191 



Monthly Revietv of Literature, 



[Aue. 



our parental goodness, permit it to be opened from 

 May till August the months that foreigners gene- 

 rally resort to the city for the benefit of the waters. 

 But this indulgence is not to have any bad effect 

 upon the morals of the citizens ; and the police are 

 to turn out anybody whom they suspect not to be 

 able to afford to lose money. FREDERICK." 



At Aix-la-Chapellealso he stops, not in 

 his tour, but in his narrative, to take a 

 retrospect of the Netherlands, the king- 

 dom of which, he states, according to the 

 treaty of Vienna, comprises Holland, and 

 its dependencies, Belgium and Flanders, 

 with a population of 5,500,000. Every 

 subject of the king, without any distinc- 

 tion of religious opinions, enjoys equal 

 rights, both civil and political, and is 

 equally eligible to all employments and 

 honours whatever. The Hollanders are 

 nearly to a man Protestants, and the Bel- 

 gian Catholics. The crown is heredi- 

 tary. The States-general consists of two 

 chambers representative of the nation. 

 The upper chamber is composed of not 

 less than forty or more than sixty, named 

 by the king for life; and each receives 

 3,000 florins annually to defray his travel- 

 ling expenses. The other chamber con- 

 sists of 110 members, elected by the states 

 of the provinces. They are elected for 

 three years, and one-third retire annually, 

 but are re eligible immediately. The mem- 

 bers receive 2,500 florins. The session is 

 held alternately at Hague and at Brus- 

 sels : 



The Belgians pretend to bold the Dutch in great 

 contempt, and a rooted antipathy has long sub- 

 sisted between the two countries ; to which is now 

 added a jealousy, which views with a jaundiced 

 eye every mark of distinction bestowed by the king, 

 and calls for, on the part of his majesty, an exer- 

 eise of his discretion and firmness. 



The government no doubt has enough 

 to do to balance matters between them. 

 The writer professes himself an advocate 

 for toleration, and admires this principle 

 in the Belgium constitution ; but he has 

 some doubts of its conciliating properties 

 proving of any use. He has some obscure 

 notion, that by and by expences will be 

 demanded for the support of the fortresses 

 on the French frontier, and that then the 

 Belgians will kick, and being Catholics, 

 will unite with the French, who are Catho- 

 lics too. 



The book improves as it goes on. In 

 his way to Copenhagen, he passes through 

 Eutin, the paternal property of the Duke 

 of Oldenburg, contained in a circumfe- 

 rence of twenty miles. 



There is a very neat, small palace, beautifully 

 situated upon the side of a lake. It appears that 

 the inhabitants of this district are contented and 

 happy ; they have few imposts everybody is well 

 dressed and there are no beggars. 

 Of Copenhagen he says, 

 The city within the last thirty years has suffered 



dreadfully: first, in 1795, by a fire, which con- 

 sumed nearly one-third of it fortunately the worst 

 part since which it has been greatly embellished ; 

 so that, as with our own capital, perhaps good has 

 arisen from evil. But I fear no such consolatory 

 reflection can proceed from the second suffering - 

 occasioned by our bombardment in 1807- From all I 

 can observe, a deep-rooted enmity against England 

 has taken possession of the minds of the inha- 

 bitants, which nothing but her downfal can ever 

 eradicate ; nor is the attack of 1801 at all forgot- 

 ten. Every care is taken to keep alive the sense 

 of the severe injury inflicted upon their national 

 pride in both instances. In the former case, I 

 almost admire the national spirit which continues 

 to feel it, because circumstances!, which more 

 powerful nations were unable to control, obliged 

 her to throw herself into the arms of either France 

 or England ; and the latter could not have per- 

 manently protected her from the grasp of the former. 

 She may therefore be said to have been forced 

 into that unnatural alliance an alliance which ul- 

 timately cost her the two brightest jewels of her 

 crown Norway, and her navy and, indeed, 

 almost her existence as an independent state. 



Near Konigsberg he visited Labrafoss, 

 a celebrated fall : 



At the lower part of which the spray is so great, 

 that between noon and four o'clock, when the sun 

 is out, an uninterrupted rainbow is formed a 

 phenomenon, said by the Norwegians to be met 

 with only there and at Naples. We were fortunate 

 in the day, and did not fail to enter the rainbow. 



Speaking of Norway, as to the late an- 

 nexation of it to Sweden, he says, 



When dispassionately viewed, it must be allowed 

 to be the most advantageous union that could have 

 happened for the Norwegians. But the manner in 

 which it was conducted has hurt their national 

 pride ; and they vent all their spleen on England, 

 because, they say, the most heroic courage, which 

 they were about to display in defence of their in- 

 dependence, was rendered useless by starvation, 

 brought on by our blockading squadron but for 

 which they would have defied the whole force of 

 Sweden and Denmark. 



We do manage admirably, in gaining 

 the hatred of our neighbours : 



Norway may still he said, with the exception of 

 being governed by a Swedish viceroy, to be per- 

 fectly independent of Sweden, except for offices of 

 mutual benefit ; as the Norwegians possess the 

 constitution which they had framed for themselves ; 

 and as they have steadily resisted some alterations 

 proposed by the king. This constitution is very 

 democratic, and is framed with such a jealousy of 

 aristocracy, that, although there are only about 

 three noble families inline country (we believe only 

 two), yet, after the death of the present possessors 

 of the titles, and of any son born before the date 

 of it, the titles are to become obsolete. 



The following remarks are worth at- 

 tending to : 



Until our late (I fear impolitic acts) for the pro- 

 tection of the Canadian timber trade, it was to 

 England that the Norwegians looked for the neces- 

 saries or the superfluities of life : and the truth of 



