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LONDON-ROUTS-THE CITY.

place is frequently stripped from top to bottom; beds, drawers, and all but ornamental furniture is carried out of sight, to make room for a crowd of welldressed people, received at the door of the principal apartment by the mistress of the house standing, who smiles at every new comer with a look of acquaintance. Nobody sits; there is no conversation, no cards, no music; only elbowing, turning, and winding from room to room; then, at the end of a quarter of an hour, escaping to the hall door to wait for the carriage, spending more time upon the threshold among footmen than you had done above stairs with their masters. From this rout you drive to another, where, after waiting your turn to arrive at the door, perhaps half an hour, the street being full of carriages, you alight, begin the same round, and end it in the same manner. The pub

lic knows there is a party in a house by two signs; first, an immense crowd of carriages before the house,–then every curtain, and every shutter of every window wide open, shewing apartments all in a blaze of light, with heads innumerable, black and white (powdered or not), in continual motion. This custom is so general, that having, a few days ago, five or six persons in the evening with us, we observed our servant had left the windows thus exposed, thinking, no doubt, that this was a rout after our fashion.

Such may be, it will be said, the life of the rich, the well-born, and the idle, but it cannot be that of many of the people; of the commercial part, for instance, of this emporium of the trade of the universe. The trade of London is carried on in the east part of the town, called, par excellence, the City. The west is inhabited by people of fashion, or those who wish to appear such; and the line of demarcation, north and south, runs

LONDON-GENTILITY-THE CITY.

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through Soho Square. Every minute of longitude east is equal to as many degrees of gentility minus, or towards west, plus. This meridan line north and south, like that indicated by the compass, inclines west towards the north, and east towards the south, two or three points, in such a manner, as to place a certain part of Westminster on the side of fashion; the Parliament House, Downing Street, and the Treasury, are necessarily genteel. To have a right to emigrate from east to west, it is requisite to have at least L. 3000 sterling a-year; should you have less, or at least spend less, you might find yourself slighted; and L. 6000 a year would be safer. Many, indeed, have a much narrower incoine, who were born there; but city emigrants have not the same privileges. The legitimate people of fashion affect poverty, even, to distinguish themselves from the rich intruders. It is citizen like to be at ease about money, and to pay readily on demand.

I have not had the same opportunities of observation in the city. Having been there, however, often, early in the morning, I found the appearance of every thing very different. Instead of the universal silence and profound repose of the west, as late as the middle of the day, all is motion and activity in the city, as early as ten o'clock in the morning. The crowd, the carriages, and the mud increase rapidly as you advance from west to east, during the forenoon; and an hour of steady walking will take you from one extreme to the other, that is, from Portman Square to Cornhill. The carriages you meet in 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

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LONDON-DOCKS THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

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 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 opportu nity 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 de

LONDON THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

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vote 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, but often half an hour or three quarters of an hour later, and separates precisely at nine. If I was 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 what had been done at the preceding sitting. 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;

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LONDON-THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

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 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 vir

tues.

The Royal Institution is a very recent establishment-about ten years. Its object is the advancement of knowledge in general, particularly the sciences. 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 oldfashioned spit and kettle have kept their ground, and the culino-philosophical apparatus seems near

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