Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/398

392 LEYDEN contract with them, and the meaning of this contract is the same everywhere that it was when made, and does not change with their change of domicile. As to the law governing divorce, see that title. Personal property on the decease .of its owner is to be disposed of according to the law of his domicile, whether the legal proceedings for the purpose take place there or elsewhere. This is so whether he dies testate or intestate. If there is per- sonal property in two jurisdictions, so that two administrations become necessary, that of the domicile is regarded as the principal, and the other as ancillary. The leading authority on these subjects in Europe as well as America is Story's " Treatise on the Conflict of Laws." LEYDEN, or Leiden (Dutch Leijden ; anc. Lugdunum Batawrum), a city of the Nether- lands, in the province of South Holland, 22 m. S. W. of Amsterdam and 9 m. N. E. of the Hague, on the Old Rhine, which discharges its narrow stream into the sea at a distance of 6 Town Hall, Leyden. m. from the city; pop. in 1872, 39,574. The city presents an antique, venerable, scrupu- lously clean, but dull and inanimate appear- ance. It was formerly fortified, but the ram- parts are now levelled and planted with trees. It is surrounded by numerous windmills, in one of which Rembrandt is said to have been born, and by pleasant country seats, pleasure gardens, and meadows. It is traversed by many canals, which are crossed by about 150 bridges. The Breede straat, or Broad street, ranks among the finest of Europe. In it stands the town hall (stadhuis), a picturesque building with a tall spire and ornamented gables, erected in 1574. Other noteworthy public structures are the prison, weigh-house, cloth hall, infantry barracks, and town dock- yards. There are 14 churches and a syna- gogue, but none of them are of remarkable architecture. The large open space called the Ruine in the Rapenburg street, now planted with trees, was covered with dwellings until 1807, when 300 of them were destroyed with 150 persons by an explosion of gunpowder on a barge passing through the canal. In the centre of the town is a ruined tower on a mound, said to have been built by Drusus, but attributed by some to Hengist the Saxon. It is now an inn, and the grounds around it form a tea garden. The chief ornament of Leyden is the university, which for some time con- tributed so much to the learning of Europe that Leyden was called the Athens of the West. Associated with it are, among many others, the names of Joseph Scaliger, Armi- nius, Gomarus, Grotius, Descartes, Heinsius, and Boerhaave. Evelyn, Fielding, Goldsmith, and other English men of letters studied at Leyden. The university is still attended by about 700 students, and there are 40 professors. The museum of natural history, one of the most extensive in Eu- rope, is especially rich in productions of the East and West Indies, and has a remarkable collection of birds. The cabinet of comparative anatomy is exceedingly rich. The collections of shells, of minerals and insects, and of agricultural objects, as well as the Egyptian museum, possess great interest, as does the Ja- panese collection of Sie- bold (the most compre- hensive of the kind in the world), which since 1864 has formed a part of the national ethno- graphic museum. The library contains 90,000 printed volumes and 14,000 manuscripts, in- cluding some of the rarest oriental ones, collect- ed by Golins in the 17th century. The society of Netherlandish literature, founded in 1766, had in 1873 454 members in the Netherlands and 204 in foreign countries. Printing was ex- tensively carried on in Leyden in the 17th and 18th centuries, as was the manufacture of fine woollen cloth. In the 17th century the popu- lation was estimated as high as 100,000. Nearly 4,000 of the inhabitants were carried off by the plague in 1655. In more recent times industry has declined, but Leyden continues to be the principal market for wool and woollen goods in the Netherlands. There are 16 steam facto- ries, three of which are of cloth, besides baize and camlet factories, wool-spinneries, and cali- co print works. There are also tanneries, soap works, breweries, distilleries, a manufactory of paper hangings, machine works, and five