"therefore repose implicit confidence in this representa❝tion.

"This young gentleman must in the mean time suffer "great anxiety; he is in the power of the law, and I can"not at present interfere. But go to him, and assure him "from me, that in the worst possible legal result, he has my royal word, that his life is safe."

26

"Mr. West came to me with this message immediately, and you may well believe that it softened essentially the rigours of an imprisonment of eight months."

If you consider who was the king's prisoner, that he was, in his view, a rebel, and had just come from fighting in an elevated station against him; that his father was a most active and efficient head of one of the most actively and inveterately rebellious states, I think you will allow that the king's answer, which amounted to this-" should the courts of law condemn him to death, I will save his life by a pardon," constitutes one of the finest passages of kingly history, and could never have proceeded from a little mind.

Another anecdote which I have from a source equally entitled to confidence, illustrates the king's sagacity and presence of mind. Whatever may be the merits of the Irish question of Catholic emancipation, it is well known, that the king has always stated conscientious scruples as the ground of refusing his countenance to the various projects which have been started for effecting this object.

After he had in a great measure lost his eye sight, but before his mental powers were at all impaired, a new project was submitted to him, regarding Irish emancipation. A paper was read to him professedly containing this statement, and his royal signature was requested and expected,

but the document really contained very different things. The king immediately suspected that it was an attempt to impose upon him in consequence of his blindness; but, without discovering any suspicion, requested the person who had read the paper, to go to a certain office, and obtain another paper which was wanted. In the mean time having got rid of this man, he requested a third person, who had accidentally come in, to be so good as to read to him again the paper which the first person had professed to read, stating that he did not quite understand it. He did so, and it was found to be a very different thing from what it was stated to be, and directly contrary to the king's views.

He immediately declared that as he found he could not trust his servants, he would no longer employ them, and without delay turned out the whole ministry and ordered a new one to be organized.

AN INCIDENT.

As I was walking, the other day, near the Royal Exchange, I accidentally met an old acquaintance whom I had known several years ago, in America. I was passing rapidly through a crowd, and he also, but in the opposite direction. We caught each others features--both halted -looked-hesitated-went on-again looked back, and finally spoke. An unexpected incident of this kind in a foreign country electrifies one, and a higher degree of interest is excited than what would have been induced by a greater degree of intimacy at home. I dined with this gentleman to-day, and met there an English party.Among them was an English physician, who was with lord Cornwallis' army, when it was captured at York

Town. This incident, of course, excited some interest and produced conversation. The gentleman to whom I allude spoke in the highest possible terms of General Washington; and indeed, concerning him, there appears to be but one sentiment in England. Even the king, who is said to have declared, during the whole of the American war, that if the Americans prevailed, Washington would finally prove the tyrant of his country, when he voluntarily relinquished his command of the army, pronounced that he was a great and good man.

The King is said also, when getting into his carriage at Kew, to have been overheard by two Americans, while he expressed himself thus, to one of his ministers: “ We must persevere—we must persevere-it was by perseverance that Washington and Franklin carried their points."

The subject of conversation was not understood by the gentleman who overheard this remark.

No. XIX.-LONDON.

Panorama of the battle of Agincourt-An interesting piece of private history-Du Bourg's Cork models of ancient temples, &c.—Representation of an eruption of Vesuvius-St. Paul's— Statues Trophies of Blenheim-Prospect from the gallery around the dome-The whispering gallery-The great bell.

PANORAMA OF THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT.

June 14.-I spent some time to-day in viewing the panorama of the battle of Agincourt, painted by Porter.

Those of the battle of Alexandria and of the passage of the bridge of Lodi, by the same artist, were exhibited last winter in the city of New-York. The latter I saw there in January. It was a very grand painting, and so is this of the battle of Agincourt. The time of the battle is that in which Henry V. dismounts to defend his brother the Duke of Gloucester, who has fallen down wounded. There is one delightful effect produced by this painting. From the confusion, splendor, and dreadful carnage of the battle, you turn to the right side of the picture, where the river Somme, winding through a charming country, presents all the mild beauties of landscape, on which, the eye, turning with horror from scenes of blood, delights to repose.This battle was judiciously selected by the painter, for it was one of the most splendid which the English annals afford.

It was fought by Henry against immense odds; the French lost ten thousand men slain, among whom was the flower of their nobility, while the English lost only a few hundreds. Their prisoners, after the battle, amounted to more than their whole army.

The painter has introduced one very interesting piece of private history. An English nobleman was followed into these wars by his wife, who, actuated by affection, accompanied him, in the character of an attendant; this she did, dressed in masculine attire, and clad in ́ armour. After going through the campaign to that time with safety, the nobleman fell in this battle, and his wife is exhibited in the first paroxysms of grief, stooping over her dying lord, and directing the soldiers who support him to bear him away from the field. This battle was fought in Oc

tober, 1415; the picture covers between two and three thousand feet.

I am fond of panoramas, especially of battles. Their magnitude, the consequent distinctness of the objects, and the circular position of the canvass, corresponding with the real horizon, all tend to give one the strongest impression of the reality of the scene. They are, at present, much in vogue in England. I have already mentioned a very fine one of the rock, fortifications, and bay of Gibraltar, with a portion of the adjacent parts of Spain and of the opposite coast of Africa. They are exhibited in buildings constructed on purpose for their reception; they are circular, like an amphi-theatre, and lighted only from above.

DU BOURG'S CORK MODELS.

June 18.-Since my arrival in London, I have met with some of my fellow-passengers in the Ontario. Probably there are a few accidental meetings which excite more interest than those produced by being fellow-passengers on board a ship, and I have not often been more gratified with any similar incident than in finding, in this immense wilderness of men, Dr. R—— and Capt. T

They breakfasted with me this morning, and we went soon after, to see Du Bourg's cork models of ancient temples, theatres, mausoleums, &c. principally Roman.

This very ingenious man, Du Bourg, a Frenchman, from an actual residence of nine years in Italy, gained the information necessary for the execution of his wonderful work. It would be doing him great injustice to consider his exhibition merely as a display of ingenuity. In this view alone it must excite admiration; but, from the very effec