HAERLEM, or HAARLEM, a town in the United Pro vinces, 12 miles west of Amsterdam, and 151 north of Leyden, is a place of considerable antiquity, and has ex perienced many vicissitudes in its history. In 1249, the citizens, having signalized themselves in the crusades, were rewarded with great privileges by William, king of the Romans, and Comte of Holland.. At different times, et pecially in 1347 and 1351, it was almost entirely consumed by fire. In 1492, it was seized and pillaged by the faction of the Caes-cn-brool, but was recovered by Albert, duke of Saxony, who punished the insurgents, and deprived the inhabitants of their privileges. At the request of Philip 11. of Spain, it was erected into a bishop's see by Pope Paul V. ; but, in 1571, the citizens embraced the Protes tant faith, and submitted to the Prince of Orange. It was besieged in 1572 by Frederick of Toledo, son of the Duke of Alva, and for the space of eight months made a most desperate resistance. Even the women of the place form ed themselves into regular battalions, and shared in all the duties of the garrison. At length, worn out by famine and fatigue, they agreed to surrender, upon condition that the lives of the garrison and of the citizens should be spared ; but the articles of capitulation were perfidiously violated, and two thousand of the soldiers and inhabitants were massacred in cold blood. In 1577, it was finally united with the States.
Haerlem is a large and handsome town, well built, and well paved. Its streets are broad and regular ; and, like the other towns of Holland, it abounds in canals, bridges, and trees. The buildings most worthy of notice are the palace, the public library, and the church. The last is a very large structure, crowded, as is common in that coun try, with square wooden monuments, without any name, but having the arms of the deceased painted on a black ground, and the date of the death in gold letters. Its principal ornament is the organ, which is accounted the finest in the world, and which occupies the whole west end of the nave. It is supported by eight marble columns, be tween two of which in the centre is a noble emblematical alto-relievo, with figures as large as life. It was built in 1738, and has 8000 pipes, the largest of which is 32 feet in length, and 16 inches in diameter. There are 60 stops or voices, four separations, two shakes, two couplings, and twelve bellows. There is a pipe, which imitates the sound of the human voice, but it generally disappoints the expec tations of strangers. The power and variety of tone pos sessed by this instrument is said to be truly astonishing. Some of its notes are so delicate as scarcely to exceed the warblings of a small singing bird ; and others so loud, as to shake the massy pile in which it stands. " When the whole strength of the organ is exerted," says Mr Fell, "never did I hear, or could conceive, sounds more godlike. The swelling majesty of each gigantic note seems of more than mortal birth, and the slightest sounds enchant the ear.
Solemnity, grandeur, delicacy, and harmony, are the cha racteristics of this noble instrument." It is played on two days of the week, for an hour each time ; and the church is, on these occasions, the resort of the first company of the place. Haerlem is still more justly celebrated as the birth-place of Laurence Costar, who is said to have invent ed the art of printing, and the site of whose house is still pointed out to strangers by an inscription. He is said to have made the discovery by cutting the initial letters of his name upon a piece of bark, and using it as a seal ; and specimens of the infancy of the art are preserved in the town-Muse. An academy of sciences was founded in 1752; and there is an elegant museum of natural history, formed by Dr Van Marum, superior to any other cabinet in Holland. The articles are in an excellent state of per scrvation, and arranged with scientific taste. The insects of the Papilio tribe are said to be particularly numerous, and many of them of the rarest description. There is an institution founded by Peter Teyler Vander Hulst, a rich merchant of Haerlem, who bequeathed the whole of his fortune for the improvement of knowledge, and the relief of the poor. Its annual revenues are said to have amount ed, before the revolution, to the sum of 100,000 florins ; but, instead of being applied to objects of science, they were allowed to accumulate, and arc suspected to have been secretly appropriated, during the ascendancy of the French republic, to the urgent necessities of the state. The Stadthouse is a magnificent building at one end of the marketplace, and contains a number of valuable paintings, among which is the first piece in oil, by Eyert, in 1437, which was sold during the siege in 1572 for a few stivers, and is now valued at 20001. Haerlem is not a place of much trade ; but is celebrated for its flourishing manufac tures of velvets, damasks, fine linens, dimities, satins, worsted stuffs, ribbons, &c. which employ a number of workmen, and supply a profitable branch of traffic with Germany and Brabant. Its bleacheries, also, are famous for the delicate whiteness which they give to linen cloths, which has been attributed to a peculiar quality in the wa ters of the lake of Haerlem, incapable of imitation by any chemical process hitherto discovered. Great quantities of beer are exported to Friesland, &c.; and a gainful trade is carried on in flowers, one of which, a hyacinth, seen by M. Dutens in 1771, was valued by its owner at 10,000 florins. In the neighbourhood of the town are several handsome villas, and a wood of considerable extent full of delightful walks. About three miles distant is an exten sive lake, called Haerlem Meer ; sometimes, also, the Sea of Leyden, generally ten feet in depth, and containing a surface of fifteen square leagues. The population of Haerlem is 30,000. East Long. 4° 38' 19", North Lat. 52° 22' 56". See Trotter's Illenzoirg of Fox ; Fell's Tour in Holland; Carr's Tour in Holland ; and Owen's Travels, vol. i. (q)