285 TOUR THROUGH HOLLAND. [1804. 



plain black. They sat the whole time like jurors, 

 with pen, ink, and paper before them ; a few spoke a 

 little, in a plain, discussing manner, but sitting all 

 the while. The session ends to-day. They have 

 given the prince five million guilders for his privy 

 purse, though this is secret; and have imposed a 

 tax of 2i per cent on capital. 



Went with Van Yzendoorn to Count Hogendorp's 

 to dinner. A pretty campagne two miles off; a large 

 and most select company, it being the Stadtholder's 

 birthday. His health was enthusiastically drunk. 

 These were his firmest friends. The most interesting 

 of the company was M. Vander Hein, formerly se- 

 cretary or minister of the department of the Maes, in 

 the Admiralty, which was represented like the East 

 India Company, though now he has retired in disgust. 

 He is grandson of the pensionary Heinsius. I got 

 much information from him. He informed me that 

 in the years 1792 and 1793 a proposition to abolish 

 the slave trade or rather, first to discuss if it should 

 be abolished, and then how, was made in the States- 

 General, in imitation of England ; but being referred 

 to the states, towns, and admiralties, as such, a thing 

 required by the constitution, they began to examine 

 the question ; then came the troubles, before any fur- 

 ther progress was made. 



Dutch law allows no execution but for theft in 

 goods publicly exposed, housebreaking, and murder. 

 Forgery, punished by the right hand cut off, is very 

 rare. No man hanged without confession, and this is 



