FROM

THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER.

SERIES III.

VOL. IV.	B E T H A N Y, OCTOBER, 1847.	NO. X.

      My dear Clarinda--AS the people of London so much entrench upon the night, and oblige all who visit them to sit up late, and consequently to rise late, my labors in the gospel in the city frequently extended to from 7 to 10 o'clock in the evening. In order to counteract the bad influence upon my health of such irrational customs, and as I could find no one at leisure by day to listen to me, I resolved to exercise myself in travelling through the city and in visiting all the public institutions and places of resort to which I could find access. And that I might form just and adequate conceptions of the glory of England, I determined to visit her palaces and towers, her temples and altars, her houses of Lords and Commons, her galleries of arts and sciences, her museums and gardens, her Universities and Colleges, and every thing else regarded as worthy of admiration in her public works and institutions. I was, indeed, highly favored by our Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Mr. BANCROFT, and by many friends of influence in the city; so that I may say, every thing that I wished to see was opened to me in the city and the country. I, therefore, travelled about one hundred miles in London, and about one hundred and fifty miles around it in my visits to the objects which I desired to contemplate. The cabs and omnibusses in the city and the rail-roads, around it furnish ample means of seeing a great deal in a little time.

      But, for the sake of my readers, I must, before entering upon any details, say a few words about London itself:--

      Of London, as a town or city, we can say but little. What it was at its foundation, and when founded, would be, if ascertainable, of little importance to us. But these are hid in the depths of a very remote antiquity, and are consequently enveloped in much mystery. Commerce for ages had been confined to the Mediterranean; but about the sixth century it began to spread itself with more vigor to the islands of the Atlantic, and found its way up the river Thames, some sixty miles from its mouth. London, then a walled town, two miles in extent, embracing four hundred acres, had assumed so much commercial and political importance as to secure to itself the greater portion of the commerce of the country. But being often visited by plagues and fires, it seemed destined to retrograde rather than to progress. On the nominal conversion of the Saxons to Christianity, a Bishop's See and Saint Paul's Church [562] were here founded in 610. In the next century, the city was four times on the verge of ruin by conflagrations. In these fires many perished. Alfred seized London in 884, and there laid the foundation of municipal government. In 961 the pestilence swept off a multitude of its inhabitants and twenty years afterwards a fire almost completed its ruin. William I., in 1066, granted it a charter. The Tower was erected twelve years afterwards to intimidate and subordinate its citizens. The fire of 1086 again filled it with desolation, and converted St. Paul's church into a pile of ruins. Thatched roofs and wooden building now became unpopular. In the reign of John the MAGNA CHARTA was signed. Bricks were invented and first made in the days of Edward IV., and about the same time the art of printing was introduced into London by William Caxton, a citizen and mercer.

      Protestantism, in the reign of Henry VIII., gave a new impetus to London. Indeed, the abolition of monasteries and other Roman institutions and superstitions greatly contributed to the growth and prosperity of this and other cities. But various foolish and unreasonable governmental restrictions on the enlargement and improvement of London still retarded its growth and comfort. Plague succeeded plague till in 1665 and 1666, in thirteen months one visitation of the pestilence swept off about 100,000 persons.

      Immediately after the plague, on September 2, 1666, a fire broke out and consumed four-fifths of the city. A monument in Fish street still records this calamity, and estimates the loss at ten millions of pounds, or fifty millions of dollars. This awful visitation, however, made way for the regeneration of the city, and is now contemplated as having been a public blessing--though none to the sufferers.

      Many concurring causes at that time and since have conspired to make London the metropolis of the world. Amongst these are recorded a junction with the Hanseatic Confederacy; a formation of a commercial agreement with the Muscovite merchants; the formation of American settlements; an East India Company, and a company to trade with Turkey and the Levant.

      The religious intolerance and persecutions of France, by which 15,000 Protestants, at the revocation of the Edict of Names, by Louis XIV., were driven to London, also contributed to build up London. Latterly the rail-road improvements through the whole kingdom are greatly enlarging London, so that it has grown more in the last twenty years than ever before in a century. It now contains about 12,000 streets, lanes, and courts, &c. Many of the [563] new streets are streets of palaces. It enumerates more than 200,000 houses and public edifices, and occupies eighteen square miles, within a circumference of about thirty, and has a population of two millions!

