Chapter XIV

ANECDOTES OF LAWRENCE COSTER ... ART OF PRINTING HOW DISCOVERED ... ITS ORIGINALITY DISPUTED ... FEMALE FORTITUDE AND PRESENCE OF MIND ... SIEGE OF HAARLEM ... HEROIC CONDUCT OF THE WOMEN ... BRIEF ANECDOTE OF WOUVERMANS ... OF BAMBOCCIO ... FATAL EFFECTS OF SEVERE CRITICISM ... ANECDOTES OF NICHOLAS BERGHEM AND HIS TERMAGANT WIFE ... OF RUYSDAAL ... ENORMOUS SLUICES ... APPROACH AMSTERDAM ... ITS GENERAL APPEARANCE ... A SLEY ... ERASMUS’S WHIMSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THAT CITY ... THE STADT-HOUSE ... SILENCE REPRESENTED AS A FEMALE ... THE TOWER ... CLOCKS, SINGULAR MODE OF STRIKING THE HOUR.

Not far from the church, the spot where stood the house of Lawrence Coster, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century, the celebrated inventor of the art of printing, is shewn; formerly there was a statue over the gate where he lived, within this inscription:

MEMORIÆ SACRUM
TYPOGRAPHIA,
ARS ARTIUM OPTIMA
CONSERVATRIX,
HIC PRIMUM INVENTA
CIRCA ANNUM MCCCCXL.

The first book he printed is kept in the town house, in a silver case wrapt up in silk, and is always shewn with great caution, as a most precious relic of antiquity. The glory of this transcendent discovery, which spread light and civilization over the world, and formed a new epoch in its history, was for a long time disputed between Haarlem, Mayence, and Strasburg: the latter, after a laborious investigation, has renounced her pretensions, and the general opinion seems to bestow the palm upon the first city. The manner in which Coster imbibed the first impressions of this divine discovery, is said to have been from his cutting the letters of his name on the bark of a tree, and afterwards pressing a piece of paper upon the characters, until they became legible upon it, which induced him to continue the experiment, by engraving other letters upon wood. Those early principles were soon diffused through France, with considerable improvements, by the enterprising ability of the Etiennes; by the learned Manutius, a celebrated Venetian painter, and the inventor of Italian characters, through Italy; and through the Netherlands by Christopher Plantin, whose printing office at Antwerp was one of the principal ornaments of the town, and who was distinguished for his skill, erudition, and prodigious wealth, created solely by a successful prosecution of his important business.

Mayence contests the honour of the invention, but it is generally believed that a servant of Coster, of the name of Faustus, stole the types of his master on a Christmas-eve, whilst he was attending his devotions at church, and fled with his booty to Mayence. The portrait of Coster is to be seen in most of the booksellers’ shops at Haarlem, and in other principal towns.

A memorable, but not an unusual instance of affection, and of female presence of mind, occurred in this city many years since, at a spot which is still shown with no little degree of national pride, whereon an ancient castle stood, the lord of which was severely pressed by the burghers of the town, who laid siege to it, on account of his tyrannical conduct towards them: driven to the last extremity, and when his life was upon the point of paying the forfeit of his crimes, his lady appeared on the ramparts, and offered to surrender, provided she might be permitted to bring out as much of _her most valuable goods as she could carry on her back_; which being complied with, she brought her husband out upon her shoulders, preserved him from the fury of the troops, and gave up to them possession of the castle: thinking in the language of Shakspeare,

“If I depart from thee, I cannot live;
And in thy sight to die, what were it else,
But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap?”
_Henry IV._ Part 2d. Act. 4.

