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LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 1841.

ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITU-
TION, REGENT-STREET.
FIRST EXHIBITION of, and LECTURE ON, BAIN'S
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC PRINTING TELEGRAPH, by
means of which a Banker in London can write a Letter in the
Office of a Correspondent in Edinburgh ; the Letter, with its
answer, can be conveyed the 800 .miles in a very few minutes.
SIXTY PATENTED ELECTRIC CLOCKS, by BAR-
WISE and BAIN • MOINAU'S PATENTED CLOCKS;
CARY'S ORRERY, and the NEW DISSOLVING VIEWS,
to which a magnificent Fire Scene has been added.
PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS, nearly Two Thou-
sand Works which display eminent art, science, and ingenuity.
The Microscope, Diver and Diving Bell, Popular Lectures,
and beautiful Experiments.
CANTON, and other beautiful COSMORAMIC VIEWS,
are added to the Evening Exhibition.'
Opens at Half-past Ten o'clock in the Morning, and seven
o'clock in the Evening.
Admission, One Shilling.

OFFICE of the GOVERNOR and COM-
PANY of COPPER MINERS in ENGLAND, OLD
BROAD-STREET, London, August 4, 1841.—The COURT
of ASSISTANTS of the Governor and Company of Coprr
Miners in England HEREBY GIVE NOTICE, that they
have,this day made a CALL of TEN POUNDS per SHARE
on those Shares the holders of which have not already availed
themselves of the eption. of paying up their instalments : such
Call to be paid on or before the 15th day of October next, at
the Banking-house of Messrs. Glyn, Hallifax, Dull., and. Co..
Lombard-street.; or at the Offices of the Company, Old
Broad-street.

THE DWELLINGS OF THE POOR

IN LONDON.

