the island of Bommel, to abandon it on the first intelligence of the passage of the Meuse by the enemy. XVI. 1794. 83. of Holland. Situated around the mouths of the Rhine, HOLLAND exhibits the most striking contrast to the stupendous Description range of snowy mountains in which that noble river takes its rise. It is remarkable that the two most celebrated republics of Europe, and the only ones which have long survived the changes of time, are placed at the opposite extremities of the same stream; and that freedom in the one has found the same shelter in the mountains from which it springs, as in the other, amidst the marshes in which it is lost before emptying itself into the sea. The Meuse and the Scheldt on the south, and the Vecht and Issel on the north, flow through a part of its surface; but the principal rivers which traverse the Dutch territory-the New Issel, the Waal, as well as the Rhine properly so called, and a multitude of lesser branches-are but mouths of that mighty stream. Like the Danube, the Nile, the Ganges, the Mississippi, and all other great rivers, the Rhine has, in the course of ages, brought down an immense mass of sand, gravel, and other alluvial matter, which, accumulating on the level shores near its entrance into the sea, have at length formed the plains of Holland, through which its now broken and lazy current observation. with difficulty finds a passage, in many different branches, vii. 2, 4. to the German Ocean.1 1 Personal Malte Brun, peculiar tion. A territory formed in this manner, by the confluence 84. at their entrance into the sea of many different streams, Its seais of course exceedingly flat, and in many places broken dykes, and both by large internal lakes, and by considerable external conformaarms of the sea and mouths of rivers. So frequent, indeed, are these aqueous interruptions of the Dutch territory, that in many places it is composed rather of a cluster of islands, than a continuous tract of dry land; and the inhabitants, from the constant necessity of traversing the water, in passing from one part of the country XVI. 1794. CHAP. to another, and the large proportion of their subsistence and their wealth which they derive from its fisheries or its commerce, are almost entirely nautical in their habits. So general is the custom of looking to naval communication as the great means of intercourse, that when lakes or firths are wanting, the industry of the people has supplied artificial means of obtaining it; and a multitude of canals, cut in every direction, at once afford cheap and commodious channels for commerce, and furnish water for innumerable artificial cuts, by which the riches of irrigation are diffused over their extensive meadows. These broad expanses were originally sandy and sterile ; but the pasturage of centuries has covered them with a thick coating of mingled animal and vegetable remains ; and in no part of the world are more luxuriant crops of grass now obtained, or more skill evinced in the management of the dairy. The stormy waves of the German Ocean are only kept out from these low and grassy meads by dykes, constructed in former times at an incredible expense, and maintained in these by incessant vigilance and attention. There the barrier, raised by human hands, "Spreads its long arm amidst the watery roar, The slightest relaxation in the care of these dykes is speedily followed with fatal effects. An accidental fissure in the protecting sea-front, a rat's hole, or the displacing by a storm of a few feet of earth, if not immediately remedied, is sufficient to open an inlet to the external waters. Quickly they pour down to the lower level of the meadows; observation. the entrance is rapidly widened by the force of the torrent; in a few hours a great breach is made in the rampart, the ocean rushes in in a torrent some hundred fathoms broad;1 1 Personal Malte Brun, vii. 4, 5. the whole level surface is ere long covered by the waves, the houses are submerged, and the tops of the trees and spires of the villages appear like scattered islets amidst the waste of waters. CHAP. 1794. 85. irruptions in former Dreadful catastrophes in former times have shown the reality and awful character of these dangers. Four Dreadful centuries ago, the sea of Haarlem, which covers a space of the sea five leagues long by two and a half broad, was formed times. by the sea breaking through the dykes which restrained it. On the night of the 19th November 1421, during a violent storm, the sea-dyke of North Brabant gave way; the ocean rushed in, and before morning seventy villages had been submerged, a hundred thousand persons drowned, and twelve square leagues of fertile land converted into a watery waste, in which the remains of steeples and buildings may still be discerned in calm weather beneath the waves. The Dollart Sea, situated between the province of Groningen in North Holland and the territory of Hanover, which is eight leagues long and three broad, was formed by an inroad of the sea in 1277, which swallowed up thirty-three villages; and the great Zuyder Zee itself, thirty leagues in length, and twenty in breadth, which covers a surface as extensive as Yorkshire, was formed in 1225 by an irruption of the German Ocean, which broke through the line of sand-hills and dykes, the direction of which may still be clearly traced on the map, Malte by the long line of islands which mark the original 4,5. frontier of North Holland.1 "The floating vessel swam Uplifted and secure, with beaked prow, Rode tilting o'er the waves; all dwellings else Flood overwhelm'd, and them with all their pomp Deep under water roll'd: sea cover'd sea, Sea without shore: and in their palaces, Where luxury late reign'd, sea-monsters whelp'd And stabled."