THE TOWER OF LONDON.

To an American visiting England, this

ancient and celebrated citadel of the metropolis is one of the most interesting objects he meets with. This is partly owing to our familiarity with its name, and the variety of its parts and uses, but is chiefly due to its intimate connection with some of the most striking periods of English history, and many of the personages most conspicuous in periods of public danger and convulsion. We find there the prisons, the very apartments in which many state prisoners were immured, and the spot where they suffered death. In a long hall we walk between two rows of effigies of the sovereigns of England, in the dresses of their days, and several of them in their own armor, mounted on horseback, and presenting a most impressive spectacle, the more solemn for the silence which pervades the place.

The struggles of our British ancestors for civil and religious freedom, we consider as our own, if we view their nature and influence as we ought; and within these walls are numerous memorials of those events and personages whose memory most excites our feelings.

We entered through four gates, and by crossing the bridge by the Thames. We then passed under two more low, thick archways of stone, where we were stopped by a sentinel; and, on making known our object, a warder soon made his appearance, who undertook to be our conductor. He wore a long and broad-skirted coat, with a hat band formed of particolored ribbands.

The White Tower, (which stands in full view in our frontispiece,) is the most ancient edifice, and occupies the centre of the large circular piece of ground, of 12 acres and 5 roods, which now encloses various other buildings of different periods. It is a heavy square building, surrounded by the inner court, and was formerly the king's palace.

The curiosities in the Tower have been exhibited to visiters for ages; and the place has been an armory longer than any records show. We find a number of the same objects still there which were described by a German traveller in 1508. Among these are the oldest cannon in England, which are made of wood, and were used at the seige of Boulogne, on the opposite coast of France. Some of these old pieces were formed of long iron

bars, closely fitted, and bound round with hoops of the same metal.

There is a statue of Queen Elizabeth, which has been said to represent her as attired when she addressed her troops after the defeat of the Spanish armada. Though this appears to be irreconcileable with historical facts, the object is an interesting one, as it presents a nearly correct pattern of her dress, as well as a resemblance of her person, which, when contemplated in that ancient edifice, bring up to the memory lively pictures of her remark able character and reign, so strongly associat ed with the Reformation, and therefore of such inestimable importance to us and our coun

try.

The White Tower is believed to have been built by William the Conqueror. Under Rufus and Henry 1st, repairs and additions were made; and, while Richard 1st was absent on a crusade, the first wall was built round the place. Henry 3d made the tower his palace, and added to the works to render it a more secure retreat, about the year 1240. Nothing has been done to extend the Tower since the time of Edward 1st, and the kings of England gradually relinquished the use of it as a habitation, till the time of Henry 8th, when they entered it only on great occasions. He first converted it into a prison; and after his time it received multitudes of persons, of all grades, conditions, and characters, who in successive periods incurred the displeasure, and sometimes only the suspicion, jealousy, or vengeance of the various monarchs who in turn occupied the throne, or of their favorites to whom they delegated their power. In the reign of James 1st, it suffered greatly from neglect, but was put into a complete state of defence in 1792, in which we still find it.

The following description of the Tower of London, we extract from the Travels of Don Manoel Gonzales, a Portuguese merchant, and man of education, in 1730. The reader may find a trauslation of the whole manuscript, (which is among the Harleian collection,) in the second volume of Pinkerton's Voyages, a valuable family book.

"The Tower of London is situated at the south-east end of the city, on the river Thames, and consists in reality of a great number of towers or forts, built at several times, which still retain their several names; at present most of them, together with a little tower and church, are enclosed within one wall and

ditch, and compose but an entire fortress. It was the vulgar opinion that the Tower was built by Julius Cæsar; but history informs us that Cæsar made no stay in England, that he erected no town or fortress, unless that with which he enclosed his ships on the coast of Kent, nor left a single garrison or soldier on the island on his departure.

"This Tower, as now encompassed, stands upon twelve acres of ground, and something more, being of an irregular form, but approaching near to that of an oblong, one of the longest sides lying next the river, whence it rises gradually towards the north, by a pretty steep ascent to the armory, which stands upon the highest ground in the Tower, overlooking the white Tower, built by William the Conqueror, and the remains of the Castle below it on the Thames side, said to be built by William Rufus.

