falary for their fervices. The principal roads are kept in good condi tion; and, on account of the flatness of the country, are very easy for the horses, but the by-roads are intolerably bad..' p. 111-12.

The pleasures of the scene, he did not however greatly enjoy; for there were three charming Dutch young ladies in the steerage, who conversed about Shakespeare and Milton, and talked, sung and laughed, with so much talent, taste and vivacity,' that he was better employed than in looking at landscapes.

Our author's arrival at the Hague, soon after the establishment of the new Constitution, gives him occasion to introduce, the published documents of that quiet change, and some account of the reception of the new king. We shall not detain our readers with either of these topics, which are recent enough to be as much known as their subordinate importance deserves; but we must, in justice to Sir John Carr, observe, that he writes-upon all subjects, of a political nature, if not very profoundly, at least with a degree of liberality, which more elaborate reasoners would do well to imitate; and that he tells truths respecting our enemies, which are not the less wholesome, for having been too carefully concealed from the people of this country, by authors who are afraid to give unpleasant information, and politicians who keep up popular delusions, that they may turn them to account. Thus, it is usual to believe, in this country, that the French are detested in Holland, and that their soldiery have deserved this odium by their rapacious and cruel conduct; that the Dutch, retaining for Engand their ancient friendship, would gladly renew the connexion, so mutually beneficial; and would exert themselves in favour of any attempt which she might make to relieve them from French oppression. We have nothing to do at present with the policy of repeating such attempts; but the assertion, that the Dutch would favour them, we venture confidently to deny. If the French are hated in Holland, it is because they are at war with England; and the English are disliked on the very same ground. The blame of not making peace is thrown, by the Dutch, pretty equally upon both the belligerent powers ;-but England is most blamed for beginning the present war. The Dutch know too well, that while the Netherlands belong to France, their country must follow the fortunes of the French empire; and, so far from wishing to see us attempt their rescue, they hate us still more for our interference in 1799, than for our military proceedings in 1794, though these will not soon be forgotten. As to the notion of the French soldiery having behaved ill in Holland, it is utterly unfounded in fact. The discipline of the army has been kept up there with as much rigour as in any province of France. The French commissioner, or envoy, or general, may have treated the

Dutch

Dutch constituted authorities with haughtiness, or levied exces sive contributions, (which by the way are much exaggerated); but the soldiery have known nothing of the sweets of plunder, nor, indeed, of any thing but the strictest obedience to their im mediate superiors; and those, who expect to see a nation rise as one man, in consequence of the gradual and regular increase of their pecuniary burthens, must found their hopes upon histories of human affairs, and views of human nature, which the rest of the world are not in possession of.

Sir John Carr, in substance, confirms these remarks (in which, indeed, a moderate acquaintance with the state of Holland must induce us to acquiesce) by several statements in the course of his tour. When the French troops entered Rotterdam, he says, they were quartered on the inhabitants, and soon conciliated their good opinion by their quiet conduct and orderly deportment. He adds, that he has received the same character of them in other parts of Holland, even from persons to whom they must have been very unwelcome visitors. (p. 14.) He might have said, with equal truth, that the Dutch have, within the memory of the present generation, had experience of four armies of foreigners, three of whom came as friends to protect them from the French; and that they uniformly give the preference to the French army, for quiet and orderly behaviour, over all the other foreign troops whom they have had the misfortune to know any thing about. Our author mentions repeatedly and strongly, the popularity of the new king and his family. To this fact," he says, I pledge myself upon the authority of some of the most respectable and enlightened Dutchmen in different parts of Holland, repeatedly renewed to me. (p. 31.) The same information has reached us from other quarters; and we can account for it only by considering the frequent changes which have harassed the Dutch government for the last twelve years, and the many good qualities which this new king is said to possess. Odious as monarchy is in Holland, constant fluctuation and uncertainty of government has prepared the peo❤ ple for any revolution which is likely to be the last; and the con duct of the individual, in whose person this hated thing is revived, has been such as to remove many of the prejudices against it. He has made very salutary reforms in the expenditure of the country-placed the public debt on a better foundation-paid great attention to the schools and colleges-shown a decided par tiality to Dutchmen in the conduct of the government-declared himself a friend to general amnesty, and to toleration, political and religious, and, in his personal intercourse with his subjects, comported himself after a quiet and civil manner, suited to gain the good will of that sober and sensible people. We think that

