n way, at the head of its class of cities. The city is
the greatest and wealthiest mart of commerce in the world; while the
West End is the seat and centre of the proudest and most extended
political and military power. In fact, the commercial organization which
centres in the city, and the military one which has its head quarters
around the throne at the West End, are probably the greatest and most
powerful organizations, each of its kind, that the world has ever known.

Mr. George explained all this to Rollo as they walked together away from
the London Bridge station, where the train in which they came in from
the south stopped when it reached London. But I will give a more
detailed account of their conversation in the next chapter.

CHAPTER II.

LONDON BRIDGE.

When the train stopped at what is called the London Bridge station, the
passengers all stepped out of their respective cars upon the platform.
In the English cars the doors are at the sides, and not, as in America,
at the ends; so that the passengers get out nearly all at once, and the
platform becomes immediately crowded. Beyond the platform, on the other
side, there is usually, when a train comes in, a long row of cabs and
carriages drawn up, ready to take the passengers from the several cars;
so that the traveller has generally nothing to do but to step across the
platform from the car that he came in to the cab that is waiting there
to receive him. Nor is there, as is usual in America, any difficulty or
delay in regard to the baggage; for each man's trunks are placed on the
car that he rides in, directly over his head; so that, while he walks
across the platform to the cab, the railway porter takes his trunk
across and places it on the top of the cab; and thus he is off from the
station in his cab within two minutes sometimes after he arrived at it
in the car.

The railway porters, who attend to the business of transferring the
passengers thus from the railway carriages to those of the street, are
very numerous all along the platform; and they are very civil and
attentive to the passengers, especially to those who come in the
first-class cars--and more especially still, according to my observation
and experience, if the traveller has an agreeable looking lady under his
charge. The porters are dressed in a sort of uniform, by which they are
readily distinguished from the crowd. They are strictly forbidden to
receive any fee or gratuity from the