flattered her with his pencil, that Henry was induced to marry her; but when he discovered how plain she really was, his anger turned from the painter to the minister, and poor Cromwell lost his head, because the unhappy Ann was denounced by her royal husband for "a Flanders mare," and not the Venus depicted by Holbein.

Amongst the churches, the only one I saw worthy of notice was the cathedral of St. Lawrence, the tower of which I ascended, and from its top commanded the greater part of the south of Holland. The body of the church is very large. The walls, like all the rest of the Dutch churches, are saddened over with a great number of sable escutcheons, and the floor covered with rush-bottom chairs for the congregation when assembled. A magnificent brass ballustrade of exquisite workmanship, separates the choir from the nave,

The church is used for various purposes: the synod of the province used to assemble in it the presbytery of the town; I was informed he still continues to do so; and at the fairs, booths are erected in it.

The only monuments worthy of attention, and those merit but little, are erected to the memories of Admiral Cornelius de Witt, Johannes a Brakel, and Admiral Kor

G

42

THE RIVAL ORGAN.

Fenaar. A magnificent organ has been building for some years in this church: a very large but inadequate sum of money has been subscribed for this superb instrument, which is intended to rival the celebrated one at Haerlem, but much more money will be necessary for that purpose: the object of this measure is not out of homage to St. Cecilia, but from a commercial spirit, that repines at hearing of the number of persons who flock to Haerlem to hear its boasted instrument, by which considerable sums money in the course of the year are expended in that city.

of

To the honor of Holland, her seminaries of learning have always been favorite objects with her government; and I was well informed, that to the further promotion of this great and vital source of the morals, order, and glory of nations, the king has devoted much of his consideration.

To the choirs of this cathedral, the scholars of the charity schools of the city, attended by their masters and professors, repair twice a year to undergo a public ex-. amination, in the presence of the principal officers of the state resident in the city, who are distinguished for their learning, attended by some of the clergy. The rector, or first professor, opens the meeting with a short speech in praise of Literature and the Civil Magistracy: such of the

PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS.

43

pupils as are about to remove to the university, pronounce an oration in praise of some illustrious prince, or of Erasmus; on the dignity, ornament, and utility of sound learning to a state; in praise of commerce and industry; on the baneful consequence of passion and indolence; on fortitude, patience, concord, and other moral virtues; they then conclude with a compliment to their masters for their care of them, and to the magistrates for honoring them with their presence; and finally, take leave of their school-fellows, whom they exhort to pursue their studies indefatigably, and to live in amity with each other.

The principal magistrates then present each of them with some classical author, superbly bound and gilt: the juniors, who are to remove to the higher classes, then come forward, and compliment the magistrates and their masters in a sentence or two either of verse or prose. The effect of this ceremony is encreased by the organ playing at its commencement and close.

The reader will, I am sure, be gratified with this brief description of a plan so generative of every good to the nation which adopts it. Children, as soon as they can think, discover that they are the peculiar care of their country ; they are taught to respect its laws, and by descanting

44

EFFECT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION.

upon, to imitate its most shining examples, and to repay the paternal solicitude of the government, by becoming useful or ornamental members of its community.

Amidst the political storms which have agitated Holland for so many years, more fatal to its prosperity than those of the ocean, in which it almost appears to float, education has never been neglected: to bestow upon his children decent and useful instruction, has ever formed the anxious care of the Hollander: he feels that whilst he trains their minds to habits of investigation and industry, he secures to them, under any form of government, the sources of support and advancement.

This general diffusion of useful instruction made Holland what she was in the most shining periods of her history, and whenever its enlightening influence shall cease to be felt, as a commercial country she must decline.

The very few instances of cruelty which occurred in Holland during the late revolution, have been very justly attributed to the happy effects of education. Whenever any disposition to severity evinced itself, an appeal to reason and humanity inclined it to forgive a memorable proof of this statement will hereafter appear in the account of some of the revolutionary movements which occurred at Amsterdam.

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.

45

Even an English merchant would be astonished to see the wonderful arithmetical attainment of stripling clerks in any of the Dutch compting-houses, and the quantity of complicated business which they discharge in the course of the day, the order of their books, the rapidity and certainty of their calculation, according to the commercial habits and exchange of different countries, and the variety of languages which they speak; to which may be added, the great regularity and length of their attendance, and the decency and propriety of their deportment.

With proper modifications, what an example for our own government, with respect to the sister kingdom, does Holland present! And here I cannot but lament my inability to do justice to the illustrious nobleman, to whose care his majesty has with sound wisdom and discrimination committed the administration of his government in Ireland. In his Grace the Duke of Bedford, that unhappy and long neglected island has found an able, zealous, and resolute friend and patron; who, shunning every ostentatious display, and almost the eye of observation, has conferred upon that country the salutary benefits of those measures which do honour to the christian, the statesman, and the go

vernor.

To this nobleman, and to Lord Somerville, the British