Sir John Carr considerably exaggerates the dislike of the Dutch to the Orange Family. That they would make any effort to restore that House, or, indeed, to change their political condition in any respect, we do not at all believe. But, with the exception of the people of Amsterdam, we believe, the exiled family have the silent and unavailing good wishes of a majority of all classes. In this good will, however, there is so little of enthusiasm, that it must daily wear out; and, though it might prepare the joyful reception of the stadtholder, were a turn of affairs unexpectedly to send him back, it will certainly neither co-operate in effecting such a change, nor oppose any obstacle to the growing popularity of the new dynasty, and its final consolidation, if things remain in their present state. These things, as our author has remarked, may not be very palatable to such as think that nothing favourable to an enemy should ever be told. But we are now paying for such miserable, such womanish fears of the truth; and are at length beginning to discover that dangers will not vanish, because we may shut our eyes to them.

Our author's residence at the Hague does not furnish any thing worth abridging or quoting, except perhaps the following passages, which we give merely as exhibiting traits of the national character. Indeed, the first of them cannot be reckoned a tolerable description of the Wood; and is only worth notice, as recording an example of something romantic in a people unusually free from such feelings upon common occasions.

it

• The day when I vifited the wood was remarkably fine. This spot, fo dear to the Dutch, is nearly two English miles long, about three quarters of a mile broad, and contains a fine difplay of magnificent oaks growing in native luxuriance. Antony Waterloo made the greatest part of his ftudies from this fpot and its environs. The ground upon which grows, and the country about it, undulate a little, a circumstance of agreeable novelty, and the whole is a truly delightful walk, more romantic and umbrageous than our mall of St James's, and furpaffed only by the garden of the Thuilleries. This wood has been held facred with more than pagan piety. War and national want, that feldom spare in their progrefs, committed no violations here. Although the favourite place of royal recreation, yet, in the fury of the revolution, not a leaf trembled but in the wind. Philip II. in the great war with Spain, issued his mandate for preserving it: hoftile armies have marched through it without offering it a wound, and the axe of the woodman has never refounded in it. Even children are taught or whipt into veneration for it, fo that their mifchievous hands never ftrip it of a bough. Once, however, it is recorded, that at a period of great ftate neceffity, in 1576, their high mightineffes fat in judgment upon its noble growth, and doomed it to fall: the moment their decree was known, the citizens flew to the meeting, remonstrated with a degree of feeling which did

honour

honour to their tafte; and upon learning that the object of its doom was to raise a certain fum to affift in replenishing the nearly exhaufted coffers of the republic, they immediately entered into a contribution, and prefented the amount to the "high and mighty mafters" of the facred grove. It has been afferted by fome travellers, that the Dutch treasure this fpot more from national pride than feeling, and that they are more difpofed to preferve than to enjoy it. To this remark I have only to offer, that I faw a confiderable number of equeftrian and pedestrian groups, who appeared to relifh its fhaded roads and fequeftered walks with great delight. The royal refidence is to the right at the end of the wood. Upon my afking a Dutchman which path led to the " house in the wood," the only appellation by which, in the time of the Stadtholder, it was known, he fharply replied, "I prefume you mean the palace in the wood. " This building is merely fit for the refidence of a country gentleman, and has nothing princely about it, except the fentry boxes at the foot of the flight of stairs afcending to the grand entrance.' P. 157-159.

