350 ORATORIO.
how a punster had remarked, ** it was a pity to see so fine an equipage with a bee outside, and a wasp within." The room devoted to the Privy-Councils is beauti fully finished with English Oak. We could not but recollect that here Victoria stood in her innocent girl hood, to take the formidable oaths of office, at the death of William IV., and almost fancied that we heard the trumpet-call of the poet,
" Oh maiden heir of kings ! A king hath left his place. 1
Almost countless were the objects of interest, with which my English friends sought to gratify my taste, and employ every interval of leisure. Schools, lectures, scientific and benevolent institutions, parks, palaces, museums, zoological gardens, docks, dioramas, bazaars, galleries of pictures and sculptures, all were exhibited and explained with a kindness that never slumbered.
Music lent her enchantments in the form of a variety of concerts. I wish I were able to give the most distant idea of the emotions created by some of the grand ora torios at Exeter-Hall. In "Judas Macabreus" six hundred performers, with voice and instrument, gave force to the glorious conceptions of Handel. At first the press of sound was painful, but then, a great and majestic delight pervaded the whole being. An audi ence, which was computed at 4,000 persons, listened in rapt silence; and the stream of carriages, pressing homeward under the darkness of night, through a rather
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