      My first visit was to the Royal Academy of Arts; but I shall first pay my compliments to the Palaces of England. Of these the Buckingham Palace, the Palace of St. James, the Palace of Hampton Court, and that of Windsor, are the most distinguished and famous. The royal family, occupying the Buckingham Palace during the session of Parliament, forbids its being opened to strangers or visitants. Its exterior appearance is no way prepossessing. Indeed, many of the palaces of the nobility of England present a much more magnificent outside. It is an old building with a new face. It most inauspiciously turns its back to the public; and, although the architect has done much to impart to its street or back front as much magnificence as possible, it nevertheless looks more like a fortress than a palace. Its six-light upper tier of windows, under a heavy stone surmounting, look more like portals for cannon than the windows of a palace. It is made to look more majestically and pleasantly towards the park and royal gardens. Its parallellogramic basement, presenting towards the park three sides of a square, embraces on the left the three statues of History, Geography, and Astronomy; and on the rihgt, those of Painting, Music, and Architecture. The pediment, in the centre, contains the royal arms, surmounted by the statues of Neptune, Commerce, and Navigation. The grand entrance from the park is a neat arch of white marble, adorned with some very fine sculpture. This palace, indeed, is rather a private residence of the royal family, as there is no room in it either large or magnificent enough for holding courts and royal levees.

      St. James' Palace, directly facing St. James' Street, erected by Henry VIII., though its outward appearance is far from magnificent, possesses many spacious, elegant, and indeed splendid apartments. Ever since the destruction of Whitehall, in 1695, this palace has been the city residence of the Kings of England. Its internal arrangements are universally admired both for convenience and fine taste; and, I learn, are generally conceded to be, for all grand state purposes--such as holding courts, grand drawing rooms, levees, birth days, fetes, &c., superior to every other palace in Europe. While perambulating, for the sake of taking the dimensions of the grand suite of rooms, forming, indeed, when the occasion requires, one most magnificent apartment, where stands Her Majesty's throne, I could scarcely imagine any thing wanting to make it more [564] superbly grand or beautiful. From the throne, which, though but a very grandly fashioned arm-chair, is really a golden affair, placed under the richest and most brilliant canopy, decorated with all the sparkling splendors of gems of every hue, as well as of "the purest ray serene," to the remotest hearth--a distance of some two hundred and forty feet--there is every display of fine taste in the collecation of paintings, fire-place ornaments, splendid carpets, chairs, &c., which royal magnificence can bestow. Yet, while musing on all these fading splendors of the British throne, and while estimating their influence on the human heart, without being converted into a cynic or a Diogenes, I could say--

      The most celebrated painting, as now admired in London, the Royal Family Group, had been taken down and removed for the season, but by special favor we were allowed a sight of it in another room. It certainly is the most splendid thing of the kind I have yet seen. Prince Albert and the Queen, with their five children, as natural as life, and in the most happily conceived positions, present the most beautiful, as well as, to the English nation, the most interesting group ever put on one and the same canvass. Having seen in marble, from the hands of the best sculptors, the recently erected statues of the Queen and Prince Albert, and other paintings of them, and, still more interesting, their living, breathing, moving persons, I can pronounce this painting one of the noblest trophies of the painter's art, at least so far as I can judge of such efforts.

      From the state-rooms of the Palace of St. James our conductress led us into the chapel in the Buckingham Palace, where the head of the Church of England, the royal family, the Duke of Wellington, the royal visitants, with a, few other elect noblemen, and sometimes respectable strangers, are allowed to worship. But, like the king's chapel at Cambridge, the most magnificent chapel in the whole realm of England, in which I spent a whole hour a few days since, it is designed for only a few persons--say not more, at most, than one hundred. I should not, From its whole contour, arrangements and display, suppose it to be a place for gratefully and devoutly meditating upon Him that was born in a stable, slept in a manger, and expired on a cross. The Queen, however, is said to sympathize with the worship performed in this magnificent little chapel, and sometimes exhibits feeling when prayed for. [565]

      The Kensington Palace, where Victoria was brought up; where Queen Mary, Queen Anne, Queen Caroline, and George II. lived; and the old Palace of Whitehall, in front of which Charles I. was beheaded, having no pretensions to grandeur, did not command our attention. We only glanced from the Thames at Lambeth Palace, the residence of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, while in London. Had time allowed, I desired to visit the Lollards tower there, and to have examined the rings in the walls to which the old Lollards were tied up in the days of some less gracious Archbishop, and whipped for the good of their souls, for their internal illumination; but I could not make it convenient.

