When the Queen reached the Victoria Tower of the Parliament House, a great flourish of trumpets announced her approach to the Legislature. She was conducted up the royal stair-case to her robing room, where she was dressed for the Throne.

In due time she was ushered

into the House of Lords, accompanied by the Duke of Wellington bearing the sword of State, the Marquis of Lansdowne bearing the Crown, and the Marquis of Winchester bearing the Cup of Maintenance. She was conducted to the Throne, and bowed to the Peers. Prince Albert was seated at her left, Lord Wellington at her right. The Speaker then presented Her Majesty the bills passed at the sessions and asked her royal assent. This being granted, the Lord Chancellor approached the Throne, and kneeling in her presence, offered her the speech which she read in a clear, distinct, commanding voice, in the course of which she alluded to the gathering of the nations at the World's Fair and expressed the hope that its influence might be felt in promoting the peace of the nations.

The Queen returned to Buckingham Palace in the same order in which she had proceeded to the Parliament. There were as many people to see her as before. As she passed, I noticed her engaged very earnestly in conversation with the Duchess of Sutherland, who occupied the front seat opposite to her in the carriage.

Victoria is said to be a well educated woman, of good sense and a pure heart. The power of her example is great, and that is always on the side of the masses, and in favor of virtue and good order. She is very popular in England. It is said that when she found, in the order of Providence, she must ascend the throne, and become

Queen of the Empire, she wept like a child; she dreaded the responsibilities of so exalted a station. But she could not avoid it. She ascended the throne with a determination to conduct herself in the fear of God and for the good of her subjects, and hitherto she has been able to fulfil her honorable intentions. She is in her thirty-third year, and is now the mother of seven children.

I have, in the foregoing, described the appearance of the Queen in public. How far such display is agreeable to her, I know not, but have been told she greatly prefers the quiet comfort of domestic and social life with her children and friends. She is said to be a fond and faithful mother, and an excellent neighbor, especially amongst the the poor. As the Sovereign of the empire, however, she must carry out the Court forms and ceremonies. This she can do as well as Elizabeth, or Anne, or Mary before her, ever did. In this case, as I have said, she was induced to appear out of respect to the natural curiosity of the great numbers of people from other nations, who had, by the invitation of herself and her royal consort come to London to visit the Great Exhibition, and see the other wonders of the metropolis, and who might desire to see and be saluted by the Queen before their return home.

21

LETTER XXI.

THE THAMES TUNNEL.

Bridges across the Thames-Proportion of the City below London Bridge Necessity of some Thoroughfare across the River, below the BridgesSir I. Brunel's Project-Operation of the Shield-Foot People alone can pass through the Tunnel-Toll-gatherer's Room-Descent into the Shaft-Objects on the Platforms-Rotunda-Arches of the TunnelFancy and Toy Shops-Gas Lights-Number of Visitors.

LONDON, AUGUST 9, 1851.

To cross a river over the water on a bridge, is a very common thing; and we think little of it, unless it be to notice the skill displayed in the structure, or wonder at its cost as we pass along; but to cross a river under the water's bed, through a hole cut from one shore to the othdeep, navigable waters, at whose bottom huge anchors hold floating ships, or on whose surface they proudly sail, deeply laden with the treasures brought from distant continents-this is a different thing, and altogether more rare, withal.

er

The world has heard of the Thames Tunnel. It is, indeed, regarded as the eighth wonder of the world. For years our newspapers in America have contained accounts of it, and yet our people hardly seem to have a right idea of it. This afternoon I have visited and passed through

that wonderful structure. I was somewhat disappointed in it, and therefore propose, before I conclude this letter, to attempt a brief description of it.

Let it first be remarked that "London Bridge" crosses the river in just about the centre of the city. The wharves and docks, including Greenwich and the East India Docks, extend some half a dozen miles below this bridge, which is the lowest one on the river; and there are eight bridges crossing it within five miles, in the upper part of the city. Two others are projected, within the same space, and will be built in due time. All these thoroughfares are necessary to connect the parts of the city on the opposite sides of the Thames; and they are built so high that steamers without masts, and other vessels with masts made to fall backward as they enter the arches, may pass up and down at pleasure. These bridges are most substantial and costly structures, with paved carriage-ways, marble sidewalks, and hewn granite balusters railed and capped, with occasional recesses for stone seats; and staircases descending to piers, at which steamers and boats receive passengers. These bridges cost about five millions of dollars each. Below, as far as can be seen, the river and docks are filled with sailing vessels, war-ships, and steamers, holding intercourse with all parts of the world. Such a tide of life as is beheld upon the Thames, from any one of the London bridges, is to be seen no where else on all the face of the earth. It is the aquatic part of London, and as well worth seeing as the portions on terra firma.

For more than fifty years, various plans have been projected for gaining some sort of pontal accommodation between the opposite parts of the city below London

The

Bridge, without interfering with, or being impeded by, the countless water-crafts upon the bosom of the river. Ferries were out of the question. So great is the passage of vessels &c., that a ferry boat could seldom get across without great risk and an insufferable delay. At last, Sir Isambert Brunel projected a scheme for a subaqueous passage a tunnel under the bed of the river, about a mile and a half below London Bridge, connecting the two parts of the city known as Wapping on the north side, and Rotherhithe on the south side of the Thames. work was commenced in 1825, by sinking a shaft on the Rotherhithe side, fifty feet in diameter, and eighty feet deep. This was made water-tight all the way, excepting at the bottom, towards the river, where an opening was left, large enough to receive a "shield," or sort of wormexcavator, that would eat a horizontal track as it passed under the bed of the river, of thirty-eight feet wide by twenty-two feet high, allowing the workmen to carry off the dirt as fast as it ate its way into the earth.

It is said that Brunel took his idea of this shield, in the following manner. He was sitting on an old log by the roadside one day, in a "brown study " as to how he could contrive to bore a hole under the river. Beneath him he heard a worm gnawing into the log, and noticed the chips that it discharged from the hole it was cutting. He seized his jacknife, dug out the worm, examined his jaws, and from them learned how to make a similar machine to bore under the Thames with.

The great hole, or tunnel, left behind the shield as it advanced, was lined and protected by two arches in masonry, which kept the earth from filling in, or the water from penetrating. Thus, in eighteen years, during which