has already been done. We are at the mercy of committees of the House of Commons. The Board of Trade has vacated the field, and considering the effects of its interference last session, this must be regarded as an advantage. The Board of Trade was authorised to do something— what, was never clearly explained—in the way of digesting railway business, for its easier examination by parliament. But neither time nor means were placed at the disposal of the Board of Trade to enable it to accomplish the task satisfactorily. Five intelligent and respectable gentlemen were enabled to read cursorily the ex-parte statements of all the railway projectors who applied to parliament, and to report on their comparative plausibility. Reports rapidly got up without mature and deliberate inquiry, carried no weight with them. The only effect of the Board of Trade reports, was to increase the amount of gambling speculations on 'Change. The Board of Trade is, therefore, out of the field, and the House of Lords was never in it. A stray peer may at times make an effort in his own house, to modify the decision of the House of Commons on a railway bill, if it is adverse to his interests or crotchets ; but his fellow peers are too sensitive to the expression of public opinion to assist him. The House of Lords, although it goes through all the forms of inquiry and debate, is, except in very extreme cases, nothing more than a court to register the railway edicts of the Commons. The committees of the House of Commons possess de facto supreme jurisdiction in railway matters, and they will keep it, until the public inconvenience becomes so great, that the power is wrested from them. This will not happen in the coming session, nor in the next after it. necessity supersede the common road. Even suppose the change were accomplished, the annual railway business submitted to the legislature the construction of new lines to meet the wants of a growing or shifting population, amalgamations, and extensions, &c.- must greatly swell the amount of private bills. But at the start of the new system the business is, for a time, of necessity preternaturally large; for all lines of road must be transformed at once into the new and improved form. It will not do to go on leisurely, year after year, giving one or two ports or marts the benefit of railway accommodation in 1846, one or two in 1847; all must have them at once; for the seat of trade which lags astern of the other in this respect will enter the field of competition at a disadvantage. The railway business to be disposed of by the legislature is great and unintermitting as soon as one job is disposed of another will spring up. To prevent the accumulation of arrears in a business of this kind, a permanent tribunal to adjudicate in railway matters is indispensable. Parliament sits only half of the year, and insists upon beginning all its business de novo, at the commencement of each new session. During the six months of the recess new (really wanted) railways are constantly coming up; and while parliament is disposing of them, as many more emerge, which must stand over till another session. When that session comes, these new schemes, the additions to them made during the recess, and the dropped bills of last session, must all be taken up from the beginning. The arrears in the Court of Chancery are a joke to the railway arrears which will soon accumulate in parliament, if this mode of despatching business is to be persevered in. As to asking parliament to delegate functions, for the discharge of which it is at present obviously unfit, to a competent responsible tribunal, that is out of the question. Parliament will not lower its dignity by allowing others to do what it cannot do itself. But if parliament will not delegate the task to others, it ought to take some measures to enable it to discharge the duty itself. The General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland has a permanent Commission, that transacts business to the full as well as the Assembly itself. A Commission of its own members, appointed by parliament to sit permanently, for the forwarding of railway bills, might prevent the accumulation of arrears. Besides, the members acting upon such a commission might really come in time to know something about railways. It might be made a condition with members nominated to this commission, that they should have no interest in any railway; and, to compensate for this privation, and to induce them to undertake so much labour, salaries might be awarded to them. This, however, is as Utopian as any other plan that can be devised for enabling parliament to set about business in a business-like manner, Parliament will go on in its old jog-trot fashion. There is no rational ground for hope that any thing more will be done for several years to communicate greater aptitude for the despatch of business, to the forms and organization of parliament, than Some of our readers may be incredulous; but we sincerely believe, that amid all the crowd of idle young gentlemen, and