BRUSSELS, or BRUXELLES, a city of France, for merly the capital of Brabant, and of the Austrian Netherlands, now the chief place of the prefecture of the department of the Dyle, is situated on the river Senne, in a fertile and picturesque country, about 27 miles S. of Antwerp, with which it communicates by a canal, and 177 N. by E. of Paris. It is a rich, hand some, and populous city, rising from the river to an eminence on the east, and unites the magnificence of Paris with the cleanness of a Dutch town. Brussels is encompassed by a double brick wall, with seven gates, and about seven miles in circumference ; and without the walls contains seven parishes, Ste. Guduie, Notre Dame de la Chapelle, St Geri, St Nicholas, Ste. Cathe rine, St Jaques de Caubergue, and Notre Dame de Finis terra. It is surrounded with extensive suburbs, con sisting of several villages, and joined to the city by a continuity of streets and buildings. The city is divided into eight sections. The older and lower streets are small and crooked, but the more modern ones are straight and wide. The houses are lofty and well built, and its public structures display both taste and magni ficence. The ducal palace, where the governor used to reside, stands upon an eminence, with a large square before it, encircled with pillars of brass, on which are statues of several emperors and dukes of Brabant, as large as life. It was begun in 1300, by John II., duke of Brabant, and finished by the successors of Philip the Good in 1521. It then contained one of the most beautiful chapels in Europe, which was pulled down in 1777, to make room for the new square called Place Royale. This superb building is now converted into a central school for the department of the Dyle, to which is attached a public library, a botanical garden, and a collection of paintings. The school is divided into three classes. In the first are taught, drawing, natural history, and the Creek and Roman classics ; in the second, mathematics, physics, and chemistry ; and in the third, universal grammar, the fine arts, history, and jurisprudence. The library was collected from the Belgic emigrants, and the libraries of the suppressed cloisters. It contains about 120,000 volumes, and sonic valuable MSS. Behind the palace, at the extremity of an extensive and beautiful park, well stocked with deer, 5 B stood a. pleasure-house, built by order of Charles V., and where he resided six months previous to his abdicating the imperial throne. This fine park was
nearly destroyed by the French soldiery and the Belgic sans-culottes, and would have been totally laid waste, had not the French general interposed, and prevented its total destruction. It has, however, been restored to its former beauty by the municipality of Brussels, at their own expence. In the great market-place, which is the most beautiful in the world, is the Hotel do Ville, begun in 1380, and finished in 1442. The building is Gothic, and has a most magnificent appearance. Its turret is an admirable piece of Gothic architecture, 364 feet in height, and surmounted by a statue of St "Michael with the dragon, in copper gilt, 17 feet high. This statue turns upon a pivot, and acts as a vane. In one of the apartments of the Hotel de Ville were for merly held the meetings of the states of Brabant. It is handsomely ornamented ; and in three other rooms is the history of the resignation of Charles V., so beautifully wrought in tapestry, that it may be mistaken for painting. This edifice is now appropriated to dif ferent tribunals, and one of the wings is converted into a prison. The church of Ste. Gudule is a very magni ficent structure, situated in a high part of the city, and approached by a flight of steps. It contains no less than sixteen chapels, all of which arc decorated with some very capital paintings. The chapel of Notre Dame is also a beautiful old building ; and the church of the capuchins is the finest which that order possesses in Europe. But since the last conquest of Belgium, nearly one third of the churches have been shut up, and despoiled of their plate and pictures. Besides these, there are many palaces belonging to the nobility, in which are some of the most valuable paintings, by the best Flemish masters. Brussels has also 20 public fountains, embellished with statues, one of which is a child in brass, so admirably executed, that it has excited the notice of the first connoisseurs. The hospitals are well endowed, among which are a foundling hospital, and one for penitent courtesans ; and also an hospital where strangers were maintained free of expcnce for three days. Brussels had once an imperial and royal academy of sciences and belles letters, which was instituted by letters patent, the 16th of December 1772, and whose memoirs from 1777 to 1758, are pub lished in 5 vols. 4to ; but, " like all other antient institu tions," says a French writer, this society exists no longer.