The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1869-10-19

SadOr IRON Great britain to Holland IN
1868, and who also had his finger in the
AK laChapelie treaty pie, says in his lit
tie book on the Plays-Bas that the "Ro.
mans considered the isle of Holland which
was then called Batavia, rather as an
allied than subject province, because
the people were so valiant that they were
obliged TO contribute nothing except
troops of soldiers, who were highly es-
tecmed for their valor." This old minister
in his queer little book, written in ancient
French, tells good many things about
Dutchland and the Dutchmen which cor
responds exactly with their character tc-
day. He certainly gives them every
qualification of nobility among the world !
peoples, and they deserve it now as they
deserved it before that period which Mr..
Motley has so wonderfully described and
Victor Sardon so gloriously illustrated in
his drama of "Country." There was once
Il bad lot in Holland it was before the
reign of Charlemagnc, when the people
lived by hunting and by violent modes
rather than by the arts of peace, and al
lowed the country to degenerate into
forests One word more from the Chev-
alier Temples book and then begin my
campaign. He says: "Thcse low lands
not being at first industriously worked,
degencrated into forests and afterward
into marshes. to which condition all lands
which remain deserted in temperate
climes are reduced. For when, after
frequent and continuous rains, the waters
which descend from the high places into
the valleys find no canals by which they
can discharge themselves, they 20 mosten
and saturate fat country that inaccess-
Bile marshes are soon likely to be the
result So that the Dntchmcn of to-day
are in travail constantly for the sins OF
their ancestors, who perferred hunting and
cutting throats to the imminent needs of
the "moist, unpleasant country
The inevitable Mr.. Cook, that excur-
sionist who seduees the steady English
man into the dissipations of travel by
selling him railway and steamboat tickets
at a microscopic price, and feeding him
at Continental tables d'hoted for one-half
what he can supply his own board, got
ahead Of me in my trip to Amsterdam,
and filled the train which transports pas
sengers Hollandward with his jolly Eng
lish workmen, bound to the international
exhibition. One of the best routes
to Holland is from London to Hsrwich
pronounced Hauwidgc in England and
thence across German Ocean to Rottcr-
dam. The boats which supply this service
are the only approach to our comfortable
American ones which have seen in Eng
lish ports Mr.. Cook Las | said, had filled
the train with workmen to that degree
that we outside the excursion pale had to
improyise seats ont of cloaks and coats
something never before saw done on an
English railway. Arrived at Harwich. a
mean town with a gigantic hotel and n
pretty fort, we were forwarded by the
night service to Rotterdam, across the
German Ocean. | went to sleep in Eng.
land and woke up in Holland. | turned
into my bunk in country which | had
come to consider as the social antipode ot
America, and | turned out of it in one
which occupied the same relation to Eng.
land. | went to bed in land Whose
coasts proudly resist the encroachments OF
: the sea, unassisted by art and arose in
Il country which has no coasts, where
dykes answer for shores. After the chalk
cliffs of Dover, to see the level shores Of
the Lower Rhine is one of the greatest
I contrasts in Europe. One does not ap'
preciate the immense amount of labor
that has been necessary to keep all these
waters in check until he has promenaded
where the country is thickest scanned
with canals and had Dutchman point
out to him each petty detail, which has
taken such gigantic force to perfect
As one sails up the Rhine from tn,
mouth he is impressed with the idea that
| Holland is at least pleasant country
, No hills, no huge goodly mountains loom
f ing up, clad with noble trees,no deep val
| leys setting plains in gloriou reliet, bu
l huge masses of foliage and verdure o
gardens and basquets, pierced by thu
whiring sails of wind-mills and by tn,
oddly shaped roofs of the villas, wher'
the Dutch merchants enjoy their summe
retreats. Here and there long dykes in
tersect a plain, and a canal stretche
away in tiresome evenness of banks ant
straight as an arrow until it is lost t,
. view. Great stacks of hay and grail
stand on the banks of the canals, crown
ed with neatly plated roofs of straw
worked in artistic shapes; and from tn,
mouth of the Rhine to Rotterdam hug
I ships fIom the colonies are anchored o
n drifting in, crammed with the riches o
t Batavia and Sunda. If one enters tn
: percincts of Dutchland on Sunday h
I will see almost as gala population a
that of Paris on that day of days. Their
is nothing sad or stupid in the Dutcl
composition. They are as lively as
: gem picture of the Flemish school whe
S they amuse themselves, and | fancy it j
] only because they have to work so eau
;, tiously that they seem to labor slowly.
a Getting into the streets of Rotterdam
: and wandering at ones will, the first i'm
,, preston is that the town has broken loos
d that the different streets have been dane
ing together, and finally struggled bacl
of their own accord, in irregular files, t
e assume the places where they once stood
n hut which they could not return to proper
Q ly. The Cathedral appears to be ruth
+ lessly jostled and squeezed by variet
@ of insignificant buildings around it, an
{ the main buildings and banks are crowd
d ed into obscure corners. 1t is as imposs
It bic as in Venice to 80 into a strang
C street without cncountering bridge, an
's in Holland these bridges all swimming o
e pivots, or open up as rapidly as jacl
1t knife, 80 that the unwary passenger some
= times finds himself hoisted suddenly i
i air, while the rakish masts ola vess,
G scrape through the extemporized aperture
n The combination of letters on the sign