Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/250

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238
TOUR THROUGH

than that which I have stated, and therefore it is probable that the number of habitations in Amsterdam exceeds rather than otherwise thirty-two thousand houses. This, at an average of seven and a half persons to each house, which has been used by eminent calculators to estimate the population of London, and may with confidence be applied to Amsterdam, where the houses in general are spacious and lofty, and accommodate three or four families, makes the number of inhabitants in the Dutch metropolis to amount to two hundred and forty thousand persons. The strangers who resort to Amsterdam are not included in this calculation, but they cannot with probability be estimated at less than ten thousand; so that it may safely be concluded, two hundred and fifty thousand souls inhabit this great city.

With a population so large, composed of various nations and languages, where the extremes of opulence and misery are to be found, it is to bestow the highest praise on the discipline, regularity, and good order of