Jaud, one hundred and ten vessels were fitted out for Greenland, and forty for Davis's Streights: in 1785 there were no more than sixty-eight: and the fishery continued on the decline till 1799, when the English intercepted the convoy on its return from Greenland, and completed its destruction. Amsterdam and Rotterdam enjoyed the greatest share of the whale-fisheries. The wealth of this commerce is now chiefly enjoyed by the English and Americans: some few other powers have a small part; of this number are the Danes, and the Portuguese and Spaniards in their colonies in the New World.

The produce of the fisheries was important to Holland; it is ascertained, that it supported at least twenty thousand families; the number of vessels which sailed annually from the several ports employed in the fisheries, was estimated at five or six hundred.

The East and West India trade, was also a mine of wealth to Holland; they had a considerable share of it. The East and West India Companies still exist; but deprived of her colonies by the English, Holland derives no benefit from the New World.

The principal interior trade of HolJand, is certainly that with Germany. The navigation of the Rhine, luckily, gives the Dutch an opportunity of engrossing the trade with the different countries that river passes, and also of the other rivers in Germany, which empty their waters into the Rhine. It opens to them an easy communication with the departments of the Saarre, the Rhine and Moselle, Mount Tonnerre, and Francfort, which, before the war, they supplied with the productions of the north and south. At that period, Cologne engrossed the principal traffic of the Rhine from that river, the Dutch received their timber for building; which come down in immense floats every year from Andernach, to Dort. The consumption of this article in Holland, may easily be guessed at, by giving a glance at its shipping, at the buildings which stand upon piles, at the dykes, and the multitude of mills which serve for so many different purposes.

Tobacco is an article of some consequence, even now; that of Amersfort, and is vicinity, in the department of Utrecht, is of a superior quality, and holds the first place in trade after that of Virginia. The leaf is large, soft, unc

tuous, and of a good colour. It has the rare advantage of communicating its flavour to tobaccos of an inferior quality; there is a great deal of this latter sort in Holland, but that which grows in the department of Guelderland passes for the worst.

The Dutch are not, however, confined to the tobacco which their own soil produces; they consume a great quantity beside, which they get from North America, principally from Maryland; and some from the Carraccas. The tobacco, both in leaf and manufactured, is exported in considerable quantities to Germany, and the north of Europe. The manufactory of it was for a long time an object of great importance to Holland; the city of Amsterdam alone, at one period, employed no less than three thousand hands; but this branch of trade has also much decayed from what it originally was.

Pipes, pens, tiles, bricks, and earthenware, are the chief articles now manufactured in Holland; the pottery of Bergen op Zoom, is in great estimation; and that of Delft likewise, which gives its name to the yellow ware.

If we attentively examine what were the sources from which Holland derived her riches, it is easy to observe, that, besides the principal causes which have contributed to paralyse the commerce of the country, there are others which are independant even of these circumstances. The great increase of money, augmenting the price of labour, could not fail to affect those manufactories which were already lessened by the erection of similar ones in the neighbouring states, during the last century. It is well known, that in Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, certain branches of industry were unknown, evch at the conclusion of the 17th century. The East India Company chiefly felt the effects of this decrease. The progress which the English made in India, and that of the French, Danish, and Swedish Companies, lessened its traffic, and consequently the returns and profits.

That which supported the trade of Holland, down to the period of the French revolution, was the immense capital to be found in that country. Am sterdam became the general bank, and prescribed the course of exchange th Europe; the facility with which the merchants could draw upon their correspondents that city, for the amount of the goods they sold, has preserved in

Holland

Holland certain branches of commerce, which otherwise would not have flourished.

Religion. By the new constitution, every religious sect is equal in the eye of the law; and their respective ministers are all equally excluded from any of the functions dependant on the government. The provincial synods are nine in number, forming a total of fifty-three classes, to which are attached fifteen hundred and seventy preachers. The Roman Catholics have three hundred churches, which are attended by four hundred priests, without including the Conquered countries. The Arminians are spread through the provinces of Guelderland, Holland, Utrecht, and Friesland; this society consists of thirty-four communities, at the head of which are forty-three preachers. The other sects chiefly tolerated in Holland, are the Lutherans, the Anabaptists, the Moravian brethren, distinguished by the name of the Evangelical Fraternity; the Greeks, Armenian Christians, Quakers, and the Jews.

Of all the states of Europe, Holland is the one where the Jews have, for a long time back, been admitted to a civil existence; they are divided as clsewhere, into German and Portuguese Jews. The latter are the richest; their manners are more polished, and they are farther removed than the Germans, from the vices and customs with which this nation is reproached in certain parts of Europe. By a decree passed in 1796, the Jews, like the Catholics, have acquired certain political rights. Amsterdam owes a great part of its flourishing situation to the Portuguese Jews; they are looked upon as the most enlightened among the Israelites, and at this day we could enumerate many men of science and learning among them. We shall conclude this article with a reflection, which Sir William Temple made on Holland. "There may be countries where religion does more good; but I am pretty certain there are none, where it does so little hari."

