20 commerce, A Case of Clairvoyance. stand. For my own part, as you have But "I wish you could not," said I, "Very likely," observed my daimon ; "the Holy Bible was not quite so much in use among you as it is now in the thirty-ninth century. When you get back, consult it, and you will find that bread or corn is the staff of life, which always gave the possessor power over others. Read particularly the 47th chapter of Genesis, and you will find how Joseph therewith first gathered all the money of the people; then all their flocks, herds, and horses; then their lands, and at last their bodies. And hard bargains he made with them, no doubt, as men always will when they can. But your governors seem to have fancied that other nations would always be willing to supply you with all the corn you consumed, at the lowest price, even though they knew your wants, and that your warehouses and manufactories were glutted with excess of produce, and But I'm called unable to employ to order again! so no more of the past. You are now in New London, and had better make the most of your stay. You will be able to understand the language spoken here, though, in reality, totally different from that of your own time. What would you like to see first ?" "Any thing every thing," I replied. "That's impossible," observed my invisible guide. "You see that the human race has not changed in outward appearance; but their customs, opinions, and progress in science and arts are matters requiring a pretty considerable deal longer time than will be allowed to you this trip, I guess. Therefore, make your choice. "Let us see where old London stood then," said I. FUTURE METROPOLITAN ANTIQUITIES. The open vehicle in which I was was a stranger, he congratulated me on added he, “who isn't quite well. This is my own horse, and quite fresh; so, never fear!" "I suppose the gentlemen were antiquaries?" said I. "That's the name, sure enough!" he exclaimed. "They were to meet three or four more of the same kidney at breakfast, down yonder, by the ruins of what they say was once a bridge called Waterlow, because the tide used to end there; but I can't believe as for won't so hich· because as H must have overflowed all the low land right afore us, which is some of the best in the country." We were then going down the hill from what we call Blackheath, and he pointed with his whip towards Lambeth, where I beheld only open fields. On the other side of the river, instead of the "sulphureous canopy" of London, all was so clear, that I could discern here and there, rising above farmhouses, villas, and cottages, the ruins of stately edifices, some of which I but too well recognised. The river, too, was but a rivulet, creeping along in the centre of its former bed. I covered my face with my hands, and felt a wish, but not the power, to weep. "All regular," observed my invisible guide. "The yellow Tiber is now a petty rill, thick as pease-soup. Whereever you mortals swarm together by millions near any moderate-sized river, for a thousand or two of years, you always make a mess of it. And then Nature does her work, too. The city of Venice no longer stands in the sea. All regular." "You seem to be thinking about the old place, and the ancient people, sir," observed my driver, to whom plainly the voice of my invisible companion was inaudible; "most gendemen do when they first comes; but it soon wears off; and, arter all, why should we care any thing about the ancients? They never did nothing for us, as ever I heard on, nor for our forefathers either, unless 'twas building a town so high up the river, that they couldn't find water enough to drink, and keep their houses tidy, and so was obliged afterwards to dig great reservoirs over yonder" (and he pointed towards the East and West India, London, and St. Katherine's Docks); "though one of them antiquary gentlemen says as how they was public washing-places, and the washerwomen used to live in the caves as stands all round. However, for my part, I sha'n't trouble myself about such matters, as long as I've a good horse to drive six days in the week, and rest, and a good sermon and a good dinner of a Sunday." "I'm glad to hear that you spend that day so properly," I observed. "Why, who doesn't?" exclaimed the astonished driver, shrinking into his corner as far from me as possible. "Do you take me for an infidel? or like them old heathens as built that temple to Minerva, the goddess of wisdom?" and he pointed to the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral. Shocked as I was at this abominable misrepresentation of my own and former times, I had sufficient presence of mind to apologise and make my peace with the offended driver, by lauding the institutions of the Sabbath. "Ay," said he, "it's a pleasant day for me, always; and, besides that, it's just the thing for the cattle. One day's rest in seven, keeps them on their legs-keeps them in spirits-just the very thing. Why, there's this here nag afore us, looks forward to, and knows Sunday just as well as any Christian in the land. The old people, they say, worked every day, pretty near all the year round, and so worked themselves stupid, and no wonder ; and so they built a temple to the goddess of wisdom, hoping, I suppose, to recover their senses. Well, I'll just tell you one thing about 'em as an antiqueery gentleman told me was a positive fact, and could be proved by old manyscrips. Just away at the end of that long lane on the left as we're now passing, there's a place called the Elephant and Castle, because the old East Indians used to have their houses there, and always rode upon elephants instead of carriages, like other people, because they were