who now surveys its suburbs after an absence of ten or twelve years.

such the force of the storm, that twenty-six feet out of the thirty were buried in the earth. Only four feet of the rafters were The question has often been asked, "Is visible above ground. Handsome squares London likely to continue for any length of and ornamental parks were then wholly un- time to increase its dimensions in the same known; there were no places of public ratio as it has done for the last fourteen or promenade. Such a thing as walking for fifteen years?" Absolute certainty on such pleasure was altogether unknown. Fine a point is necessarily out of the question. shops or fine houses of any kind, were No man can speak oracularly on the subalso unknown. The streets were not ject. The presumption, however, undoubtlighted at night; the little light that guided edly, is in favor of an affirmative answer. the feet of the pedestrian, was emitted from The probability, indeed, is, that not only the shops and the windows of the houses. will it go on extending its proportions at It was dangerous, owing to the numerous the same extraordinary rate, but that it will robberies then committed after dark, to go do so at an accelerated pace. The disposiout at night; no one, indeed, left his own tion to build is every where prevalent. A abode who was not obliged to do so. How few months only have elapsed since a great altered the aspect and state of London now! effort was made to obtain the sanction of But I dwell not on its present condition; the legislature to erect houses on Hampstead I leave that to the reader himself. Suffice Heath. Had this sauction been given to it to say, that it is now one of the most the parties applying for it, there cannot be healthy and comfortable towns in the king- a question, that before twelve months had dom. elapsed, that extensive common would have presented the aspect of a moderately sized country town.

It were improper to close this introductory chapter without some reference to the recent rapid extension of London, and what it is likely to attain to ere the lapse of many years. Astounding as is the magnitude which it has already attained, it is increasing in extent with a rapidity to which there is no parallel either in its own annals, or in the history of any other city in the world. In little more than twelve years, no fewer than twelve hundred streets have been added to the number previously existingbeing at the rate of a hundred new streets every year. The statement will surprize our country readers; many of them will, doubtless, regard it as an experiment on their credulity. It is, nevertheless, strictly true. It is given on the authority of a return recently made, not to the legislature, but to the government. These twelve hundred new streets consist of forty-eight thousand houses, most of them built on a large and commodious scale, and in a style of superior comfort. It is a fact which is worthy of being recorded, that of late years the new houses which have been built, are, in the majority of cases, of a superior class as compared with the houses previously erected. The resident in the metropolis is less liable to be struck with amazement at the rapid rate with which it is, in all directions, extending its boundaries, because almost daily additions to its magnitude come gradually on him; but it requires no great effort of the imagination to form some idea of what must be the measure of that man's surprise,

In confirmation of the opinion that this mighty metropolis will go on, for many years to come, enlarging its dimensions, in as great if not a greater ratio than during the last fourteen or fifteen years, it may be right to refer to the fact, that the demand for houses, instead of diminishing, continues to increase. From all parts of the country we hear, at short intervals, of the number of unoccupied houses in particular towns. No such complaint ever greets the ear in reference to the metropolis. Not only are there few untenanted houses in the more central parts of the town, but the most careless observer who passes through any of the suburban districts, must have been often struck with the fact, that scarcely is a new street finished, than almost every house in it is fully occupied.

This very extensive and rapidly increasing demand for houses, is susceptible of easy explanation. The extraordinary facilities for travelling afforded by the numerous railways now intersecting the country, induce myriads to visit the metropolis, who, but for these facilities of transit, would have remained contented in the provinces: many thousands of these settle permanently among us. It need hardly be remarked, that increased facilities of intercourse between London and the country towns, necessarily increase the trade and commerce of the former, and that as trade and commerce increase, the demand for houses must con

progress of development has been analogous.
Except where a close and jobbing corporation has
and healthy lungs.
been at work, such towns generally enjoy large

In the towns begotten of manufactures it is different The old towns were built to be towns, and at a time when land was plentiful in proportion to ted to them. But the manufacturing-towns have the population; so a competent quantity was allotgrown by accident. Mills and factories were planted in convenient situations; houses were built for the persons employed in them; nobody thought houses had increased in numbers and closed in upof a town, until it was found that the people and on each other so they had actually made one. Every man was too busy thinking of himself and his own concerns, to spare a thought for his neighbors, until the crowd became so great that they toes, driving their elbows in each other's sides, were unintentionally treading on each other's making each other uncomfortable in all manner of