As to the strength of the place, the works, being all antique, would not be able to hold out four and twenty hours against an army prepared for a siege. The ditch, indeed, is of great depth, and upwards of a hundred feet broad, into which the water of the Thames may be introduced at pleasure: but I question whether the walls on the inside would bear the firing of their own guns. Certain it is that two or three battering pieces would soon lay them even with the ground, though after all the ditch alone is sufficient to defend it against a sudden assault.

There are several small towers upon the walls. Those of the largest dimensions, and which appear to be the most formidable, are the Divelin tower on the north west, the Martin tower on the north-east, and St. Thomas's tower on the river, near the Traitors' bridge, which I take to be part of the castle said to be built by William Rufus. Here is also a large tower outside of the bridge, called the Lion's tower, on the south-west corner, near which is the principal gate and bridge, by which coaches and carriages enter the Tower, and there are two posterns with bridges over the ditch to the wharf on the Thames side, one whereof is called Traitors' bridge, under which state prisoners used to enter the Tower.

"The principal places and buildings within the Tower are

1. The Parochial Church; for the Tower is a parish of itself, in which are fifty houses and upwards, inhabited by the governor, de

puty governor, warders, and other officers beonging to the fortress.

"2. To the eastward of the church stands a noble pile of buildings, usually called the Armory, begun by King James 2d, and finished by King William 3d, being 390 feet in length, and 60 in breadth. The stately doorcase on the south side is adorned with four columns, entablature and triangular pediments, of the Doric order. Under the pedi ment are the king's arms, with enrichments of trophy work, very ornamental. It consists of two lofty rooms, reaching the whole length of the building. In the lower room is a complete train of artillery, of brass cannon and mortars, fit to attend an army of 100,000 men. We find a large number of Cohorn mortars, so called from the Dutch engineer, Cohorn, who invented them for firing a great number of hand grenades at once; with other extraordinary pieces cast at home, or taken from the enemy.

"In the rooom over the artillery is the armory of small arms, of equal dimensions with that underneath, in which are placed, in admirable order, muskets and other small arms for 40,000 men. They show us also the two swords of state carried before the Pretender when he invaded Scotland, in 1715, and the arms taken from the Spaniards who landed in Scotland, in 1719, &c.

"In the horse-armory the most remarkable things are some of the English kings on horseback, in complete armor, among which the chief are Edward 3d, Henrys 5th and 7th, Charles 1st and 2d, and King William, and a suit of silver armor, said to have belonged to John of Gaunt, seven feet and a half high.

"The White Tower is a lofty, square, stone building, with a turret at each angle, standing on the declivity of the hill, a little below the armory. The main guard of the Tower, with the lodgings of the officers, are on the east side of this building. In the Chapel usually called Cæsar's Chapel, and a large room adjoiding, are kept many ancient records, such as privy seals in several reigns, &c., but the records of the greatest importance are kept in the Wakefield Tower, consisting of statute rolls from the 6th of Edward 1st to the 8th of Edward 3d.

"The Jewel Office, where the regalia (or royal ornaments,) are deposited, stands near the east end of the armory, which contains the imperial crown, &c.

From "Regnard's Journey to Lapland."

Funeral Ceremonies in Sweden.

