It is a painful task not to be able to close my account of this

beautiful and celebrated city, without lamenting with the reader the

dreadful accident which befel it on the 12th of January last, more

terrible and destructive than all the horrors of its siege, the

intelligence of which was communicated to me very soon afterwards by a

friend in Holland, just as I had fairly written out thus far of my

journal. About one o’clock of that day, a vessel laden with forty

thousand pounds weight of gunpowder from Amsterdam, destined for Delft,

and then lying in the Rapenburg canal, by some means which can never now

be known, took fire and blew up with the explosion of a mighty volcano,

by which many hundreds of lives were lost, and a great portion of the

city destroyed. The king, on hearing of the dreadful catastrophe was

sensibly affected, repaired to the city, remained all the following

night in the streets, and was to be seen wherever his presence could

animate the survivors to stop the progress of the flames, to clear the

rubbish of falling buildings, and drag from under the ruins those who

had been covered by them: the king offered the palace in the wood to

persons of respectability, whose habitations had been overthrown by the

shock, until they could secure homes to repair to; empowered the

magistrates of this devoted city to make a general collection throughout

the whole kingdom, and ordered 100,000 guilders to be paid out of the

treasury for the relief of the surviving sufferers.

I quitted Leyden with great reluctance, and entered on board the

treckschuyt for Haarlem, which sets off every two hours for that town,

distant from Leyden fifteen miles. The canal all the way is broad and

clear, and frequently adorned with the yellow fringed water-lily.

Nothing could be more beautiful than our passage. As we approached

Haarlem, the villas and gardens which nearly all the way adorned the

banks of the canal, increased in number, beauty, and magnitude: many of

them belong to the most opulent merchants of Amsterdam. Haarlem is not

so beautiful as Leyden, but abounds with spacious streets, canals,

avenues, and handsome houses: it is about four miles from the sea, and

fifteen from Amsterdam: on one side of the canal is the Haarlem meer, or

lake, the spring water of which is so celebrated all over Europe for

producing the most brilliant whiteness upon the linens bleached here,

and the superior property of which cannot be reached by any chymical

process. Haarlem was once fortified, but its ramparts now form an

agreeable promenade. The bleacheries of this city are too well known to

be further mentioned; in all his wandering, the traveller will never

enjoy the luxury of snow-white linen in such perfection as at Haarlem:

before the war, Scotch and Irish linens used to be sent here to be

bleached. There was a considerable manufacture of silks and camblets,

but it has experienced a great decline, and the principal trade is

bleaching threads and cambric; the inhabitants are calculated at

thirty-two thousand. The cathedral, which is said to be the largest in

the kingdom, though I am inclined to think that of Utrecht greater, was

built in 1472, and the steeple, which is very handsome, was added in

1515. To inspect the internal part of the building, I was obliged to

apply to one of the principal clergymen belonging to it, who resides in

an adjoining house, and attended by a lady-like looking woman, perhaps

his wife, or house-keeper, I was admitted into this venerable pile,

where the first object that struck me was the celebrated organ supported

upon pillars of porphyry: this instrument is said to be the finest and

largest in the world; it occupies the whole west end of the nave. For a

ducat paid to the organist, and two florins to the bellows blower, the

former will gratify the traveller by playing for an hour; unfortunately

for me he was absent in the country, and I did not hear the celebrated

vox humana, or pipe, which most admirably imitates the human voice. Of

the magnitude of this enormous musical pile, the reader may form some

conception when he is informed that it contains eight thousand pipes,

some of which are thirty-eight feet in length, and sixteen inches in

diameter, and has sixty-four stops, four separations, two shakes, two

couplings, and twelve bellows; like an elephant, that with his proboscis

can either pluck a violet or raise a tree by its roots, the notes of

this wonderful instrument can swell from the softest to the sublimest

sounds, from the warbling of a distant bird to the awful tone of

thunder, until the massy building trembles in all its aisles. On every

Tuesday and Thursday, a voluntary is played upon this organ from twelve

till one o’clock, when the doors of the cathedral are thrown open. Many

years since the immortal Handel played upon this organ, when the

organist, in amazement, pronounced him to be an angel, or the devil.

Between two of the columns which support the organ, there is a noble

emblematical alto-relievo, with three figures as large as life, by

Xavery, representing Gratitude, assisted by Poetry and Music, making an

offering to Piety, and a Latin inscription purporting that the organ was

erected in 1738, at the town’s expense, the same having been built by

Christian Muller of this city. This is the organ which the good people

of Rotterdam are endeavouring to rival: the cathedral, like the other

churches, is crowded with square wooden monuments, painted with the arms

of the deceased on a black ground, with the date of their death in gold

letters, but no names: in the wall at the east end of the church, a

cannon ball is exhibited, which was fired into it by the Spaniards in

the sixteenth century, during divine service.

The walks round this city are very beautiful, and at a short distance

from it there is a noble wood, in which is a fine walk of stately elms,

nearly three miles long, abounding with beautiful scenery: this wood is

a rival of that which I have described at the Hague. In this delightful

place stands the mansion of Mr. Henry Hope, whose family has been long

known for its loyalty and immense wealth: it is said to have cost fifty

thousand pounds. Upon the revolution taking place, this gentleman was

obliged to seek refuge in England, to the capital of which he had

previously transported in safety his magnificent collection of

paintings.

The villa, which is built of brick stuccoed, is modern and magnificent,

and before the revolution was frequently resorted to by the Prince of

Orange and his family, who were much attached to its opulent and liberal

owner, which he eminently merited, by having rendered them many

important services, particularly in 1788, when it was unsafe for him to

appear on the exchange of Amsterdam without military protection. As the

pictures were removed, there was nothing in the internal part of the

mansion worthy of notice.

Haarlem and its environs are more celebrated than any other spot, for

the beautiful flowers which it produces, the soil being peculiarly

propitious to their production.

CHAPTER XIV.

ANECDOTES OF LAWRENCE COSTER ... ART OF PRINTING HOW DISCOVERED ... ITS

ORIGINALITY DISPUTED ... FEMALE FORTITUDE AND PRESENCE OF MIND ... SIEGE

OF HAARLEM ... HEROIC CONDUCT OF THE WOMEN ... BRIEF ANECDOTE OF

WOUVERMANS ... OF BAMBOCCIO ... FATAL EFFECTS OF SEVERE CRITICISM ...

ANECDOTES OF NICHOLAS BERGHEM AND HIS TERMAGANT WIFE ... OF RUYSDAAL ...

ENORMOUS SLUICES ... APPROACH AMSTERDAM ... ITS GENERAL APPEARANCE ... A

SLEY ... ERASMUS’S WHIMSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THAT CITY ... THE

STADT-HOUSE ... SILENCE REPRESENTED AS A FEMALE ... THE TOWER ...

CLOCKS, SINGULAR MODE OF STRIKING THE HOUR.

Not far from the church, the spot where stood the house of Lawrence

Coster, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century, the celebrated

inventor of the art of printing, is shewn; formerly there was a statue

over the gate where he lived, within this inscription:

MEMORIÆ SACRUM

TYPOGRAPHIA,

ARS ARTIUM OPTIMA

CONSERVATRIX,

HIC PRIMUM INVENTA

CIRCA ANNUM MCCCCXL.

The first book he printed is kept in the town house, in a silver case

wrapt up in silk, and is always shewn with great caution, as a most

precious relic of antiquity. The glory of this transcendent discovery,

which spread light and civilization over the world, and formed a new

epoch in its history, was for a long time disputed between Haarlem,

Mayence, and Strasburg: the latter, after a laborious investigation, has

renounced her pretensions, and the general opinion seems to bestow the

palm upon the first city. The manner in which Coster imbibed the first

impressions of this divine discovery, is said to have been from his

cutting the letters of his name on the bark of a tree, and afterwards

pressing a piece of paper upon the characters, until they became legible

upon it, which induced him to continue the experiment, by engraving

other letters upon wood. Those early principles were soon diffused

through France, with considerable improvements, by the enterprising

ability of the Etiennes; by the learned Manutius, a celebrated Venetian

painter, and the inventor of Italian characters, through Italy; and

through the Netherlands by Christopher Plantin, whose printing office at

Antwerp was one of the principal ornaments of the town, and who was

distinguished for his skill, erudition, and prodigious wealth, created

solely by a successful prosecution of his important business.

Mayence contests the honour of the invention, but it is generally

believed that a servant of Coster, of the name of Faustus, stole the

types of his master on a Christmas-eve, whilst he was attending his

devotions at church, and fled with his booty to Mayence. The portrait of

Coster is to be seen in most of the booksellers’ shops at Haarlem, and

in other principal towns.

A memorable, but not an unusual instance of affection, and of female

presence of mind, occurred in this city many years since, at a spot

which is still shown with no little degree of national pride, whereon an

ancient castle stood, the lord of which was severely pressed by the

burghers of the town, who laid siege to it, on account of his tyrannical

conduct towards them: driven to the last extremity, and when his life

was upon the point of paying the forfeit of his crimes, his lady

appeared on the ramparts, and offered to surrender, provided she might

be permitted to bring out as much of _her most valuable goods as she

could carry on her back_; which being complied with, she brought her

husband out upon her shoulders, preserved him from the fury of the

troops, and gave up to them possession of the castle: thinking in the

language of Shakspeare,

“If I depart from thee, I cannot live;

And in thy sight to die, what were it else,

But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap?”

_Henry IV._ Part 2d. Act. 4.

History informs us, that Haarlem presented a glorious example of

resistance to the Spanish yoke, so heroically imitated two years

afterwards at Leyden, which experienced a better fortune than befel the

wretched inhabitants of the former city. Whilst the provinces were

bravely opposing their invaders, a long and memorable siege in 1573,

which was carried on against Haarlem by Frederic of Toledo, the son of

the sanguinary Duke of Alva, during which the female inhabitants, like

those of Leyden, assisted the garrison in their duties, underwent every

privation, faced every horror, and rushed to certain destruction in

defence of the town, with an alacrity and fortitude which have rendered

them immortal in the annals of their country. Those heroines, when the

garrison refused with indignation the conditions which were offered them

by the Spanish general, fought with unshaken courage by the side of the

men, in their desperate sorties against the besieging army, and in their

fury put every prisoner to death, whom they took in these attacks. This

unjustifiable conduct, and the derision which from the ramparts they

expressed of the Roman Catholic worship, induced the Spaniards to retort

with terrible vengeance. In consequence of a correspondence which the

besieged carried on with the Prince of Orange by means of carrier

pigeons, being discovered by the Spaniards, they shot every pigeon which

came within the reach of their musketry, which rendered the situation of

the garrison hopeless, and they at length surrendered, on condition that

the lives of the soldiers and inhabitants should be spared, to which

Frederic of Toledo consented, entered the town at the head of his

victorious troops, and in cold blood butchered two thousand of those who

had submitted to his arms, and trusted to his honour.

When it is considered, that at this period, the Spanish monarchy was

predominant in Europe, that its armies were mighty, its generals

experienced, and its treasury overflowing, the triumphant prowess which

the Dutch displayed in finally driving their powerful invaders back to

their own frontiers, will render the Dutch name illustrious as long as

the record of history endures. The Dutch ladies have rivalled in fame

the most renowned heroines of Greece and Rome. The Hollanders treasure

up these gallant exploits in their memories, they form the favourite

subjects of their songs, and the old and the young recite with

enthusiasm the great deeds of their ancestors.

