ANTWERP, ANVERS, AMBERES, or a city of France, and capital or the department of Dcux Nethes, is situated in an extensive plain on the eastern bank of the river Scheldt, which is here 2160 feet broad, and from 20 to 40 feet deep, so that vessels of great burden can be brought into the harbour; and by means of eight canals which traverse the city, their cargoes can be unloaded at the doors of the warehouses. Though Antwerp no longer retains its former prosperity and splendour, yet it is still a large and well-built city. The streets, about 200 in number, and the squares, which amount to 22, are spacious and elegant. The street called the Mere, is so wide that six carriages can pass it abreast; and at the termination of it is a stupendous crucifix of brass, no less than 33 feet high. The cath-: dral church is a magnificent building, with one of the finest steeples in the world, and was adorned with the pictures of Rubens, which the rapacity of the French transferred to their own capital. The exchange, which cost 300,000 crowns, is reckoned the first in Europe, and was adopted as a model for the exchanges of Lon don and Antwerp. The celebrated and superb house of Oster/ins, or Osterlingucs, with its vast magazines and cellars, perhaps the largest in the world, in which every nation deposited its merchandise, will be an everlasting monument of that extensive commerce which once en riched this distinguished city. The churches in Ant werp were more numerous and elegant than in any other town of the Low Countries. The Jesuits' church, the chapel of the Virgin, and the magnificent and rich abbey of St Michael, have been regarded as its princi pal ornaments. In the year 1543, the city was enlarged, and inclosed with new walls, built of fine hewn stone, and adorned with rows of trees. The town is also de fended by a strong pentagonal citadel, erected in 1563 by the duke of Alva.
In the year 1256, the city of Hamburgh obtained for Antwerp, from Henry duke of Brabant, several privi leges; but particularly the right of trading with the states of the duke, in spite of the wars which he car ried on with the prince of Holstein. In 1313, Edward
II. made it the emporium for English wools, of which great quantities were now consumed in Brabant, Artois, and Flanders. With all these advantages, however, the trade of Antwerp was extremely trifling. Even in 1444, there were only four merchants and six vessels, which traded merely in the rivers. But when the com pany of associated merchants quitted Middleburgh, and established themselves at Antwerp, the commerce of this city extended to wools, drabs, lead, cotton, leather, and other articles of merchandise ; and in a short time afterwards, it became the staple for the commerce of all the northern nations. About the end of the fifteenth century, when Bruges was brought under subjection to the archduke Maximilian, the merchants and the com merce of that city were transferred to Antwerp, which had seconded the views of Maximilian. The commerce of Antwerp, already flourishing beyond any former ex ample, was, from two particular causes, destined to a still higher aggrandisement. The free fairs, two,of which lasted six weeks, that were established in this city by the sovereigns of the Low Countries, attracted, from every corner of Europe, crowds of adventurous merchants, who brought along with them, free of duty, the merchandise of their respective countries, and trans acted business to an immense extent. The Portuguese, too, who had hitherto carried to Lisbon the spices, drugs, and other productions of the east, now transfer red them to Antwerp, whose central position, as it were in the middle of Europe, rendered it more advantageous as the emporiumlof eastern commerce. About the year 1550, the epoch of its greatest prosperity, it was com mon to see 2000 vessels at once in the port of Antwerp. The harbour of Armigden, in the Isle of Walcheren, was now the rendezvous of these vessels ; and often con tained 500 large merchantmen, ready to sail to their respective countries. This harbour is now completely choaked with sand.