      I desired for three reasons to visit Hampton Court Palace, thirteen miles from London on the bank of the Thames. There stands the most splendid Hall in England, the most magnificent in Europe or the world. There also assembled the Conference in the reign of James, which elicited the common version of the New Testament and there are the most beautifully cultivated and ornamented grounds in the kingdom.

      To the liberal genius of Victoria is England indebted for having opened to the nation and the world the Hampton Court Palace, with all its splendors, internal and external, a gift of royal benevolence, worthy of the age and of the most politically honored and admired woman in the world. While Henry VIII., with a rapacity and sensuality peculiarly characteristic of his age and of his reign, snatched from Wolsey, its founder, its courts and gardens, Victoria at the commencement of her reign, with a generous magnanimity, throws wide open its gates and treasures to the humblest of her subjects, that they, with her, may participate in all the luxuries which Nature and Art have, in the richest profusion, accumulated here. I should have been pleased to have spent many days here.

      The Palace consists of three grand quadrangles. The western court is 167 by 162 feet, divided into several suites of apartments, now occupied by private families. The central quadrangle is 134 by 134, called the Clock Court, because of an astronomical clock placed over the gateway. The third quadrangle, celled the Fountain Court, erected for William III. by Christopher Wren, is 110 by 117 feet; on each side of which is a beautiful colonade of the Ionic order, with duplicate columns. On the north side, over the windows, are the twelve labors of Hercules, by Laguerre, and in the area is a beautiful jet d'eau. On the north side is the Queen's staircase, and on the west a passage leading to the entrance and to the grand staircase. [566]

      I have no language to express the thousand charms of Nature and of Art that mingle here. Combinations the most beautiful, grotesque, magnificent, that genius and taste the most highly cultivated could bestow, in all the forms of architectural beauty and grandeur, in all the displays of rural scenery, garden and landscape arrangement, cultivation, and ornament, are here to be seen. Passing through the Lion's Gate, to the gates of Hampton bridge, numerous and various beauties present themselves, one after another, until they reach their climax as you make your exit from the gardens. Here it may be said, "The trees are never leafless--verdure and beauty are omnipresent." At proper distances the stateliest elms spread their umbrageous boughs, and groves and rows of flowering chesnuts, in the deepest verdure and with all their honors thick upon them, rear their majestic forms and throw their shadows over the most beautiful walks and terraces that imagination can sketch or art adorn. The yew tree, the laurel, and the cedar of Lebanon, with all the flowering shrubs of every hue, seem to vie with each other in attitude, position, and grace, in adding enchantment to the scene. Flora, with all her graces and loveliest charms, meets you at every turn, gladdening the eye with her gayest blossoms and perfuming the air with her sweetest and most fragrant incense. Fountains and basons of the purest and most limpid waters, and ponds sparkling with shoals of golden fish, invite you to turn aside and amuse yourself with the freaks and pastimes of the finney tribes that seem to welcome your approach, and to partake in all the beauties, pleasures and amusements of the place. The distant waters of the gently-moving Thames sparkling through the trees--the artificial cascades, with their lulling music--and every where the little groups of smiling and gleeful boys and girls passing and repassing from thick arbors and bowers of roses, or gambolling in the deep shade of a clump of evergreens: while a band of music before the palace is pouring its richest and gayest melodies upon the listening groups of youth and age, seem almost too much of beauty and of pleasure to be enjoyed by mortal man in a world of so much sin and misery.

      Hampton Court Palace covers about eight acres of ground. How many acres of pleasure grounds and gardens surround it I have not heard; but certain it is, that they are proportionally large and magnificent, and in good keeping with the amplitude and grandeur of the palace. I could not, in a single day, more than note down the objects worthy of particular attention and admiration in these gardens. I, therefore, shall not attempt it. Hampton Court gardens are the finest displays of the taste of the best gardeners in Europe, [567] of the greatest masters of horticulture in the world. The orange trees, olives, myrtles, and aloes of the private garden are very beautiful; some are said to be hundreds of years old. A gardener pointed out to me an orange tree more than three centuries old--a remnant of Queen Mary's botanical collections.

      Of the great vine we have made a memorandum. It is said to be the largest in Europe or in the world. It is eighty-nine years old. The glass-house built for it contains 2200 square feet; but the house is much too small. Its weight of grapes, in a fruitful year, almost drags it down. Two thousand five hundred clusters, one pound each are solemnly reported to have been gathered from it in one season. It is of the black Hamburgh species. Its stem is thirty inches in diameter, and its length is trimmed down to one hundred and ten feet. I walked under it, and carefully studied its vast dimensions, with its thousands of growing clusters. Its fruit is carefully gathered and preserved for the Queen's desert.