desperate jobbers, who form the staple material of parliament, there are a sufficient number of honest and intelligent mem bers to keep the railway committees in order. We believe, therefore, that, provided the Ministerial crisis do not turn all their heads, by dint of working the committees of selection and classification earnestly, members may be set to work at an early period of the session, on different groups of bills in such a way as will ensure some progress being made before its close. The great secret here, as in all undertakings, will be the proper economy of labour. By economy of labour is not meant what many are already broadly hinting at-taking the least possible amount of work in hand. The business actually before parliament must be honestly and fairly grappled with. Shirkers never yet made good and efficient workmen. It is insinuated that the standing orders ought to be enforced with literal rigour, in order to get rid of as many bills as possible. Such policy, even if parliament had only to deal with private interests, would be objectionable on the score of justice. Much more so when it is considered that the interest of the public has to be taken into account. Bills thrown out on purely formal grounds may be precisely those bills which it is most for the interest of the line, as in a few years we shall have the direct Manchester an extension of the direct system. Now had a direct line been constructed to the north at first, with branches to accommodate Birmingham and other great marts, a much shorter total mileage of railway would have required to be constructed in other words more miles of railway have been made than are actually required. But a still greater and more useless outlay would have been saved. Every inconvenient circuitous line allowed to be constructed, becomes a vested interest, incurs great expense itself to prevent the construction of a better, and forces the promoters of the improved line to incur much unnecessary expenditure. The first duty of the railway committees is to promote to the utmost of their power the connexion of our great marts and harbours, by direct lines, with branches for district accommodation. public to have carried. It will be wise in parlia- | ham is placed on a branch of a more direct trunk ment to construe its standing orders in a liberal sense, and whenever a plausible scheme is promoted by substantial capitalists to give them a chance of pleading their cause along with the rest. Nay, more, seeing that the public has a right to have those schemes preferred which are most condueive to its interest, parliament has no right to give any preference to those schemes which stuck in the House of Lords last session. Let them have the full benefit of any concession that can be made on the ground of the trouble and expense they have already been put to. Let the notes of their last year's evidence be received by the committee as if taken by itself. We would even have gone the length of dispensing in such cases with any notice beyond a brief formal intimation that the application for a bill was to be renewed next session. But for the final decision on the merits of competing claims, the better line applying for a bill this session ought in justice to the public to have the preference to the inferior line which last session, having no such rival, contrived to get into the House of Lords. The public is entitled to the best line that existing lights can devise. It is not by diminishing the number of lines upon which parliament is to adjudicate that the railway business of the session is to be brought within manageable compass, but by the judges adopting a clear and precise view of the end to be attained, keeping this view constantly before them, and regulating all their proceedings with the one exclusive aim to find it out. The cardinal principle most conducive to the attainment of this end, is to aim at giving the public the greatest amount of railway accommodation, with the least possible expenditure of money and labour. One great means of eschewing extra expenditure of either, is to promote wherever it is possible the construction of direct trunk lines. In the infancy of the railway system, it was common for a railway to meander through a district, going out of its way to catch the large towns. This was natural enough when men were sceptical as to whether a railway under any circumstances could be made to pay. Thus it came that the railway from London to Manchester and Liverpool was made to go round by Birmingham. But the trade of Liverpool and Manchester will not submit to be made merely auxiliary to that of Birmingham; and we have already the Trent Valley line by which Birming Having adopted this principle as their guide, the committees might materially economize time and exertion, by adopting the following form of process: 1st, To investigate the capability of the district to support a railway. The affirmative here would be maintained by all the schemes; the negative only by general opponents to any railway, if such there were. All the schemes might combine to prove this part of their case, and by taking this step first and apart, much time would be saved. 