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these are finished into fancy and toy shops in the richest manner with polished marble counters, tapestry linings, gilded shelves, and mirrors that make everything appear double. Ladies, in fashionable dresses and with smiling faces, wait within and allow no gentleman to pass without giving him an opportunity to purchase some pretty thing to carry home as a remembrancer of the Thames Tunnel. The Arches are lighted with gas burners, that make it as bright as the sun; and the avenues are always crowded with a moving throng of men, women and children, examining the structure of the Tunnel, or inspecting the fancy wares, toys, &c., displayed by the arch-looking girls of

these arches.

As you stand upon the floor of this subterranean rotunda, and look into and through these illuminated arches, alive with human beings, talking, laughing, wondering and trading, you see across the river to the Rotherhithe side, where the terminus appears greatly diminished, and the men and women seem lilliputian. The Tunnel is laid in beautiful stone masonry, finished with marble entablatures, cornices, &c., and on the whole is the most splendid Arcade or series of toy shops, the world ever saw. It is impossible to pass through without purchasing some curiosity. Most of the articles are labelled-"Bought in the Thames Tunnel "-"a present from the Thames Tunnel." I purchased several of these souvenirs, amongst which was a china kaleidoscope, that affords a good perspective of the Tunnel, worth preserving; also, a shoe made out of the clay taken from the Tunnel whilst being excavated; an ivory hour-glass, emblem of man's transitory life; a gutta percha inkstand, out of which to draw

editorial delineations after I return home, and several other little matters with which to gratify my little friends.

No one goes to London without visiting the Tunnel; and few that visit it go merely for the purpose of crossing the river. The number of visitors annually, since the structure was completed in 1843, has averaged nearly two millions. The cost of the Tunnel was about $2,200,000. During its construction, the river burst through its bed. into it five times, drowning numbers of the workmen. It is now regarded as safe. I went into it two or three times. There is a plan on foot I know not what it is by which carriages can have access; and it is computed that it may thus be opened to the streets for about a million of dollars more. Even this sum, large as it is, added to the original cost of more than two other millions, would make the whole cost but about half the expense of either of the bridges thrown over the river. But they stand for no expense in London; what the city wants done, is done no matter what the cost is. London is the head-quarters of the wealth of the commercial world, and its money power is commensurate to anything that human genius can accomplish. They have ship-docks in the city that required the removal of about three hundred acres of stores and houses, to make room for these inland basins, and if they wish to enlarge a park, other acres of warehouses and palaces must give way to make a breathing place for the people. They build for posterity, we for the present. Herein is some difference a difference that instantly strikes the stranger from America, in England. There a man hardly dares set out a tree, lest somebody who comes after him might eat of its fruit. We are too much for the

present and for ourselves alone. There is a grave political objection, it is true, to the English laws of entail, nevertheless they are founded on a system that looks to the benefit of future generations, and in this point of view the policy is entitled to some consideration, even from Republicans.

LETTER XXII.

SECOND SUNDAY IN LONDON.

Boroughs of London - Southwark - First Independent Church in the World-Twin Sister of the New England Plymouth church-Quiet of London on Sunday-Ride to London Bridge-Chapel on Union StreetThe minister, congregation and services-Interview with Mr. Waddington and his Elders-Brown's School Room-Baxter's Prison-Bishop Bonner's seat of Persecution-Bunhill-fields Burying Ground-Jeremy White, Dr. Owen, Dr. Watts, John Bunyan, Daniel De Foe, or Robinson Crusoe-Inscription on Watts' Tablet-Inscription on Bunyan's grave-Dame Mary Page-Methodist church yard-Graves of Wesley and Clarke-Inscriptions.

SUNDAY EVEning, London, AUGUST 10, 1851.

I spent three Sundays and one Sabbath in London, on each of which, like a true Puritan, I endeavored to improve its sacred hours in the worship of God. The Sundays were improved amongst modern Christians; the Sabbaths amongst the ancient people of God, the Israelites, in the new Synagogue, where the Rothschilds are Rabbis. I must write something in relation to my experiences on each of those days.

In former letters I have given an account of my visits to the Magdalen Asylum, to an Episcopal Church, and to the Ragged School, on my first Sunday in London. If my readers will allow me, I propose in this letter to show how I passsed my next Sunday.

Old London the Roman city-is on the north side of the Thames. Over the walls, on the same side, also

on the south side of the river, the mass of edifices and streets, that now. constitute the modern London, are divided into Boroughs, each with a sort of municipality, but all, I believe, under the Lord Mayor; such as Southwark, Westminster, Finsbury, Lambeth, the Tower Hamlets, Marylebone, &c. In Southwark is the first formed, and therefore the oldest, Independent or Congregational church in London-in England-in the World. It was formed by Brown the Brownist, and afterwards was under the care of the excellent Robinson, who, amidst the persecutions carried on against him by the intolerant Episcopalians, afterwards sought refuge from oppression by flying with his church to Holland. One half of this church ultimately emigrated to America, landing in Plymouth; the other half returned to London, where it yet exists. It is therefore, the twin sister of our Plymouth church, and as such can but be an object of interest to one of its New England descendants visiting the mother country. Before we left home, I noticed in the Christian Register, the Unitarian paper of Boston, an appeal to the sister churches of America by Rev. Mr. Waddington, the pastor, in behalf of this Southwark Church, which proposes to erect a new edifice, or monumental Church, in which may be gathered the various mementos of the rise and early history of church independency; and when in London I desired to visit it, form an acquaintance with its minister and people, and examine its old records. Accordingly I resolved to attend meeting there in the forenoon of my second Sunday in the Metropolis.

From our boarding house, which was on the north side of the river, to Southwark, on the south side, is a distance of some three or four miles; and in passing thither