the interior of which, as already mentioned, is perfect, although the exterior is plain almost to a fault. In all the essential requisites of a Clubhouse, the Conservative is unobjectionable; and, situated within a stonethrow of the palace, with a full view of the glories of St. James's-street on drawing-room day, it must form an admirable lounge for its members, as well as a nucleus exceedingly desirable for collecting the forces of the party when a great political movement is to be attempted. Into it a few members of doubtful reputation may possibly have found admission; but still the components of the club as a body are sound, and number amongst their ranks a large majority of the secondary order of Conservatives both of the metropolis and provinces, on whose power and support the influence of the party so greatly depends; for, be it observed, each of these parties, though small in London, where many a man is sadly shorn of his dimensions, is of importance in his county or respective sphere, and the leaders of the phalanx are too well aware of the weight and the value of their support to treat them with contumely.

The chiefs of the Tory party are consequently members of the Conservative Club; but in most cases merely honorary, and rarely make their appearance within its walls. Lord Stanley seldom enters it; Sir Robert Peel, we believe, except to view the edifice, was never within its portals; but Lord George here beats up for recruits, more genial or less fastidious than the late Premier, whose habit it was while in office to hold little intercourse with his subordinates save in Parliament, and to know nothing unless it came before him in the shape of a despatch; even the ordinary journals of the day, by which the policy of his predecessors was supposed to be guided, being strangers to him. When an election, however, is to be decided, or the great and vital question of "Who shall be out or who shall be in?" is to be determined, the Conservative presents a host whose numbers and power are not to be despised; and if few of its members be components or candidates for seats in the legis lature, still in their ranks are to be found the knowledge and the strength by which the battle is to be fought and the victory to be gained.

With the Conservative we conclude our description of the political clubs. There is a small establishment of a semi-political, if not ultra character, named

THE FREE-TRADE CLUB,

recently established in Regent-street, and thence removed to some quarter in the neighbourhood of St. James's-square. Messrs. Cobden, Bright, Moore, and other members of the late confederacy, known by the name of the Anti Corn Law League, are its founders and principal frequenters; but it has never come into vogue with the community, and as at this moment the doctrines of these gentlemen are by no means in especial

* It is a well-known joke of the late Whig Premier, Lord Melbourne, that, being asked what he intended to do next, he replied, "Can't say till I've seen the newspapers," which generally were very liberal in supplying him with intentions. This was a far superior mot to a similar jeu d'esprit by Pitt, who, to the usual interrogatory respecting the news, by the celebrated Duchess of Gordon, solemnly replied: "Madame, I have not seen the newspapers."

favour with the country, and have failed to realize expectations or predictions in the estimation of their adherents. The Club is at present undergoing a change, and will shortly, it is said, be, in its new residence, more showy than before.

ARTHUR'S

is, perhaps, another Club of a semi-political character, but of an opposite class of politics, and of a very different order. It is situated in St. James's-street, and was erected in 1811, by Mr. Hopper, the architect of the celebrated edifice of Penryn Castle. It consists of six hundred members the smallest in this respect of any of the old-established clubs. Its members are chiefly country gentlemen of Conservative opinions; but politics, we believe, form no essential feature in its constitution, and any peculiar tendency which it may on this point exhibit, arises chiefly from such principles being prevalent amongst the order in society to which we have alluded.

We now approach to the

and first of

MILITARY CLUBS;

THE UNITED Service,

the oldest of the modern race, and the parent, if it may be so-named, of them all. It took its rise in 1816, after the conclusion of the late wars, when so many officers of the army and navy were thrown out of commission. These habits, from old mess-room associations, being gregarious, and their reduced incomes no longer affording the luxuries of the camp or barrack-room on full pay, the late Lord Lyndoch, on their position being represented to him, was led to propose some such institution as a mess-room, in peace, for the benefit of his old companionsin-arms. A few other officers of influence in both branches of the service concurred, and the United Service Club was the result. It was at first established at the corner of Charles-street, St. James's, where the junior establishment of the same name is now situated; but the funds soon becoming large, and the number of candidates for admission great, the large and classic edifice at the corner of Waterloo Place was erected by Mr. Burton, for their accommodation. The exterior is exceedingly elegant, yet severe and chaste; but the interior is by no means commensurate, and is destitute of many of the improvements in the erection of modern clubs. There has been talk, indeed, of pulling it down, and erecting a more convenient one in its stead; but whatever may be done with the interior, we trust the old classic and highly appropriate exterior will be preserved.

