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460 RISE OF THE CONTINENTALwere decisively influenced by the affairs of Holland, whichas we have shown above, by the restoration of the stadtholdership,occasioned a close connexion not only with the houseof Orange, but also with Prussia, who had effected this object by open force. The interference of England in theaffairs of the North, which was a consequence of this, thouoiia fruitless one, and the rupture with Russia which thereuponensued, have been noticed above. In his domestic administration, after completing the new arrangements for themanagement of the affairs of the East India Company, inaccordance with the bill passed in reference to them, 'theminister was chiefly occupied with his financial measuresfor the diminution of the national debt, and for the reductionof the interest of the 4 per cent, annuities to 3 per cent.Convinced that the regular payment of the interest upon thenational debt was not sufficient for the maintenance of thenational credit, but that it was necessary to think of payingoff the principal, he had, three years before, by the institutionof a sinking fund, thrown out an anchor which has sincegiven assumed stability to its credit. 1 This great institutioncould scarcely begin to operate at that time ;the contractionof new debts, which a new war rendered inevitable, couldnot therefore enter into the plan of the minister. The observation of a strict neutrality was consequently the policyadopted by the minister during the first and second so calledConstituent and Legislative Assemblies ;for however imperfect and exceptionable, in many respects, the first constitution might be, which Lewis XVI. accepted and pledgedhimself to, the British cabinet, nevertheless, abstained fromin the affairsany^interferenceof France. But when, indeed,during the session of the second national assembly, politicalprinciples of a totally different character were set forth, thethrone subverted, the king with his family cast into prison ;when, moreover, the National Convention, which next followed, abolished monarchy and sent the king to the scaffold,the relations of the two nations were disturbed ; stillyet nowar ensued, though considerations arose which renderedother proceedings necessary.The question now became one of intervention in the domestic affairs of a foreign state :a question which has always126th of May, 1786.