DURING A VOYAGE AND VISIT TO LONDON AND THE GREAT EXHIBITION, IN THE SUMMER OF 1851. BY WILLIAM A. DREW, COMMISSIONER OF THE STATE OF MAINE. August and glorious city! Thy renown AUGUSTA: HOMAN & MANLEY, BOSTON: ABEL TOMPKINS. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1852, BY HOMAN & MANLEY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Maine. BAZIN AND CHANDLER, PRINTERS, PREFACE. In the original preparation of the following Letters, the writer had no design of making a book of them; consequently, they may not have that relation to each other, which would be expected of consecutive chapters. They were written off-hand, during the author's Voyage and Visit to England, as editorial communications to his paper, THE GosPEL BANNER, for the weekly gratification of his numerous readers and friends. As each new one was prepared, the contents of the last despatch were not always well remembered; and this circumstance will account for some repetitions which may, perhaps, appear in the work. They are revised and published, with the addition of a large share of new matter, in compliance, it is believed, with an extensive call for them in the shape of a book. Another thing:- Though the author went out as a Commissioner of the State to "the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations" in London, his communications home were made, not so much in his official, as in his professional character not as formal Reports to the Government, but as familiar epistles to his patrons. This will account for the free and unstudied style of the composition, and also for the fact, that the more systematic and labored results of his mission, bearing upon the Industrial Interests of the State, have but an incidental place in the present volume. His commission, though it was not intended to accredit him officially to the British Government, gave him access to some desirable sources of information and pleasure, which he could not otherwise have commanded. At the rooms, in the Adelphi, of the Royal Commissioners, who conducted the Exhibition, and of which Board Prince Albert was Chairman, he enjoyed more or less intercourse with those and other intelligent gentlemen from different nations; and it was from them, and the facilities furnished at those rooms, that he was able to collect not a few of the facts which the readers now have in the pages before them. Prince Albert was the projector and chief patron of that World's Congress of Industry and of Peace, and to his patriotic love for the Brotherhood of Man, will the Nations of our common earth always be indebted for all the influences it may exercise upon the Arts, Commerce, and Peace of the World. The author would do injustice to himself and to others, if he did not take, as he gladly does, this opportunity to tender his very sincere thanks to those kind friends, who contributed so materially to the means by which he was enabled to perform his distant journey, and accomplish the objects of his mission. Upon them, upon all his patrons, and upon the reader now, he invokes, for time and eternity, the best blessings of Almighty God. AUGUSTA, Me., May 1, 1851. W. A. D. CONTENTS. A super-directing Providence-Passage to Boston-Necessity of chang- ing the Route-Ride to Vermont-Notes by the Way-Description of Montreal-Situation and size of the city-Railway ride amongst the Green Mountains-Embarkation on Lake Champlain-Delightful Scenery-Richilieu River-St. John's-First sight of the St. Law- |