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PUBLIC OPINION OF THE KING.

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clerks, who were before almost receiving the wages of idleness from the country. By this firm and sagacious conduct, the king has already produced a saving to the state of two millions sterling a year.

Before the new constitution, which will be given hereafter, was finally adjusted, the king declared, that the national debt should be most sacredly respected, and its guarantee forms accordingly a permanent feature in that system, and measures have been adopted for its speedy liquidation. The king has also chosen two gentlemen of high respectability from the body of the merchants of Rotterdam, to be members of his council.

Before these circumstances, and the previous unsettled condition of the country are known or reflected upon, it would appear somewhat paradoxical, that as the interests of the Dutch have a bias in favour of England, and as their government is of French construction, the ruler who has been placed over them by events little less than miraculous, could ever, and especially in so short a time, have made himself popular; but to the fact I pledge myself, upon the authority of some of the most respectable and enlightened Dutchmen in different parts of Holland, repeatedly renewed to me.

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PUBLIC CEREMONY.

It is a subject of congratulation with every Englishman, that a similar spirit of economy and retrenchment animates the minds of the present administration, which, during the short period of its elevation to power, has purified many of the public offices of slothful supernumeraries, and has to its eternal honour refused to augment the public burthens by reversionary pensions.

By such instances of public virtue, and the wisdom, vigour, and sound policy, which reign in the councils of his majesty, the British empire may ultimately triumph over its enemies, or at least be preserved entire amidst the general wreck of other nations.

The king of Holland was described to me to resemble his brother Napoleon, very strongly in size, complexion, manner, thoughtful taciturnity, and abstemiousness: he is a great invalid, and has received some severe paralytic shocks in one of his arms, for which, as well as for the general extreme delicate state of his health, he has been obliged to visit the baths of Wisbaden, and to drink the waters of the Spa; which prevented his remaining in Holland but for a very short time, after the constitution had placed him on the throne, and he was absent when I was there.

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The king has the reputation of being much pleased with the English character, and very fond of the society of Englishmen ; a gratification which a series of adverse circumstances has prevented him from indulging in for some time past. I remember, when I was at Paris, during the brief pause of war, that just gave a time for frighted peace to pant," he was never more happy than when he had one of our countrymen at his splendid and hospitable table.

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The queen is, as she was also described to me, a brunette of considerable beauty, inclined to the en bon point, has a face expressive of great suavity of mind, and is highly accomplished; she particularly excels in dancing, in which, for the gracefulness of her attitudes, she is said to be unrivalled. To this elegant accomplishment she is particularly attached, and when she travels, is generally complimented, in any considerable town where she stops for a day or two, with a public ball, an attention by which she is always much gratified.

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Their majesties have two princes who are very young; the eldest is called Napoleon after the emperor. Should the dynasty of the Bonapartes experience no convulsive overthrow, it is generally believed that, upon the demise of that extraordinary being, who has pushed so many kings

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DUTY OF A TOURIST.

from their thrones to make room for the members of his

'own family, the crown of France will devolve child.

upon this

In detailing these few anecdotes, which to me at least were interesting, I have been induced by a veneration for truth alone, to give a representation which, to such as think that nothing favourable, however deserved, should be reported of those with whom we are not in amity, will not be very palatable. To an enemy, if not generous, let us at least be always just. It is as base in principle, as it is dangerous in politics, to depreciate the popularity of a prince with whom we are at war, for it obviously leads to a miscalculation of his influence upon his people, and of the nature and extent of his strength and resources.

I abhor fuming a sovereign with adulation, more especially the ruler of a country at war with my own; but it is what I owe to my own country to relate the fact.

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HOMAGE

COMMISSION COUNTENANCES-PHYSIOGNOMIES COMPARED
PAID TO GENIUS ERASMUS'S STATUE-INSCRIPTION-REVOLU
TIONARY WHIMS-LEARNED GALLANTRY-KISSES ANECDOTES OF
ERASMUS-CATHEDRAL OF SAINT LAWRENCE-THE RIVAL ORGAN
CHARITY SCHOOLS-PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS-EFFECTS OF EDUCA-
TION ON THE PUBIC MIND HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD-
MR. LANCASTER'S SCHOOL.

IN my way to the celebrated statue of Erasmus, and indeed wherever I moved, almost every face I met looked as if it belonged to a soul more disposed to cultivate the figures of arithmetic, than of rhetoric. I saw none of those sprightly physiognomies, which abound in the large towns of England or France, full of smiles, of levity, and carelessness, the happy owners of which appear as if they basked and frolicked in the sunshine of every event. Even the Spanish proverb, "thoughts close, looks loose," is not observed in this city. An eye prone to the earth, a look of settled meditation, and a measured pace denote the Rotterdammer. Yet with these appearances Holland has not been insensible to that literary merit, in honour of which, in other times and regions, the Grecians and

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