shipping business,-Garraway's for public sales of imports, &c. Nevertheless, they cannot escape coming under the denomination of coffeerooms. The frequenters are supplied with coffee-see all the daily newspapers and regale themselves, at a cost of fourpence or sixpence, with ale and sandwiches. At Garraway's, grog and cigars may be indulged in after five P.M., the charge for these ultra refectments not exceeding the ordinary rate. Deacon's and Peele's refectories are principally known as advertisement media, and for the means of access they afford to files of newspapers, whether colonial, foreign, metropolitan, or provincial journals.

Whilst mentioning newspaper files, it may be useful information incidentally to state seriatim, the places whither it is necessary to proceed for particular files. Do you require intelligence of some relative, friend, or property in the tropical East, the Jerusalem is sui generis. The Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay press, the Chinese, Australasian, Mauritius, and Cape of Good Hope newspapers, are all to be found here, scrupulously correct in dates, carefully bound together for reference; and at no other place is there so much trouble taken to obtain every description of eastern colonial papers. There are not less than thirty different Indian and Australasian papers filed in this room for the use of its subscribers. The North and South American Coffee-house is also in good repute on account of its possessing similar advantages; and it has, in addition, an elegant coffee-room, which the Jerusalem has not, the latter being, in fact, but plainly though most conveniently furnished. These commercial coffee-houses are remarkable for the general facilities they offer to men of business, and are distinguishable from all other establishments, by the presence of a peculiar class of visitors, viz., commanders of merchant vessels and their assistants. Their day-books and ledgers of shipping intelligence are in constant requisition, and momentarily consulted by the swarms of anxious-faced merchants and sicklylooking clerks, continually pouring in from nine in the morning till five in the evening. Writing materials are profusely distributed, and as profusely used. Writing, reading, talking, and grimacing, lounging, eating, drinking, and laughing, are the order of the day; and he who is dyspeptic or dull, or needs a stimulant to his vis inertia, cannot do better than submit himself to the atmosphere of excitement, worldly knowledge, and money-getting art. The Asmodeus of city life is here presented with food for philosophy indeed! and the observer of character may look on with profit to his pen and pencillings. That peculiar class of the genus homo, which loves to patronize blue dress-coats of the regulation colour, decorated with burnished brass buttons,-whose proper homes are on the broad ocean-commanders of merchant vessels-of good teak-built ships, A. 1, copper-fastened,—such are the men whose characteristics of person and manners are worthy of the observation of the "chiel takin' notes," or the artist who would sketch from the life. That stalwart-built, ruddycomplexioned, black-whiskered man, whose eye scans ye boldly yet not rudely,—whose brow is the tablet of honesty and industry,—whose attire

denotes well-to-do circumstances and a contempt for the broad-cloth finicalities of the Schneiders, (being rather substantial than elegant,)— that is a sea-captain of the right school; not such a sea-captainsuch a water maniac, as Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer has painted, but a downright and upright good seaman; a strong man physically-a sound one mentally, who wouldn't hesitate to fell a mutineer with a marlinspike, or fail to steer his ship safely through the dangers of a reef of rocks. He has done his owners some service, and they know it. A dozen voyages to Calcutta and back of the good ship made under his honest charge, have not failed to enrich his now wealthy masters, whilst the same voyages have endeared him as a man to all who have experienced his attention and kindness on board, as passengers. He whom we have been describing is a leading A. 1 Commander in the service of a shipping firm, whose principal but lately held the high and honourable office of the mayoralty of the city of London. He is instanced as a type of that class which, as we have said, principally distinguishes the Jerusalem from all other coffee-houses. Before plunging in medias res and entering upon our memoranda of those coffee-houses most familiar to residents of London, we will take a passing glance at another kind of establishment, possessing certain characteristics in common with the more distinctive class, and therefore giving it a claim to be enrolled under the same category.

