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dilly, and enters a curve in the thoroughfare called the Quadrant, containing on each side of the road some of the most splendid shops in London, several being decorated in a style of extraordinary magnificence. Regent Street during the busy season, and even in the winter months, exhibits an extraordinary concourse of fashionable vehicles and foot passengers; while groups of carriages are drawn up at the doors of the more elegant shops. Towards its upper extremity, Regent Street crosses Oxford Street; and the mass of streets West of it, throughout its length, may be said to include the residences of the greater part of the nobility, and other high classes in the metropolis. In this quarter are Old and New Bond Streets, and a number of the principal squares: Hanover, Grosvenor, and Berkeley Squares on the South of Oxford Street; and Cavendish, Manchester, and Portman Squares on the North.

Piccadilly is fronted partly by the Green Park, and leads from Hyde Park to Regent Street, and contains Burlington House (in which the annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy now take place), St. James's Hall, and many important buildings.

Oxford Street runs parallel with it, and is one of the longest continuous streets in London.

High Holborn, the continuation of Oxford Street towards the City, leads to Lincoln's Inn Fields, famed for its law courts and offices, and thence across the New Viaduct to Newgate Street, the avenue of the City.

Entering Cheapside, the General Post Office is on the one hand and St. Paul's and its Churchyard within sight on the other, whilst the famous Bow Church is situated about midway on the South side. Cheapside is closely lined with the shops of tradesmen. On each side narrow streets diverge into the dense mass behind; Ironmonger Lane, King Street, Milk Street, and Wood Street, on the North: and among others Queen Street, Bow Lane, and O'd Change on the South. The greater part of these back streets, with the adjoining lanes, are occupied by the offices or warehouses of wholesale dealers in cloths, silks, Manchester goods, articles of various manufacture, paper, &c., and are resorted to by country shopkeepers for supplies.

Across the bottom of King Street stands the Guildhall, or Town hall of London. It contains the principal public offices of the Corporation. The Hall, which is used for all meetings of the freemen and liverymen, as well as for the City elections and feasts, contains several handsome monuments in honor of public men.

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At the foot of Cheapside the Poultry is reached, and leads the way to many public buildings before referred to; the most noticeable among which are the Mansion House, on the right hand, and the great monetary centre of Europe-the Bank of England-on the left, whilst the Royal Exchange commands general attention, standing between the two.

Proceeding further in the City, a perfect maze of streets, as noted as fame and as old as time, presents itself, so crowded in the day-time that progress seems impossible. Returning by the new thoroughfare called Queen Victoria Street, by the side of the Mansion House, Cannon Street and Ludgate Hill next deserve mention, the latter leading to

Fleet Street, which runs westward, and forms the principal thoroughfare from the East End to Westminster, &c. Farringdon Street, a fine wide modern street, crosses Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street at their junction, running northwards to Holborn Hill. At the western extremity of Fleet Street is Temple Bar, a wide central archway with smaller side arches for foot-passengers: this point marks the western boundary of the City. The vicinity of Temple Bar, on the City side, is much occupied by offices, halls, and residences of lawyers and law-students. In or near Chancery Lane, northwards from Fleet Street, are the Inns of Court, named Serjeant's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Clifford's Inn, &c., while Gray's Inn and Furnival's Inn are situated on the North side of Holborn. On the South side of Fleet Street, near Temple Bar, is the Temple-a most extensive series of buildings, comprising several rows or squares, with a neatly-trimmed garden adjoining the river. The members of the two Societies named the Inner and Middle Temple, consisting of benchers, barristers and students, reside here.

The Strand is continuous, westward with Fleet Street. In the seventeenth century it was a kind of country road connecting the City with Westminster: on its southern side stood a number of noblemen's residences, with gardens towards the river. The grandest of these was erected in 1549, by Protector Somerset, on the site of Somerset House, at the eastern extremity of the Strand. Adjoining Somerset House, which is devoted to various Government Offices, and entering on the East by a passage from the Strand, is King's College. There are some elegant buildings at the western end of the Strand, among which may be mentioned the Charing Cross Hotel, and Northumberland House, the residence of the Duke of Northumberland.

Charing Cross is an open space anciently occupied by the village of Charing. Here is the equestrian statue of Charles I. St. Martin's Church stands at the North-east corner of Trafalgar Square its portico,

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designed by Sir Cristopher Wren, being considered the most elegant in the metropolis-perhaps in the world. On the North side of the square is the National Gallery, and on the South side stands the great Nelson Column, supported by Landseer's celebrated lions. Along nearly the whole of the western side of Whitehall, the Government Offices, including the Admiralty, Horse-Guards, Treasury, and the Board of Trade, and Privy Council Offices are situated. The famous Downing Street is a short place or street, leading from the corner of this series of buildings. Behind them, to the West, extends St. James's Park, at the West end of which is Buckingham Palace. On the West side of Palace Yard stand Westminster Hall and the Houses of Parliament, nearly opposite to which is Westminster Abbey, which ranks as an ecclesiastical structure next in importance to St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Thames Embankment, which extends from Westminster to Blackfriars on the Middlesex side of the river Thames, is a solid river wall of stone, eight feet in thickness, and forty feet in height. The roadway 18 100 feet wide, and underneath it are two passages or tunnels, one for the great sewer, and the other for the gas pipes and telegraphic wires. The Metropolitan District Railway runs parallel with the Embankment. A similar improvement has been made on the other, or Surrey side of the river at Lambeth; and the new buildings comprising St. Thomas's Hospital, in the same locality, cannot fail to attract the attention of the stranger passing up or down the Thames, from their commanding situation and grand elevation.

London, with regard to the circumstance of navigation, is so placed on the Thames, and has such extensive docks, as to possess every advantage that can be derived from a seaport, without its dangers. To its port are confined some branches of foreign commerce; as those to Turkey and Hudson's Bay, and nearly all of the vast East India trade. Thus London has risen to its present rank of the first city in Europe with respect to opulence.

To describe the trades and the manufactures that are carried on in London would be to enumerate all that other places in the kingdom are noted for, and would include nearly every article of luxury or utility; for such are the facilities which the metropolis affords for the performance of all operations on an extensive scale, and such is the spirit of competition that exists among its industrious and enterprising inhabitants, that whatever speculation in art, manufactures, or commerce holds out a fair promise for the advantageous employment of capital or talent, is sure to be embarked in, and prosecuted with the most unremitting energy.