Sunday dispatch. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1845-1854, 1852-03-21
NEW VIEW OF LONDON.


The following remark0 OF q German peri
odioal represent London under a new point
of view Auy enc who has not lived but
in o little German town, and still acquired
English to some degree, will undergo unfelt
sensations and thoughts on sojourniug in the
world-city OF the present age-being such
huge aggregation Of matter nominate; at
least moving in such exertion, that it stag
gers the mind 1t was some minor arrange
meats which surprised me the most, on see
ing them IN actual operation You post O
letter (hslf an Ounee) for one penny 70 the
remotest of the shetland or Orkney islands -
ad Ultima Ihatle. You may drive in o SEQ
ond-clas5 railroad carriage a5eut twenty
miles out of town, paying for areturn ticket,
available the Hhole day, one shilling Then,
the whole south and east circumference Of
the town is enoircled by railway. l went
TO Blackwell, for which distance a return
ticket is also only sixpense. Still, there are
millions Of our money which must be- realized
by such trifes Il will equally surprise roy
oouutrymen, that one may get in the world
city cup of coffee for one penny, in places
where French, and even German, periodicals
are at hand You can take a decent clean
bath for one penny, if cold for two pence a
warm bath heard that, few years since,
Julien gave concerts, where Sivori (the pu
pill Of Paganini) played, the admission being
one shilling All these things are, by them
selves, minor affsirs, perhaps unobserved by
the general sight seer; but l had come to
London just to study Londin1tns Popul0re
Now, any one may perceive, that such public
accommodation presupp0ses s variety Of
schemes aud social agencies Of the deepest
complexity-a nation educated and cultiva-
ted, at lsaat as far as business goes a certain
quiet apI0m5 and steadiness of national char
acteP The continent has not such town,
because it has not such people as the Eng
lish this all remOunts, however, to the Pc
riod Of the Magma Charts, the Common
wealth, &C. Consider social organism of
comparatively small extent, consisting Of
two millions and a-balf Of human boings-
how this has been allformed, preserved, how
it exists Enterprises and schemes in opera
ton, which everywhere else would surpass
the might and treasure Of monarchs; all ac-
complished by few modest-looking, spare
worded (acoyt-kargen) citizens; Messrs Fox
and Henderson, accepting the proposal of the
Royal Commissioners about the building OF
the Crystal Palace with the words, 6 This
will do for US But while things have been
conducted here to the utmost limits Of the
present social system, think that some nov
el, unexpected change or revulsion, is al
hand Can any one think that we will say,
ammo 1860 or 1870, London has now three
millions Of people, and so on ad imfnitaeps
No, no Truly said our great thinker
Goethe, '' there is provision made for trees
not growing up into heaven" do not speak
politics; still, on seeing London, its under
water Tunnel, the New Houses of Parliament
endless pile, tho Egyptian u granite termi-
nus near Euston-square, 10000 people (thc
army number Of Darius and Cambeses) CON
grsgated simultaneously under the same
roof; the East India House, whose few off
cials govern more land than Alexander th'
Great, or Napoleon the offices Of the Mis-
sionary Societies, who have agents further
than any state Of Europe seeing and con
sidering all these things, the thought o
'' anne ultra ?" struck my mind Surely
not in that and the same track Nowhere
else, and nowhere more than here, the idel
struck me, that we stand on the threshold o
some CREST social crisis, such as that formerly
brought ON by Mos 8, the Egyptian priest
hood, Sc; and then we Catholics may con
clude with our old liturgic refrain ''Domin
sGlvltm fac PoPasllm ttItm."