The Haarlem lake which I mentioned, presented a very bleak and dismal

sheet of water from the canal; it is about fourteen miles long, and

about the same number broad, is said to be above six feet deep, and lies

between Leyden, Amsterdam, and Haarlem: its waters are slimy, and abound

with eels, some of which are of a prodigious size. This lake can have no

charm but for a bleacher. The fuel used here is Newcastle coals and

turf.

Having described what is worthy of notice at Haarlem, it would be

indifference indeed to an art which I worship, were I to quit this city

without briefly adverting to some of the principal distinguished artists

which it had the honour of giving birth to. The first in chronological

order was Philip Wouvermans, who was born at Haarlem in 1620, whose

sweetness of colouring, correctness of design, beautiful choice of

scenery, and perfect knowledge of the chiaro-scuro, or as it has well

been defined, of light and black, have excited the admiration and

applause of posterity: the subjects which he was particularly partial to

were huntings, hawkings, encampments of armies, farriers’ shops, and all

those scenes that admitted of his introducing horses, which he painted

to great perfection. Notwithstanding his transcendent merit, for a

considerable period he met with no encouragement, and encountered many

difficulties which greatly depressed his spirits, of which the

picture-merchants knew how to take every ungenerous advantage: at length

he was relieved from his indigence and dependence, by the bounty of his

confessor, who seeing his uncommon genius, was resolved to the extent of

his power, to extricate it from the odious shackles which encumbered it,

and accordingly advanced him six hundred guilders, by a judicious

application of which he emancipated himself from his embarrassments: he

now doubled the price of his pictures, and was enabled to give his

daughter a marriage portion of twenty thousand guilders. As soon as he

was enabled to pay his confessor, he sent the sum he had borrowed,

accompanied with a chef-d’œuvre of his works, representing his holy

benefactor in the character of St. Hubert kneeling before his horse. All

connoisseurs agree that this picture is the finest he ever painted.

Wouvermans resided in the Bakenessegragt, a short distance from the

church. The depression of mind which his early disappointments excited,

never quitted this great artist: a few hours before he died, he ordered

a box filled with his studies and designs to be burned, saying, “I was

so long unrewarded for my labours, that I wish to prevent my son from

being allured by these designs, to embrace so unpromising and uncertain

a profession as mine.”

The works of Wouvermans and Bamboccio were continually placed in

competition by the best judges of art, and the latter having painted a

picture which was much admired, John de Wilt prevailed upon Wouvermans

to paint the same subject, which he executed in a brilliant manner:

these pictures were soon afterwards exhibited together to the public,

and De Wilt, when the room in which they were placed, was exceedingly

crowded, exclaimed in a loud voice, “all our connoisseurs seem to prefer

the works of those painters who have studied at Rome; but behold how far

the work of Wouvermans who never saw Rome, surpasses the production of

him who resided there several years.” This observation, which was

received with general approbation, and seemed to receive the fiat of the

company, so deeply affected the delicate spirits of Bamboccio, that it

largely contributed to hurry him to his grave.

The justly celebrated Nicholas Berghem, was born here in 1624, and

studied under his father, an inconsiderable painter, whose name was Van

Haarlem, which Berghem exchanged in the following whimsical manner:

whilst he was a pupil of John Van Goyen, who was very fond of him, his

father was one day pursuing him in the street, to give him correction

for some peccadillo, when his master seeing his father gaining upon him

rapidly, cried out to some of his other scholars, Berg-hem! which

signifies hide him; from which circumstance he obtained and kept that

name. The distinguishing characteristics of Berghem’s pictures are

breadth, and just distribution of the lights, the grandeur of his masses

of light and shadow, the natural attitudes of his figures expressive of

their several characters, the just gradation of his distances, the

brilliancy, harmony, and transparency of his colouring, the correctness

and true perspective of his design, and the elegance of his composition,

and his subjects however various are all equally admirable. This great

man had the calamity and the infatuation to make an offer of his hand

and heart to the daughter of one of the masters under whom he studied,

when he left Van Goyen, of the name of Willis, who proved to be one of

the most clamorous and sordid termagants that Holland, or perhaps any

other country ever produced; by the terror of her tongue, and the fury

of her manner, she forced him to slave at his easel without

intermission, from the break to the departure of day, and frequently all

night long, without permitting him to have the disposal of a single

guilder without her consent: amidst this domestic broil, poor Berghem

never lost his temper, he sung, whilst she scolded, as if he thought

And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue,

That gives not half so great a blow to hear

As will a chesnut in a farmer’s fire?

_Taming of the Shrew_, Act I. Scene 3.

In this increasing state of internal broil, this artist produced some of

the finest effusions of his pencil: he was singularly curious in

purchasing the finest prints and designs of the Italian masters, to

improve his own taste, which after his death sold for a large sum of

money: by his indefatigable industry, he produced an amazing number of

pictures, which now are rarely to be purchased, and then only for

prodigious prices.

The last that I shall mention is Jacob Ruysdaal, who was born here in

1636, and was the bosom friend of Berghem, who imparted to him much of

the spirit which adorns his own works. No painter ever possessed a

greater share of public admiration than Ruysdaal, a reputation which has

remained unimpaired to this hour. His works are distinguishable by a

natural and most delightful tone of colour, by a free, light, firm, and

spirited pencil, and by a happy choice of situation. He was fond of

introducing water into his paintings, and he was equally fortunate in

representing the tumultuous foam of the torrent, as the pellucid

transparency of the canal. Ruysdaal was cut off at the age of

forty-five. Since the removal of Mr. Hope’s collection, there is no

private cabinet of pictures in or near Haarlem worth the attention of

the traveller. There is, however, a cabinet of natural history, said to

be the finest in Holland, which was formed by Doctor Van Marum, whose

electrical experiments have ascertained that the death of animals is

coincident with the cessation of irritability: this museum is well

arranged according to the Linnæan system. I heard of nothing more to

detain the traveller at Haarlem. The canal from Haarlem to Amsterdam is

clear and spacious, and nearly straight for the first four miles, at the

lessening end of which the former city has a very agreeable appearance;

but I was surprised to find so very few country-houses, and scarcely an

object that denoted our approach to the renowned capital of the kingdom,

and, as it has been aptly called, “the great warehouse of the world.”

About half way we changed boats, and crossed the enormous sluices which

protect the country from inundation in this part: we passed over the

waters of the Haarlem Meer and of the river Y, so called from its form

resembling that letter, being a branch of the Zuyder Zee. The only

object worthy of notice thus far was a large stone building, called the

Castle Zwanenburg, the residence of the directors of the dykes and

water-works of Rhynland. The cost of constructing and repairing the

sluices is paid out of the general taxes. The country here is four or

five feet below the level of the river Y, which, however, is rendered

perfectly innocuous by the massy and prodigious dams before mentioned,

the construction and preservation of which place the indefatigable

enterprise and industry of the Hollander in an eminent point of view.

I reached Amsterdam just after the gates had been closed, but my

commissaire and I were admitted upon paying a few stivers. As soon as we

had entered, every object denoted a vast, populous, and opulent city:

every street, and I passed through a great number before I reached my

hotel, was tolerably well lighted, but in this respect infinitely

inferior to London. At length, after traversing the city about two miles

and a half, I reached the principal hotel, called Amsterdam Wappen, or

the Arms of Amsterdam, which, in point of magnitude and accommodation,

may vie with the first hotels in our own metropolis. Here, after an

excellent supper of fish, which the Dutch dress to admiration, and some

porter, which was an excellent imitation of that description of beverage

for which London is so justly renowned, I found a sopha bed prepared for

me, with curtains pendent from the centre, in the French taste, which

much prevails in the internal arrangement of the houses of this great

city.

In the morning I was awakened by the chimes of some of the churches,

which in softness and sweetness resembled the distant sounds of a harp.

Although it was seven o’clock, upon looking from the window, I heard the

hum and beheld the bustle of business which in other countries

characterise mid-day. Under the agreeable influence of a brilliant,

cloudless sky, I descended into the street, and mingled with the active,

ant-like multitude, every member of which presented a physiognomy full

of thought and calculation: gold, gold, seemed to be the only object:

——That yellow slave

Will knit, and break religions; bless the accursed;

Make the hoar leprosy adored; place thieves,

And give them title, knee, and approbation,

With senators on the bench.

_Timon of Athens_, Act IV. Scene 3.

The first circumstance that afforded novelty was, that amidst all the

bustle I seldom met with any carriages on wheels to augment the noise of

the scene. Upon enquiry I found, that, by the police laws of Amsterdam,

wheel-carriages are limited to a certain number, which is very

inconsiderable compared with the size of the city, from an apprehension

that an uncontrouled use of them might hazard the foundation of the

houses, most of which are built upon piles; for nearly the whole of the

ground on which this vast city stands was formerly a morass. A carriage,

called by the Dutch a sley, and by the French a traineau, or, on account

of its solemnity, un pot de chambre, is used in their room; it is the

body of a coach fastened by ropes on a sledge, and drawn by one horse;

the driver walks by the side of it, which he holds with one hand to

prevent its falling over, and with the other the reins: nothing can be

more melancholy than this machine, which holds four persons, moves at

the rate of about three miles an hour, and seems more like the equipage

of an hospital, than a vehicle in which the observer would expect to

find a merry face; yet in this manner do the Dutch frequently pay visits

and take the air. It was in allusion to the forest foundation of this

wonderful place, that Erasmus sportively observed, when he first visited

it, that he had reached a city, the inhabitants of which, like crows,

lived upon the tops of trees; and another wit compared Amsterdam to

Venice, on account of both having wooden legs.

Amsterdam is situated on the rivers Y and Amstel, from the latter of

which it derives its name; it is about nine miles and a half in

circumference, of a semicircular form, surrounded with a fosse about

eighty feet wide, and a rampart faced with brick, which is in several

places dismantled, and twenty-six bastions: it has also eight noble

gates of stone, and several draw-bridges: the population is estimated at

three hundred thousand. In 1204, with the exception of a small castle,

not a building was to be seen upon the scite of this great city, which,

from being at first a petty village of fishermen, dilated in the lapse

of years, and by the enterprise and industry of the inhabitants, into a

magnificent capital, which, at length, upon the shutting up of the

navigation of the Scheldt, added the commerce of Antwerp to its own, and

became the great emporium of the world. Neither here, nor in any of the

cities or towns in Holland, through which I passed, is a stranger

annoyed by barriers, productions of passports, or any of those

disagreeable ceremonies which distinguish the police of many other

countries. In Holland a foreigner finds his loco-motive disposition as

little restricted, or encumbered by municipal regulations, as in

England. Canals intersect nearly the whole of this city, adorned with

avenues of stately elms. Many of the houses are very splendid,

particularly those in Kiezer’s gragt, or Emperor’s street, and Heeren

gragt, or Lords’ street, where there are many mansions, which, were they

not so much concealed by the fan of the trees before them, would have a

very princely appearance. Many of the shops are also very handsome,

particularly those belonging to jewellers and print-sellers; in the

windows of the latter prints of the illustrious Nelson, and of our

marine victories, were exposed to view, The druggists here, and in other

parts of Holland, use as a sign a huge carved head, with the mouth wide

open, placed before the shop windows; sometimes it rudely resembles a

Mercury’s head, at others it is surmounted by a fool’s cap. This clumsy

and singular sign is called de gaaper, the gaper; what analogy it bears

to physic I could not learn; it is very likely to have originated in

whim and caprice. Some of the shop boards, called uithang borden, have

ridiculous verses inscribed upon them.

