to-morrow and I will see you.”  In looking across the street, I saw my rival standing in his shop-door, grinning and clapping his hands at my apparent downfall.  I was completely “done Brown” for the day.  However, I was not to be “used up” in this way; so I escaped by the back door, and went in search of my friend who had first suggested to me the idea of issuing notes.  I found him, told him of the difficulty I was in, and wished him to point out a way by which I might extricate myself.  He laughed heartily, and then said, “You must act as all bankers do in this part of the country.”  I inquired how they did, and he said, “When your notes are brought to you, you must redeem them, and then send them out and get other money for them; and, with the latter, you can keep cashing your own Shinplasters.”  This was indeed a new job to me.  I immediately commenced putting in circulation the notes which I had just redeemed, and my efforts were crowned with so much success, that before I slept that night my “Shinplasters” were again in circulation, and my bank once more on a sound basis.

As I saw the clerks shovelling out the yellow coin upon the counters of the Bank of England, and men coming in and going out with weighty bags of the precious metal in their hands, or on their shoulders, I could not but think of the great contrast between the monster Institution, within whose walls I was then standing, and the Wild Cat Banks of America!

LETTER IX.

The British Museum—­A Portrait—­Night Reading—­A Dark Day—­A Fugitive Slave on the Streets of London,—­A Friend in the time of need.

LONDON, Sept. 24.

I have devoted the past ten days to sight-seeing in the Metropolis—­the first two of which were spent in the British Museum.  After procuring a guide-book at the door as I entered, I seated myself on the first seat that caught my eye, arranged as well as I could in my mind the different rooms, and then commenced in good earnest.  The first part I visited was the Gallery of Antiquities, through to the north gallery, and thence to the Lycian Room.  This place is filled with tombs, bas-reliefs, statues, and other productions of the same art.  Venus, seated, and smelling a lotus flower which she held in her hand, and attended by three graces, put a stop to the rapid strides that I was making through this part of the hall.  This is really one of the most precious productions of the art that I have ever seen.  Many of the figures in this room are very much mutilated, yet one can linger here for hours with interest.  A good number of the statues are of uncertain date; they are of great value as works of art, and more so as a means of enlightening much that has been obscure with respect to Lycia, an ancient and celebrated country of Asia Minor.