CHAPTER II.THE BOOMPIES ... BAYLE ... PREROGATIVES OF GENIUS ... SPANISH INSCRIPTIONS ... A DUTCH DINNER ... DUTCH BEGGARS ... A GOOD BARGAIN ... ANECDOTES OF SOME MEMBERS OF THE BATAVIAN EXECUTIVE BODY ... ANECDOTES OF THE PASSION OF THE DUTCH FOR TRAFFIC ... ANECDOTE OF LORD NELSON AND THE DEY OF TUNIS ... HEREDITARY DRESSES ... THE EXCHANGE OF ROTTERDAM ... ANECDOTES OF THE ENGLISH THERE ... SEVERAL ANECDOTES OF THE KING AND QUEEN OF HOLLAND ... PUBLIC OPINION OF THEM ... DUTY OF A TOURIST.
One of the first places we visited was the Boom-quay, or Boompies, which extends along the river, about half a mile from the new to the old head, the two places where the water enters the city, and fills the canals, which are seven in number: this street is very broad and truly magnificent; and the prospect from it, over the river, and the opposite country, highly delightful. Cheyney-walk at Chelsea is a very humble resemblance to it.
Many of the houses are very noble, and some of them are built of free-stone, which not being the produce of the country, must have been brought to the spot at a great expense. In England a rage for expensive building had so possessed a man whom I knew, and who resided very far from the capital, that he had many parcels filled with bricks and stones sent down to his workmen by the mail coach.
The Boom-quay forms a fine mall for the inhabitants of the city, and is chiefly the residence of the most opulent and elegant families. An English nobleman, Lord North and Gray, had many years since a superb house here, which he became entitled to in right of his wife, a rich Dutch lady.
Upon this quay once resided the celebrated Bayle, the author of the Historical and Critical Dictionary, and professor of philosophy and history at Rotterdam, from which he was removed bythe influence of M. Jurieu, who in a violent controversy with him, had illiberally misrepresented his principles, and driven him to great penury. The writings of this extraordinary man are so versatile and so adapted to every one’s taste, that he secured readers amongst divines, philosophers, physicians, wits, and libertines in every part of Europe. Saurin, with that antithesis for which he was more known than for the elegance of his compositions, thus describes him: “Bayle was one of those extraordinary men, whom it is difficult to reconcile with themselves, and whose opposite qualities give us room to doubt whether we ought to consider him as the best, or the worst of men. On the one hand he was a great philosopher, who knew how to distinguish truth from falsehood, who could at one view perceive all the consequences of a principle, and the chain or series, in which they were linked together; on the other, he was a great sophist, who undertook to confound truth with falsehood, and knew how to deduce false inferences from the hypothesis he advanced. On the one hand, he was a man of learning and of knowledge, who had read all that could be read, and remembered all that could be remembered; on the other, he was ignorant, or affected to be so, of the most common things, in respect of which he proposed such difficulties, as had been answered a thousand times. On the one hand he attacked the most eminent men, opened a large field of labour for them, led them through the most difficult ways, and if he did not get the better of them, at least gave them great trouble, to get the better of him; on the other, he made use of the worst of authors, to whom he was lavish of his praise, frequently disgracing his writings by citing such names as no learned man ever mentioned.” So speaks Saurin of this able man, whose abilities, however, have been honoured with the usual homage; they have been allowed to consecrate the place in which they flourished. No stranger can visit the Boom-quay without being informed that Bayle resided there, and without having the spot where his little mansion stood pointed out to him. It is the noble nature of genius to requite the ingratitude of a thankless country, by shedding upon it unquenchable lustre, and raising it in the rank of nations.
In several parts of the city, memorials of the inroads of the Spaniards are traceable, not only in the forms of several of the buildings, but in several mottos and inscriptions in their language, which are still legible in many of the old buildings, in this and in other cities.
The number of Jews in Rotterdam is very great, and many of them are of high respectability, and as much distinguished for their integrity, as their industry and opulence.
