notice, except its melancholy appropriation. From this room we were conducted to the council chamber, which is 45 wide and 30 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 the room but little suited to the treasures which it contains, is a very long picture by Vandyke, in which there is a grey 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 embassadors 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 antient 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

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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 fin"ger." 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 the 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 antient 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 collossal 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 half in diameter,

by which he plays is seven feet and a 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.

CHAPTER XV.

DUNGEONS IN THE STADT-HOUSE-TREATMENT OF THE PRISONERSHALL OF JUSTICE-THE TORTURE-CRIMINAL TRIALS-CAPITAL PUNISHMENT-ANECDOTE OF A MALEFACTOR-THE BANK-ITS FORMER AND PRESENT STATE-POPULAR TUMULT-EFFECTS OF DIFFUSIVE EDUCATION-PUBLIC FETE AT AMSTERDAM-DANCING DUTCHMEN-THE BEGUINES-LADIES OF HOLLAND-HOUSE RENT-THE WATER OF AMSTERDAM.

BY considerable interest, and with much difficulty, I was admitted to see the prison which occupies one of the courts of the Stadt-house, on two sides of which, below ground, are the dungeons, to which the gaoler conducted us by a lamp as a place of confinement nothing can be more secure, and as a place of punishment more horrible. After descending a dreary flight of steps, and passing through a long narrow passage, midway vast double doors, thickly plated with iron, were opened, through which we entered, and at the end were stopped by two other massy doors which, upon being unbolted, led to a row of subterranean dungeons. In the first, by the faint light of a rush candle, I discerned the emaciated figure of a man who had been con