Monthly Chronicle.

J-e . trs , has stopt up the sources of our happiness , and conducted us to the brink of the precipice which we have just this moment escaped . It was time to direct our attention to a danger , which the patience and indulgence of the French people so long endured ; whose attachment is not cooled , notwithstanding the intrigues employed by a wicked faction to alienatethem from us . It was time to render illusive all the attacks upon your liberty , attacks wliich were every day renewed . It was time to render useless the plans of those who , with a view of self aggrandisement , have endeavoured to support the federal IIEGIME , and to render the

revolution , so salutary in its principles , not only illusory for you , but even pernicious in its effects . It was time that the oath , which was made for the safety of the country—an oath , which many pronounced with a false heart , an oath lately renewed in your presence , should be realised- by your true friends . ' For those , then , who have no object but the general good , and to point out to the country the means of repairing the evils , which cunning and treason have caused ; for those , then , there is no other line of conduct to adopt , but to deprive those wicked beings of the means of injuring you again .

' The plan of establishing the reign of some patrician families upon the crimes of the government of the Stadtholder , by attempting to oppress the real friends of their country , of extinguishing their courage , and depriving them of strength to oppose tyranny ; the plan as subjecting you to the insupportable yoke of an elective Aristocracy , under the name of a popular government by representation , and

making you embrace a shameful slavery , by giving you nothing but the shadow of liberty—This wicked plan , so clearly expressed in the form of the Constitution which you have just rejected , was never lost sight of ; on the contrary ,. it became more and more dear to all its adherents , and the only difference between it and the attempts hitherto made for the same purpose , i * an increase of aitifice and violence . It was reserved for the French Republicans lo second the projects of true Republicans , to extricate you a second time from ihe gulf into which they would have plunged you . We had no alternative between the last political crisis and .

the prospect of seeing liberty for ever enchained ; and what patriot could hesitate a moment in his choice ? ' Yes , Batavians , we were under in the cruel necessity of putting in astate of arrest several Members of your Representative Assembly , and of removing others from the Government , not with a view to injure them , or prosecute them for their conduct , for we are too well convinced of the baneful consequences of a reign of terror , but to prevent them from undermining the foundations of our last political revolution ; and , by destroying all obstacles , to-direct yourattention to a regular order

of things , for the purpose of destroying despotism , and shutting out access to anarchy , a measure which will cement ihe safety of the Batavian Republic , and render it as useful to its allies as formidable to its enemies . Do we offer you an exaggerated picture of the state of things ? Have we recourse to calumny to inspire you with hatred towards honest men ? Or , do we . render homage to truth ? The attacks upon civil liberty , are they not manifest ? Are not the protection and favour shewn to the House of Orange well known ? Was it not enough to be a patriot , to be despised and rejected ? Have they neglected any means of destroying public spirit ? And has not the organization of the troops of the land been a ton ? time the source of complaints ? Have they not endeavoured , in your

Representative Assemblies , to defend the Committee of Union ? Have not several of your Governors shamefully combated the lenity of the Republic ? The sole means of rendering us happy at home , and powerful abroad ! Have they not retarded , by every possible means , the formation of the National Guard , that bulwark of liberty , as formidable to despots as salutary to the happiness of the people ? ' Is not commerce with our natural enemy tolerated ? What do we say ? Is it not protected , in spite of the laws ? Is it not suffered in various places , to em ^ ploy the armed force to stifle the voice of the citizensand to maintainwith

vi-, , gour , an insolent despotism ? Have they not employed the treasures of the nation , those treasures amassed at the price of your sweat and your blood , to corrupt every thing , to make you accept , at the end of the bayonet , a Constitution which you have rejected with indignation ? Have they not , in every respect , given-vile egotists au assurance of impunity ? Have they not permitted a few iii-