      "The mighty maze, but not without a plan," to which Pope alludes is still extant here. We wandered through it for half an hour. It was at Hampton Court he wrote his "Rape of the Lock," and not very far from it was his residence. This labyrinth, though occupying but half an acre, has walks to its central tree of half a mile, and few there be that weary not themselves in walking to and fro before they find its plan, and place themselves on its chair of ease.

      But we must leave these pleasure grounds and gardens and walk through the palace itself, though certainly I derived much more pleasure from these paradisaic scenes of Nature and of Art, in all their manifold and indescribable beauties, than in the spacious halls and elegant chambers of this magnificent abode of royal majesty and grandeur. Of these we shall, however, say but little.

      "Cardinal Wolsey's Hall," as it is sometimes called, though not commenced until five years after he had bartered Hampton Court, for the Richmond Manor, is worthy of all admiration. He only held Hampton Court till June, 1525, when he surrendered it to the crown. It was, however, planned by Wolsey, as was also Christ's Church at Oxford, as tradition goes. They are of the same order of architectural grandeur and magnificence. The hall is 106 feet long, 40 Feet wide, and 60 feet high. But its intrinsic beauties, its grand proportions, its high pitched roof, and carved pendants covered with gold, its magnificent tapestries, and brilliant blaze of light, as you enter under the minstrel gallery, in their sublime effect, overpower [568] the mind and extort an expression of admiration from almost every one on his first entering it.

      Were it at all interesting to speak of its twelve grand windows, with all their painted records and harnessing, we might relate from them the pedigree of the six wives of Henry VIII. as they are set forth on alternate windows with all the amplitude of detail--we might also decipher the heraldic badges of this first of Protestant Kings, beginning with the Lion, and ending with the White Greyhound of the House of Lancaster--with the French "Dieu et mon Droit," and the Latin "Dne. Salvum Fac Reg.,"(God save the King;) but we have no patience for such minutiae. Nor have we leisure to note the ten pieces of Abraham's life, which are most fantastically, (I had almost said, most profanely) interlarded amongst the wives of Henry VIII., inscribed upon the walls of this royal hall. The only one of the ten which would seem to suit the character of the man, is that of "Sarah taken by the Egyptians;" but of these matters I shall take no farther notice, save that these ten pieces begin with "Abraham's call" and end with "Melchisedeck offering him bread and wine."

      One cannot but think, amidst all these scenes of grandeur, of Wolsey's catastrophe. Offending Ann Boleyn, he is stripped of all his honors; yet he anticipates the king, and dies in the Abbey before the king's scaffold was ready for him. One cannot but think of the same Ann Boleyn leaving this same palace to be beheaded, and of Jane Seymour coming here to die neglected after she gave birth to Edward VI. Nor can we but think of the gloomy honey-moon of Philip and Mary, spent in this palace.

      The scenes of James I., "by-grace-of-God-King," and his conference with the Bishops and Puritan leaders on the subject of a translation, also crowds into our associations with Hampton Court. When the Puritans asked leave to hold "their meetings for prophesying," the king graciously replied, "Aye! It is that you would be at! If you aim at a Scotch presbytery, let me tell you that it agrees as well with monarchy as God and the Devil. Then shall Jack and Tom, and Will and Dick meet, and censure me and my council; therefore, I reiterate my former speech--Le Roi S'avisera--No Bishop, no King." And standing before this splendid palace, we cannot but think of Charles I. escaping hence, only to be confined in Carisbrook Castle; and of Oliver Cromwell coming in pomp to reside in it, and of his saving it from public sale by the Parliament.

      It would be of little interest to my readers to speak in detail of [569] its chapel and its paintings, of the King's staircase, of the Guard chamber, the first Presence chamber, the second Presence chamber, the Audience chamber, the King's drawing room, King William III's bed-room, the King's dressing-room, the King's writing-room; nor, leaving the south side and passing over into the east side, to speak of the Queen's gallery, bed-room, drawing-room, audience chamber, the public dining-room, the private dining-room,dressing-room, &c. &c.; nor, passing into the west side of Fountain Court, to speak of the cartoon gallery, the ante-room, the portrait gallery, the Queen's guard chamber and the Queen's presence chamber. It would be more gratifying to speak of the one thousand and twenty-seven portraits of king's and princes, and great men of all classes; with the splendid groups and views domestic and foreign, with which its galleries and state rooms are filled. These are the real luxuries of this palace. The best efforts of more than 250 of the most distinguished painters, besides the Cartoons of Raffaelle, are hung round the walls of this ancient residence of kings. They are mostly in good preservation. The Cartoons were prepared as designs for the arras weaver, and furnish the richest feasts to the real amateurs of this fine art. No one, of any taste, in less than a month, could satisfy himself with the pictures in this place.