At a period characterized by increasing considthat which must under all circumstances be the eration for the public, and more especially for most numerous portion of the public-the poor, and those who, if not exactly poor, are most certainly not rich-such an anomaly could not escape observation. A good deal of talk there has been of late about establ shing public parks in the large manufacturing-towns; and, fortunately, the business has now got beyond the talking stage

tinue to grow, and the metropolis, consequently, continue to extend. As an illustration of the influence which the railways have in bringing persons from the provinces to the metropolis, who otherwise would not have visited the latter place, the fact deserves to be mentioned, that the daily influx of individuals to London is five times as great now as it was only fifteen years ago. Let any one only visit the termini of the great trunk railways-the London and Birming ham, the Great Western, the London and Southwestern, the Eastern Counties', the Dover, the Brighton, &c.; let any one only visit the termini of these great lines of railway and he will be overwhelmed with amazement at the thousands of persons which the provinces daily pour into the metropolis. As railways are multiplied and extended throughout the country, London, already so overgrown, must needs continue to swell its dimensions. When or where the enlargement of its boundaries is to stop, no one can tell; not even a confident conjecture can be formed on the subject. There is not, as suredly, anything improbable in the supposition that ere many years have elapsed, Black--in Manchester it has been fairly begun. well, Stratford, Greenwich, Hampstead, As might have been expected from the popular Highgate, Hornsey, Hammersmith, Fulham, Brixton, and other places around London, will, by the filling up of the intervening open space with houses, be all brought within the comprehensive embraces of the metropolis. In the supposed case, instead of being, as at present, about forty miles in circumference, its circumference would be little less than a hundred miles; while the population would be from three millions five hundred thousand to four millions. The mind feels appalled at the contemplation of so colossal a place; it is overpowered as it reflects on the probability that so vast a number of human beings will ere long, be permanently congregated together, as if all belonged to one great family. London is already regarded as a little world of itself. The author who, half a century hence, shall write on so fruitful a theme, may with special propriety, choose for his book the title of "The Modern Babylon." E. H. E.

a

THE MANCHESTER PARK-Public Parks have been called the lungs of towns. In the animal economy the lungs are among the earliest developments, and are at first disproportionately large, the other parts of the system expanding in bulk at a later period. In old-fashioned towns-towns which have been founded or have come to their full growth before the era of manufactures-the

amenities of life, not only of himself but of his sympathies and appreciation of the innocent whole kith and kin, Mr. MARK PHILIPS, Member for Manchester, was among the first to open his purse liberally to promote so important an object; and Sir BENJAMIN HEYWOOD of course kept pace with him. Sir ROBERT PEEL was applied to; and his contribution was munificent, and gracefully offered: "Considering Manchester to be the metropolis of a district to the industry of which I and my family are under very deep obligations," is the Premier's proem, and the conclusion is "set me down for a thousand pounds." Lord FRANCIS EGERTON, on subscribing the same amount, observed that he "was in arrears to the inhabitants of the town, and was only paying an instalment." This manner of giving doubles the Sir ROBERT PEEL, in recognizing what they owe value of the gift. Lord FRANCIS EGERTON and to the industry of Manchester, have spoken the simple truth: but to remember it and utter it at the right moment shows the wise, liberal spirit, the high mind, that gratifies those they are assisting even more by recognizing their claims, than by the assistance actually given. The admission that the Park to be purchased and laid out for the use of Manchester by those and other subscriptions is their just right, no eleemosynary grant, will immeasurably increase the gratification of the people in using it, and correspondingly their kindly feelings towards the subscribers. It is by words and deeds like these that society is cemented. Words and deeds like these are in a Christian society the substitute for the religious rites with which the classical nations would have inaugurated such a field. The work in Manchester is begun in a right spirit-quod felix faustumque sit.—Spectator.

OSWALD HERBST'S LETTERS FROM

ENGLAND.

From Tait's Magazine.

LETTER 1.-TO CARL FRUHLING.

Penrith.

I

For want of a companion, I suppose, I soon exhausted the objects of interest in this town. Here is a good literary institution styled the Athenæum; but I have heard no lectures there. The town has been greatly improved of late years, by the building of several streets of splendid shops and respectable houses; but the work seems to have proceeded (as such matters often do in England) too rapidly; as many of the houses remain unlet, and give the town a rather depressed appearance.

