&c., &c. The number of clerks, porters, engravers and printers employed within this building, is one thousand, whose salaries (for life) average each $1125 annually. Those past work, are pensioned well. This makes every person employed independent, and puts him beyond all necessary temptations.

The principal business of the Bank of England is paying the annual interest of the National Debt, which is $3,500,000,000. The Government has no control over it, except to renew its charter occasionally. It is the only bank in Great Britain that is allowed to issue paper money, and itself can issue no bills less than £5. Of these there are eighteen or nineteen millions of pounds issued annually. The notes of no two denominations are alike, and no note is issued a second time. When once it comes back to the Bank, it is filed away and registered. The whole capital of the Bank is £14,553,000, and besides the notes already named, it advances money to the Government in the shape of Exchequer Bills to an immense amount. It is the Money King of the Earth, high in its power over all mere Thrones.

London is the centre of the wealth of the commercial world, and that wealth is displayed all over the city. Its magnificence corresponds with its magnitude. A visitor from a Yankee city in America feels as if he never was in a city before, and he is lost in the vastness of London and its unparalleled splendors.

The locale of the New Royal Exchange building has been given. This is one of the most elegant structures in the world, and is an honor and an ornament even to London. It is built on the site of the old one, which was opened in royal style by Queen Elizabeth in 1569. This was opened

in the same style by Queen Victoria in October, 1844. The edifice is 308 feet in length, and has two fronts, the western being 119 feet wide and the eastern, 175 feet. It has a quadrangle in the centre, like the cortili of the Italian palaces, open to the sky, 112 feet long by 53 feet wide. This is paved with Turkey stones taken from the old Exchange, laid in patterns, with bands of red granite. On the four interior sides are Doric columns and rusticated arches and windows, surmounted by a highly ornamented pierced parapet. In the centre of the cortili is a pedestal of marble, in which is a full statue of England's beloved Queen, with the crown upon her fair brow. This is the best likeness of Victoria that I saw any where in England.

At the eastern end is a tower one hundred seventyseven feet high, surmounted by a copper gilded grasshopper eleven feet long, taken from the old Exchange. In this tower is a peal of fifteen bells for the chimes. The western end is the most elegant. It looks out upon a large open space formed by the junction of five streets. This front consists of a portico of eight Corinthian columns, forty-one feet long, supporting the pediment, which to its apex, is seventy-four feet from the ground. The tympanum of the pediment is adorned with sculpture in bold relief, consisting of a great number of figures allegorically representing Commerce, in its various branches, transacting the business of the earth. Over all this is the appropriate inscription in English, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof," and on the horizontal line of the frieze of the portico beneath, is the following in Latin: "Anno xiii. Elizabethæ R. Conditvm. Anno viii. Victoria R. Restavratvm." Some distance in advance of the west end, is a bronze equestrian statue of the Duke

of Wellington, mounted on his horse, upon a tall marble pedestal. This statue was cast by Chantrey from the cannon taken by the Duke in his battles with Napoleon. The value of the metal was $7,500, and the cost of getting it into this shape was $45,000 more; making the cost of the whole statue $52,500.

The foundation of the Exchange building was laid by Prince Albert, June 17, 1842. It was opened by his wife nay, his sovereign-in October, 1844. The cost of the building was $750,000. It is the great resort of the merchant princes of London. The main floor consists of four grand apartments, the principal one of which is occupied by the Underwriter's Establishment of the celebrated Lloyd. Assurance and other offices are about the edifice, besides Library, Reading, Statuary, and Picture Rooms. As I have said, it is an honor and an ornament to the British Metropolis.

LETTER XXVI.

REGENT'S PARK.

Location of Regent's Park-Established by George IV.-Villas and Terraces-Interview with a Policeman-Royal Botanic Gardens-Conservatory-Lily House, Victoria Regia-Astronomical Observatory-LakeZoological Gardens-From Regent's Park to Drury Lane.

LONDON, AUGUST 15, 1851.

REGENT'S PARK is on the north-west side of London, and embraces 450 acres. It was laid out in 1812 under direction of the Prince Regent, afterwards King George IV. Unlike most of the other parks in London, portions of the land have been let off for villas and terraces, which add very much to the interest and beauty of a walk, ride, or drive through the extensive grounds. The handsome villa of the Marquis of Hertford on the north-west side, also the terrace and gardens of Baron Goldsmid, near the inner circle, and the mansion and observatory of Mr. Bishop adjacent to the Botanic Gardens, are very conspicuous ornaments. There is a road for carriages amongst the trees on the border of the Park, and a lake of irregular shape, crossed by several most elegant bridges, in the south-eastern portion of the grounds, near which are the Botanic Gardens, the best, probably, in Europe. The Zoological Gardens are in the northern

part of the Park. The first contains eighteen acres in a circle, and on it is a glass Conservatory or Winter House that will accommodate two thousand visitors.

My first demonstration was for this garden. Passing amongst the lawns, and under the shade trees of the park, I in time reached the circular iron fence of the garden, fortified inside all the way by a beautifully trimmed hedge of hawthorns. I knew not where the entrance was, but following the wide carriage road that encircles the garden outside, soon met a Police officer, who invited me to be seated with him on one of the beautiful benches under the shade of a spreading beech- the beech trees are larger and more ornamental than ours in America. I willingly improved the opportunity to get what information I could out of him. He explained to me all matters of interest to be found in the Park, and offered to conduct me to the lodge of the garden and introduce me to the porter. With regard to himself, he told me that his duties as Police-man required all his time, and each member of the corps receives daily pay, which is not small. Noticing the silver letter "R" on his upright collar, I inquired like a true Yankee, who is sure to ask questions, what that signified? He replied that the Police force of the city was divided into companies of about five hundred each, and that the several companies were distinguished by a letter of the alphabet. He belonged to company "R." He believed that the whole force exhausted every letter of the alphabet, in which case it was easy to reckon the number of Policemen employed constantly to keep the order of the city, and to wait upon strangers, as consisting of thirteen thousand-quite an army! But it is a civil, not a military one.