are not sparing in windows; and it is not uncommon to see a room of fifteen feet square with four windows ten feet high. Until last year (1828) the Regence swept the streets only once a week, and permitted all the rubbish from the houses to be thrown into the middle of them, which was removed at the discretion of the mud-contractors; and dead dogs and cats, and broken crockery, &c. might be seen under the noses of royalty. At length it was suggested to levy a voluntary contribution on the inhabitants to sweep before their doors, but few amateurs were found, and finally, a few gangs of paupers and old women were employed with brooms, and the scrapings removed daily.

With all this slovenliness and parsimony, the Park is well kept and guarded, to prevent dilapidations, and beggars getting admittance. The pompiers (firemen) were formerly employed in this duty, but now half a dozen strapping Wallons are the guardians, six feet high, in scarlet coats, black velvet nether garments, and white stockings, carrying an enormous cane, with a silver knob as large as a pumpkin; fierce cocked hats with silver lace, and a broad velvet sash trimmed with the same: these gentlemen ushers walk along the alleys all day long, and are extremely active in preventing porters from carrying any thing across the walks, and cook-maids their marketings. I lately saw from my window a fracas between one of these Jacks in office and a drummer, which terminated in the thumper of parchment being obliged to retire; but on what principle I know not, for his drum could not be considered as a parcel, or a market basket! This delightful garden is not to be equalled in any city I have ever seen; it affords a dry walk in all seasons, and an agreeable shade from a scorching sun. None are excluded but beggars and notorious women. The tired labourer, or mechanic, may be seen reposing on the benches, or stretching at full-length under the trees, taking his siesta, while the children and their nurses are picking daisies on the prairies, and catching butterflies; the old, and infirm, and the invalid, enjoy the agrémens of this beautiful spot, and the haut-ton and the citizens mix indiscriminately in the fashionable promenades, listening to a band of music, and admiring each other's gay costumes, on a holiday. The poet may here compose his verses in solitude, without fear of interruption in his reveries; for in many alleys it is as retired as the forest of Soignie, of which this garden formed a part sixty years ago.

Great praise is due to the projectors of the new botanic garden and observatory, lately planned, and nearly completed, at the eastern extremity of the Rue Royal, one of the finest streets on the Continent. This garden is most tastefully laid out, and the green-houses are perhaps unique, though designed by an amateur. Green glass has been employed in their construction, which, besides being pleasing to the eye, it is said, is more favourable to the growth of plants and flowers.

The gardens were laid out by a citizen, who also gave the elevation of the conservatories, but I know not whether at the expense of the Regence or by subscription of the inhabitants: be this as it may, they are extremely beautiful, and a great ornament to the city.

Three of the gates are completed, and are handsome; the tops of the iron railing being gilt, have a fine effect.

The Port Guillaume, leading to Laackin, is of stone, and represents on an entablature the Regence delivering the keys of the city to Wil

liam the First. This gate also conducts to the Allée Verte, the summer corso (drive) along the banks of the canal; but not being paved or gravelled, it can only be used in dry weather. A heavy shower of rain occasions it to be shut, and it is at all times damp from its low situation; but a thousand Guillaumes would render it dry and accessible during eight months of the year.

A magnificent building is now erecting (1829) as a repository of arts and manufactures, which will be completed in a short time. It will be of great extent, and useful as well as ornamental. An institution of this sort was much wanted; for though the Flemings will not admit that they are far behind France and England in the useful arts, yet such is the fact, especially in implements of agriculture, and many branches of mechanics. In architecture they are still farther in the back-ground; and here their economy again interferes; for though Roman cement could be had cheaper than in England, (as part of the material comes from the Rhine,) yet it is but little employed in their new buildings, and a column or pilaster is seldom seen. The river Meuse affords a very superior slate near its banks; yet the Brusselois cover their perpendicular roofed houses with a ponderous dingy tile, as costing less!

A large and commodious hospital has been finished a few years, which does great honour to the city; and considerable attention is paid to the poor, a most numerous body, exceeding a fifth of the population.

The King's Palace is a large and convenient structure, but part of it only is of modern date, and as a whole it is not very princely; but the state-chambers are handsome and spacious. Another palace has been lately erected for the Prince of Orange, also in the Park, which does not do great credit to the taste of the architect, who, studying simplicity, has designed a tame building, resembling an hospital or a manufactory. The Etats Generaux, (House of Commons, copied from the Amphitheatre at Verona,) is a truly superb room, and well adapted to its purpose. The Chamber of Peers is very inferior. They were both burned down five years after they were finished, (along with a temporary residence of the Hereditary Prince,) and rebuilt, on the original model, by Vanderstraeten. A Palace of Justice has also been built since the accession. The front is handsome.

