Many of the inhabitants of these provinces (like my two companions in the Louvain Diligence) are below the middle size; they are extremely intelligent and active, and in general civil to strangers.  Before I quit Louvain, I must not omit to notice that it is famous for its beer, which is certainly the best I have tasted on the Continent.  The number of breweries is said to exceed twenty, and the consumption is astonishingly great in the neighbourhood, besides a considerable export trade.

I continued my journey to Brussels along an excellent road, the centre of which was paved, as from the nature of the soil, it would be otherwise impassable in winter.  The roads in this country run for many miles together, in a straight line between rows of trees; and I must confess I thought it very uninteresting to travel through.  The flatness of its surface, is but rarely interrupted by any eminence, which affords a prospect calculated to make any impression on the mind.  There are many neat villages, and occasionally one sees country seats decorated in that formal style of gardening, which was originally introduced from this country into England, but which has there long since yielded to a more natural taste.  The farming seems very neatly managed; the numerous canals, although they add nothing to the beauty of the country, are of great utility to the farmer; and travelling is very cheap in the boats, which pass between the chief towns.

It would require scenery like that of the Rhine, to induce me to adopt this conveyance; but many of these canals pass between banks which exclude all view of the surrounding country.  I found the Netherlander generally impatient to be relieved from the great military expences, incident to their present situation.  There is, I think, little reason to doubt, that when some of the existing taxes can be removed, the Orange family will become popular.  The stamp duties are very heavy; there are land and house taxes, and a personal tax.  It is to be expected, that the people should wish for a diminution of their burdens, but Liege is the only place I have visited in the countries lately relinquished by France, where the separation seems to be generally regretted.  I found that the Prussian government, was by no means popular, on the left bank of the Rhine, and that an union with either Austria or Bavaria, was much wished for in those provinces, whose future destiny remains to be decided at the Congress of Vienna.

Having met with but few English travellers since I had quitted Switzerland, I was much struck on entering Brussels with the vast numbers of my fellow subjects, moving in all directions.  The garrison was almost entirely composed of English troops, so that I felt here quite at home.  I found that there was an English theatre, as well as a French one, and that balls, and entertainments of all descriptions, a l’Anglaise, were in abundance.  Indeed the upper part of the city differed little in appearance from an English watering place.