to marble life;"

that of poets; Chaucer, Spenser, Ben Jonson, Dryden, Congreve, Addison,
Sheridan, and Campbell, and others, there await the sound of the last
trumpet; that old Sam Johnson there finds rest; that there the brain of a
Newton has crumbled into dust; and, as if to shew that all distinctions
are levelled by death, Mrs. Oldfield, Mrs. Bracegirdle, and other
favourites of the stage, are buried there. As a burial place Westminster
Abbey resembles the world. We jostle one another precisely so in real
life. "The age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so
near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe."

CHAPTER VII.
LONDON CHARITIES.

When Guizot visited London the principal thing that struck him was the
nature and the extent of London Charities. Undoubtedly the English are a
more charitable people than the French. When the ruinously low prices of
the Funds forbade a loan, the loyalty-loan brought forth the name of a
Lancashire cotton-spinner, the father of the lamented statesman, Sir
Robert Peel, who subscribed 60,000 pounds; and when George the Third sent
the Minister Pitt to compliment him on this truly loyal and patriotic
subscription, he simply replied that another 60,000 pounds would be
forthcoming if it was wanted for the defence of the country. Did
Napoleon, or any French monarch, ever possess such a patriotic subject?
The spirit is still the same. What sums the nation subscribed for the
relief of the wives and widows and orphans of the Crimean heroes. What
an amount was raised at once for the victims of the Indian mutiny. An
Englishman likes to make money, and makes many a sacrifice to do it; but
then how lavishly and with what a princely hand he gives it. And in this
respect the Londoner is a thorough Englishman--his charity covers a
multitude of sins. I am aware some of this charity is of a doubtful
character. A draper, for instance, may subscribe to the funds--of such
an institution as that for early closing--a very handsome sum, merely as
a good business advertisement; other tradesmen may and undoubtedly do the
same. There is also a spirit of rivalry in these matters--if Smith saw
Jones' name down for 50 pounds, he, thinking he was as good as Smith any
day, and perhaps a good deal better, puts his name down for 100 pounds.
Somehow or other we can scarce do good things without introducing a
little of the alloy of poor human nature; but London charities
undo