The cigar divans of the metropolis are essentially coffee-rooms, but they are of a distingué character, are more expensive in their charges, and more studied, elegant, and luxurious in their appointments and conveniences. The principal divans are Gliddon's, in King Street, Covent Garden; Reis's, in the Strand; and another recently opened in Fleet Street. They are elegantly furnished and appointed, with sofas, or cushioned chairs, numerous handsome tables, and chess and draft-boards. The whole of the London newspapers, and many of the provincial ones, are taken in ; as are all the magazines and other periodicals; together with sundry of the French, Italian, and colonial journals. The freedom of the room is obtained by the liquidation of less than a shilling, which includes coffee of the best description, and cigars. At Gliddon's, twopence per hour is charged to persons who wish to avail themselves of the room as readers only; and for a subscription of thirty shillings per annum, the latter advantage may be enjoyed daily; writing materials are supplied for the mere extra charge of the stationery; and the divan can be used as an office for correspondence. Gliddon's is a noble and capacious room, fitted up with true oriental spirit: the walls are ornamented with fresco paintings of oriental scenery, manners, and customs; and these have been executed by an artist of evident taste and talent. The society met with at this divan is in a degree exclusive, inasmuch that "here do congregate" various leading literary and theatrical characters. The room is often graced with the presence of some of the popular dramatists of the day, together with certain well-known comedians, of eminence in their profession, who here condescend to mix with common men, throwing off their mantles of romance, descending from their stilts, and enjoying the

otium cum dignitate positively like ordinary mortals! That such a concession is duly appreciated, a well-filled room usually bears conclusive evidence. Gliddon's is more select on ordinary week-days than on the Sunday, when Cockaine sends an uncomfortable accession of " pecus" to crowd the sofa seats, monopolise the literary fodder, stare one out of countenance, and dazzle one's optics with cheap and glaring bijouterie. Reis's divan, situated opposite Exeter Hall, in the Strand, is well worthy the sight-seer's attention; its charges assimilate with Gliddon's, and its appointments are equally, if not more, recherché. There are few public refreshment-rooms in this country where the coffee is to be obtained so well brewed and so unadulterated as at the cigar divans. The French cafés, situated in and about Leicester Square, are, perhaps, superior emporia, but they labour under a disadvantage notwithstanding their recommendations to public notice. Englishmen are constrained to withhold a good deal of their patronage from the French cafés, from the circumstance that there is an inconvenience to contend with in dealing with the language of another country, and conforming to habits and customs unusual, and frequently unpleasant, to English taste. Else the lounges of the cafés offer great inducements to those who love to luxuriate in the perfume of an Havannah, and the grateful beverage of odorous Mocha.

(To be continued.)

WALKS IN SWITZERLAND.

CHAPTER II.-BELGIUM.

THE TOURIST'S LANDING ABROAD HIS FIRST COMPANION-ANTWERP BRUSSELS -MARKET-THEATRE-FOUNTAIN OF THE MANNIKIN-FIELD OF WATERLOOEXTORTION PRACTISED ON THE ENGLISH-NAMUR-THE MEUSE-LIEGE-THE BELGIANS.

ABOUT noon on the following day, we were landed at the Quay of Antwerp-that once flourishing and mighty city, whose merchants, like those of olden Babylon and Tyre, were formerly the "honourable of the earth;" whose port, even in our time has been designed by the great despot of the Continent for the emporium of the commerce of Europe, the supplanter of London; and whose citizens and mud walls have so often, and so recently, kept formidable armies at bay ;-now (its dreams of metropolitanism over), whose fallen estate is but more painfully conspicuous in the disproportion discernible between what has been and what is-between its capabilities and its operations; and whose humiliation only the more strikingly seen in contrasts of splendid buildings in decay— vast establishments all but inactive-semi-deserted marts-the water mantling over thinly-vesselled docks-and seafaring sounds, whose intervals and echoes almost equally depress you. Such, coming from London, appeared to me the port of Antwerp. The town was more living:

and here I found abundance of attraction, and lionized after the usual way. Nor wanted for a companion: already had I found one in a young widower, not too much my senior, of highly cultivated mind and taste, and very considerable knowledge of the world, having been a settler in Australia, travelled over the Continent, and (in which I now found my profit) quite familiar with the fair city of Antwerp. After the first few hours of the voyage, and the interchange of an expression or two of sympathy at our mutual want of sailorship, we fell into close and almost exclusive conversation, for his discourse was so animated and full of interesting information that I desired no other society; and on getting ashore, willingly bore him company to his hotel, and with him overwent the several objects which we agreed were most worthy to be seen.