If it were required to draw a strong picture of man
norally and socially degraded by misery, the savage
Aires of distant zones would in all probability be se-
ected to sit for- it. Yet such darkly-shaded originals,
:itch painful realities, need not be sought in remote,
ands. Let the street beggar or the London thief ht. fol.-
' lowed to his home (if he have one), and mankind will be
:een existing in degradation as great, endurin.: roisery as
sharp, as the South Sea Islanders or the South Africans
in their Ns:6l-st aspect. Amongst them poverty, vice, ig-
norance, have no contrast to heighten their effects; but
here—in England, in London, perhaps at our own back-
doors—wretchedness the most acute, infamy the most
;hocking, exist upon the same square acre with a high
.rondition of luxurf and wealth ; and despite this near
neighbourhood, it may be safely conjectured that the
British public know more of the social miseries of the sa-
vage nations than they do of their own poor.
It is a fact that in St. GileA's, in the back streets of
Drury-lane, around Westminster Abbey, in the parishes
of Bethnal-green,,Shoreditch, nearly all along the Surrey
shores of the river, and in the similar neighbourhoods
of great towns, a state of social civilization exists, as
low in degree as it is found in the far-off regions of
Africa ! This is no rhetorical flourish—we have seen
it. Beggars, street jobbers, and the poorer classes
otherwise employed, either hire a room by the week, or
seek shelter in a nightly lodging-house. 'We visited last
week, Charles, King, and Parker-streets, Drury-lane ;
many of the houses are without fore doors ; sonic of-the
rooms arc in the last stage of dilapidation, and exhibit
fewer conveniences than the basket-work cone of a
Bechuana, or the wig-warn of a Red Indian. The stairs
are in a few cases broken away ; the out-offices—
where there are any—are rendered useless from ac-
cumulated filth, and the sewerage is frequently stopped
up. Some of the rooms have no grates, and large holes
let in cold from without. The best of the habi-
tations manifest in some part or other traces of ruin—all
afford but imperfect shelter, and no convenience, there
not being any fixtures, such as stoves and cupboards, but
those belonging to' the tenants ; the accumulation of
dirt, refuse, &c., exhales effluvia scarcely tolerable on
entering the passages ; it is quite unendurable to a
visitor, especially after a shower of rain, and can only be
borne by the inhabitant from long habitude. These
wretched abodes are either let in separate lodgings by
their immediate landlords, or are rented by persons who
sublet them; a speculation which seldom fails to be a
most profitable one ; for what does the reader suppose
each of these dens produces per annum ? It may startle
him to hear, from thirty-five to fifty pounds ! Thus :
for the two cellars, 3s. per week are charged ; the par-
lours fetch 4s. per week ; the first floor, 4s. 6d.; the
second, 45.; the attics, 3s. The Secretary of the London
City Mission has calculated the rental of Charles-street,
Drury.lane, and finds it to exceed 2,0001. per annum.
To show still further how profitable the subletting sys-
tem is, and at the same time the horrible encouragement
and temptation to crime it creates, it is only necessary to
state the manner in which it is carried on. 'We will take
the example of a blind man who has now become the
sole proprietor of some houses near Drury-lane.' Some
of the houses he originally rented of a superior landlord,
and to make a profit he proceeded thus :—A single man
or woman would apply for lodgings; he would ask what
they could pay; if the answer were " Two shillings a
week," he would say, " You can have a lodging for one
and sixpence a week, furniture and all, if you do not
mind a couple of companions—the bed is very large."
The bargain is struck; and thus the old man would get.
three lodgers at eighteen pence a week each for a room
that probably stood him in less than a shilling. By this
means he gradually accumulated money enough to pur-
chase the five houses he now owns, and will doubtless
die rich ; but, by what means ? Let us see: the ap-
plicant for lodgings is possibly a young man who has
some situation of from ten to fifteen shillings per week,
without friends to provide any other home than such as
his narrow income drives him to seek in a poor neigh
bourhood. He is honest and well disposed; it is more
than likely, however, that one, perhaps both his bed-
fellows, seem to him gay, pleasant persons, who live he
does not know how, but, at all events, are seldom in
want of cash. They take him to a " free-and-easy" now
and then, introduce him to a female companion or two,
whom he takes to the tea gardens on a Sunday. Being
up late at night, he rises late of a morning and neglects
his employer, who, of course, discharges him. His rent
soon gets into arrear, and the landlord is troublesome ;
but his companions pat him on the back when he des-
ponds, and ask him if he have " pluck" enough to do as
they do. What is that ? The question is not long in
being answered.
Look for the hitherto well-disposed young man, who
was till lately earning an honest living, and you will find
him busy in some crowd seeking pocket handkerchiefs
and other stray articles. He makes more money at this
kind of industry (for a thief's is by no means an idle
life) than he did in his former pursuits, till he gets kn)wn
to the police, which generally proves the " beginning
of the end ;" for after this stage of his career the step is
but short to the hulks. This picture does not apply to
kasnonlay. lodgingsA tambourin youngti i
worker,e g i r
samel,
wperhaps a
aay. Tb
The
bookbinder's i
cl
ba eo
irc's
landlord
jstoltliietrernimieea3r-I,tevsoee
sexm
advises economy, and says how much better it would be
for her to save sixpence a week by joining " the respect-
able young girl that lives in the two pair back ;" who
is in fact a prostitute, and so will her new companion
be in a very short time.
These are no fancy sketches ; we can put our finger
on the originals any morning in the week, from six
o'clock till twelve. We have insensibly passed from
the houses to their inmates : let us proceed. It will
mostly be found that the basement of these houses, the
kitchen or cellars, are preferred by thieves, for the con-
venient
nooks and crannies they afford for hiding stolen
property. The parlours are often occupied by a labour-
ing man, wife, and family. A journeyman, who works at
home with his wife and family, will perhaps live on the
first floor. The front room on the second floor houses
a couple. of street walkers ; the back room a beggar ;
and so on. Here is a mixture of vices in full operation,
and of virtue surrounded by temptation ! The man on
the ground or first floor may be labouring hard to bring
up his family with credit, but is obliged to live where
he does, because, from poverty, he cannot procure lodg-
ings in a decent neighbourhood. One of his daughters
gets gradually intimate with one of the girls above,
without perhaps knowing the course of life she pursues,
and, through evil counsel, soon becomes vitiated. Per-
haps it is one of the sons who makes the fatal acquaint-
ance, and the consequences are, if anything, worse ; for
the prostitute most likely introduces him to the young
thief in the cellar, who is sure to be a friend of hers.—
London and Southern Advertiser.

