The decay of this trade, the only one of consequence which was ever carried on at the Hague, arises more from the causes which have involved in ruin the commerce of the United Provinces, than from the circumstance that France has not of late years produced literary works of much reputation. At the principal shop in the Hague, that of Du Four, who is also a bookseller at Amsterdam, I saw a catalogue of recent French publications, and some of them I was desirous to purchase, but they could not furnish me with a single book which I wanted: those with which chiefly they were supplied, were the voyages of French navigators, and some novels translated from the English, amongst which I recognised, with sincere pleasure, in a new garb, the productions of some valuable and esteemed friends.
The extinction of the literary traffic of the Hague is scarcely felt, and little lamented by any persons except those immediately concerned in it. But the want of the court, and of the opulent strangers which it attracted