      Here are all the renowned Admirals, Statesmen, Philosophers, Orators, Generals, Kings, and Queens, of three centuries, with the most distinguished Ladies of different Courts--models of female beauty, according to the standards of the times in which they lived. Here are also Apostles, Prophets Evangelists, Popes, Bishops; Bible characters, scenes, groups, events. Here also are fancy sketches, with many of the saints of both English and Roman superstition. The Pantheon and St. Peters, as well as the Church of England, have also contributed to ornament these rooms. The landscapes introduced are also of the richest character. Sea pieces, fleets, battles, naval engagements, views of rivers, mountains, cities, and country seats, &c. &c. &c., furnish matter of reflection for every mind that visits Hampton Court and keeps up a communion between the living and the dead.

      And now when all is said that a hasty sketch and a few pages can afford, no adequate conception either of the palace, or the gardens, or the pleasure grounds and parks, extending far and wide, can be given. It is, indeed, worthy of a great Queen and of a great nation to open all these grounds and treasures to the public, and to keep such suites of stewards and servants as will keep the entire premises always in the best possible style. [570]

      Not a farthing is allowed to be paid to any servant by any visitor, For any attendance which may be given him, in showing him the palace or the surrounding premises. All is as free as the public highways, and a little freer than some of them.

      Visitors are arriving every morning by hundreds. They are taken through the palace in groups, or companies, of from ten to fifty at a time, as may happen. Their guides give general information on all subjects connected with the history of the rooms and furniture, and are generally as polite and communicative as though they were to be paid for their services by the visitors. Last year the number of visitors is reported as amounting to 170,889. I was pleased to see the good manners of all present during my visit, especially in the care that all took to injure nothing by a single touch of the finger, or by placing a foot on forbidden ground. The only printed inhibitions which I saw were very happily expressed on boards placed at proper points, saying "Whatever is kept for public use, entertainment, and pleasure, it is the duty of that public to preserve inviolate;" or, in words to this effect. The keeper of the private gardens, amounting to some three acres or more, and the keeper of the "maze," without whom neither can be enjoyed, are allowed to receive an optional fee from those who call for their attendance. I have only to regret in the arrangements of Hampton Court Palace, that it is kept open on the Lord's day, and that, consequently, a greater number attend on that day than on any other. Indeed, excepting Mondays, more attend on Sundays than on any other four days of the week.

      I hope to be excused for the long details I have given of this most interesting of English palaces. It will serve as a standard of reference and comparison in relation to others, and render particular details hereafter unnecessary. It is due to the memory of Charles I to say, that his collections and additions to the paintings and pictures of Hampton Court are of the finest taste. His collections were the richest in Europe. He was, indeed, an amateur of the first order, and greatly enriched England and Europe by patronizing the fine arts. The first collections of Europe are still adorned with the fruits of his taste and his liberality. I saw, the other day, in the Palace of the Tuilleries, in the Louvre, some of the spoils of his liberality, and wherever they appear they do honor to his genius and taste.

      Brother Henshall and myself spent a day at Windsor Palace. It is 21 miles from London, but we arrived there in about an hour by the rail-road and omnibusses. This is usually regarded as the most [571] splendid of the palaces of English sovereigns. It is, indeed, among castellated palaces, a noble structure, and one of the most magnificent in the world! Its towers and castle occupy some 32 acres. It was originally built by William I., but greatly enlarged by successive sovereigns down to the reign of George IV., whose latter days were spent here. It stands upon a commanding eminence, and surveys a very extensive horizon. The architecture is truly grand and magnificent. We made the tour of the eleven grand state rooms in the palace, which, indeed, are all that are now shown to the public, as the Queen's rooms, occupied by Her Majesty a portion of the year, are not shown. Of those we saw we shall only notice "the Hall of Saint George," which is 200 feet long, 34 wide, and 32 high. Its ceiling is Gothic--a flat Gothic arch, with ribs or mouldings springing from corbels on the walls. The entire ceiling is divided into thirteen bays, and each of these into twenty-four smaller ones, containing each two shields, emblazoned with the armorial bearings of all the Knights of the Garter from the institution of the order down to the present time--a period of 500 years. Portraits of all the sovereigns of England, from James I. to George IV., are placed, full length, on the panels round this room. Every thing here, even the steps to the king's throne on the east end of the room, is of oak. The carpet is of an oak pattern, in panels with a cross in the centre. Three hundred persons could dine with comfort at the table now standing in this hall.