We arrived at Torno on Tuesday, and we came in good time to see the ceremony of the funeral of John Tornæus, whom I formerly mentioned, and who had been dead 2 months. It is the custom in Sweden to keep the bodies of their dead a very long time; this length of time depends on the quality of the deceased; and the higher the rank of the person, the longer is the funeral deferred. This time is afforded, that every thing may be prepared for this event, which is the most solemn that takes place in this country; and if it be said that the Turks lay out their property on marriages, the Jews on circumcision, and the Christians on lawsuits, we may add the Swedes on their funerals. In fact, I was astonished at the great expense laid out upon the funeral of a man who was not by any means of rank, and that, too, in a country so barbarous, and at such a distance from the rest of the world. They had no sooner heard of our arrival, than the son-in-law of the defunct immediately began to study a Latin oration, which he intended to deliver the next day in our presence, inviting us to attend his father's funeral: he was dreaming about it the whole night; and when he came before us the next day, he had forgotten the whole of his discourse. If low bows say any thing, and be the marks of eloquence, I can assure you that our haranguer was the prince of orators; but I believe the bending of his body was employed rather to hide the confusion which appeared upon his countenance, than to adorn his discourse. As we were acquainted with the object of his visit, we understood that he came to request our assistance at the ceremony, for we could understand nothing from his discourse; and a short time after the burgo-master of the city, with an officer who was there in garrison, came to take us in their boat across the water to the house of the deceased. On our arrival we found the whole house filled with priests habited with long cloaks and hats, which appeared by their heights to be columns employed to support some beam of a house.

The body of the deceased was laid in a coffin, covered with cloth, and placed in the middle of them. They watered him with their tears, which trickled down their moistened beards, the separated hairs of which formed various channels, and distilled

this sorrowful humor, which was employed instead of holy water. All these priests had left their parishes, and had come from a great distance; some of them had travelled more than a hundred leagues; and we were assured that such is their regard for this ceremony, if it had happened in winter, when the roads are in the best situation for travelling, there was no priest within two hundred leagues distance who would not have attended. The oldest delivered a funeral oration to all his assistants; and he must surely have said something very affecting, since his mournful air had almost drawn forth even our tears, who knew not a word he spoke. The women were in a little chamber, separated from the men, and they groaned in a dreadful manner; among others the widow of the deceased interrupted by her sighs the discourse of the preacher. While this sermon was delivered here another was preached in the Finland tongue at the church; and when the two discourses were ended, they set out to conduct the body to the church. Seven or eight respectable inhabitants carried him on their shoulders, and every one was anxious to lend his aid. This brought to my recollection what Virgil says of the entrance of the horse into Troy, when he mentions that both young and old were anxious to lend their aid to draw that machine into the city. We followed the corpse like the chief mourners, and the widow was afterwards conducted under the arms of her two daughters, the one of whom grieved much, while the other seemed not at all affected. The body was placed in the middle of the church, while some psalms were sung; and the women, in passing by the deceased, threw themselves upon the coffin, and embraced him for the last time. Now commenced the grand and principal funeral oration, delivered by John Rantinus,, priest of Urna, who received a dish made of silver for his trouble. I cannot say whether he merited it; but I know that he cried much; and that to render every object more sad, he made himself hideous, in leaving his hair in disorder, and full of pieces of straw, which he had not had time to take out of it. This man related every occurrence in the life of the deceased, from his birth to his last sigh; he mentioned the places, and the masters whom he had last served, the provinces which he had seen, and did not omit the minutest circumstance of his

life. It is the custom in this country to deliver a funeral oration over lacqueys and servants, provided the relations are able to give a crown to the orator.

I attended through curiosity the funeral of a servant at Stockholm. The priest who delivered her funeral oration, after mentioning the place of her birth, and her relations, expatiated on the good qualities of the deceased, and exaggerated highly her knowledge of kitchen work, distributing his discourse into various divisions, according to number of ragouts which she knew how to prepare ; and formed part of his oration by telling them she had only one fault, that of making every thing too salt, and that she shewed by this conduct the respect she had for prudence, of which salt is the symbol, and her little regard for the things of this world, which she threw away in profusion.

Mr. F. Webster's Lecture on China. Fletcher Webster, Esq., has delivered two lectures on the country, the customs, and the peculiarities of the Chinese. As secretary to the Commission, of which the Hon. Mr. Cushing was the head, for the formation of a commercial treaty with that nation, he had the best opportunity of informing himself on all these topics.

Macao, he said, was a rocky promontory about a mile in width, which stretches out into the sea, on the south side of the great bay into which the Pekian, or Canton empties. It is about seventy miles nearly south of Canton, is connected by a narrow sandy beach with the great island of Honan, the northern end of which lies opposite Canton. It must resemble Nahant. This point holds the same reference to the whole of China, that a small town on the extremity of Cape Sable in Florida would have to the United States.

