The Virginia Gazette

Extract of a private Letter from the Hague, July 11.

Independent of the great and important Affair of the Commerce, that of the Tutelage of the young Stadtholder continues to find no small Occupation for our Politicians.

The Province of Overyssel has indeed considered the great Consequence, and the pressing Necessity of that Business; but they have taken such a Variety of Points into their Deliberations, some of which are thought to be so foreign to the Purpose, that we can form no Idea of the Time in which we may expect their pure and simple Accession to what is proposed.

Amongst their present Demands the following are thought the most remarkable:

1. That in Case of the unexpected Death of Madame la Governante, the Regency, more especially of this Province, shall not be changed in any Respect; but all who are in Office shall enjoy their respective Employments 'til the Prince is of Age.

2. That such as are intrusted with his Education, shall confine their Attention to that only without intermeddling with the Affairs of the Republick.

3. That the States, in Quality of Sovereigns of the Country, and lawful Tutors of their Stadtholder, shall exercise the Offices of their Stadtholder, Captain General and Admiral, in the very same Manner that they were held and exercised before the Proclamation of the late Stadtholder.

The following is the Discourse which Col. Yorke made to the Stadtholder, on Occasion of the Ceremony of investing that Prince with the Order of the Garter.

My Lord, It is by express Order of the puissant Monarch your Royal Grandfather George II. King of Great-Britain, &c. that we have the Honour of notifying to your Serene Highness, that his Majesty has been pleased to elect you, with the unanimous Consent of all the Knights Companions, to be Knight of that illustrious Order; and that he has since charged us to deliver you the Ensigns.

After the Commission was read, and his Serene Highness was invested with the Marks of the Order, Col. Yorke re-assumed his Harangue in the following Terms.

You are at present, my Lord, invested, and become Knight of an Order which, without Dispute, surpasses in Antiquity all other military Orders in the Universe, and which has hitherto preserved its Nobility and Purity without any Blemish.

Tis in you, my Lord, that the Hopes and Wishes of a great and wise Republick are founded; and I make no Doubt, but that your Serene Highness, when arrived at Years of Maturity, under the Eye, and by the prudent Care, of her Royal Highness the Princess, your Mother and Tutress, will render yourself worthy of filling a Place in the History of this Order, among the Number of the Heroes who have given it the most shining Lustre.

Zealous and faithful Servant of my King and Country, sincerely and truly interested in the Happiness of this Republick, Friend of the Liberty which is the Object of the common Cause between the two Nations, I form the most ardent Vows, that the Glory of your Serene Highness may equal that of those Heroes which have been decorated with the Order since its first Institution, the Memory of which will never be effaced, who have worn the noble Ensigns with which you are actually invested; symbolic more worthy of your Emulation, than the Life and Actions of all the Christian Knights I cannot if I would, set before your Serene Highness, a more glorious Pattern, nor Marks of an Order instituted near five hundred Years ago, by the victorious King Edward III. of England, protected and worn by a Series of British Kings to this Day.

I must here have Recourse to the Goodness of your Serene Highness: The Limits which I am to prescribe myself, forbids me from searching farther than in the Annals of the most ancient and illustrious House of Orange for Examples of what I have the Honour to advance; the Maurices, the Frederick-Henrys, the Williams I, II, III, and IV. Founders or Defenders of this independent State, are Names which will never cease to be dear to the true Lovers of Liberty.

Let their great Examples inspire and warm the young and tender Heart of your Serene Highness! Let their Actions be your Study! Let their Exploits, their Wisdom, form the Plan of your Life: Heir of their Honours, be so too of their Virtues.

With what Pleasure and Satisfaction will your Serene Highness one Day call to Mind this remarkable Æra, when the King my Master conferred on you, in an Age so tender as to be without Example, the Honour of the Order which he wears himself; having been desirous of thereby giving the strongest Proof of his Royal Affection towards your Serene House, as well as towards this Republick, whose Friendship has ever been dear to him, and the Preservation and Independence whereof he has equally at Heart with that of his own Kingdoms.

These Considerations, I am persuaded, and permit me, my Lord, to foretel it, will one Day excite your Serene Highness to contribute all in your Power to the Maintenance and Confirmation of the happy Union with this so natural an Ally of the Republic; an Union! upon which depends the Security of the Protestant Religion, and the Support of the Liberty of Europe.