FOR THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.

NOTES OF A TRAVELLER.

(Continued from page 499.)

London, June 8, 1828. Sunday. I did not expect to find this day much regarded in this vast metropolis; and though it is certainly less outwardly respected, than in our own city, yet upon the whole, so far as the morning is concerned, there is but little difference in those parts of the town through which I passed. Here and there you see a huxter of eatables, or a hawker of canes and other small articles in the street, but the shops are closed as much as with us, and most of the people seem going to church. I determined to worship at Rowland Hill's chapel, and as this is at some distance from my lodgings on the Surrey side of the Thames, I had an opportunity of seeing something during my walk. The first thing I noticed was the Sunday school children. I met a number of companies of them, both of boys and girls. Each school had a peculiar uniform, as I have before mentioned, and they marched in regular double file after their teachers, from the school-rooms to the church. I saw also a funeral passing by; the train of black carriages drawn by black horses, with great black plumes on their heads, and strips of black cloth hanging from their

backs, brought to my mind a similar exhibition mentioned by Pope: "They bear about the mockery of wo,” &c. &c.

On my way I passed through Temple Bar and the Temple. Temple Bar is a heavy stone archway, which crosses the street and separates the Strand from Fleet street. Besides the great arch for wheeled carriages, it has two posterns for foot passengers. It is the only gate in the old city boundaries now remaining. When you pass from the Strand to the East through this gate, you enter the city; though the largest and finest part of the town is on the west of Temple Bar. Stone statues of distinguished persons are in niches over the gateway. Here, in other times, was exhibited the horrible spectacle of the reeking heads of persons executed for high treason. The Temple-thus called because the houses were formerly occupied by the Knights Templars-is a vast assemblage of buildings, between Fleet street and the river, and as you know, are occupied principally by lawyers. I crossed the Thames by Blackfriar's bridge, a noble stone structure. The citizens of London unanimously voted that this bridge should be called William Pitt, but scarcely any one knows it by that illustrious name. It commands a fine view of St.

Paul's cathedral, the Monument, the Tower, and several other publick edifices. Surrey chapel, which is near half a mile from the river, is an ugly angular building, but will contain a very large number of worshippers: I found it full to overflowing. Though sorry to learn that Mr. Hill was absent, yet I was glad to find that the celebrated Mr. Jay of Bath was to take his place. The first part of the service, which was in the form of the English church, was read in a very indifferent manner by some young man in white robes. The prayer before the sermon was extemporaneous, and by Mr. Jay: it was excellent short, fervent and appropriate. The sermon afterwards was good, but I did not think it very extraordinary. Mr. Jay did not read his notes: he was a good deal monotonous and used little or no gesticulation. In the afternoon, before meeting, I took a walk to Hyde Park, where I understood I should see all the nobility, gentry and rabble collected, in their best looks and attire. I felt however somewhat scrupulous, at making this desecration of the Sabbath.

If the morning in the city exhibited some symptoms of attention to the religious observance of the Sabbath, the afternoon, at the court end of the town at least, seemed devoted exclusively to pastimes and sports. Hyde Park contains about 400 acres of ground, has an artificial pond of water in it called the Serpentine river, and abounds in fine trees and gravel walks. There is a wide dusty road round part of it, for carriages and horsemen. Here the nobility and gentry drive their equipages up and down some half a dozen times, apparently for the mere purpose of exhibition, though under the pretext of "taking the air in the Park." It seemed to be a point of the utmost moment with them, who should display the finest coach,

The

and the greatest number of liveried servants that could hang upon it on the outside. Besides a footman extra on the coachman's box, I saw three or four holding on behind, all in cocked hats, and bedizzened in gold fringes and lace. cockneys and noble dandies who rode on horseback after some of the carriages, were truly ridiculous, in their affected manners and extravagant dress, and the huge bunches of hair, called mustachios, which hung under their noses. Some of the gigs or phatons were driven by females: these seemed to have laid aside, with the decorum and delicacy of their sex, as much of their female attire as possible, being dressed in broadcloth, and small, round beaver hats their position in the carriage, their manner of holding and managing the reins, and their style of cracking the whip, was all secundem artem. May such false and masculine manners be always confined to high life in London! The pedestrians which thronged Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens presented a motley group. The men, women and children, like the tea-pots at Blenheim, were of all shapes, sizes and colours; though the fat, short and rosy seemed to predominate: in the parks, and the ways leading to them, there were many ragged, dirty, drunken, disgusting objects

