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menced; and as the whole party were making the last effort, the emperor had the inexpressible satisfaction of seeing the blood flow from the puncture, and of hearing a faint groan issue from the lips of his patient.

The emotions of his Imperial Majesty at this moment were indescribable, and in the fulness of his transport he exclaimed in French, "Great God! this is the brightest day of my life!" and tears of joy sparkled in his eyes, to ratify the feelings of his heart. Every exertion was now redoubled, and as humanity loves to dwell upon the minutest circumstances of this affecting scene, I must not omit to relate, that when Dr. Weilly looked round for something to stop the blood with, the Emperor with vivid promptitude took out his handkerchief, tore it in pieces, with his own hands bound the sufferer's arm, and remained with him until he completely recovered, when he conveyed him to a place where proper care could be administered to him; at parting, he ordered him a liberal present of money, and afterwards, upon his return to his capital, as if grateful to him for so large a portion of felicity, settled a pension upon him and his family. The sensations of the patient, when he was informed of the exalted rank of his preserver, can be better felt than described. The poor inhabitants of that part of Poland, who were but rude artists, fabricated four snuff-boxes, on the lids of which they delineated, as well as they were able, this striking and exemplary event, which they presented to the Emperor and the gentlemen who assisted him in this work of humanity. Such is the heart of a prince, who, almost unassailable in his mighty empire, and moved alone by the elevated desire of impeding the gigantic progress of a power which aims at universal domination, renounced all the pleasure of tranquillity, and at the head of his gallant legions thundered at the gates of princes, to awaken them from their fatal lethargy, and to invoke them to oppose the common enemy of the world.

Alas! the solemn invocation was faintly and imperfectly obeyed. In vain did the heroic Alexander endeavour to impart to other chiefs, whose humiliation, if not destruction, must be the fruits of their supineness, that divine energy which actuated his own bosom.

The historian, whilst with rapture he dwells upon the valor and the disinterested energy of Alexander, with burning blushes will relate the mournful results which followed the dire neglect of his solemn and unexampled appeal. To his renewed struggles in this mighty and august cause, the eyes of England, with whom his name will ever be consecrated, and of prostrate nations panting, without the spirit to contend for their deliverance, are turned with ardent anxiety. May glory crown the arms of such a prince, and may his days be long in the land!

The exchange here is in the same style of architecture as that of Rotterdam, but larger. My astonishment here was even greater than what I experienced at the latter place; for, at the exchange hour, it was overflowing with merchants, brokers, agents, and all the busy motley characters who belong to commerce. From the prevailing activity, the appetite for accumulation here appeared to have experienced no checks from the ineviatble calamities of war. My surprise was augmented by reflecting, with these appearances before me, upon the present and former commercial condition of the country. The principal causes which contributed to render Amsterdam so rich before the two last wars, were the invincible industry, the caution, and frugality of the people. The ancient merchants of Amsterdam preferred small gains with little risk, to less probable, and to larger profits: it was their creed, that more fortunes were raised by saving and economy, with moderate advantages, than by bold, expensive, and perilous speculations. This golden rule they transmitted to their posterity, who have exhibited no great disposition to deviate from it. A Dutch merchant of the present day almost always calculates the chances for and against his success in any undertaking, which he will immediately relinquish unless they are very greatly in his favour, and as nearly reducible to certainty as possible: he very rarely over-trades himself, or extends his schemes beyond his capital: such was the foundation upon which the commerce of Amsterdam was raised.

The principal sources of commercial wealth to Holland arose from her herring and Greenland fisheries, which employed a great

portion of her population. The superior. manner in which the Dutch pickle and preserve their herrings is peculiar to themselves, nor has it been in the power of England, or any other country, to find out the secret which lies, it is said, in the manner of gilling and salting those fish. The persons who are acquainted with the art, are bound by an oath never to impart it, hitherto religiously adhered to, and the disclosure of it is moreover guarded against by the laws of the country. This national source of wealth has been greatly impeded, in consequence of the Dutch having no herring fisheries of their own, but being obliged to seek them on the English coast at the proper season, where, particularly off Yarmouth, the herring shoals have been known to be six and seven feet deep with fish. The permission granted to the Dutch fishermen, to prosecute their occupation unmolested on our coasts, notwithstanding the war, was frequently withdrawn by our cruisers. Last year a private agreement took place between the two countries, and the indulgence was renewed, by which the Dutch were very abundantly supplied with their favourite fish: so much esteemed is it, that the first herring cured was always presented to the stadtholder, and opulent families have been known to give seven shillings, and even a guinea, for the first herrings brought to market..

