The two most powerful motives that keep this vast community in continual agitation, like the undulations of the ocean, are the love of pleasure and the love of gain. Venus and her auxiliary, Bacchus, reign in the fashionable circles. Masquerades, balls, fétes, public and private theatres, and all the luxurious delights that fancy can devise, minister to the passions and appetites of those sons and daughters of dissipation. Assignations, seduction, adultery, and elopements, engage the attention of the voluptuous throng; and were a temple erected in honour of Cytherea, those numerous votaries who worship her in private would doubtless form a long procession to offer their gifts upon her altars.

In the city, Plutus has a great proportion of worshippers, insomuch, that were a golden image like that of Nebuchadnezzar to be erected, numbers would surround the precious idol, and, with uplifted hands and admiring eyes, exclaim, "Gold, thou art the object of our constant devotion, thy influence has extinguished the light of justice and humanity in our minds!"

London being inhabited by a medley of various nations, must consequently exhibit a curious diversity of characters. To delineate these with the pencil of satire ; to-trace deception and vice to their secret haunts, and

expose them to public ridiculé and detestation, wherever they may be found; is the proper business of the honest satirist. It has ever been his privilege to "shoot folly as it flies," and if some readers feel that they are exhibited in colours too glaring, let them relinquish those follies which are subjects of ridicule, and the censure will be no longer applicable to them.

This work contains not only characteristics of the native citizens, but of people from different countries now resident in the English metropolis; remarks on public amusements and modern literature; animadversions on existing follies and vices; and a satirical description of some persons of distinction conspicuous for their career of dissipation.

The Appendix contains a plan for the melioration of morals, and institution of parochial associations for the encouragement of industry and virtue. Let the opulent inhabitants of this great city consider all the human beings resident here as the inmates of one immense mansion, in which there are apartments appropriated to different persons, according to their rank, and where it must be for the general good that each should be comfortably accommodated, so that none shall feel any temptation to infringe the rights or pro

perty of another.. A little reflection will convince us that at most this noble emporium is merely a heritage occupied by successive generations, in which each individual should be solicitous to make such lasting improvements as may render his memory dear to posterity.

SATIRICAL

VIEW OF LONDON.

Characteristics of the Inhabitants of London. THE first order of citizens which claims our atten

tion is the merchants, who are undoubtedly the most opulent and respectable in the world, whether considered as men of business, or private individuals. Many of the merchants who have received a liberal education, and travelled to form commercial connections, are intelligent and enterprising men; but it must be confessed that the greater number are rather confined in their ideas, and consider the art of accumulating wealth as the principal excellence. Dr. Johnson says, "there is nothing in trade connected with greatness of mind;" on

the other hand, it may safely be asserted, that commerce is essentially instrumental to the diffusion of knowledge. The same ship that comes freighted with merchandise, may import a still more valuable acquisition to the state, in the person of the traveller or philosopher, who comes to communicate new discoveries in science.

In consequence of their frequent intermarriages with the nobility, the higher order of citizens are not only more refined, but more luxurious than their ancestors. Many of them are possessed of elegant villas in the circumjacent counties, to which they occasionally retire from the bustle of business; but the love of rural scenes, which is so natural to man, seldom predominates in the mind of the merchant, till he has realised an immense fortune. Indeed, the desire of gain has become so habitual to several citizens, that they continue to deal in stock long after they have resigned the more arduous toils of commerce. The darling pursuit of the citizen of London is wealth, and he cheerfully devotes the energies of his mind to the attainment of that object.

The amusements of the higher class of citizens are similar to those of the great, whose fashions and follies the city dames and belles are emulous to imitate. They tread in the path defined by the arbitresses of the mode;