1800,} 
{ 977 ). 
ANECDOTES OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
ANECDOTES OF SOME OF THE LEAD- 
ING CHARACTERS IN THE PRESENT 
DUTCH REPUBLIC. FROM RIEM’S 
TRAVELS THRO” HOLLAND, IN 1796 
AND 1797: . 
CITIZEN HAHN. 
TT YHERE are few on whom nature has 
beftowed a more agreeable phyfiog- 
nomy than on this honeft and great maa.’ 
The traits of unaffected Sincerity, expref- 
five of a truly republican foul, are {pread 
over his whole countenance; with linea- 
ents of a mild, compaffionate turn of 
thought, and of ttrong feelings, blended 
togeihé:, as'it were, by the magic pencil 
of a Raphael. In his eye, large and full of 
fire, we difcover ftrengih of mjnd, and the 
Jively expreffion of patriotic contempt of 
life. With thefe traitsis mixed adafhof the 
failing of all great men, felfwillednefs and 
inflexibility. His energy betrays itfelf in 
the play of the mufcles of his face; and he 
commands more attention and regard than 
he feems to aimi at. Jn ftature he is fhort 
and thick: the free ufe of his hands is not 
wholly in his power; and the ufe of his 
feet he has loit entirely. But the lavith 
hand of nature has made him ample amends 
for what fhe denied him incorporeal powers, 
by lavifning on him mental endowments ; 
a quick faculty of apprehenfion, a found 
judgment, a penetration that feldom errs. 
When the long difcourfes of his col- 
leagues have diltorted and ob{cured the ob- 
ject in debate, he, with a few words, dif- 
pells the darknefs, ard leads back their 
deliberations to the queftion. The pa- 
tience with which he liffens to the fpeeches 
of fome of the drawling reprefentatives, 
and notices, applies, or refutes the mot 
important parts, is, as 1s patience is ge- 
neral, in him the work of education and 
art, and altoge her contrary to his natu- 
rally fery temperament. He is complai- 
fant and hofpitabie 3 and an attic urbanity 
reigns in his houfe, and an air of opennefs 
and candour,which prepoffefles the ftranger 
with a favourable opinion of him and his 
family. 
band, fuch as I have here delineated him. 
But, Hahn’s father was a German, asd his 
wile is likewife a native of that country. 
Hahn undoubtedly furpaffes ail the Ba- 
tavian patriots in the knowkcdge of p:li- 
tics and diplomatics; and he has clearer 
ideas with refpect to matters of finance, 
than mo of his cclleagues. The report 
of the Citizen Reprefentative Van de Kaf- . 
teelen is, indeed, a mafler piece of pa- 
tient induftry ; but rather an hiftorical than 
His wife 1s worthy of the huf., 
diplomatical compofition. Hahn is a mem- 
ber of the Diplomatic Committee,* and, 
with Gevers, the moft confiderable among 
them. If there be any thing to blame in 
the conduct of this great man ; it is, that 
he does not prefcribe to the ambafiadors of - 
the Batavian Republic a method more di- 
plomatic in their negociations ; and that 
he does not endeavour to have formed a 
fixed political fyitem for the republic, ac- 
cording to which the ambafladors might be 
inffructed to act; and that men of meric 
be appointed to watch over the interefts of 
the republic in foreign countries, in pre- 
ference to fach as have no other claims te 
fucn an office, but their willinenefs to ac- 
cept a wretched falary, and defray the 
greateft part of the expences out of their 
own pocket. But what can one man do 
againit the will and pleafure of an ignorant 
majority ? 
I was much ftrack with his fingular ap. 
pearance the firft time I faw him brought 
into the National Affembly. Two fervants 
bore him, fitting ona kind of hand-bar- 
row, and thus carried him to his place ; as, 
for fome time paft, he has been unable to 
walk. It is obvious how much this muft 
impede the active difcharge of the duties 
of his ftation: and I am aftonifhed, that 
his unfortunate lamenefs does not produce 
more irkfomenefs and ill-humour in a man 
of fo lively a turn as Hahn. But, perhaps 
nature, in forming him, mixed with the in- 
flammable ingredients a portion of Bata. 
vian phlegm, and thus produced his happy 
temperament. 
= VON HOOFF. 
juftum et tenacem propofiti virum 
Non ardor civium prava jubentium, 
Non vultus inftantis tyranni, 
Mente quatit folida. 



Hunc, fi fractus illabatur orbis, 
Impavidum ferient ruine! 
Never, perhaps, was a motto more jafthy 
applicable than this is to Von Hooff. Tt 
would feem, indeed, as if che linea had been 
exprefsly written on this great man. When- 
ever J heard him {peak in the National 
Affembly,the above paflage occurred to me. 
He istallandathletic. Almof continually: 
the marks of inward forrow are painted ca 
his countenance; as he fees affairs take a 
turn, that cannot poffibly tend to the efta- 
blifiment -of the happinels of his native 
country ona firm bafis. Traces are like-~ 
wife difcoverable of his former fufferings. 
He-had emigrated to France; and, for a 

* In the year 1797, 
year 

