Thomas à Kempis, so celebrated for his extraordinary piety, was born in the neighbourhood of this city in 1380. The last edition of his works is that of Cologne 1660, 3 vols. folio; his most celebrated work was entitled ‘De Imitatione Christi;’ which, on account of its great piety and merit, has been translated into almost every living language. This work has been attempted to be ascribed to an abbot of the name of Gerson, of the order of St. Benedict, which for many years produced severe controversies between the canons of St. Augustine, to which Thomas à Kempis belonged, and the Benedictines. The celebrated William Caxton opened his printing office here in 1471, and printed the work of Le Fevre, which was three years afterwards published in London, where he had the honour of being the first to introduce the invaluable art of printing. Adam Schule the mathematician, who died at Pekin, was a calendar here. Vondel the Dutch Virgil was born here, as was the wonderful Maria Schurman, who was well versed in twelve languages, and wrote five classically, besides excelling in every accomplishment then known. Excess of genius and learning made her melancholy mad, and she died from an inordinate debauch in eating spiders. The Town House is a very ancient edifice, and contains the only specimen of Grecian architecture in the city. There were three ecclesiastical electorates in Germany, viz. Cologne, Mayence, and Treves, which have been abolished by Napoleon. The revenues of the elector of Cologne amounted to upwards of two hundred thousand pounds. Cologne must have been declining for some centuries, for in the year 1200 it was capable of furnishing thirty thousand men for the field, a number which its present population is said not to exceed. The whole of the trade of this town was extensive before the last war, and at one period, in spite of its bigotted rulers, it was one of the richest and most flourishing cities in Germany: its traders carry outward annually large quantities of salted provisions from Westphalia, iron from the forges of Nassau, wood from the Upper Rhine and the Neckar, wine, hemp, tobacco, brass, tufo stone, tobacco-pipe clay, millet, gins, dried fruits, potash, copper, ribbands, stockings, and lace: and they purchase of the Dutch paper, oil, cottons, groceries, spices, medicinal drugs, also for dyeing, and English lead and tin.