CHAPTER XVII.

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FORMER COMMERCE OF THE DUTCH......BATAVIA.......ÀNECDOTES
OF NATIONAL FRUGALITY......EXCHANGE AND BANKING BUSI-
NESS......COMMERCIAL HOUSE OF MESSRS. HOPE......JEW FRUIT-
SELLERS.....MARINE SCHOOL.....THE RASP-HOUSE.....THE WORK-
HOUSE......
..THE PLANTATION.......PRIESTS HOW SUPPORTED......
PARISH REGISTERS.....THE POOR.....LITERARY SOCIETIES.....FE-
LIX MERITIS......MODERN DUTCH PAINTERS.

FOR more than a century the Dutch East-India Company enjoyed the monopoly of the fine spices, comprehending nutmegs, cloves, mace, cinnamon, &c. which constituted the principal branch of the Asiatic as well as the European commerce of Holland: 360,000lbs. cloves were annually sent to Europe, and about 150,000lbs. were sold in India; 250,000lbs. of nutmeg, the produce of the island of Banda, used to be sold in Europe, and 100,000lbs. in India. In Europe also 400,000lbs. of cinnamon used to be brought to market, and 200,000lbs. consumed in India. Batavia presents a wonderful instance of the enterprise of the Dutch, who, born themselves in a marshy country, below the level of the ocean, erected a kingdom in the fifth degree of north latitude, in the most prolific part of the globe, where the fields are covered with rice, pepper, and cinnamon, and the vines bear fruit twice a year. Although this colony remains to Holland, the Dutch spice market must have very materially suffered, from the vigilance of our ships of war in various parts of the world, and particularly from the recent capture of her valuable spice ships returning home richly laden from that colony. The Dutch also carried on a large trade in rice, cotton, and pepper, and the Java coffee, which was thought to be second only to that of Mocha. The reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find that the amount of the spice exports should every year be the same. The Dutch East India Company

was enabled to make this calculation in consequence of having acquired a tolerably exact knowledge of the quantity of each kind of spice that would be necessary for the consumption of the European markets, and never permitting any more to be exported. In this branch of trade they had no competition, and they were enabled to keep the price of their spices as high as they chose, by ordering what remained unsold at the price they had fixed upon it, to be burnt. Their spices gave them an influence upon the trade of the north of Europe, in consequence of their being highly prized by the different nations on the shores of the Baltic, who furnished the Dutch with their grain, hemp, flax, iron, pitch, tar, masts, planks, &c. The surrender of Curraçoa to the British arms must also be severely felt. This island was always of great importance to the Dutch, the possession and commerce of which they were very desirous of retaining and extending. The Dutch West India Company, many years since, refused to exchange it for the Spanish island of Porto Rico. The commerce of Curraçoa formerly took up yearly about fifty large ships, upon an average of 300 tons each, and the quantity of goods annually shipped from Holland amounted to 500,000l. and the returns nearly doubled that sum. The exports from Holland consisted of German and Dutch linens, checks, East India goods, woollen and cotton manufactures, spices, cinnamon, building materials, and many other articles of case and luxury. The imports to Europe were indigo, coffee, sugar, hides, cotton, dye-wood, tortoiseshell, varinas, Porto Rico tobacco, and occasionally cochineal. The Dutch also carried on a very flourishing trade to Turkey and the Levant, by selling their own, the Irish and English cloths, and purchasing tea, cocoa, ginger, and thread. The commercial intercourse also between Holland and England was very important, in which the balance in specie was greatly against the Dutch, which induced many, who were ignorant of their real character, to conclude, that they never could support so prodigious a drain of specie as they have invariably experienced in such communications; an impression which subsides when it is considered that the Dutch consumed but little of what they imported from England, and that what they purchased they resold in

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