      There are two royal parks around this palace--one containing 500 acres, extending 4 miles in length down to the Thames. There are many noble and interesting trees in it; amongst these yet survives the Herne's Oak, mentioned in the Merry Wives of Windsor. The great park contains 1800 acres, and is stocked with thousands of deer. In this is a beautiful avenue of trees, called THE LONG WALK, extending three miles down to Snow Hill. There are also lakes or fish-ponds in it, of which I cannot speak particularly. If Windsor be the most august and imposing of English palaces, I must be allowed to say that Hampton Court is the most beautiful.

      Having noticed Buckingham, St. James, Hampton, and Windsor Palaces, with Kensington and Whitehall, I need not add to these the Marlborough House, the Somerset House, or the Palace in the Isle of Wight, at which the Queen spends some part of the summer. It is said to be a beautiful summer residence. But I may be asked, Why dwell so long on these? Why expatiate on such displays of worldly grandeur and of worldly glory? I have, what I presume to call, good and relevant reasons. I desired to see the glory of [572] England, to give a glimpse of it to my readers, as a text for our reflections. All that the world can bestow on man is shown forth in these displays of regal magnificence. And who can find, or who has found in these pageants any more than king Solomon found and displayed almost three thousand years ago?--"Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!"

      The youthful face of England's Queen is as care-worn as that of any mother in America, who can show five such lusty children as those of her Majesty. Palaces, and gardens, and parks, and promenades, and all the peculiar treasures of kings cannot sooth a troubled conscience, relieve an aching heart, or sweeten the bitter cup of anguish which all must taste, soon or late, in life's weary pilgrimage. But how do these artificial and fading glories delude their possessors! The Queen of England can scarcely be expected to know herself. She is surrounded with flatterers and worshippers, in whose incense she lives, and moves, and thinks, and acts. If it was said by the Great Teacher, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven," may we not rationally infer that it will be much more difficult for Kings, and Queens, and Lordbishops to enter into heaven? As the Queen of proud England and the Head of her Church, how can she feel as a Christian! How can she humble herself and become as a little child! True, indeed, there is many a Duchess, and Marchioness, and Lady in England, still more elated, glorified, and worshiped, as she imagines, in her own circle. And many a gay commoner of the untitled women of England and America, in the midst of her worshippers, is altogether intoxicated, and beyond the point of sober reflection. Still, with all these admissions, there is no lady in England so much in danger from simple position, as the very clever, prudent, and popular Queen Victoria?

      But I have another view of this subject to present. I also make myself acquainted with the poor and wretched who have not a house, nor a home, nor a place to lay their heads. I find industrious working men, sometimes Christian men, heads of families, with four or six children, working from twelve to fifteen hours per diem, for eight or ten shillings per week. This is the whole avails of their labor. From this ten shillings they pay house rent, or cellar or garret rent--clothe themselves--feed themselves and their families. Of these, too, I learn there are many, very many, in all the towns and cities and their suburbs. The country has its thousands and tens of thousands of such cases.

      A hosier by trade earns his seven and six pence or nine shillings [573] per week. A good field hand told me he got twelve pounds, some 60 dollars per annum, out of which he supported a wife and two children. In the cities, especially in London, I see thousands of little children in the streets, bearing all the insignia of squalid, wretched poverty. In passing and repassing, I find myself often counting the numbers that I see in one street abandoned to wretchedness and degradation. No school for them--no table--no bed--no book--no teacher. I dare not presume to estimate their numbers; but there certainly is a fearful multitude. For every Prince, and Lord, and Nobleman, there are likely thousands of these. For every palace there are multitudes without a cottage, a hut, or a home. I ask myself, Is this the price of a splendid monarchy! Are these the conditions on which royal palaces are reared! Are hierarchies and Gothic Cathedrals--are Lordbishops and Metropolitans, with their St. Pauls' and St. Peters', the fruit or the cause of so much ignorance, poverty, and crime! If so, then let me have a land without palaces, a country without splendid parks and gardens, cities without Gothic temples, a nation without Lords, and a community without beggars, starvation, and pestilence.------Your Father, most affectionately,

[The Millennial Harbinger, Third Series, 4 (October 1847): 652-574.]