History informs us, that Haarlem presented a glorious example of resistance to the Spanish yoke, so heroically imitated two years afterwards at Leyden, which experienced a better fortune than befel the wretched inhabitants of the former city. Whilst the provinces were bravely opposing their invaders, a long and memorable siege in 1573, which was carried on against Haarlem by Frederic of Toledo, the son of the sanguinary Duke of Alva, during which the female inhabitants, like those of Leyden, assisted the garrison in their duties, underwent every privation, faced every horror, and rushed to certain destruction in defence of the town, with an alacrity and fortitude which have rendered them immortal in the annals of their country. Those heroines, when the garrison refused with indignation the conditions which were offered them by the Spanish general, fought with unshaken courage by the side of the men, in their desperate sorties against the besieging army, and in their fury put every prisoner to death, whom they took in these attacks. This unjustifiable conduct, and the derision which from the ramparts they expressed of the Roman Catholic worship, induced the Spaniards to retort with terrible vengeance. In consequence of a correspondence which the besieged carried on with the Prince of Orange by means of carrier pigeons, being discovered by the Spaniards, they shot every pigeon which came within the reach of their musketry, which rendered the situation of the garrison hopeless, and they at length surrendered, on condition that the lives of the soldiers and inhabitants should be spared, to which Frederic of Toledo consented, entered the town at the head of his victorious troops, and in cold blood butchered two thousand of those who had submitted to his arms, and trusted to his honour.

When it is considered, that at this period, the Spanish monarchy was predominant in Europe, that its armies were mighty, its generals experienced, and its treasury overflowing, the triumphant prowess which the Dutch displayed in finally driving their powerful invaders back to their own frontiers, will render the Dutch name illustrious as long as the record of history endures. The Dutch ladies have rivalled in fame the most renowned heroines of Greece and Rome. The Hollanders treasure up these gallant exploits in their memories, they form the favourite subjects of their songs, and the old and the young recite with enthusiasm the great deeds of their ancestors.

The Haarlem lake which I mentioned, presented a very bleak and dismal sheet of water from the canal; it is about fourteen miles long, and about the same number broad, is said to be above six feet deep, and lies between Leyden, Amsterdam, and Haarlem: its waters are slimy, and abound with eels, some of which are of a prodigious size. This lake can have no charm but for a bleacher. The fuel used here is Newcastle coals and turf.

Having described what is worthy of notice at Haarlem, it would be indifference indeed to an art which I worship, were I to quit this city without briefly adverting to some of the principal distinguished artists which it had the honour of giving birth to. The first in chronological order was Philip Wouvermans, who was born at Haarlem in 1620, whose sweetness of colouring, correctness of design, beautiful choice of scenery, and perfect knowledge of the chiaro-scuro, or as it has well been defined, of light and black, have excited the admiration and applause of posterity: the subjects which he was particularly partial to were huntings, hawkings, encampments of armies, farriers’ shops, and all those scenes that admitted of his introducing horses, which he painted to great perfection. Notwithstanding his transcendent merit, for a considerable period he met with no encouragement, and encountered many difficulties which greatly depressed his spirits, of which the picture-merchants knew how to take every ungenerous advantage: at length he was relieved from his indigence and dependence, by the bounty of his confessor, who seeing his uncommon genius, was resolved to the extent of his power, to extricate it from the odious shackles which encumbered it, and accordingly advanced him six hundred guilders, by a judicious application of which he emancipated himself from his embarrassments: he now doubled the price of his pictures, and was enabled to give his daughter a marriage portion of twenty thousand guilders. As soon as he was enabled to pay his confessor, he sent the sum he had borrowed, accompanied with a chef-d’œuvre of his works, representing his holy benefactor in the character of St. Hubert kneeling before his horse. All connoisseurs agree that this picture is the finest he ever painted. Wouvermans resided in the Bakenessegragt, a short distance from the church. The depression of mind which his early disappointments excited, never quitted this great artist: a few hours before he died, he ordered a box filled with his studies and designs to be burned, saying, “I was so long unrewarded for my labours, that I wish to prevent my son from being allured by these designs, to embrace so unpromising and uncertain a profession as mine.”