Next to Russia, China is the largest empire in the world. It extends from the 18th to the 52d parallel of north latitude, thirty-four degrees. It reaches from the 143d to the 70th meridian of longitude from Greenwich, 75 degrees. Its boundaries seem prescribed by nature alone. On the North, the great mountain ranges of Altai and the Gablonnoi separate it from Siberia, along a line of three. thousand miles. The stupendous Himmelaya, the Hindoo Coast, and the Belou mountains confine it on the South and West, and divide it from India and Afghanistan; and it stretches towards the Aral and Caspian seas an unascertained extent, occupying the limits stated. The Chinese empire covers the whole centre of Asia. The superficial extent is more than five millions of square miles. Were the territories of the United States to extend north and south from their extreme Northern points, from 25 to 54 North, inclu

ding Oregon, Texas, and a large portion of Canada, and stretch between parallel lines from ocean to ocean, they would not equal in size the empire of China. This vast circumference is impenetrable to foreigners. At one point only, on its boundless frontiers, can it be entered; at he city of Mamatchin, on the Russian border, where the caravans annually pass with tea.

There are three chief systems of religion in China. Those of Confucius, of Lao Tse and Budhas.-The former is the religion of the most learned Chinese. Lao Tse differs not so much from the great sage Confucius as to make any difficulty in uniting both creeds. Budhism is the religion of the uneducated classes throughout the empire. There is no state religion in China, properly speaking. The Emperor is a hereditary Budhist, a follower of the Llama, but he is also a follower of Confucius. China is tolerant of all religions, and it is only from the effects of the course of Jesuits that the Christian religion has ever been prohibited.

Mr. Webster then went on to show how the provision for building hospitals, cemeteries, and churches, was got into the 17th article of our Treaty. Heiwang, the present Lieut. Governor of Kwang Provinces, a sort of secretary of Legation to Keying, was present at one of the many conferences which were had upon the subject of the treaty. The American interpreters, Drs. Harper and Bridgman, were also present with the American functionaries. When they had got to this item of the treaty, Hewang turned to Dr. Parker, whom he well knew, and who enjoys, in an extraordinary degree, the regard and respect of the Chinese, both officers and people, and said, with a waive of the hand and courteous smile, Certainly, churches and hospitals, if you please." This ready compliance with our desires, said Mr. Webster, was a direct tribute of respect to Dr. Parker, which he well merited, and was highly honorable to the uncommonly liberal mind of the accomplished Chinese himself.

The Budhist temples much resemble those of the Catholics, at least those of that faith in Macao. They have images: they worship the Virgin Mother;" they burn incense; they offer prayers for the dead; they have nuns and also monks; and indeed so general is the resemblance as to have caused much annoyance, it is said, to the early missionaries. The Chinese Budhists, however, petition their gods for everything, even in all the ordinary matters of life. Beside the door of every shop is a little temple with an image in it. In the house are paintings of the god of Longevity, who receives devoted worship, and others also: for their Pantheon is large. At one temple at Macao, are the images of sixty deities.

Mr. Webster next proceeded to describe the particulars of an interview between the American Minister and some High Chinese functionaries. An imperial edict announced their

coming. After a while, a discordant noise, accompanied by loud cries at intervals, was heard, and the Americans looked from the b'inds of the verandah to see the approach of the visitors. Two ill looking fellows with wire caps on their head, one of them with a whip, and the other with an axe, in his hand, led the procession. These men were the executioners, who always precede a high officer. Next came a score of poorly dressed and very dirty soldiers, with spears and shields, and halberts. Then a man or two on wretched ponies whose hair stood our in all directions, and whose manes and tails were ignorant of brush and currycomb; then the band of music, and then the sedan chairs of the great men themselves. They were four in number, all large and fine looking persons, dressed in light colored crape gowns, fastened round their waists by blue girdles and buckles of precious stones. The Americans stood up to receive them, with hats on, for it is Chinese etiquette to be covered as a mark of respect. They entered with their caps on, displaying their red and blue buttons and peacock's feathers. The button is fastened to the top of the cap, and the feather hangs down behind.

