DELFT. 13

Rotterdam, according to the last census, contained 57,000 inhabitants, but they are said to have increased in the seven years which have since elapsed. The predominant religion ,is the Protestant, of the Calvinistic sect; but the professors of it are said to be temperate on disputable points, and they are most certainly tolerant to those who differ from them, for the number of churches, appropriated to the other sects, exceeds those of the dominant party, and include almost every denomination of Christians, there are besides many J'ews. There are no manufactories in Rotterdam, except those for rolling and rasping tobacco, and afterwards grinding it into snuff. There are several handsome public buildings, but none so pre-eminently excellent as to merit a particular description. The Stadt House of the date of 1620, is a large but heavy mass. The Exchange is a commodious and modern erection, and kept cleaner than such edifices usually are; and the India House, now used as a bonding warehouse, has a respectable appearance. Some of the houses of individuals on the great Quay have a most superb display of lengthened front and lofty walls.|

The principal ornament of the city, and the most honourable to it, is a colossal statue of Erasmus in bronze, in the market-place. It is about nine feet high, on a pedestal of six feet, and was erected to his memory in 1662, more than a hundred years after the period in which he flourished.

I was induced to revisit Delft in my way to the Hague. It is a city containing 10,000 inhabitants. This, like the other towns, is well paved; the centre of the street with granite stones, and the sides, either with clinkers or broad flags. It is nearly a mile in length, has some very splendid private houses, and respectable public buildings, but seemed

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