kindle the fires; I saw the wife "with nine small children and one at the breast," surrounding the stake at which the husband and father was being immolated; -I heard his last benedictions and prayers; I saw the light gleam upon the old church which had been the refuge and prison of the Reformers; - I heard the faggots crackle under the consuming fire; - I beheld the smoke and flames gather around the body of the victim, and, pouring into his face, suffocate and strangle the dying man, whose last words were a prayer for his enemies! and I returned from Smithfield with the prayer upon my heart, that God would make me more faithful than ever to the sacred cause of human rights and religious freedom.

At night I repaired to Swinton Street for my new lodgings. It is a wide, clean, sweet, quiet street, with elegant residences on both sides. There are no stores or shops in it, and the noises of no omnibuses are heard in it. The small birds from the great parks come in flocks upon the macadamized surface of the street, and feast themselves upon the crumbs thrown out from the doors. The forest birds are as plenty here as in any of our rural villages of New England. As I approached my new quarters, I noticed directly in front, on the side-walk, two well-clad boys discoursing most eloquent music — one with a violin, singing a plaintive air, and the other accompanying on a Jew's Harp, a real Harp of David. I do not remember ever to have seen one in America. base rested upon the sidewalk, and its head was as high as the boy's. The strings were long and gave a generous music as he plied them with his well skilled fingers. In shape it was according to the pictures which we see of

Its

David's Harp; it was made of Turkey box-wood, and was a very handsome instrument. Under the sound of this music I have come for the first time into this house, my new London home, and have written the foregoing in my Note Book.

LETTER XXV.

ANOTHER STROLL ABOUT LONDON.

A Beautiful Morning-Inns of Court-Gray's Inn-Splendid Stores in Holborn-Trade in Manuscript Sermons-Old Bailey and Newgate Prisons-Goldsmith's Residence-General Post Office-Exact Regulations -Five Points of Wealth-Bank of England-Royal Exchange.

LONDON, AUGUST 14, 1851.

TAKING the suggestion from my extract of yesterday, I shall write out this evening an account of my stroll to-day about the city. The morning was beautiful-the dense smoke of the immense city had not yet obscured the sun

- the skies were without a cloud—the birds were singing in the parks, and the air that came from those great lungs of a healthy city, was bland and sweet. I started alone from my lodgings for a walk through Gray's Inn Lane, Holborn, Skinner Street, and Newgate, to the General Post Office on St. Martin's-le-Grand, and perhaps, if time should allow, through Cheapside and Poultry Street, to the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England;

the whole making a distance from my starting point of about two miles. My object was to accomplish this stroll, if possible, in season for my afternoon's work in the Crystal Palace at the West End, which is in the opposite direction, about four miles from the last named place. I

must spend part of each day in that Congress of Industry.

Gray's Inn Lane is a very long street, leading out of High Holborn at right angles, northward, and takes its name from one of the Inns of Court, established originally by old Lord Gray. These Inns are not what we call taverns, but the head quarters of the legal Faculty the Inns or Resorts of Court people, lawyers and judges, I who have their conference halls here in which instruction is imparted to the profession, andbarristers-at-law are admitted to practice. They are the seats for learning the domestic history of the realm, and the residence of legal subtilty. There are four principal Inns of Court in London, viz. — The Inner and Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn. I must stop and see this last on my way. The building is of stone. It looks like some ancient College edifice, and contains large halls, offices, library rooms, &c. Attached to it are elegant gardens of several acres. Lincoln's Inn, not far from this, just out of Holborn, has a larger garden, more like a field, hence, who has not heard of "Lincoln's Inn Fields?

?"

These four Inns of Court hold in conference the privilege of electing or rejecting students-at-law, who are proposed to them as barristers, (they are not called lawyers, as in America, but bar-risters, members of the bar.) This is done by the student furnishing a written statement of his age, residence, and condition in life, accompanied by a certificate of his fitness, signed by himself and a bencher, or senior member or reader of the society, or by two barristers in his stead. The student is required to be well educated. In entering either of the Inns of Court, he is required to pay a fee of £100, or $500, and

.

attend the term dinners a prescribed number of times, in order to be farther qualified for the election; and if elected, he is then, as is said, " called to the bar "—as a clergyman is called to the pulpit― the call, perhaps, is sometimes as divine in the former case as in the latter. After admission, he must be studious in his law readings, diligent in his attentions to the proceedings of Court, watch the progress and termination of cases therein, be courteous to his superiors, urgent in his efforts, and forcible in his arguments for his clients. Success and honor then await him.

Gray's Inn was formerly the property of King Henry VIII. The great hall was built in 1560, and the gardens were planted by Lord Bacon in 1600. He was a member of this society, and Treasurer of the same. It can boast of other eminent men, amongst whom may be mentioned Lords Burleigh and Romilly. The Inn is divided into four Courts, South Square, Field Court, Chapel Court, and Gray's Inn Square. The chambers recently built called Vercelum Buildings, are principally occupied by barristers, and students, and solicitors.

Leaving Gray's Inn Lane, and passing into Holburn (pronounced Hoburn) - a very long and rich business thoroughfare, which, in its progress, is known in one part as High Holborn, (where Day & Martin's blacking manufactory is located,) in another simply Holburn, and near its eastern terminus, Holborn Hill, -I could but halt, occasionally, to examine the rich displays at mercers', jewellers', and other gay windows. Indeed, I could not resist the temptation to call at one most splendid establishment, Charles Meeking & Co., 62 Holborn Hill, and make purchase of some Irish Poplins, Damask Silk, Wool Plaids,