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face. I was glad to retreat a little, and every subsequent attempt to conciliate the animal's favour, only produced a fresh shower. This liquor, which appears not to be mucus, but a peculiar fluid, probably secreted on purpose for the defence of the animal, which is perhaps in this way enabled to blind its assailants, seems to be discharged with such surprising force by a strong movement of the nose. The fluid is thrown occasionally five or six feet, and, it is said, that when the lama is eating beans, he will, if disturbed, project them in the same manner.

In Brooks' collection, I saw also the jerboa, a species of rat, very much resembling the kangaroo, and the golden and silver pheasant of China, birds of singular beauty,

No. XXXIX.-LONDON.

Foundling Hospital ...Mr. Hewlet....Mr. More....English preachers.... A sermon of twelve minutes....Singing at the Foundling....Two blind singers.... The Foundlings....Hogarth....Captain Coram....St. Stephen's.

FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.

August 18.-I have frequently attended divine service at the chapel of the Foundling Hospital. I was there again this morning, and heard an excellent sermon from Mr. Hewlet. It was levelled against some fashionable irregularities, particularly the breach of the Sabbath, for purposes of recreation.

There is another gentleman whom I have repeatedly heard in this chapel, with great pleasure; I allude to Mr. More. His discourses are finished compositions, nervous, glowing, and impressive, while they are chaste, and free from verbosity and false ornament. He has, in his manner of speaking, many of the graces of an orator, and his performances are always interesting, because he seems really in earnest, and deeply impressed himself with those truths which he is endeavouring to enforce on others. In the indiscriminate way in which I have attended the churches of this country, usually without any previous knowledge either of the place or preacher, I have too often been unfortunate in not finding decisive indications either of great talents, learning, or piety, and I have no doubt that, in a majority of instances, I have fallen upon preachers who were far below the general standard of the country. I make no general deductions unfavourable to England, while I merely state these facts. I was, a few Sabbaths since, in a church, in which, from its being very near my residence, I have attended more than once, where a young man concluded a very loose declamation, in the form of a sermon, in precisely twelve minutes. He seemed to be one of those

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things that mount the rostrum with a skip,
And then skip down again. Pronounce a text;
Cry-hem; and reading what they never wrote,
Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work,
And with a well-bred whisper close the scene !"

This gentleman, however, had the advantage of Cow. per's divine, by just three minutes of time, and, I presume, from his countenance, that he was really the author of the composition which he read.

The singing at the chapel of the Foundling Hospital is very fine, and forms one of those attractions, which, coinciding with the interesting nature of the institution, produce a great resort of genteel people to this place. I allude particularly to the singing of the Foundlings themselves, which is soft, melodious, and natural; but there is a couple of blind leaders, who, - from its being their profession to sing, and because they obtain their bread by it, must needs introduce so many trills, shakes, and guttural echoes, that they turn sacred music into a theatrical exhibition, and lead one almost to wish that, if it were proper to make an election among the judgments of heaven, that theirs had been to be dumb instead of blind.

I was in company to-day with a gentleman, who, after morning service, took me into the dining-hall of the female foundlings, where we saw a very interesting spectacle. Nearly two hundred of these little beings, apparently very healthy and cheerful, and neatly dressed, were partaking of a wholesome and abundant dinner. Before they began, at a signal given, they all stood in an attitude of reverence, while one of their number, a little thing of six years of age, with her hands clasped, asked a blessing in a perfectly proper manner, while the whole number, with one voice, pronounced-Amen.

The dining hall is adorned with the portraits of the benefactors of the institution, and among these, that of Captain Coram, who spent seventeen years of his life in assiduous exertions to found this charity, occupies, as it certainly ought to do, the most distinguished place.

Coram was a private and obscure individual, a captain in the American trade, and his history will long

be remembered, as affording a striking illustration of the force of benevolent affections and the success of benevolent exertions. The precise object of this institution is expressed in the following words; "For preventing the frequent murders of poor miserable infants at their birth, and for suppressing the inhuman custom of exposing new-born infants to perish in the

streets."

The admission of foundlings is not however indiscriminate; it proceeds upon a principle of selection; those objects are preferred which have the strongest claims. It is needless to say that such an institution, in such a place as London, is always full; at present there are more than five hundred foundlings of both sexes, and it is impossible to look at these little friendless unacknowledged beings, who are ignorant of their natural protectors, and of the ties which connect them to the rest of the species, without strong emotions of pity.

We went next into the dining-room of the boys, who are equally numerous as the girls; the same decorum prevailed there, and one of them asked a blessing in the same manner.

Hogarth was a benefactor of the Foundling Hospital, and some of his best pictures are suspended here, particularly his master-piece, The march to Finchley; this, on account of some rather too faithful copies which it contains of traits of real life, will form a more proper topic of oral than of written description. Several other pieces, some of them by great masters, and relating principally to scripture history, are to be seen in the committee-room.

In the afternoon, I attended at St. Stephen's, Walbrook. After St. Paul's, this church is the most magnificent in London, and is reckoned one of Sir Christopher Wren's master pieces. It is indeed a grand and beautiful structure. The preacher gave us a very good discourse, but, his task is a very discouraging one, for, in this magnificent church, the whole audience, including the clerk, the organist, and twenty charity chil dren, who are obliged to attend, did not amount to fifty persons.

No. XL-LONDON.

St. Luke's Hospital.... An Asylum for lunatics....A distressing sight...Different forms and varieties of madness.... Particular individuals.

ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL.

August 23. This morning, in consequence of an arrangement which Mr. Ogilvy, an English friend of mine, was so good as to make for me, I went with one of the managers of St. Luke's Hospital, to visit that institution. It is situated in Old-street, near Finsbury-square. The structure is extensive, being between four and five hundred feet long, and, although it is plain in its appearance, it is by no means' destitute of elegance.

This is a charitable institution, for the reception, and, as far as possible, for the cure of those unfortu nate beings, who are visited with the most dreadful of all the judgments of heaven, madness. My conduc. tor, who, as a manager of the hospital, was now on

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