534 



ENGLAND. 



miles of pipes, communicating with 80,000 lamps. Manufactures of all sorts are carried on 

 within the precincts of the metropolis, including every article of elegance or utility. 



The number of ships belonging to this port in 1830, was 2,663, of 572,800 tons ; and 

 the amount of customs collected 75 million dollars. A statement of the annual consumption 

 of several articles of food will help us to form a conception of the extent of the city ; 8 mil- 

 lion gallons of milk, 2 million lobsters, 3 million maclcerel, and as many herrings, I million 

 quarters of wheat, 20,000 hogs, 160,000 oxen, and 1,500,000 sheep, form but a part of the 

 food consumed here. 



London presents a striking contrast of wealth, intelligence, luxury, and morality, with igno- 



rance, poverty, misery, and vice. The most 



disgusting 



and n[)palling; scenes of filth and 



crime, and the most distressing pictures of squalid wretchedness, throw a dark shade over 

 this picture of human life. Thousands live by theft, swindling, begging, and every sort of 

 knavery, and thousands of houseless wretches here drag out a misetable life, half-fed and half- 

 clad, and sunk to the lowest degree of debasement. 



The population of the city is 1,500,000;* 20,000 individuals here rise in the mo'rtnng 

 without knowing how they shall live through the day, or where they shall sleep at night. 



Sharpers are innumerable. The public beg- 

 gars, are 116,000; the thieves and pick- 

 pockets, 115,000; the receivers of stolen 

 goods, 3,000 ; servants out of place, 10,000, 

 and 8,000 criminals are annually sent to prison. 

 It is not a rhetorical exaggeration, but a sta- 

 tistical fact, that every tenth man in London 

 is a habitual and professional rogue. 



The head of the corporation of London is 

 styled the Lord PiJayor, and his entrance into 

 office is celebrated by the citizens with much 

 pomp. 



The environs of London present a succes- 

 sion of beautiful and populous villages and 

 towns, the roads leading to which are throng- 

 ed by wagons, stagecoaches, and other vehi- 



and vvhicli, during ibo day, is devoted to business. On 

 his left is tho west end, where fashion, luxury, and taste 

 liold their empire. At evening, this part of the city is 

 tranquil, or only disturbed liy an occasional coach, while 

 the eastern part of Ihe metropolis yet continues to send 

 forth its almost deafenir.tr roar. Coaclies and carriages, 

 caits and wagons, of evi'ry kind, are still rolling through 

 the streets, and, ere the busy scene closes, appear to send 

 fortli a redoubled sound. But as the darkness increases, 

 and long lines of lainp.s spring up around you as by en- 

 chantment, the roar ol' the city begins to abate. By 

 almost imperceptible degrees, it decreases, and finally, 

 the cnslprn half of the city sinks into ])rolbund repose. 



But the ear is now ullracted by a hum from the west 

 end of the city. At first, a distant coach only i.s lieard, 

 and then another, and another, until at length a pervad- 

 ing sound come:- from every quarter, — at midnight llie 

 theatres are out, and tlie roar is augmented. At two 

 o'clock Ihe routs, balls, and parties are over, and for a 

 short period, the din rises to a higher and a higher pilcli. 

 At length it ceases, and there is a half hour of deep repose. 

 The v. hole city is at rest. A million of people are sleep- 

 ing around 30U. It is nov; an impressive moment, and 

 the imagination is afiecled with the deepest awo. But 

 the dawn soon bursts tiirough the mists that overhang 

 the cily. A market woman is seen grojiing through the 

 dim light to arrange her stall ; a laborer with his heavy 

 tread, passes by to heijhi his task : a wagoner, with liis 

 horses, shakes the earth around you. as he thunders by 

 Other persons are soon seen ; the noise increases, the 

 smoke streams up from tliousaiids of chimneys, the sun 

 rises, and while the west end of 1-cndon remains wrapped 

 in silence and repose, the eastern portion again vibrates 

 with the uproar of busiries.s. 



The Lord Mayor's Barges. 



*lt is impossible by any written description to convey 

 adequate ideas of the real magnitude of London. Indeed, 

 it is not till after a person has been in the city for some 

 months, that he begins to comprehend it. Kvery new 

 walk opens to liim streets, squares, and divisions which 

 he lias never seen before. And even those places where 

 he is most familiar are discovered day by day to possess 

 archways, avenws, and thoroughfares, within and around 

 them, which had never been noticed before. Ji^ven peo- 

 ple who have spent their whole lives in the city, often 

 find streets and buildings, of which they had never before 

 heard and which they had never before seen. If you 

 ascenil to the top of St. Paul's church, and look down 

 through the openings in the vast cloud which envelopes 

 the city, you notice a sea of edifices, stretching beyond 

 the limited view that is permitted by the impending va- 

 pors, it is not until many impressions are added togetlier, 

 that this great metropolis is understood even by one who 

 visits and studies it. It is not uiitil the observer has seen 

 the palace of the king and the hovel of the beggar ; tiie 

 broad and airy streets inhabited by the rich, and the dark 

 and dismal abodes of the poor; (he countless multitudes 

 that ebb and flow like the tide through some of the prin- 

 cipal streets ; ih; thousands that frequent Ihe parks and 

 promenades duiing the day, and other thousands that shun 

 the light, and only steal forth in (he hours of darkness. It 

 is not until all these, and many olJicr spectacles have been 

 witnessed, that he can understand the magnificence and 

 meanness, the wealth and poverty, the virtue and the 

 vice, the luxury and the v/ant, the happiness and misery, 

 which are signified by that brief word, London- 



To one disposed to study thi.-f metropolis, we should 

 recommend, that at the approach of evening, he should 

 take his station on Waterloo bridge, facing the north. 

 On liii riQ'hl liand lies ihjt nart wliich is calli d ti.i Cilv, 



