dense and more excited. Beautiful buildings, too, rose before him; palaces, and churches, and streets, and squares of imposing architecture; to his inexperienced eye and unsophisticated spirit their route appeared a never-ending triumph. To the hackney-coachman, however, who had no imagination, and who was quite satiated with metropolitan experience, it only appeared that he had had an exceeding good fare, and that he was jogging up from Bishopsgate Street to Charing Cross.

In spite of the strange clatter in the streets, Ferdinand slept well, and the next morning, after an early breakfast, himself and his fellow-traveller set out on their peregrinations. Young and sanguine, full of health and enjoyment, innocent and happy, it was with difficulty that Ferdinand could restrain his spirits as he mingled in the bustle of the streets. was a bright, sunny morning, and although the end of June, the town was yet quite full.

It

“Is this Charing Cross, sir? I wonder if we shall ever be able to get over.-r.-Is this the fullest part of the town, sir?-What a fine day, sir! How lucky we are in the weather!—We are lucky in everything! -Whose house is that?-Northumberland House !Is it the Duke of Northumberland's ?-Does he live there?-How I should like to see it! Is it very fine?—Who is that?—What is this?—The Admiralty ! Oh, let me see the Admiralty !-The Horse Guards !— Oh! where, where? Let us set our watches by the Horse Guards. The guard of our coach always sets his watch by the Horse Guards. Mr. Glastonbury, which

is the best clock, the Horse Guards or St. Paul's?—Is that the Treasury? Can we go in ?—That is Downing Street, is it?—I never heard of Downing Street.— What do they do in Downing Street?—Is this Charing Cross still, or is it Parliament Street?-Where does Charing Cross end, and where does Parliament Street begin? By Jove, I see Westminster Abbey !"

B. Disraeli. ("Henrietta Temple.")

The City at Night ◇

"ACH, mein Lieber!" said he once, at midnight,

when we had returned from the Coffee-house

in rather earnest talk, “it is true sublimity to dwell "here. These fringes of lamplight, struggling up "through smoke and thousandfold exhalation, some "fathoms into the ancient reign of Night, what "thinks Boötes of them, as he leads his Hunting"Dogs over the Zenith in their leash of sidereal "fire? That stifled hum of Midnight, when Traffic "has lain down to rest; and the chariot-wheels of "Vanity, still rolling here and there through distant "streets, are bearing her to Halls roofed-in, and "lighted to the due pitch for her; and only Vice and "Misery, to prowl or to moan like nightbirds, are "abroad that hum, I say, like the stertorous, unquiet "slumber of sick Life, is heard in Heaven! Oh,

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under that hideous coverlet of vapours, and putrefactions, and unimaginable gases, what a Ferment"ing-vat lies simmering and hid! The joyful and "the sorrowful are there; men are dying there, men "are being born; men are praying, on the other "side of a brick partition, men are cursing; and "around them all is the vast, void Night. The "proud Grandee still lingers in his perfumed saloons, or reposes within damask curtains; Wretchedness 66 cowers into truckle-beds, or shivers hunger-stricken "into its lair of straw: in obscure cellars, Rouge "et Noir languidly emits its voice-of-destiny to "haggard hungry Villains; while Councillors of State "sit plotting, and playing their high chess-game, whereof the pawns are Men. The Lover whispers "his mistress that the coach is ready; and she, full of "hope and fear, glides down, to fly with him over the "borders the Thief, still more silently, sets-to his "picklocks and crowbars, or lurks in wait till the "watchmen first snore in their boxes. Gay mansions, "with supper-rooms and dancing-rooms, are full of "light and music and high-swelling hearts; but, in "the Condemned Cells, the pulse of life beats tremu"lous and faint, and blood-shot eyes look out through "the darkness, which is around and within, for the "light of a stern last morning. Six men are to be "hanged on the morrow: comes no hammering from "the Rabenstein?-their gallows must even now be "o' building. Upwards of five-hundred-thousand "two-legged animals without feathers lie round us, in

"horizontal position; their heads all in nightcaps, and "full of the foolishest dreams. Riot cries aloud, and "staggers and swaggers in his rank dens of shame; "and the Mother, with streaming hair, kneels over "her pallid dying infant, whose cracked lips only her

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tears now moisten.-All these heaped and huddled "together, with nothing but a little carpentry and "masonry between them ;-crammed in, like salted "fish in their barrel ;- —or weltering, shall I say, like "an Egyptian pitcher of tamed vipers, each struggling to get its head above the others: such work goes on under that smoke-counterpane !-But I, mein "Werther, sit above it all; I am alone with the "Stars."

Thomas Carlyle. ("Sartor Resartus.")

A Song of Fleet Street

FLEET

LEET STREET! Fleet Street! Fleet Street in the morning,

With the old sun laughing out behind the dome of Paul's,

Heavy wains a-driving, merry winds a-striving,

White clouds and blue sky above the smokestained walls.

Fleet Street! Fleet Street! Fleet Street in the noontide, East and west the streets packed close, and roaring

like the sea;

With laughter and with sobbing we feel the world's

heart throbbing,

And know that what is throbbing is the heart of you and me.

Fleet Street! Fleet Street! Fleet Street in the evening, Darkness set with golden lamps down Ludgate Hill

a-row:

Oh! hark the voice o' th' city that breaks our hearts with pity,

That crazes us with shame and wrath, and makes us love her so.

Fleet Street Fleet Street! morning, noon, and starlight,

Through the never-ceasing roar come the great chimes clear and slow;

“Good are life and laughter, though we look before and after,

And good to love the race of men a little ere we go." Alice Werner.