repassing almost incessantly. In fine weather, especially on Sundays, they convey vast numbers of passengers. According to a curious estimate that lately appeared (October, 1850) in the Morning Chronicle, the receipts of the river steamers amount in the season to nearly 10,000l. a week.

The port of London is connected with the Irish Sea by a chain of canals, of which the Regent's canal, passing along the north of the city, is the first link. The North Western and other railways are, also, connected with the port.

Hackney-coaches were introduced more than 200 years ago; and previously to the introduction of cabriolets, in 1820, were very numerous, but they are now all but wholly superseded by the latter. It is a singular and not easily explained fact, that, with but few if any exceptions, the hackney-coaches and cabs to be found in the streets of London are the dirtiest, shabbiest, and most uncomfortable carriages that are anywhere to be met with. The drivers are worthy of the carriages; the one and the other being a disgrace to the city, and such as would not be employed anywhere else.

Literature. - London ranks still higher as a literary than as. a commercial city. Nothwithstanding the factitious encouragement given to learning and science in Oxford and Cambridge, London is the favourite resort of literary and scientific men. Its immense population, the wealth and intelligence of its inhabitants, and the circumstance of its being the seat of government, attract aspiring individuals from all parts of the empire, especially those ambitious to distinguish themselves in literature or politics. The practical, common-sense character of the philosophy and literature of England is probably, indeed, in no small degree owing to its being principally cultivated in London, where the writers, by mixing with the world, learn to avoid those over-refined theories and fanciful distinctions in which recluse speculators are so apt to indulge. With the exception of the provincial newspapers, the whole periodical

literature of England centres in London. The number of persons engaged in this department, as authors, publishers, printers, &c., is very great. London has no fewer than twelve daily newspapers, excluding lists, and eighty that appear at other intervals. Many of these journals display great, and some consummate talent; and, considering the extreme rapidity with which articles for the daily journals must be written, and the want of time for revision, they are certainly extraordinary performances. So far as respects its newspaper press, London is infinitely superior to every other city; and however one-sided, prejudiced, and little to be depended on in party matters, it is not easy to imagine that it is likely to gain much in ability, variety, and interest.

It appears, from the Stamp-office Returns, that of 84,339,415 stamps, including supplements, issued to the different newspapers published in the United Kingdom during the year ended 31st December, 1849, no fewer than 49,006,730, or more than the half of the whole, were issued to those published in London! And when the superior ability and information of the London press is taken into account, its preponderance will appear still more striking. During the same year, the total amount of the duty on advertisements paid by the newspapers of the United Kingdom amounted to 163,2117. 1s. 4d., of which 69,5127. 19s. 6d. was derived from the metropolitan journals.

A prodigious number of weekly, monthly, and quarterly magazines, reviews, and other publications, issue from the London press; and though many of these be of a very trashy and worthless description, a considerable number are of a widely different character, and are well fitted to amuse, instruct, and improve the reader. By far the greater number of these publications appear on the last day of every month, known among booksellers as "Magazine day;" when the great publishing houses make up and forward innumerable parcels,

containing every variety of works, to their correspondents in all parts of the kingdom.

The magnitude and importance of the periodical press of the metropolis will be best seen from the following statement, compiled by Messrs. Longman and Co. for 1850.

The greater number of the works written in Scotland are now published in Edinburgh; but nearly the whole of the myriads of works written in England and Ireland are published in London. The latter, in fact, is to the literature of Britain what Leipsic is to that of Germany, or Paris to that of France. The London publishers have agents all over the country, to whom they send new publications; so that in the few instances in which books are printed at Oxford or Cambridge, or other provincial towns, it is usual to send them to London to be published.

Education.-London, unlike most other European capitals, had no university empowered to grant degrees till 1836, when

* This number (35) does not include the low class of periodicals, emanating chiefly from Wych Street and the purlieus of St. Giles's.

one was established by royal charter (renewed in 1837) for "the advancement of religion and morality, and the promotion of useful knowledge," without distinction of rank, sect, or party. This institution differs (and, as we think, advantageously) from all other universities, in its having nothing to do with the business of education, being constituted for the sole purpose of ascertaining the proficiency of candidates for academical distinctions. It is, in fact, a Board of Examiners, empowered to grant degrees in science and literature to such candidates as are found, on examination, to have attained the required proficiency. The senate, or board, consists of a chancellor, vicechancellor, and thirty-five other members. The faculties are those of Arts, Law, and Medicine, in each of which are several examiners, some of whom are members of the senate. The sittings are held in Somerset House, and the examinations are half-yearly. The greatest number of candidates for degrees has hitherto been furnished by the University and King's Colleges, both of which are proprietary establishments. The former of these, opened in 1828, is governed by a council and senate of professors: the course of education embraces classics, pure and mixed science, history, jurisprudence, and medicine, religion being wholly excluded. The success of the medical school, which has for some years been the largest in London, has led to the erection of a good hospital close to the college. The general classes have not been so well attended as the more sanguine friends of the establishment at first expected; but the attendance is likely to be increased by the addition to the institution of a well-attended junior school, the instruction in which forms a good preparation for higher studies. King's College is a similar establishment to that last mentioned, and is similarly conducted, except that religion is taught in it in accordance with the principles of the Church of England. The general classes are well attended, as is the junior school. The medical school is small. The buildings of these establishments are

handsome and commodious: the portico of University College is one of the finest in London.

Among the literary and scientific establishments of the metropolis, one of the best supported is the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street. The building, the front of which is in good taste, with fourteen Corinthian columns, comprises a good library and reading room, a theatre for lectures, capable of accommodating 900 persons, and a chemical laboratory, supposed to be one of the largest and best supplied with apparatus in Europe. Lectures on various subjects are delivered by the professors and other gentlemen temporarily engaged; and the important investigations made here by the late Sir Humphry Davy, Mr. Faraday, and others, have conferred on the institution a well-merited celebrity. Next in importance to that just mentioned is the London Institution, in Finsbury Circus, Moorfields, the objects of which are very similar, though not so fully and scientifically carried out. Lectures are given on literature, the fine arts, &c., once or twice a week from November to May: the library is both large and well-selected, and the reading rooms are supplied with the greater number of English and foreign literary journals. The Russell Institution, in Great Coram Street, is similar in most respects to those just described; but, owing to a falling off in its funds, its usefulness is at present very much circumscribed.

Efforts have, also, been made to promote the welfare and improvement of the working classes, and of young men generally, by the establishment of mechanics' institutes in different parts of London. But, whatever may be the cause, these, of late years, have generally been declining. The earliest, called, par excellence, "The Mechanics' Institute," in Southampton Buildings, Holborn (opened in 1824), which formerly had about 1200 members, has, at present (1850), about 600. The subscription is 24s. a year, and 2s. 6d. at entrance. Classes are established for languages, arithmetic, geometry, &c.; and