"I shall not allege here the entreaties that I have annually made with the Council of State by the general petition; but shall communicate only to your High Mightinesses the proposition that I have made to the assembly of the gentlemen, the States of Holland and West Friesland, the 10th of March, 1779, which is of the same tenor with the letter I wrote the same day to the gentlemen, the States of Guelderland, Zealand, Utrecht, Friesland, Overyssel, and Groningen, a copy of which I have the honor to remit to your High Mightinesses. I cannot disguise that in my opinion it was to have been wished, that what I then proposed had been more attended to, since I dare assure myself that if the republic had found it good at that time to have caused to be armed fifty or sixty vessels well equipped, and provided with every necessary, whereof not less than twenty or thirty should have been of the line, and to have augmented the land forces to fifty or sixty thousand men of foot, it would not have found itself in its present unhappy circumstances, but it would have been respected as an independent State by all the powers, it would have been able to maintain the system of neutrality, which it had embraced; and it would have seen itself in a state to promise itself with reason, under the divine benediction, that in giving great weight to the party to which it should be joined, it would not have been to be feared that any power whatsoever would have attacked it, but that it would have been managed by each, and that her friendship being sought by all, and not giving to any one of them just causes of complaint, it would have obtained the esteem and confidence of all the powers, which would have produced the best effects for the true interests of this State, certainly and in every case, if it had been attacked by an unjust war, to which a State is always exposed, it would have seen itself in a state to make an opposition with hopes of success, and of obliging the enemy to seek the friendship of this State, upon honorable terms for the Republic." The following is the letter from his Serene Highness to the Lords, the States of Guelderland, Zealand, Utrecht, Friesland, Overyssel, and Groningen, dated March 10th, 1779.