fifty, and trade is at this time more than usually active, if the retrospect be taken from their late circumstances.' But the canals of Rotterdam are covered with dismantled vessels, and whole streets of warehouses are unoccupied. This decay of the trade of Rotterdam is not to be attributed solely to the war with Great Britain, but to a variety of causes. The most striking, perhaps, are the emigration of their opulent capitalists, and the oppression and ridiculous ordinances of the Batavian government. By the emigration of the rich and respectable merchants of the British nation, the trade which Rotterdam at present carries on with England has fallen into the hands of men with whom the independent and honest trader of most nations would be averse to deal; and the government, according to the temper and prejudices of the times, has imposed those vexatious restrictions on the export and import trade, which are always peculiarly injurious to commerce. It is a curious fact, deserving to be known, that at the time when the government rigorously prohibited the importation of English manufactures into the ports of the republic, a contract was agreed upon between some members of the executive body and a mercantile house in Rotterdam to furnish the requisition of clothing for the French army by an importation of cloth from England; and accordingly eight thousand French soldiers were clothed from the looms of Yorkshire; when, if a single yard had been discovered on board a private trader's vessel, he would have been liable to the severest penalties and confiscations.' The mighty commerce which Amsterdam, in former periods, carried on with all the quarters of the globe, is now, by the inaus picious circumstances of the times, reduced to a petty inland traffic, and an inconsiderable trade with foreign parts by the means of neutral vessels. The immense number of dismantled ships with which the harbour is crowded bespeaks the former commercial prosperity of Amsterdamn, and its present impoverished state. The greater part of the ships are in the worst condition imaginable, and would, were peace to bid the commerce of Holland revive, be found unfit for the purposes of navigation. I perceived that the small vessels were ge nerally in a more disabled and decayed condition than the large ones; probably from the circumstance that their owners, persons in the middle walks of life, had suffered more by the war than the wealthier classes concerned in shipping, and consequently were unable to be at sufficient expence for the preservation of their property.' The succeeding passages contain some singular facts: Shortly after the commencement of hostilities with England, a singular system of depredation was successfully practised against the underwriters of London and Amsterdam, by merchants of wealth and reputation in this place. They were the real, though of course not the nominal, owners of privateers which sailed under the flag of the French republic, and having insured vessels in Amsterdam and London, the ships so secured and the privateers sailed from the Maese together, and an amicable capture ensued. The condemnation of property so taken was readily obtained, and the underwriters were וי were obliged to make good the ideal loss. A more innocent species of warfare, I believe, was never practised! Some discoveries of their frauds gave the first check to this curious system of peculation; and its ruin has since been achieved by the excellent regulations which the chief consul has introduced into the maritime code of France. About the time to which I have alluded, privateers under the French flag, but actually the property of British subjects resident in Holland, and some of them in England, sailed from the ports of the Batavian republic, and made captures of British vessels to a considerable amount. This was attacking the lives and liberties, as well as the property, of their countrymen; and I should hesitate to record so disgraceful a fact, could I doubt the authority from whence I derive it. To the lasting infamy of these men, it must be considered, that they had none of those excuses for parricidally preying on their country, with which the French and Dutch refugees are furnished, by the unhappy spirit of the times, and the violence of revolutionary governments. They could not allege in palliation that their country had proscribed their persons, and confiscated their property. Some of them enjoyed the protection of the British government; and those whom the victorious arms of the enemy separated from their country, might reasonably expect, and possibly desire, to pass the evening of their lives in the bosom of their native land. It is worthy of observation, that the privateers belonging to these persons committed more depredations than any other, on the vessels and property of neutral nations, and the crews with which they were manned treated with less humanity the persons who unfortunately fell into their hands. These abuses, however, have been carefully attended to by the consular government, and I am not competent to state that they have any longer an existence. It is the policy of Bonaparte to conciliate the esteem of the neutral powers; and since this great man has held the reins of