board of trade and the privy council, &c. Beyond this, and joining it, is the d building of the Treasury, in which the home office is also placed; higher up is the Horse Guards; nearly opposite it is the building termed Whitehall, which has give name to the street; above the Horse Guards, nearer to Charing Cross, is the miralty; and opposite, in Scotland yard, are a variety of subordinate governmen offices.

St. James's park, and the Horse Guards' parade in front of it, lie at the back d Downing street, the Treasury, the Horse Guards, and the Admiralty. The engraving represents these buildings from the park. There is an arched passage through the Horse Guards from Whitehall into the Parade. Here between ten and eleven in the morning, the animated scene exhibited in the engraving is presented.

The extensive and important business of the executive government requires i minute subdivision of labor, the employment of many offices and numerous function aries. To attempt to gather an idea of the extent of the business transacted from an inspection of the exterior of Downing street and Whitehall would be but an idle effort; yet to describe particularly each office would only tempt the reader to exclaim "Grove answer grove; each alley has its brother, And half the platform but reflects the other."

However different the nature of the various employments may be, there must be a similarity in all-the Horse Guards alone, from its military air and character, breaking the uniformity.

The treasury is the head of the executive. The prime minister is always the first lord of the treasury-for the first title is merely honorary, given to him from the rank which he takes as head of the government: the second title is the virtual one. The second lord of the treasury is always the chancellor of the exchequer; but when it happens that the prime minister is a commoner, he sometimes takes both the post of first lord and chancellor of the exchequer-for the latter must be a member of the commons, and the government appointments are usually distributed so as to secure as equal a proportion of ministers as possible in both houses of parliament. There are four junior lords of the treasury, two secretaries, an assistant secretary, two solicitors, and a number of clerks. The treasury has the control of the mint, the customs, the excise, the stamps and taxes, the postoffice, the management of the national debt, &c.

The duties of the chancellor of the exchequer are of a momentous kind. They give him cognizance of the entire revenue of the empire. His " 'budget," as it is termed, is an annual exposition to the house of commons and the nation of the amount of taxes gathered from every source, the expenditure of that money, and whether a necessity or an opportunity has arisen for the imposition of a new tax, or the reduction of an old one.

The names of the three secretaries of state indicate their several duties. There would appear, at first sight, a great difference in the weight of their respective functions. The home secretary, we might say, having such a small department as that of Great Britain to attend to, and that, too, chiefly as regards the administration of justice and police, can not be so heavily pressed as he who has to watch foreign nations, control ambassadors, look to nearly two hundred consular stations in different parts of the world, and otherwise guard the foreign interests; or the colonial secretary, presiding over the wide-spread empire in every quarter of the globe.

The board of trade has its president, secretaries, and various departmental clerks: the office of Woods and Forests its commissioners; the exchequer its comptroller, accountants, &c.; and the board of control its president and commissioners. The office of the board of control lies over from Whitehall, in a lane called Cannon Row, not far from Westminster bridge. Its business is to superintend and control the governing functions of the East India company.

The Horse Guards is the seat of the government of the vast military establishment of Great Britain. The king is the head and generalissimo of the army; the commander-in-chief is the king's deputy, and acting ruler of the forces. The connexion between the Horse Guards and the civil government is maintained by a member of the latter, termed the secretary-at-war; the paymaster-general is also usually a civilian. The commander-in-chief is assisted by a military secretary, an adjutantgeneral, a quartermaster-general, and a judge-advocate-general. There is also a chaplain-general. The ordnance office is partly at the Tower of London and in

Pall Mall; and it is presided over by a master-general and a surveyor-general, with their principal secretaries and clerks.

We come now to the admiralty. The front of this building recedes from the street, but is connected with it by wings, forming a court-yard. The head of the admiralty is the lord high admiral; but this office has been rarely held in person (the late king when duke of Clarence, was lord high admiral for some time); but its duties are dis charged by lords commissioners, the first lord being the head of the department.

The preceding gives a very brief and rapid view of the head government offices in Downing street and Whitehall. But there are other offices of the executive, subor dinate indeed to those we have described, but each heads of departments, and of very great importance, in different parts of London.

