Many people ale employed in the immense inland shipping-trade which the canal net work has fostered, there being, when the previous census was taken, 6.684 ships inhab. ited by families, or one inhabited ship to 81 houses. The houses were 542,295; families, 668.911. Fishing, not only in the inland 'waters, the coasts, and bays of the North sea, but also on the coast of Scotland, is vigorously pursued. In 1873 the total value of the herrings taken in the North sea was £127,660, 102 vessels having been employed; on the Netherlands coasts, to the value of N77,734; and in the Znyder Zee and coasts were taken 87,331,950 herrings. The anchovy take, almost exclusively in the Znyder Zee, amounted to 30.000 :miters, valued at about £58,700. There are productive oyster beds, besides extensive fishings of cod, ling, turbot, flounders, soles, shrimps, haddock, etc.; and from the rivers, salmon, eels, perch, etc.
&ports, Imports, Shipping, etc.—The Netherlands is peculiarly a mercantile as well as agricultural country; its merchants not only and exporting the products of their colonies and the surplus of their own country, also those of other lands. The general imports (1875) were 6,520,217dons; exports, 3,200,944 tons. The value of goods imported for use was ,C59,820,520, and of exports, S.:44,014,242, home produce; both were less in 1876. The leading exports arc cheese, butter, refilled sugar, flax, cattle, sheep, pigs, garancine, etc.; the imports, manufactured goods, unrefined sugar, coffee, grain. iron, yarns, cotton, rice, gold, silver, tin, tea, indigo. silk, and woolen fabrics. The trade with Great Britain is large and varied, and carried on chiefly by steam-vessels.
In 1877, 8,166 vessels (of Which 2,48g were Dutch). with a burden of 8,110,327 tons, entered Dutch ports; and 4,036 (of which 2,638 were Dutch), of 4.852,850 tons, cleared. The mercantile marine of the Netherlands in 1878 comprised 1247 sea-going vessels (79 being steamers), with a tonnage of 958,652. The trade along the rivers, by Belgian and German ships, is large. In 1873 the goods passing up the Rhine amounted to 844.191 tons, and from Germany down, 1,538,080. This trade consists largely of grain, timber, and coal. Wheat carried up, 110,268 tons, and rye, 116,774 tons; down, 4.854 tons of wheat, and 10,355 of potatoes. Timber, upwards, 86,042 tons; downwards, 56,087 tons. Coal, 1.026,119; and iron, 31,119 tons.
Religion, Education, etc.—At the last census (1879) there were 2,193,281 Protestants, 1,313,052 Roman Catholics, 68.003 Jews, and 5,193 to small sects. There were (Jan. 1, 1875) 2,034 Protestant ministers, of whom 1598 were Dutch Reformed; 2,062 Roman Catholic priests; and 168 Jewish congregations. The official estimate of
the population at the beginning of 1878 gave the total at 3,924,702.
There are rive dialects spoken respectively in Groningen, Friesland, Gelderland, Hob land, and Zealand. These differ considerably from each other, and the Frisian is not at all understood by natives of the other provinces. The written language is the Dutch, that branch of the great Teutonic stock which preserves more of its original character than the rest of the same family. It possesses numerous words the same as Lowland Scotch, and bears a strong affinity to the old Saxon English, as the following Dutch pro verb shows: Ala de wyn is In den man, is de wysheid in de Ican.
The kingdom of the Netherlands has produced many great names in all branches of literature and science. Coster (q. v,). according to his countrymen. invented printing. Leettwenhoek the microscope, and Huygens applied the pendulum. Out of a long list of distinguished names, may be mentioned those of Erasmus, Scaliger, Heinsius, Hugo de Groot (Grotius), Huygens. Leeuwenhoek, itringa, Boerhave, and the poets Hooft, Von del. and Cats; whilst the writings of Van der Palm, Van Lennep, Des Amoire van der Hoeven, Haafner, Stuart, Van Kampen, and those of the poets Bilderdyk. Da Coma, De Bull, Van den Berg, ter Haar, and Hofdyk. show that literature is not waning. Exclu sive of newspapers. there are 226 magazines and periodicals published in the:Nether lands, of which 67 are religious, 42 on art, belles-lettres, and general literature, and 7 on antiquity. history.rete. - beading prrintas of the old Distil .solior0 *ere Rembrandt. Gerrit (Gerard) 15ba; G thriel• Metzn, Jan Steen, Paul 'Potter, ROyridaarVarr der IIelst; and among those of the present century, Ary Scheirer, Koekoek, Scbelfhout, Pieueman, Kruseman, Van Os Craeyvauger, Ten Kate, Israels, Bles, Louis Meyer, Hoeloff, Springer, etc., have distinguished themselves.
There are universities at Leyden, Utrecht, and Groningen; uthenaums or colleges at Amsterdam, Deventer and Maastricht, the students attending which must be examined for degrees at one of the universities. Latin schools are in all the leading towns. The universities and athenwums have faculties of theology, medicine, philosophy, law, and f . letters. There are also the royal military and naval academy at Breda, and that for {engineers and the India civil service at Delft; seminaries in several places for the train ' ing of the Homan Catholic clergy; and others, especially in Amsterdam, for those of the smaller Protestant sects; and many literary, scientific, and agricultural institutes.