Crowded thus, his congregation, in union with the Presbytery, erected the large church in Regent's Square, whither the great and talented man carried his congregation; success attended on success, until, to use the common remark, "all the world was after Irving." Intoxicated with his success, he drank in a strange spirit, and wandering further and further into delusion, he was ejected from his church and became the founder of the sect now designated after him, "Irvingites." He resided for many years in Judd Place, Euston Road.

THE REV. DR. HAMILTON.

This accomplished scholar and earnest preacher was born at Strathblane, of which place his father, the Rev. Dr. W. Hamilton, was pastor. He was born in 1814, and matriculated at Glasgow. He was first appointed to Abernyte, where he became the chosen friend of Robert Murray M'Cheyne, the Baxter of Scotland. From Abernyte he was removed to Edinburgh, whence, after a short ministry, he was unanimously elected the successor of the great Edward Irving. To follow close on the wake of such a wonderful man was a most difficult undertaking, as there was an unexpressed but still strongly felt demand that the successor should not be less eloquent or popular. Happily, Dr. Hamilton possessed unusual powers, and powers entirely different to their late minister. Singularly diverse as they were from those which had been so splendidly displayed in that building, they were not less distinctive, individual, invaluable. Though but a young man, he had walked with open eyes, exemplifying Lord Bacon's saying, "A man who is young in

years may be old in hours, if he have lost no time.” He had the rare and happy art of saying common things in an uncommon way, and of investing familiar topics with the charm of novelty. Doubly logical in method, the syllogisms of his discourses are conveyed in similies, and the abstrusest doctrines with which he deals (and he nearly always avoids such as are impractical) are unfolded by means of striking anecdotes, historical instances, and apt illustrations. He knows the value of the parabolical mode of teaching, and oftentimes, as David was first interested and then smitten by Nathan's story of the poor man and his one ewe lamb, so the hearts and consciences of Dr. Hamilton's hearers are cleft or aroused by the application of the incident that at first seemed only curious, or of the illustration that at first appeared very beautiful.

He is well known in Great Britain and in America as an attractive author, and he also edited the Excelsior.

The estimate in which he is held by his congregation may be known by the fact that when, on recovering from a nearly fatal illness, his physician prescribed a retirement for a while from public ministration, they generously granted him three years' absence, during which they would raise an additional £500 per annum to supply the pulpit, that his own income might remain untouched. But this their generous liberality was only made known to knit still firmer the tie of affection between the pastor and people, as the temporary convalescence passed away, and a relapse soon closed his useful life, the end of November, 1867, leaving his disconsolate church again a widow. His remains were interred in Highgate Cemetery, followed by a vast number of deeply afflicted friends.

THE COLOSSEUM.

This popular place of exhibition was first projected by Mr. Horner, for the purpose of exhibiting a panoramic view of London and its suburbs, taken from the top of St. Paul's Cathedral, and was commenced in the year 1824, but not thrown open for public exhibition till 1829. The delay in perfecting the building ruined Mr. Horner, but the committee, upon whom the management devolved, proceeded to complete it. Mr. Decimus Burton was the architect. It presents externally a Greek Doric portico of noble dimensions, and a dome 126 feet in diameter, of which 75 feet is entirely composed of glass. Its shape is polygonal, having 16 facings, each 25 feet in circumference. The panorama covers more than 40,000 square feet, or nearly an acre of canvas, and may, for its fidelity to the original, be almost considered a photograph of the metropolis at the time it was taken. painting of Paris, of equal magnitude, was another exhibition, and the Swiss cottage, arabesque conservatories, and a stalactite cavern are among the other attractions. "Its origin is singularly curious. Mr. Horner, a meritorious and indefatigable artist, and, as it should seem, a man of great force of character, undertook, at the time of the repair of the ball and cross of St. Paul's, to make a series of panoramic sketches of London, from that giddy elevation. That he might overcome the difficulties which the smoke of the vast city ordinarily presented, he invariably commenced his labours immediately after sunrise, before the lighting of the innumerable fires which pour out their dark and sullen clouds during the day, and spread a mantle over this wide congregation of the dwellings of men,

A

which only midnight can remove. On a fine summer morning, about four o'clock, London presents an extraordinary spectacle. The brilliancy of the atmosphere -the almost perfect stillness of the streets, except in the neighbourhood of the great markets-the few living beings that pass along those lines which in the day are crowded like some vast mart, such as the traveller hurrying to his distant starting-place, or the labourer creeping to his early work-all these circumstances make up a picture which forcibly impresses the imagination. Wordsworth has beautifully painted a portion of this extraordinary scene in one of his finest son

nets:

'Earth has not any thing to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:

This city now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!'

The freedom from interruption-the perfect loneliness in the heart of the busiest spot on earth-give to the contemplative rambler through London, at the "sweet hour of prime," a feeling almost of fancied superiority over the thousands of his fellow-mortals whose senses are steeped in forgetfulness. But how completely must Mr. Horner have felt this power, in his "lofty aery Did the winds pipe ever so loud, and rock him to and fro in his wicker-basket, there he sat in security, in

tently delineating what few have seen-the whole of the splendid city-its palaces and its hovels, its churches and its prisons-from one extremity to the other, spread like a map at his feet. The situation was altogether a solemn and an inspiriting one;and might well suggest and prolong that enthusiasm which was necessary to the due performance of the extraordinary task which the painter had undertaken.

"What the artist who sketched this panorama saw only in the earliest hours of a brilliant morning, the visitor of the Colosseum may behold in all seasons, and all hours of the day. Upon the interior of the outer wall, which rises to a height of about seventy feet, is spread the panoramic view of London, embracing the most minute as well as distant objects. The spectator ascends a flight of steps in the centre of the building, till he arrives at an elevation which corresponds in size and situation with the external gallery which is round the top of the dome of St. Paul's. Not many persons can reach this situation at the cathedral, for the ascent is perilous, by dark and narrow ladders, misappropriately called staircases, amidst the timbers which form the framework of the dome. At the Colosseum the ascent is safe and easy; and the visitor who pays an extra price may be raised by machinery. Upon arriving in the gallery the spectator is startled by the completeness of the illusion. The gradations of light and colour are so well managed, that the eye may range from the lower parts of the cathedral itself, and the houses in its immediate neighbourhood, over long lines of streets, with all their varieties of public and private buildings, till it reposes at length upon the fields and hills by which the great metropolis is girt. The amplitude of the crowded picture is calculated to impress the mind