Here there was nothing to relieve the painful emotions, by which our minds had been agitated. The scene presented the same features, but under an aspect still more frightful and distressing. The whole place seemed sacred to the genius of profligacy: it struck the eye as the concentration of all the lowest vices and worst abominations: a nursery of felons and swindlers, pick-pockets and prostitutes. In one part were three striplings issuing from a coffee-house, full of that suspicious valour, which is engendered by the fumes of wine :—and a minute had scarcely elapsed, before a ragged, half-naked boy was hurried past us for having robbed one of them of his handkerchief and snuff-box. The urchin, already ripe in iniquity, affected at first to sob and whimper: but when he found that the manœuvre had not the effect of exciting any symptoms of pity from the spectators, he immediately assumed an air, which appeared to be compounded, although we had so little opportunity of analysing or examining it, of the opposite and heterogeneous elements of conscious guilt, the anticipation of certain punishment, and at the same time sulky and imperturbable effrontery. On another spot two market-women were screaming, quarrelling, and swearing to the highest pitch of their melodious voices. In a third, a Bow-street officer was standing, by himself, screened from observation behind an angle of the piazzas, watching the spectacle around him with the eagle glance of experienced intelligence.

"The Theatres, too, were just over: we scrutinized the motley group as they came forth, all equally heated and fatigued, from pit, boxes, and galleries: and saw but a melancholy example of the practical influence of the drama. The number of those, who could do credit by their presence to a national establishment for the most intellectual of the arts, was comparatively inconsiderable: the stream was chiefly composed, as usual, of idle youths, who had little admission into good society, and no resources within themselves; or ladies, who by the costliness of their attire, and the slender provision of their purses, joined together the two extremes of extravagance and poverty. Yet if we looked only for personal beauty, where should we discover

forms on which the hand of nature had bestowed more pains, or where the helps of art had been more industriously lavished to heighten the natural attractions?

There is generally some diversion for a casual passerby at the moment when the spectators depart from a metropolitan theatre. The different ranks and gradations of individuals; the variety of costumes; the confusion of sounds; the multitude and entanglement of carriages and hackney-coaches: the brawling and vociferation of charioteers and watermen, compose a strange diversified medley, which can neither be seen nor heard without some degree of interest. For my own part, I have always considered the thin, active, ubiquitous link-boys, who are usually attendant at such times and places, as objects well worthy of philosophical contemplation; as they run slip-shod, or bare-footed, by your side exclaiming at every step "a light, your honour "a coach, your honour "a chariot, your honour."

Alas, we can hardly flatter ourselves that we see another Shakspeare engaged in such an undignified occupation: we rather see before us a set of unrestrained, unprincipled, uneducated beings, trusting to their wits for a subsistence, and with wits sharpened by their necessities : who, enveloped in smoke and flame, and with a hue between red and black spread over their visages, might almost be taken for the truest representation of young devils; who are in fact apprentices to roguery, future pests of society, and food for the gallows. Yet who is there among us, who would not be the same in character, if he had been placed early in life in the same circumstances? Or who shall say, that any one of those imps, who now move his laughter, or his pity, or his scorn, might not with equal advantages arise to moral and intellectual eminence far higher than the station to which he has risen, or even aspired; might not have adorned his country, and reflected honour on his species ?

"While we were engaged in these observations and reflections, our attention was suddenly arrested by a prodigious noise and hubbub at some little distance. The springing of rattles-the shrieking of women-and the hoarser voices of men, rent the air, and astounded the echoes, of

Covent Garden.

We rushed to the scene of tumult, which was a spot under the piazzas, and beheld a scene which baffles and defies description. We found assembled a host of watchmen, and all the dissolute and disorderly persons of both sexes, who happened to be in the neighbourhood. On one side was a man of middling size, and vulgar aspect, bleeding as from a severe blow; and dirty, as if his last bed had been the gutter. On the other, in the custody of five or six guardians of the night, was a sailor of manly figure, and fine open countenance, with his hair curling freely round the rim of a straw hat. Near him stood an unhappy girl, in whom the remains of beauty were still visible, drest in a style of tawdry finery, weeping and disconsolate. We pressed forward; and inquiring into the cause of the uproar, heard the following account from the sailor himself.

