the pamphlet hit like an earthquake. soon, several responses started to appear. one pamphleteer was afraid "aan het volk van nederland" would cause riots, citing the 1780 gordon riots in london as a frightening example. the french ambassador in the republic, duke de la vauguyon, called the pamphlet in his letter to his government in versailles a ""livre très condamnable"" (a "very condemnable booklet"). the pamphlet's english translator was, on the contrary, very positive, and wrote: ""the editor of this translation flatters himself, that it will fix the attention, and be honoured with the approbation of the english reader. a great reward was offered in holland for the discovery of the author of the dutch original; a fact which proves that it must be an interesting object to the political world. its contents may, indeed, be honestly recommended to the perusal of our countrymen, on account, both of its narrative, and argument. the pamphlet seems to have been written by a very zealous, but by a very ingenuous republican: – it seems to have been written for use, not for show. here is nothing seducing, declamatory, florid, – the whole tenor of this treatise is, at once, simple, and important. its historical and expostulatory parts are equally interesting; they may be salutary warnings to this island, if they come not too late to be seasonable.""