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Rh of an outraged nation, might overtake the guilty. The conduct of the French towards their state criminals was hinted at as an example not unworthy of imitation, and the necessity of severe measures was loudly asserted.

This inclination of an active, and, under the new system, of a weighty and formidable part of the public, towards sanguinary, or at least violent, proceedings against the members of the old government, would probably have been matured by the animosity of faction into actual execution, had not the provisional representatives of Amsterdam wisely checked in its infancy the growth of this spirit of revolutionary vengeance.

In a proclamation addressed to the people of Amsterdam, relative to the vindictive measures recommended to be pursued with the members of the old government, and other obnoxious persons, the provisional representatives, in a tone of the most admirable moderation and humanity, expressed their disapprobation of such sentiments. No state