frequent, but whose character is not very splendid. In forms, in exterior appearance, in all that a foreigner sees merely in passing, Englishmen of every class are almost equally defective. They serve you in time of need, but they are rarely polite to you at any time.

The streets of London are better paved and better lighted than those of any metropolis in Europe: we have fewer street robberies, and scarcely ever a mid. night assassination. This last circumstance is owing to the benevolent spirit of the people; for whatever crimes the lower orders of society are tempted to commit, those of a sanguinary nature are less frequent here than they are in any other country. Yet it is singular, where the police it so ably regulated, that the watchmen, our guardians of the night, are generally old decrepid men, who have scarcely strength to use the alarum, which is their signal of distress in cases of emergency. It does credit, however, to the morals of the people, and to the national spirit, which evinces that the brave are always benevolent, when we reflect that during a period when almost all kingdoms exhibit the outrages of anarchy; when blood has contaminated the standard of liberty, and defaced the long-established laws of nations, while it overwhelms the altars of religion, this island presents the throne of reason, placed on the soil of GENIUS, VALOUR, and PHILANTHROPHY!

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The intercourse of London is so great, and is in it. self so surprising, that it seldom escapes the eye stranger. In many other cities the streets are narrow, yet are seldom impeded; that is blocked up by carriages and passengers; in London the streets are generally wide, yet this occurrence of being blocked up and stopped happens daily.

It may well excite admiration to go from Charing. cross to the Exchange, and pass a double row of carriages, one coming, the other going, with scarcely an intermission. Yet when we recollect the numerous causes that put so many things and persons in motion,

we must own, that this was a thing which might be expected.

Not only are the streets filled with carriages, but with foot passengers; so that the great thoroughfare of London appears like a moving multitude, or a daily fair. The causes that bring this crowd together are many, and the principal of them may easily be recollected. Beginning with Somerset-house, and proceeding eastward, we arrive progressively at all the places where the chief mercantile concerns, and many that appertain to government, are transacted. To mention the Bank, the Royal Exchange, the India-house, the Excise-office, and the General and Twopenny Postoffices, will be sufficient to remind the reader of some of the many causes that daily draw such multitudes into the city.

If we look westward, we there find Westminsterhall, the offices of government, the theatres, Bondstreet, St. James's, the Parks, and the mingled objects of pleasure and business that attract the croud.

The public roads and avenues of London are no less worthy of observation, and the vessels, great and small, that enter the port of London, exceed in numbers those of any other of the cities in England, and perhaps in the world, consequently the unlading of those vessels must greatly add to the intercourse. The Hackney-coaches in London are very numerous. Gentleman's carriages are much more so, and the num❤ ber of licensed carts, waggons, dravs, and other vehicles, which are employed in London and its environs, and which are obliged to be registered according to Act of Parliament, amount to about 30,000.

THE chief ornament of London is the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, which stands in the centre of the metropolis, on an eminence situated between Cheapside on the east and Ludgate-street on the west.

The body of this church is in the form of a cross. Over the space where the lines of that figure intersect each other, rises a stately dome, from the top of which springs a lantern adorned with Corinthian columus, and surrounded at its base by a balcony; on the lanthern rests a gilded ball, and on that a cross, (gilded also) which crowns the ornaments of this part of the edifice.

The length of this church, including the portico, is 500 feet; the breadth 250; the height, to the top of the cross, 310; the exterior diameter of the dome, 145; and the entire circumference of the building, 2,292 feet. A dwarf stone-wall, supporting a beautiful balustrade of cast-iron, surrounds the church, and separates a large area, which is properly the church-yard, from a spacious carriageway on the south-side, and a broad convenient foot-pavement on the north.

The dimensions of this cathedral are thus very great; but the quantity of ground the architect chose to cover, is not that by which it is chiefly distinguished, since the

grandeur of the design, and the beauty and elegance of its proportions, very justly rank this church among the noblest edifices of the modern world.

The church is adorned with three porticos; one at the principal entrance, facing the west, and running parallel with the opening of Ludgate-street; and the other two facing the north and south, at the extremi ties of the cross aile, and corresponding in their architecture. These fine ornaments, whether considered separately, or as they afford variety and relief to the form of the edifice, deserve to be peculiarly regarded. The western portico, perhaps, combines as much grace and magnificence as any specimen of the kind in the world. It consists of twelve lofty Corinthian columns below, and eight composite above, supporting a grand pediment; the whole resting on an elevated base, the ascent to which is by a flight of twenty-two square steps of black marble, running the entire length of the portico. The portico at the northern entrance, consists of a dome, supported by six Corin thian columns, with an ascent of twelve circular steps of black marble. The opposite portico is similar, ex. cept that the ascent consists of twenty-five steps, the ground on that side being in this proportion lower. The great dome is ornamented with thirty-two columns below, and a range of pilastres above. At the eastern extremity of the church, is a circular projection forming a recess within for the communion-table. The walls are wrought in rustic, and strengthened and ornamented by two rows of coupled pilasters, one above the other, the lower being Corinthian, and the other composite. The northern and southern sides have an air of uncommon elegance. The corners of the western front are crowned with turrets of an airy and light form. But these we have purposely left to be spoken of last, because they are unsuitable to the general style of this fine structure. And, no doubt, other objections may be justly formed against detached portions of the architecture. The successive dome,

lanthorn, ball, and cross, have no relation to each other; nor have the three uppermost any connection with the general character of the building. But, it is due from every compiler of a description of London, to Sir Christopher Wren, the great architect of this noble edifice, to say, that, had his fine taste and exalted genius been uncontrouled in forming the plan, this capital would have boasted of a more pure structure than the present cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren invented three successive plans for this work; the first of which, the purest and favourite of himself, was rejected by ignorance and superstition, for its too near approach to the sublimity of the Grecian temples. Fortunately for the architect's fame, the model (by Sir Christopher Wren) of that plan is preserved, and is to be seen at the cathedral. And, after all, the metropolis of England may deem herself happy in possessing a cathedral, so little debased with the corruptions of ar chitecture as is this beautiful pile.

The Inside of St. Paul's is so far from corresponding in beauty with its exterior, that it is almost entirely destitute of decoration. The interior part of the dome is painted by Sir James Thornhill, a contemporary with the architect, who was but ill qualified to run a kindred course with him. An attempt has, of late years, been made to relieve the sulien style of the inside, by the ornament of statues and monuments, erected to the memories of great men; and the plan deserves high praise, as departing from the taste for monumental architecture. Three statues and five monuments are placed in St. Paul's, in proper situations, and on a plan of general propriety.

The statues are plain full-length figures, standing on marble pedastals, with appropriate inscriptions, in họnour of Dr. Samuel Johnson, the celebrated Howard, and Sir William Jones, a man whose study it was to make the British name honoured and revered among the natives of the East Indies. The two first are by the late Mr. Bacon. The monuments have been erected to