ROTTERDAM. 11

warehouses. The long duration of the war has diverted much of the capital that had escaped the French into other channels than that of commerce; and since the return of peace, the unsettled state of commercial Operations has deterred the rich citizens from directing their attention to that carrying trade, which once afforded to‘the people of the Seven United Provinces a source of a great portion of the wealth, and the principal means of protecting it. At present, the trade of Rotterdam, is represented to be in a most miserable condition, by those who are best acquainted with it. The access to the interior of Europe by means of its river still remains; but the rival cities of Hamburg on one side, and Antwerp on the other, now divide with Rotter- dam the scanty trade which the borders of the rivers require. There appeared no activity on the wharfs, few vessels in the river, and very few that had descended from the interior of the continent. The exportation of corn to England, when our ports were opened, had, since the peace, been a lucrative trade to some of the commission merchants; but that is at present suspended, and the prices of all kinds of grain are much lower than the cost to the grower. It is said, that the warehouses are filled with colonial produce, far beyond what the demands of the countries they supply require.

The merchants of this city complain, that in the assembly of the States, from the superior influence of the landed proprie- tors of ci-devant Belgium, the interests of manufactures and commerce are made to yield to those of agriculture; and they instance the repeal of the tax on horses, and the increase of those on doors and windows, as proofs that their complaints are not groundless. They attribute to the same influence, the in-