240 ANTWERP. 



other by a stout pair of iron gates, and another pair 

 connects them with the river. For the security of 

 shipping in the winter months these basins are admi- 

 rably adapted, and the old East India House, a great 

 quadrangular building, which stands immediately be- 

 tween them, is well situated for the reception of mer- 

 chandise or naval stores ; but they are mere basins, 

 possessing no conveniences whatever for the building 

 or repairs of ships. As commercial docks they are of 

 considerable importance to the town, and on that ac- 

 count solely they escaped demolition, when the dock- 

 yard, which was higher up the river, was destroyed. 



This demoirtion of the naval establishment was car- 

 ried into effect by virtue of the fifteenth article of the 

 definitive treaty of peace, signed at Paris on the 30th of 

 May, 1814. By this article, all the ships of war then 

 at Antwerp afloat, and those on the stocks, were — 

 after those actually belonging to Holland, prior to its 

 incorporation in the French empire, had been given up 

 to the Prince of Orange — to be divided, so that his 

 most Christian majesty should have two thirds, and the 

 Dutch, in trust for the Allied Powers, the remaining 

 third ; all those on the stocks were to be broken up with- 

 in a specified time, and the slips, docks, and everything 

 belonging to the naval arsenal, broken up and destroy- 

 ed. Commissioners were appointed for this partition 

 and demolition, amongst whom was the comptroller 

 and the surveyor of the British navy. The ordnance 

 stores, guns and ammunition, were also divided, as 

 well as the timber and other naval stores, the estima- 

 ted value of which exceeded two millions sterhng. 



Thus perished the dock-yards of Antwerp, which 

 Buonaparte had taken so much pains and spent so 

 much money to complete, and which had occasioned 

 so much uneasiness to this country. 



CONCLUSION OP VOLUME THE SECOND. 



Printed and Puhlishea bij Q'^SSHTef^ Buckwell Street, Plymouth. 

 7 APR 12. 



