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at that period was too poor to erect magnificent temples of worship, and support a train of prelates in the splendor bestowed them in other countries, which were more upon rich, and had a population adequate to the cultivation. of the soil. It was of the highest consequence to Holland to encourage population, and they could not more effectually do it, than by a policy equally generous and enlightened, which offered an asylum to all foreigners persecuted for their religion, and discouraged all monastic in stitutions.

As I was one day roving in this city, I was struck with the appearance of a small board ornamented with a considerable quantity of lace, with an inscription on it, fastened to a house: upon enquiry, I found that the lady of the mansion, where I saw it, had lately lain-in, and was then much indisposed, and that it was the custom of the country to expose this board, which contained an account of the state of the invalid's health, for the satisfaction of her enquiring friends, who were by this excellent plan informed of her situation, without disturbing her by knocking at the door, and by personal enquiries: the lace I found was never displayed but in lying-in cases, but without it, this sort of bulletin is frequently used in other cases of indisposition amongst persons of consequence.

EXPLOSION AT LEYDEN

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It is a painful task not to be able to close my account of this beautiful and celebrated city, without lamenting with the reader the dreadful accident which befel it on the 12th of January last, more terrible and destructive than all the horrors of its siege, the intelligence of which was communicated to me very soon afterwards by a friend in Holland, just as I had fairly written out thus far of my journal. About one o'clock of that day, a vessel laden with forty thousand pounds weight of gunpowder from Amsterdam, destined for Delft, and then lying in the Rapenburg canal, by some means which can never now be known, took fire and blew up with the explosion of a mighty volcano, by which many hundreds of lives were lost, and a great portion of the city destroyed. The king, on hearing of the dreadful catastrophe was sensibly affected, repaired to the city, remained all the following night in the streets, and was to be seen wherever his presence could animate the survivors to stop the progress of the flames, to clear the rubbish of fallen buildings, and drag from under the ruins those who had been covered by them: the king offered the palace in the wood to persons of respectability, whose habitations had been overthrown by the shock, until they could secure homes to repair to; empowered the magistrates of this devoted city to make a general collection throughout the whole kingdom, and ordered 100,000

HAARLEM.

guilders to be paid out of the treasury for the relief of the surviving sufferers.

I quitted Leyden with great reluctance, and entered on board the treckschuyt for Haarlem, which sets off every two hours for that town, distant from Leyden fifteen miles. The canal all the way is broad and clear, and frequently adorned with the yellow-fringed water-lily. Nothing could be more beautiful than our passage. As we approached Haarlem, the villas and gardens which nearly all the way adorn the banks of the canal, increased in number, beauty, and magnitude: many of them belong to the most opulent merchants of Amsterdam. Haarlem is not so beautiful as Leyden, but abounds with spacious streets, canals, avenues, and handsome houses: it is about four miles from the sea, and fifteen from Amsterdam: on one side of the canal is the Haarlem meer, or lake, the spring water of which is so celebrated all over Europe for producing the most brilliant whiteness upon the linens bleached here, and the superior property of which cannot be reached by any chymical process. Haarlem was once fortified, but its ramparts now form an agreeable promenade. The bleacheries of this city are too well known to be further mentioned; in all his wandering, the traveller will never enjoy the luxury of

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