The interior of the houses belonging to the higher classes in Amsterdam is very elegant; the decoration and furniture of their rooms is very much in the French style: they are also very fond of having a series of landscapes, painted in oil colours, upon the sides of the rooms, instead of stucco or paper, or of ornamenting them with pictures and engravings. The average rent of respectable houses, independent of taxes, is from one thousand to twelve hundred florins. The dinner hour, on account of the exchange, is about four o’clock in this city, and their modes of cooking unite those of England and France: immediately after dinner the whole company adjourn to coffee in the drawing-room. The water in this part of Holland is so brackish and feculent that it is not drank even by the common people. There are water-merchants, who are constantly occupied in supplying the city with drinkable water, which they bring in boats from Utrecht and Germany, in large stone bottles: the price of one of these bottles, containing a gallon, is about eight pence English. The poor, who cannot afford to buy it, substitute rain-water. The wines drank are principally claret and from the Rhine. The vintage of Portugal has no more admirers here than at Rotterdam, except amongst young Dutchmen, who have either been much in England, or are fond of the taste and fashions of our country. CHAPTER XVI. POLICE ... FIRES ... LAWS RELATING TO DEBTORS ... DITTO TO BANKRUPTS ... THE AANSPREEKERS ... SINGULAR CUSTOM ... THE TROKENKORB ... THE STREETS ... INSALUBRITY OF STAGNANT CANALS ... SOCIETIES FOR RECOVERING DROWNED PERSONS ... NOBLE CONDUCT OF THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER ... POLISH GRATITUDE ... AUSTRIA ... THE EXCHANGE ... A DUTCH MERCHANT ... HERRING FISHERY.