so expansive a machinery been organised to insure the preaching of the gospel from the rising to the setting sun.

One more last word of consolation and congratulation before we part:

In the years of peril and perturbation which agitated Europe half a century ago, it was the personal character of the king of this country (King George III.) which, under Providence, was mainly instrumental to preserve us from the terrible sanguinary revolutions which then overran the fairest parts of the continent. It is the personal character of his rightful heir and royal successor upon the throne of her ancestors which, under God's blessing, will, we trust and pray, preserve us also from the returning hurricanes of European political revolution. We know that the fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much; and when the God of Heaven beholds our most religious and gracious Queen practically affirming, with the holy Joshua, "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord," on her bended knees joining with her household in prayer and supplication to the King of kings and Lord of lords, we may humbly trust that the Majesty of Heaven will accept the prayer of his anointed servant and minister upon earth, and in mercy vouchsafe to hide her and the subjects of her kingdom from the gathering together of the froward, and from the insurrection of wicked doers.

England, it has been truly said, has almost always

prospered under her Queens. In the sacred person of our most gracious Sovereign, (who within these holy walls has been anointed to rule over us,) we are at this awful crisis blessed with a Queen who, in every relation of domestic life, is a pattern of conjugal and maternal virtues; and who, in her most exalted public station, is the honoured exemplar of regal dignity; the object of the love, and faithful service, and loyal obedience of her subjects; the type and repository of mercy, and clemency, and supremacy, in the rule of that great united Kingdom and justlybalanced Constitution, at the head of which a gracious Providence has placed her. Blessed with such a Sovereign, though the heathen may furiously rage together, and the people imagine a vain thing, the throne we trust and pray will be exalted in righteousness, and the blessing of God descend on us and our posterity.

They shall

"O pray for the peace of Jerusalem. prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sake, I will wish thee prosperity. Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good."-Psalm cxxii. 6-9.

NOTES.

NOTE 1.

THE design and arrangements of the new stalls, and of the division and removal of the organ from the centre of the nave and choir, to two of the side arches, are due to Mr. Blore, under whom the carving has been executed by Mr. Ruddle, of Peterborough. The moveable seats in the choir have been carved by Mr. Ollett, of Norwich; those under the tower by Mr. George Wyatt, of Oxford.

Before the recent architectural changes, lofty incongruous screens entirely cut off the choir from the transepts, which were consequently unavailable for the reception of any part of the congregation. In the first plans for improvement it was designed to replace these screens with new ones of open and decorated work; further consideration suggested the entire removal of these transept screens, whereby we have gained sitting-room for nearly 500 persons in each transept; and the pulpit and reading-desks being placed by the pillars of the central tower, the seats of the north and south ends of the transepts are as near the preacher and the readers as are the stalls of the Dean and Canons at the west end of the choir.

Some of these new seats in the transepts may be cold in winter, until the church is warmed; but recent improvements in the art of introducing perennial streams of fresh and heated air offer a cheap and effective method of maintaining a permanent warm temperature in our largest churches.

The present arrangement affords more space for persons attending divine service to sit, and hear, and see the officiating ministers than could be obtained in the nave. The choir, including the

space under the central tower, with the two transepts, will hold

The entire nave could not accommodate so large a number.

The area of the choir and transepts, with one side-aisle of each transept, is about 8100 square feet; the area of the nave and its two side-aisles from the organ-gallery to the western tower is about 8400 feet, from which deduct 432 feet occupied by twelve pillars (each squaring 6 feet), the remaining area is 7968 feet. Deduct further from 8204 feet (the total length of the nave) the length of two arches, 2400 feet, in which no preacher can be distinctly heard, there remain 6000 feet only in the nave where persons can sit, and hear, and see. The amount of accommodation is largest in the choir and transepts by about 2400 feet. In the cathedral at Rouen, and other cathedrals in France, where the sermon is preached in the nave, I found it impossible to hear distinctly at the distance of more than three pillars from the pulpit.

NOTE 2.

For the information of the public, and the correction of anonymous authors of inaccurate and censorious charges in newspapers and reviews, I subjoin the following statement respecting the restrictions laid on visitors to the Abbey, and the payments required for admission to certain parts of it.

The entire nave and both transepts are open to all the world gratis, daily from morning to night, except on Sundays, when

there is divine service at eight and ten A.M., and at three P.M., and during the hours of prayer, on week-days, at eight and ten A.M., and at three P.M.

In the nave and transepts a sufficient number of officers attend to see that no one touches or injures the monuments.

The series of chapels which contain the royal tombs, and many most perishable and portable remains of ancient art, are accessible only by parties, attended by one of many guides appointed to this service, who explains aloud the history of the contents of each chapel. For this admission and attendance each visitor is charged sixpence, which is applied chiefly to pay the salaries of the attendants, and the surplus funded for the decoration of the Abbey. No part of it goes to the Dean and Canons.

By an order of the House of Commons, June 26, 1845, a return was presented by the Receiver-General of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, of the annual amount of money taken for admission to see the monuments during the years 1841, 1842, 1843, and 1844, and of the appropriation of such money,—showing its entire application to the three following purposes:

1. Cost of cleaning the Monuments.

2. Salaries of Officers, Attendants, and Tomb-showers.

3. The Residue paid to the Ornamental Fund.

And on the 26th July, 1843, a similar Report was presented of monies received for admission from 1836 to 1843. It is from the savings of this fund during many years that the cost of preparing the new stalls and large additions to the organ, and of the new painted glass windows at the end of the south transept, have been gradually defrayed.

These windows, by Messrs. Ward and Nixon, have been pronounced by high authority to be the largest and best executed work of modern times.

Before 1826, the total receipts of larger fees then paid for seeing the monuments, were divided between the officers of the choir and some sub-officers and attendants in the Abbey. In 1826, the Dean and Chapter made an arrangement with these persons,