to Germany, Turkey, Portugal, and other countries: they also bought the cheapest butter and cheese in the north of England, and in Ireland, for their own consumption, and sent the best of those articles produced in their own country to foreign markets. The wealth which many individuals accumulated by their parsimonious habits was astonishing. The following anecdote will place this part of the national character in a striking point of view. As the marquis of Spinola and the president Richardot were going to the Hague in the year 1608, for the purpose of negotiating a truce with the Dutch, they saw on their way eight or nine persons step out of a little boat, and seat themselves upon the grass, where they made a frugal repast upon some bread, cheese, and beer; each person taking his own provisions from a wallet which he carried behind him. Upon the Spanish ambassadors inquiring of a peasant who these travellers were, he replied, to their no little astonishment, “they are the deputies of the states, our sovereign lords and masters.” Upon which the ambassadors exclaimed, “We shall never be able to conquer these people; we must make peace with them.” In the history of Sparta we can only look for a similar instance of virtuous simplicity. Another source from which Amsterdam derived great wealth was the exchange and banking business. From her peculiar situation, vast credit; and extensive correspondence with every nation upon the face of the globe, this city has been the channel through which nearly three parts of the money remitted from one state to another in Europe have passed, and which have enriched the merchants by the customary commissions upon such remittances: to which may be added the duties payable upon all imports received from the manufactures of the western part of Germany, upon all goods which in their transit by the Rhine and by the Maas to foreign markets must pass through Amsterdam or Rotterdam, from which Holland must have derived a considerable revenue. In short, in other and better times, the trade with Great Britain, Persia, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Cochin and its dependencies, Molucca, China, Japan, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Pomerania, Livonia, the possession of that important promontory the Cape of Good Hope, and the commerce of the Elbe, the Weser, and the Maas, all contributed to raise Amsterdam to the commercial renown which she once enjoyed. Yet, notwithstanding, under all her difficulties, arising from her territorial and marine losses by the war, the severity of the English blockade, the activity of the English cruisers, and of the French privateers, Holland still continues to carry on a considerable intercourse with her old connexions through the medium of neutral bottoms, secured by insurances effected frequently at the enormous premium of 20_l._ per cent.