et. The business consists of two kinds, genuine and speculative, and is for money or for time. The members are of two classes, brokers and jobbers. The members of the Stock Exchange are subjected to a more severe system of internal discipline and police than any carried out elsewhere by the government, though they act in defiance of the government and the city. The committee chosen by the members has great power in questions of discipline. As no member is allowed to be a partner in other trading pursuits, losses to the members of the Stock Exchange from each other are neither many nor heavy. Their losses are from without. A fund for decayed members is liberally supported, and they are munificent contributors to public charities. The brokers are not expected to carry on business on their own account, and they act for the public. There are very few of them licensed brokers, and, contrary to the law of brokers, they do not declare their principals. They therefore become liable for the speculations and defalcations of principals on the Stock Exchange. The jobbers are capitalists, who buy and sell. A jobber in consols keeps on hand a stock of consols, and is always ready to buy and sell for the turn of the market, which is a commission or difference allowed to him. Parties finding their sales are charged lower than the top price often think they have been cheated, whereas the top price is the jobbers' selling price. This turn on consols is only an eighth per cent., but on shares in little demand, or of doubtful value, it is very much higher. The quotation of consols 96 and 3, expresses the buying and selling price of the jobber. The jobber buys and sells in any required quantity, thereby saving time and trouble to the broker and customer. Besides transactions for money, under the plea of time being required for the transfer and delivery of stock and shares, certain times are named called "account days" for settling the transactions. For shares these days are twice a month. The gamblers take advantage of this arrangement to speculate for the "account," making bargains and sales without delivery of stock or payment of cash, until the account day, when the "differences" are settled in money, or continued till the next account. Those attempting to run up prices are called "bulls," and those running them down, "bears." Money is lent by capitalists to members of the Stock Exchange on securities until the "account day," when the loan is stopped or continued, the securities altered, and the interest readjusted. The foreign market is chiefly engaged in speculative transactions in the dubious, Spanish, and other stocks, but London is the pay place for Portuguese, Brazilian, Chilian, Mexican, Danish, Greek, and other stocks, which are largely held. In 1845, railway shares gave rise to a large business in the Hall of Commerce and the Auction Mart, principally carried on by "outsiders," or persons of bad character, named "stags." Numbers of young men become members of the Stock Exchange, without any legitimate object, and by continued speculation dissipate their fortunes in a few years, as the brokers' and jobbers' commission must in the long run eat up the whole. The names of defaulters on the settling days are chalked on a black board, and this is the ceremony of exclusion. Differences between members are arbitrated by the committee, and litigation is thus avoided. The committee likewise assist in winding up the estates of defaulters. No strangers are permitted to enter the Stock Exchange, and those who attempt it seldom

get out without injury. Lists are daily published of the prices of stocks and shares, and, twice a week, of bullion and the foreign exchanges.

LLOYD'S ROOMS, over the Royal Exchange, is the great center for all relating to shipping. One room is devoted to underwriters, that is, to those who assure shipping, and another to merchants. Many of the subscribers are merchants and shipbrokers, others go merely to read the papers. The captains' room is for the use of masters of merchantmen; here is kept Lloyd's Register of shipping, and the books containing the daily accounts of the movements and casualties of shipping. The committee give rewards to English and foreigners, who render services to ships in distress; and in the war time, they raised a Patriotic Fund for the reward and relief of the officers and men, who distinguished themselves on behalf of the mercantile and national interests.

The BRITISH MUSEUM is a national collection of antiquities, specimens in minerals and natural history, books, prints, &c., which had its origin in 1753, in a direction left by Sir Hans Sloan, in his will, that his museum, which had cost him £50,000, should be offered to the nation for £20,000, on condition that Parliament purchased a house sufficiently commodious for it. The proposal was accepted, and the Harleian MSS., and the Cottonian and other collections of books were soon added. From this period to the present time, the collections have been increasing by the munificence of individuals and Parliamentary grants. Immense additions have also been made to it under the provisions of the copy-right act, by which every publisher is compelled, under a heavy penalty, to deliver to the British Museum, a copy of every new book, pamphlet, and newspaper. The library contains about half a million of volumes, and 40,000 manuscripts, and is visited by about 70,000 readers during each year.