The first place my curiosity led me to was the Stadt-house, which is

unquestionably a wonderful edifice, considering that Holland furnishes

no stone, and that the foundation of the building was boggy; the latter

circumstance rendered it necessary to have an artificial foundation of

extraordinary construction and magnitude, and accordingly it rests upon

thirteen thousand six hundred and ninety-five massy trees, or piles, the

first of which was driven on the 20th of January, 1648, and the last on

the 6th of October following, when the first stone, with a suitable

inscription, was laid; and seven years afterwards the different colleges

of magistrates took formal possession of the apartments allotted for

their respective offices, but at this time the roof and dome were not

completed: the expense of this mighty edifice amounted to two millions

sterling. The principal architect was John Van Kampen, who acted under

the control of four burgomasters. The area in which it stands is

spacious, and was till lately called Revolutie plein; it is disfigured

by the proximity of the waag, or weigh-house, a very old shabby

building. The form of the Stadt-house is square, its front is two

hundred and eighty-two feet, its depth two hundred and fifty-five, and

its height one hundred and sixteen. It has seven small porticoes,

representative of the seven provinces; the want of a grand entrance is a

great architectural defect, which immediately excites the surprise of

the traveller; but it was so constructed from the wary precautionary

foresight of the magistrates who had the superintendence of the

building, for the purpose of preventing free access to a mob, in case of

tumult.

One of the first apartments which attracts the attention is the

tribunal, on the basement floor; in this room, prisoners who have been

found guilty of capital offences are conducted to receive the awful

sentence of the law; the entrance is through a massy folding door,

decorated with brass emblems, indicative of the purpose to which the

chamber is applied, such as Jove’s beams of lightning, and flaming

swords—under which are two lines from Virgil,

“Discite Justitiam moniti

“Et non temnere Divos.”

Above, between the rails, are the old and new city arms, and at the

bottom are death’s-heads and bones. The whole of the interior is

composed of white marble; on the south and north are two eows of fluted

pilasters, one above another; on the west side are statues representing

four nude women, supporting the cornices which crown the pilasters: two

of these figures conceal their faces with their hands, as indicative of

shame: in the copartments between are basso-relievos, representing the

judgment of Solomon; Zaleucus, the Locrian king, tearing out one of his

eyes, to save one of his son’s who had been condemned to lose both for

adultery, by a law made expressly against that crime by his father; and

Junius Brutus putting his sons to death. Above these are figures

representing Romulus and Remus drawing milk from the she wolf, and also

of Jupiter: the head of Medusa upon the shield of Pallas is very finely

executed. In the north, under a seat of white marble, is a place for the

secretary, who pronounces the fatal sentence when the magistrates appear

in their robes at a gallery on the west side. On the fore part of the

judgement seat is a fine marble statue of _Silence_, which Dutch

gallantry represents under the form of a _woman_, seated on the ground,

with her finger on her mouth, and two children weeping over a

death’s-head. On each side of this seat are serpents writhing round a

tree, each with an apple in his mouth; the same ornaments also decorate

the sides of the door: above the seat is a statue, raised on a black

marble pedestal, representing the city of Amsterdam as a virgin, guarded

by a lion on each side; above the head of the figure is an imperial

crown, protected by a spread eagle; on each side of the pedestal are

Neptune and Glaucus, representative of the rivers Y and Amstel, and a

little higher are the arms of the four burgomasters, in whose magistracy

the first stone of this building was laid, gracefully connected by

festoons. On the pedestal is an inscription in letters of gold,

commemorative of the laying of the first stone of the building.

The principal bas-reliefs and ornaments in this room, and other parts of

this edifice, were made by Artus Quellinus, a celebrated statuary of

Antwerp. When the awful doom of the law is to be pronounced, the

criminal is brought into this hall guarded, and nothing is omitted in

point of solemnity to impress on the mind of the delinquent and the

spectators the awful consequences of violating the laws of the country.

A thorough knowledge of human nature dictated the policy of placing this

hall on the ground-floor, the brazen door of which opens into a

thoroughfare passage through the Stadt-house. I never passed by this

door without seeing numbers of the lower orders of people gazing through

the rails of it upon the emblematical objects within, and apparently in

melancholy meditation, reflecting upon the purposes to which this hall

is applied, and upon the ignominious results of deviating from the paths

of virtue. On one side of this chamber is a a grand double staircase,

which leads to the Burghers’, or Marble Hall: it is 120 feet long, about

57 broad, and 80 high, and is entirely composed of white marble, as are

the galleries, which are 21 feet wide on each side, into which the

entrances to the different courts of justice, the chamber of domains, of

insurance, of orphans, the council-room, the offices of the bank, &c.

open. This magnificent room and the surrounding galleries were seen to

great advantage, on account of their having been cleaned previous to the

coronation of the king, which was intended to have taken place in it

about a month after I visited it. A great number of workmen had been

employed in scraping, washing, and polishing their marble sides for

several months, and their appearance was equally grand and beautiful:

the bronze gates and railing which form the grand entrance of the hall

are massy, yet exquisitely executed: over this entrance is a colonade of

Corinthian pillars of red and white marble. At one end is a colossal

figure of Atlas supporting on his shoulders the globe, attended by

Vigilance and Wisdom. The roof is painted with allegorical figures. Upon

the floor, the celestial and terrestrial globes are delineated in brass

and various coloured marbles, arranged in three large circles twenty-two

feet diameter; the two external ones representing the hemispheres of the

earth, and the centre the planisphere of the heavens.

The _Burgomaster’s_ Cabinet, as it is still called, is a handsome

apartment, the entrance of which is adorned with some beautiful carving,

emblematical of the use of the apartment. The chimney-piece in this

room, representing the triumphs of Fabius Maximus, is worthy of notice.

To the left of the Burgomasters’ chamber is a gallery, ten feet deep and

thirty broad, where, after the ringing of a bell to give notice, all

proclamations, law sentences, and municipal regulations, are

promulgated.

The chamber of the treasury ordinary contains a picture of Mary de

Medicis as large as life; a chart of Amsterdam as it appeared when first

walled round in 1482; and on the bookcases are some curious effigies of

the ancient Earls and Countesses of Holland.

The Burgomasters’ apartment is forty-five feet broad and thirty deep,

and is in my opinion the handsomest room in the Stadt-house. The marble

chimney-pieces are enriched with many exquisitely sculptured

basso-relievos by De Wit; but its chief ornament is two paintings; one

by Ferdinand Bol, representing Curius at his rural repast; and the

other, Fabricius in the camp of Phyrrhus, by Flink. From this room there

is a passage to the Execution Chamber, or _the Chamber of the last

Prayers_, where criminals condemned to death take leave of their priest,

and pass through a window, the lower part of which is of wood, to enable

its being opened level with the floor to the scaffold, which is

constructed on the outside, opposite to the weigh-house, and which is

raised as high as this part of the building. There is nothing in this

room worthy of notice, except its melancholy appropriation. From this

room we were conducted to the council chamber, which is forty-five feet

wide and thirty deep, where there is a very large painting by Jacob de

Wilt, representing Moses and the seventy elders of Israel. Above the

chimney-piece to the north is a very fine picture by Flink, the subject

Solomon imploring heaven for wisdom. Above this is a scriptural subject,

a noble production, from the pencil of Bronkhorst. Some of the

basso-relievos which adorn various parts of this room, sculptured by De

Wit, are exquisitely fine, particularly a hive of bees, a clock, a sieve

and a lamp, a pen and ink-horn. It would puzzle a magician to interpret

many of the allegorical devices, but they are all beautifully executed.

In the chamber for marriages, and injuries, there is nothing to arrest

the attention of a visitor one minute. In Holland, marriage being a

civil contract, when agreed upon in Amsterdam, it is always first

performed before the magistrates in this room, without whose fiat the

ceremony would be invalid; the clergyman, according to the religion of

the parties, performs his functions afterwards. This room is also

called, amongst the lower orders of people, the _Scolding Chamber_, on

account of the irritability frequently displayed here by parties of that

class, when they come to obtain redress for small offences. We were also

led through the chamber for sea affairs, the mercers’ hall, the

painters’ chamber, and in this room, but little suited to the treasures

which it contains, is a very long picture by Vandyke, in which there is

a gray head of an old man, of matchless excellence, which the observer

cannot but retire from with regret. The burgomasters of Amsterdam were

offered seven thousand florins for this head alone, to be cut out from

the rest of the picture. There is also a large picture by Vanderhelst,

representing a feast given by the burgomasters of Amsterdam to the

ambassadors of Spain, on account of the peace of Munster, which closed a

war that had lain waste the Netherlands for eighty years; and many other

large and fine paintings by Rubens, Jordaans, and Otho Venius. It is a

matter of surprise, that after Holland submitted to the French arms,

these exquisite productions should be permitted to remain, upon the

walls which they have so long adorned.

In the great, or council of war chamber, there are some good paintings

representing the ancient train-bands, and officers in their proper

costume; many of which are portraits. In the secretary’s office, a

handsome room, amongst other decorations, is a basso-relievo of

_Silence_, which the Dutch are very fond of representing under the form

of a _woman_. Upon my observing to a Dutchman, that in England such a

compliment had never been paid to my own lovely country women, he

replied: “Yes, but do you not notice that the statuary has placed the

finger of the lady upon her mouth, as if he thought that no one of the

sex, not even a Dutch female, could preserve silence without keeping her

lips forcibly together with her finger.” The convenience of having

nearly all the principal public offices, and courts of justice under one

roof, is very great; the size of the kingdom, and simplicity of its

public transactions, render such a concentration more easy of

accomplishment in Holland than in England.

Before we ascended to the dome, we were introduced into the great

magazine of arms, which extends the whole length of the front and part

of the sides of this vast pile: it contains a curious and valuable

collection of ancient and modern Dutch arms. Some colours which the

French took from the Spaniards have been lately added, as a present from

the king to this city, a donation which could not fail affording great

gratification to a people, who to this hour hold the Spanish nation in

abhorrence. The prospect from the tower, or dome, is very fine and

extensive, commanding the whole of the city and its environs, crowded

with windmills, the river Y filled with ships, the Zuyder Zee, the

Amstel, the Haarlem lake, and the quarter containing the gardens, the

admiralty, and ships of war on the stocks. From this elevated spot we

were nearer the bronze figures which adorn the front, representing

Justice, Wealth, and Strength, and which are of an enormous size: on the

other side is a colossal bronze statue of Atlas supporting the world,

executed in a masterly manner. The tower contains a vast number of

bells, the largest of which weighs between six and seven thousand

pounds; the carillons in this dome are remarkably sweet, they play every

quarter of an hour an agreeable air, which is executed to admiration. An

excellent carilloneur is engaged to entertain the citizens of Amsterdam

three times a week; the perfection to which he has brought his

performance can only be appreciated by those who have heard it. The

brass barrel by which he plays is seven feet and a half in diameter, and

weighs four thousand four hundred and seventy-four pounds. The clocks

strike the full hour, at the half hour, and upon the expiration of the

full hour, repeat it upon a bell of a deeper tone.

CHAPTER XV.

DUNGEONS IN THE STADT-HOUSE ... TREATMENT OF THE PRISONERS ... HALL OF

JUSTICE ... THE TORTURE ... CRIMINAL TRIALS ... CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ...

