Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/56

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44
TOUR THROUGH

like these, Bonaparte will consolidate his authority, and acquire more real glory than is to be purchased with an hundred victories.

Rotterdam is not a place to be distinguished for the elegance of its buildings, or the taste of its inhabitants. The bomb quay, which is situated along the Maese, is the principal street, and extends almost a mile in length. The houses in general are five or six stories high, strong and capacious, but inelegant, buildings. On account of the inundations to which the place is subject, none of the houses have what can be called a ground-floor; and the basement is generally disfigured by ponderous gates, like those of barrier towns, which open to the warehouses that are attached to the back part of each house. It is curious to see the ornaments of the Corinthian order stuck against the upper story, without the column to support them. Such attempts at architectural decoration are inconceivably ridiculous: and in the interior arrangement of the houses, mistakes are made, which a