Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/232

220 to be worthy of the punishment of death. It may safely be affirmed, that so sanguinary a code does not disgrace the institutions of any other nation or period.

On the ground-floor of the stadthouse also are the strong apartments which formerly contained the immense treasures of the bank of Amsterdam, and the offices for conducting the concerns of that opulent establishment. I shall hereafter more particularly notice the bank of Amsterdam, and its condition to fulfil its engagement with its creditors, when the French became masters of Holland, and discovered to the world the pecuniary resources of this celebrated commercial institution. A small number of clerks are still