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A VIEW OF LONDON.

The finest view in London is from the top of Whitehall Place, looking
towards the river; but then you must see it as I did, at the same hour,
and under similar circumstances.

It was about a fortnight since I beheld that memorable spectacle. I was
on my way home, having dined with a friend, who, though not an habitual
votary of Bacchus, occasionally sacrifices to the god with intense and
absorbing zeal. After dinner we adjourned to the Opera, having only
determined to renew at supper our intimacy with certain flasks of
Champagne, which lay in their icy baths coolly expecting our return. We
carried our determination into effect to the fullest extent; and at
half-past three o'clock we parted, deeply impressed with a sense of each
other's good qualities, and with as keen and lively an appetite for the
sublime and beautiful as an X of Champagne[2] usually imparts to its
warm-hearted admirers. My way led me through Whitehall, at least I found
myself there, as "Charles," the guardian of the night, was announcing
the fourth hour. As my good fortune would have it, I happened to look
towards the river, and never, while memory holds her seat, shall I
forget the sight which presented itself. Six distinct St. Pauls lifted
themselves through the cloudless morning air (so pure, that the smoke of
a single cigar would defile it: I extinguished mine in awe) towards the
blue transparent sky; nearer, and beneath this stately city of temples,
were four Waterloo Bridges, piling their long arcades in graceful and
harmonious regularity one above the other, with the chaste and lofty
symmetry of a mighty aqueduct; while far away, in the dim distance, a
dome of gigantic dimensions was faintly visible, as if presiding over
the scene, linking shadow and substance, uniting the material with the
intellectual world, like the realization of a grand architectural dream.
Talk not to me of the Eternal City--in her proudest days of imperial
magnificence she could not furnish such a view--thrice be that Champagne
lauded!--_Monthly Magazine._

[2] _Reader_--What does he mean by an X of Champagne?

_Editor_--An unknown quantity, you fool.

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NEW YORK.

The distant view of New York, almost free from smoke, is singularly
bright and lively; in some respects it refreshes a recollection of the
sea-bound cities of the Mediterranean. Th