ABSTRACT
The regents opposed the prince of Orange. The middle classes opposed the regents, but were also hostile to the prince, partly because the new doctrines caused them to look upon him as a tyrant, and partly because the economic malaise made them dissatisfied with authority in general. Most anomalous of all these oppositions was that between the prince and the regents: the interest of both was conservation and demanded that they should co-operate. The American revolution, which broke out in 1773, brought about a temporary collaboration between the regents and the middle-class democrats. Everywhere the regents were approaching the orangist leaders and renouncing their alliance with the democrats of whom they were heartily tired. The regents, the orangist lower middle class and the orangist proletariat stood on the same side, while the middling classes and the intellectuals formed a revolutionary opposition.