Be not frightened, reader: I am not going to inflict upon thee my budget. Few cockneys, in these days of "Steam Navigation Companies," but have themselves beheld the same sights that I did; and those few may have an opportunity at the next tea-party, or in any three-halfpenny magazine-not to say "Penny" one-of acquainting themselves therewith, infinitely better than by any attempts at description, which I could give, besides gleaning many learned details of their history and antiquities. It is not my intention to particularize them in a long, or even short, statistic. I will spare thee my "full, true, and particular account" of the numerous churches and public buildings; thou shalt not be dragged with me through endless picture-galleries, or nauseated with thrice hacknied descriptions of grand Rubenses, Van Dykes, Van Eycks, &c.; I will not even ask thee to con over the estimate of my hotel charges, or the bill of fare at its table d'hôte.

And yet all of these had their peculiar, and each a considerable portion of interest for me. The novelty and the admiration, the bewilderment and the blunders of one, for the first time, transported across Channel, are very familiar to all that have made the experiment, and may easily be guessed by those who as yet have not. They are, moreover, infinitely more amusing in the beholding than the recital; and, out of sheer vanity, I might, not unnaturally, be led to withhold from my draught, those particulars which would, more than all the rest, afford diversion. By the plan I have adopted, my own dignity is kept sacred, and thy patience spared a heavy trial.

After passing two entire days, admiring the elegant cathedral and its contents,―the bright, clean, irregular, gabled and shuttered housescitadel, museum, theatre, markets and market-women,-I took leave of my new friend, who contemplated a longer stay; made my exit under a gateway inscribed S. P. Q. A.; and, after two hours of rail-road travelling, reached Brussels, where a succession of treats of the same description detained me two days more.

Here, too, the long market-street, which terminates with the noble Hôtel de Ville, tenanted by throngs of female venders, in white Normandy caps, was a lively scene. I could by no means satisfactorily account for the marked difference observable between the daughters of our own land

and Eve's descendants in Belgium: their costume, I mean, and face and figure generally. The points of distinction, in both respects, were individually trifling; but, looking upon the present conclave, it was impossible to imagine myself within the four seas of Britain. A tasty dress and gay colours do much, but an uniform does more. I like a national garb, although an unbecoming one. This, however, was in itself prettier than our English women's. In point of person, we decidedly bear the bell.

The lions of Brussels are so well known, that I shall pass them over altogether; only saying, that I paid my tribute of praise (as behoved me) to Verbruggen's pulpit and the painted windows in St. Gudule's, and to the Rubenses at the Museum; also ran through, amongst the rest, the Prince of Orange's Hotel, the Botanic Garden, Halls of Justice, Parks, and Parliament House.

In the evening, for want of better occupation, I repaired to the theatre, which is a handsome edifice, with colonnade and Grecian portico. The house is large, but appeared desolately empty, and very ill-lighted; the performance was sundry vaudevilles-insipid enough; and, added to the stupidity of listening to a language I was not as yet sufficiently at home with to enjoy in comedy, I thought neither the acting nor dancing capital; the orchestra pretty fair. The lobbies, up to the top of the house, are

accessible to all classes of the audience.

Just as I was taking my departure, my commissionaire inquired if I had seen the Mannikin. On my replying in the negative, he said there was still time before the Waterloo diligence left, and took me through divers winding streets to the fountain in question. The figure is that of a male child, in bronze, which serves as a jet d'eau, and has considerable merit as a work of art. He is quite a pet of the good people of Brussels, and is actually endowed with a handsome pension to furnish out his wardrobe for festival days. Notwithstanding the grossièreté of the idea, it is so perfectly infantine, that I can't see much in it objectionable; and many a merry, and, I doubt not, an innocent laugh has been excited by the little man in his holiday suit of clothes.

Our journey to Waterloo was in company with a poor half-witted dwarf, whose legs could not have exceeded twelve inches in length; notwithstanding, he kept alongside of the diligence for considerably more than a league,―running, crowing, cutting capers, and turning summersaults, and finally sharing pretty handsomely in our alms. I fancy, in spite of his obtrusive simplicity, there was as much of rogue about the queer creature, almost, as fool.

Passing through Waterloo, I took lodgings for the night at Mont St. Jean, and, with a French barber for a guide, whose two brothers were engaged, and himself (then a lad) present at the battle, made straight for the field of battle, which there was enough of daylight left me to oversee. From the farm-house at the extremity of the village, which served as hospital for the wounded allies, it is scarce a mile to the central point, where the lion, emblematical of the House of Orange, maintains his sovereignty, though as much cannot be said of the royal animal's anti-type, over the