rocession, or whether dark rumours had reached his ear touching
the prowess of the Lumber troopers, and other warlike bodies which march
under the standard of the Lord Mayor; but certain it is that this most
pacific of potentates cannot fairly be charged with abusing the formidable
privilege thus attributed to him--the city sword never having been
unsheathed in mortal fray, as far as our researches extend, since Wat
Tyler fell before the doughty arm of Sir William of Walworth. On returning
from the show, the khan was taken to see Newgate, with the gloomy aspect
of which, and the silent and strict discipline enforced among the
prisoners, he was deeply impressed; "to these poor wretches the gate of
mercy is indeed shut, and that of hardship and oppression thrown open."
His sympathies were still more strongly awakened on discovering among
those unfortunate creatures an Indian Moslem, who proved, on enquiry, to
be a Lascar sailor, imprisoned for selling smuggled cigars--"and, in my
ignorance of the laws and customs of the country, I was anxious to procure
his liberation by paying the fine; but my friends told me that this was
absolutely impossible, and that he must remain the full time in prison. So
we could only thank the governor for his attention, and then took our
departure."

Following the steps of the Khan from grave to gay, in his desultory course
through the endless varieties of "Life in London," we are at once
transported from the dismal cells of Newgate to the fancy-dress ball at
Guildhall for the aid of the refugee Poles. This seems to have been the
first scene of the kind at which Kerim Khan had been present since his
arrival in England; and though he was somewhat scandalized at perceiving
that some of those in male attire were evidently ladies, he describes with
considerable effect "the infinite variety of costumes, all very different
from those of England, as if each country had contributed its peculiar
garb," the brilliant lighting and costly decoration of the rooms, and the
picturesque grouping of the vast assemblage. But his first impressions on
English dancing are perfectly unique in their way, and we can only do
justice to them by quoting them at length. "It is so entirely unlike any
thing we ever heard of in Hindustan, that I cannot refrain from giving a
slight sketch of what I saw. In the first place, the company could not
have been fewer than 1500 or 2000, of the highest classes of society, the
minister