Briefwisseling en aantekeningen. Deel 2

441
R. Wolters aan Willem Bentinck

[B.M., Eg. 1746]

Rotterdam, 11 oktober 1748

The petition for this town is drawn up and is to be presented for signing to morrow. It is well worded and nobody is named in it, but the magistrates whom it is aimed att are so well painted out, as that the Prince can not mistake them. If we have our will Van Berckell, Van der Hoeven, Hoogendorp, Van Teylingen, Schoonhoven and De Wilhem¹⁾ will fall. Van der Meer²⁾ acts so scandalous a part, that altho' I was inclined that our three outils should speak to him, I have been obliged to forbid it. He and his kinsman the poet³⁾, enraged that their friend Erbervelt has been discarded, do all they can to ruin our three friends and to represent the real friends of the Prince in a very bad light. I must give you one instance of the vile caracter of Van der Meer. He was yesterday with a printer who has had a hand in printing the refrijnties⁴⁾ to tell him, that great inquiries will be made in relation to those papers and that the onely way of saving himself and making his court would be to declare, what he knows of it to the fiscal. As we have found out the things, we have prevented the discoveries that fear might have made the printer make, to the ruin of

1) Paul Sebastiaan le Leu de Wilhem, heer van Bezooijen, lid van de Rotterdamse vroedschap. Hij werd echter niet afgezet.

2) Ook in deze brief de aanduidingen van Van der Meer, de Prins enz. weer in cijferschrift.

3) Bedoeld is Joachim Oudaen, die onder andere gedichten op de Prins maakte. Van der Meer was zijn neef. Zie onder andere Knuttel, nr. 17496 en 18267 en Dichtk. Praal. Tooneel I, p. 276-291.

4) Bedoeld zullen zijn ‘Een Referijntje, dat juist niet kunstig noch aertig is’ en ‘Vervolg van 't Referijntje’, waarin Van Hogendorp en Van Berckel in worden aangevallen. Zie Knuttel, nr. 18133 en 18134. Ook in Dichtk. Praal. Tooneel I, p. 178, 184.

[p. 182]

Van der Cruyff⁵⁾; besides this Van der Meer and the poet Oudaan take great pains to dissuade the most zealous people from signing the petition. I have sett two sentinells upon them both, who will try to find out their secret intreagues, which I will report to you, when ever they are material.

I shall go to The Hague to-morrow to give the Prince an induction of the affairs of our city and see how far I may lett him into the last pranks of Van der Meer without ruining the little scoundrell for ever.

The merchants named by the Prince⁶⁾ are att work and have given in their considerations; I hear that St. Martin⁷⁾ of Amsterdam is a very honest fellow, but that he would ask of France a tarif, as if we had been victorious in the last war. Wor⁸⁾ of this town is, lett me tell you, a Frenchman in his heart and has a compting house att Nantes. Van Hanéle⁹⁾ may be very honest, for what I know, but is governed by Wor, and you know Van Oort¹⁰⁾ - I think I shall mention this to the Prince.

I hope your next will give me the best of news of what is going forward att Aix.

P.S. I hear that you know Wor, that he has been with you and that he told his friends here, that he found you to be too much of an Englishman - c'est un habile homme, (these were his words) mais il est diablement anglois. When I tell you above, that I will inform the Prince of the pranks of Van der Meer, it is only for what relates to our three people and not for your affair¹¹⁾.

5) In oktober 1749 wist Van der Meer toch Van der Kruyff nog in ernstige moeilijkheden te brengen door te verraden dat hij de schrijver was van een ‘pasquinade’ (tegen De Back?). Zie Archives IV, I, p. 407.

6) Om in de raad voor de handel zitting te nemen. Zij werden thans geraadpleegd over het handelsverdrag dat men met Frankrijk zou trachten te sluiten. Zie Geyl, De agent Wolters, p. 119.

7) Onbekend.

8) Onbekend.

9) Onbekend.

10) Hendrik van Oordt, lid van de Rotterdamse vroedschap, commissaris van het zeegerecht. Hij was zeer bevriend met Willem IV.

11) Zie Bentinck II, nr. 419.