ANECDOTE OF A MALEFACTOR ... THE BANK ... ITS FORMER AND PRESENT

STATE ... POPULAR TUMULT ... EFFECTS OF DIFFUSIVE EDUCATION ... PUBLIC

FETE AT AMSTERDAM ... DANCING DUTCHMEN ... THE BEGUINES ... LADIES OF

HOLLAND ... HOUSE RENT ... THE WATER OF AMSTERDAM.

By considerable interest, and with much difficulty, I was admitted to

see the prison which occupies one of the courts of the Stadt-house, on

two sides of which, below ground, are the dungeons, to which the gaoler

conducted us by a lamp: as a place of confinement nothing can be more

secure, and as a place of punishment more horrible. After descending a

dreary flight of steps, and passing through a long narrow passage,

midway vast double doors, thickly plated with iron, were opened, through

which we entered, and at the end were stopped by two other massy doors

which, upon being unbolted, led to a row of subterranean dungeons. In

the first, by the faint light of a rush candle, I discerned the

emaciated figure of a man who had been convicted of robbery, attentively

reading: he just turned from his book to look at us a moment, and then

returned to it; he was condemned to inhabit this cell alone for life! In

the next were two young men who, in the forms of Dutchmen, seemed to

carry the elastic souls of Frenchmen, that bend to and carol under every

human misery; for in this gloomy abode, in which one would suppose

resignation would turn to despair, they were whistling and waltzing in

the dark; whilst in the third were several women and a young girl, the

latter about fifteen, confined for having displayed an early, and rather

too violent a fondness for the laws of nature. These miserable beings

were also in darkness, except when they closely approached the vast

double bars which crossed the windows of their cells, when they were

enabled to behold a little light, which faintly reached them through

some low oblong apertures on the opposite side of the passage, thickly

guarded by similar massy bars, just raised above the level of the court,

into which these poor wretches are never permitted to walk; for,

deplorable to relate, from the first minute of their commitment till

their fate is finally fixed, they are never suffered to quit their

gloomy abodes but to appear before their judges in the adjoining hall,

where they undergo private examinations, and at length a close trial.

The crimes with which these latter unhappy prisoners stood charged were

not of a very malignant nature, yet were they, even before the guilt of

some of them was established, cut off from light and air, and immured in

regions fit only to be a receptacle for the dead. I need scarcely inform

the reader that their appearance when they pressed towards the grating,

when alone they were distinguishable, was in a high degree squalid and

sickly.

None of these miserable wretches were loaded with irons; they would,

indeed, have been a very unnecessary augmentation of cruelty, for

nothing but the miraculous interference of an angel could have burst

their prison-doors, which were doubly cased with iron, and fastened with

enormous bolts and locks, whilst the walls of the cells were cased with

ponderous masonry, through which, if a prisoner had the means to

penetrate, he would afterwards have to encounter all the earth upon

which the rest of the Stadt-house stood. The gaoler showed us some irons

of a particular construction, and a board which fastened round the neck

and one hand, for refractory criminals, but he assured me they had not

been used for many years.

The principal secretary of the magistracy showed me the hall of justice,

which was also formerly the torture-chamber. Here the miserable

sufferer, who refused to confess his guilt, at the pleasure of his

barbarous judge, underwent a variety of torments; amongst others, it was

usual to fasten his hands behind his neck, with a cord which passed

through pullies fastened to a vaulted ceiling, by means of which he was

jerked up and down, with leaden weights of fifty pounds each lashed to

his feet, until anguish overpowered his senses, and a confession of

guilt was heard to quiver on his lips. Some of the iron work by which

this infamous process was effected was still adhering to the walls. This

ferocious and stupid practice was only abolished in the year 1798. This

room is entirely of stone, low, and vaulted; the windows are small, and

guarded by vast double bars of iron, and the whole is very little better

than a large dungeon. A bar for the prisoner to appear at, a seat for

the witness, for only one is most judiciously admitted at a time; a

table and raised seats for the judges, and lower ones for the officers

attached to the tribunal, form all the arrangements of this gloomy seat

of justice. The prisoner is permitted to have a counsellor to plead his

cause, and no strangers are admitted on any account. Three days are

suffered to elapse between the sentence and its execution in capital

cases; during which the prisoner is allowed whatever refreshment he may

choose; an indulgence which, from the state of the appetite at such a

period, seldom runs the state into much expense. Public punishments are

inflicted four times in the course of the year. On these occasions a

vast scaffold is erected, as I have mentioned, in the great area between

the stadt-house and the weighing or custom-house, upon a level with the

first floor of the former building, through which the criminals enter to

the spot assigned for them to receive their punishment: those who are to

be whipped receive that punishment with considerable severity, and are

not permitted to retire till those who are to die have suffered death,

which is inflicted by decapitation with the sword or hanging, though the

latter is most frequent. On these melancholy occasions, the chief

magistrates attend in their robes, and nothing is omitted to augment the

solemnity of the scene.

In consequence of its being expected that though a culprit is to suffer

death, he is to receive the fatal stroke in the precise mode prescribed

by the law, a magistrate who presided at the execution of a murderer a

few years since, had nearly subjected himself to a severe punishment.

The guilt of the criminal was aggravated by cruelty, and he was

condemned to lose his life by decapitation, in which case the law

directs that it shall be severed by one stroke of the sword: previous to

his quitting the chamber of the last prayers he laid a wager with a

friend who attended him that he had suggested an expedient by which the

executioner should not be able to perform his office; and accordingly,

the moment he knelt to receive the fatal stroke, he rolled his head in

every direction so violently, and so rapidly, that the executioner could

not strike him with any probability of decollating him at one blow; and

after many fruitless aims, was compelled to renounce the attempt. The

officers who were entrusted to see to the execution of the sentence were

in the greatest dilemma; in vain did they try by argument to persuade

the fellow to remain still, and quietly have his head taken off; he was

remanded back to prison, and after an hour’s deliberation, the presiding

magistrate, upon his own responsibility, ordered the gallows to be

brought out, upon which he caused him to be executed. The judges and

lawyers took alarm, and half the city felt as if the murderer had been

murdered; and nothing but the high character, rank, and influence of the

magistrate, by whose resolute orders the miscreant at length paid the

forfeit of his life, preserved him from the most unpleasant consequences

for enforcing the spirit of the law after a different fashion from that

prescribed. Capital punishments are very rare: four malefactors were

executed in 1799, and nine since. The Dutch entertain a frightful

opinion of the criminal laws of England, which they consider very

sanguinary, from the great number of delinquents who are annually put to

death there.

The strong apartments which formerly contained the vast treasures of the

bank, and the offices attached to that wealthy concern, are on the

ground-floor, where several clerks are employed to transact the business

of that celebrated establishment. From the wise measures adopted by the

king, who made, as I have before observed, the recognition of the

national debt one of the first measures of his government, the national

creditor has no apprehensions. Before the war, this institution, which

was a bank of deposit, was supposed to contain the greatest quantity of

bullion in the world, and popular credulity dwelt with ostentatious

fondness upon the extent of its accumulated treasures, which they

resembled to a Peruvian mine; its pile of precious metals was valued at

the enormous sum of forty millions. The regulations which governed

deposits made in this bank were as follow: the person depositing cash or

bullion received a credit in the books for the amount, and a receipt for

the same, which expired at the end of six months, was given, renewable

upon paying a small per centage for warehouse rent: if such receipt

expired before the money or bullion was redeemed, neither the one nor

the other could be afterwards removed, but for it an equivalent in bank

credit was given, which receipt could afterwards be converted into cash

in the market. Another regulation was, that not a florin of the cash or

bullion invested should ever be removed by way of loan. This compact

between the bank and the creditor was always considered inviolable. A

rumour was circulated, with equal celerity and anxiety, soon after the

arrival of the French in Holland, highly injurious to the responsibility

of the institution, and a deputation of merchants waited respectfully on

the directors of the bank, to solicit satisfaction as to its solvency;

to which an answer, couched in general terms, but favourable to its

responsibility, was given. Owing to the unshaken stability which it had

displayed, from 1672, when Louis the Fourteenth, at the head of a

victorious army, was expected every hour to have made his triumphal

entry into Amsterdam, to 1795, when the French fixed the destiny of the

country, this answer was received with perfect confidence and security

in the bank, and any doubt upon the subject was considered to be the

result of party malignity. Upon the French taking possession of

Amsterdam, a complete investigation of the business followed, and the

official report of the provisional representatives of the city

announced, that

“No deficiency whatever will exist in the said bank, and the debits

and credits will precisely balance, with this exception, that instead

of species, there have been received into the said bank, from time to

time, as securities for large sums advanced by it within the last

fifty years, a very considerable number of bonds, viz.

“Seventy bonds of the India Company of Amsterdam, guaranteed by the

states of that province, being each of 100,000 florins banco, at three

per cent. interest; besides a similar one of 50,000 banco, on which

there will be due, according to the calculation of the said clerks,

the sums of 249,000 florins banco, for interest. On account of which

bonds, the treasurer of the said city is debited in the aforesaid

balance 6,273,000 florins banco.

“Besides these, there are fifty bonds, each for 24,000 florins, on

account of the provinces of Holland and West Friesland, belonging to

the loan-office of this city, on which, according to the information

of the clerks, the bank has advanced, agreeable to the aforesaid

balance, the sum of 838,857 florins banco, on which there will be due

for interest 30,000 florins. In addition to which, the loan-office

owes the bank, conformable to the same information, the sum of

1,715,000 florins banco.

“That further, if every thing shall appear as has been stated by the

said clerks, and sterling being converted into stock, the treasurer of

the city will, in addition, owe to the bank, and for which it was made

debtor at the closing of the accounts above alluded to,

the sum of 38,358 2 0

And what it owed at the actual closing of the accounts, 155,314 6 8

———————————

Making together, banco, Florins 193,672 8 8

“That there is also due, from the said bank, 227,264 2 8, for which

bonds were originally given; but according to the clerk’s statement

were burnt; but for which the city notwithstanding paid interest

annually to the bank.

“That it is nevertheless obvious, that the city is responsible for

this sum, as well as for the whole, as it ought to be considered with

respect to it, not only as guarantee, but as actual debtor to the

bank.

“That moreover, among other things in the said bank, there has been

found in substance all the specie for which accountable receipts have

been given, agreeable to the list made out, and delivered to the

committee of commerce and marine by the cashiers of the bank, and

which can, in consequence, be at all times drawn out by the holders of

the said receipts, in exchange for them, when it shall please them so

to do.

“The aforesaid provisional representatives have, therefore, not only

taken the requisite, and most efficacious measures, that henceforward

there shall not be delivered from, nor advanced by, the said bank,

contrary to its original institution, any specie whatsoever, by any

authority, either as a loan, or in any other illegal manner; but also

that the said bonds, lodged in the said bank as securities, as

aforesaid, shall be liquidated as soon as possible, and generally,

that this city, as debtor to the bank, shall, with all practicable

dispatch, discharge in cash the balance of its account with the said

bank, which being done, the provisional representatives declare, that

there can exist no deficiency of any kind soever; and that they will,

without delay, take into their serious consideration, and will carry

into immediate effect, the means to obtain this end.”

