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A visit to Hampton Court Palace, is one of the bravest pleasures that a party of happy friends can promise themselves. Especially is it calculated to charm the thousands of pleasureseekers from the dense and dusty vastness of London. lies in a rich country; on the banks of the Thames,-there unmuddled by commerce, but flowing free and pure, amid the greenest meadows, scattered villas, and trees overhanging its clear waters, and adding to its glad aspect the richness of their beauty. From the swelling hills of Richmond, Esher, and St. George, the palace is seen standing aloft amid

a wide sea of woodland foliage, like a little town in its extent. Its ample and delightful gardens, bounded by the splendid masses of its lime-tree avenues; its ancient courts, with all their historic recollections; its accumulated paintings, the Cartoons of Raphael themselves being part of them-all are thrown open to the leisurely and perfect enjoyment of the public. There is no royal palace in England, excepting Windsor, which, after all, is to be compared to it, and this is, as it should be, given up to the use and refreshment of the people. It is the first step towards the national appropriation of public property. It is long since it was said, "The king has got his own again,” and it is now fitting that the people should have their own again. Of all the palaces, the towers, the abbeys, and cathedrals, which have been raised with the wealth and ostensibly for the benefit of the people, none till lately have been freely open to the footsteps of the multitude. They have been jealously retained for the enjoyment of an exclusive few, or have been made engines to extort still further payment from those out of whose pockets they were raised. But the tolls at the doors of St. Paul's and the Tower have been relaxed; park after park in the metropolis has been thrown open; and now this charming old palace of Hampton Court has been made the daily resort of any, and of all, of the English people who choose to tread the pavements, and disport themselves in the gardens, and gaze on the works of art, which for ages were wont only to be accessible to the royal, the aristocratic, and the ecclesiastical dignitary and their retainers.

These are visible and unequivocal evidences of the growth of general intelligence, and of that popular influence and benefit which must spring out of it. Courts are no longer despotic because the people is no longer ignorant. The crown has resigned its lands into the hands of the people saying, give us what you deem fitting for the just maintenance of the regal dignity, and the crown has had no cause to regret this surrender; while, on the other hand, it has given the people a right to use a bolder tone regarding those which were the royal lands and houses, woods and forests. The people can now say with an air of just authority, we demand to be admitted to the use and fruition of that for which we have given a noble equivalent. It is with this consciousness that we now walk about the courts, the gardens, the galleries, and painted chambers of Hampton Court; and there can be perhaps no instance cited where public property is more completely enjoyed by all classes of the community. The royal race have had their will of it from the days in which the last great English Cardinal built it, and presented it, as a most magnificent gift, to Harry VIII. his master, till they abandoned it as an abode, for others which more engaged their fancies. A considerable portion of it has been since, and still is, given as residences to branches of the aristocracy, and lo! at length the very people have entered into possession of the rest.

And now, the great question is, how do they enjoy it? -How do they use their advantage? Do they feel the great delight of having got their own again? Do they act like

rational masters and proprietors on their own estates, committing no injury and seeing none committed? A few facts will sufficiently answer these questions. Steam has in a great measure brought this delightful old palace into the very suburbs of London; and thrown it open to the thousands of its citizens. The Southampton railway, passing within a short distance of it, has enabled almost all that please to be down at it in about an hour, and has given them a pleasant excursion at a cheap rate, through a delightful country, besides the luxury of fair gardens, on the banks of the Thames, and the contemplation of rich paintings when they get there. Have they availed themselves of these privileges? The palace has only been fairly thrown open this summer, and for some time the fact was but very little known-yet through spring and summer the resort thither has been constantly increasing; the average number of visiters on Sunday or Monday is now two thousand five hundred, and the amount of them for the month of August was thirty-two thousand!

And how have these swarms of Londoners of all classes behaved? With the exception of some scratches made on the panels of the grand staircase, for the discovery of the perpetrator of which an ominous placard is pasted on the door-post as you enter, offering five pounds reward, but of which slight injury no one can tell the date the police, who are always on the spot, never having witnessed the doing of it since they were stationed there I cannot learn that the slightest exhibition of what has been considered the English love of demolition, has

been made.

Never have I seen, at all times that I have been there, a more orderly or more well-pleased throng of people. I happened accidentally to be there on Whit-Monday, when, besides the railway, upwards of a dozen spring-vans, gaily adorned with ribbons, and blue and red hangings, had brought there their loads of servants and artisans, all with their sweethearts, and in fine spirits for a day's country frolic; and not less than two thousand people were wandering through the house and gardens, yet nothing could be more decorous than their behaviour. Never, indeed, did I behold a scene which was more beautiful in my eyes, or which more sensibly affected me. Here were thousands of those whose fathers would have far preferred the brutal amusement of the bull-baiting or the cock-pit; who would have made holiday at the boxing-ring, or in guzzling beer in the lowest dens of debauch,—here were they, scattered in companies, and in family groups; fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters, old people, and children of all ages, strolling through the airy gardens, admiring the flowers, or resting on the benches, or watching the swarming shoals of gold and silver fish in the basin of the central fountain, and feeding them with crumbs of bun amid shouts of childish delight. Here were these poor people, set free from the fret and fume, the dust and sweat, and mental and bodily wear and tear of their city trades and domestic cares, well dressed, amongst their more wealthy neighbours, clean, and jocund from the sense of freedom and social affection, treading walks laid down only for royal feet, listening to the lapse of waters intended only for the