EXPEDITION up the EUPHRATES.
(From the Liverpool Times.)
Some few of our readers may be aware that a vessel
belonging to a leading firm in this town was sent to sea
under sealed instructions, about eighteen months ago,
having on board two iron steam-boats, and other cargo
,of a similar unusual description. The destination of the
vessel, it now appears, was the Persian Gulf, the steamers
having been constructed by order of the East India
Company, to act as a flotilla for ascertaining the navi-
gability of the river Euphrates. The expedition has
been highly successful, having traversed the course of the
stream 1,100 miles from its mouth, an achievement
Inver before accomplished, and fully establishing the
superiority of modern skill and science over the ruder
resources of the ancients. We have been favoured with
the following extracts from a private letter written by
Mr. Floyd, the surgeon of the flotilla, to a professional
friend, Mr. Samuel Potter, of this town, and brought
by the last overland conveyance. They will, we think,
be found well worthy of perusal by those who take en
interest in scientific operations, and in the remarkable
countries to which they relate. The letter is dated
Belis, June 6 :
" I have travelled over the greater part of Mesopota-
mia., got licked and plundered. I have traced the expe-
dition of the 10,000 Greeks under Cyrus the Younger,
and identified many of the cities in their route. lam
now near Aleppo with the flotilla, having completed the
ascent of the river Euphrates, without doubt one of the
noblest rivers of Asia; here, at a distance of 1,100 miles
from its embouchure in the Persian Gulf, it is 400 yards
broad and very deep. What a boast for England, upon
whose flag the sun never sets, that the British ensign
now floats in the breeze in the very centre of the land
of the crusades and of the Courtenays, one of whose
castles, Jiaber,' said to be founded by Alexander the
Great, towers majestically over our heads.
" The 31st of May, 1841, was the happy day which
crowned our efforts with success, and the distant Taurus
:ooh re-echoed the Royal salute which we fired in ho-
nour of the occasion.
" In a former letter I think I gave you a slight de-
scription of the Tigris river and surrounding country.
The Euphrates differs little from the Tigris up to Hills,
a Turkish-Arab town, built near the site of ancient:Baby-
lon, except that its banks are much better cultivated; and
in some places the date tree (the palmus dactiliferus)
adds to the picturesque meanderings of the river ; while
in others a mosque, with its lacquered dome, rising from
a grove of willows, is a pleasing variety from the mono-
tony of the surrounding district. Winding its way
through the ruins of fallen Babylon, the river passes
Perisalom, then the field of Cunaxa, where Cyrus fell,
and the 10,090 commenced their ever-memorable retreat.
Then come Umber, once the seat of a Christian bishop;
hen Charmand, some ruins opposite the Pylor of Zeno-
phon • and then Hit, the Is of Scripture, and
famed its fountains of bitumen and naphtha, which
is in such abundance that it spreads itself over the
earth. The river now is inclosed within a valley of
high rocks, which extends from its source to below
Hit. They are composed of gypsum, sandstones, and con-
glomerates with mica and felspar. The ancient Anatho,
where Julian lost part of his' fleet, is the next place of
importance ; then comes Ezri, the river Chabour of
Ezekiel, Al I)eir, the Thapsac of Scripture, and the an-
cient part of Palmyra ; and lastly, the ruined castles of
Raccaba, Tenobia, Rama. and Jiaber,
all situated
upon isolated rocks, commanding the . passes of
the river. These fortresses, from their differing entirely
from all others of a like nature in this country, and from
the Roman arch prevailing, appear to me to have been
the frontier hosts of that empire against the Parthians.
The natives have a tradition that they were built by the
English during the crusades, and it is not improbable
but that they were occupied by the enthusiastic followers
of Ceurtenay while he reigned at Orfas.