For this sum, amounting to upwards of nine millions of florins, the

proper investments had been made, but of the deposits, which ought to

have been permanent, in consequence of the expiration of the receipts,

not a florin remained in the caves of the bank. It appeared that the

directors, like the magistrate who presided at the execution of the

murderer, beneficially for the state, no doubt had departed from the

strict letter of the law, and instead of suffering so much wealth to

remain in a state of unproductive inertion, they had duplicated the

energies of credit by judicious and advantageous loans of it to a

variety of merchants and tradesmen. This statement excited the highest

indignation against the directors, who were, in the violence of that

party-spirit which then raged in Holland, branded with every epithet

which appertains to the real national defaulter. The deficiency thus

explained could have no injurious influence upon the bank, with regard

to the cash receipts which were unexpired, unless the debts due to the

bank, upon such accommodations, should not be regularly discharged. But

no explanation could appease the popular fury, which connected this

politic deviation from the strict letter of an unwise law into high

treason against the state, and loudly demanded, that all the directors

of the bank, and persons entrusted with the management of any other

public fund, should be put under arrest: to such a height was this

spirit carried, that many of the members of the old government would

have been sacrificed to the animosity of faction, and revolutionary

vengeance, had not the French general interfered, and by a humane

proclamation addressed to people enlightened by the benign effects of

public education, averted their anger.

On the 16th of February, 1795, upon the promulgation of the abolition of

the stadtholderate, a general fraternization took place in Amsterdam,

and a complete oblivion of all public animosities. This federation was

celebrated, as I was informed, with all imaginable pomp. The carillons

in the towers of the Stadt-house, and the principal churches, played the

most enchanting patriotic airs, the tri-coloured flag waived upon their

spires, and salutes from the bastions, artillery, and men of war,

augmented the vivacity of this eventful day. Nothing could surpass the

grotesque drollery exhibited in various parts of the city: the gaiety of

the French character completely electrified the sobriety of the

Batavian. Grave Dutch brokers, whose blood had long ceased to riot, who

thought that the great purposes of life were answered when the duties of

the bureau were discharged; who, could they have compared, would have

preferred the brick of the exchange, to the “verd’rous wall of

Paradise,” who had never moved but with a measured funeral pace, were

seen in large full-bottomed wigs, and with great silver buckles,

mingling in the national dance, with the gay ethereal young Parisian

conscripts, so that it might be said of the Dutchman,

“He rises on his toe: that spirit of his

In aspiration lifts him from the earth.”

_Troilus and Cressida_, Act IV. Scene 8.

To such an elevation did the national spirit and ardour rise, that upon

a requisition requiring every person to deliver up all the uncoined gold

and silver, or plate (spoons and forks excepted) for the use of the

state, there appeared to be no reluctance to obey it, and as these state

offerings exceeded the estimate required, it is likely that none were

concealed. When these contributions exceeded in value the amount of the

taxes, to which the contributor was liable, a receipt was given for such

excess, and carried to his credit, in the next payments; with these

assistances, the government immediately directed its attention to the

deplorable state of its marine, which under the last of the

Stadtholders, had experienced the most ruinous and fatal neglect, in

consequence of the influence of the British cabinet upon the imbecile

mind of that unfortunate prince. When it is considered upon the breaking

out of the last war with Holland, how numerous and valuable were the

Dutch ships detained in British ports, what havoc our cruisers made on

her commerce, by intercepting her rich merchant vessels, and blockading

her ports, what a stagnation of internal trade must have followed, and

what enormous sums were extorted by the French army and its generals,

the reader may form some opinion of the prodigious opulence of this

country, which, under the pressure of such calamities, is still enabled

to raise her head with such few marks of suffering.

Amsterdam has no noble squares, which add so much to the splendor of

London, nor is there any bridge worthy of being noticed, except that

which crosses the river Amstel, which is built of brick, has thirteen

arches, and is tolerably handsome: on the river looking towards this

bridge, there is a fine view of the city, which I preferred sketching,

to a more expanded one on the coast immediately opposite to the city, in

the north of Holland. The only association throughout Holland, which

resembles a monastic one, is that of the Beguines, who reside in a large

house appropriated to their order, which is surrounded with a wall and

ditch, has a church within, and resembles a little town; this sisterhood

is perfectly secular, the members of which wear no particular dress,

mingle with the inhabitants of the city, quit the convent, and marry

when they please: but they are obliged, as long as they belong to the

order, to attend prayers at stated periods, and to be within the convent

at a certain hour every evening. To be admitted of this order, they must

be either unmarried or widows without children, and the only certificate

required is that of good behaviour, and that they have a competence to

live upon. The restraints are so very few, that a Beguine may rank next

to a happy wife: they have each an apartment and a little flower-garden,

and take no vows of celibacy or of any other sort; in short, the whole

establishment may be considered as a social retirement of amiable women,

for the purpose of enjoying life in an agreeable and blameless manner.

How superior this to living

A barren sister all your life,

Chaunting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon!

_Midsummer Night’s Dream_, Act I. Scene 1.

The ladies of Holland, if I may judge from those with whom I had the

honour and happiness of associating in Amsterdam, are very amiable,

thoroughly well bred, well educated, speak English, French and German,

and they are very polite and courteous to strangers: they are also

remarkable for their attention to decorum and modesty; the unmarried,

without prudery, are highly virtuous, and the married present a pattern

of conjugal fidelity. They are also very fond of dancing, particularly

of waltzing, and they are much attached to English country dances, in

which the most graceful Parisian belle seldom appears to any advantage.

The interior of the houses belonging to the higher classes in Amsterdam

is very elegant; the decoration and furniture of their rooms is very

much in the French style: they are also very fond of having a series of

landscapes, painted in oil colours, upon the sides of the rooms, instead

of stucco or paper, or of ornamenting them with pictures and engravings.

The average rent of respectable houses, independent of taxes, is from

one thousand to twelve hundred florins. The dinner hour, on account of

the exchange, is about four o’clock in this city, and their modes of

cooking unite those of England and France: immediately after dinner the

whole company adjourn to coffee in the drawing-room.

The water in this part of Holland is so brackish and feculent that it is

not drank even by the common people. There are water-merchants, who are

constantly occupied in supplying the city with drinkable water, which

they bring in boats from Utrecht and Germany, in large stone bottles:

the price of one of these bottles, containing a gallon, is about eight

pence English. The poor, who cannot afford to buy it, substitute

rain-water. The wines drank are principally claret and from the Rhine.

The vintage of Portugal has no more admirers here than at Rotterdam,

except amongst young Dutchmen, who have either been much in England, or

are fond of the taste and fashions of our country.

CHAPTER XVI.

POLICE ... FIRES ... LAWS RELATING TO DEBTORS ... DITTO TO BANKRUPTS ...

THE AANSPREEKERS ... SINGULAR CUSTOM ... THE TROKENKORB ... THE

STREETS ... INSALUBRITY OF STAGNANT CANALS ... SOCIETIES FOR RECOVERING

DROWNED PERSONS ... NOBLE CONDUCT OF THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER ... POLISH

GRATITUDE ... AUSTRIA ... THE EXCHANGE ... A DUTCH MERCHANT ... HERRING

FISHERY.

The laws in Holland against nocturnal disturbers of the peace are very

severe. A few months before I was in Amsterdam, two young gentlemen of

family and fortune had been condemned to pay ten thousand florins for

having, when “flushed with the Tuscan grape,” rather rudely treated two

women of the lower orders. The night police of Holland would form an

excellent model for that of England. The watchmen are young, strong,

resolute and well appointed, but annoying to a stranger; for they strike

the quarter-hour with a mallet on a board; which disturbs his repose,

unless he is fortunate enough to sleep in a back room, or until he

becomes accustomed to the clatter. Midnight robberies and fires very

seldom occur: to guard against the spreading of the latter, there are

persons appointed, whose office it is to remain all day and all night in

the towers or steeples of the highest churches, and as soon as they

discern the flame, to suspend, if it be in the day, a flag; if in the

night, a lantern towards the quarter of the city in which it rises,

accompanied by the blowing of a trumpet. This vigilance, and the

facility of procuring water in summer, the natural caution of the

people, and their dread of such an accident, conspires to render it a

very rare visitor. An average calculation of fires which occur in

London, where a regular account of all such accidents are registered, by

each fire insurance company having an establishment of firemen and

engines, may be collected from the register of one year, commencing from

Michaelmas 1805, viz. three hundred and six alarms of fire attended with

little damage, thirty-one serious fires, and one hundred and fifty-five

alarms, occasioned by chimneys being on fire, amounting in all to four

hundred and ninety-two accidents. The English fire insurance companies

calculate on an alarm of fire every day, and about eight serious fires

in every quarter of a year. This is a frightful estimate, and when it is

considered, that scarcely a fire of any material extent has been known

in the memory of man to have broken out in either of the universities,

or in any of the inns of court, where it would be most likely they would

occur, on account of the frequent carelessness of the inhabitants,

little doubt can remain on the minds of any one, that infinitely the

greater number of fires which happen are the fatal consequences of

diabolical design.

Although, owing to the great frugality and industry of the people, an

insolvent debtor is rather a rare character, consequently held in more

odium in Holland than in most other countries, yet the laws of arrest

are milder there than in England. If the debtor be a citizen or

registered burgher, he is not subject to have his person seized at the

suit of the creditor, until three regular summonses have been duly

served upon him, to appear in the proper court, and resist the claim

preferred against him, which process is completed in about a month;

after which, if he does not obey it, his person is subject to arrest,

but only when he has quitted his house; for in Holland a man’s dwelling

is held even more sacred than in England, and no civil process whatever

is capable of being served upon him, if he stands but on the threshold

of his home. In this sanctuary he may set at defiance every claimant;

if, however, he has the hardihood to appear abroad, without having

satisfied or compromised his debt, he is then pretty sure, from the

vigilance and activity of the proper officers, to be seized; in which

case he is sent to a house of restriction, not a prison for felons,

where he is maintained with liberal humanity, the expenses of which, as

well as of all the proceedings, must be defrayed by the creditor. Under

these qualifications, every debtor is liable to arrest, let the amount

of the debt be ever so small. The bankrupt laws of Holland differ from

ours in this respect, that all the creditors must sign the debtor’s

certificate, or agreement of liberation; but if any refuse, the ground

of their refusal is submitted to arbitrators, who decide whether the

bankrupt shall, notwithstanding, have his certificate or not.

A passenger can seldom pass a street without seeing one or more public

functionaries, I believe peculiar to this country; they are called

aanspreeker, and their office is to inform the friends and acquaintances

of any one who dies, of the melancholy event. The dress of these

death-messengers is a black gown, a band, a low cocked hat with a long

crape depending behind. To pass from the shade of death to the light of

love: a singular custom obtains upon the celebration of marriage amongst

genteel persons, for the bride and bridegroom to send each a bottle of

wine, generally fine hock, spiced and sugared, and decorated with all

sorts of ribbands, to the house of every acquaintance; a custom which is

frequently very expensive. The Dutch have also a singular mode of airing

linen and beds, by means of a trokenkorb, or fire-basket, which is about

the size and shape of a magpie’s cage, within which is a pan filled with

burning turf, and the linen is spread over its wicker frame, or to air

the bed, the whole machine is placed between the sheets. With an

exception of the streets I have mentioned, and some others in that

quarter of the city, they are not remarkable either for beauty or

cleanliness. They are all paved with brick, and none of them have any

divided flagstone footpath for foot-passengers: however, the pavement is

more handsome and comfortable than that of Paris; although in both

cities the pedestrian has no walk that he can call his own, yet in

Amsterdam is he more secure than in the French capital, on account of

the few carriages, and the skill and caution of the drivers. In no

capital in the world, not even excepting Petersburg, is the

foot-passenger so nobly accommodated as in London. Most of the streets

in Amsterdam are narrow; and many in which very opulent merchants

reside, and great traffic is carried on, are not more than sixteen or

seventeen feet wide.

