subordinate rank, corrupting their minds, and weakening their feelings of moral equity, to which women are condemned in Holland, and I may add, in seven eighths of the world.
Begging is so rigorously prohibited in the streets of Amsterdam, that, strictly speaking, not a mendicant is to be seen. A number of poor wretches, however, are to be found in the most frequented streets, who carry with them cheap toys for sale, and they loudly entreat passengers for charity sake and christian compassion to purchase some of their little articles. A little pedlar boy of this description, not seven years of age, asked me in three different languages (French, English, and Dutch) to become a purchaser of his wares; and if the physiognomy of the youthful linguist was to be relied on as a proof of his extraction, a competent acquaintance with the Hebrew tongue might be added to his acquisitions in modern dialects. Knowledge so premature was not likely to be extensive. His acquirements in English and French were barely sufficient to recommend his commodities, and piteously
