answered. An answer was, accordingly, prepared and submitted; and the reader may learn the result of this affair from a paragraph in another of Dr. Laidlie's letters, dated December, 1767. It is as follows:-"You know how strangely poor Mr. De Ronde has behaved for some time past. He strongly supported, or rather has kept alive the otherwise dying dissensions in our congregation; but the Dutch party having brought the affair before the Governor and Council, and the Consistory being desired to give in an answer to several complaints lodged before said Board by the Dutch party, the Consistory accordingly gave in an answer, out of mere complaisance; and the Governor and Council decided the matter by declaring it was not cognizable by them, a declaration not very honourable for the Board who made it, and by which the last finishing blow was given to all the hopes of the Dutch party. This has made them

The liberty has been taken to present the preceding extracts from the private letters of Dr. Laidlie to his young friend, to confirm the representation which has been made of this unhappy dispute. The truth of such testimony cannot be questioned.

The dispute was now settled. The vanquished

party were treated with tenderness, and for many years after, or until the number remaining became very small, they maintained service in the Old Church, in the language for the preservation of which they had so long and so strenuously contended; but English preaching was no more opposed.

It need scarcely be added, that the influence of these occurrences was felt in many congregations, and led, at length, to a general disuse of the Dutch language in the public worship of God; and, if the dispute be viewed as having had ultimately so extensive and important an influence upon the Church at large, the narrative which has been given of all that related to it, will not be thought, it is hoped, to have been too protracted or minute.

The introduction of the English language into the Dutch Church in this country, was so closely connected in its consequences with all her best interests, that no person can hesitate to admit it was one of the most auspicious and remarkable events which can be found recorded in her history.

CHAPTER V.

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF his studIES IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF UTRECHT, TILL HIS RETURN
TO NEW-YORK.

THE University of Utrecht, next to that of Leyden, is the oldest institution of the kind in the United Netherlands. It was founded in 1636; and some, no doubt, are ready to associate the idea of a school so ancient and celebrated, with that of commodious and splendid buildings, appropriated to the accommodation of the professors and students. Such an association of ideas is quite natural for an American. He could not, perhaps, but with some difficulty, think of a college, without, at the same time, imagining one or more spacious and elegant edifices as constituting an important or necessary part of it. But the founders of the Dutch Universities were very indifferent about accommodations of this description.

"The external appearance of the Universities,” says Guthrie, "is rather mean, and the buildings old; but these defects are amply compensated by

the variety of solid and useful learning taught in them. There are abundance of youth of the principal nobility and gentry, from most countries in Europe, at these seminaries of literature; and, as every one may live as he pleases, without being obliged to be profuse in his expenses, or so much as quitting his night-gown for weeks or months together, foreigners of all ranks and conditions are to be seen here."

And of the one which he attended, Mr. Livingston has left this account:-"There were no public buildings belonging to the University of Utrecht. A large hall appertaining to the old Cathedral or Dome Kirk, was occasionally used for public orations and disputations; and, in a hall of the St. Jans Kirk, the public library was deposited. This was not large in respect to the number of books, as it contained chiefly such as were very rare; but it was especially celebrated for a rich collection of manuscripts. The lectures of the professors were all held in their own respective houses. There were also no buildings appropriated as lodgings for the students. They hired chambers, agreeably to their choice, among the citizens. It was usual for them to dine in select parties, in boarding-houses."

"The average number of students at the Univer

sity of Utrecht, during the four years I resided there, was to me unknown. The students, who attend to the different branches of science, repair all to their own respective lecture-rooms, and have little or no knowledge of any others. And, as there are several professors, even of the same science, each of them has a distinct number of students, who seldom associate familiarly with those who attend a different professor. It was, therefore, no easy matter to ascertain the whole number, and impossible to become familiarly acquainted with all."

Such a plan of conducting the education of youth, is decidedly preferable,-in the judgment of the writer at least, to that which has obtained at many of the seats of science in this country. For a number of students to reside together in the same building, who are come from various parts; whose domestic education has been, in many respects, widely different; who, during their collegiate course, are thus put, in a measure, out of the reach of the influence of public opinion upon them as individuals; who are swayed in their conduct, rather by that ardour of feeling peculiar to their age, than by the sober dictates of reason, or sound principle-is not a plan the best calculated, it would seem, to promote either their moral or intellectual improvement.