and Herculaneum, and is of the most extensive and valuable in Europe. The Nineveh Gallery contains the highly interesting remains discovered by Mr. Layard in a vast building upon a mound, at Nimroud, on the left bank of the Tigris, twenty-five miles south of Mosool, supposed to be the site of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire. There appears to be no question but that these remains are of a date before the time of Sennacherib, who reigned about 2,560, and during the reign of Hezekiah invaded Jerusalem. One of these figures in the collection is in the form of a colossal winged, human-headed lion from the portal of the door of a chamber, of the north-west palace, "The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings," Daniel vii. 4. This colossal image was transported from Nimroud to London at a great expense, and is believed to be one of the identical figures described by the ancient prophet. It is carved in the first style of Assyrian workmanship.

Assyrian King.

The sculptures in the Elgin Saloon, were taken, in 1804, from temples in Athens, by the Earl of Elgin, ambassador to Turkey, and purchased by the British Parliament for £35,000. They comprise the chief sculptured ornament from the Parthenon, built in the time of Pericles, 450 years B. C. The monuments in the Egyptian Saloon were chiefly brought from Thebes and Memphis, and show sculptures more than a thousand years before the Christian era, and as early as the time of the Judges of Israel. There is also a great variety of fossil remains, minerals, &c.

The BANK OF ENGLAND is situated in the heart of the city; it is a low but extensive pile covering about eight acres. The architecture is rich, but rather remarkable; there being, with the exception of one small portion over the south entrance, no windows on the exterior. It has an air of solidity, becoming the place of

deposit of the wealth of a great nation, which generally includes £18,000,000 of gold coin or bullion. Here the payment of the interest of government securities is made at stated periods of the year. This bank, the largest in the world, was founded in 1694. Banking after the expulsion of the Jews and the decline of the Lombards, was carried on in London by the goldsmiths as a part of their business during the seventeenth century. Its chief seat has been for hundreds of years in Lombard-street, and the settlement of the great money lenders is further commemorated by the arms of Lombardy, their country, being still the ensigns of the pawnbrokers, in the form of three golden balls.

The issue of paper money in London is now restricted to the Bank of England, though formerly goldsmiths' notes circulated. The ordinary banking business of taking care of money, and lending it out, is carried on by the Bank of England, the private bankers, and the joint-stock companies. It may be said that the great end of London banking is to economize coin by using it as little as possible.

Mr. Gilbart states, that the first "run" in the history of banking in England occurred in 1667, twenty-seven years before the establishment of the Bank of England. The Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, had taken Sheerness, and had sent his vice-admiral, Van Ghent, up the Medway to destroy Chatham. The greatest alarm prevailed in London; and we learn from Pepy's Diary," that confusion and imbecility prevailed in the councils of the government. The citizens ran to their goldsmiths or bankers to withdraw their money. Various efforts were made to restore confidence. There was another extraordinary "run" in 1745, on the Bank of England, when the army of the Pretender was rapidly marching on the metropolis. A public meeting was held, and upwards of a thousand merchants signed a declaration expressing their readiness to take bank-notes. At that critical period the bank paid cash in silver, instead of gold, to gain time. A still more remarkable "run," from the consequences which it produced, was in 1797. Fears of foreign invasion prevailed, the government required money, and public confidence was shaken. On Saturday, the 25th of February, 1797, there was only £1,270,000 in coin and bullion remaining in the coffers of the bank. On Monday an order in council was distributed among the crowd assembled at the bank to demand gold, intimating that government had exempted the bank from payments in cash. It was then that notes for so small a sum as one pound were authorized to be issued. The restriction of cash payments continued during the long and expensive war.

The bank made an effort to return to cash payments from 1817 to 1819: but it was not till the first of May, 1821, that payments in specie legally and permanently commenced. Since that time, except for a short period at the end of 1825, Bank of England notes under five pounds have been withdrawn from circulation, and ultimately all bank notes under five pounds were prohibited throughout England. Many of our readers will remember what is termed the "panic" of 1825. The "run on the Bank of England was the greatest that had taken place since 1797. In April or May, 1825, the bank had about ten millions of bullion, and by November it was reduced to one million three hundred thousand pounds. During the "run," gold was handed over when called for, in bags of twenty-five sovereigns each. But at that critical time, says a bank director, "bullion came in, and the mint coined; they worked double tides-in short, they were at work night and day: we were perpetually receiving gold from abroad, and coin from the mint."

