up-turned, open-mouthed faces, horribly ludicrous. But I observed something more; which was, that the attendant who pointed out the beauties of the place, from habit or indifference, or both, instead of looking up also, was staring in my face, and gaping wide with weariness. The full-bottomed wig of the Second Charles, was no treat to him; his only aim was to hurry us along with all possible dispatch, pocket the fees, and collect a fresh set of starers. I pitied his wearisome routine, and it struck me I had seen something like this man's behaviour somewhere before, and often: but I leave the inference to be drawn at your discretion. I would fain avoid impertinent remarks; thus much however I will add, that I know of no expression more shameless and disgusting than a certain cant saying, "You must do as we say, and not as we do."-"Go to, go to, out upon it."

As L concluded, we entered an immense apartment, down which men in white hair curled in regular rows, and wearing long black garments were stalking, some singly, some two and three together: some were mingled in groups with others, in the common garb worn by the better sort, engaged in earnest conversation: other groups in mean attire were wanting in these singular person

ages, on whom I could see many of the former casting looks of reverence, as they walked hastily past, as if paying homage to superior beings. "What," said I, "is the meaning of this; who are these gaunt spectres, who glide pale and haggard, as if worn with cares not their own?"-"They are," said L-, "our Lawyers; the other persons here are their inferior brethren, the middle men between them and the litigating parties, (we are vastly fond of middle men on all occasions) and witnesses on both sides, who are to give evidence of the truth as well as they can, or will. The courts are now sitting to decide disputes between man and man, but it would be useless to introduce you there; you would no more catch the meaning, or gain an idea of the proceedings, from the jargon to inexperience unintelligible, than I could seize the innate ideas of a flight of daws, wheeling their airy circle. The prodigious labour of these courts of Law flows as a necessary consequent from the vast discrepancy in enjoyments and possessions, before pointed out. The Text, and Commentaries on the Text, of the English Laws on "Real Property," or surface of earth, and the incidents thereon founded, are become so numerous and intricate, that human life is scarce long enough for the attainment of them pro

perly; the metaphysical subtleties, niceties, and penumbras of decision and interpretation, adduced in their exposition, are so profoundly obscure, that my head aches with the very thought of them. Yours would split at once, on the sudden introduction of a good "property point," as the gentlemen in long robes would call it. So we will depart with the remark, that the best and wisest among the professors of our laws, (and many such there are, men, ornaments to human nature,) are compelled to own their lengthy modes of procedure to be unjust and ridiculous; tending to chicane, to all that civil polity in native purity abominates: and that like almost every thing else in the system of civilization, they need immediate revision and simplifying.

Now let us bend our steps to another side of the town.

LETTER XVI.

AFTER walking some miles, we arrived at a covered walk within a building, where the hum from the groups assembled, with hats passed almost under each others' brims from the eagerness with which topics were discussing, proclaimed some fresh stimulus was at

work.

"There they are, sly and dry," said L——, “these are the sons of Commerce, merchants of England and other countries, who have been said to constitute in their own proper persons the sources of real wealth and national prosperity. But if so, why does England, the acknowledged Emporium of Commerce, the very focus of public credit external and internal, exhibit such exquisite misery? Politics have been rightly termed, 'the madness of many for the gain of few;' commerce in any nation who needs it not, exportation of necessaries and importation of luxuries, which generally constitute its main features, is the madness of all. If a country cannot grow necessaries enough to keep pace with consumption, it must import from other

regions and if neighbouring states do not grow enough of necessary articles, the former exports to them if she possesses a superabundance; but this mutual intercourse should be founded on the exchange of absolute necessaries, not luxuries. And how few spots are there inhabited by man, which would not, with fair division and culture, yield an adequate support to its tenantry? Is it meant to be contended that Great Britain would not? Medical drugs may be well imported, though it is not quite clear that she does not produce a 'Materia Medica' sufficient to arrest disease, reduced to the narrow aggregate to which a return to Nature would reduce it. Those who have not considered the subject, would scarce credit how few square yards of ground will maintain a man, and his family during the age of nurture, in the full and pure enjoyment which Nature designed for him: but while the aristocratic possessions of one contain as much extent of soil as would suffice to hold thousands in contentment of mind, and satiety of wholesome nutriment, so long will what are called the 'blessings of commerce,' or dealing in the interchange of luxuries, useless and pernicious, with the intervention of the circulating medium to adjust the difference of value, be resorted to as a cure, and resort