add to the charm of London. It is quite a different city under the shining summer sun from that under a grey February sky; and the sunset effects from Westminster Bridge, or the sunrise lights in the eastern sky of a sunny January morning, defy even the skill of a Turner to reproduce.

Perhaps the one aspect under which most Londoners would admit that they least desire to see their city, is when wrapped in a mantle of snow. For a brief, very brief period only, does it retain any of its pristine whiteness or beauty. But for hours, nay sometimes for days, it is a most unmitigated nuisance. Rarely does snow visit London in any great excess, but every few years we get an approach to a 'blizzard,' and then scenes like these depicted in the engraving occur, and language fails to describe the experiences of those compelled to face the inconveniences of the streets.

Again, London by night differs widely from London by day, not only in the natural change from day to night, but in the pursuits followed and in the composition of the throngs that fill the main thoroughfares. By a large section of Londoners the work of life has to be done in the night. Those who toil in the daily press, who prepare for the early markets, whose duty it is to watch while others sleep; those who cater for the amusement of others, those who enter with ardour into the enticements and fascinations. of London social life, turn a good part of the night into day; while those who minister to the vicious desires, or who seek to live by the commission of crime, find in the night their most fruitful time of harvest. But whether seen by night under the judgment-confusing glare of artificial light, or in the calmer, clearer light of the grey day, whether seen for a few brief days, or studied week by week for many long years, this great London deeply impresses the reflective mind, and its varied and crowded pictures of life become a permanent mental possession. Here as elsewhere a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing, puffing up the mind, and leading its possessor to think that he has really a fair idea of what London is and what London means in the world of life. But the thoughtful student, and the man who as the years pass by gains ever new and ever fresh experience of the boundless variety of London life, comes at length to the conviction so well expressed by John Bright, that although he may have spent half of each year there for forty years, he yet, in the sense of any full or adequate knowledge, knows nothing about it.

THE

CHAPTER II.

CIVIC AND COMMERCIAL LONDON.

HE rise and development of municipal life in the City of London is a somewhat intricate subject, full of interest and importance, but demanding far larger space than can be given to it in these pages. We can attempt only to summarise the chief facts which are the result of longcontinued labours on the part of men interested in this great theme. Controversy has raged over the question whether any decided traces of Roman influence are to be found in the medieval and modern civic life of London, or whether our modern institutions are the development of Saxon customs. The weight of authority appears unmistakably to be on the latter side. It is, however, certain that during the Roman period, whilst York was the centre of imperial government and rule, London was, to use the words of Tacitus, 'most celebrated for its merchants and trade.' After the departure of the Romans, a blank of over a century occurs in the history of London. We know little of that time beyond the broad fact that the Britons were being practically annihilated by the Saxons, whose life and habits completely altered all the institutions of the country. But when the mists roll away we find London again an important centre of trade.

Attempts have been made to prove, or render likely, the contention that the prefect under the Romans, and the port-reeve to whom William the Conqueror addressed his famous charter, were lineal ancestors of that crown and glory of London civic life-the Lord Mayor. But all such attempts have so far proved unsatisfactory. The first of the long line of civic dignitaries to whom the title of mayor can be applied was Henry Fitz-Alwyn, and the date in his case is well ascertained, viz., 1189. But the splendid collection of municipal records preserved in the Guildhall go back to a much earlier date than this. The power and importance of London in the eyes