y. Situated as some of
them are, in the busiest and most crowded parts of the city, and
mouldering away from disuse and neglect, the idea constantly presented
itself to me as I passed one of them, "there is more of the Jarndyce
property," and I never saw an "old clo'" man that the rascally Fagin and
his hopeful proteges did not rise to my recollection. How wonderful is
the power of genius which can not only "give to airy nothings a local
habitation and a name," but fix them as realities in our memory forever!

At that period the credit of the Confederate Government abroad was
excellent; and either from love of "filthy lucre" or of the cause, some
of the best firms in England were ready and eager to furnish supplies.
It appeared quite practicable to send in machinery, iron plates, etc.,
for building small vessels of war; and several firms offered to engage
in the enterprise, receiving Confederate bonds in payment. These parties
went to the trouble of preparing models with plans and specifications;
all of which were afterwards duly submitted to the incompetent Secretary
of the Confederate States Navy; but it resulted in nothing. A
considerable amount of the Government funds was lavished abroad upon
the building of vessels which could by no possibility be got to sea
under the Confederate flag while the war lasted; and to make matters
worse, the Secretary had sent to England, as special agent for building
or buying vessels, a man well known throughout the kingdom to be
bankrupt in fame and fortune, who was hawking our government securities
about the country at a ruinous rate of discount; and who inflicted much
loss and injury upon the Confederate Government in various ways during
his connection with it. The management of naval affairs abroad should
have been left in the hands of Captain Bullock, the efficient agent of
the Navy Department in England, who showed admirable tact in the conduct
of affairs entrusted to him.

We stopped at the Burlington Hotel during our stay in London. There was
none of the glare and glitter of an American hotel about this highly
respectable establishment, no crowded "table d'hote" where the guests
scrambled for food, and the waiters must be bribed to wait upon them; no
gorgeous bar-room where the clinking of glasses resounds day and night,
and no hotel clerk, with hair parted in the middle, who deems it a
condescension to be civil. Everything was staid, quiet, orderly, and it
must be added, rat