“He had been absent, he said, seven years at sea: his ship had been lately paid off: he had received his money, and come to London in search of a favourite sister, who was the only relation left him in the world. He had heard, since he sailed, of the death both of his father and his mother and he was, therefore, the more anxious about the fate of the poor orphan, who must be so much in want of him to maintain and defend her. But he came too late: the mischief was done, and was irreparable. The unhappy and degraded being by his side was that very sister on whom he doated; who had occupied all his tenderest thoughts during his long and hazardous voyages, in calm and in tempest, in safety and in danger. He had experienced much difficulty in tracing her: but had at last discovered some clue to her miserable lodging in the vicinity of Covent-Garden. Here, however, his labour was shortened on his way to the house, whither he had been directed, he met her by accident on the spot where he was then standing. But what a meeting! He could hardly recognise the simple girl whom he had quitted, buoyant with health and innocence and spirits, attired in a plain and homely gown, in that meagre and emaciated form, with sunken cheeks, whose wanness could not be concealed by the paint with which they were besmeared,

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tricked out and bedizened in her garb of flimsy splendour. Yet there was still something in the eye, and step, and manner which a brother could not mistake: " Mary," he called out to her with a voice of fearful eagerness; but she neither listened to him nor regarded him. At the very moment when he saw her, after an absence of seven years, she was engaged in a warm and violent altercation with the antagonist who had been so severely handled in their momentary conflict. He was heaping upon her the most vituperative and abusive epithets, which can be applied to any thing which bears the shape of woman. "Now,"

exclaimed the honest tar, "she might be all, and more, than he called her; but was I to stand by, and hear it? It is very hard for me, when I am just come home, to find my sister in this state, and treated as the vilest of beings by a scoundrel before my face. I told him to eat his words; and when he refused, I knocked him down. These watchmen may do what they please with me: I have slept and soundly too-in worse places than any where they can take me: and, by heaven, I am very glad that I have made an example of the fellow, and shewn him, that an English sailor will not hear his sister insulted by any land-lubber of them all. I only wish I could catch within arm's length the villain who first seduced her, and took her from her home: for, as I have a soul to be saved, I would batter him to a jelly; I would bastinado him into an Egyptian mummy. And I say again, that whatever my sister may be, nobody alive shall tell me that she is any thing but what she ought to be."

"Such," said Urbanus, "was the substance of the gallant fellow's statement. 1 have given you most of his own expressions, having only omitted a few oaths, execrations, and other expletives. We felt interested in his

story, and offered money to compromise the matter with his opponent. This the latter was ready enough to do: but the sailor would not at first consent that he should receive a farthing. When, moreover, we had induced him to comply with this arrangement, the watchmen were desirous of a job; and upon our remonstrance hurried us all three, together with the careless tar, to St. Martin's Lane, as

disturbers of the public peace. Their object was to alarm rather than detain us; as they hoped by this method to force from us some of the money which they knew us to possess. But we were determined, at all risks, to resist such abominable extortion, such absolute robbery under the pretended sanction of the law. We have found, indeed, in too many instances, that whoever has the appearance of a gentleman, is sure, in all such affrays, to be the victim of these worthy guardians of our lives and properties. We therefore proceeded quietly to the constable of the night, without attending to their overtures for an accommodation: and stated the facts as they occurred, having sufficient confirmation in the testimony of some by-standers, who had followed us to the watch-house, and procured admission with some difficulty. The poor girl also bore witness in our favour. The consequence was, that the constable of the night was compelled to dismiss the charge: and even visit his satellites with a stern and earnest reprimand. The sailor seemed highly gratified by our interference, and grasped our hands as a token of his thanks. And what honest man could desire a better remuneration? He then walked off proudly with his sister; and behaved to her, as he went, with peculiar kindness, tenderness, and even delicate attention, partly from natural attachment, partly from his desire to prove, that any female who was under his care, should be treated with respect, or at least not insulted with impunity.

"We, too, hurried back: but much time had been lost in this disturbance and its results. When we passed once more through Covent-Garden, the scene was indeed changed:-but changed, if possible, for the worse. There was less noise, and fewer sights or sounds to shock and disgust the senses. But those few were almost more painful and more harrowing than the combination of all the rest. The only living beings to be seen were the very dross and refuse of the town women who had stifled in cheap intoxication the dreadful and overwhelming feelings of utter destitution and houseless penury-men and boys who were sleeping in groups under the pillars of the piazzas, as their only shelter for the night. As they had no covering,