proclaim the manufacturing city,the Birmingham of the Low Countries; and the dirty houses, murky atmosphere, and coal-stained streets, are the natural consequence of the branch of industry in which its inhabitants are engaged. The staple manufacture is that of firearms; Liége is, in fact, one great armoury, and produces a better article, it is said, at a low price, than can be made for the same sum in England. The saddlery is also very good here, and a particular kind of coarse cloth is manufactured in large quantities. There is a Royal Cannon Foundery in the suburb of St. Leonhard, and Mr. Cockerill's establishment manufactures spinning machinery and steam engines to rival the English. The cause of this commercial prosperity is, as might be conjectured, the presence of coal in great abundance close at hand. The mines are worked upon very scientific principles: some of them are situated so near to the town that their galleries are carried under the streets, so that many of the houses, and even the bed of the river, are in some places undermined. Previous to the Revolution, Holland was supplied with coal from Belgium; but the home consumption has since increased to such an extent, from the numerous manufactories which have sprung up on all sides, that the Belgian mines are now inadequate to supply the demand, and a law has been passed permitting the importation of coals from Newcastle.

Liége once contained 40 religious houses, 32 parish churches, and 7 collegiate churches, besides the cathedral. 21 churches remain. The buildings best worth notice in Liége are, the Church of St. Jacques, and the court of the Palais de Justice, formerly palace of the Prince Bishop, built by the Cardl. Bishop Erard de la Marck, 1533. The stunted pillars of the colonnade which surrounds it bear a resemblance to those of the ducal palace at Venice, and have a striking effect. Each pillar is carved with a different pattern. The front of the palace is modern-but in the rear remains much good Gothic of the 16th century. A tower of brick

rising over the roof, now a prison, was originally the Bishop's watch tower.

In the square in front of the Bishop's palace stood the cathedral of St. Lambert. It was utterly destroyed by the French revolutionists, and no traces of it now remain.

The present Cathedral, formerly the collegiate ch. of St. Paul, was founded, in 967, by Bp. Heraclius. It is a fine building, 82 ft. high, of good proportions, surmounted by a black spire, with turrets at the angles (the choir of the 13th century, the nave 1557); and its new cedar-wood pulpit, carved by Geefs, with 6 marble statues beneath it, is an example of the perfection to which this art is brought in Belgium. It also contains a picture by Lairesse. No one is ever buried here: why, is not known. St. Jacques, date 1513, 1528, lately repaired by the government, is the finest of the existing churches: the arches are elegantly fringed; it possesses wide windows (filled with painted glass), elegantly mullioned; net-work screens, reeded pillars, branching into rich tracery, spreading over the roof, studded with embossed ornaments, containing within them gay arabescoes, medallions of saints, sovereigns, and prelates innu merable, all most gorgeously, yet har moniously painted and gilt. Hope. The painted glass in the choir (date, early in the 16th century), ranks among the most perfect productions of the art in Europe.

This church may be visited on the way to or from the railroad.

Liége contains many churches of great antiquity. St. Bartholomew's Church, a Basilica, built about 1000, is finely carved in front, and possesses a beautiful brass font, a masterpiece of Gothic art, in the beginning of the 13th century. St. Denis was consecrated in 990; it is chiefly Romanesque: the choir is Gothic. St. Croix is very ancient, with a tower in a Moorish style.

There is a good view from the tower of St. Martin's.

The University is a handsome building, erected by the late King of Holland in 1817. It contains a Museum,

which, though not very complete or well arranged, possesses some objects of interest, as illustrating the natural history of this part of Belgium; such as the collection of fossil bones from this and the neighbouring provinces. "Near Liége there are numerous caverns, which have acquired celebrity from the abundant and remarkable animal remains they have afforded, and the interest attached to them is heightened by the discovery of human bones and skulls in the same cave with bones of bears, hyænas, the elephant, and rhinoceros. It would appear, however, that the remains of man were introduced at a later period than those of the animals. The principal caves are those of Engis, Chokier, Ramioul, Engihoul, Huy, Fond de Forêt, Goffontaine." (T. T.) The library contains, besides books, many curious MSS. collected from suppressed monasteries. A Botanic Garden, well stored with plants, and beautifully kept, is attached to the University. There are 17 professors, who lecture to about 500 students in the various faculties.

Post Office, Rue de la Régence.
Vigilantes, § 22. A.

There are 3 bridges over the Meuse : the Pont des Arches, the oldest, and lowest down the stream: the steamers bring-to near it; the Pont de la Boverie, of 4 arches, a truly handsome recent structure; and the Pont du Val Benoit, for the passage of the railroad.