The works of Wouvermans and Bamboccio were continually placed in competition by the best judges of art, and the latter having painted a picture which was much admired, John de Wilt prevailed upon Wouvermans to paint the same subject, which he executed in a brilliant manner: these pictures were soon afterwards exhibited together to the public, and De Wilt, when the room in which they were placed, was exceedingly crowded, exclaimed in a loud voice, “all our connoisseurs seem to prefer the works of those painters who have studied at Rome; but behold how far the work of Wouvermans who never saw Rome, surpasses the production of him who resided there several years.” This observation, which was received with general approbation, and seemed to receive the fiat of the company, so deeply affected the delicate spirits of Bamboccio, that it largely contributed to hurry him to his grave.

The justly celebrated Nicholas Berghem, was born here in 1624, and studied under his father, an inconsiderable painter, whose name was Van Haarlem, which Berghem exchanged in the following whimsical manner: whilst he was a pupil of John Van Goyen, who was very fond of him, his father was one day pursuing him in the street, to give him correction for some peccadillo, when his master seeing his father gaining upon him rapidly, cried out to some of his other scholars, Berg-hem! which signifies hide him; from which circumstance he obtained and kept that name. The distinguishing characteristics of Berghem’s pictures are breadth, and just distribution of the lights, the grandeur of his masses of light and shadow, the natural attitudes of his figures expressive of their several characters, the just gradation of his distances, the brilliancy, harmony, and transparency of his colouring, the correctness and true perspective of his design, and the elegance of his composition, and his subjects however various are all equally admirable. This great man had the calamity and the infatuation to make an offer of his hand and heart to the daughter of one of the masters under whom he studied, when he left Van Goyen, of the name of Willis, who proved to be one of the most clamorous and sordid termagants that Holland, or perhaps any other country ever produced; by the terror of her tongue, and the fury of her manner, she forced him to slave at his easel without intermission, from the break to the departure of day, and frequently all night long, without permitting him to have the disposal of a single guilder without her consent: amidst this domestic broil, poor Berghem never lost his temper, he sung, whilst she scolded, as if he thought

And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue,
That gives not half so great a blow to hear
As will a chesnut in a farmer’s fire?
_Taming of the Shrew_, Act I. Scene 3.

In this increasing state of internal broil, this artist produced some of the finest effusions of his pencil: he was singularly curious in purchasing the finest prints and designs of the Italian masters, to improve his own taste, which after his death sold for a large sum of money: by his indefatigable industry, he produced an amazing number of pictures, which now are rarely to be purchased, and then only for prodigious prices.

The last that I shall mention is Jacob Ruysdaal, who was born here in 1636, and was the bosom friend of Berghem, who imparted to him much of the spirit which adorns his own works. No painter ever possessed a greater share of public admiration than Ruysdaal, a reputation which has remained unimpaired to this hour. His works are distinguishable by a natural and most delightful tone of colour, by a free, light, firm, and spirited pencil, and by a happy choice of situation. He was fond of introducing water into his paintings, and he was equally fortunate in representing the tumultuous foam of the torrent, as the pellucid transparency of the canal. Ruysdaal was cut off at the age of forty-five. Since the removal of Mr. Hope’s collection, there is no private cabinet of pictures in or near Haarlem worth the attention of the traveller. There is, however, a cabinet of natural history, said to be the finest in Holland, which was formed by Doctor Van Marum, whose electrical experiments have ascertained that the death of animals is coincident with the cessation of irritability: this museum is well arranged according to the Linnæan system. I heard of nothing more to detain the traveller at Haarlem. The canal from Haarlem to Amsterdam is clear and spacious, and nearly straight for the first four miles, at the lessening end of which the former city has a very agreeable appearance; but I was surprised to find so very few country-houses, and scarcely an object that denoted our approach to the renowned capital of the kingdom, and, as it has been aptly called, “the great warehouse of the world.”