such a desperate deal richer than all the rest. And how do you suppose they got their money? -But you'll never guess." "Then it's useless to try," I observed, somewhat pettishly; but, as the words passed my lips, my magnetic monitor whispered, "Take things easy, and do not attempt to contradict him, or any one else, in what you may hear about your own times they'll not believe you." “Very well,” I replied; “I'll try." "That's right!" said he; "when a clairvoyant tries at any thing, we magnetic influencers are ever ready to assist him; so take that!" and he seemed to breathe into my ear an agreeable warmth, which instantly pervaded my whole frame, and created a delightful free and easy sensation, disposing me to hear and witness all that might pass, as though the whole were got up by the "spiriting" of some delicate, good-natured Ariel, for my amusement. "It's no story of my making, sir,” resumed the driver, in reply to my ས་་་ 22 A Case of Clairvoyance. testy observation;" and, between ourselves, I can't quite swallow it, though the gentleman as told me is one of the big-wigs. I can believe as the East Indians used to meet in a large leaden hall; because, the richer folks are, the more out-o'-the-way things they do, particularly in the building line; and so why shouldn't they have used lead to make bricks of if they liked?" "None in the world," said I, goodhumouredly; "but how was it they got so much money?" "Ay, that's it!" he replied; " that's the queerest discovery them antiqueerones have made. They say as the East Indians, who were all black, of course, - and a queer sight they must have made, sitting all round in their black-lead hall!-they say as how they used to send great ships all the way to t'other side of the world to fetch-what d'ye think? Ha! ha! Why -weeds! reg'lar bitter weeds, which the stupid old people used to buy and soak in water; and then drink the water, and throw the weeds away, and buy more weeds. Rich and poor, men, women, and children - all were bamboozled into drinking it, morning, noon, and night, and some of 'em nothing else!" "Well, that was strange!" said I. 66 you "Strange!" he exclaimed, may say that! But that's nothing to what them antiqueer old fellows will tell you, if you listen to them." "Do you think you could drive me We accordingly proceeded to the I found the antiquaries in the centre of the ruins of the cathedral, engaged in disputing whether the circle, indicated by the fragments of pillars, had ever been covered in; and if so, in what manner? The prevailing opinion was, that there had been a cupola, left open in the centre, after the fashion of the Pantheon at Rome. On being informed that I was a stranger, visiting the ancient city from curiosity and anxious to acquire information, they welcomed me with condescending politeness, while their manifest self-glorification was sufficiently ludicrous under existing circumstances. They were six in number, all elderly men, dressed alike in black, and all wore spectacles, the glasses of which had a dusky tint, as though they had been a little smoked. The results of their researches were somewhat startling; but the manner in which they were dribbled out for my enlightenment, was much too prosy and prolix to be given here verbatim. One long line, indicating the prin cipal street of the ancient place, was drawn on their map, as having extended from the spot on which we stood, to the Highgate Archway; and, as the name of Highgate was still preserved, my instructors declared that there could be no doubt as to its being the spot where the principal northern entrance, the high gate, or porta alta, of the city formerly stood. The Royal Exhange, or Byrsa Regalis, was marked as having occupied the centre of an open space near the well-known Angel at Islington; and my attention was particularly called to that point by one of the savans, who appeared to feel that he had won unto himself something like immortality by, as he said, exploding a vulgar error." After bidding me notice a number of lines, diverging in various directions from the said spot, and indicating streets there joining the main thoroughfare, or, as he styled it, the via alta, he exclaimed triumphantly, "In what more central or fitting place could the forum or exchange have stood? And then, as for the name, the common people call it the Angel, which is a manifest corruption of angle, which, in the plural, was, without doubt, the name of the spot, as you may see here," and he jotted his finger upon the mumer. ous corners,—" here! angles, angles, angles, of all sorts! obtuse, acute, and right angles! So it is clear, as the sun at noon, that the angles,' or anguli, must have been the name of the place, and no other. As for angel -pshaw !" The next subject of inquiry was the Post Office in St. Martin's le Grand, the ruins of which were still known by the name of "The Post," a word very puzzling to the philosophers, who were divided in opinion as to whether it had been a military post or station, a temple to futurity, or a depository for wills and other documents for the benefit of posterity. When I ventured a hint of its real destination, it was received with supercilious compassion for my ignorance; and my angular friend immediately drew me aside, and confidentially whispered, "I perceive, sir, that you do not know the gentleman whom you just addressed. That, sir, is the great Doctor Tuffotropos. We all look up to him! his knowledge of the ancients, their manners, customs, and history, is perfectly wonderful. He has discovered some error in the latter, upon which he means to address the society at our meeting to-night; but he keeps the subject to himself till