Soon after I arrived I devoted a very rainy day to the study of the counties of Northumberland and Durham. The result of this study was a determination to cross the Tyne, and see the old city of Durham, with its cathedral, and other spots of inter st in its neighborhood. Accordingly, one rainy morning, I set out by rived in the city. The speed of travelling, and railway, and in the course of a little time, arthe level line, allowed me only hasty glimpses

It

I AM in England. After an easy voyage, arrived in the town of Newcastle a fortnight ago. The entrance of the Tyne is noble, and crowded with vessels of merchandise. Shall I confess that the first sensation I had upon landing in this town, was something of Heimweh ? (they have no name for it here.) When I walked out into the crowded streets of this commercial place, I felt my own insignificance to a painful degree. In that quiet little town of Franconia, where I spent last summer, the very air seems favorable to philosophic contemplation. One feels there as if one's thoughts were of some importance to the world, which seems to lie passive and recipient around one; is most striking features were the chimneys of the country, which seemed rather bare. but here, how different is my feeling! What can gentle thoughts do here! Can you make of steam-engines, and the long line of coalthese money-seeking crowds of men stand still wagons travelling rapidly upon the colliery long enough, or hold in the breath of eager stone-bridge named after the Queen. railways. We passed over a very noble desire, while you instil into them lessons of unworldly wisdom? How the clergymen feel in crosses the river and the valley of the Wear; but it seemed to me a great inconvenience these great commercial towns, can hardly that the entrance upon the bridge on both imagine. Perhaps they are pleased if they sides of the river was made at a very sharp get new churches erected and well-attended on Sundays; but I should be very discontented angle for railway-travelling, so that the enin their situation. But then I am a dreamer. gine's speed had to be considerably diminished Well I already feel that if I came hither for in passing over it. The neighborhood of the mere immediate pleasure, for objects exactly tions; but the city itself is, on the whole, mean city of Durham abounds in picturesque situaaccordant with all my predilections, I have made a wrong choice of ground for travel; eminence from the river, whose banks are in its interior appearance. On a considerable but if I wish to try my patience with a stout opposition to my ruling fancy, or to enlarge my cathedral, grand and heavy. My first business steep and thickly wooded, stands the ancient mind by the contemplation of a wide diversity, here I am right; for I already feel that Eng from which the entrance into the large square was to climb up a steep and narrow street, land is the antipodes of our fatherland. And, in front of the cathedral is fine and imposing. after all, the disagreeable is, perhaps, as essen- The north front of the pile first struck my tial to the improvement of the mind as the view. It is exceedingly grand. There is agreeable. We must have the hard as well as the soft, the ungenial as well as the con- about it, nothing apparently designed for efnothing particularly lightsome or beautiful genial, or we fall into a weak and sickly selffect; but the vast building has throughout an sameness, instead of a large and healthy unity

of mind.

We cannot always live upon the food which we have already well digested and assimilated; but must take fresh nutriment from the out ward world, though the process of digestion may cloud the head a while. I am sure I shall find plenty to try my digestive economy in this great, busy England. But I will leave this subjective mode of speaking. I cannot say that I would see the diversity which I find existing between England and our well-loved Deutschland destroyed. I would not have England assimilated to Germany; and I am sure I would not have Germany conformed to the present condition of England: no, not for all the advantages (so far as I undertand them) of a free press and representative government. But of politics I shall write when I get to London.

The enormous

expression of venerable grandeur_mingled
with something of antique gloom. The organ
round pillars, (I should say of between seven
was pealing as I entered.
and eight yards in circumference,) adorned
with zig-zags, lozenges, and spirals; the
heavy Norman arches; the two rows of galle-
ries, with their diminished arches above; all
pointed out the thoughts from which arcse
such a structure-thoughts not of the pleasure
or convenience of men, but of the solemn
dedication of men and all their works to the
honor of superior powers, heroic angels, and
gigantic saints. By such efforts, with ponder-
ous buildings, painful offerings, and costly ser-
vices to conciliate superior powers, did the
human soul betray its want of peace and con-
tentment within; and, while putting forth such
stupendous powers over the material world,

sadly confessed its feebleness in the more it remarkable. Its general aspect is low and awful realm of thought and the invisible. degraded. Between the populace and the Such a pile is exactly adapted to make every aristocracy of the cathedral, there is a deep individual feel little and insignificant, and to gulf; and it seems to me a singular phenomendow the unknown beings to whose honor it enon that so little of ameliorative influence was erected, with all the attributes of power, should flow from that great religious institumajesty, and grandeur. tion into the abodes of the people.

