I

Mr. URBAN,

Dec. 17. clofed my last letter within fight of Holland: the first land which we made upon the Dutch. coaft was the island of Goree, which exhibits a bleak and barren aspect, we foon deferie the ifle of Voorn, the appearance of which is more inviting; and at the fame time we had a view of the coat of 0.er Flackee, fretching to the fouth-eg. When we came in fight of Helvoetfluvs, two fmall bors pushed off to us, with a view of taking passengers on thʊ e, as our veffel was prevented by the tide and weather from going d by into the harbour Several of the paffenger ca geriv embraced this oppor nnity of fetting their feet upon dry land; but I felt no inclination to gratify the avarice of the Dutch skipper efpecie a I found the ica air falutary and relishing; nd was, moreover, engaged in an interebine converfation with Come of my flowvoyagers. It was Sunday morning, and the converfation turned upon the reisi

ous character of the prefent «gr I WAS remarked that the etablish clergy of Holland were decorous in their manners, and laborious in difcharging the duties of their funtion; that the churches were not fo genera ly deforted by the great and opalent as in England; and that the common people were mor attentive to the cuties of region than the lower clade, in this kingdom; where, it was allested, that public worth p was more neglected than in any Proteftant country in Europe. "And is there any Proteftant country in Europe befides Eng and,” faid another, "where money and court intereft are rendered the chief patiports to preferment, which tolerates the abufes of plurality and nonrefinence, or where catechetical inftruction is so much peglected? thefe are the great fources of the thinness of our congregations, and the ignorance of the people. Is not the ignorance of the common people, who live within the fphere of Oxford and Cambridge, proverbial? and where can be the wonder, when it is notorious that the churches are chiefly fupplied by Fellows of Colleges, who fcamper among them once a week, and fee no more of them till the return of Sunday?" The justice of thefe ftri&tures was not to be denied: I could only fay that the clergy of the Church of England were men, and acted as any other fet of men would do under a fimilar fyftem; that none lamented the relaxation of ecclefiaftical difcipline, and the neglect of the pofitive inftitations of Christianity among the

laity, more than many of the clerical order themselves; and that I had the happiness to be acquainted with numbers of that defcription, illuftrious ornaments of learning, piety, and virtue; who, to ufe the emphatical language of one of the prophes, "fighed for all the abominations that were done in the midst of

I had a converfation with a member of the Lutheran church, a native of Ratifbos, on the fubies of fub crption to ffiematical feifions of faith, but there w. nothing advanced on either fide of the quo which the reader will not ond detailed in Dean Tucker's Apology for the Church of England, and in Archdeacon Blackburne's celebrated performance entitled The Confeffional. He told me that in fome part of Germany, the name of which I forget, fubfcription to the Augsburg confeffion had been lately put upon a new footing, namely, that the fuoferier fhould receive that fvitem of do&rine as far as the fame appeared to him agreeable to Scripture. But I do not recolle&t whether he meant to affert that this innovation had been introduced by authority or by connivance; or, rather, that many of the Lutheran clergy had recourfe to that falvo in private, in order to eafe their own confciences. I begged leave to remark, however, that fuch an expedient, instead of placing fubicription upon a new foottag was rendering it abfolutely null and voi as to the purpofes of an exclufive eftablishment; and that, upon the fame principle, a clergyman might fubfcribe the creed of Confucius, or the Alcoran of Mahomet. At the fame time I declared that I had no ambition to become the champion of fubfcription, a practice which many wife and good inen had condemned, as tending to undermine the two great pillars of the Proteftant Reformation, namely, the all-fufficiency of Scripture, and the right of private judge.

ment.

I thought, however, that the Church of England, as an independent fociety, had the fame right to fettle the terms of her communion which was affumed by every Diffenting congregation in the kingdom; and that every clergyman, who fubfibed to her articles and liturgy ex animo, without paffing a fen tence of condemnation upon Nonconfor mifts, might justly claim the character of a confitent Proteftant. By this time our attention was diverted from controverly to fome Dutch men of war who lay at anchor in the road. We failed clofe by a 64 gun fhip while the crew were upon deck attending divine fervice.

