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LONDON (COMMERCE). 



receivingabout 200 children. There are also orphan 

 usylums, an asylum for the deaf and dumb, one for the 

 iudigent blind, and many other-. Alms-houses are 

 numerous. There is a small debt relief society, a 

 mendicity society, a philanthropic society for giving 

 employment to the industrious poor, a prison discip- 

 line society, &c. There are also various hospitals ; St 

 Thomas's, with 490 beds ; St Bartholomew's, capa- 

 ble of accommodating between 400 and 500 patients; 

 Guy's hospital, with 400 beds; St George's, with 

 350; Middlesex hospital, able to contain 300 pa- 

 tients ; the London hospital ; small-pox hospital ; 

 various lying-in hospitals, &c. The Bethlehem hos- 

 pital, and St Luke's hospital receive insane patients. 

 The Immune society lias eighteen receiving-houses in 

 different parts of London, with apparatus for restor- 

 ing suspended animation. Dispensaries relieve more 

 than 50,000 patients annually. There are at least 

 thirty of them, besides twelve for the sole purpose of 

 vaccination. The college of physicians and the 

 college of surgeons examine candidates forthe profes- 

 sions of physic and surgery, in the metropolis and the 

 suburbs. The museum of the latter body contains 

 the collections of the celebrated John Hunter, 

 amounting to 20,000 specimens and anatomical pre- 

 parations. The British museum is a spacious brick 

 structure, in the French style of architecture. It 

 was originally, the palace of the first duke of Mon- 

 tague, built in 1077; its dimensions, 216 feet in 

 length, by 70 feet in depth, and 57 feet in height. 

 The ground floor is appropriated solely to the recep- 

 tion of the library of printed books. The principal 

 or upper floor contains the miscellaneous articles of 

 curiosity for public inspection ; such as collections of 

 minerals, lavas, volcanic productions, shells, fossils, 

 and zoological specimens, British and foreign, and also 

 various articles from the South sea islands, and North 

 and Western America, &c. The ground floor is 

 connected with a more modern building, called the 

 gallery of antiquities, divided into fifteen apart- 

 ments, in which are distributed nearly 1000 pieces of 

 sculpture, Greek and Roman, a fine collection of 

 terra cottas, Roman sepulchral urns, cippi, sarco- 

 phagi, &c. In a temporary room are deposited the 

 Klgin marbles, purchased by government for ,35,000. 

 The upper floor of this gallery contains the collections 

 of Herculanean and Pompeian antiquities made by 

 Sir William Hamilton, cabinets of coins and medals, 

 and also a rare collection of prints and engravings 

 by the most eminent artists. The present building 

 is destined to be razed to the ground as soon as a 

 splendid edifice, now constructing, is completed. 

 There are various other public libraries. King's 

 college (q. v.) was founded in 1828. The London 

 university, founded in 1825, is not a chartered 

 institution. Its course of instruction comprehends 

 languages, mathematics, physics, ethics, law, his- 

 tory, political economy, and medical science, com- 

 municated in public lectures, examinations by the 

 professors, &c. The front, to Gower-street, is a 

 handsome fagade, adorned with the noblest portico 

 in London, of twelve Corinthian columns, ascended 

 by a flight of steps, surmounted by a dome and lan- 

 tern. On the principal floor is a spacious examina- 

 tion hall, a museum of natural history, a museum of 

 anatomy, professors' apartments, a grand library, 120 

 feet by 50, and a smaller library, 41 feet by 22 ; and 

 nt each end is a semicircular theatre for lectures, 65 

 feet by 50. The ground floor is portioned into lec- 

 ture-rooms, cloisters, two theatres, chemical labora- 

 tory, museum, offices, and council-room. The num- 

 ber of students, in this university, in the year 1829, 

 was 680. The royal society of literature was insti- 

 tuted in 1823 ; the royal society for improving 

 natural knowledge., in 1663; the society of anti- 



quaries, in 1572 ; the royal institution, in 1800, for 

 diffusing mechanical knowledge, and the application 

 of science to the various purposes of life ; the society 

 of arts, in 1574, to award premiums and bounties to 

 useful inventions and discoveries; the royal academy, 

 in 1768, for the promotion of the fine arts. It pro- 

 vides students with busts, statues, pictures, and liv- 

 ing models, and has professors of painting, architec- 

 ture, anatomy, perspective, and sculpture. Their 

 annual exhibition of new paintings, drawings, 

 sketches, sculptures, &c., the admission to which is 

 one shilling per head, averages 6000 per annum, 

 and supports all the expenses of the establishment. 

 There are several other societies for the promotion 

 of the fine arts, and the private collections of works 

 of art are numerous and splendid. The number of 

 theatres and amphitheatres is twelve, of whicli the 

 principal are, the King's theatre or Italian opera- 

 house, Drury lane and Covent garden theatres. 

 Vauxhall gardens are a favourite place of summer 

 resort for the lovers of music, singing, and fire- 

 works. The principal promenades are St James's 

 park, Green park, Hyde park (q. v.), (which com- 

 prises nearly 400 acres), Kensington gardens, and 

 the Regent's park, which is laid out in shrubberies 

 and rich plantations, adorned by a fine piece of 

 water, studded with villas, and intersected by rides 

 and promenades. The Zoological gardens, in this 

 garden, contain many different sorts of animals, in 

 paddocks, dens, or aviaries. 



Manufactures. London may be considered as 

 more a commercial than manufacturing city. Its 

 manufactures are of a very miscellaneous description. 

 Tlie chief is the Spittalfields silk manufacture, which 

 is not, however, in a flourishing condition. In house- 

 hold furniture, especially cabinet work, the artisans 

 of London greatly excel. Among other businesses 

 prosecuted to a great extent may be mentioned 

 clock and watch making, with their subsidiary trades 

 and operations; engraving in all its branches; 

 printing, bookbinding, type founding, and other arts 

 connected with literature; carving and gilding, and 

 the manufacture of picture-frames and looking- 

 glasses; embossing, chasing, making gold and silver 

 plate, and the works of the lapidary and jeweller ; 

 coach and carriage building, &c. ; the manufacture 

 of all kinds of musical instruments ; and ship-build- 

 ing and equipping and storing vessels for the sea- 

 service. There are other arts and manufactures 

 prosecuted on an extensive scale, or distinguished for 

 their importance or ingenuity. The number of the 

 public breweries in London, in 1829, was eighty- 

 four ; of the retail breweries, eighty-five ; of the 

 intermediate breweries, eight ; and there were 4461 

 licensed victuallers, of whom seventeen only brewed 

 their own beer. There are likewise various iron 

 and brass founderies and bell founderies, distilleries, 

 drug-mills, oil-mills, sugar-refineries, glass-houses, 

 saw-mills, shot-manufactories, establishments for re- 

 fining saltpetre, and for making vinegar and acetous 

 acid, aquafortis, and oil of vitriol. In London are 

 made agricultural machines and implements, sur- 

 geons' instruments, artificial hands, legs, and eyes, 

 steam-engines, copying-machines and pcntagraphs, 

 needles, for the manufacture of which Whitechapel 

 was formerly noted, fishing-tackle, guns and pistols, 

 works in ivory, tortoiseshell, and mother of pearl, 

 scagliola and ornamental stone- work, artificial 

 flowers and feathers, optical and mathematical in- 

 struments, &c. 



Commerce. The commerce of London can be 

 traced back to a very early period. Tacitus speaks 

 of it as the nobile emporium of his time, the great 

 resort of merchants, and, although not a colony at 

 that period, yet as a city celebrated for its com- 