then. Whatever it may be, there is no doubt that, coming from him, it will produce a great sensation." After this warning I conducted myself with more circumspection, and was permitted to look over the highlyprized map, in which I was surprised to find so many fields bearing names similar to those of the buildings, streets, and squares, by which they had been formerly covered. Of these the antiquaries had made ample use. Smithfield was marked off in red lines as the quarter appropriated for workers in iron; Finsbury was the fish-market ; the site of Buckingham Palace was the residence of the buck-rangers of the adjacent parks; the name of the Isle of Dogs was accounted for by placing thereon the dogana, or custoinhouse; Bloomsbury was the flowermarket; Golden Square was the loca tion of bankers, and the rich meadows of Lambeth were declared to have been appropriated to the rearing of early lambs for the luxurious old citizens. From poring over these and similar mistakes, I was aroused by an ex clamation from one of the party, whose name I learned was Dr. Fussey. "Yes," said he, exultingly, "I have it! On that next field, just below us, called Doctors' Commons, stood a court of justice." "Bravo!" thought I, "something like truth at last." "On what grounds has our learned brother arrived so suddenly at so important a conclusion?" inquired Dr. Tuffotropos, with much dignity. "Not suddenly, my most erudite brethren," replied Dr. Fussey, throwing back his broad unmeaning face, and elevating his short rotund body as much as possible; "not suddenly ; oh, no! I have thought much on the subject; and yet somehow, the truth did at last flash suddenly upon me. That is not unusual, I believe: a sort of inspiration-ahem! But you shall hear. The fact is, that last week, when I was breakfasting with my friend, the lord-chancellor, his lordship was pleased to shew me certain papers relative to a case which, as his lordship very properly observed, ought to have been decided by one of his predecessors, inasmuch as it was first brought into the chancery court in the second year of Victoria the First. That I discovered, his lordship (between us be it said, with all due deference to his station and legal talents) being no antiquary. What the nature of the case is, I do not pretend to know, and I rather think that his lordship is equally in the dark; but that's no great matter. Our labours are to elucidate antiquity; and, in one of the papers that I allude to, I found it stated that the case was an appeal from the decision of a court in Doctors' Commons-ahem! Well, finding that name here, and considering the convenient distance from hence to Billingsgate, where there can be no doubt the principal pleaders of the time studied elocution (inasmuch as Billingsgate oratory was proverbial), I very confidently pronounce that to be the spot anciently occupied by the said court." "Not the least doubt of it," said Dr. Tuffotropos; "I congratulate you most fervently. We must contrive to get a facsimile of a few lines of the old writing for our next volume of Transactions. We are all particularly indebted to you, doctor, for this display of critical acumen; but, no one perhaps so much as myself, as your dis 24 A Case of Clairvoyance. covery has made clear to me the meaning of three letters frequently placed at the end of names, and concerning which there has been much disputing; I mean D.C.L., which we may hereafter fearlessly translate Doctors' Commons' Lawyer!" A murmur of admiration and approbation rewarded this egregious folly, and my angular friend whispered something about the extraordinary readiness of the last speaker in availing himself instantaneously of one discovery by making another. I, of course, said something civil in reply; and having heard enough of their topographic guess-work, expressed a wish to be present at their evening GLANCE AT A MUSEUM. As we arrived at the society's rooms about half an hour before "business" commenced, my friend of the angles politely attended me in a hurried inspection of their collection of antique relics, which were principally in glass cases, arranged, as he said, in strict chronological order; and, as every case was labelled with a description of its contents, for the benefit of the uninitiated, I had little occasion to ask questions; so, stopping at the division for the relics of the nineteenth century, I noticed, inter alia, a lot of broken tea-cups, marked as the vessels from which we drank our wine. A silver fish-slice was doubtfully stated to be either a sacrificial knife, or an instrument used by apothecaries in spreading salve for plasters. Among the collection of lamps were some tea-pots, a silver soup-ladle, and sundry broken tobacco-pipes; and, in the centre of a multitude of coins, the greater proportion of which were quite unknown to me, were placed, as in the post of honour, a driver's and a conductor's badge, which, having some of the letters worn away, had furnished matter for much sharp controversy. My friend shook his head, as he observed me looking at them, and expressed his opinion that they were misplaced, and doubtless of much more ancient date, if not Roman. Indeed, he said that he had almost made up his mind to the latter, and that they were not coins, but medals struck for the purpose being let into the first stone of some public building, as the letters COND, of The next object of curiosity that he pointed out, was one which he appeared almost to idolise. It was part of a huge decayed iron tube, from which issued two smaller tubes of different metal; being, in fact, a broken gas-pipe and its branches. "There!" cried he, exultingly; railways. "Observe!" he continued, |