The unitarian campaign was so successful that the Regulation, on being submitted to the Fundamental Assemblies, was rejected by 136,716 votes to 27,955.  In these circumstances, as had been previously arranged by the Provisional Government, it was necessary to summon another National Assembly to draw up another draft Constitution.  It met on September 1, 1797.  The moderates, though they lost some seats, were still in a majority; and the new Commission of Twenty-One had, as before, federalistic leanings.  The Unitarians, therefore, without awaiting their proposals, under the leadership of the stalwart revolutionary, Vreede, determined to take strong action.  The coup d’etat they planned was helped forward by two events.  The first was the revolution in Paris of September 4, 1797, which led to the replacing of ambassador Noel by the pronounced Jacobin, Charles Delacroix.  The other event was the disaster which befell the Dutch fleet at Camperdown, the blame for which was laid upon the Provisional Government.

Vreede and his confederates being assured by Delacroix of the supportof the new French Directory, and of the co-operation of the French General Joubert and of Daendels, the commander of the Batavian army, chose for the execution of their plan the week in which Midderigh, one of the confederates, took his turn as president of the Assembly.  Midderigh, by virtue of his office, being in command of the Hague civic force, on January 22, 1798, seized and imprisoned the members of the Committee for Foreign Affairs and twenty-two members of the Assembly.  The “Rump” then met, protected by a strong body of troops, and declared itself a Constituent Assembly representing the Batavian people.  After the French model, an Executive Council was nominated, consisting of five members, Vreede, Fijnje, Fokker, Wildrik and Van Langen, and a new Commission of Seven to frame a Constitution.  The “Regulation” was rejected; and the Assembly solemnly proclaimed its “unalterable aversion” to the stadholderate, federalism, aristocracy and governmental decentralisation.

French influence was henceforth paramount; and the draft of the new Constitution, in the framing of which Delacroix took a leading part, was ready on March 6.  Eleven days later it was approved by the Assembly.  The Fundamental Assemblies in their turn assented to it by 165,520 votes to 11,597, considerable official pressure being exerted to secure this result; and the Constitution came thus into legal existence.  Its principal provisions were directed to the complete obliteration of the old provincial particularism.  The land was divided into eight departments, whose boundaries in no case coincided with those of the provinces.  Holland was split up among five departments; that of the Amstel, with Amsterdam as its capital, being the only one that did not contain portions of two or more provinces.  Each department was divided into seven circles; each of these returned one member;