2d, To investigate in succession the bonâ fide character of each company. Each company of a group might be called in succession to prove its list of shareholders and their means. It would be open to each of their rivals or any of their competitors to lead counter-proof. As soon as the affirmative or negative was established to the satisfaction of the committee, the inquiry should be closed: any company failing to prove its competency ought to be put out of court. 3d, Each of the remaining companies should then be called in succession to state and prove the advantages of its line. Any counter evidence should next be received. And when the case of one was closed, the next should be taken up without pronouncing any deliverance, 4th, When they had been all gone through, the committee ought to decide which one or more lines ought to be constructed, with what modifications of the original plan. By keeping promoters, counsel, and witnesses, to the point, proceedings might thus be much expedited. LITERARY REGISTER. NEW NOVELS. Eugene Sue is, beyond question, the novelist of the day, not alone in France, but Britain. There is, as we think, no great cause for rejoicing in the vehement manifestation of the popular taste which, for the hour, places this author above all the other fictionists of Europe; but no denying a fact which can only be accounted for by the love of excitement, and the strong, and even morbid pro pensity of human nature to pry into the darkest and most inscrutable depths of that greatest of mysteries, the human heart. The same impulse which made the English like "Eugene Aram," and the "Thieves' Literature," leads the people of both nations to gloat over "The Mysteries of Paris;" the identical feeling which thrills the reader of "Caleb Williams," or " The Monk," enchains him to the "Wandering Jew." Both are unhealthy, though not in the same degree. In the meanwhile, those active and skilful ministers to the public taste, who have given us the works of Dickens, labouring in their vocation, present the British public, in succession with the works of Eugene Sue in a form which entitles | Motte Fouqué, form one of the small paper stitched tomes. The "Sheik of Alexandria" of Hauff, and the pretty little romance of "The White Lady" of Woltmann, another. them to appear in respectable society. The present romance, Paula Monti," is produced in one large and handsome volume, adapted to take its place among the Christmas-Books. The letter-press and binding are elegant the illustrations, by Jules David, firstrate; neither vulgar caricatures, nor idealized extravagant non-entities. : But the work itself, the kernel of this beautiful shell, we fear that it may be too harmless or insipid for palates spoiled by the strong stimulants and high peppering previously administered by Eugene Sue. Comparatively, "Paula Monti" is an innocent book, having only one murder, and two suicides, among the principal characters, and only one thoroughly detestable incarnation of hardened depravity, De Brevannes. A female creature, a mulatto or gipsy, of the Fenella genus, (for which, by the way, Goethe and Walter Scott have much to answer,) though the main agent in carrying forward the plot, is too far removed from ordinary motives and sympathies, -from common nature, or from any nature with which mankind is acquainted, to produce moral effect of any sort. This nondescript creature, (Iris,) therefore, though of great use to the artistic purposes of M. Sue, is of little real detriment to any of his readers, and may charm some of them. Thus, though displaying throughout the peculiar genius and bent of the author, "Paula Monti" is comparatively innocuous. As in all French romances, even the least exceptionable of them, the noblest characters are, as ever, in love with the wrong man or the wrong woman; which is a pity, as, saving this fatality, and the crimes and murders to which it leads, they are the best souls imaginable; the most generous and high-minded men, the most beautiful, amiable, and devoted women. It seems, however, impossible to construct a French sentimental novel upon any other principle than this. The plot of "Paula Monti" is simple, and yet not very probable, even setting aside the agency of Iris, which is almost supernatural. The merits of the book are therefore found in the characters, one or two striking situations, and the force of the style, with a vein of philosophical speculation and analysis above the reach of the commonplace novelist. In further commendation of " Paula Monti," we must say that the most charming of the female characters, Bertha Raimond, is irreproachable; for, that her outraged heart revolts from her cruel, brutal, and libertine husband, and is in process of wandering to another, is scarcely felt by the reader as a sin; nor enough, perhaps, as a danger and in this, lurking mischief lies. A sort of poetical justice is also dispensed, in killing off the depraved