In Holland, that bee-hive of induftry, every available fource of fervice is made use of, so that dogs, and even goats, are not fuffered to pick the bone, or eat the bread of idlenefs. Moft of the little wares and merchandizes, and particularly fifh, are drawn by the former, who are properly harneffed for the occafion to little carts, whilft the latter are yoked to infantine waggons and curricles, to air and exercise little children in. It is really aftonishing to fee what weight these animals will draw after them; nothing can exceed their docility; and for their labour, the Hollander, who is remarkable for his humanity to the dumb creation, feeds them well, and lodges them in his houfe very comfortably. Owing to the great care paid to their dogs, the canine madness seldom appears amongst them. On Sundays they are permit ted to refresh and enjoy themselves, and never fhow any difpofition to escape from their lot of induftry. In their farms, cows and oxen are al ways used in draught, and difplay every appearance of receiving the kindeft treatment from their mafters. The theatre at the Hague is tastefully arranged, and supplied with a tolerable fet of French comedians. The centre box is appropriated for the royal family, and is elegantly fitted up. Before the converfion of the republic into a kingdom, when the government refided in the hands of the Batavian directory, the ornaments of the box which was allotted to them were very unwor thy of the rank of the perfonages for whofe accommodation it was referved: a piece of paper, on which was written, "Le logis du Directoire Batave, " and pafted on the box-door, alone announced the dignity of its deftination. The ufual national fpirit of economy used to display itself in the Dutch theatre, where, to prevent an ufelefs confumption of tallow, whenever the musicians quitted the orchestra, they were bound by contract to exinguish the lights by which they read their mufic. In many tradefmens' houses at this day in Holland, winter courtfhips are carried on in the dark, the union of warm love and rigid economy being confidered a very laudable conjunction.' p. 176-178.

From

From the Hague Sir John proceeded through Leyden to Haer lem, and thence to Amsterdam. During this portion of his tour the rage of anecdote is still upon him, and principally exercised upon the celebrated painters who flourished in these cities. We have long scraps of their lives, taken, as he avows himself, from the Abregé de la Vie des Peintres, Pilkington's Dictionary of Painters, and the elegant and witty D'Israeli.' To all this we only object, because it comes in the place of more appropriate matter, and because there is something peculiarly absurd in a man of activity and enterprize, travelling through foreign coun tries for the purpose of giving, in a quarto volume, extracts from books well known at home. Even this, however, is better than some of his original speculations, particularly upon the subject of commerce, which he handles after the following fashion.

A nation can only become rich from trade when its exports for the ufe of foreign ftates is (are) in a greater proportion than its imports for its confumption. An impreffion has gone forth, that a nation cannot be impoverished if the importation of foreign merchandize be purchased abroad by native commodity, and not with fpecie; whereas upon a nation ftriking the balance of her account with the country she may have dealt with, it will be found that the deficiency on the fide of her exportation must be made up in fpecie. Hence an industrious and frugal people like the Dutch will, when their country is in a state of tranquil lity, poffefs great advantages over moft other nations. Induftry increases the native commodity, whether it arises from the foil or the manufacture, and increases the exportation. Frugality will leffen the confumption, and of course increase the exportation of native, and reduce the importation of foreign produce, for home confumption. The excefs of all native commodities is fure of a market. ' p. 293.

and so forth. And still worse, if possible, are this worthy Knight's declamations against large farms, and his invocation to that ardent and cordial lover of his country, and particularly of the lower classes of society, Mr Whitbread,' to come forward with some legislative provision to check this monstrous and growing evil.' (p. 311.) We trust the distinguished person alluded to will very long continue better employed than in listening to such calls,-employed, as he has been, in investigating public abuses, and preaching the great doctrines of peace abroad, and economy at home.

Upon leaving Holland, our author went along the banks of the Rhine to Dusseldorff and Cologne. Painting (an art which I worship,' says he) continues to furnish him with frequent materials for that other art which he worships, story-telling. But when he is fairly embarked on the Rhine, we experience some respite, and have a little description mixed with the anecdotes.