among fowlers, a net generally used for taking such small birds as play in the air, and will swoop either to prey, gig, or the like; as larks, linnets, bunting, &c. The time of the year for using this net is from August to November; and the best time is very early in the morning: and it is to be observed, that the milder the air, and the brighter the sun is, the better will be the sport, and of longer continuance. The place where this net should be laid, ought to be plain champaign, either on short stubbles, green lays, or flat meadows, near corn-fields, and somewhat remote from towns and villages: you must be sure to let your net lie close to the ground, that the birds creep not out and make their escape.—The net is made of a fine packthread with a small mesh, not exceeding half an inch square; it must be three fathoms long, and but one broad: it must be verged about with a small but strong cord; and the two ends extended upon two small long poles, suitable to the breadth of the net, with four stakes, tail-strings, and drawing-lines.—This net is composed of two, which must be exactly alike; and are to be laid opposite to one another, so even and close, that when they are drawn and pulled over, the fides must meet and touch each other. You must stake this net down with strong stakes, very stiff on their lines, so that you may with a nimble touch cast them to and fro at pleasure; then fasten your drawing- cords or hand-lines (of which there must be a dozen at least, and each two yards long) to the upper end of the foremost stakes: and so extend them of such a straightness, that with a little strength they may rise up in the nets, and catch them over.

Your nets being thus laid, place your gigs, or playing-wantons, about 20 or 30 paces beyond, and as much on this side your nets: the gigs must be fastened to the tops of long poles, and turned into the wind, so as they may play to make a noise therein. These gigs are a sort of toys made of long goose feathers, like shuttle-cocks, and with little small tunnels of wood running in broad and flat swan-quills, made round like a small hoop; and so, with longer strings fastened to a pole, will, with any small wind or air, move after such a manner, that birds will come in great flocks to play about them.

When you have placed your gigs, then place your stake; which is a small stake of wood, to prick down into the earth, having in it a mortice-hole, in which a small and slender piece of wood, about two feet long, is fastened, so as it may move up and down at pleasure: and fasten to this longer stick a small line, which, running through a hole in the stick above-mentioned, and so coming up to the place where you are to sit, you may, by drawing the line up and down with your right hand, raise up the longer stick as you see occasion.

Fasten a live lark, or such like bird, to this longer stick, which, with the line making it to stir up and down by your pulling, will entice the birds to come to your net.

There is another stake, or enticement, to draw on these birds, called a looking glass, which is a round stake of wood, as big as a man's arm, made very sharp. at the end; to thrust it into the ground: they make it very hollow in the upper part, above five fingers deep; into which hollow they place a three-square piece of wood about a foot long, and each two inches broad, lying upon the top of the flake, and going with a foot into the hollows: which foot must have a great knob at the top, and another at the bottom, with a deep flenderness between; to which flenderness you are to fasten a small packthread, which, running through a hole in the side of the flake, must come up to the place where you fit. The three-square piece of wood which lies on the top of the flake, must be of such a poise and evenness, and the foot of the socket so smooth and round, that it may whirl and turn round upon the least touch; winding the packthread so many times about it, which being suddenly drawn, and as suddenly let go, will keep the engine in a constant rotatory motion: then fasten with glue on the uppermost flat squares of the three-square piece, about 20 small pieces of looking-glass, and paint all the square wood between them of a light and lively red; which, in the continual motion, will give such a reflection, that the birds will play about to admiration until they are taken.

Both this and the other stake are to be placed in the middle between the two nets, about two or three feet distance from each other; so that, in the falling of the nets, the cords may not touch or annoy them: neither must they stand one before or after another; the glass being kept in a continual motion, and the bird very often fluttering. Having placed your nets in this manner, as also your gigs and stakes, go to the further end of your long drawing-lines and stake lines; and, having placed yourself, lay the main drawing line across your thigh, and, with your left, pull the stake-line to show the birds; and when you perceive them to play near and about your nets and stakes, then pull the net over with both hands, with a quick but not too hasty motion; for otherwise your sport will be spoiled.

See Plate CCCXLV., where A shows the bodies of the main net, and how they ought to be laid. B, the tail-lines, or the hinder-lines, staked to the ground. C, the fore lines staked also to the ground. D, the bird-stake. E, the looking-glass stake. G, the line which draws the bird-stake. H, the line that draws the glass-stake. I, the drawing, double lines of the nets, which pulls them over. K, the stakes which stake down the four nether points of the nets and the two tail-lines. L, the stakes that stake down the fore-lines. M, the single line, with the wooden button to pull the net over with. N, the stake that stakes down the single line, and where the man should sit; and Q, the gig.

