once took the liberty to ask why this convenient article was not placed out of the room, in some adjoining closet; and was answered, that, in former times, when good fellowship was more strictly enforced than in these degenerate days, it had been found that men of weak heads or stomachs took advantage of the opportunity to make their escape shamefully, before they were quite drunk; and that it was to guard against such an enormity that this nice expedient had been invented. I have seen the article in question regularly provided in houses where there were no men, that is, no master of the house; the mistress, therefore, must be understood to have given the necessary orders to her servants, a supposition rather alarming for the delicacy of an English lady. Yet I find these very people up in arms against some uncleanly practices of the French; for instance, spitting on the floor, the carpet, &c. &c. or spreading in full view a snuff-taking handkerchief, with an innocence of nastiness quite inconceivable. To take a lump of sugar with their fingers, is another offence the French are apt to give, but of a lighter dye. Dr Johnson was once exposed to an abomination of the latter sort during his tour in France, and the astonishment and wrath of the Doctor are faithfully recorded somewhere.

It may be a matter of curiosity in France to

know how the people of London are lodged. Each family occupy a whole house, unless very poor. There are advantages and disadvantages attending this custom. Among the first, the being more independent of the noise, the dirt, the contagious disorders, or the danger of your neighbour's fires, and having a more complete home. On the other hand, a suite of apartments all on one floor, even of a few rooms only, looks much better, and is more convenient. These narrow houses, three or four stories high,one for eating, one for sleeping, a third for company, a fourth under ground for the kitchen, a fifth perhaps at top for the servants,—and the agility, the ease, the quickness with which the individuals of the family run up and down, and perch on the different stories, give the idea of a cage with its sticks and birds. The plan of these houses is very simple, two rooms on each story; one in the front, with two or three windows looking on the street, the other on a yard behind, often very small; the stairs generally taken out of the breadth of the back-room. The ground-floor is usually elevated a few feet above the level of the street, and separated from it by an area, a sort of ditch, a few feet wide, generally from three to eight, and six or eight feet deep, inclosed by an iron railing; the windows of the kitchen are in this area. A bridge of stone or brick

leads to the door of the house. The front of these houses is about twenty or twenty-five feet wide; they certainly have rather a paltry appear

ance, but you cannot pass the threshold without being struck with the look of order and neatness of the interior. Instead of the abominable filth of the common entrance and common stairs of a French house, here you step from the very street on a neat floor-cloth or carpet, the wall painted or papered, a lamp in its glass bell hanging from the ceiling, and every apartment in the same style :-all is neat, compact, and independent, or, as it is best expressed here, snug and comfortable,-a familiar expression, rather vulgar perhaps, from the thing itself being too com

mon.

On the foot pavement before each house is a round hole, fifteen or eighteen inches in diame. ter, covered with an iron grate; through that hole the coal-cellar is filled without endangering the neatness of the house. The streets have all common sewers, which drain the filth of every house. The drains preclude that awkward process by which necessaries are emptied at Paris, poisoning the air of whole streets, during the night, with effluvia, hurtful and sometimes fatal to the inhabitants. Rich houses have what are called water-closets; a cistern in the upper story, filled with water, communicates by a pipe and

cock to a vessel of earthen ware, which it washes. The rent of a house of the class described, which is of the middling or low kind, varies in different parts of the town, from L. 80 to L. 200 sterling, including the taxes, which are from L. 20 to L. 50. The following sketch will give an idea of one of the best houses. This is the first story. Below, on the ground-floor, the front room, 24 feet by 30, is the eating-room; the one 18 by 22 is the servants' hall. This house was bought by the present proprietor for L. 16,000 sterling, but had cost nearly double in building. The rent of houses a little inferior is L. 400 or L. 500 sterling a-year, including taxes; but there are houses the rent of which is L. 1000 a-year. The best houses are occupied by the proprietors them. selves. The establishment of such a house as is described above, is from four to six male ser

Wamm and Bed
Vapour Baths

Laundry &

Terrace Covered
with Lead

22 Feel

Cabinet

Room

vants, and probably as many women;-the wages of the former, L. 40 sterling, dress included; and of the latter, L. 10 to L. 12; and the

whole annual expence, L. 4000 to L. 6000 sterling. Butcher-meat is as follows: Beef and mut. ton, 8d.; veal, 1s. to 1s. 6d. ; butter, Is. 10d.; bread, 3d. the pound; a good cow, L. 18 to L. 20 sterling; a good horse, L. 50 to L. 100 sterling.

March 30.-I had long intended to go to the House of Commons, but wished to get some person used to the place to go with me. I found, however, that few people liked to encounter the trouble and fatigue, and I might almost say, the humiliations to which an admission to the gallery exposes you, whenever the business before the House is at all interesting, therefore I took my determination, and went alone yesterday. The door of the gallery opened at four; a great crowd, accumulated on the stairs two hours before, pressed in at once through a narrow door, where your title of admission is demanded; mine was an order from a member; but I observed that a five shilling piece was the most usual passport, received openly, and more graciously than my legitimate order. I found, on entering, the first and second rows full, I sat on the third, and had two more rows of benches behind me. The house below was thin of members; they were employed in some minor business, dispatched without debate. The room appeared to be