lations of finance and convenience existing under any government. It has gradually been brought to its present perfection, being at first in the hands of individuals, and replete with abuses. In its present form it not only supplies the government with a great revenue, but accomplishes that by means highly beneficial to the persons contributing.

The Post-office is the most important spot on the surface of the globe. It receives information from all countries; it distributes instructions to the antipodes; it connects together more numerous and distant interests of men than any similar establishment. It is, in the highest degree hitherto realized, the seat of terrestrial perception and volition, the brain of the whole earth!

The mode of carrying letters by the general-post was greatly improved a few years since, by a most admirable plan, invented by Mr. Palmer. Previously to its adoption, letters were conveyed by carts, without protection from robbery, and subject to delays. At present they are carried, according to Mr. Palmer's plan, by coaches, distinguished by the name of MAIL-COACHES, provided with a well-armed guard, and forwarded at the rate of eight miles an hour, including stoppages. Government contracts with coach-keepers merely for carrying the mail, the coachowner making a profitable business besides, of carrying passengers and parcels. It is not easy to imagine a combination of different interests to one purpose, more complete than this. The wretched situation, however, of the horses, on account of the length of the stages which they are frequently driven, is a disgrace to the character of the British nation, and requires the interference of the legisla ture. No stage should exceed twelve miles in length. The rapidity of this mode of conveyance is unequalled in any country.

THE MONUMENT.

ABOUT two hundred yards north of London-bridge, is situated one of the finest pillars in the world, erected by Sir Christopher Wren, in memory of the great fire, which, in 1666, broke out at a house on this spot, and destroyed the metropolis from the Tower to Temple Bar. It is a fluted column of the Doric order; its total height is 202

feet; the diameter at the base is 15 feet; the height of the column 120 feet; and the cone at the top, with its urn, 42 feet. The height of the massy pedestal is 40 feet. Within the column is a flight of 345 steps; and from the iron balcony at the top is a most fascinating prospect of the metropolis and the adjacent country. It is impossible not to lament the obscure situation of this beautiful monument, which, in a proper place, would form one of the most striking objects of the kind that architecture is capable of producing.

The inscription had better be erased, for no rational being can entertain the notion, that the Catholics, or any religious sect, could wilfully have perpetrated so horrible a deed as this pillar was intended to impute to them, nor can so much credit. be given to human foresight, as for it to be concluded that a fire, which broke out in a single house, could, upon this, rather than upon other occasions, have extended its ravages in so extraordinary a manner.

THE LOUVRE.

THIS splendid palace, which was planned in the reign of Francis I. at the commencement of the sixteenth century, is a quadrangular edifice, having a court in the centre, and forming a square of 65 French toises, or 416 English feet. The front was built in the reign of Louis XIV. and is one of the most beautiful monuments of his reign. A spacious gallery, 227 toises, or 1450 English feet, in length, connects this palace with that of the Thuilleries. Here was displayed, under the title of THE MUSEE NAPOLEON, that inestimable collection of paintings, one thousand and thirty in number, consisting of the chefs-d'auvres of the great masters of antiquity, and constituting a treasury of human art and genius, far surpassing every other similar institution.

The anti-100m leading to the gallery contained several exquisite paintings, the fruits of the triumphs of Bonaparte, or which had been presented to him by the sovereigns who had cultivated his alliance. This apartment was styled by the Parisians the NOSEGAY OF BONAPARTE: its most costly pictures were from the gallery of the Grand Duke of Tuscany; and to these were added a selection from those procured at Venice, Naples, Turin, and Bologna.

It would be impossible adequately to describe the first impressions made on the spectator on his entrance into THE GALLERY, where such a galaxy of genius and art was offered to his contemplation. It was lined by the finest productions of the French, Flemish, and Italian schools, and divided by a curious double painting upon slate, placed on a pedestal in the middle of the room, representing the front and back views of the same figures.

From the Museum the visitor descends into THE Salle DES ANTIQUES, containing the finest treasures of Grecian and Roman statuary. His notice is instantly attracted by THE BELVIDERE APOLLO, a statue surpassing, in the opinion of connoisseurs, all the others in the collection. This matchless statue is thus described by Sir John Carr, in his work entitled The Stranger in France. "All the divinity of a god beams through this unrivalled perfection of form. It is impossible to impart the impressions which it inspires: the rivetted beholder is ready to exclaim with Adam, when he first discerns the approach of Raphael:

-Behold what glorious shape

Comes this way moving: seems another morn

Risen on mid-noon; some great behest from heaven."