Old reminiscences are attached to it, independently of its being the origin of the modern clubs. There Lyndoch reposed-that martial and chivalrous old man, who entering upon arms not until he had attained his forty-fifth year, and that, too, chiefly in expectation of finding a speedy grave to relieve him from romantic attachment or domestic affliction, bore the British standard victorious through all the stormy campaigns of the

Peninsular war, and ultimately attained almost the patriarchal age of a centenarian before he disappeared from the scene. There, too, may yet occasionally be seen his greater surviving chief, enjoying his simple shoulder of mutton repast, murmuring, chafing, chiding, and in the end positively refusing to pay the excess of threepence charged him in eighteen pennies for a dinner. But though we have an illustrious example, and Marlborough, we are told, would walk home of a night, after winning a hundred pounds at cards, to save the shilling expense of chair-hire, to no such unworthy feeling or impulse of the "good old gentlemanly vice," is the objection of Wellington to be attributed. It, on the contrary, is rather to be ascribed to a desire for the maintenance of the principle which originally led to the establishment of the club, and a commendable care for the finances of some less fortunate comradein-arms, to whom such trifles in the aggregate might possibly be of importance.

The United Service, however, admits no member of rank inferior to that of captain in the navy or major in the army. Yet of these, fifteen hundred were speedily on its rolls; and so popular was the principle, so numerous were the candidates for admission, that another club, of similar character,

THE JUNIOR UNITED SERVICE,

was quickly established to provide for officers of lower grade, and those of higher rank whom the Senior Club was unable to receive.

The Junior United Service, which consists of fully as many members as the old club, and four or five hundred additional or supernumeraries " abroad has established itself at the corner of Charles-street, Regent-street, the old head-quarters of the Senior Club. The house is of a lighter order, more airy in its internal aspect, though not so impressive in the exterior. In addition to commissioned officers of all ranks in both army and navy, its portals are open for the reception of those of like grade in the Honourable East India Company's service, and consequently its members are the most numerous of any institution of the kind in London.

Many of the senior members of each club are common to both, it having been considered a high honour, when the Junior was established, for the more distinguished individuals in the ranks of the Senior Club to be elected as honorary members, although those belonging to the other could not of course attain a similar distinction, unless of the requisite grade. But still, although the two institutions afforded accommodation for nearly three thousand members, so admirable and so useful were found the principles on which these popular bodies were constituted, that the claimants soon became too numerous for admission, and

THE ARMY AND NAVY CLUB

was consequently established for the reception of the teeming members. This institution, originally held at a private mansion in St. James'ssquare, has recently been erected on a scale of unparalleled splendour, throwing, in the estimation of many, even the new building of the Carlton into the shade. It is understood that it will likewise afford accommo

dation for fifteen hundred members, and one would have thought that the whole officers in the service, resident or likely to be visitors in the metropolis, were thus amply provided for; but no, we have a fourth military club,

THE GUARDS,

in existence; and a sixth exclusively devoted to one branch of the service,

THE NAVAL,

only recently extinct, or merged in the Army and Navy.

The former of these two last-named institutions (the GUARDS) is, perhaps, of older date than any of the other military clubs of the metropolis; it having long been the practice of this favoured division of her Majesty's service the Household Brigade-destitute of separate regimental messes themselves, to unite for the purpose of enjoying the advantages of association in a body. Their present establishment is a small house, vis-a-vis to White's, adjoining the boot-maker's at the corner of St. James's-street; and on a drawing-room day it forms a battery not less formidable for the fairer portion of creation than the celebrated baywindow itself. In the estimation of many, indeed, it is a more dangerous citadel for the ladies to pass; the eyes of the young Guardsman being far more trenchant than the glasses of the antiquated beaux at White's. A few years ago, the members of the Guards, finding their present premises inconveniently small, erected a new club-house in Jermyn-street, adjacent; and in this they carried simplicity to extreme, in opposition to the profusion lavished in ornamenting the exterior of other clubs of the day. But the experiment failed to afford satisfaction either to themselves or others. The building had (and has, for it still exists) a barrack-like aspect uninviting in the extreme; and though elegant within, it was destitute of the one great advantage-the view of the tempting street— enjoyed by the smaller edifice in proximity with Hoby's. It has consequently been abandoned for the old resort; and the extinction of Crockford's, adjoining, will possibly afford the Guards an opportunity of acquiring ample accommodation without quitting the vicinity of their favourite spot.