all London seems to have disgorged itself—

"Her myriads swarming thro' the crowded ways,

Master and slave, old age and infancy, All, all abroad to gaze—

The profanation of the Sabbath by persons in high life is notorious; and this, like all other profaneness, proceeds from one degree of enormity to another; until at last it shows itself in such outbreakings, that publick authority and a regard to publick morals interpose, to repress the wickedness. Bishop Porteus, I think, once felt himself obliged to interfere, when the no

bility, by their balls and concerts, shamelessly violated the sanctity of the Lord's day. Spiritual wickedness in high places, alas! is not confined to England. If the nobility of the country thus set a bad example, what can be expected from the common people.* I could not help whispering aloud, "Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate you." I hastened from this place of abomination to a chapel near my dwelling, and heard a good, plain, practical discourse from the pastor. The chapel was but very thinly attended, and from what I can learn, the chapels generally are not so well filled as the churches of the establishment.

Monday, June 9th.-I spent all the morning with my kind and obliging friend, Mr. Gray, at the British Museum. I examined slightly the library of MSS. which appears to be very extensive: most of them are very handsomely bound, and neatly arranged in a saloon erected for their reception. We thence passed to the room just finished for the reception of the books collected by his late majesty, George IV. It is the largest and most magnificent apartment I have seen. I saw also at this time the chambers containing the antique vases: among the number is the celebrated Portland vase, which has elicited so much ingenious speculation from Darwin, in his Botanick Garden. You will find his remarks in a note on the lines

"Here bid Mortality rejoice and mourn O'er the fine forms on Portland's mystic

urn."

This vase was found about the middle of the sixteenth century

* There is a colossal statue of Achilles, cast from the guns taken at the battles of Vittoria, Waterloo, Salamanca and Toulouse, standing at the entrance to Hyde Park: it is dedicated to Lord Welling. ton, and the other persons who fought at the places mentioned on the pedestal. This, I thought with the preacher, "is also vanity and a great evil on the earth."

near Rome, in a sepulchral chamber: the material of which it is formed is glass; the figures on it, in bas relief, are white, raised on a ground of blue glass. It is sup posed that the figures have been made by cutting away the external crust of white opaque glass, in the manner that fine cameos are produced; if so, it must have required the delicate labour of years to finish. No satisfactory elucidation, with regard to the subject of these figures, has yet been given.

I examined also a variety of or ganick remains, supposed to be of antediluvian origin, particularly the celebrated fossil human skele ton imbedded in limestone, from Guadaloupe. A high antiquity has been denied to this skeleton by some geologists. Cuvier and Jamieson both consider it a petrifac tion of comparatively modern for mation; while others conclude that the skeleton is as genuine and ancient a fossil as any shell or bone in existence. Some of the bones are dislocated and broken. What a scene of terrifick and awful desolation does the narrative of the deluge in the Bible convey! Who does not tremble when he contemplates the scriptural character of this dread transaction! In examining these reliques of a primeval world, they almost seem reanimated

the bony fossil starts to life, and conjures us in mysterious mutterings to flee from the wrath to come. How solemn to walk through this valley of death! The very stones cry out "The Lord reigneth; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne."

From the Museum I went with Mr. Gray to the Royal Institution, the scene of Sir H. Davy's experi celebrated throughout the world as ments on the alkalies. I was here introduced to Mr. Faraday, whom I found exceedingly affable and communicative. Mr. Faraday has enriched chemical science with many brilliant discoveries; and I

was now as much pleased with his gentlemanly manners, as I before had been interested by his philosophick researches. He showed me, at my request, some of the original instruments in electro-magnetism, which he had invented, and which first turned my attention to that curious subject. I saw also, in ruins, the great galvanick battery, which has made so much noise in the chemical world-Mr. Children's famous calorimotor, and the original instrument with which Cavendish ascertained the composition of water. Other contrivances of this great man were also shown me: they are all of a rude construction. The laboratory of the Institution is much smaller than I expected to find it: it is, however, very convenient. The general lecture room is the best I have yet seen. The apparatus is by no means, so extensive as it is in many of our own institutions.

I went also to-day to see a large bazaar, in which all kinds of merchandise is exposed on tables for sale: females are the superintendents at every stall. A vast many ladies daily throng this place, and render it, of course, a fashionable lounge. This bazaar is in Soho Square, in the centre of which there is a large area planted with trees and shrubs, and ornamented with a statue of Charles II.