The Rue Royale has been extended nearly half a mile, and only wants a pavement to make it a very fine street. Farther improvements are projecting, and it is probable that in twenty years the upper part of this city will be one of the prettiest on the Continent. A splendid gate, in the form of a triumphal arch, leading to Waterloo, and a Place d'Armes, are immediately to be commenced; and, it is said, a large portion of ground in that direction is to be taken into the town, part of which is to be converted into a garden for the Prince. A new theatre was erected in the year 1821; and there is a small one, for little farces and operas, in the Park.

The objectionable tax on bread, the chief food of the lower orders, is still in activity, though motions have been made in the Etats Generaux to repeal it, but hitherto without success. Nothing can grind the poor so much as this tax. The Octroi, pretty universal in all parts of the Continent, is also an impolitic mode of revenue, and extremely unjust; for there can be no principle of common sense in making a man pay for the commodities of life, because he lives within the gates of a

town, a certain per centage more than his neighbour beyond it. The plea, I understand, is, that it is by this tax the Corporations are enabled to pay for lighting and paving the streets, &c. But, surely, it would be more just that a certain sum should be levied on householders, according to their means, than an extra and partial duty laid on provisions. This would save expense in collecting, supersede the necessity of locking up the inhabitants at night, and do away with smuggling. Habit reconciles men to be under this restraint; but it could not exist in some countries, nor would it be possible to shut up the inhabitants in such an overgrown city as London, even if John Bull would consent to be surrounded by a wall.

Brussels is rapidly advancing in the art of printing; one individual published no less than 250,000 volumes in the year 1827. Books are published much cheaper than in Paris, which creates no small jealousy there. Didot projected to bring his press into Brussels, but found that he had been forestalled by the labours of more than one printer. Neither the type nor the paper equal the printing of London or Edinburgh, or perhaps Paris; but they are daily improving, and an immense number of books, are exported.

The Fine Arts also are much encouraged; and though the modern painters finish with great care, and understand chiaro scuro, they are hard and liny, and their colouring greatly overcharged; yet such is their conceit, that they consider themselves the only great living artists in Europe! During the revolution, they followed the school of David, and many Flemings went to Paris to study under him; but they now begin to find out that it was a bad school, and they are again pursuing their own, which is better. A few of their artists travel into Italy, and have greatly improved; but as long as they continue to have so much pretension and self-sufficiency, great progress cannot be expected. They hold our English artists (Wilkie excepted) in great contempt, without ever having visited England, or having, probably, seen a good specimen of art from that country.

Manufactures are beginning to thrive in various parts of the kingdom, and roads and canals are forming, so that Flanders is in a very flourishing state.

Above twenty thousand cotton spinners and weavers are in full activity in the city of Ghent machinery is fabricated at Bruges, and, perhaps, the largest iron-foundery in the world has been established some years in the neighbourhood of Liege, in which the King has a large share, and four thousand hands are employed.

The extraordinary number of cabarets which have been erected within the last ten years (all of which are thriving) is a proof that the citizens can afford to spend a great deal of money in refreshments; the lower orders are the best customers, and perhaps no people of the same classes in Europe disburse so much for these luxuries out of their gains as the mechanics and labourers of Brussels, who have high wages and plenty of employment. Beer is their chief potation, although spirits are so cheap. When I settled here about fourteen years ago, I considered the Belgians a sober race, but they have so much changed during that period, that I am now inclined to believe them as dissipated as the inhabitants of St. Giles's. Women also frequent the estaminets on Sundays and holidays, though they do not assist in the festivities

beyond moderation; but the female servants are extremely profligate; from their love of dress, and their wages being low, they have no other means of procuring their finery except by intriguing and cheating their employers. The English are their principal victims, whom they consider as fair game and a merit to defraud.