About half way we changed boats, and crossed the enormous sluices which protect the country from inundation in this part: we passed over the waters of the Haarlem Meer and of the river Y, so called from its form resembling that letter, being a branch of the Zuyder Zee. The only object worthy of notice thus far was a large stone building, called the Castle Zwanenburg, the residence of the directors of the dykes and water-works of Rhynland. The cost of constructing and repairing the sluices is paid out of the general taxes. The country here is four or five feet below the level of the river Y, which, however, is rendered perfectly innocuous by the massy and prodigious dams before mentioned, the construction and preservation of which place the indefatigable enterprise and industry of the Hollander in an eminent point of view.

I reached Amsterdam just after the gates had been closed, but my commissaire and I were admitted upon paying a few stivers. As soon as we had entered, every object denoted a vast, populous, and opulent city: every street, and I passed through a great number before I reached my hotel, was tolerably well lighted, but in this respect infinitely inferior to London. At length, after traversing the city about two miles and a half, I reached the principal hotel, called Amsterdam Wappen, or the Arms of Amsterdam, which, in point of magnitude and accommodation, may vie with the first hotels in our own metropolis. Here, after an excellent supper of fish, which the Dutch dress to admiration, and some porter, which was an excellent imitation of that description of beverage for which London is so justly renowned, I found a sopha bed prepared for me, with curtains pendent from the centre, in the French taste, which much prevails in the internal arrangement of the houses of this great city.

In the morning I was awakened by the chimes of some of the churches, which in softness and sweetness resembled the distant sounds of a harp. Although it was seven o’clock, upon looking from the window, I heard the hum and beheld the bustle of business which in other countries characterise mid-day. Under the agreeable influence of a brilliant, cloudless sky, I descended into the street, and mingled with the active, ant-like multitude, every member of which presented a physiognomy full of thought and calculation: gold, gold, seemed to be the only object:

——That yellow slave
Will knit, and break religions; bless the accursed;
Make the hoar leprosy adored; place thieves,
And give them title, knee, and approbation,
With senators on the bench.
_Timon of Athens_, Act IV. Scene 3.

The first circumstance that afforded novelty was, that amidst all the bustle I seldom met with any carriages on wheels to augment the noise of the scene. Upon enquiry I found, that, by the police laws of Amsterdam, wheel-carriages are limited to a certain number, which is very inconsiderable compared with the size of the city, from an apprehension that an uncontrouled use of them might hazard the foundation of the houses, most of which are built upon piles; for nearly the whole of the ground on which this vast city stands was formerly a morass. A carriage, called by the Dutch a sley, and by the French a traineau, or, on account of its solemnity, un pot de chambre, is used in their room; it is the body of a coach fastened by ropes on a sledge, and drawn by one horse; the driver walks by the side of it, which he holds with one hand to prevent its falling over, and with the other the reins: nothing can be more melancholy than this machine, which holds four persons, moves at the rate of about three miles an hour, and seems more like the equipage of an hospital, than a vehicle in which the observer would expect to find a merry face; yet in this manner do the Dutch frequently pay visits and take the air. It was in allusion to the forest foundation of this wonderful place, that Erasmus sportively observed, when he first visited it, that he had reached a city, the inhabitants of which, like crows, lived upon the tops of trees; and another wit compared Amsterdam to Venice, on account of both having wooden legs.

