New-York tribune., 1842-01-29
LIFE IN LONDON.

Hel!r'u iDilS"llg ilitlRe 1Nu IiIe5iSL4Ot
humorous rortrsitu-cs:
II you stroll down Regent street, the Quad
rant, and Waterloo Place, any fine afternoon
you cannot fail 10 remark vast numbers OF eSol
les in glossy black silk hats, with musiaches anu
whlskers 10 match, hard, inexpress!ve cGa's' S
flash satin rests, unwhisperabIss pial'eo iiui1u.
lousy over the hips glazed leather poo5s' eI.u
profusiop Of Birmingham Jewelry aho Dlls'oi
stones These gentry smoke very fast, talk very
loud or rather chatter inoeraoly, and look kii!-
mo and ironudent al the ladies' az they pass.
Tbere polished brass knocker al the cor
nsr of C,rosyenor Square, which, when We nave
,;,ivated with burned cork, as We usually do
when passing that way, seems the common an.
ces,or Of these gentry; certainly they are great
fellows, and il IS difficult 10 conceive that the
town is not their own Like Samson, their
strength lies IN their hair flowing locks, we'll
oiled, brushed, and cyfled, form a far proper
,ion OF their general stock in trade BY their
fashion OF wearing their hair, you may get al
her politics. The Bonapartst is known by
shor, bristly nir1sache and staring hair; Ia Jeune
France IS represented by young gentlemen wear
ing their hair clubbsilly, after the fashion OF the
Jacobns these posteriory hirsue gentry are re-
publicans 10 a man; partisans of the existing dy
nasty wear whiskers d Ia Louis Philippe, and cd
the mustache: the Lcgltim!sts may al once be
recognised by dressing like gentlemen.
The avocaiions of these capillary perlpatetlcs
are mysterious, and not TO be got at without dlt-
fculty It's to be feared, that the commodities
they deal are chiefly contraband, and, like
themselves, very much IN the fancy line artltl-
cial flowers, ladies OF pleasure, rouge, rouge ct
uoir, snuggled lace, loaded dice Chantilly wells,
rddle-s,riags, gamesters, or-noll clocks, and
Cheralers d fnd,st,ie.
Hsreabous, moreover, are most of those lnfe-
rior qambling-h or " silver hells" where so
many young men about town getreueved of their
supcrfiuous cash; houses OF no particular repu-
taton, cigar shops, where other commodities
than cigars are saleable-we presume you smoke;
cheap gun shops, trlnkum-trankum shops; sala-
cIous book and print shops, thorRs IN the SIDE OF
the suppression OF wee society; small shell-tsf
Shops andequivocal cmporia of every description.
IN the cofeehouses about this Frenchfed
neighborhood, the gentlemen we have been intro
ducing to The reader abound IN such numbers, a.
to make it necessary to set aside a petty
France IN each, for their particular accommoda-
ton. Here, under the auspices OF Il Napoleon
le Grand I'm plaster Of Paris, crowned with
wreath OF immortelles, they play domlnoes,
smoke, and read the ChMiuari, l. 14mi du Peuple,
and lie National; and may be heard any night of
the week, especially on Sundays, discussing poll
tics and things in general,
ITALIANS do no, muster sufficiently strong here
to enable us TO depict herpeculiartie en- masse
nor is there any very striking individuality, still
less any marked nationality, giving them partlcu-
lar claims upon our notice The privaton of a
national character never fails TO have bad effect
upon the character Of the individual; it is not
merely upon the nation that oppression marks It's
brand of gnominy, but upon every man, woman,
,l,,1
slaved. When people no longer boasts national
interests, their pride takes fire at the expense of
their fellow-countrymen of the next province
and thus it is with Italy: the Milanese looks with
dislike upon the Venetian, the Venetian despises
the Boognese, the latter shuns comparison with
the serfs of the Church. The Calabrian High
lander abhors the cowardy ragamu1inry of the
two Scies, although reluctantly submitting TO
their dominion The Florentine, rich in the fer
tility OF his exhausiless soil, and supplied abur
dainty with the necessaries of existence, pilies
and despises the other children of fair Italy Yet
Italy must ever assert her supremacy. Rome,
once mistress of the world still asserts the shadow
of a saccrdeta sovereignty; triple crowned, seat
ed upon her seven hills; forwarding legions OF
priests, monks, and iriars to every corner OF the
habitable globe, and ever striving TO recenquer
the spiritual domination she once exercised over
in the songs OF Horace and Virgil, and again In
the strains of Dante and Ariosto now, alas gorl
tes herself in the fexe rllls of caltallzlng Sig
nosa, and finds her greatest and most renowned
son within the glrele that embraces the vast cir
conference OF the larger Lablache. From the en-
pre- OF the Caesars, they have descended to the
supremacy OF cameo cutters-trom the Metelll, i
we stoop to contemplate Mosaics-workers in
tu;a replace the TarQuns-Palladio is represent
ed by artiiiccrs in cork-Dante and Petrarch by
the llngllng improriSat0rt-the eglons OF the en-
pre- by multitudes of riars and priests-Mchael
Angelo is a man of alabaster images-Raphael
The " divine COPPER of old masters for the
American market.
Thus mighty powerful, glorious Britain, might
IT one day be with thee and thy sons--lt thy sons
consented basely to sRrvve thy fall; then might
the representatives of thy master-spirits exhibit
penny shows IN the streets OF foreign cities, and
spout dogeerel verses at the corners then mi ght
thy merchant princes wander, pedla!s OF petty
wares, from cline 10 cline then might thy no.
bity lei lodgings furnished and unfinished, aud
thy daughters 90 forth dancing women and sing
ing women INTO all lands; then may thy national
glory berepresened by chaplets, wreathing the
heads of primo donna Johnson or cont,'alto Smith
then may thy etlen,lnaie seamen creep along the
shore, and give old ocean his own again then
may thy traffic lie in dancing-masters, sausages,
birthstone, bu'is and accommodations then
may the men OF Kent find their poor ambition in
rcviling the men of Observation-Disclosures York
shlreman and tie Cornish man swear eternal en-
nifty; this living without life, this nen-eXistent
existence, can ne:er be thy lot; II degradation Is
10 come, death must lead the procession, and
whoever would enSlaye Us, must enSlave us in our
graves the good ship Old England has weather
cd many tough gale, and will weather many
more than we shall live to fight against. II. in
the revolutions Of empires our dav Of decline