Language. The Dutch language is a dialect of the German. Though it may appear faulty to strangers; yet it is inf. nitely more rich in substantives than any other language, ancient or modern; the Greek alone excepted. The whole of the sciences can be expressed in Dutch, without borrowing a single word from the Greek or Latin. The French is, how ever, so much in use, that all negociations between Holland and other states are

carried on in that language, which daily becomes more in use. The French will, most probably, be the principal language of communication with all polished nations, as for a long time was the Latin. The spirit of philosophy which distin guished the eighteenth century, tributed not a little to this. Strangers learned French to read Racine; they will study it to read the Encyclopédie.

con

While our unhappy emigrants spread our language every where, the French armies penetrated into Italy, Holland, and Germany. They continued there for a long time; they mixed with the people they had conquered; and as the French are not fond of learning strange languages, strangers are obliged to learn theirs. Many neighbouring states, owing to the success of our arms, have become French, and our language has therefore become to them a national one. French, English, and German, are most commonly spoken over Holland.

Justice.-Justice is administered in Holland as to the civil law, like most other countries; but the crimmal jurisprudence does honour to human nature, without encouraging disorders. The Dutch judges never forget that the criminal is a man: as incorruptible as the law, they pronounce with severity, but always with regret. There is no country in Europe where fewer crimes are committed; and justice has rarely occasion to make use of extreme rigour. Continual employment, no doubt, contributes to this preservation of good order, as well as the vigilance of the magistrates. The management of their prisons leaves nothing to wish for: in this instance, Holland offers a most perfect model. There are houses of continement for every sort of crime. That known by the name of the Werkhuis, at Amsterdam, is a pattern in its way; it is a large building divided into two parts, one of which is called the Rasphuis, for the prisoners are employed in rasping dying woods; it serves to employ those who have been guilty of petty crimes; the other, known by the name of the Spinhuis, is appropriated to females of a dissolute and vicious life.

The town of Bergen-op-Zoom contains a prison exclusively reserved for the military, who have been guilty of crimes; they are employed on public works.

Charities-The establishments of this nature are very numerous throughout Batavia. There is not a town which has not its Werkhuis, or its orphan-house;

and

and many villages have them likewise. Several dispensaries have been established,where medicines are distributed gratis to the poor; and there is a central hospital for the vaccine inoculation. Speedy assistance is given to persons found drowned, which in a country so intersected by water, too frequently happens. In fact, every day gives rise to some institution of public utility. An establishment, destined to the support of disabled seamen, was much wauung in Holland. His Majesty, King Louis Napoleon, bas Jately commanded that a large building, at Delfshaven, on the banks of the Meuse, which formerly belonged to the East India Company, should be appropriated to this most essential purpose.

Character of the Dutch-Fidelity and good faith form the distinguishing chaJacteristic of a Hollander. He is naturally phlegmatic,laborious,and persevering in his resolutions. It is sufficient to look over the annals of the revolution of the United Provinces, in order to form a judgment of what a nation is capable of undertaking, which wishes to shake off the yoke of tyranny; and in our own time we have seen the Dutch, united with the French, vying in courage with the latter, to drive from their territory the enemy, who sought to be masters of it. We have beheld the Dutch worthy the descendants of those Batavians, who for a long series of years were the admiration of all Europe. We do not now describe them as a people, in whom avarice has stifled every noble and generous sentiment. We must not, however, confound that economy on which public as well as private fortune depends, with that sordid avarice which destroys every liberal idea.

It is true, however, that the manners of the Dutch are much changed within a century. We do not see them toiling incessantly, with the loss of ease and comfort, to heap up wealth, in order to leave it to their heirs; but it is no less true, that Holland is still the country where luxury has made the least progress. It is but very rare, that their expences can equal their revenue; and when that is the case, the Dutch think the year very badly employed: this mode of living takes away from a man's credit and reputation, as much as a wanton and profuse extravagance does in other parts of Europe. A Dutchman, therefore, is fost in the opinion of the public, when it is known that he has dissipated his fortune, either through unforeseen circumstances, or his own misconduct.

It is to this economy, the Dutch must attribute the beauty and utility of their public works; the multiplicity of bridges, of high roads. This econoiny enables the community at large to pay the taxes, which by this means are less sensibly felt, than elsewhere. In no country are com mercial engagements more religiously observed, and no where are domestic virtues held in higher estimation. Far from blaming in the Dutch those qualities which they have maintained, even to the very day we write, we should on the contrary applaud them for having preserved that spirit of order, which is inseparable from real economy, and render them the justice which is their due.

The French abandon the smiling banks of the Loire and of the Seine, to inhabit those of the Spree and of the Neva; that is not the case with the Dutchman. He is only happy amidst his shipping and canals; and if, tough interested motives, he is induced to leave his native soil, he delights to find in his new country, a similar local situation, and its accustomed habits; it is for this reason that Batavia, from its low, fat, marshy position, makes him forget the immensity of space which divides bin from the Texel. Dutch, (says Monsieur Garrat, in his Memoir relative to Holland,) have, I may say, built Holland; they almost appear to say to themselves, What we have done is weli."

"The

Bread is not, as in Frauce, the principal food of the people; it constitutes but a small part of their daily wants; a whole Dutch family will not consume in a day, as much as a native of the former province of Limousin would scarcely think enough for his subsistence.

Besides the grain of which bread is usually made, the people make use of buck-wheat and barley, whether ground, or whole; of this there is a very great consumption. Potatoes are much cultivated also.

The English custom of eating meat half raw, is not adopted in Holland; and they follow the general custom of inost nations of Europe, to give it that degree of cookery, necessary to facilitate both mastication and digestion. The Dutch consume a vast quantity of salted meat, which is held in higher estimation, than perhaps any where; their mode of curing it being so excellent. The hams of this country, but particularly those of Guelderland, are in high repute among foreigners, They cousume large quantities of geese and wild-ducks. Whatever

may