* A country in this manner originally wrested, and still preserved by incessant efforts, from the waves, necessarily Brun, vii. XVI. 1794. 86. and habits of CHAP. has had a peculiar character and specific manners impressed upon it by the all-powerful signet of nature. Strenuous efforts have won for man the land which he Character inhabits; ceaseless vigilance alone preserves it: and these the people. lasting causes have communicated to the inhabitants habits and customs peculiarly their own. Constant exertion, persevering industry, vigilant circumspection, have become habitual from necessity, and still form the great characteristics of the country.* Their national character perhaps approaches more nearly to that of England than of any other people in Europe; but yet it is in some particulars widely different. It wants the fire and energy, the lofty spirit, and great aspirations, which have been communicated to the British race by their Danish and Norman conquerors; but it possesses the perseverance and industry, the honesty and good faith, the love of freedom and spirit of order, which, even more than their courage and capacity, are destined to give the AngloSaxon race the dominion of half the globe. The love of freedom has there existed, in general, in conjunction with its indispensable allies, order and religion. A methodical system pervades every branch of their social economy; community of interest retains the sailors and workmen in willing obedience to their superiors. Order and frugality constitute the leading features of the higher class of their observation. merchants. Religion is established in decent competence; pauperism relieved with discriminating humanity.1 1 Personal 87. Influence Nor have these admirable qualities been without their reward, both in former and recent times. Holland for of this cha- centuries has exhibited a spectacle of social felicity and general virtue which might well put richer and greater nations to the blush, for the superior natural advantages which they have misapplied, and the boundless physical racter on their na tional history. "Mores quos ante gerebant Nunc quoque habent; parcumque genus patiensque laborum, Hinc ad bellum pares armis, animisque sequentur." OVID, Metam. XVI. 1794. resources they have neglected. During the terrible contest СНАР. which terminated in the establishment of the religious freedom of the sixteenth century, the United Provinces stood forth pre-eminent. The indomitable spirit of the house of Orange defeated successively the tyranny of Spain and the ambition of France; the sieges of Haarlem and Leyden, the repulse of Louis XIV. from the gates of Amsterdam, will remain to the end of the world enduring monuments of the almost supernatural constancy which the heroism of religious duty can inspire even in a pacific community. When England, deserting her natural post in the van of freedom, leagued with France to crush the religious liberties of Europe, that noble commonwealth strenuously and often successfully resisted. Its fleets burned the English ships in their harbours; its admirals swept the Channel in their pride; and the maritime struggle, the severest that England ever knew, was determined at length, less by the defeat of the followers of van Tromp and de Ruyter, than by the voluntary return of British policy to the alliance which duty, equally with interest, prescribed with their sturdy antagonists on the waves. When the French Revolution broke out, and Holland, partly by external violence, partly through internal delusion, was subjugated by the all-conquering Republic, the moral tempest uprooted none of the bulwarks of order in that steady community. Jacobin cupidity in vain urged the insurgent multitude to deeds of spoliation; the government was changed, but no acts of ferocity were committed. The nation suffered and endured during the despotism of Napoleon, but abstained alike from imitating its rapacity or its oppression. And when at length the colossus of imperial power was overthrown, ancient habits were resumed, ancient influences re-established, without one deed of revenge Proclamabeing committed, or one tear, save in joy, being shed.1 sterdam, The partisans, equally with the princes of the house of 1814. Orange, restored the former government, with the glorious tion, Am Nov. 15, |