For some time, indeed, wrangling went on.  There was a strong minority in the Estates of Holland opposed to extreme measures; and the council-pensionary, Jacob Cats, was a moderate man friendly to the House of Orange.  An accommodation was reached on the subject of the disbanding of the 600 foreign troops, but the conflict was renewed, and in the middle of 1650 it assumed grave proportions.  The heart and soul of the opposition to the prince was Amsterdam.  William had for some time been urged by his Friesland cousin to take action, since the attitude of Amsterdam threatened the dissolution of the Union.  The prince was at this time engaged in negotiating with France, but nothing had as yet been settled, and his projects were not ripe for execution.  Nevertheless it was absolutely necessary for their realisation that the military forces should not be excessively reduced.  Under his influence the States-General decided that, though the number of troops in the several regiments should be decreased, the cadres of all regiments with their full quota of officers should be retained.  To this the Estates of Holland dissented, and finding that they could not prevail, they determined on a daring step.  Orders were sent (June 1, 1650) to the colonels of the regiments on the Provincial war-sheet to disband their regiments on pain of stoppage of pay.  The colonels refused to take any orders save from the Council of State and the captain-general.  The prince accordingly, with William Frederick and the Council of State, appeared in the States-General and appealed to them to uphold the colonels in their refusal.  There could be no question that the Estates of Holland were hopelessly in the wrong, for their representatives in the States-General had in 1623,1626,1630 and 1642 voted for the enforcement on recalcitrant provinces of the full quota at which they were assessed for the payment of the army of the Union.  The States-General, June 5, therefore determined to send a “notable deputation” to the towns of Holland.  The prince was asked to head the deputation, the members of which were to be chosen by him; and he was invested with practically dictatorial powers to take measures for the keeping of the peace and the maintenance of the Union.  In doing this the Generality were themselves acting ultra vires.  The States-General was an assembly consisting of the representatives of the Provincial Estates.  It could deal or treat therefore only with the Estates of the several provinces, not with the individual towns within a province.  In resisting the interference of the Estates of Holland with matters that concerned the Union as a whole, they were themselves infringing, by the commission given to the “notable deputation,” the jurisdiction of the Provincial Estates over their own members.