THE MERCHANTS EXCHANGE, NEW YORK.

inches in diameter above the base. The shaft of

The Merchants Exchange was situated on the WALL STREET is known, the world over, as the mart easterly end of the block formed by Wall, William, of the money-changers in New York. It is, indeed, Exchange, and Hanover streets, and extended one chiefly filled with bankers and brokers, who rejoice in hundred and sixty-four feet front and rear, and one fingering banknotes, half joes, eagles, and dollars, hundred and fifty feet deep. It was two stories the former of whom are happy to receive your money high, besides a basement and an attick. The front on deposite and accommodate you occasionally with on Wall street, which was the principal one, was a loan at a moderate discount, and the latter of whom built entirely of white marble from the Westchester are ready to negociate a note for a reasonable ad- quarries; of the Ionick order of architecture; its vance, or to change uncurrent into current money at prototype, the temple of Minerva Polias, at Priene, a slight charge. But there are no inconsiderable Ionia. A recessed portico of about forty feet wide, numbers of other gentry, who would be happy to in an elliptical form, with a screen of four stupenacquaint themselves with your purse, as assurers, dous columns and two ante extending across the lawyers, notaries, speculators, stock-jobbers, pack-front, was very advantageously introduced. These et-officers, money-collectors, customhouse officers, columns were thirty feet high, and three feet four news-mongers, and agents in any line or transaction whatever. They are all but the facilitators of the mer- each column was composed of a single block of marchant, the mechanick, the manufacturer, the farmer, ble. They supported an entablature of about six and the gentleman, in all the money operations which feet in height, upon which rests the attick, or third the latter cannot, with facility, transact for them- story; making a height of about sixty feet from the selves. The whole street is immeasurably active in the general pursuit of money. The business of every house relates to money, notes or stock; in every group the subject of conversation is money, notes or stock; the life, motion, and being, of every ries, &c. man in Wall street is money, notes or stock. Every The front entrance to the Exchange was by a thing is done by exchange, whether it be an ex-flight of stairs, or a dozen broad marble steps, with change of money, of notes, of bonds, of stock, of a pedestal at each end. On ascending to the portiestates, of opinions and information, or of nods and winks significantly appertaining to that mode of making money, called speculation. Here fortunes are won in an hour, and here too they are lost as soon. Gold is here the beacon of hope, and the mainspring of action; but also too often does it prove the ignis-fatuus of deluded adventurers, and the siren of

evil and destruction.

ground. On each side of the portico was an entrance to the basement, leading through a sort of corridor to Exchange street. The left was occupied by the Postoffice, and the right by brokers' offices, refecto

co, two doors opened in front to the exchange-room, and two on either hand to ensurance and newspaper offices, while on the right, a flight of stairs also led from the basement to the upper stories. The exchange-room was a spacious and beautiful area, in the centre of the building, and of an oval form. It was eighty-five feet in length, fifty-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high, and surmounted by a dome, which was supported by two Corinthian pillars at each wing. The centre of the room was adorned Wall street is also the centre of commercial in- by that beautiful statue of Hamilton, which we have formation and general news. Hither all citizens who heretofore particularly described. Beyond this room are infected with the cacoethus audiendi, flock, to learn was an auction saloon, and doors leading from thence to a reading-room and other offices. A flight of how the world wags, as well as to proclaim such stairs at one end of the saloon led into the chambers items of intelligence as may have reached their un- of the board of trade, of brokers, &c., which occupiderstandings alone. The merchants particularly ed the second story. The attick was occupied collect here in great numbers, at mid-day, to confer chiefly by printers and engravers. together upon the objects of trade, and to survey the stairs leading from the attick to a cupola, sixty feet in height, which surmounted the edifice. This cugeneral indications of the commercial atmosphere. pola was of great service, having been used for the For the greater convenience of these daily assem- purpose of exchanging telegraphick signals with a telblages, which have become very necessary and im-egraph at the Narrows, a distance of about eight miles. portant, a building has been particularly erected, called the Merchants Exchange, and devoted to that object. The noble edifice which has heretofore been used for this purpose, and a plan of which is given overleaf, was destroyed in the great conflagration of the 16th December last. Although a still more splendid structure will soon rise upon its ruins, yet we deem a particular description worth preserving.

There were

The observations thus made, and which related recorded in a book below which was kept open for principally to the approach of vessels at sea, were inspection. The Exchange was commenced in April, 1825, and completed in July, 1827. The cost, including the lot, was two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. It now appears like the ruins of a Grecian temple; nothing but its tottering walls remains standing. A Lauch more magnificent structure is now in contemplation, which will cover the whole block.

RUINS OF THE MERCHANTS EXCHANGE, (N. Y.)

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UNDER the auspices of James the First, of Eng-| to Prince Charles. In 1619, 150 women were sent land, who had granted letters patent to the London to Virginia, and sold to the planters for about 150 and Plymouth companies, for the purpose of founding pounds of tobacco, each; tobacco being then valued a colony in North America, Christopher Newport, at three shillings the pound. Twenty negroes, were sailed from London on the 20th of December, 1606; also sold to the colonists by the Dutch about the and after a disastrous passage of four months, entered same time, whence may be dated the commencement the James river, and made a settlement upon its of the slavetrade in this country. Virginia progressbanks about forty miles from the sea, and called it ed, by no means rapidly or prosperously, under the Jamestown. This was the first permanent settle- various governours sent out by the British Crown. None of the coloment that was made by the English in Virginia, al- Their chief export was tobacco. though previous attempts had been made. The nies suffered more than Virginia from the despotism In violation of chartered company consisted of 105 persons, and very soon of a royal government. received an accession to their numbers, swelling the rights, the colony was divided into parts, and conamount to 200. The most difficult man amongst veyed away by proprietary grants; not grants of them, was Captain John Smith, whose name, it will woodlands and wildernesses, but of plantations that be recollected, is identified with that of Pocahontas, | had long been cultivated under the encouragement of the Indian girl who saved him from the barbarity of kings and charters. These oppressions produced a Powhatan. In 1614, Captain Smith explored the notable rebellion in Virginia, during which, great country, and made a map of it, which he presented outrages were committed, and Jamestown

