The present professors in the university of Leyden are persons of respectable talents and merit; but I am prevented from gaining all the information respecting the university which I hoped to obtain, by the unfortunate absence of the gentleman to whom we had letters of recommendation. The schools of Leyden have suffered in the general calamities which have befallen the republic; and the number of students in the university, particularly of foreigners, is greatly reduced. The names of students at present on the books of the university do not exceed a hundred and fifty, and of these how many enrol themselves on the academical lists from no very laudable motives, it is difficult to ascertain. What I allude to is this: since the establishment of liberty and equality in the United Provinces, every person eligible to the militia is obliged actually to serve in the corps of the district to which he belongs; whereas before the revolution, such as could afford to furnish a substitute were exempt from personal service. The ingenuous youth, who attend the universities of the republic