The canals of this city are very convenient, but many of them most

offensively impure, the uniform greenness of which is chequered only by

dead cats, dogs, offal, and vegetable substances of every kind, which

are left to putrefy at the top, until the canal scavengers, who are

employed to clean the canals, remove them: the barges which are used on

these occasions, and the persons employed in them, present a very

disgusting appearance; the mud which is raised by them, forms most

excellent manure, and the sum it fetches in Brabant, is calculated to be

equal to the expenses of the voyage. Some of the most eminent Dutch

physicians maintain that the effluvia arising from the floating animal

and vegetable matter of these canals, is not injurious, and in proof,

during a contagious fever which ravaged this city, it was observed, that

the inhabitants who resided nearest to the foulest canals, were not

infected, whilst those who lived near purer water, only in few instances

escaped; but this by no means confirms the assertion, because those

inhabitants who lived adjoining to foul canals, were inured to contagion

from its habitual application, for the same reason that medical men and

nurses generally escape infection, from being so constantly exposed to

it. The fair criterion would be to ascertain whether, when the city is

healthy, such quarters of it continue more so. The effluvia arising from

putrid animal matter, by the medical people of this country, and of

almost every other, is considered far from being innoxious, but

infinitely less injurious than that evolved by the decomposition of

vegetables: at the same time there are many offensive smells that are

far from being unwholesome, for instance, that of the bilge-water of a

ship, and others might be enumerated. The water of these canals is in

general about eight or nine feet deep, and the mud at the bottom about

six more. Except in very foggy nights, few deaths by drowning,

considering the amount of the population, occur in these canals, and

fewer would still happen, if they were guarded against by a railing,

which is rarely erected in any part of the city. At night, as the city

is well lighted, a passenger, unless he is blind, or very much

inebriated, a disgraceful condition, which as I have before observed is

not often displayed in Holland, is not very likely to experience a

watery death.

However, to guard as much as possible against the gloomy consequence of

these casualties, the keepers of all inns and taverns, and all

apothecaries in Amsterdam, and in every other city in Holland, are

compelled under a heavy penalty to keep a printed paper containing the

most approved method of resuscitating the suspended animation of drowned

persons, in a conspicuous part of their houses. The government is also

very liberal in distributing rewards to those who, at their personal

peril, rescue a fellow-creature from destruction. Upon such occasions,

gold, silver, or medals are bestowed, according to the risk and rank of

the preserver. The first society for the restoring of drowned persons

was formed in this city in 1767, and the utmost encouragement was every

where given throughout the united provinces, by the magistrates in

particular, and afterwards by the states-general, and the success of it

has been equal to its humanity. To the Dutch nation the English are

indebted for these admirable institutions, by which so many of our

countrymen have at various times been snatched from the gripe of death,

and restored as it were to a new existence, and to their agonized

families. It is a curious circumstance to remark, that the visible

disarrangement which the human frame experiences, from being a

considerable time in water, is very little, so little that many are the

instances where the sufferer has, in the first instance, displayed all

the indicia of death, and has within a few hours been enabled to thank

his deliverer in person. The body, during this temporary suspension of

animation, resembles a clock, upon its pendulum being accidently

stopped, its works are not mutilated nor shaken out of their proper

places, but are competent to renew their functions the moment the former

is touched by some friendly hand.

As a memorable illustration, I beg to relate an anecdote of an

illustrious hero and august personage, who shedding light and happiness

upon nearly forty millions of beings, and ruling once the most extensive

empire upon the face of the earth, felt that he added a new ray of glory

and happiness to his imperial dignity in preserving, by his own

perseverance, a miserable fellow-creature from a watery grave.

In one of the journeys which his Imperial Majesty the Emperor Alexander

made through Poland, as he was riding alone, his attendants being

considerably behind him, on the banks of the little river Wilia, which

flows between Kouna and Wilna in Lithuania, he perceived some persons

assembled near the edge of the water, out of which they appeared to be

dragging something; he instantly alighted, and on approaching the spot,

found it to be the body of a man apparently lifeless. Urged by those

exalted sensibilities which regard rank and power only as bounties

delegated by heaven for the benefit of mankind, the monarch, without any

other assistance than that of the ignorant boors about him, who from his

uniform could only conceive him to be an officer of rank, drew the

apparent corpse completely from the water, and laid it on the side of a

bank, and with his own hands took off the wet clothes of the poor

sufferer, and began to rub his temples and breast, which he continued to

do for a considerable time with the most ardent anxiety, but found all

his efforts to restore animation ineffectual: in the midst of this

humane occupation, the Emperor was joined by the gentlemen of his suite,

amongst whom were Prince Wolkousky, and Count Liewen, two Russian

noblemen, and Dr. Weilly, his majesty’s principal surgeon, an English

gentleman of distinguished professional talents, who always travels

with, and is scarcely ever from his majesty. They united their exertions

to those of the Emperor, and when Dr. Weilly attempted, but in vain, to

bleed the poor creature, his majesty supported and chafed his arms, and

lent every other assistance in his power: for _three hours_ were they

thus employed with all the ardour of humanity, but saw no symptoms of

returning life, and Dr. Weilly pronounced the patient irrecoverable.

Fatigued as the Emperor was with these unceasing exertions, he would not

relinquish the work as a hopeless one, but by his own example and

language, urged and encouraged Dr. Weilly to renew his labours, which,

solely in obedience to his Imperial Majesty’s wishes, and completely

despairing of success, he recommenced; and as the whole party were

making the last effort, the emperor had the inexpressible satisfaction

of seeing the blood flow from the puncture, and of hearing a faint groan

issue from the lips of his patient.

The emotions of his Imperial Majesty at this moment were indescribable,

and in the fulness of his transport he exclaimed in French, “_Great God!

this is the brightest day of my life!_” and tears of joy sparkled in his

eyes, to ratify the feelings of his heart. Every exertion was now

redoubled, and as humanity loves to dwell upon the minutest

circumstances of this affecting scene, I must not omit to relate, that

when Dr. Weilly looked round for something to stop the blood with, the

Emperor with vivid promptitude took out his handkerchief, tore it in

pieces, with his own hands bound the sufferer’s arm, and remained with

him until he completely recovered, when he conveyed him to a place where

proper care could be administered to him; at parting, he ordered him a

liberal present of money, and afterwards, upon his return to his

capital, as if grateful to him for so large a portion of felicity,

settled a pension upon him and his family. The sensations of the

patient, when he was informed of the exalted rank of his preserver, can

be better felt than described. The poor inhabitants of that part of

Poland, who were but rude artists, fabricated four snuff-boxes, on the

lids of which they delineated, as well as they were able, this striking

and exemplary event, which they presented to the Emperor and the

gentlemen who assisted him in this work of humanity. Such is the heart

of a prince, who, almost unassailable in his mighty empire, and moved

alone by the elevated desire of impeding the gigantic progress of a

power which aims at universal domination, renounced all the pleasure of

tranquillity, and at the head of his gallant legions thundered at the

gates of princes, to awaken them from their fatal lethargy, and to

invoke them to oppose the common enemy of the world.

Alas! the solemn invocation was faintly and imperfectly obeyed. In vain

did the heroic Alexander endeavour to impart to other chiefs, whose

humiliation, if not destruction, must be the fruits of their supineness,

that divine energy which actuated his own bosom. The historian, whilst

with rapture he dwells upon the valor and the disinterested energy of

Alexander, with burning blushes will relate the mournful results which

followed the dire neglect of his solemn and unexampled appeal. To his

renewed struggles in this mighty and august cause, the eyes of England,

with whom his name will ever be consecrated, and of prostrate nations

panting, without the spirit to contend for their deliverance, are turned

with ardent anxiety. May glory crown the arms of such a prince, and may

his days be long in the land!

The exchange here is in the same style of architecture as that of

Rotterdam, but larger. My astonishment here was even greater than what I

experienced at the latter place; for, at the exchange hour, it was

overflowing with merchants, brokers, agents, and all the busy motley

characters who belong to commerce. From the prevailing activity, the

appetite for accumulation here appeared to have experienced no checks

from the inevitable calamities of war. My surprise was augmented by

reflecting, with these appearances before me, upon the present and

former commercial condition of the country. The principal causes which

contributed to render Amsterdam so rich before the two last wars, were

the invincible industry, the caution, and frugality of the people. The

ancient merchants of Amsterdam preferred small gains with little risk,

to less probable, and to larger profits: it was their creed, that more

fortunes were raised by saving and economy, with moderate advantages,

than by bold, expensive, and perilous speculations. This golden rule

they transmitted to their posterity, who have exhibited no great

disposition to deviate from it. A Dutch merchant of the present day

almost always calculates the chances for and against his success in any

undertaking, which he will immediately relinquish unless they are very

greatly in his favour, and as nearly reducible to certainty as possible:

he very rarely over-trades himself, or extends his schemes beyond his

capital: such was the foundation upon which the commerce of Amsterdam

was raised.

The principal sources of commercial wealth to Holland arose from her

herring and Greenland fisheries, which employed a great portion of her

population. The superior manner in which the Dutch pickle and preserve

their herrings is peculiar to themselves, nor has it been in the power

of England, or any other country, to find out the secret which lies, it

is said, in the manner of gilling and salting those fish. The persons

who are acquainted with the art, are bound by an oath never to impart

it, hitherto religiously adhered to, and the disclosure of it is

moreover guarded against by the laws of the country. This national

source of wealth has been greatly impeded, in consequence of the Dutch

having no herring fisheries of their own, but being obliged to seek them

on the English coast at the proper season, where, particularly off

Yarmouth, the herring shoals have been known to be six and seven feet

deep with fish. The permission granted to the Dutch fishermen, to

prosecute their occupation unmolested on our coasts, notwithstanding the

war, was frequently withdrawn by our cruisers. Last year a private

agreement took place between the two countries, and the indulgence was

renewed, by which the Dutch were very abundantly supplied with their

favourite fish: so much esteemed is it, that the first herring cured was

always presented to the stadtholder, and opulent families have been

known to give seven shillings, and even a guinea, for the first herrings

brought to market.

CHAPTER XVII.

FORMER COMMERCE OF THE DUTCH ... BATAVIA ... ANECDOTES OF NATIONAL

FRUGALITY ... EXCHANGE AND BANKING BUSINESS ... COMMERCIAL HOUSE OF

MESSRS. HOPE ... JEW FRUIT-SELLERS ... MARINE SCHOOL ... THE

RASP-HOUSE ... THE WORKHOUSE ... THE PLANTATION ... PRIESTS HOW

SUPPORTED ... PARISH REGISTERS ... THE POOR ... LITERARY SOCIETIES ...

FELIX MERITIS ... MODERN DUTCH PAINTERS.

