HAGUE. 1

A

to produce none of those sensations which à rugged display of forest scenery never fails to excite in the ardent admirer of picturesque nature.

The near approach to the Hague is truly magnificent, as soon as the palaces(for they merit that name more properly than houses) appear more prominent than the trees which envelope them, nor does the entrance to the city lessen the impression of its grandeur. The public squares, with um- brageous trees, the noble streets with canals in their centre, the grand promenades, and the beautiful public buildings, are all objects which make a powerful impression on the senses, and that impression is not affected by the dead level on which the whole is placed, which though wearisome in a rural pro- spect, is what we expect to find in a large city. No place of the same extent can be better fitted for the residence of a court, especially for an assembly of the representatives of all the different European nations; and it is not wonderful that, at a period when it must in beauty have far exceeded every other place in Europe, it should have been the favourite resort of those great statesmen, who assembled in it to regulate the destinies of our quarter of the globe. Few of the houses, or rather palaces, are of modern erection, the far greater part are more than one hundred and thirty years old, and perhaps this place was so far advanced, in all that can adorn a capital, at that period, as not to need those improvements which the other European eities have received. To be fully im- pressed with the grandeur and magnificence ot the Hague, and to appreciate it correctly, it must be compared with what London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and Dresden were from the years 1080 to 1720. The Hague had then reached its acme, and though it has scarcely improved, it has not retrograded; D