Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/824

Rh 780 AMSTEBDA M nificent apartment in it is the great hall, measuring 120 feet by 57, and 90 in height, with walls incrusted with white Italian marble. On the opposite side from the palace of the square called the Dam, stands the Beurs or Exchange, a fine tetraprostyle Ionic building, serving as a front to a large quadrangle with a handsome peristyle of the same order. The Oude Kerk, built about the year 1300, has some beautiful stained windows and a fine organ, as well as monuments to various celebrated Dutchmen, including the naval heroes Van Heemskerk and Sweerts. The Niewe Kerk, a much finer edifice, where the kings of Holland are crowned, dating from 1408, is remarkable for the carving of its pulpit, for the elaborate bronze castings of its choir, and for the monuments to the famous Admiral De Ruyter and Holland s greatest poet, Vondel, whose statue stands in the park which bears his name. There are many other places of worship in Amsterdam, including those belonging to the Dutch Reformed Church, the English Episcopalians, the Scotch Presbyterians, the Lutherans, the Jansenists, the Roman Catholics, the Greeks, &c., and also several Jewish synagogues; but, as a rule, the church architecture of the town is bald and uninteresting. We may except, however, the synagogue of the Shephardim Jews, the equal of which is only to be found at Leghorn; the Moses and Aaron s Church (R.C.) ; and the new Lutheran place of worship, which has a green copper cupola. The Paleis voor Volks- vlijt is a building of iron and glass, 440 feet long by 280 broad, with a dome 200 feet high, erected between 1855 and 1864. It is used for industrial exhibitions, the per formance of operas, &c., and possesses a collection of pictures (copies and some originals), as well as a fine garden. The Schreijerstoren, or &quot; crier s tower,&quot; at the end of the Geldersche Kade, where vessels left for all parts of the globe, was built about 1482, and got its name from the tears of the sailors who here bid their friends farewell. The chief literary institutions of Amsterdam are the Athenaeum, the society called &quot;Felix Meritis,&quot; from the first words of the inscription on their place of meet ing; the society &quot; Natura Artis Magistra&quot; to whom the zoological gardens belong; the Royal Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Seaman s In- stitute. The galleries of pic tures in the city are of great value. The museum in the Trippenhuis con tains over 400 works, chiefly of the Flemish and Dutch schools, including the &quot; Night Guard&quot; of Rembrandt, whose statue may be seen on the Kaasplein, opposite the house he occupied, and the &quot; Banquet of the Civic Guard,&quot; by Van der Heist; besides nearly 4000 engravings, and a magnificent numismatic col lection, considered one of the finest in the world. Among the other collections are those in the Museum Van der Hoop and in the Fodor Museum, that belonging to the &quot;Arti et Amicitice &quot; Society, as well as several private galleries. Amsterdam is also remarkable for the number and high character of its benevolent institutions, which are to a large extent supported by voluntary contributions. Among others may be mentioned hospitals for the sick, the aged, the infirm, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the insane, widows, orphans, and foundlings. There is a noble institution, the Society for the Public Welfare, whose object is to promote the education and improvement of all classes. It has branches City Arms of Amsterdam. in nearly every town and village in Holland. There is also an admirable sailors home. Amsterdam is now capitally supplied with water for drinking and culinary purposes from the Haarlem dunes. Formerly the inhabitants were dependent on the rain-water collected in cisterns, and the supply brought from Weesp in large flat-bottomed barges. This, added to the general humidity of the atmosphere caused by the canals, made Amsterdam an unpleasant place of residence in summer, but the exertions of the inhabitants have done much of late to counteract these noxious influences. The people usually have a robust appearance, and the death-rate of the city is low. The population (1874) is estimated at 285,000, of whom about 60,000 are Roman Catholics, and 30,000 Jews, the rest being mostly Protestants of various sects. The accompanying plan indicates the extent and position of the docks of Amsterdam. The arsenal and the admiralty offices are situated on the island of Kattenburg, between the Dijk Gracht and the Niewe Vaart. The approach to the city from the Zuyder Zee is intricate and dangerous, owing to the numerous shallows ; and a bar at the entrance to the Y compels vessels to unload part of their cargo in the roadstead. These delays and dangers were to a large extent provided against in 1825, by the opening of a canal across North Holland from the Niewe Diep, opposite the Texel, to Amsterdam ; and a more direct and capacious canal to the North Sea is at present in process of con struction. The following table gives the chief shipping statistics for the five years ending December 1870: Arrivals. Departures. Vessels. Tonnage. Vessels. Tonnage, 1866 1604 420.094 1662 423,623 1867 1466 392,975 1560 404,717 1868 1465 430,799 1508 421,566 1869 1374 425,329 1443 448,891 1870 1297 405,109 1341 402,933 The principal imports of Amsterdam are coffee, amount ing in 1870 to 1,147,240 bags and 1499 casks; tea, in the same year, 79,573 chests; sugar, in the same year, 273,750,000 ft; tobacco, rice, cotton, indigo, timber, tin, hemp, and grain. The exports comprise cheese, butter, madder, clover, rape, linseed oil, gin, and other products of Holland, besides general goods and manufactures from various European countries. There is also a large export trade in the produce of the East and West Indies. There are two lines of railway, the one connecting Amsterdam with Haarlem, Leyden, and Rotterdam; and the other with Utrecht, Arnheim, and Prussia. Amsterdam has sugar refineries ; soap, oil, glass, iron, dye, and chemical works; distilleries, breweries, tanneries; tobacco and snuff factories. The cutting of diamonds has long been exten sively practised in the city by the Jews. Although no longer the centre of the banking transactions of the world, Amsterdam is still a place of considerable importance in this respect. The celebrated bank of Amsterdam, founded in 1609, was dissolved in 1796; and the present bank of the Netherlands was established on the model of the Bank of England in 1814. About the year 1200 Amsterdam vras a small fishing village, held in fief by the lords of Amstel, together with the surrounding district, called Amstelland. Towards the close of the 13th century it reverted, in consequence of the complicity of Gysbrecht Van Amstel in the murder of Count Floris V., to the counts of Holland, who gave it a charter and other privileges. It was fortified in 1482, and soon rose to be the most important commercial city of the Netherlands. The early voyages to India, and the union of the seven provinces in 1579, added greatly to the