The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 70: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE STEAM PACKET. | 44 ‘would thus be achieved: as it is, the glory of the great stream is ob- scured, if not altogether shut out, by the miserable or dirty tenements hanging over its banks, and often sinking perpendicularly down into the water itself. Oh! what a grand prospect, we say, would be opened, were those buildings cleared away, and quays built as pro- posed. The cathedrals of the east and west, Saint Paul and Saint Peter—the marts of commerce, and the sails that waft it through the world—the temples of learning and of the law—the hospitals of the sick, and the palaces of kings—the old historic sites, and the records of modern magnificence—the saloon of pleasure, and the fortalice of power—the monuments of princes, the mansions of nobles, and the workshops of the poor ;—these would all meet together, and bring the varied morals of the great city into one focus, at the same time that they brought all its abodes into a common point of view. There is something peculiarly exhilarating in gazing upon the busy scene just below London Bridge, upon a day when the heaven is clear and beautiful above, and the sun tinges pinnacle, steeple, and spire with its golden rays,—when its light is reflected in the dancing stream, —and the smoke of the steamers rises almost perpendicularly into the tranquil air. The old buildings themselves—so gloomy on a clouded day—which overhang the river, seem to partake in the joyousness of the surrounding scene, even as, in the animated world, old age smiles be- neath the resplendent sunshine. Here and there are white sails spread, amidst that forest of masts which extends down the pool as far as the eye can reach; gay streamers hang almost motionless; and the rays of the central orb of light glitter upon the gilded figure-heads and orna- ments of the myriads of steam-vessels which dart up and down the river. To the spectator upon London Bridge it appears almost mar- vellous how the larger ones of this description of ship can thread their way through the mazes of floating habitations so densely collected upon the bosom of the Thames; but the steersman stands calmly at the helm, and neither wonders nor experiences alarm, as he performs the delicate task of guiding the vessel entrusted to him through that intricate labyrinth. At times. the fears of the spectator are most acutely excited, when a barge, deep in the water with the weight of merchandise, enters the swell occasioned by the huge paddle-wheels of the monsters of the river; or when a frail wherry, with only an inch of gunwale at its stern above the surface of the water, suddenly finds itself tossing in obedience to the same influence. All—all is life, animation, and bustle upon that portion of the river; and the mighty moral which the multitude of assembled ships teaches the beholder, is the secret of England’s greatness ! Gomichbooks (E(0)