The other club alluded to, in connection with another branch of her Majesty's service (the Naval) had originally its head-quarters, we believe, in Covent Garden; was afterwards removed to New Bond-street; and within these last few years has become extinct, or merged in the Army and Navy. Yet it was the resort of many a choice spirit in its day. Founded on the model of the old tavern or convivial clubs, but confined exclusively to members of the naval service, it numbered among its members men from the days of Boscawen, Rodney, and the First of June" downwards. It was a favorite retreat for his late Majesty when Duke of Clarence, and his comrade, Sir Philip Durham, the survivor 1 of Nelson, and almost the last of the last. Sir Philip, however, though a no means one of the Trunnion class. on the contrary, he especially avoided; has been none like him since the days of Smollett.

VOL. IV.NO. XX.

"old school," frequented it to the member of the old school, was by Coarseness and profane language, but in " spinning a yarn" there The loss of the

P P

Royal George, from which he was one of the few, if, indeed, not only officer, who escaped, was a favorite theme; and the admiral, not content with having made his escape, was wont to maintain that he swam ashore with his midshipman's dirk in his teeth. Yet Sir Philip would allow no one to trench on his manor. One day when a celebrated naval captain, with the view of quizzing him, was relating the loss of a merchantman on the coast of South America, laden with Spitalfields products, and asserting that silk was so plentiful, and the cargo so scattered, that the porpoises were for some hours enmeshed in its folds. Aye, aye," replied Sir Philip, " I believe you; for I was once cruising on that coast myself, in search of a privateer, and having lost our fore topsail one morning in a gale of wind, we next day found it tied round a whale's neck by way of a cravat." Sir Philip was considered to have the best of it, and the novelist was mute.

66

But these are reminiscences of bye-gone days. Leaving the fields of Mars and Neptune for those of Minerva and Apollo, approach we

now to

THE LITERARY CLUBS,

or those which, if not strictly devoted to literature, are at least in some degree or another connected with its cultivation; and the first to which we shall direct attention is

THE ATHENÆUM,

the earliest and most recherché of them all, and which, if not the abode of wit, is the place where that sensible spirit, in its most exuberant form, was lately poured out and appreciated.

The successful example of the United Service led to the establishment of the Athenæum. A number of gentlemen, connected with the learned professions and higher order of the fine arts and literature, observing how advantageously the members of Her Majesty's service had combined, thought of applying the same principle to those who moved in the quieter sphere of civil office, the belles lettres, and private life; and the Athenæum, which stands opposite, and in fine tranquil array to its martial neighbour, was the result. With the exception, perhaps, of the United Service, it is the most select establishment in London, and it contains possibly a still greater number of candidates for admission to its halls; the circumstance of belonging to the Athenæum being now considered a distinction, extended only to the most eminent in literature, art, science, and civil life—although, of course, a great majority of its fifteen hundred members must previously have obtained the entrée without any such claims to notice. Mr. Rogers, the poet, one of its earliest members, is still amongst the chief of its present ornaments; and innumerable are the quiet, satirical, but generally biting, bon mots recorded of him. The late Theodore Hook was also one of its great attractions; and the table adjoining the door, near which he used to sit, is still considered as a spot sacred to mirth and hostile to dolour. The Athenæum, however, now contains no such choice spirit as he, qualified alike, as in the instance of the Berners-street hoax, to fright the town from its propriety, and "set the table in a roar." "Alas! poor Yorick" may be said of him, when