and criminal characters, and uniting those lovers who are comparatively innocent and worthy; the husband of "Paula Monti" with Bertha the wife of De Brevannes. The work, of course, presents many desirable extracts; but we prefer leaving the whole to the reader, as those we would most wish to give are too long, and would suffer both from mutilation, and from being read with out the needful key of the preliminary narrative, or the explanatory conversations. The form of the work, like most modern French fictions, is highly dramatic, and its incidental scenes throw much side-light upon, if not French, then Parisian corrupt manners. Burns' Fireside Library. Several pretty German tales have been added to this neat series. Four short tales by the Baroness de la This forms the eighth volume of Mrs. Bray's Novels, which consists of several tales under the above general title. It is not the least interesting of the series. The O'Donoghue; a Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago. Octavo. With Illustrations by H. K. Browne. Dublin: Curry & Co. Mr. Lever's latest work is here completed, and comes forth, like other books of the season, in one goodly volume. The progress of this popular writer has been steadily onward; and the improvement between the coarse and rollicking "Harry Lorrequer," and "Tom Burke of Ours," or the "St. Patrick's Eve,” and “The O'Donoghue," is much more marked, as we think, than that between the first and latest productions of any other contemporary writer of fiction. Of nearly the whole corps, from "Waverley" and "Pelham" downwards, we should say that the "first sprightly runnings" of fancy and imagination, the first creaming of the creative mind, are ever the richest, unless the writer be very juvenile, still in long clothes. Fictionists, like other artists, may, and must, from the mere practice of their weapon, improve in artistic skill, or in execution, but more rarely in creative power, or in the exhibition of accumulated knowledge of life. Mr. Lever is a striking exception; for which one reason may be, that having an unexpected reputation to sustain, he now bestows more pains upon his literary labours, than on the stories thrown off much at random in the early part of his career.In one thing Mr. Lever has imitated Sir Walter; in huddling up with somewhat unfitting haste the close of his tale. He ought to receive this piece of criticism with all the characters, so warmly attached to some of as a compliment. His readers become so well acquainted them, so deeply interested in their fortunes, that they would like to linger in saying farewell to “The O'Donoghue." We take for granted, that a work appearing in numbers is so well known to the majority of readers, as to make it superfluous to tell its plan, or advert to its incidents. It is in spirit, as in scene and characters, in incident and humour, thoroughly Irish; and though the story lies fifty years back, a broad and generous view is taken obstacles which oppose its course at the present moment. These do not lie wholly with England and its govern of what "Justice to Ireland" still means, and of the ment. Pomfret; or, Public Opinion and Private Judgment. By H. F. Chorley. Three Volumes post octavo. Colburn. Mr. H. F. Chorley is known as the author of more than one novel, much above par, as novels go. In the present work, if he has not been more successful than on previous occasions, the cause may be that he has attempted greater things. His secondary personages, his "poor cousins," his Tyrwhitt family and puffing print- | volumes of tales illustrative of the mischiefs of the far sellers, are faultless and admirable of their kind; his more important Corn Laws; but Miss Martineau has writnobly-conceived heroine, an imperfect or unfinished work. ten one volume of tales describing England in the olden The sheathing of the chrysalis is still seen sticking to time, as it is portrayed in histories and old chronicles; a the beautiful new existence, struggling to free itself, kind of reading at present much in vogue, as is shown and stretching its new-found wings to seek the empy- by the great popularity of Miss Strickland's "Queens rean. The secondary title of the story is, we presume, of England." Miss Martineau may therefore give us two taken from the unjust and cruel "private judgments" more volumes of entertaining stories, and welcome; though that are formed, especially by women, of female actors again we say, the question of the Game Laws, as they and singers, and the "public opinion" of their position exist, lies within the compass of a twopenny tract. No in society; and also of a man who, like "Pomfret," one longer holds up his head to defend these obnoxious gives up, in obedience to the dictates of conscience, of laws, except here and there a few dukes, barons, and "private judgment," his comfortable living in the Church lords of the manor, and their retainers. They are to be of England, and thus incurs the violent condemnation abolished. They require no farther exposition. The of the "public opinion" he has