A number of what may be termed the working offices of government are in Somerset house. This noble building is entered from the strand; on passing through the gateway we arrive in a spacious quadrangle, and over the different doors on each side of the square may be remarked brief but significant intimations, such as "Stamps and Taxes," "Navy Payoffice," "Legacy Duty Office," "Audit Office," &c., &c.

Here, therefore, is transacted a large portion of government money business, and the receipt and management of such parts of the revenue arising from trade as do not fall under the heads of customs or excise. For instance, under "Stamps" are inclu ded the taxes levied on deeds, legacies, insurance policies, bills of exchange, bankers' notes, newspapers and advertisements, stage-coaches, post-horses, receipts, &c. Among other offices in Somerset house, may be mentioned that of the poor-law commissioners. The money that was gathered in the country for poor-rates was, in 1832-34, between eight and nine millions annually; in 1835 it fell down to little more than seven millions, and in 1836 it was little more than six millions.

The excise office is in Broad street, and the customhouse in Lower Thames street, below London bridge.

CHAPTER XXVI.

FIRE-INSURANCE, SUPPLY OF WATER, GAS, PAVING.

THE accompanying engraving supplies an illustration of the fact, that communities learn slowly what is best for the general health, convenience, and comfort. That tall column, "pointing to the skies," commemorates a terrible event, which weeded out the narrow streets and lanes where the plague, in its frequent visits, found the filth, discomfort, and misery, on which it fed; yet, in spite of the warning, too many narrow streets sprung up on the site of those burned down; and the monument on Fish-street hill, not only bore testimony to the great calamity which ultimately proved so beneficial, but seemed to rear its head over the narrow streets around it, as if to say, "Here, at least, another 'great plague,' or another great fire,' may find materials on which to work." Happily, neither pestilence nor fire, in aggravated forms, has visited London since the latter half of the seventeenth century; but it was not till the erection of the new London bridge and its approaches, that Fish-street hill assumed the handsome appearance it now presents. It looked very different a few years ago.

This leads us to take a view of a very important department of the social characteristics of London—the means by which it is secured and insured from the ravages of fire, the supply of water, of gas, and the paving and sewerage. On all these combined depend a great many of the causes which make a city really great-not the greatness arising merely from magnificent public buildings or establishments, but that which communicates to the mass of the inhabitants the largest amount of social security, of enjoyment, of convenience, and of comfort. In all these respects London has much to improve; yet its inhabitants enjoy more of them in a single day, than the inhabitants of imperial Rome did in a year, with all its wonderful monuments and public places of resort.

There has hitherto been no special fire-preventive police, nor as yet, under the direction of the government or municipal authorities. The law merely requires par ishes to keep fire-engines and ladders in certain places, and to provide stop-blocks and fire-cocks on the mains of the water-works. Gratuities are also directed to be paid to engine-keepers, &c., who arrive earliest at any fire for the purpose of extin guishing it. The fire-insurance companies, however, have always kept up at their own expense a fire police. Formerly, each company had a distinct body of firemen, who were chiefly selected from the watermen; these had a peculiar garb, and wore the badges of the companies to which they belonged. They had annual processions and dinners. When an alarm of fire was communicated to one of them, he ran on to rouse his nearest companion, and, having done so, proceeded to the fire; the second went to alarm a third, and so on, till the whole body were roused. Ingenious as this was, there was a want of co-operation and a loss of time frequently experienced. The firemen pursued their usual avocations on the river when not required to perform their occasional duties, and when an alarm of fire was raised during the night most of them might be sound asleep after the labors of the day. To obviate the evils arising from the employment of occasional servants, the greater number of the London fire-insurance companies joined together, about four years ago, to form a permanent body of firemen, ready at all hours to give immediate attendance on fires. This is termed the "London Fire-Engine Establishment," and is supported at the expense of the following fire-insurance companies: The Alliance, Atlas, British, Globe, Guar dian, Hand-in-Hand, Imperial, London, Norwich Union, Phoenix, Protector, Royal Exchange, Scottish Union, Sun, Union, and Westminster; and these have been joined recently by the "Licensed Victuallers' Society." This fire establishment, instead of being under distinct officers appointed by each company, are embodied under the direction of a superintendent, with foremen and engineers under him, appointed to certain stations. At these stations there is constant attendance day and night. The