teen months. Three iron cages, about eight feet high, and four in breadth, project from the walls near the summit of this tower, in which he and two of his accomplices were exhibited like wild beasts. The cathedral, which is a still more ancient edifice, situated in a square planted with trees, has attached to it a monastery in good preservation, and in the cloisters belonging to it are numerous monuments, &c. There are some old paintings, one of which represents Christ driving the money-changers from the Temple. We were shown an enormous chess-board, about five feet long and two broad, which is said to have belonged to John of Leyden. There is, too, a curious clock, which is pointed out as one of the "lions" of this cathedral, and it is certainly a most ingenious piece of mechanism: there are four figures,-one with a trumpet, the second with a hammer, a third representing Time with his scythe, and the fourth Death with a dart in one hand, and an arrow in the other. At the expiration of each quarter of an hour, the first figure sounds his trumpet, and the other strikes with his hammer; and at the end of the hour, Death gives a blow with his dart, and Time reverses his hour-glass.

The town-house is a very antique and massive building, the walls being eight feet thick; the windows are Gothic, and two of them have stained glass, with figures of Justice, Fortitude,

Charity, Patience, Hope, and Faith. The hall, which is sixty feet in length, by thirty in breadth, has some grotesque but well-executed carvings; and niches or stalls, with seats and cushions, over which are the names of the persons to whom they belonged. At one end was a table covered with coarse tapestry, and at the other an enormous fire-place, with a massive canopy of carved wood, representing various events in the life of our Saviour. The walls are adorned, like those in the town-hall at Aixla-Chapelle, with the portraits of those who were present here at the signing of important public treaties. A door beneath the table was opened by our cicerone, who took out a silver figure, representing a game-cock, the head of which can be taken off by unscrewing it, when it forms a drinking cup, in which capacity it is used at the election of a burgomaster. Among other curiosities was exhibited to us the hand of a notary public, which was chopped off in 1703, for forging a document, and is preserved here in terrorem; also an iron collar, with spikes, no very pleasing memorial of the barbarities formerly inflicted upon criminals. Besides these, was

an iron sword six feet in length, which formidable weapon is still borne in procession on some occasions. It was in this hall that the famous treaty of Westphalia, which terminated a

POPULATION, ETC.

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religious warfare that had been carried on for thirty years, was signed in 1648.

The city itself is very ancient; and the houses, the fronts of which are decorated with carvings and figures, generally rest upon arches, beneath these are the shops, and the latter are consequently very gloomy. There are about 18,000 inhabitants, the greater part of whom are Catholics. The walks around the town are pleasant, particularly those on the ramparts, which are planted with lime-trees, and command a prospect of the river Aa that flows beneath.

Although the greater part of the population are Catholics, recent political changes have considerably increased the number of Protestants; and in August, 1818, the Catholic university, which had of late years about 300 students, was broken up; but there is still a seminary for educating priests of that persuasion; also a Catholic gymnasium, which latter has about 250 scholars, and a library containing 25,000 volumes. Horses must be cheap here, if I may judge from a strong one for a cart, which I saw sold in the principal street for one guinea.

CHAP. XIV.

Execution of a criminal. - Remarks on capital punishments. Route from Munster. - Dusseldorff.-Picture Gallery. Cologne. Route from thence to St. Julien.- Punishments.- Ghent.- Museum. Convent of Nuns. — Cambray. Lisle.-Calais.

ON departing from Munster, although at the early hour of six o'clock in the morning, we found the whole town in motion, and crowds proceeding along the great road to witness the execution of a criminal; an event that excited a great sensation, no such punishment having occurred since 1812, when the guillotine was used, as at that time the town was occupied by the French. The spot to which the throngs were repairing, to gratify their morbid curiosity, was about two miles beyond the town; and on hearing that the malefactor was to be broken on the wheel, a mode of punishment we had never witnessed, we also yielded to the same feeling; and on arriving at the place, alighted, and joined the crowd. The multitude here collected formed a dense mass, and all the trees around were occupied by eager spectators. It does not say much for the tenderness of the softer sex, who, at least, are supposed to be more suscepti