Amsterdam is situated on the rivers Y and Amstel, from the latter of which it derives its name; it is about nine miles and a half in circumference, of a semicircular form, surrounded with a fosse about eighty feet wide, and a rampart faced with brick, which is in several places dismantled, and twenty-six bastions: it has also eight noble gates of stone, and several draw-bridges: the population is estimated at three hundred thousand. In 1204, with the exception of a small castle, not a building was to be seen upon the scite of this great city, which, from being at first a petty village of fishermen, dilated in the lapse of years, and by the enterprise and industry of the inhabitants, into a magnificent capital, which, at length, upon the shutting up of the navigation of the Scheldt, added the commerce of Antwerp to its own, and became the great emporium of the world. Neither here, nor in any of the cities or towns in Holland, through which I passed, is a stranger annoyed by barriers, productions of passports, or any of those disagreeable ceremonies which distinguish the police of many other countries. In Holland a foreigner finds his loco-motive disposition as little restricted, or encumbered by municipal regulations, as in England. Canals intersect nearly the whole of this city, adorned with avenues of stately elms. Many of the houses are very splendid, particularly those in Kiezer’s gragt, or Emperor’s street, and Heeren gragt, or Lords’ street, where there are many mansions, which, were they not so much concealed by the fan of the trees before them, would have a very princely appearance. Many of the shops are also very handsome, particularly those belonging to jewellers and print-sellers; in the windows of the latter prints of the illustrious Nelson, and of our marine victories, were exposed to view, The druggists here, and in other parts of Holland, use as a sign a huge carved head, with the mouth wide open, placed before the shop windows; sometimes it rudely resembles a Mercury’s head, at others it is surmounted by a fool’s cap. This clumsy and singular sign is called de gaaper, the gaper; what analogy it bears to physic I could not learn; it is very likely to have originated in whim and caprice. Some of the shop boards, called uithang borden, have ridiculous verses inscribed upon them.

The first place my curiosity led me to was the Stadt-house, which is unquestionably a wonderful edifice, considering that Holland furnishes no stone, and that the foundation of the building was boggy; the latter circumstance rendered it necessary to have an artificial foundation of extraordinary construction and magnitude, and accordingly it rests upon thirteen thousand six hundred and ninety-five massy trees, or piles, the first of which was driven on the 20th of January, 1648, and the last on the 6th of October following, when the first stone, with a suitable inscription, was laid; and seven years afterwards the different colleges of magistrates took formal possession of the apartments allotted for their respective offices, but at this time the roof and dome were not completed: the expense of this mighty edifice amounted to two millions sterling. The principal architect was John Van Kampen, who acted under the control of four burgomasters. The area in which it stands is spacious, and was till lately called Revolutie plein; it is disfigured by the proximity of the waag, or weigh-house, a very old shabby building. The form of the Stadt-house is square, its front is two hundred and eighty-two feet, its depth two hundred and fifty-five, and its height one hundred and sixteen. It has seven small porticoes, representative of the seven provinces; the want of a grand entrance is a great architectural defect, which immediately excites the surprise of the traveller; but it was so constructed from the wary precautionary foresight of the magistrates who had the superintendence of the building, for the purpose of preventing free access to a mob, in case of tumult.

One of the first apartments which attracts the attention is the tribunal, on the basement floor; in this room, prisoners who have been found guilty of capital offences are conducted to receive the awful sentence of the law; the entrance is through a massy folding door, decorated with brass emblems, indicative of the purpose to which the chamber is applied, such as Jove’s beams of lightning, and flaming swords—under which are two lines from Virgil,

“Discite Justitiam moniti
“Et non temnere Divos.”

Above, between the rails, are the old and new city arms, and at the bottom are death’s-heads and bones. The whole of the interior is composed of white marble; on the south and north are two eows of fluted pilasters, one above another; on the west side are statues representing four nude women, supporting the cornices which crown the pilasters: two of these figures conceal their faces with their hands, as indicative of shame: in the copartments between are basso-relievos, representing the judgment of Solomon; Zaleucus, the Locrian king, tearing out one of his eyes, to save one of his son’s who had been condemned to lose both for adultery, by a law made expressly against that crime by his father; and Junius Brutus putting his sons to death. Above these are figures representing Romulus and Remus drawing milk from the she wolf, and also of Jupiter: the head of Medusa upon the shield of Pallas is very finely executed. In the north, under a seat of white marble, is a place for the secretary, who pronounces the fatal sentence when the magistrates appear in their robes at a gallery on the west side. On the fore part of the judgement seat is a fine marble statue of _Silence_, which Dutch gallantry represents under the form of a _woman_, seated on the ground, with her finger on her mouth, and two children weeping over a death’s-head. On each side of this seat are serpents writhing round a tree, each with an apple in his mouth; the same ornaments also decorate the sides of the door: above the seat is a statue, raised on a black marble pedestal, representing the city of Amsterdam as a virgin, guarded by a lion on each side; above the head of the figure is an imperial crown, protected by a spread eagle; on each side of the pedestal are Neptune and Glaucus, representative of the rivers Y and Amstel, and a little higher are the arms of the four burgomasters, in whose magistracy the first stone of this building was laid, gracefully connected by festoons. On the pedestal is an inscription in letters of gold, commemorative of the laying of the first stone of the building.

