In a building called the laboratory are deposited models or samples of congreve rockets, bombshells, hand-grenades, carcasses, fire-ships, and all the articles used in modern warfare. A man who is in charge of the building explains the use of all the things that are to be seen here.

There is a large building 300 feet in length, on the ground floor of which are to be seen an immense number of different things with which ships of war are supplied, and there were 150,000 muskets, which were kept in deal boxes, ready to be issued; above this is what is called the harness room where 10,000 military saddles and a great number of harnesses are kept in readiness for the army, the whole arrangement is very good, as there appeared to be a place for every thing and every thing for a place.

On two sides of this building are large plots of ground where thousands of guns and shots are kept which appear very beautiful. The whole of this establishment occupies an area of 60 square acres, and here different people are taught the art of gunnery, or how to use most effectually the articles here manufactured for destroying armies, burning ships, storming fortresses, and bombarding towns.

We admired the arrangement, and order, and discipline of the establishment, but we cannot say that we were pleased with it; we could not help thinking what a sad and melancholy reflection

it is upon poor human nature, thus to construct machines as it were for the wholesale destruction of human life—for destroying our fellow brethren on earth, whom the merciful and benevolent God created to love and do good to each other.

We indulge in the hope that these implements may never be used for the purpose they are intended, that when education has more generally diffused itself, that all warfare will cease, and peace and love will prevail, and that when nations or states quarrel, they will appoint arbitrators to settle the difference without any bloodshed.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE CUSTOM HOUSE, AND THE DOCKS

OF LONDON.

AMONG the busy scenes of London, perhaps there is not, on certain hours of the day, one of more activity than the Custom House, to which we paid a visit. It is not very far from London Bridge on the side of the river; it is the place where all ships that are leaving London, with cargoes, or even if in ballast, have to obtain a cocket or clearance, stating the day they left the port and the nature of the cargo. All ships, upon their arrival, have to be reported, and the strictest account given of every thing they have on board, in order that the several officers connected with the customs may take an account of the same, and that the duties may be paid thereon. The Custom House is a beautiful building of modern erection, (the former one having been burnt down in 1814. The length of the front is about 500 feet; and the great room for business, commonly called the long room is nearly 190 feet long and 66 feet wide. And there are many

hundreds of persons, consisting of captains and mates of ships, clerks to merchants, brokers, and shipping agents, in this room every day.

The commerce of London is much facilitated by the capital accommodations afforded to shipping by the immense large docks for the merchant vessels, where they have their cargoes taken out and put into warehouses. In these docks many vessels lay in still water alongside quays. The London Dock Company was formed in 1800, and their docks extend from Wapping to Shadwell, containing in the whole about 70 acres of ground; the docks are large enough to contain three hundred ships, exclusive of lighters, and the warehouses can hold 200,000 tons of goods. There are also vaults or cellars for 70,000 pipes of wine or spirits, and in addition to which there is a commodious jetty 800 feet long and 65 feet wide, with a shed thereon 450 feet long, under which an immense quantity of goods intended for shipment to India, or Australia, are stowed conveniently for putting on board the vessels which lay on either side to receive goods. There are at this time (March, 1841,) thirty-two large ships taking in their cargoes, and it was amusing to see the varieties of articles shipped for some of the new Australian settlements. There were entire houses cut out in frame, and numbered and marked in such a way that they can readily be put together in a few hours after their arrival. We were told that

P

a church had been sent out this way, and we saw all the varied furniture, glass, china, earthenware, &c. shipped here, and one would think there was enough to stock a nation.

Two ships deeply loaded for the Australian colonies were just passing out, and we saw a face or two, peeping from the cabins, of persons, who no doubt were about bidding a long, most likely a last, farewell to their native land.

The western dock has 20 acres, the eastern dock 7 acres, and the Wapping basin 3 acres, of water. The Shadwell entrance is three quarters of a mile below the Wapping entrance, it is a mile below the Hermitage entrance and nearly a mile and a quarter below the entrance to the St. Katharine's dock; the whole of the wharfs were strewed with casks, called puncheons, of 100 gallons, and hogsheads of 56 gallons, full of brandy, of which immense quantities are now being imported, it being generally thought, that the import duty upon brandy and French wines are about to be lowered.

They sometimes employ here from three to four thousand persons. There are also the East India Docks at Blackwall, the West India, the Commercial Docks, St. Katharine's Docks, and the Grand Surrey Canal Docks. We were here informed of what appeared to us a most singular fact, that the number of acres of water in the London Docks, are just equal to the whole