INLAND NAVIGATION.

47

CHAP. V.

Canals of Holland—Extensive ‘Trade carried on by them—Canals ofFlanders—Their ruinous Condition at present.

T HE industrious Hollanders, from mere necessity, and hatred oftheir oppressors the Spaniards, have with the greatest labour cutsuch a multitude of canals in every part of the low, narrow, swampy,boggy provinces they inhabit, which can scarcely with propriety becalled land, that for commerce, riches, and population, they may nowyie with any other country on the face of the earth, in proportion to itssize, not excepting even China.

One third, at least, of this country has been gained from the sea, bythe means of vast dykes and mounds, some of which are twenty-oneyards in thickness, and which must continually be kept in repair, withprodigious labour, and at an incredible expence, to prevent the wholecountry from being inundated.

The seven united provinces, commonly called Holland, are intersectedwith innumerable canals, which it is not my intention to describe cir-cumstantially, since that would be to give a geographical survey andhistory of the country. They may be compared, for number and size,,to our public roads and highways; and as the latter with us are conti-nually full of coaches, chaises, waggons, carts, and horsemen, going toand from the different villages, towns, and capital cities; so, on the for-mer,,