1609. | 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE following isasketch ofthe appulse 
fo Fe of Venus to Jupiter; with three of 
the satellites of Jupiter, represented as 
then visible. . 
It was taken with a very good reflector 
of eighteen inches focal distance, anda 
power of about sixty, whose field of view 
is 30’. The lowest satellite was very 
near ina line with Venus. 
The upper scale of minutes of a degree, 
represents the distance of the planets 
from each other, and trom the edge of 
the telescope, very nearly: the under, the 
diameter of the visual area. The early 
part of the time I observed chiefly with 
my night glass. . 
Tine of observation, 26tu of January, 
from 5* 55/. to 7% 14/. 
The distance to the naked eve, to mine 
at least, appeared about 4£ inches, as 
here delineated, though the real distance 
upon an are of the orbit of Jupiter, would 
amount to above four millions of miles 
in right ascension. And the distance of 
the planets from each other, ona radius, 
drawn from the sun, js near 420 millions. 
Their orbits and periods being so greatly. 
different, a favourable opportunity for 
observing this phenomenon is rare. 
Lroston, Jun. 26, 1809.. Carex Lorrr. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
SKETCHES of HOLLAND, under KING 
LOUIS NAPOLEON, 1806. From the 
FRENCH Of M. BRUN. 
ATAVIA, after having during four 
hundred years, had for its chiefs 
. prices of its own nation, was governed 
by strangers : and passed successively from 
the house ef tHainault, to that of Bavaria, 
then to that of Burgundy and Austria, 
Such was the situation of the Dutch, till 
the accession of Charles the Fifth; that 
Moniuty Mae. No, 183. 
“e 
Sketch of the Appulse of Venus to. Jupiter. 
Second. 
220 
prince, notwithstanding his extreme am- 
bition, thought proper to,respect the pri- 
vileges of the nation. His successor wes 
less prudent; he wished to be absolute 
sovereign in the Low Countries, as he was 
in Spain, Not contented withabolishing 
all the Jaws, and imposing arbitrary taxes, 
he resolved to establish the Inquisition. 
The despotism of the monarch produced 
the effects which might be expected. 
The discontent ofall orders, brought ona 
general insurrectign. The principal 
nobles, at the head of whom were the 
Counts Egmont and Horn, assembled at 
Brussels, in order to state their claims to 
Margaret of Parma, who then governed 
the Netherlands. Vhat princess com- 
municated their remonstrances to ‘the 
court of Madrid, which sent tor answer 
the Duke of Alva, with a large army, 
and with orders to employ force to exact 
submission. In the midst of the general 
consternation, one ian alone, William of. 
Nassau, thought of taking up arms, 
while the others thought only of submit- 
ting. He bad neither troops nor money 
to resist such a powerful monarch as 
Philip. Persecutions multiplied, and the 
blood of the two principal chiefs, who 
were taken and beheaded, along with 
eighteen other men of note, became the 
bond which cemented the union of the 
republic of the United Provinces. 
The states of Holland and Zealand, 
assembled at Dort, united themselves. 
with the Prince of Orange, and acknow- 
ledged him as Stadhoider. Tt was re- 
solved that each province and city should 
enjoy its own rights and privileges ; that 
they should mutually assist each other; 
and from that period the Batavians con- 
sidered themselves as freed from the oath 
of fidelity they had taken tv Philip the 
After a war which lasted for 
near four and twenty years, and during 
which both parties fought with a fury al- 
most unparalleled in history, the Spa- 
niards were obliged, by the peace of 
Munster, in 1648, to recognize the United 
Provinces as a free, sovereign, and inde- 
pendent state. About an hundred years 
afterwards, in 1647, a revolution took 
plxce.in the provinces, which altered se- 
veral points in their government. The 
people, tired of submitting to the magi- 
strates, whose places they regarded as 
tyrannical and hereditary, demanded 
that the stadholdership should be for life, 
Prince William of Nassau, known by the 
name of Wuilham the Third, was named 
to the office by the unanimous voice of 
the people, and it was enacted. that the 
Hh _ ‘Stadboldership 
