the city are generally hackney-coaches, which, on rainy days, form two uninterrupted files moving opposite ways; few carts or waggons for the transportation of goods; all this commerce with the universe is carried on by abstraction. You never see the productions which the two Indies, Africa, and America, are pouring incessantly into the Thames, and which return to the four quarters of the world, modified and enriched by the labour and skill of manufacturers. I am told that all this commercial substance is deposited in certain warehouses, which surround artificial basins, or docks, large enough to receive all at once, and each of them, whole fleets of merchantmen. The East Indies have their dock; the West Indies theirs, the fisheries theirs,-London has one for its own use ;-foreign vessels alone occupy the river, and their cargoes are received in private warehouses. All this is below London, and forms a sort of a third town, east of east. What are we to think of this trade, of which a whole immense city could not contain the stock, and is merely its counting-house? The mind forgets that the immediate object is sugar and coffee, tobacco and cotton, and that auri sacra fames is the mainspring, and sees only a social engine, which rivals in utility, in vastness of operation, as well as wisdom of details, the phenomena of nature herself!

Among the few who have taken any trouble to forward our views of pleasure and instruction, I wish I could pay a just tribute of my gratitude to Sir Charles B, who has taken every opportunity of obliging us; but I have determined to name none but persons in public stations; and although this resolution may cost me something where I should have to praise, yet it must be adhered to.

Sir Joseph Banks is well known in the learned world, by his zeal for the sciences, which made him in his youth accompany Captain Cook round the world, and during the course of a long life devote all his time and an ample fortune to their advancement. He receives such persons as have been introduced to him, on Thursday mornings and Sunday evenings. His friends are always admitted in the morning to his library, where newspapers, and literary journals, English and foreign, are found. These meetings are perfectly free from gêne, or ceremony of any sort. This is, I presume, the only establishment of the kind in England. Sir Joseph is the patriarch of literature, or more particularly of the sciences. He presides at the Royal Society, which meets every Thursday evening in Somerset House, nominally at eight o'clock, often half an hour or three quarters of an hour later, and separates precisely at nine. If I were to judge by the two sittings at which I

had the honour of being admitted, this very short space of time is sufficient. The secretary (Mr Davy) began by reporting. He had little to say. Rank and wealth are, I am told, the only title of a great number of the members of the society to the academical seat, and from such a tree but little fruit can be expected. The upper end of the room is decorated with a full-length portrait of Newton, whom the society is proud of having had for its first president. His signature was shewn to me in the register of members. I felt that an impulse of profound respect at the sight of it had made me bow unconsciously. The English do not say Newton, but Sir Isaac Newton. I cannot well express how much this Monsieur le Chevalier Newton shocks the ear of a foreigner.

The Transactions of the Society have reached the 105th volume, and contain much valuable matter-much more, indeed, than seems consistent with the short time allowed to its proceedings; and as the Society publishes only such communications as are judged worthy of the public, I conclude that few communications are offered that are otherwise. A certain native pride and good sense prevents many hasty communications being offered. There is in other countries

* This has been pointed out as an error: The senior secretary, then Dr Wollaston, read the minutes, and the junior secretary, Mr Davy, the new matter.

less pride and more vanity. This Society had its origin in the times of revolution and civil wars of the seventeenth century. A similar state of things is said to have given a fresh impulse to arts and sciences in France. As hail-storms stimulate vegetation, and a new spring generally follows its ravages, thus political tempests appear to awaken the latent powers of the mind, and bring forth talents; but it may well be questioned whether they are equally favourable to the growth of virtues.

The Royal Institution is a very recent establishment-about ten years standing. Its professed object was the application of science to the useful arts. Count Rumford being one of the chief founders of the institution, the practice and application of his economical inventions could not. fail to obtain a due degree of attention. There was a workshop for the construction of that philosopher's saucepans and roasters, and a kitchen on his plan; culinary committees were appointed to pronounce on the merits of experimental puddings; but these novelties are now out of fashion, and have not operated that economical revolution which was expected. Whether from prejudice on the part of the executive body of cooks, or jealousy on the part of housewives, who, in all countries, do not like to see the men usurp their government, the old-fashioned spit and kettle have kept their ground, and the culino-philo

sophical apparatus seems nearly forgotten. The lectures on the sciences are well attended; they are given in a large amphitheatre, lighted by a sky-light, and form, with the library and readingrooms, all that remains of the original plan; for the place of deposit for machines is, I believe, empty. Private interest, whether the object is emolument or glory, will always make a secret of valuable inventions, until the exclusive property is secured to the inventor by a patent,-when the deposit of the models at the Royal Institu tion would become superfluous.-The library is excellent, and the librarian has just published a catalogue, which is not only useful to those who frequent it, but might serve as a model for the formation of a library in the ancient and modern languages. There is a division for books of reference, and those on general reading; the best English and foreign journals; good fires in each room, tables, ink, paper, &c.

The world owes to this institution the illustrious chemist Mr Davy, and that series of mighty discoveries, which has, in the short space of a few years, done the work of an age in the advancement of his science. But for the means placed in Mr Davy's hands, and particularly a powerful Voltaic apparatus of two thousand plates, he probably never would have decomposed the elements of this metallic globe. It may not be improper to state, that Mr Davy was very young,