At present it must be conceded to the There is fine scenery all around Durham, Romanist, that the actual services but ill ac- and especially on the banks of the winding cord with the sanctuary. It is evident that Wear. Next morning, after my visit to the such a structure was erected for something cathedral, I walked several miles to see the more than a simple daily service, which might ruins of Funchals Abbey. Here the scenery be celebrated in a plain room of no very large is very beautiful, and affords many a nook for dimensions. The whole consideration of the monastic contemplation, closed in by the origin, history, and present condition of these thickly-wooded banks of the river; but even vast structures, and their occupants, forms a here, you cannot escape the encroachments of most complex riddle-one of those discords the commercial activity of England; for the which old times and antique institutions have works of coal-mining surround you on every left for the poor, bewildered nineteenth century. | side, and you are awakened from your dreams I confess I do not feel the interest or admira- of the olden time by the harsh jarrings of the tion which many feel, or affect to feel, in their iron-wheeled wagons upon the colliery railvisits to these monuments of the olden time. roads. I never passed through places more German as I am, I love the intelligible; but devoid of animation and interest than these here I am out of it altogether. This is the dark-looking colliery villages about here. The land of mystery. There is no statuary of re- cottages are but one story high, of one unimarkable elegance or beauty in this cathedral: form pattern, and that the meanest possible; a indeed it would look out of place here. The black road of ashes or coal-dust runs between statue of a former bishop, Shute Barrington, the rows of cottages, and no church-spire, no is in an amiable style and becoming a place tree breaks upon the dullness. Some of the of worship, which is rather remarkable for cottages, however, I could see were comfortamodern English sculpture. That of Van Mil-ble inside, and not destitute of that good cheer dert, the late bishop, is quite the reverse; it occupies an enormous chair, and looks very clumsy.

in which the poor miner finds solace after his toil. A few years ago these men earned high wages, and their cottages still show signs of I entered the choir to hear the service, which the taste for luxury cultivated in the days of was thinly attended. Two or three only of prosperity. In many of their dwellings you the prebends were present. The chanting was see the handsome clock, the large bedstead, tolerably harmonious; but, of course, defective and the chest of drawers all of polished main spirit and emphasis, from perpetual repeti-hogany. Among these villages I could hear tion. Surely the original idea of these services might be more fully developed. How pleasant would it be to hear the children of many surrounding schools, educated out of the resources of this great establishment, joining their voices in the daily services! Then I would disband all the singing men, and have the organ to do all the hired work. But it is of no use spinning such theories in England. How grand would be such an institution as a cathedral, were it indeed what it professes to be, a metropolitan symbol of the perfection and harmony of human souls united in a Catholic religion! But the bond of union between the symbol and the life from which it arose, has decayed, and all the wealth and learning of the Church cannot restore it.

There is a rage among some parties just now for what they call the revival of Gothic Architecture-they mean only the mask-taking from the features of the dead. What! is this age doomed to have no soul, no mind, no life of its own? How did your Gothic architecture arise, Mr. Pugin?-from such slavishness of copying as you recommend, or from the spirit? Why may not we also have minds?

The city of Durham is in ill accordance with the monument of antiquity which makes

very little of musical meetings, or reading societies. Here and there, the pious may possess a few books of devotion; but I suspect the majority are sadly destitute of cultivation. The aspect of the people seemed to me to possess less of freedom and sprightliness than even that of our own peasantry. I am sure I have found more marks of good feeling among the lower classes in Bohemia than here. It may be my fancy; but the men I meet seem sullen and ill-tempered. I had rather see them employed in cheerful games and exercises, than lounging about as they do in their hours of leisure. Here and there a few are collected together for the game of quoits; but this is the utmost extent of their playfulness. However, I hear it generally said, that a great improvement in many respects has taken place in the moral condition of the miners during the last twenty years. No doubt when they earned higher wages they consumed inore liquor; but that they have improved in good feeling towards their superiors, during the days of sobriety, I doubt. At present, from all that I hear, much discontent prevails among the mining population of the northern part of England. The distance between the working men and their employers has been greatly ex