The principal bas-reliefs and ornaments in this room, and other parts of this edifice, were made by Artus Quellinus, a celebrated statuary of Antwerp. When the awful doom of the law is to be pronounced, the criminal is brought into this hall guarded, and nothing is omitted in point of solemnity to impress on the mind of the delinquent and the spectators the awful consequences of violating the laws of the country.

A thorough knowledge of human nature dictated the policy of placing this hall on the ground-floor, the brazen door of which opens into a thoroughfare passage through the Stadt-house. I never passed by this door without seeing numbers of the lower orders of people gazing through the rails of it upon the emblematical objects within, and apparently in melancholy meditation, reflecting upon the purposes to which this hall is applied, and upon the ignominious results of deviating from the paths of virtue. On one side of this chamber is a a grand double staircase, which leads to the Burghers’, or Marble Hall: it is 120 feet long, about 57 broad, and 80 high, and is entirely composed of white marble, as are the galleries, which are 21 feet wide on each side, into which the entrances to the different courts of justice, the chamber of domains, of insurance, of orphans, the council-room, the offices of the bank, &c. open. This magnificent room and the surrounding galleries were seen to great advantage, on account of their having been cleaned previous to the coronation of the king, which was intended to have taken place in it about a month after I visited it. A great number of workmen had been employed in scraping, washing, and polishing their marble sides for several months, and their appearance was equally grand and beautiful: the bronze gates and railing which form the grand entrance of the hall are massy, yet exquisitely executed: over this entrance is a colonade of Corinthian pillars of red and white marble. At one end is a colossal figure of Atlas supporting on his shoulders the globe, attended by Vigilance and Wisdom. The roof is painted with allegorical figures. Upon the floor, the celestial and terrestrial globes are delineated in brass and various coloured marbles, arranged in three large circles twenty-two feet diameter; the two external ones representing the hemispheres of the earth, and the centre the planisphere of the heavens.

The _Burgomaster’s_ Cabinet, as it is still called, is a handsome apartment, the entrance of which is adorned with some beautiful carving, emblematical of the use of the apartment. The chimney-piece in this room, representing the triumphs of Fabius Maximus, is worthy of notice. To the left of the Burgomasters’ chamber is a gallery, ten feet deep and thirty broad, where, after the ringing of a bell to give notice, all proclamations, law sentences, and municipal regulations, are promulgated.

The chamber of the treasury ordinary contains a picture of Mary de Medicis as large as life; a chart of Amsterdam as it appeared when first walled round in 1482; and on the bookcases are some curious effigies of the ancient Earls and Countesses of Holland.

The Burgomasters’ apartment is forty-five feet broad and thirty deep, and is in my opinion the handsomest room in the Stadt-house. The marble chimney-pieces are enriched with many exquisitely sculptured basso-relievos by De Wit; but its chief ornament is two paintings; one by Ferdinand Bol, representing Curius at his rural repast; and the other, Fabricius in the camp of Phyrrhus, by Flink. From this room there is a passage to the Execution Chamber, or _the Chamber of the last Prayers_, where criminals condemned to death take leave of their priest, and pass through a window, the lower part of which is of wood, to enable its being opened level with the floor to the scaffold, which is constructed on the outside, opposite to the weigh-house, and which is raised as high as this part of the building. There is nothing in this room worthy of notice, except its melancholy appropriation. From this room we were conducted to the council chamber, which is forty-five feet wide and thirty deep, where there is a very large painting by Jacob de Wilt, representing Moses and the seventy elders of Israel. Above the chimney-piece to the north is a very fine picture by Flink, the subject Solomon imploring heaven for wisdom. Above this is a scriptural subject, a noble production, from the pencil of Bronkhorst. Some of the basso-relievos which adorn various parts of this room, sculptured by De Wit, are exquisitely fine, particularly a hive of bees, a clock, a sieve and a lamp, a pen and ink-horn. It would puzzle a magician to interpret many of the allegorical devices, but they are all beautifully executed.

