nearly two thousand years, and has undergone many memorable vicissitudes since the huts of the Aborigines, and the more convenient mansions of the ancient Romans, were erected on the northern bank of the Thames. At the present moment, London is the most interesting spot on the habitable globe, whether considered as the nursery of arts, the centre of European commerce, the seat of the legislature, or the abode of a vast population. According to the computation of a living author, this world is inhabited by one thousand millions of human beings of these London contains about one million, or a thousandth part of the population of the earth; and in what other community are such numerous and comfortable accommodations attainable, so much general knowledge, and so steady and uninterrupted an enjoyment of social happiness, secured and protected by the wise and impartial administration of equitable laws? As far as regards the human person and character, London presents an endless diversity to the observant eye, from the glossy sable of the African, to the perfect bloom of English feminine beauty; and from the imperfection of the misshapen dwarf, often to be met with in the city, to the elegant symmetry and majestic stature of the manly form. In mental endowments and acquirements, too, a most interesting gradation is frequently perceptible in this metropolis, from the rustic simplicity and innocence of the village maid just arrived at her first place in town, to the beauty, grace, and refinement of the young lady, With all that earth and heaven can bestow and the gradual developement of mind, from the plain good sense of the industrious handicraftsman, intent upon earning his daily bread, up to the aspirations of the sagacious statesman, the successful researches of the experimental philosopher, and the inventive energy of the man of elevated imagination, who shines as a musical composer, an artist, or an author. But while the city, as it is significantly called, is thronged with merchants, tradesmen, and the subordinate classes of society to whom they give employment; while the pleased rambler views alternately numerous warehouses stored with valuable merchandise, and shops overflowing with the most choice and elegant, as well as useful, productions of nature and art; or gratifies the imagination with a glance at those magnificent edifices which adorn the eastern division of the metropolis, the western part is not without objects of equal, or, perhaps, still greater attraction. Westminster has for many centuries been dis tinguished as the seat of government. It contains the edifice appropriated to the purposes of legislation, and the courts of law. It is also the principal residence of the nobility and gentry of the United Kingdom, who come to town about the end of autumn, and usually spend the winter here, except during the Christmas holidays, when many of them revisit their country seats, for the purposes of festivity, hospitality, and that noble munificence which they annually exercise by the distribution of clothing, fuel, provisions, and money, among their indigent neighbours. The presence of some thousands of our opulent nobility, gentry, and merchants, in the west end of the town, operates as a powerful attractive to ingenious and aspiring individuals, who crowd thither to share the animating influence of wealthy patronage. Hence the mansions of the great are furnished with elegance and splendour beyond the power of description; and the drawingroom, and the assembly, display those polished circles where social parties with the freedom and propriety of polite manners, enjoy the delights of music, dancing, luxurious refection, and the still higher gratification of friendly conversation. London has for several ages been gradually enlarged with a steady progression, arising from prosperous commerce; and its regular improvement has been the happy consequence of that 1 intellectual power and intelligence, for which the free mind is peculiarly pre-eminent. Genius, aided by wealth, has thus produced a city abounding with all the accommodations that man can require, or invention devise. The rapid improvement in the western part of the metropolis within the last fifty years, has been superior to that in any part of the world, with the exception, perhaps, of Liverpool. For many ages, the mansions erected by several of the nobility in Westminster and its vicinity, contributed essentially to the increase of this part of the capital, both in houses and population. Speculators purchased ground, marked out new streets and squares, and erected commodious and beautiful mansions. The salubrity of the place, the convenience of the tenements, and the hope of patronage from the great, soon induced tradesmen to occupy the new buildings; and numerous shops displayed the various merchandise of the mercer, the milliner, the embroiderer, the jeweller, the upholsterer, and all those trades which aid in the embellishment of a great city. The erection of several modern edifices also contributed to the magnificence of London. Three new bridges across the Thames, in addition to the three which had for ages been the boast of this city, at once, promoted the conve nient intercourse of the public, and presented 1 noble objects to the observation of natives and foreigners. The new Custom House, erected on an extensive scale, is at once ornamental, and conducive to the success of commerce, by the facility it affords to the man of business; the church of Mary-le-bone, near the Regent's Park, an ornamental edifice of stone; and the new church of St. Pancras, another elegant structure, now nearly finished, constitute superb and durable ornaments to London. Such is the bright side of the picture of modern London; but many are the shades of human folly and profligacy with which it is interspersed. The English Metropolis has, indeed, often been a subject for the studied praise of those cunning and avaricious writers and publishers, who extolled it at the expence of truth, for the purpose of obtaining a temporary popularity for their productions. They manufactured their encomiums as Peter Pindar's razor-seller made his instruments" to sell." Thus London has been repeatedly termed by them the greatest city in the world, the very source and centre of human ingenuity and happiness. The term great is certainly applicable to London, both as it regards the excellence and the vice of a multitudinous community. It is great in extent, population, commerce, opulence, the perfection and beauty of numberless articles manufactured for |