statues; our stately homes and halls,-these, lasting as the sun's golden light, or the air's balmy breath, are the splendid gifts of democracy to the progress and civilization of the world. These are what the man, in his might and majesty, has done. In democracy, then, we see adaptation to future times. Its institutions are the great school in which man learns hardihood, heroism, selfgovernment, and self-reliance. There is a vast difference between a slave and a free man; but a Brazilian slave does not differ so much from a Finland serf as does a citizen of Vienna or Berlin from one of London. Give the former his cup of coffee, his cigar, and his theatre,-he is content; the latter must have his freedom to think, to speak, and to act. In Copenhagen, no foreign newspaper is permitted without leave of the government first obtained ; it is true, it can boast the finest ballet in the north of Europe, but its trade is wretched, and, to an Englishman, to go on its scant and silent exchange seems a farce. The more of power and responsibility the man has, the more the man within is developed and matured. This is a great fundamental truth, substantiated by the experience of every age and clime. In this truth, democracy finds its true sanction, and of it, it is the legitimate result. Such a democracy, accompanied with religious feeling, with sound restraint, with the development of much that is best and highest of man's powers of head and of heart, is now striding like a conqueror through the land. Of its progress, of its result, there can be no doubt. It were easier to beard the lion in his den than to attempt to repress the onward movement of the mind of the people, or to say to them, "Hitherto shall ye come, and no further." Man will assume a loftier bearing than that he has worn heretofore, "cribbed cabined, and confined," as he has been by institutions formed when there was no law but that of might. Even Mr. Warburton, the last, and certainly not the least able, writer on America, confesses that, up to a certain point, its institutions are more favourable to the education and development of the people than those of any other country; and his testimony is not the less true on account of the prejudices that cleave to that brilliant sketcher of men and manners, whether he write from the pyramids and palm-trees of the East, or whether he sojourn for a time across the Atlantic in the far distant West. The establishments which some have considered as bound up with our very national existence, may live only in the history of the past. An hour may come-Dr. Alison says it must come, and bewails it accordingly-when a total change may be effected in the government of this realm. Time, that has watched with its calm, unsleeping eye the decay and death of so much to which men have clung, and for which they have fought, may witness the gradual decline, one after the other, of the three great powers, the church, the aristocracy, and the crown,-that have hitherto been too ready, though they are not now, to unite against

that people, for whose benefit, and by whose consent, they profess to exist. But England will never die, her sun will never set, her glory will last till a new heaven and a new earth shall close the destinies of time; for to her will be given the boundless strength of a democracy such as yet the world has never seen. Of her it may be said, in the glowing language of one of the most gifted of her sons, that she "needs no bulwarks, No towers along the steep."

J. EWING RITCHIE.

THE COUNTRY CHURCH.

BY MRS. ABDY.

THE Sweet Sabbath melody floats on the breeze,
The vale with the heath's purple blossom is bright,
There stands the old church, overshadowed by trees,
Whose foliage is bathed in the sunbeam's warm light.

From meadow and upland the peasants repair,
And, freed from the toil of the week's busy hours,
Pursue their calm way, while the soft summer air

Scarce waves the light bough of the woodbine's pale flowers.

They enter and hear, undisturbed by a doubt,
Of Zion's blest land, of redemption from sin.
How hushed is that valley,-all quiet without!
How holy that church,-all devotion within!

By seasons like this,-peaceful, tranquil, and still,-
Perchance to the Christian a foretaste is given
Of the spirit's glad flight from a region of ill
To changeless and glorious Sabbaths in heaven.

LITERATURE.

NOTICES OF NEW WORKS.

The Rail; its Origin and Progress. With illustrative Anecdotes and Engravings. By Peter Progress the Younger. London: R. Yorke Clarke and Co., Gracechurch Street.

GIVE us the writer, whose good-humoured pen describes all things with the sweet colouring of kind optimism. There is a way of looking at things, by which objects of every description are adorned with the welcome glow of sunshine. Peter Progress sitting in banco over black engines, black tenders, black trains, and black rails, could not help seeing them all brilliant, as it were, from the gilding blaze of the furnace, and varnished by the japanning moisture of steam and smoke combined.

We like also very much the scientific manner in which the origin of stage coach, and every mode of travelling is traced out. It should give the present generation a vast amount of triumphant satisfaction to see what drones our forefathers were in every thing that had regard to locomotion, in comparison with ourselves. The time which our great grandpapas used to take for the performance of a journey from London to Bath, is more than sufficient now to go from London to Paris.

Like the clever writer of this useful little pamphlet, we think that the originators of such inventions as rail-road travelling, gaslighting, steam navigation, etc., cannot be too well known to the public, and can never be too well rewarded by their country. England ought ever to be grateful to Mr. Gray, the original projector of the Liverpool and Manchester line.

The descriptive part of the book gives the reader a perfect insight into the arcana of railway constructions. Amount of costs, parliamentary expenses, law charges, gains and losses,—every thing has been taken into consideration; wood-cut illustrations complete the details.

A class of people, whom it has been a fashion to cry down and to revils, here have justice done to then. The Navies,-hard

working, stout-hearted labourers, ready to undertake the most herculean tasks, and able to perform them, are spoken of honestly and without prejudice. They have been, they will ever be, the rough blocks on which helpless science, be it ever so profound, is compelled to raise its gigantic dreams.

Those who are contemplating further railroad ovations will do well to peruse a section of this work, entitled, "How to carry out a railway." By so doing, they will avoid committing blunders for which shareholders, soon or late, visit the delinquents with everlasting grudge.

We close these sixty pages of our iron times with a satisfaction and pleasure, which we can safely declare never to have been experienced in the most palmy state of the golden age. He who, as a railroad traveller, wishes to speed on, reaping useful instruction as he goes, should carry "The Rail" in his hand, and read it.

Memorials of the Dawn of the Reformation in Europe. London: Thomas Nelson.

"THESE Memorials,"" says the author, "are designed to exhibit in a just and impartial light, the power of truth, as exhibited in the records of nearly every nation of Europe. The leading narratives embody biographical sketches gathered from rare and authentic sources, of some of the noblest precursors of Luther; while those lighter and less earnest assailants of error, who have been depicted in the Pasquils of the Reformation, cannot but be regarded by every thoughtful student as affording remarkable evidence of the finger of God controlling the purposes of men, and working by their means, the accomplishment of his own providential designs." Our author has well fulfilled the intentions here expressed. Much of instruction may be gathered from his volume, which we cordially recommend.

A Treatise on Diet and Regimen. By William Henry Robertson, M.D., Physician to the Buxton Bath Charity. Fourth Edition. Re-written and much enlarged. London: John Churchill, Princess-street, Soho.

THIS new edition of Dr. Robertson's valuable work is worthy of public support. The sound information it contains, is conveyed in a manner that the unprofessional reader cannot fail to understand; we know no work that can challenge a comparison with it. Those who from necessity, are compelled to study diet and regimen, and few of us can long, with impunity, overlook the subject, will do well to procure the work for themselves.

Caldwell's Musical Journal. Edinburgh: Caldwell and Brothers. Nos. 1, 2, 3.

We owe an apology to the proprietors of this publication, for not noticing it before. It is edited by Mr. Guylott, a name that ranks high among the composers of the day. It is cheaply got up, and is a work of sterling worth. Now that the long winter evenings are coming on, and firesides become attractive, Caldwell's Musical Journal we trust will not be forgotten,-a cheaper or better work of the kind, we have never seen.