"That experience has also taught the petitioners, that the principal cause of the decay of the manufactures of Holland, particularly those of Leyden, is not to be found in any internal vice, either in the capacity or the economy of the inhabitants, but in circumstances, which have happened abroad, and to which it is, consequently, beyond the power of the petitioners, or of any citizen whatever, to provide a remedy; that we might cite, for example, the commerce of our manufactures with Dantzick, and, through that commercial city, with all Poland; a commerce which was carried on with success and advantage heretofore in our city, but is absolutely interrupted at this day, and vanished by the revolution, which has happened in that kingdom, and by the burthensome duties, to which the navigation of the Vistula has been subjected, but that, without entering into a detail of similar particular shackles, of which we might reckon a great number, the principal cause of the languishing state of our manufactures, consists in the jealous emulation of the neighboring nations, or rather of all the people of Europe, considering that in this age, the several Princes and governments, enlightened in the real sources of the public prosperity and the true interests of their subjects, attach themselves with emulation, to revive in their kingdoms and states, the national industry, commerce, and navigation; to encourage them and promote them, even by exclusive privileges, or by heavy impositions upon foreign merchandises, which lend equally to the prejudice of the commerce and manufactures of our country, as your Noble and Grand Lordships will easily recollect the examples in the Austrian States and elsewhere; that in the midst of these powers and nations, emulous, or jealous, it is impossible for the citizens of our Republic, however superior their manufactures may be in quality and fineness, to resist a rivalry so universal, especially considering the dearness of labor, caused by that of the means of subsistence, which, in its turn, is a necessary consequence of the taxes and imposts, which the inhabitants of this State pay in a greater number and a higher rate, than in any other country, by reason of her natural situation, and of its means to support itself; so that, by the continual operation of this principal, but irreparable cause of decline, it is to be feared, that the impoverishment and the diminution of the good citizens increasing with want of employment, the Dutch nation, heretofore the purveyor of all Europe, will be obliged to content itself with the sale of its own productions in the interior of the country; (and how much does not even this resource suffer by the importation of foreign manufactures?) and that Leyden, lately so rich and flourishing, will furnish in its declining streets, desolated quarters, and its multitude disgraced with want and misery, an affecting proof of the sudden fall of countries formerly overflowing with prosperity.