diers of the two countries together. Something of the same sort will sometimes shew itself in the General States, but this, it may be hoped, is only temporary, and will soon die away.

The police in Holland and in Belgium is very strict. There seems to be a considerable security against thieves and robbers; and yet when one visits the Maisons de Force, and sees the numbers confined by sentence of the law, it is difficult how to account for it, except that the culprits are kept there for a number of years. I was admitted to see that at Ghent. The outer court, where the houses of the officers were, was very airy and pleasant. The inner court was divided into three parts; the correctional, the criminal, and that for the women. Those in the correctional quarter were sent for two or three months, and the keeper informed me, some as long as for two years. Those in the criminal quarter were sent in for more than two years, for five, eight, ten, fifteen years, or for life. The women were for various periods, and were not, as the men, separated into different quarters. They were all very hard at work, weaving

and spinning. Such is the discipline kept up, that no conversation is allowed, except when in the yard. Even in the room where there might be two hundred women, not a word was spoken. In the whole house there might be about a thousand men and women. There is another Maison de force at Vilvorde, which is not far off. In the citadel at Antwerp, I saw several criminals walking in chains to work, and was told there were seven hundred altogether confined there. All that seems to say, there is still abundant room for farther improvement in morals.

I should be sorry if it should be supposed from the above statement, that it was meant to charge the present rulers of the Netherlands with tyranny, cruelty, or oppression. I do not believe any thing of the sort to exist. I do not believe, from what I have heard, that there are two better hearted men in Europe, or more humane and condescending in their conduct, than the present King William, and his son the Hereditary Prince of Orange. The amount of the taxes so very objectionable in the mode of raising them, is not exorbitant. The

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CHARACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT.

money also which the King appropriates to the civil list, is not above 220,000%. sterling. The heir apparent, the Prince of Orange, had only 9000l. per annum; and since his marriage with the sister of the Russian Emperor has only 18,000l. A Queen Dowager is only to have 13,000l. These allowances do not seem extravagant. The administration seems, at present, to be labouring diligently to promote public prosperity; and I never heard from our countrymen who had been years in the country, and who from misfortunes in trade were inclined to state the worst, of any cruel and oppressive exertion of arbitrary power. All that is All that is very satisfactory for the meanwhile; and it has been thought by many, that if kings and rulers were always to be wise and good men, and not liable to human frailties, and to be seduced by power, an absolute government would really be the best. But men and circumstances are perpetually changing; and many unhappy causes, from the influence of which humble individuals are sheltered, tend to draw aside from rectitude, the frail mortals who are exalted to high authority. Without

CHARACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT.

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a really free constitution, the people can have no security for the permanence of their prosperity. A wise and energetic Catharine, may be succeeded by an insane Paul; and who at this moment dare foretel what sort of government shall come after that of a kind and benevolent Alexander. Happy is it for us, who enjoy the protection of a free constitution; and long may and long may the sound principles of freedom animate every British bosom, to protect it from all enemies from without and from within. It is this energy and spirit of the people themselves, which is the real preservative of all that is great and good. Happy is it for our country, that we have a numerous body of opulent and independent men, who are the natural guardians of the people's rights, and whose interest leads them also firmly to oppose all

measures which have a tendency to create anarchy and confusion.

I am,

&c. &c.

( 180 )

LETTER XIII.

MY DEAR SIR,

As the subject of patents or annual licences for all professions and trades, affords curious information respecting the state of society in the kingdom of the Netherlands, some farther particulars, which from unwillingness to be too tedious in the last letter were omitted, may here find a place. All the towns and places of the kingdom are divided into seven ranks, according to the following Tarif, by which their supposed relative consequence may be

seen.