more surprising when we consider its extensive population. But this security is the effect of several wise regulations, and of a numerous and vigilant watch; neither murders nor robberies ever occur; though accounts of such attrocities are occasionally inserted in the public papers by order of the Police, to put people on their guard, and the facts are gene rally alleged, to have been perpetrated by Irishmen; but this is merely Bowstreet wit, and intended as a friendly hint to Absentees. Fires are hardly ever known to happen in London; nor can any infectious disease exist where there are laws prohibiting the manufacture of tallow candles, the slaughtering of cattle, and the burial of human bodies, within the precincts of the City. Great attention is here paid to appearance dyers of cloths, and scourers of blankets, and old garments, are not suffered to hang out such articles on poles projecting from the upper windows of their houses; nor are shop-keepers allowed to indulge their luxuriant fancies by covering the outsides of their mansions with such monstrosities and inexplicable devices as one sees elsewhere. There is here never an instance of the name and occupation of a trader being so amalgamated, that he who reads, is at a loss to know one from the other; whereas, in foreign Cities, I have frequently seen inscriptions of that kind, painted in genuine antique characters; for exampleBOOT AND BULL SHOEMAKER : HABERDASHER AND LEG HOSIER. There are neither thieves nor women of ill-fame in the streets of the British metropolis; so that a man may walk from Cornhill to Charing Cross, by day or night, without danger to his pocket or person, I have said that fires rarely happen here, and it is strictly true: but even were these calamities more frequent, the inhabitants are scarcely liable to any personal injury; because by an act of Parliament, those who build houses are compelled to construct the stairs in them of stone, or some other incombustible material, that in case of fire the inmates may escape, and save, not only their lives, but much of their goods. Nothing in fact, to speak generally, can exceed the attention shown by the legislature of this incomparable country to ensure safety and convenience to all classes of the community: neither carts nor carriages of any description are permitted to be driven rapidly along the streets or highways, nor do stage-coaches, ever break down, by being overloaded con D trary to the statute; for the English are not content with barely enacting wholesome laws, but are also careful to enforce them. In their manners the English are irresistibly gracious and insinuating, and still more so in the capital than in the country. Let a stranger inquire his way from any mechanic or other person of inferior rank whom he meets, and he will be astonished at the suavity of manner, and polite circumlocution with which the answer is given. But this enticing quality of gentleness, yields to another excellence particularly observable in the Londoners: I mean their universal disinterestedness. The tradespeople of the metropolis absolutely appear regardless of gain; and never betray the smallest symptoms of surliness or cold neglect towards such as examine their ware, and withdraw without pur chasing; nor of alertness or servility in their dealings with those who expend their money profusely. They are, besides, entitled to the highest praise for their treatment, not only of Irish Absentees, but of Foreigners of every de scription, and under all circumstances; the French especially; who are their natural enemies, and whom they might use a little scurvily, without any imputation on their urbanity: but no such thing: to have the appearance of poverty and the accent or complexion of another country, are, at all times, passports to the goodwill of Englishmen, who are as devoid of prejudices of this kind, as of every other mean and sordid sentiment. This noble cast of mind inherent in a whole people, has been remarked by many eminent writers, and is justly to be attributed to the effects |