outraged. But Pomfret, same swoop which destroys the great landed monopoly if a conscientious, is not a brave man. His discoveries annihilates all that is oppressive in Game Laws. of great truths, whatever these may be, he keeps all to Arrah Neil, or Times of Old. By G. P. R. James, Esq. himself. Not only does he belong to no sect, but he author of "Richelieu," "Darnley," &c. &c. 3 vols. disclaims all sects, and refuses to preach his new docSmith, Elder, & Co. trines, or to tell what his sincere convictions have led him to adopt in rejecting the Thirty-nine Articles. We with a story which has, for many months back, been apWe are here presented, in a more convenient form, are led to infer that he is an Arian, or, if there be now no Arians, then a Unitarian; but he acts on the cowardly and selfish maxim, “If I had a handful of truths in my grasp, I would not open my hand to let one of them fly out." He who first said so was a great thinker but a poor doer; and "Pomfret " is the latter, though otherwise a most excellent and amiable man. But the novel bearing his name, shows so much and such varied talent and brilliancy, and is so much a tale of the world and of the time, that we take leave, as public tasters, to assure all who have faith in us of the genuineness and superiority of "Pomfret," as a work of art and a picture of contemporary society. Forest and Game Law Tales. By Harriet Martineau. Vol. I. London: Moxon. The Game Laws, the unjust, the most oppressive, irritating, and demoralizing Game Laws, are especially "a farmer's question," a "peasant's grievance;" but good were the book, or tale, which could make them, by sympathy, a mechanic's, a cotton-spinner's, an everybody's question, until they are, as they must be, swept away. Miss Martineau imagines the Game Laws obscure and complicated; while, in fact, the whole matter, as it affects the world of 1845-6, and onwards, lies within the compass of a nut-shell. People do still make strange blunders about Free Trade and Corn Law questions; but as to the Game Laws, who, save a very few individuals in each county, care for their preservation, or require to be instructed as to their oppressive nature and evil tendency? All required is, to stimulate civic communities to act so that these iniquitous Game Laws be forthwith amended, abrogated, abolished. They require no more knowledge. They have no doubt upon the subjeet; but they fold their hands, saying, "O, the repeal of the Corn Laws will soon sweep away the Game Laws. Throw the corn of the world open to British buyers, and British landlords must soon learn what is their own interest, or if not, legislation will teach them." But this simple question Miss Martineau fancies it necessary to elucidate by three volumes of tales, of which the one published refers solely to the Forest Laws of the Danish invaders and the Norman conquerors, with a few items of the times of Charles I. But the two that are to come may tell us of existing evils. It is all too much. The very League itself durst not have propounded three pearing in the Dublin University Magazine, and which must, therefore, be known, more or less, to most romance Arrah Neil, the heroine, being Irish, as well as readers. Though the tale is connected with Ireland, noble and an heiress, Mr. James has prudently laid the scene of the drama in England. So many able writers, imbued with an enthusiastic spirit of nationality, have been, or are, telling tales of Ireland, that it were rash and dangerous to enter into competition with them on their own ground, although that ground had not already been fully occupied. The period of the tale is during the troubles in the era of Cromwell. Cavaliers, and Roundheads, with the dames and damsels suffering or rejoicing with them, are, of course, the personages who figure in the narrative and carry on the plot. We must say, for the sake of those who have seen no portion of the romance, that it is equal to the usual level efforts of Mr. James, with the farther recommendation of the scenes and characters being those of home-of England. ARRAH NEIL, the heroine, is a beautiful creation, and the closing scene the field of Edgehill-effective, if tragic. The Wigwam and the Cabin. First Series. By the author of "The Yemassee," &c. London: Wiley and Putnam. These tales are reprints from American annuals and periodical works. Though not without a certain kind of merit, they are naturally much better adapted to the latitude in which they originally appeared than to this country. CHRISTMAS BOOKS. These have not yet all reached us; but in addition to the former detachment, we have to make favourable mention of, first, The Snow-Storm, a Christmas Story. By Mrs. Gore ; With Illustrations by George Cruikshank. Fisher & Co. We regret that this charming story has not reached us until it is impossible to give any satisfactory account of it; nor can we delay it, as a Christmas story cannot well keep over January. It is, however, a tale for any winter night, and for any season of at least the coming century. It is got up in the