In the chamber for marriages, and injuries, there is nothing to arrest the attention of a visitor one minute. In Holland, marriage being a civil contract, when agreed upon in Amsterdam, it is always first performed before the magistrates in this room, without whose fiat the ceremony would be invalid; the clergyman, according to the religion of the parties, performs his functions afterwards. This room is also called, amongst the lower orders of people, the _Scolding Chamber_, on account of the irritability frequently displayed here by parties of that class, when they come to obtain redress for small offences. We were also led through the chamber for sea affairs, the mercers’ hall, the painters’ chamber, and in this room, but little suited to the treasures which it contains, is a very long picture by Vandyke, in which there is a gray head of an old man, of matchless excellence, which the observer cannot but retire from with regret. The burgomasters of Amsterdam were offered seven thousand florins for this head alone, to be cut out from the rest of the picture. There is also a large picture by Vanderhelst, representing a feast given by the burgomasters of Amsterdam to the ambassadors of Spain, on account of the peace of Munster, which closed a war that had lain waste the Netherlands for eighty years; and many other large and fine paintings by Rubens, Jordaans, and Otho Venius. It is a matter of surprise, that after Holland submitted to the French arms, these exquisite productions should be permitted to remain, upon the walls which they have so long adorned.

In the great, or council of war chamber, there are some good paintings representing the ancient train-bands, and officers in their proper costume; many of which are portraits. In the secretary’s office, a handsome room, amongst other decorations, is a basso-relievo of _Silence_, which the Dutch are very fond of representing under the form of a _woman_. Upon my observing to a Dutchman, that in England such a compliment had never been paid to my own lovely country women, he replied: “Yes, but do you not notice that the statuary has placed the finger of the lady upon her mouth, as if he thought that no one of the sex, not even a Dutch female, could preserve silence without keeping her lips forcibly together with her finger.” The convenience of having nearly all the principal public offices, and courts of justice under one roof, is very great; the size of the kingdom, and simplicity of its public transactions, render such a concentration more easy of accomplishment in Holland than in England.

Before we ascended to the dome, we were introduced into the great magazine of arms, which extends the whole length of the front and part of the sides of this vast pile: it contains a curious and valuable collection of ancient and modern Dutch arms. Some colours which the French took from the Spaniards have been lately added, as a present from the king to this city, a donation which could not fail affording great gratification to a people, who to this hour hold the Spanish nation in abhorrence. The prospect from the tower, or dome, is very fine and extensive, commanding the whole of the city and its environs, crowded with windmills, the river Y filled with ships, the Zuyder Zee, the Amstel, the Haarlem lake, and the quarter containing the gardens, the admiralty, and ships of war on the stocks. From this elevated spot we were nearer the bronze figures which adorn the front, representing Justice, Wealth, and Strength, and which are of an enormous size: on the other side is a colossal bronze statue of Atlas supporting the world, executed in a masterly manner. The tower contains a vast number of bells, the largest of which weighs between six and seven thousand pounds; the carillons in this dome are remarkably sweet, they play every quarter of an hour an agreeable air, which is executed to admiration. An excellent carilloneur is engaged to entertain the citizens of Amsterdam three times a week; the perfection to which he has brought his performance can only be appreciated by those who have heard it. The brass barrel by which he plays is seven feet and a half in diameter, and weighs four thousand four hundred and seventy-four pounds. The clocks strike the full hour, at the half hour, and upon the expiration of the full hour, repeat it upon a bell of a deeper tone.