The Burlington Arcade, in Piccadilly, is another place worth looking at: though more extensive, it resembles the arcades in America. Regent street, which is near this last place, is perhaps the most magnificent street in the world: the houses are built in various styles of architecture, and are all covered with a kind of cement, which gives an uniformity to the whole. Being now somewhat familiar with the west end of the town, I may say a word with regard to its general appearance. As for the variety and splendour of the shops, I cannot say I was struck with them. Indeed I think that.

some near St. Paul's exceed any here in magnitude and beauty. It must be the number, and not the peculiar beauty of any one, which has thrown so many travellers into such raptures on this subject. Though London cannot boast of fine streets, it is adorned with many large and beautiful squares: these are plots of ground, generally with spacious and handsome houses built on every side: in the middle there is a garden enclosed by a handsome fence, within which there is always fine shrubbery and gravel walks, and sometimes little fish-ponds and statues. These gardens are visited by the inhabitants of the neighbouring houses and their friends. These squares are delightful places of residence. Why are they not introduced into the towns of the United States?

Tuesday, June 10.-This morning, at 9 o'clock, I went to hear a lecture at the Royal Institution, by T. W. Brande, esq. successor to Sir H. Davy. It was one of the last of his course on chemistry, and was illustrated with but few interesting experiments. Mr. B. is a fluent but not a very agreeable lecturer: his class consisted of about one hundred students.

In walking through a multitude of streets to-day, I did not find the number of beggars to be as great as I expected. There are, however, certain contrivances to get a few pence, which are unknown to us: for example, in almost every place where there is a pathway across a street, a man or woman

stands, like Macbeth's witches, with a broom, with which some of the dirt from the path has been swept; and you are accosted, if you cross over in that place, with "Sir, remember the sweeper." In a muddy day, the demands of this kind on your purse are almost incessant. Again, when you get into a hackney coach, a man opens and shuts the door, for which you must pay any thing "your honour pleases." The hackney coaches are under

excellent regulations, but in neatness and speed they are inferior to our own: the floors are not carpeted, as with us, but covered with straw, which, even if uninhabited by vermin, is very unpleasant for light shoes and silk stockings.

In the evening, near my lodgings, I observed a crowd surrounding two little ballad singers. Singing is a method often resorted to here, for obtaining a pittance. The musicians on this occasion were a boy and girl, both looking wretchedly poor; their voices were sharp but not unpleasant. I thought they seemed more in a humour to cry than to make merry. As the crowd passed by these little singers in the street, inattentive alike to their lightsome or melancholy strains, the following scripture passage seemed happily illustrated, where the children in the market place sang, "We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented."

Wednesday, June 11.-To-day, in company with my friend Mr. S. from Philadelphia, who had parted from me in Derbyshire, I visited Westminster Abbey. The exterior of the Abbey is in some respects very much like that of York Minster, though by no means so sublime and commanding. On entering the building we first-that is, after paying the porter our feeexamined the Poet's corner, and then in succession, under the direction of a guide, the other objects of curiosity. In the Poet's corner is a monument in memory of that great natural philosopher and divine, the celebrated Dr. Hales. He first led the way to the beautiful and brilliant discoveries in pneumatick chemistry. On more occasions than one, he refused high preferment in the church, in order that he might attend to his humble parochial duties, and at the same time continue his scientifick pursuits. The annals of biography

cannot furnish perhaps a character more marked by the union of great humility with the active virtues. As you have Irving's glowing des cription of this wonderful place, I will only detain you a few minutes in it. There is such a variety of objects here, that it would be impossible for me to give you any correct description, even of those which are the most worthy of admiration. I soon became bewildered and con fused. The impression made on my mind by one monument, was soon effaced by a succession of others, which were equally worthy of notice; so that I at last left the Abbey with a complete jumble of imperfect thoughts and images, and with but very few distinct ideas of any thing. As I wandered up and down the long aisles of the cathe dral, surrounded by the tombs of princes, prelates, poets, historians, statesmen and warriors, men dis tinguished for great talents and patriotick valour, the thought in the words of Pope was forced upon my mind

"How lov'd, how honour'd once, avul thee not,

To whom related, or by whom begot:

* What Christian in contemplating the character of Dr. Hales, does not feel a glow of enthusiasm, as he perceives the holy influences of religion triumphing over a mind vigorous by nature, elevated by ge nius, and refined by cultivation. What has been said of the great Boerhaave, another Christian philosopher and chemist, may be applied to him, "There is something very imposing in the control which a strong intellect exercises over every thing extent of its researches, and the boundlesswith which it comes into contact, in the ness of its aims. Men struggle long against subjection to physical force, but they yield a ready obedience to the power of genius. When genius, therefore, submits to the si lent and persuasive influence of religion, when the man of learning no longer boasts of his intellectual riches, but magnifies that Power which is above every power, and lays his treasures at the foot of the cross; we seem to find, in this triumph of Christianity, a most convincing evidence of its truth, and a strong inducement to ac knowledge its obligations."