They approached, shook their hands at us, and the chief among them presented the letter to the Minister. On receiving it, he motioned them to be seated, and take off their caps, which, observing carefully the movements of the Americans, and keeping exact time with them, they did. One of the interpreters now read the letter, and after a short interval of silence, such sort of conversation as can be carried on by interpreters, and looks and signs, took place. The first civility was on their part, asking our names; this information being given and reciprocated, they proceeded to shock our notions of good breeding by asking our ages! They returned these civilities in like form. A luncheon came next; the guests being seated on the left, which, in China, is the seat of honor. Chop sticks had been provided for all, and the first experiment of the Americans with them so delighted their guests, that they could not refrain from laughter. They showed little inclination to eat, but a decided taste for Bostonian liquors, champaigne and cherry bounce. A very red faced gentleman, a Mantchoo Tartar, disposed of half a dozen tumblers of bounce in as many minutes. It is customary to empty the glass when drinking with a friend; and as they each drank with all the Americans, they became as elevated as their voices, which, in conversation, Mr, Webster said, were at the highest pitch. One unavoidable civility, Mr. W. said, all the Americans would have glad. ly dispensed with. It is the fashion for every one to help himself with his own chop sticks from any dish on the table which he can reach; and when he feels desirous of offering a testimonial of particular regard, as well as respect, he reaches out and seizes something with his own chop stick, and motioning to the individual for whom he designs the favor, to open his mouth, puts the morsel, whatever

it is, between his teeth, As they are not peculiarly nice in their eating, and their teeth are by no means pearly, this part of the ceremony would have been gladly dispensed with. It was, however, not to be escaped; all that was left was retaliation, which they immediately practised. After an hour at table of shouting conversation on their part, and of nods and becks, and wreathed smiles on the other part, they all returned to the verandah to be surprised by yet further civilities. There they began to examine the apparel of the Americans, piece by piece, cravat, coat, waistcoat, shirt bosom, trowsers, sword belt, gloves, all in turn were inspected. Dr. Parker told them this was the very acme of Chinese politeness, and to be emulated without delay, whereupon they examined the caps, buttons, peacock's feathers, and other ornaments of the other party. Mr. Webster noted well the little embroidered bags, which, with fan cases, and snuff-boxes, they hang from their girdles, their thumb rings of agate, their silken girdles and jewelled buckles. Tung Ling, took a sword belt belonging to one of the Americans, putting it on to show how much too small it was, and marching up and down to show his portly frame. He struck his full chest and said in a voice of thunder" I am a Mantchoo." He then seized my hand and squeezed it to show his strength. He was a terror-spreading Tartar General. Our friends retired, said Mr. W., after two hours intellectual intercourse of this kind. The procession was formed, the gongs beat, and the pipes squealed, while the executioners yelled, and the little ponies were pulled between their riders' legs, and we were left to reflect upon the Chinese and their

customs.

Mr. Webster remarked that it was Mr. Cushing's and his own intention to go to Pekin. He had therefore made up his mind to study the Court language of China, which was Mantchoo Tartar, the present reigning family being of that race.

Mr. Webster here gave an account of his voyage from Macao to Canton, in pursuit of a teacher. -The journey was a delightful one. Boats were at hand, built of light wood. Spacious; 12 to 15 wide, and 50 or 60 feet long. Most of these boats are taken up in cabins, which are built upon deck like a small room with many windows. They are furnished with chairs, tables, &c., with two masts-two bamboo sails of peculiar shape, and light draught. Their speed is very great. They call these "fast boats," or "Scrambling Dragons." The crews number 10 or 15 men and a commander. These boats are hired, provisioned, and secured from pirates, and then all is ready for embarking. These boats cannot approach within some rods of the shore, and the passage to them has to be in a smaller boat which is called a "Tanka." Those delicate and frail vessels are shaped like half an egg. A moveable cover like a gig-top is put upon the stern and centre. They are owned and managed always by