authority, that the only really expert and accomplished workmen who ever find their way into a jail, are shoemakers.

A good proportion of the tailors of London are Irish, Scotch, and German; but the tailoring trade has suffered wofully within the last few lustres, from the enterprise of the ready-made clothes-merchants, from whose unlimited stock a large section of the public find it easier and more convenient to get fitted at once, than to run the risk of failure from an incompetent professor of the art. Their enormous increase throughout the kingdom is doubtless due to the convenience they afford, and the saving of time, now so important an article, effected by dealing with them. The largest establishments are those of the Jews; and more of them, in fact, belong to the Jews than the public are aware of. An ignorant prejudice, which yet partially prevails, against dealing with Jews has induced many of them to disguise or change their names. Thus Moses sometimes becomes Moss, Abraham sinks into Braham, or expands into Tabraham, and Levi is anagramed into Evil, &c. But the tailor is by no means the only craftsman with whom the Jew interferes as a formidable rival. In Covent Garden he is well known as an importer of oranges and dried-fruits, nuts, dates, and so on; he is noticed for doing business in these, the least perishable of vegetable commodities, at the lowest profit; and he is the chief source from whence the perambulating dealers obtain their stock. Again, he is a manufacturing confectioner and preserver of fruits, and purveyor of jelly and jam, candying lemon-peel, and bottling lemon-juice, and dealing in cocoa-nuts and pine-apples; he is a compositor in printing-offices, keeping only the Christian Sabbath, or none at all; he is a furniture-broker and appraiser, and not unfrequently a pawnbroker; he is a picturedealer to any extent you like, but makes no pretensions to a judgment of high art; and is also picture-cleaner and

restorer as well. In short, he is extending his energies rapidly into fresh departments of trade, and at every step he takes is overcoming old prejudices, and rising higher in the regard of his Christian brethren.

Germans in London have several departments of trade, if not entirely in their own hands, nearly so. Sugar-refining is almost exclusively carried on by Germans, and their refineries are nearly all congregated together in Whitechapel and the immediate neighbourhood. The workmen mix but little with the English, but frequent mostly their own houses-of-call. The toy-trade is also very much monopolised by Germans: they import large cargoes of toys from their own country, and supply the London dealers with them at a cheap rate. There are, moreover, many German retailers of toys who affect the arcades of the metropolis, which, being sheltered from the weather, are admirably fitted for their purpose. Myriads of toys are made by German peasants in their long winter evenings, and by shepherds and herdsmen in their solitudes, whose remuneration must be excessively small, looking to the low price at which their wares are retailed in England. In the article of lucifermatches, the Germans beat the London makers hollow, and no end of them are imported into this country, where they meet a ready sale: we have just lighted candles with one from a German box, containing 1000 matches, each perfectly cylindrical in shape, and lighting without noise; said box being sold retail for a penny. Numbers of Germans in England pursue the occupation of farriery, and some years ago they were in high repute for the superiority of their practice; but latterly, an educated class of Englishmen have by degrees entered that profession, and the Germans are no longer in the ascendant. Many Germans are importers of foreign fancy goods, especially baskets, in which an extensive trade is carried on: these come over in packages as big as an Irishman's cabin, and have to be unpacked in the

street.

Others import musical instruments and musicalboxes, which latter are to be bought in every street in London, at prices marvellously low. Others, again, import birds, particularly piping-bullfinches, which fetch prices sometimes beyond all reason, proportioned to their musical abilities. Besides the German traders, the whole of which we cannot pretend to enumerate, there is always in London a good staff of German professors of languages, and teachers of every accomplishment that a gentleman could wish to learn.

With respect to the provision-dealers in the metropolis, we may remark that London, with that regard for the genuine article which is a part of her idiosyncrasy, loves to supply her table from the best market. Thus, the élite of the dairymen are from Devonshire and Wales, the cheesemongers from Yorkshire and Hampshire, while Wiltshiremen deal in pork and bacon, and her own market-gardeners sell the finest fruit and vegetables. Of eggs, London devours them by millions fresh, in the season, at the established cost of three-halfpence each; and by hundreds of millions, not too fresh, sent over by French egg-merchants, all the year round. For butcher-meat she trusts to her own butchers, who are mostly London-born; and for fish, to the Billingsgate-men, who, like the oysters, are also natives. Her grocers, too, are principally her own citizens; and so, for the most part, are her brewers, though she has a decided penchant for country ale, and holds out a welcome hand to the men of Burton, of Alton, and especially of Edinburgh. When she wants a dose of physic, she runs to the chemist and druggist, who, in three cases out of four, is not a Londoner at all, but an enterprising fellow from some country town, come hither to cure her of her maladies. If, being really ill, she don't get better, be sure she will call in a London physician, because there is scarcely another to whom she can have recourse; and if death comes in spite of him,

it is at least seven to one that a Londoner will play the part of undertaker, that being about the proportion that the Londoners of the mortuary profession bear to the provincials located among them.

Of the linen-drapers in London, both wholesale and retail, a very large proportion are from Scotland and the north of England, particularly from Manchester. Among their assistants, are a smaller proportion of Londoners than we should expect to find. A great number of them are Scotch, many come from Lancashire, not a few are Irish, but in a larger proportion than any of the above are the young men from Somerset, Devon, and the west country. Commercial travellers, as well in connection with this business as with others, are, the majority of them, north-country men. Many large millinery establishments in London are in the hands of men, and employ a large capital in carrying them on; the young girls who do the work are, however, mostly from the country, whence they come in the capacity of "improvers," to learn experience, returning, after one or two years' practice, to commence business in their native place.

Among the professions which the new arrivals from the provinces contest most successfully with the Londoners, would appear to be the pianoforte-makers, of whom the major part are men from the provinces; the booksellers, especially those who deal in second-hand books, of which a good proportion are countrymen; the printers, whose working ranks would soon die out were they not continually supplemented by arrivals from the country, and many of whom, saving money, set up for themselves; the cabinetmakers, whose profession is extended much in the same way; the carpenters, who, if they succeed, invariably become builders on a small scale, in connection with the London bricklayers to which might be added many other trades not peculiar to London, but which, when fairly mastered by

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clever country hands, are more completely understood by them than by the generality of London-trained workmen. It is a fact, that the London artisan rarely understands more than one department of the trade to which he serves his apprenticeship; and although this doubtless tends to the proverbial perfection of London work, it often operates to prevent the workman from becoming a master. Country workmen, on the contrary, usually know all the branches of their profession; and, when well skilled in them, naturally rise, in such a field as the metropolis affords, to the position of employers.

We find we are getting beyond our limits, and must proceed to notice a few remaining facts as briefly as possible. Engineers and millwrights are for the most part from Scotland, and the northern counties of England; but not a few are to be met with, particularly on board the steamers, from the iron districts of Wales. Wheelwrights from the provinces are almost as numerous as the London hands. Horsedealers come chiefly from Yorkshire and Hampshire; but Irish horses are from time to time sold in town in considerable numbers. Cutlers are principally from Sheffield; hardwaremen from Birmingham: and there are few great firms originating in country towns, in any department of manufacture, who have not warehouses and show-rooms in London. Gardeners, especially those retained at the seats of the nobility and gentry, are very generally Scotchmen. In the jewellery trade there is a large admixture of Jews, who principally affect the manufacture of such articles in gold as do not imperatively require the sanction of Goldsmiths' Hall -such as gold chains, and the flashy gold rings now exporting in large quantities to the "diggings," which cost in the London markets seven shillings each, and sell readily for four guineas in the land of gold. Cabmen are principally Londoners; but a few civil countrymen, who know the town and can drive, find their account in following the cabman's