The capital of the Netherlands, seat of the Court and of the Government, 15 m. NW. of Rotterdam and 2 m. from the North Sea; is handsomely laid out, in spacious squares and broad streets, with stately buildings, statues, and winding canals, beautifully fringed with lindens and spanned by many bridges; has a fine picture-gallery, a royal library (200,000 vols.), archives rich in historical documents of rare value, an ancient castle, palace, and a Gothic church of the 14th century; industries embrace cannon-foundries, copper and lead smelting, printing, etc.; it is connected by tramway with Scheveningen, a fashionable watering-place on the coast.