2 The Courant I^ewspaper on 



and power which were never hampered by timidity, and were 

 never wanting in the reverential spirit. Writers of the highest 

 mark contributed articles in their happiest style. Stanley 

 Conington, Isaac Taylor, Herbert Spencer, Kingsley, Freeman, 

 Mansel, Senior, De Morgan, are a few among many names which 

 gave it a wide and authoritative circulation, not only among all 

 religious parties in Scotland, but even in England and the 

 Colonies. The very breadth and freedom of its style of discus- 

 sion, however, gave offence to the less scholarly and philosophi- 

 cal adherents of that sect of which Dr. Chalmers had been the 

 acknowledged leader ; and, accordingly, some seven years ago, 

 a change was effected in its management, by which it assumed 

 a character more congenial to what is called (rightly or 

 wrongly) the " evangelical" party in the religious world. Im- 

 mediately, in almost every department of literature, philosophy, 

 and science, it betrayed a falling off; less than four years suf- 

 ficed to divest it of nearly all the charm and authority it 

 formerly had for its numerous readers at home and abroad ; till 

 at length, in 1861, it had again to undergo a change of manage 

 ment. This change was made in conformity with the growth 

 of a more liberal spirit even among the sect which had weU- 

 nigh wrought its ruin ; and, accordingly, the style of its articles 

 on religious subjects came to be marked by a more genial and 

 scholarly tone than it had been conscious of since 1857. Still, 

 there was great room for further improvement ; and the Reviciv 

 has once more been transferred to a new management, which, 

 we hope, and indeed expect, will at length be the final one. 

 Under its present auspices, the North British Review has swung 

 round as nearly as possible to the point from which, twenty 

 years ago, it was first projected. On the whole, its style ex- 

 hibits the same manliness and freedom which are characteristic 

 of everything charged with the genuine spirit of its founder ; 

 and although its recent numbers have contained articles some- 

 times provincial in tone, sometimes even vulgar in conception 

 and treatment, still these are faults which are gradually dis- 

 appearing from its pages in proportion as its contributors are 

 selected from a less and less local area. 



" Wordsworth : the Man and the Poet" is incomparably the 

 best article in the present number ; and its conclusions may be 

 accepted as those of the most competent and refined critics of 



