The personal and domiciliary rights of the citizen were scrupulously guarded.  The Schout could only make arrests with the Burgomaster’s warrant, and was obliged to bring the accused, within three days, before the judges, whose courts were open to the public.

The condition of the population was prosperous.  There were but few poor, and those did not seek but were sought by the almoners:  The schools were excellent and cheap.  It was difficult to find a child of sufficient age who could not read, write, and speak, at least, two languages.  The sons of the wealthier citizens completed their education at Louvain, Douay, Paris, or Padua.

The city itself was one of the most beautiful in Europe.  Placed upon a plain along the banks of the Scheld, shaped like a bent bow with the river for its string, it enclosed within it walls some of the most splendid edifices in Christendom.  The world-renowned church of Notre Dame, the stately Exchange where five thousand merchants daily congregated, prototype of all similar establishments throughout the world, the capacious mole and port where twenty-five hundred vessels were often seen at once, and where five hundred made their daily entrance or departure, were all establishments which it would have been difficult to rival in any other part of the world.

From what has already been said of the municipal institutions of the country, it may be inferred that the powers of the Estates-general were limited.  The members of that congress were not representatives chosen by the people, but merely a few ambassadors from individual provinces.  This individuality was not always composed of the same ingredients.  Thus, Holland consisted of two members, or branches—­the nobles and the six chief cities; Flanders of four branches—­the cities, namely, of Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, and the “freedom of Bruges;” Brabant of Louvain, Brussels, Bois le Due, and Antwerp, four great cities, without representation of nobility or clergy; Zeland, of one clerical person, the abbot of Middelburg, one noble, the Marquis of Veer and Vliessingen, and six chief cities; Utrecht, of three branches—­the nobility, the clergy, and five cities.  These, and other provinces, constituted in similar manner, were supposed to be actually present at the diet when assembled.  The chief business of the states-general was financial; the sovereign, or his stadholder, only obtaining supplies by making a request in person, while any single city, as branch of a province, had a right to refuse the grant.

XIII.