draw back the Republic to a system of strict union, efficacious alliance and reciprocal protection, which has so greatly contributed to the well-being and to the glory of the two nations.