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danced on the surface of the dark stream. The moon sailed brightly over "heaven's delicious blue," and the fleecy clouds revolved over the star-besprinkled sky, in wreathes edged with glistening silver.

We passed several gibbets on the shores of the river. The bodies hanging on them have been exposed there for a number of years; their bones are kept together by irons and chains. The sight of these skeletons cannot fail inspir ing the utmost horror in the beholder, however true the following sentiment may be in Addison's Cato:

"When by just vengeance impious mortals perish,
The Gods behold their punishment with pleasure,
And lay th' uplifted thunder-bolt aside."

Early in the evening we approached London. What a torrent of undescribable feelings floated over my mind, when I first perceived the mighty city stretched out before me; when, beyond the forest of masts, and above the clouds of dark smoke which always hover over the metropolis, I beheld for the first time the lofty spires of the churches piercing the limitless ocean of condensed vapour, and seeming to avert the very wrath of Heaven from this earthly Pandemonium!

At length I entered London, that city (to use the language of the younger Pliny,) "in quâ non minora præmia, immo majora, nequitia et improbitas, quam pudor et virtus habent." I got into a hackney coach at Aldgate,

ad drove towards the western or fashionable uarters. I was soon lost in a maze of smoky, irty streets; a sort of dinginess seemed to ervade every thing. I stopped at the Tavisock Hotel, Covent Garden, in order to witess the Westminster elections to the best adantage.*

Stand by, clear the way, and make room for he sublime exhibition of this wonderful meropolis!-But no: I will not anticipate your feelings by a pompous general description, but wait till, by a longer sojourn, I may be entitled to give an exact picture. Shut up in my apartment, I feel as secluded as if I were in a desert; I have full leisure to observe the outward aspect and general movements of London, and I listen, as it were, to the awful roar of its billows breaking round me like the tides of a troubled sea. The immense extent and population of this capital, are alone capable of filling the mind with a grand mixture of feelings; I seem like an insect lost in the immensity! and never did I feel so sensible at once of the sublimity of human genius, and of the comparative littleness of individual man. How insignificant the being, (says the elegant author of "Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk,") how insignificant the being, that forms scarcely a dis

*Of the elective bodies in Great Britain, none is of importance equal to Westminster; the seat of government, the royal family, and for half the year the principal nobility and gentry: hence there had been usually a great competition in this city. BISSET'S Geo. III.

tinguishable speck in that huge sweep of cogregated existence! Yet how noble the spirit which has called together that mass, which rules and guides and animates them all-which so adorns their combination, and teaches the structures of art almost to rival the vastness of nature! With feelings like these, you will not be surprised if my spirits were depressed. I felt the loneliness of my situation more sensibly, when I walked out at night, and saw the interminable stream of population in the spacious streets, the lines of lamps and of illuminated shops, to which there seemed to be no end.

The smoky atmosphere of London gives a sombre hue to every object; black soot sticks to the clothes and linen, or lights on the face; the smoke from the houses prevents a satisfac tory view at a distance, and seems, when viewed from an eminence, a great dark cloud attached to the earth. When the sun is bright in the sky, its rays produce a singular effect on this atmosphere; they appear to light up the whole scene in the most splendid manner, and seem to be enriched by the murky tinges through which they pass. The high steeples rear their tall points through the dark cloud into a purer atmosphere, and receive the glit tering beams of the sun, before they pierce the vapour which hangs over the dwellings of men. The holy dome of St. Paul's is seen in its majestic grandeur. It has been compared to a Supreme presence shedding gracefulness

nd sanctity over all that is done beneath its hadow, and diffusing sublimity over the huge ity, stretched out in endless pomp and endless larkness at its feet.

LETTER X.

La liberté est comme une liqueur salutaire, mais énivrante, qui rejouit le cœur de l'homme, qui l'élève et qui l'affermit orsqu'elle est prise modérément, mais qui dans ses excès, le rend insensé, furieux, et trop souvent cruel jusqu'à l'atrocité.

Marmontel.

London, March 7th, 1819.

"THE same weaknesses, the same passions that, in England plunge men into elections, drinking and exist here, (says Horace Walpole, in a letter from Florence,) and show themselves in the shapes of Jesuits, Cesisbeos and Coridon ardebat Alexins!" In France and Italy (observes he, in another passage,) the faults are national and cease to be striking. In England tempers vary so excessively, that almost every one's weaknesses are peculiar to himself. This arises from the climate and the government: the first is changeable, and makes us queer; the latter permits our queernesses to operate as they please.

During the elections, not only the " queernesses" but the vices of the English character, appear in all their nakedness. The populace seem to think that broken heads are essential

to the liberty of the country, and that mud and brickbats are indispensible ingredients in the British constitution. Accordingly, during this period of licentious indulgence, the most dis graceful excesses are committed. Before the contest, Despotism envelops Anarchy in a hideous veil; at the opening of the poll, the lat ter shows her terrible face, and all legal re straint is laid prostrate. The gathering of the storms of faction, which are ready to burst forth, the exaggeration of debates, and the mad ravings of an infuriated populace,―give to the country the appearance of being on the brink of a revolution.

The newspapers will inform you of the event

of the Westminster election. Mr. Lamb's majority was secured by the aid of those who supported him as a "minor evil," as the government papers say. Sir Murray Maxwell was treated by the populace, just as such a ministerial hireling deserved: he was saluted with mud and hisses, whenever he ventured on the hustings. He received a random brickbat over his eye, which sent him howling down the steps; another stone, lanched at him with great force and violence, winged its flight be yond the hustings, and encountered the scull of one of his adherents. I was very much surprised to find Maxwell next day haranguing the people; "sed heu! quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore!" He had a bandage over the eye that was injured, and "disdain and scorn rode sparkling" in the one that remained! At length,

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