from one another on questions of domestic policy.  The one party were strong adherents of the French alliance and leant upon its support; the other sought to renew the bonds which had so long united the Republic with England.  Indeed the able representatives of France and England at the Hague at this time, the Count de Verac and Sir James Harris (afterwards Lord Malmesbury), were the real leaders and advisers, behind the scenes, of the opposing factions.

The strength of parties varied in the different provinces.  Holland, always more or less anti-stadholder, was the chief centre of the patriots.  With Holland were the majority of the Estates of Friesland, Groningen and Overyssel.  In Utrecht the nobles and the regents were for the stadholder, but the townsmen were strong patriots.  Zeeland supported the prince, who had with him the army, the preachers and the great mass of small bourgeoisie and the country folk.  Nothing could exceed the violence and unscrupulousness of the attacks that were directed against the stadholder in the press; and no efforts were spared by his opponents to curtail his rights and to insult him personally.  Corps of patriot volunteers were enrolled in different places with self-elected officers.  The wearing of the Orange colours and the singing of the Wilhelmus was forbidden, and punished by fine and imprisonment.  In September, 1785, a riot at the Hague led to the Estates of Holland taking from the stadholder the command of the troops in that city.  They likewise ordered the foot-guards henceforth to salute the members of the Estates, and removed the arms of the prince from the standards and the facings of the troops.  As a further slight, the privilege was given to the deputies, while the Estates were in session, to pass through the gate into the Binnenhof, which had hitherto been reserved for the use of the stadholder alone.  Filled with indignation and resentment, William left the Hague with his family and withdrew to his country residence at Het Loo.  Such a step only increased the confusion and disorder that was filling every part of the country, for it showed that William had neither the spirit nor the energy to make a firm stand against those who were resolved to overthrow his authority.

In Utrecht the strife between the parties led to scenes of violence.  The “patriots” found an eloquent leader in the person of a young student named Ondaatje.  The Estates of the province were as conservative as the city of Utrecht itself was ultra-democratic; and a long series of disturbances were caused by the burgher-regents of the Town Council refusing to accede to the popular demand for a drastic change in their constitution.  Finally they were besieged in the town hall by a numerous gathering of the “free corps” headed by Ondaatje, and were compelled to accede to the people’s demands.  A portion of the Estates thereupon assembled at Amersfoort; and at their request a body of 400 troops were sent there from Nijmwegen.  Civil war seemed imminent, but it was averted by the timely mediation of the Estates of Holland.