A foreigner must have all his wits about him to deal with the Belgians the only safety against their frauds is to pay what you buy with ready money. "A Flemish account" has been proverbial for centuries. If you remonstrate on their impositions, they add insult to injury, with a brutality quite unexampled in any other civilized country. They have one very singular trait, which is, never to keep their promise with you in the most trifling matter. If you employ a tradesman to make a piece of furniture by a certain day, you may think yourself fortunate if it is sent home a month after the time. If you purchase any thing at a shop, and desire it to be sent home immediately, it never appears till the following day. I left a watch, some time ago, to be cleaned, and afterwards quitted the town for six months; when I called for it, the Horloger took it from his window, and opening the case, found that it had never been touched, he coolly said, "Is Monsieur pressed?" I made a trifling bet with a friend," that if he engaged six gardeners to clean his little garden on a certain day, not one would keep his appointment." I won my five francs!-To show the inattention of tradesmen to their business, particularly shoemakers, I made the experiment of being measured by six different Crispins, giving them ten days to make me each a pair of shoes. Two pairs only were sent home, a month after the promised time, the others I heard no more of. These are but trifling details, yet they show the character of the people; but the fact is, they consider that in working for you they are doing you a favour, and never show the least gratitude for employing them, or paying them liberally. Taken en masse, I am of opinion the mass of the Belgians are extortioners, and the coarsest in manner, and the most impertinent race, of any country which I have ever visited. I do not wish to be understood that there are not many exceptions to so bitter a remark, for I know many respectable and honest tradesmen in the capital of the Pays Bas, and have met with more than one instance of liberality. I had taken a lease of a house in the Park, at a low rent, shortly after the general peace. I had laid out a considerable sum in embellishing it, and paid my rent regularly. At the expiration of my lease of nine years I applied to my landlord, Monsieur Fienlands, a respectable clothier, for a renewal, and as house-rent had nearly doubled during the period I had occupied it, I was prepared to give an addition of thirty or forty Napoleons a-year; but, to my astonishment, the good citizen would not raise the rent a sous! saying, "that I had been a good tenant, and that I might have it for another term on the same conditions." His liberality did not end here: as the house required repair, (folding-doors, and many other essentials,) which he was not obliged to pay for-he expended above a thousand francs on doing every thing we required. A trait of generosity worthy of record.

My banker, Mr. Hennessy, on one occasion advanced me seven thousand francs, (when I was disappointed of my rents,) and without any security.

For the education of youth of both sexes, Brussels is one of the best stations on the Continent, and is a good temporary residence for Englishmen whose means are limited. The country is plentiful, and consequently every article of living moderate. It is near England, the government is mild, and there is no restraint in importing English books, though their own press is any thing but free.

Agriculture has been stationary for a century; the light alluvial soil is easily cultivated, and produces rich crops of all sorts of grain; but no attention is paid to raising turnips for feeding cattle, for the Flemings have no idea of any other mode of farming, except that they themselves and their forefathers have practised. Obstinacy always goes hand in hand with ignorance, and the consequence is, that they do not profit by the modern improvements in agriculture; there is no such thing as a threshing machine, or a drill plough, and the harrow continues its timber teeth, with a plough of the seventeenth century.

It is a remarkable fact, that the best breed of cows, probably, on the Continent, is in Holland; and the worst, in the Netherlands. No country is better calculated for the growth of turnips, yet, except in the Pays de Waas, not one is raised; for the seed thrown into the land, after harvest, produces only tops for a short subsistence to sheep.

The Baron de Vt has an experimental farm at a short distance from the capital. He visited England for the purpose of getting some insight into the science of farming, as practised in Norfolk, and brought back all the best modern implements of husbandry, as models for his tenants and his neighbours; but not one was adopted, and he has given up his experiments in despair.

The population of Brussels is rated at nearly 100,000, of which above 20,000 are paupers, supported by the Government and voluntary contributions. The population is rapidly increasing. The number of foreigners in the winter of 1828 was between seven and eight thousand, of which half the number were English. Many families settle for a season, and take their flight south, or return home in June; but the greatest number are stationary for the education of their children. An English clergyman, formerly a teacher at Harrow, has an establishment for boys, well conducted, and the expense does not exceed fifty guineas a year. There are several seminaries for girls, also superintended by Englishwomen, with French teachers. Masters in every department are excellent, so that few places afford better schools for education.

The air in the upper part of the city is salubrious, and the climate, perhaps, better on the whole than England; but the winters are sharper, and the summers hotter: fogs are less frequent, and the spring generally sets in a fortnight earlier than in any part of Great Britain.

Our countrymen will be disappointed who settle in Brussels as a place of amusement, for no capital can be more dull; and the natives are not ready of access, which is probably as much the fault of their visitors as themselves. As a station for economy, it can be highly recommended, provided no trust is put in servants, and every thing is paid for with ready money. The writer of this article resided in Brussels for a dozen years, and he knows this from experience. If an establishment, large or small, is well regulated, a saving of fifty per cent. may be made, certainly, in housekeeping, compared with London. House-rent is dearer in proportion with other articles of living, and