"The imaginatian cannot form such an union of grace and strength. One of its many transcendant beauties consist in its aerial appearance and exquisite expression of motion."

THE MEDICEAN VENUS, from the Palace Pitti, at Florence, also formed a part of this magnificent collection of statues. The classic Addison, in speaking of this statue, which he saw at Florence, observes, that it appeared to him much less than life, in consequence of its being in the company of others of a larger size; but that it is, notwithstanding, as large as the ordinary size of women, as he concluded from the measure of the wrist; since, in a figure of such nice proportions, from the size of any one part it is easy to guess at that of the others. The fine polish of the marble, communicating to the touch a sensation of fleshy softness, the delicacy of the shape, air, and posture, and the correctness of design, in this celebrated statue, are not to be expressed.

THE PARIS MUSEUM, and SALLE DES ANTIQUES, al

though deprived, at the termination of the contest with France, of so many chef-d'œuvres of art, still contain others which render them highly interesting. The finest productions of Le Brun, several of them on an immense scale, still remain ; as do likewise the matchless marine paintings by Vernet; the truly sublime works of Poussin, consisting of the chief of his masterpieces; together with many choice paintings by Rubens, Wouvermans, De Witte, &c. Many of the statues remaining in the Hall of Antiques are likewise admirable specimens of sculpture.

In the gallery of the Louvre a very curious collection of models, representing the fortresses of France and other countries, was once exhibited; but was removed to the end that the paintings might be seen with greater effect. These models, executed in the reign of Louis XIV. and amounting to upwards of one hundred and eighty, were wrought with the greatest accuracy, and so naturally, as to represent the several cities which they describe, with their streets, houses, squares, and churches, together with the works, moats, bridges, and rivers, not neglecting the adjacent territory, as consisting of plaius, mountains, corn-lands, meadows, gardens, woods, &c. Several of these models were so contrived as to be taken in pieces, to the end that the curious observer might be better able to perceive their admirable construction.

THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

THIS grand national collection of antiquities, books, and natural curiosities, is placed in the noble house formerly belonging to the Duke of Montagu, in Great Russel-street, Bloomsbury. It is a stately edifice, in the French style of the reign of Louis XIV. and on the plan of the Thuilleries. The celebrated French architect, Peter Paget, was sent over from Paris, by Ralph, first Duke of Montagu, expressly to construct this splendid mansion, which is, perhaps, better calculated for its present purpose than for a private residence.

The British Museum was established by act of parliament, in 1753, in consequence of the will of Sir Hans Sloane, who left his museum to the nation, which he declared in his testament, cost him upwards of fifty thousand pounds, on condition that parliament should pay twenty

thousand pounds to his executors, and purchase a house sufficiently commodious for it. The parliament acted with great liberality on this occasion; several other valuable collections were united to this of Sir Hans Sloane, and the whole establishment completed for the sum of eighty-five thousand pounds, which was raised by the way of lottery. Parliament afterwards added, at various times, to the Slonean Museum, the Cottonian Library; that of Major Edwards; the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts; Sir William Hamilton's invaluable collection of Greek Vases; the Townleian collection of Antique Marbles; the Manuscripts of the late Marquis of Lansdown; and, lastly, the celebrated Elgin Marbles, which comprise what are considered as the finest specimens of ancient sculpture.

The whole of the important library of printed books and manuscripts which had been gradually collected by the Kings of England from Henry VIII. to William III. was presented to the Museum by George II.; and George III. bestowed on it a numerous collection of valuable pamphlets, which had been published in the interval between 1640 and 1660. His Majesty likewise contributed the two finest mummies in Europe; the sum of £1,123. arising from lottery prizes, which had belonged to his royal predecessor; and, in 1772, a complete set of the Journals of the Lords and Commons. To these contributions His Majesty has since added a collection of natural and artificial curiosities, sent to him, in 1796, by Mr. Menzies, from the North-West coast of America, and several single books of great value and utility.

The trustees have lately added Greenwood's collection of stuffed birds; Hatchet's minerals; Halhed's oriental manuscripts; Tyssen's collection of Saxon coins; Doctor Bentley's classics; and the Greville collection of minerals. To these may be added numerous donations from several of the Sovereigns of Europe, as well as from learned bodies, and private individuals.

On entering the gate of the Museum, a spacious quadrangle presents itself, with an Ionic colonnade on the south side, and on the north, the main building, which measures 216 feet in length, and 57 in height, to the top of the cornice. Several additional buildings have lately been added for the above collections.