310 Monthly Review of Literature. 



it. The spectral apparitions that pass before the eyes of certain politicians 

 inducing an uneasy trembling for religion are nothing more than a hypocriti- 

 cal pretence for saving the pockets of the rich. That the support of Christi- 

 anity depends not upon a well-paid army of ecclesiastics in the keeping of the 

 state, is apparent from the successful exertions of the unpaid sects. It is 

 true their clergy lay no claim to apostolical succession, nor do they pretend 

 to extraordinary gifts ; and they may be so far unfortunate. They are also 

 less learned, less polite, and less burdened with wealth, than those within the 

 pale ; yet in spite of these disadvantages they are treading fast upon the heels 

 of the establishment, and supplanting it in the affections of the common peo- 

 ple. Whatever may be the quality of their teaching, their indefatigable labours 

 betoken any thing but an indifference to Christianity, but their zeal for its 

 diffusion will bear a safe comparison with that of the stipendiaries of the es- 

 tablishment. Should these therefore desert their posts, as seems to be appre- 

 hended, there need be no alarm for the fate of Christianity, which has so 

 many to plead for it without their allurements. For some of the disadvan- 

 tages experienced by the clergy of other sects, they are to be lightly reproached 

 by their episcopal brethren, since it is to them that they are indebted for their 

 inferiority. Not satisfied with a monopoly of ecclesiastical wealth, they have 

 taken care to close the doors of education to all but their own party, so that 

 if churchmen are better educated than other people, they owe it to exclusive 

 privileges, unwisely conceded by the state. Perhaps the time is not far dis- 

 tant when so absurd a distinction between people dwelling in the same 

 country, speaking the same language, and paying taxes to the same govern- 

 ment, shall be thrown down. That it should have existed so long is a re- 

 proach to the nation, and a disadvantage to the state, whose clear interest it 

 is to extend the benefits of education as widely as possible. Narrow-minded 

 bigots seek only the aggrandisement of their own party, insensible to the ridi- 

 cule and contempt which they draw upon themselves by their folly; but it is 

 not thus that governments can afford to trifle with the prejudices of mankind 

 or to alienate the affections of a people. Whatever pretensions may be ad- 

 vanced by interested narrow-minded persons in behalf of such a favouritism, 

 their encouragement by the state is nothing less than political insanity." 



Daniel's has been a very well-timed production, and in reading the three 

 nights' orations which terminated on the 22nd ult. we fancy that we can se- 

 lect some of his commodity in the rhetorical displays of many after speakers. 



Observations on Railways, with reference to Utility, Profit, and the 

 Obvious Necessity for a National System. By RICHARD Z. MUDGE, 

 F. R. S., F. G. S., &c. Gardner. 



WE were about to bestow a very hearty commendation on this able Pamphlet, 

 and, in the first place, to preface an encomium with a few remarks on the 

 writer's claims to attention ; but the latter point is so well expressed by him- 

 self, that we shall let him play his own herald to the reader : 



" The suspicion arising to the mind, on taking up a book or pamphlet on 

 Railways, naturally occurs, that the writer, in some way or other, is an inter- 

 ested person ; either a Railway speculator, an engineer, or a lawyer : in short, 

 one who has a direct personal interest in some one of the many schemes 

 which, having gone through all the stages of incubation, are now hatched, 

 fledged, and, like the peacock with his spreading tail, exhibiting all their 

 beauties and attractions to the admiring public. 



" In the present case the author has, however, to claim for himself an ex- 

 emption from this very reasonable inference. He has no interest, nor ever 

 had, direct or indirect, in any railway ; and, under the present unpromising 

 aspect of the majority of them, as exhibited in a long narrow slip of paper 

 printed every night, and published the following day, a sort of speculator's 

 gazette, termed ' The Share List/ he may be credited, perhaps, for being 



