"That although they know very well, that the members of the sovereignty have always a right, and that their duty requires them even to expose their sentiments to his Highness and their co-regents, concerning the state and administration of public affairs, they should, however, have now voluntarily spared the present measure, if there had been only the smallest hope of amendment or alteration, but that from the aforesaid reasons, they dared not longer flatter themselves, and that the necessity having arisen to the highest point, it appeared that there was no other part to take, but to lay open in this manner to his Highness the real situation of affairs, praying him most earnestly to take it into serious consideration, and no longer listen to the counsels and insinuations of a man, upon whom the hatred of the great and the little was accumulated, and whom they regard as a stranger, not having a sufficient knowledge of our form of government, and not having a sincere affection for the Republic. "That the Regents of Amsterdam were very far from desiring to accuse this nobleman of that of which, however, he was too publicly charged; or to consider as well founded, the suspicions of an excessive attachment to the Court of London, of bad faith and of corruption, that they assure themselves, that a person of so illustrious a birth and so high rank, is incapable of such baseness; but that they judge, that the unfortunate ideas, which have been unhappily conceived with regard to him, and which have caused a general distrust, have rendered him absolutely useless and hurtful to the service of the country, and of his Highness. "That thus it was convenient to dismiss him from the direction of affairs, from the person and Court of his Highness, as being a perpetual obstacle to the re-establishment of that good harmony, so highly necessary between his Highness and the principal members of the State, while his continuance would but too much occasion the distrust conceived of his counsels, to fall, whether with or without reason, upon the person, and the administration of his Highness himself. "That these representations did not proceed from a principle of personal hatred or private rancor against the Duke, who, in former times, has had reason to value himself on the benevolence and real proofs of the affection of the Regency of Amsterdam; but that they ought to protest before God and the world, that the conservation of their country, and of the illustrious House of his Highness, and the desire to prevent their approaching ruin, had been the only motives of these representations.