We

We could hear the voice of the preacher, whole lungs feemed well calculated for the station which he occupied.; and, after making feveral tacks between the ifland of Goree and Voorn, we ftood in for the harbour of Heltoetsluys, where we arrived fafe between eleven and twelve

o'clock.

Before I lefthe veffel, I ventured to remonftrate against the practice of profane fwearing, to which English failors were unhappily fo much addiЯed.

One of the crew obferved, with great compofure, that the poor fellows feldom meant any harm, and that their oaths paffed as words of course. "Now for inftance, Sir, added he, "when the captain fwears at the men, it comes to naturally that they take no notice of it; but if fuch a gentleman as you were to addrefs them in the fame ftyle, they would ftare, because they would conclude that you meant fomething, or rather that your meaning was very bad." But this reafoning was far from being fatisfactory, and I perfifted in lamenting that failors fhould be fo much addicted to a breach of the third Commandment.

Helvoetfluys is a fortified town, and has a fine capacious harbour which runs through the principal street. Upon landing I met with no interruption from Cuftom-Houfe officers; but I was accofted upon the Quay by one of the military, who defired me to write down my name and profeflion; and, upon complying with his request, he nodded with the gravity of a Quaker, faying, "Yaw, Domine." In walking about the town my attention was powerfully arrested by the novelty of every object that prefented itfelf to my view; the meatness and cleanliness of the houfes and pavement furpaffed what I had ever feen before; the gable ends of the houfes generally fronted the fireets, and the window-fhutters were painted in a manner that produced a pretty effect. I was ftruck with the compofed phlegmatic appearance of the men fmoaking their pipes out of doors; and I was amufed with the high petticoats, the protuberant rumps, and the broad ftraw-hats, of the lower clafs of females walking about the streets flipfhod; many of them were adorned with gilt ear-rings, and with black patches ftuck upon their temples, which, I was told, were not regarded fo much in the light of beauty-pots, as amulets againit

the head-ach.

I was conducted to an inn called the

Prince of Orange; kept by an Englishman, whofe name is Bridge. I now found it neceffany to exchange fome of my English gold for Dutch money; and I spent about half an hour in studying their pounds, things, and pence, under the tuition of my hoft. Eight doits make a fiver, which is equal in value to our penny; two slivers make a dubliky: a feltehalf configs of five fivers and a half, a goode Relfing of fix ftivers, and 20 tiyers make a florin or gilder, of which I received twelve for a guinea.

This beng Sunday, gave me an opportunity of feeing the people in their beft attire. Aloft every perfon whom I faw wore an orange-favour; and a perfon, who was pointed out to me as the mmifter of the parish, had a large orangecockade in his hat. In a wide baíon at the end of the harbour feveral men of war lay very quiet and fnug. I was informed that fome, of them had been built at the time of our laft rupture with Holland, and had never been used. I afked a perfon, whom from his anfwer I fufpected to be a wag, why those ships were fuffered to remain idle at this critical period? The antwer was, that they bad been unfortunately confirucled in fuch a manner as to render it impracticable to get them down the barbour: he added, moreover, that their High Mightineffes could not prevail upon the feamen to fecond their zeal in the caufe, by manning thofe fhips that were actually ready for fervice. "And are their High Mightineffes then really and truly zealous in the caufe ""No doubt of it," replied he, "becaufe they cannot help it, and they will certainly remain fo as long as the cabinets of Berlin and London can confine their zeal in the proper channel, and as long as England is generous enough to fight their battles and to protect their trade."

I recollected, with the enthufiafm

which is natural to an admirer of the Revolution in 1688, that I now flood upon the fpot from which, King Wil liam embarked for England; and that the road of Helvoet had been the repdezvous of the grand armament which delivered the land of my nativity from Popish flavery and arbitrary power.

After having gratified my curiofity at Helvoetfluys, I proceeded on my journey in a vehicle called aftage waggon, which had no covering at top, and which in point of comfort and elegance was not much fuperior to a common English cart; but a better conveyance was not