404 NETHERLANDS. 



were Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Arras, Ypres, Tournay, St. Omers 

 Namur, and Ruremonde. 



Literature and- the arts. ...The societies of Jesuits formerly 

 produced the most learned men in the Austrian Low Countries, in 

 which they had many eligible settlements. Works of theology, and 

 the civil and cannon law, Latin poems and plays were their chief pro- 

 ductions. Strada is an elegant historian and poet. The French his- 

 torians Froissart and Philip de Comines were natives of Flanders ; 

 the learned Lipsius was born near Brussels. 



The Flemish painters and sculptors have great merit, and form a 

 school by themselves. The works of Reubens and Vandyke cannot 

 be sufficiently admired. The models for heads of Firamingo, or the 

 Fleming, particularly those of children, have never yet been equalled ; 

 and the Flemings formerly engrossed tapestry-weaving to them- 

 selves. 



Universities. ...These are Louvain, Douay, Tournay, and St. 

 Omers. The first was founded in 1426, by John IV, duke of Bra- 

 bant, and enjoys great privileges. By a grant of pope Sixtus IV, 

 this university had the privilege of presenting to all the livings in 

 the Netherlands, except in Holland. 



Language The vernacular language of this country is the 



Flemish, a dialect of the Dutch ; but it is nearly superseded, except 

 among the peasantry, by the French. 



Antiquities. ...Some Roman temples and other buildings, and the 

 remains of Roman roads are found in the Netherlands. There are 

 also many churches and convents, venerable for their antiquity ; and 

 the magnificent old edifices of every kind, in all the cities, give 

 evidence of their former grandeur. In 1607, some labourers found 

 1600 gold coins, and ancient medals, of Antoninus Pius, Aurelius, and 

 Lucius Verus. 



History. ...The seventeen provinces, and that part of Germany 

 which lies west of the Rhine, were called Gallia Belgica by the 

 Romans. About a century before the Christian aera, the Battse remov- 

 ed from Hesse to the marshy country bounded by the Rhine and the 

 Maese. They gave the name of Batavia to their new country. Gen- 

 erous and brave, the Batavians were treated by the Romans with 

 great respect, being exempted from tribute, governed by their own 

 laws, and obliged only to perform military services. Upon the decline 

 of that empire, the Goths, and other northern people, possessed them- 

 selves of these provinces first, as they passed through them in their 

 way to France, and other parts of the Roman empire ; and afterwards 

 being erected into small governments, the heads of which were des- 

 potic within their own dominions, Batavia and Holland became inde- 

 pendent of Germany, to which it had been united under one of the 

 grandsons of Charlemagne, in the beginning of the 10th century, 

 when the supreme authority was lodged in the three united powers, 

 of a count, the nobles, and the towns. At last, they were swallowed 

 up by the house of Burgundy, anno 1433. 



The emperor Charles V, the heir of that family, transferred them, 

 in the year 1477, to the -house of Austria, and ranked them as part of 

 the empire, under the title of the Circle of Burgundy. The tyranny 

 of his son Philip II, who succeeded to the throne of Spain, made the 

 inhabitants attempt to throw off his yoke, which occasioned a general 

 insurrection, the counts Hoorn and Egmont, and the prince of Orange, 



