Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1834-09-17
LONDON.
From the European Correspondent ofthe Unitec
States Gazette.

From the European correspondent OF me CRlted
States Gazette.
What world of people may be got together!
one would think that men loved one another
Is this the Thames2 This rvulet which in Anne
RIGA would be given over to'the barge and the
broad horn, or to some packet steamboat, SUCH
as sneaks up the Ohio or Kentucky in the sum-
mer season2-is this the famous stream, whence
issue navies to sweep, and claim the sovereign,
ty of oceans, and to which, as to great centraI
vortex, tends the commerce of the whole world!
To one who has plodded up the Mississippi, for
weeks. without finding the end or beginning, II
looks like ditch, but still it is ditch where
countless squadrons float, in lieu OF splatter
docks: and such endless lines of chimneys, OF
towers and steeples, as was never seen before,
take the place of reeds But what is the fame
of the Mississippi, the Plata, or the Amazon, to
This mighty little river2 What, indeed, are the
Rhine, the Danube. the Tigrs and Ganges with
their immense cities, their fertility, their wealth,
their historical celebrity, compared with this
muddy brook? Rome rose from the Insignificant
,Tiber; London lies on the Thames.
The propriety ofthe phrase forest OF masts, /"
never appreciated, until the steampacket in
which crossed the channel, from Calais, was
threading her way among the great fleets moor
ed or mooring. in mass extending almost from
Sheerness to London Bridge How the pilot
steered us along through the labyrinth, could
no more understand than can now, when
am perC0eQ IN dn OuiilUuS, HOW JCnu hohoS
his way through the chaos of carriages up Pic
cadilly and down Cheapside. tits ali mystery.
And this then is London, thought l. as we
plunged into the smoke-bank that surrounds the
cockney city, and beheld the distant dome OF
ST. Paul's, followed by steeples, come looming
up mistily out of obscurity. Woolwich (the
diabolicai laboratory and workshop, wherein,
since the days of Marlborough, have been ia
bricated all those internal compounds and en-
gines with which Great Britain carries on the
work of glory,) with its royal arsenal and dock
yard, academy and barracks was passed. Green
witch, with the palace in which was born the
great vrago Bess, and which was converted
BY Charles III, (the only good work of this dis
solute king) into magnificent hospital, ref
uge for those patriotic tars whom Britain has
robbed of legs and arms; and its Observatory,
the seat of science, where Maskelyne and Her
sche pursued their sublime researches, was
left behind. Deptford and the Isle of Dogs
crept in the rear The Commercial and West
India Docks, ceased to confuse the eye; and
we plunged on deeper and deeper into the will
derness Of civilization. Who ever beheld such
old, ugly, dismal looking houses Their walls
look like banks of SCOT, and their red tiled
roofs like the shelves of a crockery wo man.-
There seemed no end to them. BY and by, We
were passing between Rotherhithe and the Lon
don Docks, there was buzz on board, we
were sailing over the Tunnel the subaqueous
highway, commenced with such noble audacity
by Brunei Frenchman; who became an eng
neer, in his youth, on the shores of Ontario, to
bestow on the British nation, in his old age, the
circular sato, and comfortable lounge at the
bottom Of the Thames. Now ST. PauFs lifts up
his monstrous dome with still more command.
ing effect; not that he seems much incl eased in
magnitude but because you begin to trace the
outlines and distinguish the bulk and altitude Of
the edi6ces at his feet. He is like mountain
that preserves for miles, the same apparent bulk,
even when the great buildings about him are
blended by distance into one undiStinguishable
mass. But what cluster Of houses, old, dsjoint-
ed, irregular and scrambling, is this, surrounded
by a wall circumScribing some ten or dozen
acres of ground, with sentinels stalking on it,
and big square white house, with turrets at
the corners, all inexpressibly ugly, simpering
over the top of all2 This is the T0per the re-
doubtable Tower, the place where the state
murders used to be committed, and where Br-
tannia keeps locked up such stores of muskets
and swords, that one would think she intended,
some day. to murder the whole world. Here
Raleigh suffered and Sidney bled. You can
hear, as you pass, the water OF the moat CUR
cling out from the traitors gate.
The Custom House, noble structure, front
ing five hundred feet on the river, relieves the
eve and the mind from the contemplation Of the
hideous Tower; and when you stalk through its
prodigious hall, and perceive the hustle of its
six hundred officers, engaged in the peaceable
adjustment OF the affairs of commerce, you are
made aware of the true grandeur, and what
should be considered the true interests ofa great
empire.
But let US not waste time on house devoted
TO such cockney affairs In London, one must
talk about the piles which speak Britain's glory.
Neither must we seem to occupy our minds with
the tropes Of trade: the great folk at the West,
win write us down among those vulgar beings
who hold together the ends of the earth, and
scrape away the riches thereof the merchants
shopkeepers! Let US hurry through, the tainted
purlieus of business, the contemplate place OF
exchanges and banks, of lord mayors and hos
pital builders, the doghoe that lies east OF Tenn
pie Bar-the city-and get among the squares
and parks, the palaces, terraces and Macadam-
ICED roads, that make up that heaven of ct's
ambition, the West End
]. From the platform of the Custom House, we
step right among the shambles of a fish market.
What soes! what salmon, what turbot! prawns!
crabs! Holsters! One is seized with fear at the
sightof so many ugly old women; but with more
terror still, when the courteous policeman, in
IN vonr oueSfion inf0rms vo, tb,t NO.,