For more than a century the Dutch East India Company enjoyed the

monopoly of the fine spices, comprehending nutmegs, cloves, mace,

cinnamon, &c. which constituted the principal branch of the Asiatic as

well as the European commerce of Holland: 360,000_lbs._ cloves were

annually sent to Europe, and about 150,000_lbs._ were sold in India;

250,000_lbs._ of nutmeg, the produce of the island of Banda, used to be

sold in Europe, and 100,000_lbs._ in India. In Europe also 400,000_lbs._

of cinnamon used to be brought to market, and 200,000_lbs._ consumed in

India. Batavia presents a wonderful instance of the enterprise of the

Dutch, who, born themselves in a marshy country, below the level of the

ocean, erected a kingdom in the fifth degree of north latitude, in the

most prolific part of the globe, where the fields are covered with rice,

pepper, and cinnamon, and the vines bear fruit twice a year. Although

this colony remains to Holland, the Dutch spice market must have very

materially suffered, from the vigilance of our ships of war in various

parts of the world, and particularly from the recent capture of her

valuable spice ships returning home richly laden from that colony. The

Dutch also carried on a large trade in rice, cotton, and pepper, and the

Java coffee, which was thought to be second only to that of Mocha. The

reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find that the amount of the spice

exports should every year be the same. The Dutch East India Company was

enabled to make this calculation in consequence of having acquired a

tolerably exact knowledge of the quantity of each kind of spice that

would be necessary for the consumption of the European markets, and

never permitting any more to be exported. In this branch of trade they

had no competition, and they were enabled to keep the price of their

spices as high as they chose, by ordering what remained unsold at the

price they had fixed upon it, to be burnt. Their spices gave them an

influence upon the trade of the north of Europe, in consequence of their

being highly prized by the different nations on the shores of the

Baltic, who furnished the Dutch with their grain, hemp, flax, iron,

pitch, tar, masts, planks, &c. The surrender of Curraçoa to the British

arms must also be severely felt. This island was always of great

importance to the Dutch, the possession and commerce of which they were

very desirous of retaining and extending. The Dutch West India Company,

many years since, refused to exchange it for the Spanish island of Porto

Rico. The commerce of Curraçoa formerly took up yearly about fifty large

ships, upon an average of 300 tons each, and the quantity of goods

annually shipped from Holland amounted to 500,000_l._ and the returns

nearly doubled that sum. The exports from Holland consisted of German

and Dutch linens, checks, East India goods, woollen and cotton

manufactures, spices, cinnamon, building materials, and many other

articles of ease and luxury. The imports to Europe were indigo, coffee,

sugar, hides, cotton, dye-wood, tortoiseshell, varinas, Porto Rico

tobacco, and occasionally cochineal. The Dutch also carried on a very

flourishing trade to Turkey and the Levant, by selling their own, the

Irish and English cloths, and purchasing tea, cocoa, ginger, and thread.

The commercial intercourse also between Holland and England was very

important, in which the balance in specie was greatly against the Dutch,

which induced many, who were ignorant of their real character, to

conclude, that they never could support so prodigious a drain of specie

as they have invariably experienced in such communications; an

impression which subsides when it is considered that the Dutch consumed

but little of what they imported from England, and that what they

purchased they resold in an improved condition to other countries. A

nation can only become rich from trade when its exports for the use of

foreign states is in a greater proportion than its imports for its own

consumption. An impression has gone forth, that a nation cannot be

impoverished if the importation of foreign merchandize be purchased

abroad by native commodity and not with specie; whereas upon a nation

striking the balance of her account with the country she may have dealt

with, it will be found that the deficiency on the side of her

exportation must be made up in specie. Hence an industrious and frugal

people like the Dutch will, when their country is in a state of

tranquillity, possess great advantages over most other nations. Industry

increases the native commodity, whether it arises from the soil or the

manufacture, and increases the exportation. Frugality will lessen the

consumption, and of course increase the exportation of native, and

reduce the importation of foreign produce, for home consumption. The

excess of all native commodities is sure of a market, of which those who

can sell the cheapest will be the masters: hence a frugal and

industrious people will be able to live and accumulate, where those who

are neither could not live. This spirit of industry and frugality has

been for ages, and still continues to be the guardian of this nation, by

which it was enabled to support its many, long, and costly wars, and

finally to force the king of Spain, its ancient master, to recognise its

independent sovereignty. Although the Hollanders, before the last war,

were the undisputed proprietors of the Indian spices, of the silks of

India and China, and of the fine cotton manufactures of Indostan, till a

period at no great distance the common people wore plain woollen cloth,

and fed on fish and vegetables. So universally powerful was this

propensity to economy, that formerly the common people, and even opulent

merchants, never changed their fashions, and left off their clothes only

because they were worn out. They have been known to purchase the coarse

English cloth for their own wear, and sell their own fine Leyden cloths

to Germany, Turkey, Portugal, and other countries: they also bought the

cheapest butter and cheese in the north of England, and in Ireland, for

their own consumption, and sent the best of those articles produced in

their own country to foreign markets. The wealth which many individuals

accumulated by their parsimonious habits was astonishing. The following

anecdote will place this part of the national character in a striking

point of view. As the marquis of Spinola and the president Richardot

were going to the Hague in the year 1608, for the purpose of negotiating

a truce with the Dutch, they saw on their way eight or nine persons step

out of a little boat, and seat themselves upon the grass, where they

made a frugal repast upon some bread, cheese, and beer; each person

taking his own provisions from a wallet which he carried behind him.

Upon the Spanish ambassadors inquiring of a peasant who these travellers

were, he replied, to their no little astonishment, “they are the

deputies of the states, our sovereign lords and masters.” Upon which the

ambassadors exclaimed, “We shall never be able to conquer these people;

we must make peace with them.” In the history of Sparta we can only look

for a similar instance of virtuous simplicity.

Another source from which Amsterdam derived great wealth was the

exchange and banking business. From her peculiar situation, vast credit;

and extensive correspondence with every nation upon the face of the

globe, this city has been the channel through which nearly three parts

of the money remitted from one state to another in Europe have passed,

and which have enriched the merchants by the customary commissions upon

such remittances: to which may be added the duties payable upon all

imports received from the manufactures of the western part of Germany,

upon all goods which in their transit by the Rhine and by the Maas to

foreign markets must pass through Amsterdam or Rotterdam, from which

Holland must have derived a considerable revenue. In short, in other and

better times, the trade with Great Britain, Persia, Russia, Spain,

Portugal, Italy, Cochin and its dependencies, Molucca, China, Japan,

Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Pomerania, Livonia, the possession of that

important promontory the Cape of Good Hope, and the commerce of the

Elbe, the Weser, and the Maas, all contributed to raise Amsterdam to the

commercial renown which she once enjoyed. Yet, notwithstanding, under

all her difficulties, arising from her territorial and marine losses by

the war, the severity of the English blockade, the activity of the

English cruisers, and of the French privateers, Holland still continues

to carry on a considerable intercourse with her old connexions through

the medium of neutral bottoms, secured by insurances effected frequently

at the enormous premium of 20_l._ per cent.

To return to the Exchange of this great city: I was much struck with the

confluence of people which surrounded one gentleman, who stood with his

back towards one of the pillars, and were very eager to get a word or a

whisper from him: upon inquiry this proved to be the acting partner of

the house of Messrs. Hope; a house that, before the last war, could at

any time dictate the exchange to Europe. This place is infested by a

great number of Jew fruiterers, who practise all sorts of stratagems to

set off their fruit, such as pinning the stalk of a fresh melon upon the

bottom of a stale and rotten one, which had nearly succeeded with me.

The melons in Holland are remarkably fine; and as a proof of their

cheapness, I need only mention, that one morning, when strolling through

the streets, I gave no more than the value of ten pence for a very large

one, exquisitely flavoured.

I was much pleased with seeing the marine school, which, although its

object is to form a nursery for naval officers, was, strange to relate,

much neglected by the stadtholderian government, and was originally

instituted, and afterwards supported, by the patriotic spirit of private

individuals. The pupils are the children of citizens of all classes, and

are received from seven to twelve years of age, upon the payment of a

very moderate yearly stipend. Their education and treatment are the same

as in similar institutions here and in other countries. In the yard is a

brig completely rigged, for the instruction of the boys.

In the north-east part of the city stands the Rapshuys, or rasp-house,

in which criminals, whose offences are not of a capital nature, are

confined. A narrow court receding from the street, in which are the

keeper’s lodge and apartments for the different officers, form the

entrance of this prison. Over the gate are some insignificant, painted,

wooden figures, representing criminals sawing logwood, and Justice

holding a rod over them. The gaoler, apparently a good natured, merry

fellow, showed me into the inner court, forming an oblong square, on

three sides of which the cells of the prisoners, and on the fourth side

the warehouses, containing the ground dying wood, are arranged. This

yard is very much encumbered with piles of logwood, which sadly reduce

the miserable pittance of space allotted for the prisoners to walk in.

In one corner, in terrorem, is a whipping-post, with another little

figure of Justice holding a rod. In this yard I saw some of the men

sawing the Campeachy-wood, with a saw of prodigious large teeth, which

appeared to be a work of extreme labour; and upon my so expressing

myself to the gaoler, through my _laquais de place_, he informed me,

that at first it required a painful exertion of strength, but that the

prisoners by practice were enabled to saw it with ease, and to supply

their weekly quota of two hundred pounds weight of sawed pieces, and

also to make a variety of little articles in straw, bone, wood, and

copper, to sell to those who visited the prison. The prison dress

consists of a jacket, or surtout of white wollen, white shirts, hats,

flannel stockings, and leather shoes. The conduct of these unfortunate

persons is annually reported to the magistrate, who regulates the period

of their confinement, where the case will admit of an exercise of

discretion, by such report.

In a corner of the yard I was shown a cell, in which, if the person who

is confined in it does not incessantly pump out the water let into it,

he must inevitably be drowned; but the gaoler informed me, that it had

not been used for many years, and that it was now only an object of

terror. In the warehouses, which are very shabby, were piles of rasped

wood for dyeing various colours; amongst others, the Evonymus Europæus,

the Morus Tinctoria, and the Hæmotoxylum Campechionum. I was informed,

that women who are attached to the prisoners, are permitted to visit

them at stated periods, without any restraint, by which one of the great

political objects of Holland, the encouragement of population, does not

suffer by this wholesome separation of the faulty from the blameless

members of society. The number of prisoners amounted to 124; they were

far from looking healthy; this I attributed more to the height of the

walls enclosing the yard, which, as well as the number of logwood piles,

must greatly impede the circulation of the air, than to excess of toil

and severity of treatment. The prisoners are not encumbered with irons,

and I should think an escape from such a prison might be easily

effected.

From the rasp-house I proceeded to the work-house, in the east quarter

of the city, close to the Muider and Prince Gragts, an establishment

which I believe has no parallel in the world. It is a vast building: the

purposes to which it is applied are partly correctional and partly

charitable. The number of persons within its walls, when I saw it,

amounted to seven hundred and fifty of both sexes, and the annual

expense is about one hundred thousand florins. In the rooms belonging to

the governors and directresses, are some exquisite pictures by Vandyke,

Rembrandt, and Jordaens. In a vast room very cleanly kept and well

ventilated, were an immense number of women, occupied in sewing,

spinning, &c.; amongst them was a fine, handsome, hearty looking Irish

woman, who had been confined two years at the instance of her husband,

for being more fond of a little true Schidam gin than of her liege

spouse. In another vast apartment, secured by massy iron railing and

grated windows, were about seventy female convicts, who appeared to be

in the highest state of discipline, and were very industriously and

silently engaged in making lace, &c. under the superintendency of a

governess. From the walls of the room were suspended instruments of

punishment, such as scourges, irons for the legs, &c. which, we were

informed, were not spared upon the slightest appearance of

insubordination. These women are always kept apart from the rest. The

wards of the men, and the school-rooms for a great number of children,

who are educated and maintained under the same roof, as well as the

dormitories, were in the highest state of neatness. In another part of

this building, never shown to strangers, were confined about ten young

ladies, of very respectable, and some of very high families, sent there

by their parents or friends for undutiful deportment, or some other

domestic offence. They are compelled to wear a particular dress as a

mark of degradation, obliged to work a stated number of hours a day, and

are occasionally whipped: they are kept apart by themselves, and no one

but a father, mother, brother, or sister, can see them during their

confinement, and then only by an order from one of the directors.