The Casino, in the outskirts of Liége, in the midst of some ornamental grounds, is worth a visit (§ 40.). English strangers are admitted to the balls given here.

Outside the walls, in the convent of St. William, is the grave of Sir John Mandeville, the English traveller.

Grétry, the composer, was born here, in a house marked by an inscribed tablet on the front, in the Rue des Récollets. A statue of him, in bronze, 13 ft. high, by Geefs, is set up in the Square facing the University, which is called after him Place Grétry,

The florist should visit Makois' garden near Liége, one of the most cele

brated in Belgium: from it there is a fine view of the town.

Liége, in medieval Latin, was called Leodium, and is the capital of the Walloons, who spread from this to Longwy in France and to Mons, and are very anxious not to be supposed Flemish, claiming a descent from the Eburones. The Walloon language, spoken by the lower orders, differs from the German and the Flemish, resembling the old French of the 13th century, but contains many Celtic and some Teutonic words unknown to French of any age. The Walloons, like the Swiss, served in former times in the armies of Spain, Austria, and France; they were generally enrolled into cavalry regiments: a regiment of 700 men composed the standing army or body-guard of the Ecclesiastical Princes of Liége.

The German emperors, as early as the 10th century, raised the bishops of Liége to the rank of sovereign and independent princes, and bestowed territory upon them, which they held as a fief of the empire. At the time of the visit of Pope Innocent II. with St. Bernard in 1131, the chapter of St. Lambert was the noblest known: of its 60 canons, 9 were sons of kings, 14 sons of dukes, 29 counts, and 7 barons; one only was not of noble birth. The Pope sang mass before the Emperor Lothaire and the Empress, and crowned them in the cathedral. The government of the bishops was never strong, and the history of Liége is little better than a narrative of a succession of bloody revolutions, in which a discontented populace struggled for freedom and power and licence, with a despotic and often incompetent ruler. Liége, nevertheless, remained under the dominion of its bishops down to the time of the French invasion, 1794. It is recorded that one of them had the audacity to declare war against Louis XIV.; for which temerity he was chastised by having the town bombarded about his ears for 5 days, by Marshal Boufflers, in 1691.

A visit to Liége, and the ancient

Bishop's palace, will call to the mind of an Englishman the vivid scenes and descriptions of Quentin Durward. He will, however, in vain endeavour to identify many of the places there spoken of with the spot. The Bishop's "Castle of Schonwaldt, situated about 10 m. from the town," cannot be Seraing, as it was not built till a much later period. Sir Walter Scott never visited Liége himself, so that his localities are purely imaginary; yet from the vividness of his description of the town, and the perfect consistency of all his topographical details, few readers would doubt that he was personally acquainted with it. He has also made a slight variation in the romance from the real facts of history, as far as relates to Liége: and as the events on which he founded the novel are of the highest interest, and serve to illustrate the story of this ancient "Imperial free city," it may not be amiss shortly to relate them. The citizens of Liége, puffed up, as Philip de Commines says, by pride and riches, gave constant proofs of their boldness and independence by acts of insubordination, and even of open rebellion, against their liege lord, Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and against the bishops, who were his allies or sup ported by him. He had inflicted severe chastisement upon the Liégeois after his victory at St. Trond (when many thousands of them were left dead on the field), by abridging their privileges and taking away their banners; and when they submissively brought him the keys of the town, he refused to enter by the gates, but compelled them to batter down the city wall for a distance of 20 fathoms, and fill up the ditch, He then entered by the breach, with his visor down, his lance in rest, at the head of his armed bands, as a conqueror; and further, to disable the bold burghers from mutiny, ordered all their fortifications to be demolished. This punishment was inflicted in 1467; but it was so little regarded, that the very next year they again broke out into open revolt, at the instigation of secret emissaries of Louis XI., seized upon the person of their bishop in his castle

at Tongres, and brought him prisoner to Liége.

They were headed by one John de Vilde, or Ville, called by the French Le Sauvage: it is not improbable that he was an Englishman, whose real name was Wild, and that he was one of those lawless soldiers who at that time served wherever they got best pay, changing sides whenever it suited them. The Liégeois, under this Vilde, committed many acts of cruelty, cutting in pieces, before the bishop's eyes, one of his attendants, and murdering 16 others who were canons of the church, on the road to Liége. In Sir Walter Scott's romance, William de la Marck plays nearly the same part as Wild; but in reality this bishop succeeded soon after in making his escape.