Net, Neat, in commerce, something pure, and unadulterated with any foreign mixture.

Thus, wines are said to be net when not falsified or balderdashed; and coffee, rice, pepper, &c. are net when the filth and ordure are separated from them. See Neat.

A diamond is said to be net when it has no stains or flaws; a crystal, when transparent throughout.

Net is also used for what remains after the tare has been taken out of the weight of any merchandise; i.e. when it is weighed clear of all package. See Tare.

Thus we say, a barrel of cochineal weighs 450 pounds; the tare is 50 pounds, and there remains net 400 pounds.

Net-Product, a term used to express what any commodity has yielded, all tare and charges deducted.

The merchants sometimes use the Italian words netto prodotto, for net produce.

NETHERLANDS, anciently called Belgia, but since denominated Low Countries or Netherlands, from their low situation, are situated between 2° and 7° of east longitude, and between 50° and 53° 30' of north latitude; and are bounded by the German sea on the north, Germany on the east, by Lorraine and France on the south, and by another part of France and the British seas on the west; extending near 300 miles in length from north to south, and 200 miles in breadth from east to west. They consist of 17 provinces; 10 of which are called the Austrian and French Netherlands, and the other seven the United Provinces.

The greatest part of the Netherlands was conquered by the Romans; and that part which lies towards Gaul continued in their subjection till the decline of that empire; after which the Franks became masters of it; and, under the French monarchy, it was part of the kingdom of Metz or Austria.

Towards the end of the 15th century Maximilian of Austria, son of the Emperor Ferdinand III. acquired, by marrying the only daughter of the duke of Burgundy, the duchies of Brabant, Limburg, and Luxembourg; the counties of Flanders, Burgundy, Hainault, Holland, Zealand, and Namur; and the lordships of Frieland. Philip of Austria, son to Maximilian and Mary, married Jane the daughter of Ferdinand king of Arragon and of Isabella queen of Castile; by which means his son Charles inherited not only almost all Spain and the great countries then lately discovered in America, but also those noble provinces of the Netherlands, and was chosen emperor under the name of Charles V. Towards the latter end of the 1527, he added to his dominions the temporalities of the bishoprick of Utrecht on both sides of the Yssel; and Henry of Bavaria, being distrest through war with the duke of Guelderland, and tired with the continued rebellion of his own subjects, surrendered to the emperor the temporalities of his diocese, which was confirmed by the pope, and the states of the country. In 1536, Charles V. bought of Charles of Egmond the reverence of the duchy of Guelderland and of the county of Zutphen, in case that prince should die without issue. The same year the city of Groningen took the oath of allegiance, and submitted to Charles V. and in 1543 he put a garrison into the city of Cambrai, and built a citadel there. Having thus united the 17 provinces, as it were in one body, he ordered that they should continue for ever under the same prince, without being ever separated or dismembered; for which purpose he published in November 1549, with the consent and at the request of the states of all the provinces, a perpetual and irrevocable edict or law, by which it was enacted, that in order to keep all those provinces together under one and the same prince, prince, the right of representation, with regard to the succession of a prince or princess, should take place for ever, both in a direct and collateral line, notwithstanding the common laws of some provinces to the contrary. Charles had even a mind to incorporate these provinces with the Germanic body, and to make of them a circle of the empire, under the title of the circle of Burgundy, in order thereby to engage princes of the empire to concern themselves for the preservation of those provinces. But the Netherlands, always jealous of their liberty, did not seem to like that incorporation; and when they were demanded to pay their share towards the expenses of the empire, they refused it; whereupon the princes of Germany refused, in their turn, to take any part in the wars in Flanders, and looked upon those provinces as by no means belonging to the Germanic body.