Husbands may here, upon complaint of extravagance, drunkenness, &c. duly

proved, send their wives to be confined and receive the discipline of

the house; and wives their husbands, for two, three, and four years

together. The allowance of food is abundant and good; and each person is

permitted to walk for a proper time in the courts within the building,

which are spacious. Every ward is kept locked, and no one can go in or

out without the especial permission of the proper officer.

Close to this place is the plantation, a very large portion of ground

within the city, laid out in avenues, and a great number of little

gardens, formed into several divisions by streets of pretty country and

summer-houses; and the whole is surrounded by canals. To this _rus in

urbe_, such of the citizens and their families repair in the summer to

dine or drink tea, whose finances, or spirit of economy will not admit

of their having a house in the country. To render these rural

indulgences as cheap as possible, three or four families join in renting

one small cottage, or perhaps a summerhouse and garden. Never did any

spot devoted to the pleasure of nature exhibit more silence and

solemnity: no sports, no pastime, no laugh nor gambol: the females drink

their tea and work, and the men smoke in peaceful taciturnity, and

scarcely move their eyes from their different occupations, unless some

very animating and attractive object passes.

In my way from the plantation to the elegant country residence of a

Dutch merchant of high respectability, I passed, a few miles from

Amsterdam, two burial places of the Jews, who wisely bury their dead in

the country; the other inhabitants follow the baneful practice of

burying in the churches and church-yards in the city, where the

catholics deposit their dead very frequently in protestant churches. In

Holland the honours of funeral pomp are scarcely ever displayed: the

spirit of economy, which seems to be the tutelar saint of these moist

regions, seldom incurs a further expense than a plain coffin, which

costs little, and some genuine tears or sighs, which cost nothing. To

describe the numerous churches, chapels, and conventicles of the

religions of all persuasions, who since the revolution live in cordial

amity with each other, and with the government, under which they enjoy

the rights of equal citizenship, would be a laborious and not a very

interesting labour. The quakers here, and in every other town in

Holland, are very few: the Jews and the anabaptists are very numerous,

and there are many Roman Catholics. Before the revolution the clergy of

the established church were paid by the government; they, as well as

every other priest or pastor, are now supported at fixed salaries,

raised rateably amongst the inhabitants of the parishes in which they

officiate, each sect supporting its own minister. In every parish

registers of births, marriages, and deaths are regularly kept. The

church-yards are not disgraced, like ours, with low facetious epitaphs,

more calculated to make the living merry, than to lead them to serious

meditation. Each parish maintains its own poor, under the control of a

council. They have also, as with us, outdoor poor. The sabbath is kept

in Holland with the same solemnity as in England. The great number of

noble charitable institutions in Amsterdam, in which the sick and the

friendless of all persuasions are received and cherished, without any

recommendation but that of affliction, cannot fail to impress a stranger

with admiration, though to enumerate them here would not be very

entertaining to the reader.

There are several literary societies in Amsterdam, which are supported

with equal spirit and liberality. The Felix Meritis is the principal

public institute; it is supported by private subscriptions: no money is

paid upon admission; foreigners are admitted with a subscriber’s ticket,

but no native can be received unless he is a subscriber. This place is a

large building, containing some fine apartments, particularly the

music-room, which, during the concerts, is much resorted to by the most

opulent and fashionable families, many of whom play, with the assistance

of professional performers. There are also rooms devoted to philosophy

and the arts. In the painting-room I was shown some works of the modern

Dutch painters, which were not above mediocrity; they appear to have

lost that exquisite art of colouring, which so eminently distinguished

their predecessors. This circumstance is very singular, considering how

many ingenious artists this city has produced, amongst whom may be

enumerated the three Does, Griffier, Schellinks, the celebrated Adrian,

and William Vandervelde, &c. M. Smit, and Mr. De Winter, very opulent

merchants, have a fine collection of paintings. Mr. Van Brenton has also

a valuable cabinet, in which are the only Venetian pictures supposed to

be in Holland; and in the surgery is a noble picture by Rembrandt.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE DUTCH THEATRE ... THEATRICAL TRAFFIC ... THE RONDELL ... SINGULAR

VILLAGE OF BROCK ... SAARDAM ... COTTAGE OF PETER THE GREAT ... CLIMATE,

DIVISIONS, AND POPULATION OF HOLLAND ... JOURNEY TO ZEYST ... DUTCH FOND

OF COFFEE ... SMALL FARMS ... PICTURE OF A DUTCH PEASANT’S NEST ...

EFFECTS OF INDUSTRY ... PALACE OF SOESTDYKE ... PYRAMID RAISED IN HONOUR

OF BONAPARTE ... SOCIETY OF HERRENHUTHERS ... THEIR HOUSE AND INTERNAL

ARRANGEMENTS DESCRIBED.

The Dutch theatre is large and handsome, and has a noble front. On the

night I was there, Madam Wattier performed: she occupies the same place

in the public estimation in Holland as the immortal Siddons does in that

of England: she is advanced in years, but still continues to display

great tragic qualities: at the same time her manner is rather too

vehement for an English auditor. The principal dancer in the ballet was

Mademoiselle Polly, who dances with great agility. The scenery is good.

During the interval between the acts, the people quit the house, to take

refreshments and walk in the open air: upon these occasions the national

spirit is again displayed: as there is no half-price, little boys hover

round the doors, and bid upon each other for the purchase of the

re-admission tickets of those who come out, for the purpose of

re-selling them at a profit. The French theatre is small but neat, and

tolerably well supplied with performers. After the play it is usual to

go out to the Rondell, where the higher classes of the women of the town

assemble to waltz. This assembly-room, like the spill-house of

Rotterdam, is frequented by tradesmen, their wives and their children.

After hearing so much of this place, I was greatly disappointed on

viewing it. The assembly-room is small and shabby, the music wretched,

and adjoining is a small square court, with three or four trees in it,

scantily decorated with about a dozen lamps. Such is the celebrated

Rondell of Amsterdam, which the Dutch who have never visited England

contend is superior to our Vauxhall.

With a large and very agreeable party, I made an excursion into North

Holland, where we visited Brock, one of the most curious, and one of the

prettiest villages in Holland. The streets are divided by little

rivulets; the houses and summer-houses, formed of wood painted green and

white, are very handsome, though whimsical in their shape, and are all

remarkably neat. They are like so many mausoleums, for the silence of

death reigns throughout the place. The inhabitants, who have formed a

peculiar association amongst themselves, scarcely ever admit a stranger

within their doors, and hold but little intercourse with each other.

During our stay, we saw only the faces of two of them, and those by a

stealthy peep. They are very rich, so much so, that many of their

culinary utensils are of solid gold. The shutters of the windows in

front of the houses are always kept shut, and the principal entrance is

never opened but on the marriage or the death of one of the family. The

pavement of the street is tesselated with all sorts of little pebbles

and cockle-shells, and is kept in such exquisite order, that a dog or a

cat is never seen to trespass upon it; and it is said, that formerly

there was a law which obliged all passengers to take off their shoes in

the summer when they walked upon it; that a man was once reprimanded for

sneezing in the streets; and latterly, a clergyman, upon being appointed

to fill the church on the demise of a very old predecessor, was treated

with great shyness by his flock because he did not (unwittingly) take

off his shoes when he ascended the pulpit. The gardens of this village

produce deer, dogs, peacocks, chairs, tables, and ladders, cut out in

box. Such a museum of vegetable statuary I never witnessed before. Brock

represents a sprightly ball-room well lighted up, without a soul in the

orchestra or upon the floor. From Brock we proceeded to Saardam, which

at a small distance seems to be a city of windmills. The houses are

principally built of wood, every one of which has a little fantastic

baby-sort of garden. Government has discontinued building ships of war

here, which used to be a source of great prosperity to the town;

however, its numerous paper and sawing mills employ a vast number of

hands, and produce great opulence to the place. We paid our homage to

the wooden cottage where Peter the Great resided when he came to this

place to learn the art of ship-building; it is very small, and stands in

a garden, and is in tolerable preservation. The women in North Holland

are said to be handsomer than in any other part of the country. As I was

very desirous of commencing my tour on the Rhine, I was glad to return

to Amsterdam.

The climate of Holland is moist, but far from being unpleasant or

unwholesome, although some travellers have thought proper to say it

consists of six months of rain and six months of bad weather. The

principal divisions of the country are at present the same as they were

during the republic, namely, Holland, Overyssel, Zealand, Friesland,

Utrecht, Groningen, Guelderland, and Zutphen, besides the Texel and

other islands; but the king has it in contemplation, it is said, of

speedily dividing the kingdom into ten departments. Holland contains 113

cities or large towns, 1400 villages, and nearly 2,800,000 inhabitants.

The military force of Holland amounts to about 40,000 cavalry and

infantry. A population and a force which cannot but astonish the reader,

when he reflects upon the size, soil, and position of the country.

I intended to have taken the treckschuyt to Utrecht, as the river Amstel

is all the way lined with the most beautiful country-houses and grounds

in Holland; but as some friends of mine in Amsterdam obligingly proposed

accompanying me, and were strongly desirous that I should see Naarden,

Soestdyke, and some other places in our way, the boat was relinquished

for the carriage. I however recommend the traveller not to omit going to

Utrecht by water. Excellent carriages and horses are always to be

procured at a large livery stable keeper’s who resides near the

Utrecktsche Poort, or Utrecht Gate, in Amsterdam, close to the house

from which the Utrecht treckschuyts proceed: for these he must make the

best bargain he can, as he will be wholly at the mercy of the

proprietor. The inconvenience and imposition arising from travelling in

Holland are frequently severely felt, on account of there being no

regular posting. In Amsterdam the price of a carriage for the day is

fourteen florins, and for this the coachman provides for himself and

horses. The back of our carriage towards the horses, folded into two

divisions, resting upon the fixed seat, so that when the cushion was

placed upon it, the seat was only a little raised; thus the coach became

either close or open: the roof was fixed. In this vehicle, with a pair

of good horses, we set off for Naarden, a clean, pretty little town, and

more skilfully and strongly fortified than any other town in Holland:

here the same tranquillity reigns as in most of the other Dutch country

towns. From the ramparts, which present a very agreeable walk, there is

a fine view of the Zuyder Zee on the northern side, the water of which

being in many places very shallow, at a distance resembled moving mounds

of sand. Here, and throughout the journey, our coachman gave the

preference to coffee, of which the Dutch are remarkably fond, instead of

wine or spirits, with his dinner. From economy, as I observed at this

place and elsewhere, the middling people keep a bit of sugar-candy in

their mouth when they drink tea or coffee, instead of using sugar in the

way we do. Our host regaled us after dinner with a volunteer dessert of

some very delicious pears, which grew in very great profusion in his

garden.