Soon after my arrival I had the pleasure of dining with one of the first families of that persuasion: our host, a very amiable man, gave us a true Dutch dinner, consisting of nearly fifteen different sorts of fish, exquisitely dressed, and served up with vegetables of various kinds. In Holland, in preparing the fish for the kettle, the head, fins, and tail, are generally cut off. In this city port wine is scarcely ever drank; it is by no means gratifying to a Dutch palate. Some was presented to me at a dinner where I was, but it was so old that all its flavour had evaporated. The principal wines drank are Claret, Madeira, and the Rhine wines. I found the bread in Holland every where excellent, and the coffee every where bad.
I soon found that the received opinion of there being no beggars in Holland is perfectly erroneous. I was frequently beset by these sons and daughters of sorrow or idleness, who preferred their petition with indefatigable pursuit, but in so gentle a tone, that it was evident they were fearful of the police. They are abundant, but orderly. It was observed by some English in Holland, that a Dutch beggar is too wise to waste his breath by asking alms of a Dutchman, and that relief is only sought from strangers: the fact is, there are so many asylums for paupers, that a Dutchman acquainted with the legislative provision made for them, always considers a beggar as a lawless vagabond.
For this reason, and this alone, Charity seldom takes an airing in Holland: towards the wretched, in the streets, the rich in this country
“Resemble sweet instruments hung up in cases,That keep their sounds to themselves.”Timon of Athens, Act. I. Sc. 5.
“Resemble sweet instruments hung up in cases,That keep their sounds to themselves.”Timon of Athens, Act. I. Sc. 5.
“Resemble sweet instruments hung up in cases,That keep their sounds to themselves.”Timon of Athens, Act. I. Sc. 5.
“Resemble sweet instruments hung up in cases,
That keep their sounds to themselves.”
Timon of Athens, Act. I. Sc. 5.
In no country of its size, as will appear in the course of this journal, are there more charitable institutions, and at the same time a stronger appetite for accumulation. To make a good bargain is considered by many a Dutchman as the highest achievement of the human mind. As a proof that they never suffer their national animosities to interfere with individual interest, the reader may rely on the following anecdote.
In an early stage of the last war, when the Dutch government rigorously prohibited the importation of English manufactures, some members of the executive body entered into an agreement with a mercantile house in Rotterdam, to supply the requisition for the clothing of the French army, by a clandestine importation of cloth from England, and the looms of Yorkshire accordingly clothed ten thousand French soldiers.
The same commercial spirit was observed by the Dutch many years since to us, when, in a severe battle between the fleets of the Republic and Great Britain, during a cessation of the fight, for the mutual accommodation of repairing the damages sustained, some of the officers of the Dutch ships actually offered the captains of some of ours, supplies of gunpowder at an advanced price, in consequence of understanding that two or three of our ships had nearly exhausted their stores of it.
The Dey of Tunis made a more whimsical offer; when the heroic and immortal Nelson threatened to blow his capital about his ears, the Dey sent to his lordship to know the cost of every shot that would be fired, the answer was nearly a pound sterling; upon which the Dey said, if his lordship would calculate how many shots would be necessary to demolish his capital, and send him half the amount in good bills, he would destroy it himself.
I nowhere saw, except amongst the skippers, that mighty mass of breeches, in which my expectation had in part clothed every Dutchman’s frame: but the appearance of many of the men in long flowered waistcoats, and trunk hose, and the females in short plaited petticoats, blue stockings, and large round silver buckles projecting over either side of the foot, was very whimsical. Many of their dresses are hereditary; and grandfather,father, and son, have in regular succession proceeded to the altar in the same nuptial breeches. The quays of Rotterdam are very spacious, and every where embellished with trees; and the canals deeper and cleaner than in any other of the large cities in the kingdom.
In consequence of the features of every street being so similar, a stranger finds uncommon difficulty in reaching the place of his destination, or in returning to his hotel, without a guide.