style of Mr. Lever's St. of wonder, or blood-and-murder stories at present served Arabin; or, the Adventures of a Colonist in New South Patrick's Eve, or the Chimes of Mr. Dickens; and is thus a very neat and pretty book; containing, on a rough calculation, matter equal to one volume of a novel. The scene of the story is laid in the north of England; and occupies but one day, and that a Christmas-eve of recent date. It is a cheerful story of homely English life, glowing with the sweetest affections. At the opening, description moves on somewhat slowly; but, by and by, all is stir and interest, until the happy denoûment compensates old tenants, harshly ejected by new landlords, unites true lovers, deals out felicity to the worthy in the form they like it best; and deserved but merciful chastisement of their ostentation and selfishness to the undeserving; and thus ends, as every Christmas tale should, This work, though in guise of fiction, has the merit of with a sound and also a cheerful moral. It is a good new being a genuine book. The writer records what he has Christmas fashion this of single tales, by our best story-seen, heard, felt, thouglit, and understood, too. His tellers, instead of the scrap-stall gatherings daintily set sketch of " Arabin," a young physician, before he sends him to Australia, looks not unlike a bit of real autobiography; and Dr. Arabin's adventures there, with some embellishments of fiction, resemble a literal transcript of those a young man was likely to encounter in the colonial towns, and in the Bush, among the settlers and squatters. They are also truthful illustrations of emigrant life in its lights and shadows; and moreover, with the mixture of instruction inseparable from the plan of the story, very entertaining reading. forth in the Annuals. The Forget-me-not. London: Ackermann. Edited by Mr. Frederic Shoberl. The oldest, and almost the only survivor of the Annuals. A few of the plates are exceedingly good, and the literature, which is varied, light, and well adapted for its purpose, is contributed by a whole host of names, having a reputation of some standing in the Annuals, and elsewhere. Among these, are the late Miss Jewsbury, the late Mrs. James Gray, Charles Swain, Esq. Miss Pardoe, Major Calder Campbell, Miss Eliza Cook, Dr. Bowring, &c. The "getting up," is tasteful and pretty. Bogue's European Library, a Collection of the best Works, of the best Authors, at the lowest possible price. Is it not to be feared that cheapness in books may be carried too far? This, however, is the "look-out" of the publishers. It is enough to readers, that they are here furnished with Guizot's History of the English Revolution of 1640, translated by William Hazlitt,the son of The Hazlitt; and with Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medici, in a very neat form, and very cheap. A memoir of the author of Lorenzo de Medici is prefixed to this work, which is also written by Mr. Hazlitt, who appears to be the editor of Bogue's European Library. Both volumes are well worth the attention of young men, who having already obtained a small selection of standard works, are desirous of adding judiciously to their collection. Wise Saws and Modern Instances. By Thomas Cooper, the Chartist, author of "The Purgatory of Suicides," &c. Two volumes. London: Jeremiah How. A very cursory glance at "The Purgatory of Suicides" convinced us that our somewhat perverse or rather perverted Chartist, was a man of talents, and of more,-of imagination,—almost of genius. The little stories and sketches before us, though of a widely different character, deepen the impression. We have little hope of bringing the mass of town-made tale-readers to join in our opinion that these rustic histories are really much better than the quaint, cockney, slangish, or fire-and-brimstone tales The Scottish Church; A View of its History, Constitu- In less, about the peculiarities of their own creed. others, again, they are rallying round their standard with a zeal rather warm than enlightened, and which almost totally blinds them to the position of opposite sects. Meanwhile two counter movements are agitating the church as a whole, the one tending to a general union, the other to split it up into yet minuter fragthe flagging interest of the indifferent, to allay the ments. Important, therefore, in many ways, to revive ignorant fervour of the bigoted, and to show how far churches are ripe for union; or whether it be not needful that they be farther frittered down, previous to a solid and lasting junction,-were a calm, candid, and accurate view of the rise and progress, opinions and attitudes, of the various churches of this kingdom. If we were to form an ideal of an author, who should be qualified for such a task, we should conceive him endowed above all things with charity. This goodly quality, preached every Sabbath in every pulpit, is the crying desideratum of the times; and the spirit of partisanship has infected our histories, quite as much as our treatises of pure controversy. It delights in dis |