it will stand. Let them lead the people from the unknown, the abstract, the unintelligible, to love, reverence, and regard the known, the real, the intelligible truths and duties of human life. Let them insist on Christian charity and unity, for its own sake, and not merely because a few so-called fathers of the church happened to see the beauty of it. It is a derogation from its honor to commend it on the authority even of a St. Augustine. After all, be it descend

tended of late years; as, indeed, has been the case between the very rich and the very poor generally in England. The more the agents employed in superintending the mines have aspired to the character of gentlemen, the more the working men have felt disposed to regard their own interests and those of their employers and superintendents, as inimical. I hear that large but sober and orderly meetings of the miners are held occasionally upon the moors in the neighborhood; but their proceeded from the fathers of the fourth century, or ings are kept in secrecy. The more I read and from the apostles, the church is just what it hear of the condition of the immense classes of does, and nothing more. It is only Christian working people, both in the rural and in the so far as it works out Christianity. It is second, manufacturing districts of England, the more I and not first it is the tool, the instrument, and am convinced that a great revolution awaits this not the work itself: it is the means, and not the wealthy and industrious country; and I only end. But pardon this digression into controhope and pray that it may be a peaceful one,versy: this country, just now, is full of it. I as, indeed, it still may be. I say it still may have some hope that it cannot take a very long be, if not thwarted by unhappy, one-sided, and time, even for such an unwieldy and slowpartial legislation, a gradual, true, and peace-moving body as the Church of England, to ful revolution. The very life and activity of grow weary of the worn-out, traditional, comsociety depends upon the development of op- plex, antiquated, and never conclusive argupositions of interest, as the stability and repose ment for unity and peace, and come forward to of society depends upon the timely and fair re-the present, plain, evident, and intelligible conciliation of such oppositions. Unhappily, mode of argument. If it be evidently good the English seem to me, from what I read and and reasonable that I should live on charitable hear of their newspapers and political or so- terms with my neighborhood, why recommend called religious debates, an obstinately one- the practice solely because Mr. So-and-so said sided people. The Liberal is all for the new, it was good, even though Mr. So-and-so was a and nothing but the new; the Tory, or Con- sensible man or an eminent saint. All this, servative, is all for the old, and nothing but the my dear Frühling, will be dull commonplace old. He never will believe that a tree may to you; but here, I assure you, it almost change its leaves, and still remain the same amounts to original thinking; but will assuredly tree. To the Churchman, Episcopacy and be condemned, with every thing else charitable, church authority are every thing; to the Inde- under the long but insignificant nickname of pendent they are nothing. latitudinarianism. However, it is nothing of It strikes me that the working classes and the kind. I would contend for the very niceties their employers, in this part of the country, of truth, in their proper time and place. I have two different religions, (if I may use that would insist on the full carrying out of every sacred word in the plural.) The Establish sound principle: but I would keep every limb ment, certainly, does not seem here to be, as of the truth in its due place; and no more it is sometimes styled, the religion of the poor. deny a man the inner motive because he has The greater number of the respectable people-not the full outward development, than I would the superintendents of the pits, called viewers, etc.-go to church; but many are the pitvillages, with numerous inhabitants, without a church, and supplied with preaching by the itinerants of several sects sprung from the body of Methodists. I have heard it generally allowed, that a considerable increase of sober and orderly habits among the people, may be fairly attributed to the efforts made by these voluntary teachers; though, of course, their means fall greatly short of supplying the wants of the population.

I could heartily desire to see the clergy insisting less upon their official claims and dignity, occupied less with arguments of exclusiveness and negation; but coming out to take their fair chance on the ground of what they can do for the people. Let them teach the poor children to sing and be happy; the poor men to work and to suffer religiously; the poor women to make something more like heaven of home. Let them leave what is truly good to take care of itself-only do it, and

deny the existence of a soul in a man, because he has a speck on his eye.

This is all declamation, instead of a description of my travels; but I assure you, that when I turn from the superficial view of the aspect of this country to consider the interior life of the people, the first great evil that strikes my eye, is intense sectarianism. Perhaps my disadvantages in some respects, as a tourist, may turn out advantages for the acquisition of correct information. My hap-hazard acquaintances and conversations may serve me better to gain a fair view of the state of society here, than if I had come over with recommendations to any one class of society, and so had been cast into one narrow line of observation. I shall do very well without introductions to the nobility, the literati, etc.; for they would never help me to discover things which I shall find out very well without them. I am surely one of the most unbiassed men in Great Britain.

But to return to my travels. I came west