After having secured a bedroom and deposited our luggage at the Mareschal de Turenne, kept by Mr. Crabb, an Englishman, who renders the character of a maitre d’hotel eminently respectable, by his attention to foreigners of every description, and to his own countrymen in particular, by moderate charges and excellent accommodations, we proceeded to the Exchange at two o’clock, when the merchants assemble.
This building is an oblong square with a covered walk on each side, and is plain and handsome. It was finished in 1736. I was astonished to find it crowded in every part, and presenting, in the activity and bustle which were displayed, every appearance of a great commercial country in a high state of prosperous tranquillity.
In this Babel assembly the greatest interest for a successful termination of the negotiation between France and England seemed anxiously to prevail; and induced a stranger like myself to think that the interests of Holland were pretty closely interwoven with those of England.
The arrival of English papers, and of couriers from Paris, never failed to excite a strong sensation from one end of the city to the other. Upon the exchange I saw several Englishmen transacting business; and such is the respect which the Dutch bear towards us, that we soon found the suspicion of our being English rather increased than damped the civilities we experienced.
As Rotterdam may be considered, as Bonaparte has recently described the city of Hamburg,une ville Anglaise, in consequence of so many English families having settled there before the revolution, and also of the proximity of its port to England, it waswith surprise I found that the new ruler and form of government were so popular as they are in this city.
In the years 1794 and 1795 the progress of the French arms excited uncommon consternation in this city, in which a higher veneration for the stadtholderian government, as established under the influence of England and Prussia in 1787, existed, than in any other city in the United Provinces.
As the French advanced, the principal English families fled with great precipitation, and were followed by many of the Dutch: their flight was in the most inclement part of a winter remarkably rigorous, and they were obliged to pass over frozen canals, rivers and deep snows, many by the most wretched open conveyances, in their way to Helvoetsluys, where they embarked for that country, which, since the time of the first Charles, has, thank Heaven! been neither the seat of war, nor of revolutionary phrenzy.
A short time before we visited Rotterdam, we heard that the king and queen had visited that city, the only one which they had then honoured with their presence, except the seat of the royal residence at the Hague.
Upon their arrival in the city, their majesties and the two princes, in their carriages, attended by their suite and an escort of horse, proceeded to the Exchange, where they were waited upon by the principal functionaries and a deputation of the most opulent merchants of the city. Their majesties appeared to be much affected by the very flattering manner in which they were received.
The queen, who is always mentioned by those who have had the honour of knowing her before and since the wonderful elevation of so many branches of her family, as a most amiable, enlightened, and accomplished woman, very much gratified some of the members, and the nation at large, by observing upon the Exchange: “We are deeply penetrated by the cordiality with which we have been received in the country; as strangers we could not, and did not expect such a reception; but we hope to remain long enough amongst you to secure your esteem, by doing all the good in our power.” This short address, delivered with that grace and manner, which, I am informed, are so characteristic of her majesty,captivated all the Dutchmen present, and spread with great celerity through every part of the city, and contributed to raise her very high in the public estimation.
From the Exchange their majesties proceeded to the Admiralty, and were gratified, for the first time in their lives, with seeing a man of war, a seventy-four, launched; and after partaking of a splendid collation, they passed through the principal streets in a single carriage, unattended by their body-guard. On this public occasion, the only external ornament which the king wore was the star of the legion of honour.
In the department of the admiralty, the king has effected many wise and salutary regulations. He has abolished all the sinecure offices attached to it, reduced overgrown salaries, and doubled the hours of labour of the 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 oftwo 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.
It is a subject of congratulation with every Englishman, that a similar spirit of economy and retrenchment animates the mindsof 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.
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.
The queen is, as she was also described to me, a brunette of considerable beauty, inclined to theen 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.
Their majesties have two princes who are very young; the eldest is called Napoleon after the emperor. Should the dynastyof the Bonapartes experience no convulsive overthrow, it is generally believed that, upon the demise of that extraordinary being, who has pushed so many kings from their thrones to make room for the members of his own family, the crown of France will devolve upon this child.
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.