government, the complaints of neutral owners, of the detention of their vessels by French privateers, have been speedily and exemplarily redressed. No privateer can now sail under the French flag, the owners of which are not actually resident in France or her dependencies, and have given sufficient bail to indemnify the damage that may be done to neutral property. It is not now, as was formerly the case, permitted to every insignificant commercial consul of the republic to condemn the vessels which are brought under his jurisdiction; from whence, as these agents were generally venal and rapacious, a thousand abuses originated: but the papers and documents necessary to prove the capture to be a legal prize, must be transmitted to the office of the minister of the marine, from whose decision there is an appeal to a court of admiralty. This last tribunal is in high repute with neutral merchants; and I have heard many invidious comparisons between its decisions and those of Doctors Commons, but with what justice I will not pretend to determine.' In addition to what is here said of Bonaparte, and to the statements in a former article of this Number, p. 264-268., the first of the following extracts gives some farther particulars relative to that extraordinary personage: X. 2 • The The character of Bonaparte is considered in Holland with the highest ntiments of veneration and attachment. His military ta lents, the moderate use he has invariably made of victory, the clemency of his disposition, his sincere endeavours to restore peace to Europe, and his munificent encouragement of arts and seiences, are subjects of loud and general panegyric. The pictures and busts of this great man that are exhibited for sale in Holland are innumerable; and from the avidity of the people to possess likenesses of so distinguished a character, they are readily disposed of. At every table where toasts are given, the health of Bonaparte is always enthusiastically drank; and at French tables, the health of the first consul of the republic is constantly given in the same manner as that of the king is in England. I had the happiness to meet with more than one person who was well acquainted with Bonaparte, aud had seen him since his elevation to the first magistracy of the French republic. The exalted situation which he fills has scarcely produced any change in his character or manners. He is, as formerly, reserved with strangers, but affable, condescending, and familiar, with his friends. When a person with whom he is acquainted is admitted to an audience with him, it is usual for the consul to walk up and down the room, holding with the engaging ease of friendship or personal kindness the arm or sleeve of the man with whom he converses. His memory is so uncommonly retentive, that he minutely remembers places, times, and circumstances, however obscure or remote; and when reviewing the troops, he frequently notices, with expressions of commendation, individuals in the ranks who, at different periods of the war, have served under him and distinguished themselves. To be noticed by the consul is a distinction highly flattering to a French soldier, and particularly as this approbation always proceeds from a clear and distinct recollection of the actions which give birth to it. Bonaparte is equally beloved by the soldiers and officers of the army; and between the two there exists a kind of emulation which shall shew him the strongest marks of affection and attachment. I never heard him spoken of by a French officer but in terms of almost idolatrous admiration, and the same sentiments pervade the lowest ranks of the army. In private life, Bonaparte is represented to be temperate, regular, and abstemious: indulging in no expensive pleasures, and sternly discountenancing all irregularity of manners. I was curious to know what were his religious opinions, if any; and the idea I found which generally prevailed on this subjeet was, that the existence of a Supreme Being was a belief firmly established on his mind.'— The revolution has not altered in the least the national dress of the Dutch. Instead of cropped heads, pantaloons, and round hats, which I expected to find, most people have their hair full dressed and powdered, wear cocked hats, and the rest of their clothes in the old fashion. The term citizen is used to all persons of authority, when they are addressed in their official capacities; but in conversation, or private transactions, every one uses the appellation of mynheer, with out fear or restraint. The old calendar is adhered to in all public ordinances, proclamations, &c. with the invariable addition of year of Batavian liberty and no alteration has taken place in the de vices or legends of the coins of the United Provinces. A guilder or florin of 170 is precisely the same as a guilder of 1800. There have been yearly coinages of silver to a considerable amount, since the overthrow of the ancient government.' Of all places, the Hague seems to have suffered the most by the revolution: The Hague has certainly sustained a great diminution of wealth and splendour, from the flight of its princes, the dispersion of its nobles, and the general distress in which all classes of society have been involved. Before the