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332 which is most loudly condemned by their friends in Holland, the leaders of the British army, instead of profiting by the consternation which their first success and the treason of the fleet occasioned, remained, in a state of cautious, if not timid, inactivity till the season for rapid operations, was elapsed.

The number of stadtholderians who had joined the British army, exclusive of those from the fleet, was inconsiderable, but this was accounted for by the circumstances that the part of Holland which was occupied by the English was the district most averse, within the limits of the republic to the authority of the house of Orange. In the southern parts of Hollands towards the mouth of the Maese, where the stadtholderian party wished the invasion to have been made, the friends of the old government were much more numerous. It cannot, however, be doubted, but that many would have joined the army had it advanced far enough to have enabled them to do so with security and confidences, and in the