237 
spirit, and in the features of Lord Granby his great benevolence, 
which procured him in the army the name of the soldier’s friend. 
The features of the count excite respect, while those of the lord 
claim your attachment. I was much less pleased with the histori¬ 
cal pieces of Sir Joshua. The most handsome of the newer paint¬ 
ings was undoubtedly the interior of the choir of a Capuchin 
chapel by the French painter Granet. The expression of the 
countenances of the monks is unparalleled; in some you see piety, 
in others listlessness; another couple make sport of the exceed¬ 
ing piety of a monk, kneeling in the middle of the hall; the coun¬ 
tenance of a young, tall, stout monk, is the personification of 
fanaticism. Near the altar stands a monk in the sacerdotal habit, 
with two choristers and tapers in their hands, the monk singing 
a hymn. The light is very well executed; it enters through a 
large window in the back ground, and makes a fine effect on the 
bare crown of the head and the gray beard of the priest. I think 
this piece one of the finest of the whole collection. I saw here 
a great many gentlemen and ladies, and it is said to be fashiona¬ 
ble to visit this splendid gallery in the afternoon. 
On the 26 th of July, (the anniversary of the day on which I 
first landed on American ground at Boston,) I went to the custom¬ 
house for the purpose of taking passage for Ostend on board the 
steam-boat Earl of Liverpool, Captain Peak, which was laying 
there at anchor. At the custom-house I was quite surprised. I 
expected to see the splendid, newly-erected palace for the offices 
of the custom-house, the same which, three years ago, I had ad¬ 
mired so much, and instead of it, found nothing but ruins. They 
said that the foundation had not been well enough examined upon 
which the custom-house had been built by contract; the building 
cracked, the large, splendid hall was near falling down, and in 
order to prevent this accident, they were obliged to demolish the 
centre building; both wings of the building were yet supported 
by beams, but they soon will have to demolish them likewise, 
in order to build an entirely new house. The gentleman who 
made the contract to have the house built, lays the blame of this 
bad work upon the architect, and he upon a commission, under 
whose control he acted. 
The Earl of Liverpool, of one hundred and thirty tons, with 
two engines, left London at eleven o’clock, A. M., and on the 
next morning at six o’clock I landed at Ostend. At four o’clock, 
P. M. I proceeded by the way of Bruegge to Ghent. During 
this journey I remembered an observation which I had heard 
frequently in America, that upon an American visiting Europe 
for the first time, nothing makes a greater impression than the 
old monuments, which trace the time past for many centuries, 
and which are a proof of the prosperity and good taste of pre- 