Philip of Austria and his son Charles, who were born in the Netherlands, had for these provinces that natural affection which men used to have for their native country; and, knowing how jealous the inhabitants were of their liberty, and of the privileges granted to them by their former princes, they took great care to preserve them, and suffered willingly that the states, who were the guardians of the people's liberty and privileges, should in a manner share the supreme authority with them. Philip II., son to the Emperor Charles V., had not the same affection for the Netherlands, nor those generous sentiments which his father had endeavoured to inspire him with. Being born in Spain of a Portuguese woman, he had no regard but for his native country; and, when he removed out of the Netherlands, he left them to the weak government of a woman, to the proud and haughty spirit of Cardinal de Granville, and to the wild ambition of some lords of these provinces, who, availing themselves of the imprudent conduct and continual blunders of the council of Spain, found their private interest in the disturbances they could not fail to produce. Philip II., also, instead of the mild and moderate measures which his predecessors had successfully employed on many occasions, as best suiting the genius and temper of the people, had recourse to the most violent and cruel proceedings; which, far from curing the evil, served only to exasperate it the more and render it incurable. The Spaniards, whom he sent thither, being born and educated in an absolute monarchy, jealous of the liberties and envious of the riches of the people, broke through all their privileges, and used them almost after the same manner as they had done the inhabitants of their new and ill-gotten dominions in America. This treatment occasioned a general insurrection. The counts Hoorn, Egmont, and the prince of Orange, appearing at the head of it, and Luther's reformation gaining ground about the same time in the Netherlands, his disciples joined the malecontents: whereupon King Philip introduced a kind of inquisition in order to suppress them, and many thousands were put to death by that court, besides those that perished by the sword; for these persecutions and encroachments had occasioned a civil war, in which several battles were fought. The counts Hoorn and Egmont were taken and beheaded; but the prince of Orange, retiring into Holland, did, by the assistance of England and France, preserve Holland and some of the adjacent provinces, which entered into a treaty for their mutual defence at Utrecht in 1579, and they have ever since been styled the United Provinces; but the other provinces were reduced to the obedience of Spain by the duke of Alva and other Spanish generals. However, their ancient privileges were in a great measure restored; every province was allowed its great council or parliament, whose concurrence was required to the making of laws, and raising money for the government, though these assemblies were too often obliged to follow the dictates of the court.

The late Emperor Joseph II. endeavoured to deprive them even of the form of their free constitution; and he might very probably have succeeded, had he not attempted at the same time a reformation of the church. The Austrian Netherlands are wholly Catholic, and so bigotted to the Romish superstition, that though they had tamely submitted to many encroachments of the arch-ducal house on their civil right, no sooner did the monarch encroach upon the property of the holy mother-church than they resisted his authority, and claimed all their ancient privileges political and religious. The same attachment to their ancient faith and worship made them very lately contribute to expel from their territories the French whom they had invited to relieve them from the Austrian yoke. Thus her religious bigotry for once saved a free people from the iron rod of despotism on the one hand, and the cruelties of frantic democrates on the other. The provinces under the government of France were, till the late revolution, under the same severe arbitrary dominion as the other subjects of that crown, and they now experience the same miseries with the rest of the republic.

The Spaniards continued possessed of almost eight of these provinces, until the duke of Marlborough, general of the allies, gained the memorable victory of Ramillies. After which, Brussels the capital, and great part of these provinces, acknowledged Charles VI. (afterwards emperor) their sovereign; and his daughter, the late empress queen, remained possessed of them till the war that followed the death of her father, when the French made an entire conquest of them, except part of the province of Luxembourg; but they were restored by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, and the French retained only Artois, the Cambresis, part of Flanders, part of Hainault, and part of Luxembourg, of which they have had the dominion now upwards of eighty years.

The soil is generally fruitful, but differs in the several parts. The climate also differs in the several provinces; in those towards the south it does not differ much from that of England, though the seasons are more regular. In the northern provinces the winter is generally very sharp, and the summer sultry hot; but the extreme cold and excessive heat seldom continue above five or six weeks. The air is reckoned very wholesome, but is subject to thick fogs in winter, through the moistness of the country, which would be very noxious, were it not for the dry-easterly winds, which, blowing off a long continent for two or three months in the year, clear the air, and occasion very sharp frosts in January and February; during which, the ports, rivers, and canals, are commonly NETHEIMMS shut up. The face of the country is low and flat; for, except some small hills and a few rising grounds in Utrecht and Guelderland, and in the parts lying towards Germany, there is no hill to be seen in the whole 17 provinces. This is the reason that they have been called the Low Countries. French Flanders abounds in grain, vegetables, flax, and cattle, but is in want of wood.

For the Dutch Netherlands, see United Provinces.