They are remarkable, indeed, for their quietism in re gard to politics; and a similar principle now extends also to religion. In the Netherlands, there is, properly speaking, no established religion, the followers of every sect being eligible to all offices in the state, and the preachers of every sect not only tolerated, but paid by the government funds. In the northern plovinces, Cal vinism is the prevailing doctrine: and the Court is of the same persuasion. The Catholic creed prevails in the southern provinces; in the whole kingdom, its fol lowers outnumber the Protestants in more than the pro portion of two to one. But the wealth of either church is small, the salary of a clergyman seldom amounting to X200, frequently bordering on X70 : and the govern ment, extending its protection to all ministers of reli gion indiscriminately, is enabled to secure the adherence and profit by the influence of all.
In regard to education, there is a rather liberal pro vision in the Netherlands. Parish schools have long been established in Holland, and an additional arrange mem renders them more effective than elsewhere. There is a classification introduced among the school masters of Holland. Four ranks are settled by law ; no one is allowed to begin teaching till Ile has enrolled himself in one of those ranks; and two special com missions exist in each province for examining the quali fications of an applicant, and issuing his license to give instruction in the prescribed branches, if his trial prove satisfactory. In Belgium, without any parochial esta blishment, a competent school-master is yet generally to be found in every village. The higher departments of learning, the four languages, as they are called, Latin, French, German, English, with the elements of mathe matics, rhetoric, and some minor accomplishments, are taught in the royal schools in most of the principal towns. There is a military academy at Dort, a naval one at Sluys ; and the religious bodies have in many cases seminaries of their own. To complete the sys tem, there are six universities; that of Leyden, that of Utrecht, the smaller though older one of Groningen, that ol Louvain, re-opened in 1816 by a royal charter, which also created two new ones, that of Ghent, and that of Liege. Some of those establishments were ohce llou fishing and renowned ; they are now but poorly attend ed. The professors have participated imperfectly in the
modern progress of science ; their lectures are mono tonous, and still delivered in Latin.
The Netherlands, with all its apparatus for education, is not an intellectual country. It has no national litera tute—none current among its people, or at all known to foreigners. 'che Dutch language is unfavourable to this purpose ; and the Flemish, a kindred dialect of the German, and differing from the former chiefly in accent, is not more so. Vondel is almost the only native poet of Holland. He lived towards the end of the seven teenth century, in the humble capacity of a tailor, and wrote tragedies, which, in spite of their rude barbarous extravagance, are said to display gleams of a high dra matic genius. This mental poverty, however, proceeds from no want of faculties in the people. The telescope and the art of printing, are Dutch inventions. In for mer times, Holland, if it had no national literature, was inferior to few countries in any of those departments which depend on the exercise of a just intellect, and patient observation. Erasmus and Grotius, in moral science, Ilityghens, Boerhaave, Swaminerdam, Leuwen hock, in natural, are universally known. The intellec tual fame of the southern provinces, again, rests chiefly on their painters. It is unnecessary to do more than mention the names of Rubens, Van Dyke, Rembrandt.
Belgium has produced authors, too, though in a smaller number. Lipsius, well kflown to classical scholars, was a native of Brussels. Froissart and Philip de Com mines were both 'Walloons, though their birth places are now included in France. At present, the Netherlands are not without many men of cultivated understandings, who are useful and admired at home ; but their fame hardly extends to other countries; and thc great lights of Europe must all be sought for elsewhere.
See Watson's Histories of Philip II. and of Philip ; Schiller's eloquent and philosophial fragment, the Geshicte des Abfalls der vercinigten Xeiderlande ; Vol tairc.'s Siecles de Louis XIV. et de Louis XV. ; Raynall's Histoire du Stadthouderat. See also Mitchell's Travels in Belgiunz ; Boyce's Belgian Traveller ; Reichard's Guide dcs Voyageurs, § PAYS BAS.