One of the chief attractions and proudest boasts of this capital is its splendid parks. The three parks of earliest formation

namely, Hyde-park, St. James's-park, and the Green-park-which date from the time of Henry VIII, and owe their origin to the confiscations of church property then made.

Hyde Park is situated at the western extremity of the metropolis, between the roads leading to Kensington and Uxbridge the former a continuation of Piccadilly, the latter of Oxford street. This park derives its name from the ancient manor of Hida, which belonged to the monastery of St. Peter, at Westminster, till in the reign of Henry VIII it became the property of the crown. It originally contained about 620 acres; but, by inclosing and taking part of it into Kinsington Gardens, and by other grants of land for building on, between Park lane and Hyde Park corner, it has been reduced to three hundred and ninety-four acres. At the south-east corner of the park is Aspley House, the mansion of the Duke of Wellington, and beside it is a handsome Ionic screen or gateway directly opposite which, on the north, is a statue of Achilles, by Westmacott, erected, in 1822, "by the ladies of England to the Duke of Wellington and his brave companions in arms." The sheet of water termed the Serpentine River was formed by Queen Caroline, in 1730, by enlarging the bed of the stream which runs through Bayswater into Kensington Gardens. A handsome stone bridge crosses this water, skirting Kensington Gardens. It is much frequented-in summer for bathing, and in winter for skating, but is dangerous in parts. On the north side are two powder magazines, and a station-house belonging to the Royal Humane Society, for the recovery of persons supposed to be drowned. On the south side are the barracks of the Horse Guards. Every afternoon during the season this park is crowded with fashionable company, in splendid equipages or on horseback; Kinsington Gardens being, during the same hours, crowded with pedestrians, a military band playing for certain hours on appointed days of the week.

St. James's Prk, which, it will be seen, is situated at a very low level, was nothing better than a morass till the time of Henry VIII, who, having built St. James's Palace, had it inclosed and laid out in walks, collecting the waters into a reservoir or pond. It was afterwards much improved by Charles II, who employed Le Notre to add several fields, to plant rows of limes, and to lay out the Mall, which is half a mile in length, and was so eailed from the game played with a bail, ca.led "a mall." The park was much improved under George IV and William IV, the water being laid out in an ornamental manner, stocked with rare aquatic birds, and the ground planted with valuable shrubs and flowers. In the Birdcage-walk, which is on the south side of the park, exteuding from Storey's gate to Buckingham Palace, are situated the Wellington Barracks for the Foot Guards.

The Green Park is also part of the ground inclosed by Henry VIII, a ground sloping upwards from the St. James's Park to Piccadilly. It was much neglected for many years, but has lately been intersected with walks, which are a great convenience for foot passengers wishing to make a short and agreeable cut from Hyde-park Corner to Pall Mall and Charing-cross.

Regent's Park is a spacious inclosure, on the north side of the motropolis, at the top of Portlandplace, and between it and Hampstead. It is nearly of a circular form, and comprises about four hundred and fifty acres. It was laid out as a park in 1812, and already the trees and shrubberies have a luxuriant appearance. The ornamental water is superior to that of St. James's; and the terraces which Burround the park are built in a style of decorative architecture which adds much to the general beauty of the spot.

Victoria Park, Bethnal-green, comprises about two hundred acres, purchased and laid out under an act of Parliament obtained about ten years ago.

The NATIONAL GALLERY, Trafalgar Square, originated in 1823, in the purchase by government, of Angerstein's collection of pictures for £50,000. Since this period it has been enriched by private gifts, and purchases made by authority of Parliament, one of which was the purchase of two Corregios from the Marquis of Londonderry, for £10,000. The collection contains some of the paintings by the ancient masters, Reubens, Vandyke, Guido, Poussin, Claude, Carracci, with those of Sir Thomas Lawrence, and many others. The collection, which occupied a number of rooms, as a whole, hardly met our expectations. In many of the paintings there is too much indistinctness of outline, many of the figures are too indistinct, or thrown too much into the shade; some were too highly colored, and in many a tawdry color, composed of a red and yellow hue, too much prevailed.

There were two or three allegorical compositions, one of which was by Reubens. These, with most of the attempts of the kind I have yet seen are quite deficient of leaving on the mind any definite or distinct idea of what the painter would represent. Even when these old painters