40

was

burned. The civil war was commenced by Col. dug around the falls, however, so that a continuous Nathaniel Bacon, and terminated at his death. In boat navigation is secured for two hundred and twenty 1712, Virginia was divided into 49 parishes, and a miles. Richmond is a thriving town in point of clergyman allotted to each, with stated salary. In trade, and the means of general education are not 1713, Lt. Gov. Spottswood discovered the passage neglected.

of the Appalachian mountains.

Virginia was amongst the first of the colonies, that manifested that glorious spirit of resistance to the oppression and aggression of Great Britain, which wrought our independence. She was always forward in seconding the spirit and measures of her sister colonies against the common enemy, and met the demands of her country with laudable zeal and disinterested patriotism. The constitution of Virginia was adopted the next day after the Declaration of Independence, but has been recently revised and amended. Nine of the signers of the declaration, including its immortal author, were natives of Virginia, viz. :-Thomas Jefferson, John Penn, Richard H. Lee, Fr. Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, George Walton, George Wythe, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, jr. Virginia also produced George Washington, Patrick Henry, Arthur Lee, James Madison, James Monroe, and John Marshall.

TOMB OF COLUMBUS.

THE cathedral church at Seville, which is so magnificent in its exteriour, and so richly furnished blest edifices of the kind in Europe. It is four hunwithin, is highly deserving a place among the nodred and twenty feet in length, two hundred and sixty-three in breadth, within the walls, and one hundred and twenty-six in height. At one angle of the building rises a tower of Moorish workmanship, three hundred and fifty feet high, on the top of which is the Giralda, a brazen image, weighing nearly a tun and a half, yet so admirably poised as to turn with the gentlest breeze.

The ascent to the top of this lofty tower is rentle an inclination that a horse might trot up it, and dered easy by a spiral path in the inside, of so genso wide, that two horsemen may go abreast. While the traveller is lost in admiration of the external grandeur of this pile, he is equally astonished, on entering, to view its internal splendour and wealth. their mellow light over fine paintings, noble statues, Eighty windows of beautifully painted glass shed and altars of solid silver.

In 1830, Virginia contained 1,211,405 inhabitants, of whom 469,759 were slaves. The principal rivers are the Potomack, Shenandoah, Rappahan- Of this metal there is a profusion in this cathedral nock, York, James, Appamattox, Elizabeth, Staun--the statues of St Isidore and St Leander, as large ton, Kenawha, Ohio, Sandy, and Monongahela. as life, and a tabernacle for the host, twelve feet in The Blue Ridge extends through the central part of height, adorned with columns, being of silver. The organ exceeds the famous one at Haarlem in the state, and there are other mountains in the state. the number of its stops; the former having one hun Iron, lead, coal, limestone, and chalk, are found in dred and ten, and the latter only sixty. Yet so ef abundance. The chief towns are Richmond, Nor-fective are the bellows of this mighty instrument folk, Petersburgh, Lynchburgh, Fredericksburgh, that, when completely inflated, they will supply the full for fifteen minutes. organ None but they who Winchester, Portsmouth, Williamsburgh, and Shep- have heard it can conceive the effect of this astonherdstown. The university of Virginia is established ishing combination of sounds when managed by a at Charlottesville, besides which there are several master-hand. other colleges.

But the most interesting object to the intelligent American is the tomb of the great Columbus, the thy of the great man who sleeps beneath it, consist ing of only one stone with this inscription-"A Castella y Arragon otre mundo des Colom. ;" that is, "To Castile and Arragon Columbus gave another world." But no monument, however splendid, no inscription, however pompous, could have added to the fame of that illustrious man, or atoned for the base ingratitude with which he was treated; indeed, had a sumptuous cenotaph been erected over his remains, it would have ill agreed with the fetters which once loaded his limbs, and which are buried in the same

discoverer of the New World. It is in itself unwor

Richmond, the largest city in the state, and the seat of government, has a population of 16,000, and is situated at the head of tide water on the James river. The town rises gradually from the river, and with its many elegant brick houses, presents a fine appearance. The publick buildings are a courthouse, a state prison, an almshouse, a museum, eight churches, and the CAPITOL. We have presumed that the engraving would furnish the reader a better idea of this elegant structure, than any mere written description. It is appropriated chiefly to the purpo-coffin with him. ses of the state, senate, and assembly. It stands on Besides this noble cathedral, Seville contains the highest ground in the city, and the views from its top are extensive and interesting. This city is one hundred and twenty miles from Washington, and one hundred and fifty from the mouth of the river. There are two bridges across the river at this place, and fa ls 2 short distance above. A canal has been

twenty-five parish-churches, five chapels, thirty-five monasteries, twenty-nine nunneries, with hospitals, and houses for other religious communities. Many of these convents are remarkable for the beauty of their architecture, and, as well as the churches, contain a profusion of fine paintings, among which are some by the celebrated Murillo.