revolution, there were to be seen, in almost every street, elegant carriages with valuable horses, footmen with rich liveries, and all the sumptuous trappings of polished opudence and refined luxury. But now few carriages are to be seen ex-. cept hackney coaches, which are of the meanest description: and servants are prohibited by law from wearing any ornaments on their dress which shall mark their situation in life. The foreign ministers at the Hague formerly vied with each other in magnificence and expence; but since the republic has ceased to be an efficient state among the potentates of Europe, the grandeur, as well as the number, of the corps diplomatique has been greatly diminished. M. Semonville, the French minister, lives in a princely style; but his establishment, and that of the Spanish embassador, are the only ones deserving of notice.' The extinction of the literary traffic of the Hague is scarcely felt, and little lamented by any persons except those immediately concerned in it. But the want of the court, and of the opulent strangers which it attracted to this place, is severely felt by numbers. Before the revolution, the Hague not only contained its own prince's of the house of Orange, but several petty princes of the German empire, who spent here the revenues which accrued to them from their territories. These personages are all fled, and the same frugality and simplicity of manners begin to prevail at the Hague, which distinguish other parts of Holland, to the utter ruin of all those whose livelihood depended on the superfluous wants of the great, As the scat of the executive government, and of the representative bodies, the Hague enjoys advantages which other towns of the republic do not possess; but these advantages are vastly inferior to the benefits which it derived from the stadtholder and his court, and most persons, even republicans, sorrowfully complain of its striking and rapid decay. Respectable families, which before the arrival of the French lived in elegant houses cheerfully situated, now retire to lodgings, or inhabit narrow uncomfortable streets where house rent is cheap, and the abodes which they have quitted are generally with out tenants.' It is with great satisfaction that we quote the subsequent testimony of the prevalence and success of Vaccine Inoculation: As a subject connected with hospitals and charitable foundations, it may not be improper here to mention, that the cow-pox, which time will probably prove to be one of the most valuable discoveries X 3 in in the art of preventing disease ever made, has met with as favourable a reception in Holland from the faculty, as it has in England. A few bigotted persons, with whom superstitious women and weak men join, object to the cow-pox inoculation, because they say it introdu ces a beastial disorder into the human system; but the liberal and enlightened part of the medical tribe espouse with warmth this new method of avoiding a loathsome and dangerous distemper, and their practice has been uniformly successful. The disease has been known for time immemorial to the peasants of Friesland, in which province the greatest quantities of butter and cheese are yearly produced, and the result of various enquiries among them has been uniformly in favour of the cow.pox. The belief of its utility and efficacy is so thoroughly established in Holland, that in the Foundling-hospital of Amsterdam, and other charitable institutions where young children are received, the old mode of inoculation is exploded, and the vaccine infection substituted in its stead. This departure from the old practice of surgery was not made, until the consent and approbation of the governors and curators of these benevolent establishments had been previously obtained, and therefore it may be concluded that the vaccine inoculation is extensively adopted in private families.' From the foregoing extracts, it will appear that the author's information and turn of mind, together with the style of his work, are considerably above mediocrity. We have selected principally those passages which related to the revolution and its consequences, but the reader of the volume will find the various topics, which usually engage the attention of tourists, treated with considerable taste and spirit. With Notes and ART. XIV. Bread; or the Poor. A Poem. POPE has been called the Poet of Good Sense: but Mr. Pratt now aspires to a still nobler title, that of the Poet of Truth. Fiction, the characteristic of poesy, is here disclaimed, and the author professes to describe realities alone: but, as so self-denying an ordinance to a votary of the Muses cannot be expected to be rigidly observed, this declaration will be interpreted with some latitude. Indeed, Mr. Pratt, in spite of himself, has often employed the colouring of fancy; and, like most artists, he has not always contented himself with tamely copying the scenery before him, The subject, however, which he has chosen to make additionally interesting by its poetical garb, opens a wide field for philosophic and political discussion; and if he can thus induce the rich and powerful to bestow on it all the attention which it imperiously demands, he may be classed among contributors to the public weal, Modern O.W. |