to external grandeur as to domestic convenience, are so completely guarded with high brick walls, that you might imagine the Baron's wars had not yet terminated, for his house in a double sense is the owner's castle. Nor can you look into their gardens by reason of the fortifications; though you frequently see an elevated sign at the corner, requesting you to take notice that " Man Traps" are placed there.

The houses in the city, even if they enjoy ten feet of rear ground, suffer the inconvenience of dark, confined air by reason of high walls, the tops of which are usually cemented with broken glass bottles-I do not say to guard against their neighbours.

The security of the house in which I reside is guarantied in the following manner. The door has a double lock, a chain and two bolts, beside an alarum bell, which is carefully fixed to the pannel every night. A watchman, if he does his duty, passes by the door once in thirty minutes. Another watchman is stationed in the yard and doomed to perpetual imprisonment with a chain round his neck.

This wariness is perhaps as necessary in London, as the guarded circumspection in wording, and the various formality of executing, a deed. But there is another caution, though in appearance much of the same complexion, which does the people infinite honour. I refer to the christian part of the commu

nity, who lock up their pew doors, lest the church should be profaned by those who have no right to hear the gospel.

The story which they tell of the savage, who was invited to send his son to New York to bę educated, might have been more highly embellished at London. I know not if you have met with it-The savage said he would consider of the proposal, but would first see the people, and take a view of the city, and if he gave the preference to our mode of life should have no objection. On entering New York, he discovered little of that surprise and admiration which novelty usually produces on ignorance. The first object which attracted his notice was a negro. He had never seen one before: he asked, "Who that black person was?" and was informed he was a negro slave. The meaning of the word slave being explained, he asked the cause of his being a slave. "Why-he was black." The Indian said nothing: you know it is their habit in the most serious concerns to proceed with a coolness which looks like indifference. Presently he observed a gentleman getting out of a coach, with the assistance of two or three people: this arrested his attention. He asked, "Who he might be?" and was told he was a very rich man who was afflicted with the gout. He asked, "What the gout might be?" and was informed. The savage said

nothing, but passed on. Presently after, he saw a man, apparently in distress, enter a certain building, under the guard of another. He asked the reason of this, and "Why the building looked so gloomy?" He was told it was a prison in which both those who would not, and those who could not, pay their debts were confined. The savage said nothing. He now saw a beggar asking charity, and demanded, "What made so much difference between those two men ?" The explanation of this involved most of the principal relations of society. The savage paused, and seemed to reflect with deep consideration. length he smote his breast, and said he would proceed no further: nor could he be persuaded to tarry one night in the city.

At

I have imagined the same wild man's mode of reasoning had he come to London. I pass over those few particulars which speak full as strongly, I think, as Dr. Johnson's deed.

Had he entered the city by the west end, he might have seen, on Hounslow Heath, two of those gentlemen who live and die at the public expense, suspended on gibbets; one of whom, from the appearance of the skeleton, must have been a remarkably fine fellow. He would suppose these skeletons were monuments, sacred to the memory of redoubted chiefs, and animating examples to the rising genera

tion, of undaunted valour, wary stratagem, or Indian fortitude. The savage would naturally inquire, "How they encountered their death, in what glorious, but fatal struggle they fell, what unusual exploits they performed to merit such a conspicuous station, and what enemy had the honour of conquering them?" Alas, he would be told the scene of action was Hounslow Heath, the encounter memorable only in the Newgate calendar, that they were thought to merit their high station in the unanimous opinion of twelve men, and the famous fellow, who triumphed over them, was one Jack Ketch. After the criminal code of English law had been explained to him, he would find sufficient to divert his mind until he reached Hyde Park corner.

By the time he arrived there, he would be rendered so tame, he would not dare to reach over a hedge to cut a walking stick. What a reflection! that he, who had been accustomed to consider the largest quarter of the globe his park, all the rivers and lakes, his fishery, and all the forests subservient to his necessities or pleasures-That he, who had considered himself the centre of being, and fancied the circle of creation moved with himself, should suddenly find his person in the king's highway, and liable to be put in closer confinement if he overstepped the narrow limit of sixty or seventy feet!

F

To shock his feelings as little as possible, I would not hurry him into the city, but would take him to St. James' Park, in order to show him the decency, the order, and the magnificence of a well regulated government. But even here, he would ask certain questions, which it might be invidious to answer. The numerous houses of noblemen which border the park would raise the question of their origin and present support." This man's ancestor found the weak side of a weak prince, and his posterity have been maintained ever since at the public expense: that man's great ancestor by his abilities became so formidable to the state, that it was found necessary, in order to change his conduct, to quiet him with an earldom: and though nature through his descendants has inflicted a posthumous penance on him, for perverting his abilities, yet that only affects their intellects, not their dignity. That house is considered one of the first in the kingdom, because the proprietor's ancestor, many years ago, nearly ruined the nation." "But does not every age produce a sufficient number of chiefs," the savage would ask, "why then the necessity of making those chiefs who had none of the requisite qualities?" The shortest answer would be, They never were made such, and that themselves were in general nothing more than reflected greatness, like that moon which he had