In 1482, 14 years after the events narrated in the novel, and long after the death of Charles the Bold, William de la Marck, The Wild Boar of Ardennes, wishing to obtain the mitre for his son, murdered the Bishop of Liége, Louis de Bourbon, whom Charles the Bold had supported.

When tidings of the proceedings of the men of Liége were brought to Charles the Bold at Peronne, he immediately laid Louis under arrest, exactly as described in the novel, and compelled him to march against the rebels, at the head of his soldiers, while he led on his own Burgundians. Louis showed little hesitation to comply with the proposal, though the citizens were his allies, and he had in fact fomented the rebellion. Nothing, however, appears to have damped the courage of the Liégeois: they made 3 separate sallies out of their breaches and over their ruined walls. They were led on by the same Vilde, who in one of these attacks was slain, but not before he had laid low many of the bravest among the Burgundian guards. Their last sally was planned at a moment when the invading forces, tired out with long watching, had taken off their armour and retired to rest, previous to the grand assault on the town, which Charles and Louis had arranged for the following morning. The foremost in this enter

prise were 600 men from a town called Franchimont, on the road between Liége and Spa, firm allies of the citizens, and considered their bravest soldiers. Like the Spartans and Romans of old, these 600 devoted themselves to the enterprise of seizing or slaying the 2 princes, as they lay in their quarters before the town, or agreed to perish in the attempt. About midnight the Scotch archers and Burgundian guards attached to the persons of the 2 sovereigns were roused by a terrible alarm of the enemy, who had penetrated almost up to the 2 houses in which the princes were lodged, without discovery. The attack was so sudden, and the confusion which ensued so much augmented by the jealousy which subsisted between the Duke and the King, each believing the other to be concerned in the plot, that the enterprise had nearly succeeded. But having recovered from the surprise, and hastily put on their armour, they succeeded at last, with the aid of their guards, in driving back the assailants, and the brave men of Franchimont were for the most part cut to pieces.

The next day the city was stormed, as intended; but the invaders found less resistance than was expected. It appeared that the citizens had supposed themselves secure on that day, because it was Sunday, and were taking some rest after the exertions of the preceding night. So unsuspicious were they indeed, that the besiegers found the cloth laid in almost every house which they entered, as it happened to be dinner time. Many were slaughtered at once, to appease the vengeance of Charles; a great number fled to the woods, only to perish there of cold. The city was condemned by him to destruction; and no sooner had he quitted it, than it was set on fire in three places, and all the buildings, except churches or convents, burnt to the ground.

These events took place in 1468; before that time the number of inhabitants exceeded 120,000.

Much interesting matter, relating to the town and its environs, may be read in "Promenades Historiques

dans le Pays le Liége, par le Docteur B-y.”

Environs. A very extensive prospect may be obtained from the heights above the town, especially from the old citadel on Mont St. Walburg, on the 1. bank of the Meuse. Another good point of view is the Fort Chartreuse, an eminence on the opposite side of the valley. The junction of the 3 valleys of the Meuse, Ourthe, and Vesdre, close to the Liége, forms a landscape of no ordinary beauty.

At Rohermont, a height above the Chartreuse, the Austrians, under the Prince of Coburg, suffered a defeat (1794) from the French under Jourdain, which wrested the Pays-Bas for ever from the house of Austria.

Herstal, see below, p. 185.

Excursions to Spa and Chaud Fontaine, described Route 25., and to the caves of Maestricht, which will occupy 6 or 8 hours by steamer.

In order to gain admittance to see the Iron Works at Seraing, a written order must be obtained from the Cockerill Societé's office in Liége. An omnibus goes thither every hour.

Steamers ply, when there is water enough, daily to and from Namur; daily to Rotterdam, stopping for the night at Venlo.

Liége to Maestricht. Steamers twice a-day, in 2 hours, returning in 4 h. Baggage is searched at the customhouses. The landing-place of the steamers is close to the Pont des Arches. The first objects to remark are:

1. The Mont de Piété, of red brick with stone quoins, and the Royal Cannon Foundery, backed by the hill of the citadel.

1. A round tower; the stump of a burnt windmill.

rt. Jupille, peeping from among the trees, with its ch., was the favourite resort of King Pepin, who died here 714.

rt. Souverain Wandre.

1. About 3 m. from Liége. Herstal, birth-place of Pepin le Gros, Maîre du Palais to the last Merovingian kings of France. There are some fragments