"The gentlemen, the Deputies of the City of Amsterdam, in the name and by the order of the gentlemen, their constituents, have the honor to represent to your Most Serene Highness, that the said constituents having learnt, with much uneasiness the discontent, that your Highness had taken, on the subject of their last proposition, made in the Assembly of their Noble and Grand Mightinesses, although it had been contrary to their intention to give your Highness the least offence, or to offer him any insult or displeasure, they have seized with great satisfaction, an opportunity to give your Highness the most sincere assurances of it; that they flatter themselves, that, from what they shall have the honor of laying before you your Highness will be able to deduce the reasons, for which they have not previously acquainted him with the contents of the said proposition, before it hath been remitted to the Assembly of their Noble and Grand Mightinesses; that they should feel a real chagrin, if your Highness attributed this silence to any particular distrust towards his person; they declare, that they are absolutely divested of it, and that they have nothing so much at heart as to excite and cherish between your Highness and their City that confidence, that the well-being and advancement of the public cause render inevitably necessary; that by their proposition they have only wished to open a way to find out and carry into execution, such measures as the critical situation of affairs most pressingly requires for the safety and preservation of their dear country.