HOLLAND. 413 



ance. These dresses now prevail only among the lower ranks, and 

 more particularly among the sea-faring people. 



Cities, chief towns, edifices. ...Amsterdam, which is built up- 

 on piles of wood, is thought to contain 212,000 people, and to be, 

 next to London, the most commercial city in the world, It stands on 

 the river Amstel. Its conveniences for commerce, and the gran- 

 deur of its public works, are almost beyond description. In this 

 and all other cities of the United Provinces, -the beauty of the ca- 

 nals, and walks under trees planted on their borders, is admirable ; 

 but above all we are struck with the neatness and cleanliness that is 

 every where observed within doors. This city, however, labours un- 

 der two great disadvantages — bad air, and the want of fresh whole- 

 some water, which obliges the inhabitants to preserve the rain-water 

 in reservoirs. Rotterdam is next to Amsterdam for commerce and 

 wealth ; its inhabitants are computed at 48,000. The Hague, though 

 but a village, is the seat of government in the United Provinces, and 

 is celebrated for the magnificence and beauty of its buildings, the re- 

 sort of foreign ambassadors and strangers of all distinctions who 

 live in it, the abundance and cheapness of its provisions, and the po- 

 liteness of its inhabitants, who are computed to be about forty thou- 

 sand ; it is no place of trade, but it has been for many years noted as 

 an emporium of pleasure and politics. Middleburg in Zealand has a 

 large town hall, and was the seat of the provincial states, and oi the 

 council of Flanders. Leyden and Utrecht are fine cities, as well as 

 famous for their universities. Delft, Dort, and Groeningen, are like- 

 wise considerable towns, containing each about 20,000 inhabitants. 

 In Saardam, a wealthy trading place, Peter the Great of Mosuovy, in 

 person, served his apprenticeship to ship-building, and laboured as a 

 common handicraft The upper part of Guelderland is subject to 

 Prussia, and the capital city is Guelder. 



Commerce, manufactures.. ..An account of the Dutch com- 

 merce, previous to the late revolutions, would have comprehended 

 that of almost all Europe. There is scaixely a manufacture that 

 they did not carry on, or a state to which they did not trade. In this 

 they are assisted by the populousness of their country, the cheapness 

 of their labour, and above all, by their water-carriage, which, by means 

 of their canals, gives them advantages beyond all other nations. The 

 United Provinces were the grand magazine of Europe : and goods 

 might be purchased here sometimes cheaper than in the countries 

 where they grow. The East India company had the monopoly of 

 the most valuable spices for more than a hundred years, and, till 

 the late wars with England, was extremely opulent and powerful. 

 Their capital city in India is Batavia, which is said to exceed in 

 magnificence, opulence, and commerce, all the cities of Asia. Here 

 the viceroys appear in greater splendour than the stadtholder ; and 

 some of the Dutch subjects in Batavia scarcely acknowledge any 

 dependence on the mother country. They have other settlements in 

 India ; but all their colonies, at the termination of the late war, were 

 in the possession of the English. Not to mention their herring and 

 whale fisheries, which they have carried off from the native pro- 

 prietors, they are distinguished for their pottery, tobacco-pipes, 

 Delft-ware, finely refined salt ; their oil mills, and starch manufactures ; 

 their hemp and fine paper manufactures; their fine linen and table 

 damasks ; their saw mills for timber, either for shipping or houses, 

 in immense quantities ; their great sugar baking ; their vast woollen, 



