412 HOLLAND. 



pense should equal the revenue ; and when this happens, they think 3 

 at least, they have lived that year to no purpose ; and the report of it 

 used to discredit a man among them, as much as any vicious or pro- 

 digal extravagance does in other countries. But this rigid frugality 

 is not so universal among the Dutch as it was formerly ; for a great- 

 er degree of luxury and extravagance has been introduced among 

 them, as well as the other nations of Europe. Gaming is likewise 

 practised : y many of their fashionable ladies, and some of them dis- 

 cover more propensity to gallantry than was known there in former 

 times. No country can vie with Holland in the number of those in- 

 habitants whose lot, if not riches, is at ieast a comfortable sufficien- 

 cy ; and no where fewer failures or bankruptcies occur. Hence, in 

 the midst of a world of taxes and contributions, they flourish and 

 grow rich. From this systematic spirit of regularity and moderation, 

 joined to the most obstinate perseverance, they succeeded in the stu- 

 pendous works of draining their country of those immense deluges 

 of water, that had overflowed so large a part of it during many ages, 

 while, at the same time, they brought under their subjection and 

 command the rivers and seas that surround them, by dykes of incre- 

 dible thickness and strength, and made them the principal bulwarks 

 on which they rely for the protection and safety of their territories 

 against the danger of an enemy. This they have done by covering 

 their frontiers and cities with innumerable sluices ; by means of 

 which, at the shortest notice, the most rapid inundations are let in, 

 and they become, in a few hours, inaccessible. From that frugality 

 and perseverance by which they have been so much characterised, 

 they were enabled, though labouring under the greatest difficulties, 

 not only to throw off the Spanish yoke, but to attack that powerful 

 nation in the most tender parts, by seizing her rich galleons, and 

 forming new establishments in Africa, and the East and West In- 

 dies, at the expense of Spain, and thereby becoming, from a despi- 

 cable province, a most powerful and formidable enemy. Equally 

 wonderful was the rise of their military and marine establishments j 

 maintaining, during their celebrated contention with Lewis XIV, and 

 Charles II, of England, not less than 150,000 men, and upwards of 

 eighty ships of the line. But a spirit of frugality being now less uni- 

 versal amopg them, the rich traders and mechanics begin to approx- 

 imate to the luxuries of the English and French ; and their nobility 

 and high magistrates, who have retired from trade, rival those of 

 any other part of Europe in their table, buildings, furniture, and 

 equipages. 



The diversions of the Dutch differ not much from those of the 

 English, who seem to have borrowed from them the neatness of their 

 drinking booths, skittle and other grounds, and small pieces of wa- 

 ter, which form the amusements of the middling ranks ; not to men- 

 tion their hand-organs, and other musical inventions. They are the 

 best skaters upon the ice in the world. It is amazing to see the 

 crowds in a hard frost upon the ice, and the great dexterity both of 

 men and women in darting along, or rather flying, with inconceivable 

 velocity. 



The dress of the Dutch formerly was noted for the large breeches 

 of the men, and the jerkins, plain mobs, short petticoats, and other 

 oddities of the women ; all which, added to the natural thickness and 

 clumsiness of their persons, gave them a very grotesque appear- 



