“--better to bear the ills we have, Than fly to others we know not of.” If, under the successive sovereignties of Austria and France, and as an integral portion of that of Holland, she had not the poetical satisfaction of being “a nation instead of a province,” she had, at least, the substantial enjoyments of liberty, wealth and remunerative industry, blessings which even “hereditary bondsmen” might hesitate to exchange for bigotry, poverty and decay. CHAPTER V. AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. Change in the aspect of the country in crossing the frontier from Belgium into Prussia--Passports no real inconvenience--Anecdote of a Jamaica planter--First view of AIX-LA-CHAPELLE--Its population and employments--_Insurrection of the patriots in 1830_--Its absurd termination--The Cathedral of Charlemagne--Its architecture--Donation of Mary, Queen of Scots--THE TOMB OF CHARLEMAGNE--His singular mode of interment--The relics in the treasury--The Redoute--Gaming discountenanced in Prussia--_The Hotel de Ville_--Statue and fountain of Charlemagne--Environs of Aix agreeable--Political condition of the Trans-Rhenan provinces of Prussia--_Excellent posting arrangements_--Improvement suggested in England--Aspect of the country to Juliers--JULIERS--_Neuss_--Trade in crushing oil might be advantageously introduced in Ireland--The church of St. Quirinus--The Rhine. WITHOUT any material change in the general aspect of the country, a hundred little incidental matters quickly apprize the stranger who has crossed the Belgian frontier, that he has passed into Prussia. The jolting of the pavé is changed, in an instant, for the smooth roll of macadamization: instantaneously, instead of the French he has been accustomed to, he is saluted in German by the douaniers: every stake and wooden bar about the custom-house is accurately ring-streaked, like a barber’s pole, only with white and black instead of crimson--and the lumbering post boy of Belgium, with a half Hibernian license of costume, is replaced by the trim postilion, in his military uniform, and trumpet slung across his shoulder, with a profusion of worsted lace and tassels. The aspect of the country, too, is different, and the broad, French-like, sweeps of hill and valley, which extend through Limbourg, became broken up into wide inclosures, diversified with abundance of woods and luxuriant plantings.